# Chapter 16: Extreme Dark Abyss - End
## EX: God of Creation (End of Volume - Please Subscribe)
What kind of existence are gods?
Ever since ancient ancestors reverently bowed before the thunder in the sky and the surging rivers, the concept of "god" gradually appeared in human thought.
God is thunder, god is mountains, god is fire, god is water, god is the powerful magical beast in the wilderness, god is the irresistible earthquake and landslide.
God is the great power that humans cannot control, everything that humans cannot understand.
God, in the ancient past, represented "the unknown worthy of reverence and vigilance."
At least, in the most ancient times, that was what gods were.
But when did this begin to change? When did humans stop viewing them as supreme protectors and destroyers, instead seeing them as an attainable goal, a pioneer on a path, a leader worthy of respect, an ancestor, rather than heavenly beings they dared not even contemplate?
That, presumably, was when humans began to feel curiosity and also gained power themselves.
Because they stopped "worshiping" and began "thinking," everything in the world changed as a result.
When curiosity about the unknown outweighed fear, when the power one possessed could also replicate the miracles of gods, humans lost their reverence. They would hunt the beasts they once regarded as gods, conquer the dense forests they once considered divine realms. They would build houses and cities of stone to withstand storms, lightning, and thunder.
Time flew by. More and more people mastered transcendent power, growing ever stronger. All natural phenomena in the world lost their meaning of reverence. Ancient totems and beast gods disappeared. Darkness was conquered by lamplight. Even the awe-inspiring sea saw great ships with raised sails navigating its waters... Most of the gods of old became part of human civilization. People used the gift of the fire god to cook food, employed the grace of the thunder god to power machinery, hung the divine light of the sun god in their homes, and used the power of the wind god to dry their hair.
But even so, there remained some powers not yet mastered by humans. There remained powerful beings whose abilities surpassed the theories of humanity at the time. Beyond the sky, in the void, there remained much unknown and darkness... So the gods did not disappear. They still existed, holding powers that humans and civilization still could not achieve.
Even in the current Era of Falling Stars, this remains true.
---
The Bottomless Abyss.
Chaos receded.
The night dissipated.
When the power of the Great Magic Tide surged into the Extreme Dark Abyss, the white energy tide and the dark chaos intertwined to form a massive vortex, presenting a profound and ancient scene. The Six Gods and all the Legendary and Ultimate-rank powerhouses resisting the erosion of chaos knew that the most dangerous moment had passed.
The God of Life slowly released their connection to the core sealing anchor point. The tide of chaos had been completely suppressed by the radiance of the Great Magic Tide. It could be seen that power from the entire World Star River was converging. It was following some natural law, rebuilding the Genesis Maelstrom in the Nirvana Land.
Of course, the process of rebuilding was lengthy. The Extreme Dark Abyss, eroded for thousands of years, would need time to repair itself to become the original source point of creation. But this was far better than the beginning.
"Your wish... when will it ever be fulfilled..."
Pure white divine power returned, converging into one. The veiled deity gazed at the black-and-white abyss, their tone complex as they whispered softly, as if asking themselves: "Is this multiverse truly worth so much from you and us..."
"It is worth it."
Behind the God of Life, iron-gray divine power emerged. The God of Protection and Progress condensed from the void, followed by several other deities. This dwarven deity spoke in a relaxed tone: "It has always been worth it, no matter the time."
"Back then, our ancestors, to gain the power of fire, took embers from burning forests, sacrificing much. At that time, someone asked: Is it worth it?"
"Back then, our ancestors, to obtain farmland and hunting grounds, fought magical beasts on the plains and in the forests, with thousands upon thousands dying. At that time, someone also asked: Is it worth it?"
"At the beginning of our history, when writing was first invented, when elements and battle qi formally entered our civilization, to experiment and discover the steps and rituals for 'awakening' transcendent power, countless of the most talented and intelligent ancestors died from experiments that seem simplest to us now, from the simplest of errors."
"At that time, countless people doubted and asked: Is this worth it?"
"The answer is, of course, it is worth it."
Because all of this is the sacrifice necessary for progress.
The God of Protection and Progress walked before the God of Life. They forcefully kicked the other deity's rear, causing the seemingly ethereal and noble deity to sit on the ground. Then they crouched before the dazed God of Life and said in a deep voice: "Little Eleven, I know you have a good relationship with him, even once regarding him as an older brother... But precisely because of that, you must never deny his sacrifice."
"Without effort and sacrifice, there is no harvest and abundance. He filled the trenches for us, allowing this operation to succeed. Your hesitation now is an insult to his glory!"
"You are now the God of Life, no longer the person you were in the past. Remember your identity—you are a 'True God.' You were created as the most powerful transcendent existence, for exploring the farthest boundaries, defeating the most dangerous enemies, as the best leader, as the highest glory of the entire civilization's technology. Not just you—all of us are."
