# Chapter 39: What Meaning Is There
Facing the silver trajectory drawn by Joshua, in the void, the enormous world fleet instinctively began to decelerate, then came to a halt.
"Spatial axis shift failed, the giant beast suddenly stopped advancing—is there a problem with the phase offset organ operation?"
"No, the energy core has stopped functioning!"
Inside the void behemoth, because no stop command had been received, the eight-legged fungi responsible for transporting energy and nutrients for the giant beast fell into chaos: "Warning! Energy loss at the edge zone! Damage to the outer shell charging circuits of units one, seven, and forty-two is severe!"
"Observation module energy transmission channel sealed!"
"Self-circulation system has stopped working, front-end sensory organs damaged... Warning: due to trauma, the giant beast's mental fluctuations are becoming extreme, energy output has lost control!"
"Where is the mental pacification team?! Quickly go and calm the giant beast's mental fluctuations! Supply units, also quickly carry organic matter to perform repairs!"
Inside the giant beast, sharp alarm sounds echoed through various chambers. In the command room responsible for regulation, countless eight-legged fungi with reddened caps were nervously checking the main display screen to see where errors had occurred, while countless ordinary eight-legged fungi were rushing back and forth urgently through various chambers, transporting various minerals or organic matter to different locations. They moved through the broad energy transmission pipelines, advancing like ants within the void behemoth's chambers, assisting it in repairs and pacification.
The eight-legged fungi had built their world upon the giant beast's body, and precisely because of this, their very existence had become part of the void behemoth itself, becoming the basic cells within its body, responsible for accelerating the giant beast's energy flow and providing nutrients. Of course, the giant beast's body itself possessed self-repair capabilities, but with the help of these symbiotic eight-legged fungi, the beast's repair speed was far faster than its own instinct, and it was even willing to let these tiny fungi think on its behalf.
However, that was only under normal circumstances... Soon, the healed giant beast, following its own instinct, made its next move.
"Spatial axis beginning to stabilize, energy core restarting... Wait."
The leading eight-legged fungus responsible for regulating a certain area, in the middle of summarizing the situation, suddenly noticed an abnormal condition. The fluctuations it released immediately became sharp: "Be careful! The giant beast is not moving forward—the giant beast is retreating!"
And in the void.
It could be seen that at the very front of the world fleet, the few void behemoths facing the steel giant, after completing their deceleration and briefly pausing in place, began to retreat bit by bit.
Even void behemoths were living creatures.
No matter how mindless, no matter how powerful a creature, even void behemoths would avoid harm, evade powerful enemies, and could feel 'fear.'
Within the black body world, the gradually strengthening chaotic fluctuations could not frighten them, because weak chaos was merely unpalatable food for void behemoths. But Joshua's existence was different—he made these giant beasts feel the threat of death.
"Stop."
The Great Khan halted the retreat of the foremost giant beast, lest it disrupt the entire fleet's formation. A moment later, it turned to gaze ahead at the giant god blocking the path before the black body world.
It could not understand the common language of Mycroft, but the other party's meaning was so clear, requiring no language to comprehend... This was the most direct and straightforward threat of violence, without any pretense.
'Do not cross this boundary.' 'Halt, those who approach.' 'This is our territory.' It was nothing more than these few meanings—its intelligence was not so low as to be unable to guess such things.
Too ridiculous. The Great Khan thought so. Over the past few thousand years, it had heard countless other civilizations issue such proclamations to the Star Shepherd fleet. The content of the warnings was mostly different, but the tone was invariably weak and powerless—who could truly stop the charge of dozens of void behemoths? It was merely going through the motions.
But this time, it seemed somewhat different.
The steel giant that twisted spacetime, merely by existing, made the usually lawless void behemoths feel fear. This fear was unrelated to thought, unrelated to impression, arising entirely from the depths of instinct. This was the fear of a natural enemy. This giant god truly seemed capable of stopping the giant beasts' charge... Who was he? The moment this question appeared in the Great Khan's mind, it was immediately answered.
Who else could it be, but the survivors still existing in this lost star river, those ancestral civilizations from at least twelve thousand years ago.
Only they would possess such terrifying strength and arrive so swiftly at the awakening point of the chaotic fluctuations—that world-devourer currently awakening might have been sealed by them.
"So, there are still ancestral civilizations surviving..."
