Chapter 73: Tens of Millions of Diffusing Joshua
As soon as these words were spoken, it was earth-shattering. All the deities and legendary experts present looked at each other in disbelief—because even the Star Shepherd and several other ancient civilizations aware of the Radiant Civilization could confirm that the Multiverse Star River was indeed the same one where the Radiant Civilization once resided. But none of them expected that the Metal Dragon God was merely catching its breath: "To be precise, its main body might still be the original Multiverse Star River, but it is certainly mixed with a large portion of wreckage from other long-destroyed star rivers."
Aside from the murmurs caused by the dramatic pause, this point was not entirely unexpected, as the information brought by the Knowledge Seizer had already proven it.
The Origin Star River, as the former home star river of the Knowledge Seizer, had also experienced the great calamity of the Evil God's purge of multiverse civilizations. It had survived from another long-destroyed cluster of multiverse star rivers, drifting through the Silent Void into the Multiverse Star River. In fact, the outermost ring of star rivers in the entire Multiverse Star River should all be surviving wreckage star rivers. No wonder they were not only lacking in resources but also sparse in civilizations—they were essentially ruins after an apocalypse, hardly a favorable environment.
Of course, the news brought by the Metal Dragon God was not limited to these already proven facts. The most important part came later.
His Majesty the Lord of Ten Thousand Steel had brought the final remnants of the 'Astral Dragon Civilization.'
That is, the fragments of the divine emblem of the First Dragon God and the Astral Dragon world, the 'Steel Serpent.'
Divine emblem fragments, in other words, were the core of the 'Divine Calamity Mist.' They were important tools for selecting successors after a deity's fall. If nothing unexpected happened, they could be preserved for a long time, even considered indestructible. Naturally, the Lord of Ten Thousand Steel had already received the inheritance within this Divine Calamity Mist, obtaining its memories and knowledge.
"Comparing it with the inheritance information of the Knowledge Seizer... the progenitor of our Astral Dragons might have been a sapient civilization that encountered the Evil God's purge in the same batch."
The tall Dragon Goddess sighed as she spoke during the welcoming banquet for her return: "However, they received the help of the 'Teaching Mentor,' and although their civilization suffered many setbacks, it has continued to this day. But we Astral Dragons fled all the way, wandering to the Mycroft World, which was still in its primitive era."
When she said this, the Dragon Goddess's tone was quite sorrowful, likely lamenting the different fates of the two races.
And they were also defeated by the primitive-era Mycroft natives—Joshua naturally wouldn't say this out loud to ruin the mood, and the Metal Dragon God seemed to recall this rather humiliating point, so it skipped the topic and began to continue describing its discoveries while exploring the star river ruins in the Silent Abyss: "You might find it hard to believe... but in the memories left by the 'First Dragon God,' I discovered that our Astral Dragon race had actually found traces of the 'First Flame' in the surrounding star domains."
"What traces?" This time, it wasn't Joshua but the Old Pope who was the first to press for details. Israel, who had been serving as the 'Holy Light Ambassador' visiting various powerful civilizations recently, had only just returned to the Origin Star River and happened to catch the Metal Dragon God's return.
"Traces of creation. The shape of our star river at that time was like waves stirred up by a ship, merging again at the stern—regular yet irregular."
In response to Israel's inquiry, the Lord of Ten Thousand Steel naturally intended to explain in detail. It condensed a divine light screen in front of itself, preparing to visualize images for the deities and legends present while saying, "To explain this peculiar shape, there is only one hypothesis, and that is..."
"I know."
Just then, the God of Protection and Progress—Yi Zhe—spoke up. This deity, appearing as a dwarf and being the oldest and arguably strongest among those present, sighed. It clapped its hands, interrupting the Metal Dragon God's narration, drawing everyone's attention. The Metal Dragon God, seeing the other's action, did not object but silently dismissed the light screen in front of it.
Yi Zhe did not waste much time either. It directly visualized another light screen in front of itself and said, "Although it's just a hypothesis, this idea actually existed as early as the Era of Radiance—in fact, based on the Unified Grand Database, the information Joshua obtained from the Plenty Evil God's memories, and the inherited history from the Knowledge Seizer, the answer is actually quite simple."
As it spoke, a large red fireball appeared in the light screen before Yi Zhe, clearly labeled with bold text: 'First Flame.' Around the fireball, derived from its light, were densely packed silver dots like weapons, labeled 'World Star River.'
Yi Zhe waved its hand, and the massive fireball began to move, and at an extremely fast speed. The silver light mist surrounding the fireball was initially attracted and clung to it, but over time, large amounts of silver 'weapons' took on the shape of a comet's tail, like waves created by a ship moving on water. They first separated, then merged, continuously rotating in the dark void, eventually condensing into relatively independent 'Multiverse Star Rivers.'