Behind Yi Zhe, the remaining four gods had varied expressions. Shu Xing smiled bitterly. Mie Lü and Yue Ai were both expressionless—Mie Lü's lack of expression was natural, while Yue Ai was concealing some thought. Ze Ming stroked his beard, sighed, and spoke.
"Alright, now that everyone's memories have mostly recovered... there's no need to dwell on this matter." The God of Wisdom and Choice spoke thus. They turned their head, surveying the abyss now filled with the light of the magic tide: "So many have already sacrificed. Our former companions and friends have mostly turned into imprints. Their Divine Calamity Mist drifts over the Boundless Heaven and the Mycroft Continent... But although there have been quite a few twists and turns, this is not the worst outcome."
This deity, whose true identity remained unknown for now, gazed at the Extreme Dark Abyss. They said in a low voice: "Eve... God of Life. You could make a decision back then, but now you're starting to waver?"
"Back then, I hadn't even retrieved my memories... I... I simply didn't know..."
The God of Life murmured to themselves. Countless memories surfaced in their mind—scenes once sealed away, now exceptionally vivid: a tall, gray-haired man laughing as he carried her on his back, running along the seashore, the thunderous waves making her scream as she hugged his head tightly; a swordsman with a blade teaching her to ride a horse, but forgetting the saddle, leaving her legs too weak to walk after dismounting... As the youngest, she was cared for by everyone, and the one who treated her best, aside from the teacher who rescued her from a war-torn abandoned village, was the gray-haired knight who was like an older brother.
Those bright memories, those dim memories—the warm, the sorrowful, the joyful, the confused—memories belonging to a human...
How... could they have forgotten?
Thinking thus, the God of Life slowly stood up. Their gaze quickly cleared from the daze. After a moment of silence, they said in a low voice: "Just a bit of loss of composure... I used too much divine power just now, couldn't keep my thoughts calm."
"It's good that you've calmed down."
Yi Zhe glanced at them, nodded. They turned their head, looking toward the Nirvana Land: "The work ahead will require all our full effort to accomplish."
"Pulling a world out of the Genesis Maelstrom, even if it's just a prototype—that's no simple task."
The God of Life also raised their head, looking toward the deepest part of the Extreme Dark Abyss.
Only now did they finally understand why they had followed Yue Ai to meet that human warrior alone.
The previous reason was not wrong—they indeed wanted to see this human who was extremely similar to their teacher, yet completely different... As it turned out, although his methods and thoughts were entirely different, he indeed possessed the backbone and spirit to bear everything. He was unquestionably the successor of the Sage, even closer to the Sage than the so-called Saints.
No, it couldn't even be called succession... He had merely accepted the Sage's help, but his future was destined to walk a path completely different from the Sage's, yet one that could stand alongside it. He was a fellow traveler of the Sage, vastly different from the Saints.
Because worship is always the farthest distance from understanding. Due to excessive reverence, they would probably never be able to become the people and gods the Sage hoped they would be.
But besides that, there was another reason... That warrior had inherited the Azure Orb. The power passed down from the Third Saint, the original Chaos Warden, had reached its peak brilliance in his hands. Her instinct always made her unable to resist looking to see what was so special about that man.
"Let's go."
Stop thinking, stop recalling. The God of Life blocked all memories and thoughts that would make it difficult for them to remain calm. The deity spoke thus: "Let's pull our greatest contributor back from the lowest depths of the World Star River."
---
At the same time.
The silver world was continuously sinking.
A vortex of black and white intertwined. The radiance of the magic tide and chaos emerged, entangled, washing out the memories of endless world wreckage, transforming them into pure steel particles.
Floating amidst the currents of this star river, Joshua's spirit was not asleep. On the contrary, he was very clear-headed.
The reason the silver world was descending was a choice he had long considered. The radiance of the Steel Star swept through the abyss following the flow of the magic tide and chaos. Infinite amounts of civilization information poured into it at every moment. Quantities on the scale of immeasurable numbers became nourishment for the world, catalyzing its evolution and transformation.
Even civilizations that had taken wrong paths and walked toward destruction had commendable aspects in their development processes and information. Rather, compared to so-called "correct" paths, wrong paths were even more important.
Because a correct path cannot guarantee no mistakes in the future, but a wrong path is right there. As long as it is remembered, that mistake can be avoided.
Countless types of worlds, countless forms of society, countless racial information, civilization evolution processes, and terrain distributions—all were inscribed upon the crystal obelisks along with those sorrowful memories. To convert this information and these memories, Joshua gave up controlling his body, letting it tumble with the currents, focusing entirely on recording this infinitely precious information.
As the silver world, at the center of the Extreme Dark Abyss, absorbed steel force and converted the power of chaos, it could be seen that the originally monotonous core world began to become diverse and colorful. Massive floating islands appeared between the earth and the eternal sun. Nine floating islands mutually obscured each other. Except for the island closest to the sun, each island had alternating day and night—night being the time when it overlapped with other islands. And the continent, which originally had only eternal daylight, began to experience nightfall and shadows.