Ignoring the nearby Ku Mosinda, whose cap had already reddened and who stood dumbfounded, the Great Khan's spiritual void emitted a series of complex thought fluctuations: "I know that legends are certainly exaggerated and contain embellishments. The ancestral civilizations might not have been as powerful as recorded, but neither were they destroyed by the world-devourers... Yet there truly are powerful ones who survived from that unknown war ten thousand years ago?"
This was truly beyond everyone's common sense.
Moreover, if they were indeed survivors, why didn't these ancient and advanced ancestral civilizations go to a normal world star river? Compared to this damaged, dim, scarred, nearly shattered star river, even if the external star river had a thousand faults, it was at least a complete star river.
Various doubts swirled in the Great Khan's mind, also overburdening its already fragmented thoughts. Soon, it realized it could not continue thinking this way. Facing such a powerful existence, it must exert its full strength.
As for why they didn't leave... Perhaps it was because they had lost that spirit and drive. A flourishing civilization shattered by a swarm of world-devourers, fierce wars destroying their homeland. Amid unknown and massive upheavals, even their own star river had been cast to the edge of the multiverse. Having suffered such a great blow, they probably no longer thought of expansion, preferring to hold fast to their own small patch of territory. Did they truly still remember the technology from their heyday? The Great Khan doubted this.
Tens of thousands of years had worn away the will of these survivors. With no enemies and nothing but a scarred star river, there was naturally nothing to stimulate the competitive spirit of these ancient powerful beings. It would probably take several hundred thousand years for a new civilization to emerge in this star river and grow to threaten the ancestral civilizations.
"Ku Mosinda, the heavy responsibility of suppressing the giant beasts' spirits will be temporarily entrusted to you."
Inside the Star Shepherd royal court, the black eight-legged fungus, which had been watching the scene on the void light screen, seemed to awaken only now. Hearing the Great Khan's unusually fluent command, it immediately assured with the greatest volume: "I will not disgrace my mission!"
And in the next instant.
Hum, hum—accompanied by the empty realms on the backs of all void behemoths, the Star Shepherd royal courts at the bottom of each central hive emitted faint mental tremors. One after another, incredibly powerful soul fluctuations, like supernovae, began to gradually awaken.
For some reason, looking at the giant god blocking the path before the black body star with no intention of yielding, the Great Khan suddenly felt a trace of sorrow and anger from the deepest part of its heart.
Territory... Too ridiculous. This arrogant word, this inexplicable disdain and contempt.
It recalled its homeland. Why did the Star Shepherds become Star Shepherds? Why did it become the Great Khan? This powerful eight-legged fungus recalled the thousands of years of wandering and displacement its race had endured after losing a war. It recalled those terrifying existences that had been chasing its race, forcing them to drift through the star river.
The Great Khan recalled the power of the world-devourers.
That was the power to corrupt star rivers and destroy worlds. That was the power for a single entity to destroy a void civilization. That was the power that made countless proud empires set aside their dignity and restraint, babbling incoherently as they communicated and allied with other civilizations, casting aside all prejudices.
"Too... ridiculous. Even if you are ancestral civilizations, it is the same."
In the dark, silent void, Joshua, confronting the entire world fleet, suddenly heard a clear mental fluctuation. This voice did not come from a single void behemoth, but from all of them.
He narrowed his eyes, looking ahead. In the void before him, beams of formless, intangible radiance shot out from the abnormal protrusions on the backs of these twenty-plus void behemoths. They coalesced, combined, and against the dark starry background, lit up a bright white star. The radiance of this white star spread in all directions, solidified, took shape, and finally transformed into a massive light projection.
Hum—a sharp buzzing noise spread through the silent void. Within the light projection of this powerful coalesced soul, a pale, solid crab claw emerged. This single crab claw alone was larger than a true void behemoth, not to mention the eight sharp claws and fortress-like carapace that took shape afterward.
This was a crab-shaped void behemoth, but one entirely formed from spirit and soul—a soul beast. Its size could envelop the entire world fleet. Its giant pincers, when they closed, seemed capable of severing an entire world.
Everything happened in an instant. And in that instant, the unknown powerful being, called the Great Khan by all its subjects, became as vast as a true world. Its mental fluctuations spread throughout the entire spacetime domain, even reaching other directions of the world star river.