The Multiverse Star Rivers naturally moved as well, closely following the trajectory of the First Flame. But unlike the First Flame, which possessed infinite natural power, the Multiverse Star Rivers themselves had no power. Without the endless illumination of the First Flame, their speed gradually slowed, slower and slower, until they became the massive rotating disk shapes seen today.
"Unlike most multiverse models—the First Flame is not a 'fireball' fixed in one place. It moves, and its speed is enough to stir the entire multiverse. All world star rivers and worlds were created during this motion and given their initial acceleration."
While drawing and explaining, Yi Zhe paused at this point. It looked around at everyone present and then slowly said, "In other words, the 'shrinking' phenomenon of the First Flame observed by ancient civilizations was actually just their civilization's star river gradually being left behind by the First Flame, 'moving away' from them. After leaving them behind, the First Flame created other star rivers along its path, casting all its former creations into the dark void."
That is, the countless dark star river wrecks seen today.
If the First Flame ignited chaos and created worlds, then these wrecks are the ashes left after the flame went out and the chaos burned away.
The level of a civilization can be seen from its model of the world—from primitive divine creation, flat earth, to geocentrism, heliocentrism, galaxy theory, and cosmology—all are processes of a civilization's development. Of course, there are indeed worlds with flat earth or geocentric models, but those worlds naturally develop their own unique cognitive sequences; this is not contradictory.
The Mycroft Civilization, by synthesizing information from multiple sources, has summarized this current multiverse model, which might be the closest to the truth within this Multiverse Star River, which has been invaded by Evil Gods many times.
"The First Flame stirs the entire multiverse and countless Multiverse Star Rivers. It is undoubtedly the axis of the multiverse. And the Sages, along with other sages who went to the 'Axis of the Multiverse,' are essentially chasing the light of the 'First Flame.'"
Seeing this, Joshua couldn't help but mutter to himself. This was the first time he had spoken during the banquet. The warrior's gaze revealed deep confusion—although Yi Zhe's model was quite complete and could explain many problems, there were still many unresolved issues. For example, why had the First Flame stopped creating new worlds since 160 million years ago?
This couldn't be explained simply by 'moving away.' After all, according to the Plenty Evil God's memories, ancient civilizations clearly observed the 'shrinking' or 'moving away' phenomenon of the First Flame. But if the First Flame was still creating worlds at that time, they wouldn't have failed to observe it and left records that 'worlds are no longer being created.'
This was one point of doubt, and this model also had another interpretation: perhaps it wasn't the First Flame that moved, but the entire multiverse—the void of the entire multiverse was rapidly expanding and shaking due to the First Flame, like creating huge waves on the sea surface. The foam and spray on the waves would naturally feel the abrupt 'shrinking' (wave rising) and 'moving away' (pushed away by the wave). And the Multiverse Star River, a cluster of many world star rivers, might have originated from a mere 'Void Maelstrom' causing a coordinate convergence phenomenon.
This explanation was equally reasonable. So Yi Zhe's model was far from the optimal solution, let alone the truth—but at least one thing could be confirmed during this banquet.
That is, something had indeed gone wrong with the 'First Flame.'
Otherwise, it wouldn't be that both the Sage of Demons and the Sage had coincidentally embarked on the journey to find the axis of the multiverse, i.e., the First Flame.
Undoubtedly, Joshua naturally wanted to follow in the footsteps of the sages, embarking on the path to uncover the truth of the multiverse—but no matter how ambitious he was now, ideals still had to yield to reality. Although the warrior was already powerful enough, he was not yet at the level to chase the First Flame. Setting aside other issues, just finding the direction and aura of the First Flame in the vast Silent Void was no simple task.
So now, Joshua needed to seize every minute, every second to become stronger.
Coincidentally, this Multiverse Star River was the most suitable stage for him.
Around the void base of the Jetram World in the Origin Star River, Joshua's main body had become the mass core of the surrounding star domain. It controlled gravity, causing over a dozen worlds in the entire Jetram Star Domain, including the Jetram World, to revolve around itself. Naturally, the avatar attending the banquet of deities and legends was also among them. And at this moment, Joshua was sensing the silver 'light points' in his spiritual world, numbering in the tens of millions.
These light points were rapidly spreading, rapidly expanding. At first glance, it looked like a plague. And what was more terrifying than a plague was that the carrier was even actively spreading it—these light points were continuously dyeing the map of the Multiverse Star River with their own color.
Seeing this, Joshua, who had been feeling somewhat heavy-hearted since his exchange with the Knowledge Seizer, finally felt a bit more relaxed.
That was the color of Steel Force.
Naturally.
It was also the color of the 'Exchange System' and the 'Restorative Pillar.'