As the floating islands took shape, a large number of crystal obelisks also transferred to them. It could be seen that each floating island had a completely different ecological environment.
The first floating island, closest to the sun, was an island of eternal daylight and lava. Obelisks inscribed with flame elements, lava creatures, and enormous dragon beasts rose from the lava land and lakes. Primordial roars could be heard from within.
The second floating island, crescent-shaped, was a humid tropical rainforest continent. Obelisks inscribed with a large number of different insectoid humanoids and shelled giant insects rose at both ends of the crescent. At the center were various strange plant lifeforms.
The third floating island was a sea island of surging waves, composed entirely of ice and water. Obelisks of various water element lifeforms, fishmen, and mermaids drifted with the ocean currents. The phantom of an enormous whale could be seen flashing through the deep sea.
Then, the continent island, the mountain island, and the plain island appeared in sequence. All kinds of obelisks, completely different but with similar habits, stood in various places on the continents and mountains, releasing silver radiance. The underground island, desert island, and glacier island were also assembled last. No matter how extreme the creature, it could find its dwelling place among the nine islands.
On the nine floating islands and the continent, various kinds of transcendent power were operating harmoniously. Even the newly appeared shadow power emerged because of the shadows cast by the floating islands blocking sunlight.
If any existence aware of the Rebirth Plan saw this world, they would surely exclaim that the world within Joshua's body was almost a smaller completed version of the Rebirth Plan.
The Rebirth Plan was not wrong. Just like the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, the "Myriad Realms, Myriad Races, Myriad Pantheon" concept of everyone becoming a god, and the "Super Continent World" of eternal protection, were both grand goals conceived by the greatest minds. If one were realized, the civilization implementing it could almost claim to have shed its bad habits. They would almost never be destroyed due to foolishness. Even the Death Evil God could not find the weakness of such a civilization. Their destruction could only come from external forces.
If every destroyed civilization had handed in a failing exam paper to this multiverse, then these two plans were excellent answers close to full marks.
"But overly excellent students instead attract destruction."
At the center of the silver world, within the star at its core, Joshua thought thus: "If before I was only guessing, now I can be one hundred percent certain that behind the Evil Gods and the final battle back then, there is definitely one, or a group of, behind-the-scenes hands."
Just as the Sage of old created Holy Light, and the unknown Sage later created Shadow, in the earliest times, when Void Behemoths and Evil Gods did not yet exist, before the First Flame contracted, there was an existence that, for some plan or goal, created the natural law of "Evil Gods." It added a new ending to the world's apocalypse. Besides the cycle of the Abyss and the Genesis Maelstrom, there was now the choice of becoming an Evil God.
What was its purpose? Did the Evil Gods destroying civilizations really just to contain newly appearing powerhouses? Possessing such great power, yet still needing to suppress other later comers... What did that behind-the-scenes manipulator truly want to do?
Joshua did not know, did not care, did not concern himself.
He only knew that this damned behind-the-scenes manipulator wanted to erase him, erase the Mycroft civilization, and wanted to prevent one new transcendent Sage after another from appearing in this multiverse.
Then he would certainly not let it have its way.
"You prevent the expansion of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, hinder the progress of the Rebirth Plan... You want to erase the most glorious remnants left by the Era of Radiance, erase the last survivors along with their civilization."
"But I will restart the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground no matter what, letting the Rebirth Plan preserve the final seeds."
At the center of the world, Joshua surveyed his world. His expression was neither sad nor joyful, only incomparably calm. He never feared any challenge, any threat. The warrior was willing to fight anything worth fighting, which naturally included "unknown threats from unknown places."
"You prevent, I restart. You destroy, I rebirth. Even if you attempt to use endless armies of Evil Gods to completely destroy this star river, I will certainly do my utmost to crush them! One day, I will also stand alongside the Sage, walk toward the center of the multiverse, and find the source of all darkness and sorrow!"
And the first step of battle begins with creation.
Within the silver world, Joshua sensed that the memories of most destroyed worlds had been collected. Perhaps some were still missing, but compared to those already collected, they were insignificant and could be collected in the foreseeable future.
Joshua began to merge the memories of all stars and worlds together. He integrated the data of countless races, from the most fundamental proteins and base pairs, from the lowest energy structures to electromagnetic beams, from elemental bonds to psionic fluctuations. He could accomplish all of this—it was not difficult for a God of Steel who had long been able to create.
He remembered all the races that had been forgotten, along with their histories, pasts, and reasons for destruction. At the same time, he calculated their futures.
Finally, Joshua confirmed everything. His consciousness began to connect with one crystal obelisk after another. The souls hidden beneath them were activated. They began to awaken. It could be seen that the slumbering wills were gradually becoming activated.
"Awaken."
Condensing his greatsword, raising it high, the warrior declared to the entire world in a tone heavy with echoes:
"You failed ones, long dead—"
"Now is the time to reclaim your glory!"