Chapter 3: A Cocoon 6200
Year 837 of the Falling Stars Era, Mycroft World Standard Time, November 3rd, afternoon. Center of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground.
The calm Winterfell Academy team was being guided by a brand-new giant divine mechanism, passing through the tall and peculiar steel buildings at the center of the plane.
"This is the 'Fourth Auxiliary Calculation Array.'"
The square-shaped giant divine mechanism, which at first glance looked like a massive iron block walking on two legs, emitted a calm voice with a slight echo due to arcane resonance from within its body. That was the newly added vocal module. Now, this ancient civilization weapon, burdened with the duty of a tour guide, strolled past two buildings on either side and then slowly explained their purpose: "Originally designed at the beginning to calculate weather changes within the sacrificial ground, it works in conjunction with the adjacent 'Weather Guidance Array' next to it. By fine-tuning and guiding, it reasonably maintains a suitable environment within the plane."
The timing of the giant divine mechanism's explanation was perfect. As it began to speak, the group was exactly opposite the calculation array, and by the time it finished, the team had just passed these two slightly flat, rectangular iron-box-like ancient structures.
The entire Winterfell team was almost deathly silent. No one expressed shock or anticipation at the ancient civilization's technology for controlling the weather, nor was anyone curious about the principles of the so-called calculation array. It seemed as if everyone in the entire Winterfell Academy was too stunned to speak, having completely lost their ability to express themselves.
Of course, that was impossible.
Click-clack, click-clack. The sound of something opening and closing came through, accompanied by the arcane flash from an 'Information Terminal.' A Winterfell Academy student with glowing eyes raised his right hand high, allowing the information terminal on his wrist to capture a panoramic view of the surroundings. The image reflected by the arcane energy was naturally recorded within.
[Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground Sights, Part 13: Fourth Calculation Hub and Weather Guidance Array]
Skillfully editing the post title and uploading the magical image he had taken, this student finished writing a brief introduction of the giant divine mechanism and his own views on these two ancient civilization buildings in less than half a minute. He then decisively uploaded it to the 'General Discussion Section' of the 'Academy Forum.' A few minutes later, the post was stickied, and replies appeared in an endless stream.
Within the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, there was also a large-scale magic net server, connected to the main magic net of the Mycroft World via the empire's void warship, the *Revelation*. Other than a bit of lag, everything else was the same.
Meanwhile, most of the academy members were doing the same thing: taking pictures, taking selfies, finding friends for group photos, posting to show off, posting to share knowledge... Some weren't interested in the ancient buildings and were instead focused solely on photographing the giant divine mechanism, uploading the pictures to the 'Arcane Constructs Section' of the forum. Before this, dozens of posts about the giant divine mechanism had already been stickied, and each one had replies from dozens of admirers.
[Look at this structure, this texture, this armor design and runes... My god, I'm going to faint!]
[Licking the screen.]
[Wait, if I'm not mistaken, that's Celestial Steel Alloy, right? The precious material used to forge magical weapons above Gold-rank, and they use it to build such a huge war construct?]
[The civilization of the last era was really extravagant...]
It was clear that the General Discussion section was basically being spammed by this group of students sightseeing at the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, with all sorts of posts in a dazzling array.
[Sticky: Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground Sights, Part 13: Fourth Calculation Hub and Weather Guidance Array] - Observer of the Frozen Sea
[Shocking! Was the Ancient Civilization This Extravagant? The Unbelievable Truth About Giant Divine Mechanisms!] - Anonymous
[There really aren't any living creatures inside the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, just various steel puppets. Feels so desolate.] - Bell the Hunter
[Don't you know yet? Secrets of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, with pictures and proof. You'll faint just by looking!] - Anonymous
[Sticky: Five Elite Arcane Construct Majors, On-Site Analysis of the Giant Divine Mechanism's Specific Structure (Multiple Images)] - Fourth Squad Joint Post
Under the posts, there were all sorts of fancy replies. For example, under the anonymous post, there were comments like 'The Shocking Department is on the move again,' 'When will we get a new format?' 'I saw a similar format in other magazines recently. Is being shocking contagious?' And under the stickied post, there were replies like 'Jealous, envious, hateful,' 'I wish I could go,' 'Worship the academic elite,' and so on.
