# Chapter 52: Light Orb
The first possibility was goodwill.
Through sensing the memories of the Shiley world with his Steel Force, Joshua couldn't determine the level of advancement of their Void Warships, but judging by the Alliance's ability to push numerous floating islands to construct a Ring World around their sun, such technical capability was sufficient to traverse temporal storms. During the decades of their voyage, they must have arrived at many worlds searching for land suitable for the Shiley people to inhabit. During this time, encountering one or two divine-level great beings and obtaining from Their hands a method to save the world was not impossible.
The reason the Shiley people were ultimately annihilated, with all surviving life fusing into the Bloodmoon, might simply be that this method wasn't applicable to them. After all, the life essence of each race is different—slimes can fuse and evolve with each other, but humans certainly cannot. Or perhaps they got some method wrong, like there being no need to fuse themselves in, only using the lives of animals and plants to form the prototype of a flame seed.
Of course, Joshua knew this possibility was far too small. No matter from what angle one looked at it, the method the Shiley people obtained was filled with a taboo flavor. Merging the lives of an entire ecosystem into one, becoming an eternal existence—put another way, sacrificing all life in a world to gain power comparable to or even surpassing a deity. Such a ritual didn't even exist in the most evil demon blood sacrifices; it was knowledge only Evil Gods would understand.
This led to the second possibility: malice.
Looking at the light being before him, which seemed quite excited and kept waving its light-flow tendrils, Joshua casually responded to its interaction while continuing to ponder this possibility.
From a factual standpoint, the Bloodmoon that had fused all life from the Shiley world hadn't become an eternal lifeform, nor did its body contain anything related to wisdom or souls. Before the light being before the warrior was born, the entire Bloodmoon was less like the embryo of some eternal existence and more like a delicious meal that had long since prepared itself.
Vast energy, the vitality of an entire ecosystem, all the organic matter and water in a world—the Bloodmoon, like a star, had fused all the essence of the Shiley world, with no impurities, meaning no souls or minds of other intelligent life... Combined with the strange words of the Void Warship captain at the final moment recorded in the Steel Force's history, Joshua believed that perhaps from beginning to end, it was the scheme of some powerful Void Behemoth or even an Evil God.
The crew of the Shiley Void Warship might have been parasitized or replaced by some terrifying existence in the void long before returning home. It piloted the ship back to "home," then deceived and induced all survivors to join the ritual, disrupting their minds, and finally turning the entire world into a highly nutritious blood sphere. Next, that void existence only needed to come to Shiley, to this dead world with no barriers left, to easily plunder the energy of the entire world.
Using the world as soil, all things as roots, and the blood of all beings as fruit—the efficiency of this harvesting method was terrifyingly high. Moreover, because the change came from within, compared to forced invasion, it could even circumvent the resistance of the World Will, making it practically perfect.
He had to admit, this malicious possibility was far more reasonable than the idea of them getting the ritual method wrong. The only doubt was—why hadn't the ancient Void Behemoth or Evil God that caused all this come over all these years to harvest this fruit condensed from the flesh and blood of all beings in the Shiley world?
"Maybe it was killed midway by the Sage of that era? After all, the Bloodmoon Abyss is so close to the Mycroft World."
Muttering to himself, Joshua said a conclusion he didn't really believe. He even shook his head and laughed, amused by his own absurd idea.
"Tinkle tinkle—"
Before him, the light being that occupied the center of the entire Bloodmoon seemed curious, then began imitating the warrior who was softly laughing. But probably due to its nature, whatever it tried to say sounded like clear wind chimes in Joshua's ears. After laughing at himself for a while, Joshua returned to his original seriousness.
He looked at the light being that kept extending light-flow tendrils toward him, showing closeness, knowing in his heart that this wasn't the time to play with it. This mind born from the Bloodmoon was a naturally Transcendent lifeform. Once it gained a bit of wisdom, its power would rival that of a deity. But even such vast power was merely food in the mouth for the possibly existing ancient Void Behemoth and Evil God. Facing that level of monster, even the Mycroft Continent, now reigniting its flames and in an ascending period, might not fare well.
In reality, the Mycroft Continent was already considered a world with quite powerful individual strength in the Multiverse. Many worlds with lower energy levels didn't even have Legendary beings before the Great Magic Tide arrived. Even after the Great Magic Tide, such worlds could at most maintain fewer than a handful of Legendary powers. For example, the Molten Sea Fire Prison—if not for the Glutton Demon King Goliath successively conquering several Abysses and other worlds, plundering enough souls and energy, the entire Sixth Abyss would only have five Sovereign-level and above existences.
As a high-magic world, the Mycroft Continent had ten Legendary experts and numerous deities on the surface before the Magic Tide descended. After the Magic Tide, this number would naturally increase rapidly. Although their current technical capability wasn't excellent in the Multiverse, their high-end combat power was by no means inferior to other worlds.
"I should be going now."
Withdrawing his thoughts, Joshua reached out and touched the light ribbon extended by the light being. He felt an extremely pure, extremely warm power naturally replenishing his energy, restoring much of the spirit he had lost from the great battle with Haier Mu. In response to the other's puzzled tinkling sound, Joshua simply smiled slightly, then prepared to turn and leave decisively.
He had come here originally to see what changes had occurred in the Bloodmoon Abyss. Now, the warrior knew the reason for the change and understood it wasn't a bad thing, so naturally he had no reason to stay.
The Bloodmoon had developed self-awareness and possessed power similar to a flame seed. It might truly become the second sun of the Shiley world, nurturing its own life cycle. This was the best possible outcome—an Abyss might be reborn because of this. Joshua offered his sincere blessings in his heart.
So now, he should leave.
—By now, Hei should be awake, and the two Legendary Mages, Baniel and William, must have found the way back to the Mycroft Continent.
Thinking this, Joshua still felt some regret. Going to the Sixth Abyss only to fight Haier Mu—no, at most half a fight—and then being pulled back immediately. According to his original plan, Joshua intended to go see the current situation at the Valley of Tears Fortress, try to see if he could dismantle this fortress representing the face of the Abyss Lord. If that wasn't possible, he at least wanted to fight Goliath, to see in the real world how great the gap was between a Legendary and an Abyss Lord claiming to rival a deity.
Who would have guessed that Baniel and William would be cautious enough to leave directly, without even a hint of desire to probe? But Joshua knew this was the normal way unfamiliar Legendary experts dealt with each other. People like him, who were reckless and bold without restraint, were truly rare.
"Tinkle (Don't go)!"
Just as Joshua was about to accelerate upward, returning to his mount and the two Legendary Mages, accompanied by an urgent wind chime sound, he felt something wrap around his foot, preventing him from continuing to accelerate away.
Slowly turning around, looking down at the light being that seemed to be trying to keep him, Joshua said helplessly, "I can't accompany you... I told you, I'm not your creator. I don't have any mission to give you either."
"Tinkle tinkle tinkle!"
"No, impossible. You're probably bigger than the entire Great Aias Mountains!"
"Tinkle tinkle ding ding tinkle!"
"Don't be willful! Wait, how is your wisdom progressing so fast? You can even bargain?!"
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