"World-devourers blot out the sky and devour stars—what meaning does your so-called territory have in this cruel multiverse?!"
So saying, accompanied by violent spatial distortion, the giant beast unhesitatingly crossed the silver trajectory Joshua had drawn, then, like an out-of-control white star, carried an irresistible, mighty force and ruthlessly charged toward the silver giant god.
The awakening of a world-devourer was by no means a responsibility a single civilization could bear. If you wish to face that world-devourer alone... then prove your strength!
"You want to test my strength?"
At the other end of the void, Joshua seemed to sense that the other party did not intend a fight to the death. He narrowed his eyes, looking at the giant beast ten times larger than his own giant god form, then put down his greatsword, reverting it to pure silver mist: "What a coincidence. I want to as well."
Joshua clenched his fist. Black-red light patterns began to spread along the outer side of his silver arm.
I also want to know—what qualifications do you have, you who recklessly gnaw at worlds, to face an evil god!
The next instant, spacetime turbulence erupted. Behind him, under the helpless gaze of the Nature Mentor, Joshua took a single step forward, then transformed into a void storm that stirred everything, roaring as he swept toward the world giant beast!
One large and one small, two star-like radiant points immediately collided.
Then came supernova-like radiance.
In this blinding light that could obscure all observation, the giant beast silently swung its massive pincer. It wielded this weapon, whose mere mass could bend space, smashing it down at Joshua like a falling moon.
But Joshua showed no intention of dodging. Facing the descending giant pincer, he extended both arms straight backward, like a fully drawn great bow. The next instant, the giant god's twin iron fists simultaneously swung upward from below, like inverted shooting stars!
The dual rising uppercuts, delivered by both arms simultaneously, contained unparalleled force and mass. Like two tornadoes rotating in opposite directions, they ground and shattered everything before them through unimaginable gravitational shifts. These twin iron fists, capable of shattering half a continent's terrain in a single blow, met the descending giant pincer in a clash, showing no weakness whatsoever. Joshua, seemingly ten times smaller than the giant beast, was not inferior in mass to the crab-shaped void behemoth. In terms of strength, he even lifted the giant beast's body slightly!
"So heavy!"
After one exchange, both sides were knocked backward by each other's strength. The Great Khan retracted its giant pincer in shock. This soul body, condensed from its spirit, possessed mass resembling a physical object. In terms of defense, it was even stronger than a true void behemoth.
It could be seen that on the claw that had clashed with Joshua, a dense grid-like energy shield was spread everywhere (bianbu). This was the soul barrier held by the Great Khan itself, whose sturdiness surpassed even the barriers of some small worlds... But now, this layer of soul barrier was nearly shattered, and the giant fist behind the barrier was also covered in countless cracks and gaps, currently undergoing rapid repair.
"Such density..." The Great Khan seemed to be pondering something, but on the other side, a sharp, fierce aura pressed in, interrupting its analysis.
"Alright—"
Having tested the endurance of the opponent's defensive shield and his own specific strength, Joshua raised his right hand without any hesitation. He opened his eyes wide, dark red light flickering beneath the silver radiance. It could be seen that besides the engine at the giant god's chest beginning to operate at full capacity, two blazing points of light also began to light up at the warrior's shoulders.
The opponent was strong—but not as strong as Joshua's fist!
Three engines activated simultaneously. Instantly, an unparalleled pressure spread outward with Joshua at its center, as if the killing intent and fear from the deepest abyss were invading the void, chilling all the eight-legged fungi in the surrounding worlds to the bone. At this moment, even the giant beasts that used worlds as granaries could only barely remain in place under the restraint of their respective empty realm kings, not daring to move half a step. Because they knew that they could only suck worlds like eggs, but this man could fry them in eighteen different ways like spicy crab.
Zhi ga—a sharp, piercing electromagnetic pulse sound rang out. Joshua sensed the two tiny neutron stars at his shoulders, each rotating seven thousand two hundred times per second. He sensed the immense magnetic current released by the rapid rotation of these neutron stars. This terrifying force was transformed by the warrior into the mighty power of electromagnetic rotation, then channeled through his arms, accumulating a force capable of destroying everything, exceeding fifty percent of the speed of light.
"Be careful."
Not wanting to kill the opponent directly, Joshua spoke as if giving a warning: "With my next punch, I'll shatter your shield—and you along with it."
"Don't die."