With so many things to do, who had time to exclaim out loud in the real world?
This time, Winterfell Academy sent twenty-five people into the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground for sightseeing and investigation. Apart from a few mentors who had already gone to the research center, the rest sightseeing were students who usually performed excellently and had accumulated enough credits. Besides them, there was also a group from the Lord's Mansion of Moldavia, who did not occupy the sightseeing slots.
Naturally, the members of the First Squad and a certain dragon-girl who ranked first in points were also among them. And what they were doing was no different from the others. Amira and Kaelen were standing on Black's head, making their own plans. At this moment, she was just sitting on Chu Hao's shoulder, raising a telescope with her right hand, gazing at the central area of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, and exclaiming in a rather excited tone: "Aha! I can see the glow of Master's Steel Force!"
"Where? Where?" Beside her, Lin also raised his telescope. Immediately, the siblings stood side-by-side, raising their telescopes and shouting, becoming the only voices in the otherwise forum-absorbed Winterfell sightseeing team.
And at that moment, Joshua's conversation with the Dominant Will of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground continued.
"Joshua, your cultivation method is peculiar, but there are similar records in the database of the Era of Radiance."
From the Silver Sky Radiance, a calm and vast mental fluctuation came, communicating with the warrior who was adapting to his avatar's actions. "Many Void Behemoths are just like you, constantly strengthening their own mass to enhance their power. Most of them are monsters larger than some small worlds. The strongest ones, just by moving, their immense mass can cause the orbits of several surrounding world clusters to shift, creating various void disasters."
"But according to my data predictions, this path has no end, or rather, it is extremely difficult to reach an end."
The Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground spoke in a steady tone, without any exaggeration or belittlement. "Those most powerful Void Behemoths have no natural enemies. Even Evil Gods cannot kill them. Yet their numbers are still constantly decreasing. The reason is that they surpass that limit, and finally collapse on themselves, forming the prototype of a new world."
"Yes, I know."
Joshua nodded, indicating his understanding. "The crisis I encountered during this transformation was precisely the cause of this limit."
What the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground described was essentially the fate of high-mass celestial bodies. The size of those most powerful Void Behemoths definitely exceeded that of ordinary worlds, even reaching the level of giant stars. Just drifting through the multiverse would cause terrifying void disasters, trigger space-time storms, and even create phenomena like the Void Great Maelstrom.
But at this size and density, these Void Behemoths faced a problem: their own gravity.
Matter can form shapes because of the electromagnetic force. With electromagnetic force, planetary-level matter aggregates can maintain their form. Their true gravity hasn't reached the point of self-destruction. The reason Joshua could complete this self-transformation was precisely because his absolute mass hadn't exceeded that of a planet. Although his density had reached a level close to a neutron star, there was still leeway, allowing him to use the electromagnetic force to construct a soul network.
But those ancient Void Behemoths were different. Their mass had surpassed the stable limit. The electromagnetic force between atoms could no longer resist gravity. The reason they could exist stably was that the energy held by the Void Behemoths was too powerful. Their energy, or rather their life core, had reached a level similar to a star. As long as it kept running, the excess energy could counteract gravity and maintain their form.
But energy cannot be generated from nothing. As Void Behemoths grew older and more powerful, the energy required to maintain their form increased, and their fuel consumption grew larger. Therefore, Void Behemoths would attack worlds, devour their matter, and plunder mass. Perhaps they weren't doing this to become stronger, but simply to sustain their own existence.
Even so, one day, the rate at which a Void Behemoth plundered would still be slower than its own rate of self-combustion. Losing its energy support, immense gravity would cause the behemoth to collapse in an instant, turning into a pure Steel Force crystal—that is, the core of an initial world.
This is also why Void Behemoths ravaged the multiverse, and no civilization wanted to eradicate them. Because Void Behemoths were actually a natural phenomenon. They collected free-floating matter and Steel Force debris from the multiverse, gradually grew on their own, became larger by plundering matter from some worlds, and finally transformed into a new world... Who knows if the world they lived in wasn't once a powerful, ancient behemoth? Exhausting great effort to defeat it, suffering heavy casualties, only to watch it transform into a world prototype, left with nothing but staring helplessly.
"But even the most powerful Void Behemoths are just that. The accumulation of mass from dozens of worlds makes their power unable to even resist their own gravity. This is the limit of power that will can control."
The Dominant Will said this. "In the later stages, you won't even have the spare capacity for battle, because you will be constantly devouring matter, turning it into energy to maintain your existence. But this is just drinking poison to quench your thirst, because the greater your mass, the more energy you need to maintain your form... One day, you too will become a new ancient behemoth, a new world prototype."
To this, Joshua nodded, then shook his head.
He nodded. "Indeed, if we follow the laws of physics, that is the case. This path ends like that in the end, with no exceptions."
He shook his head. "However, this is only for Void Behemoths. They have no intelligence, only relying on instinct and talent to devour and scatter seeds. They are less like normal creatures and more like a physical manifestation of a physiological reaction of the multiverse, wandering giant phagocytes devouring various garbage and dangerous substances, finally transforming into new normal cells at the end of their lifespan... Although the analogy isn't quite right, that's the general idea."
"Dominant Will, perhaps it's difficult for you to understand, but this world indeed has many different things."
Magic, Battle Qi, Holy Light. The power of Steel and Fire, and the Steel Serpents.
Joshua closed his eyes. He knew it was meaningless to explain the laws of physics from another world to this rigid Dominant Will of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground. This world possessed the path of transcendence, so mere physical laws were not an insurmountable fortress, but a ditch one could try to cross.
The No-Hair Theorem of black holes might be absolute, but there is no absolute in this world. Even truth must submit to the will of the Transcendent. Since the old Pope could manipulate the speed of light, and Fatlervi could distort the information of the world, who's to say that high-mass celestial bodies cannot be controlled by human power? Furthermore, who says the fate of a high-mass matter aggregate must be a black hole?
Speaking of intrinsic mass, can any Void Behemoth or individual entity in the entire multiverse compare to the Steel Serpent 'Starry Sky'? That is a world possessing countless star rivers, vast enough to be nearly a single universe! Within the Starry World, let alone stars, there are numerous black holes, quasars, and galactic central black holes. It is so massive that the Steel Serpent itself cannot even condense its will, requiring a medium to do so.
But even so, it still possesses its own will, even if that will takes fifteen hundred years to blink.
"High-density matter is my weapon and armor in battle, but that doesn't mean I need to maintain my current state forever."
The humanoid avatar, the black-haired, red-eyed man, looked up at his main body suspended high in the air. The silver giant cocoon was still constantly expanding and contracting. But compared to before, golden-red patterns were now spreading across the cocoon. Those were numerous centrally symmetrical lines, and at the center of these lines was a symbol resembling φ. The gravity, powerful enough to distort the world, could not be completely isolated even by countless runic arrays, causing a clear distortion of the surrounding light.
As you said, this is merely the first step on my path towards 'Infinity.'
A smile gradually appeared on the man's face. "Crossing the river by feeling the stones is something no pioneer can avoid."
"I don't even know my own future path myself. It's not something your simple 'prediction,' Dominant Will, can know."
And at that moment, from the road not far away, came the regular sound of heavy footsteps. Joshua turned his head, looking in the direction of the sound.
So, he saw the leading giant divine mechanism, followed by the giant steel elemental and the black dragon.
And the people sitting on the giant steel elemental and the black dragon naturally saw the black-haired man standing beneath the Silver Sky Radiance at the center of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground.
"Master!" "Teacher!" "My god, the Dean is here too!"
In an instant, the previously quiet Winterfell sightseeing team erupted with a multitude of completely different voices and exclamations. Amidst this chorus of shouts, two figures could be seen jumping down from Chu Hao's shoulder, then quickly rushing towards Joshua. The warrior naturally opened his arms, catching Ying and Lin.
No words were needed.
Soon after, the silver-haired girl who had rushed into the warrior's arms looked up. She examined Joshua, who seemed a bit lighter than before, then looked up again at the silver sphere whose aura was strangely familiar, as if *that* was the real main body. Ying blinked, and said somewhat cautiously, "Is that... Master's... egg?"
This little one, talking nonsense.
Immediately, Joshua's face darkened. He said in a deep voice, "It's a cocoon."