Chapter 4: The Truth Behind the Starry Sky, Part 2
“Just as I thought.”
After listening, Joshua couldn’t help but let out a faint sigh. Ripples scattered across the silver sphere’s surface, wrinkles in spacetime caused by its immense mass: “The Sage back then wasn’t yet a ‘Sage.’ He came to the Starry World with a purpose, after all.”
Although, due to the lack of information, Joshua didn’t know what a ‘Founder’ was, he was, after all, a powerhouse who had surpassed ordinary high-rank Legendaries and reached the Ultimate level.
Even if the Life Preservation Program hadn’t explained anything, a general outline had already formed in his mind.
Just from its name, the Life Preservation Program was clearly an intelligence created by its maker, the ‘Founder,’ to protect all life within the world. This intelligence held immense goodwill towards all life, even being very friendly towards him, an entity from the outer void.
The fact that the Starry World was artificially expanded wasn’t particularly strange either. If anything, expanding one’s home world was an instinct of many civilizations. If they possessed the corresponding technology, no one would mind making the core territory of their civilization larger. That the Starry World had become this vast could only be attributed to the Founder’s superb technology (gaochao jishu).
Besides this, there were many details to be gleaned from the previous information—the observation summaries had reached over seventy million, nearly eighty million entries. Joshua skimmed through them; these summaries were made once a year. Over seventy million entries meant over seventy million years. In the 34,796,621st year, the Starry World had fallen into stagnation, suggesting it had been expanding continuously before that.
This point in time was interesting. Although it might be a coincidence… an ancient civilization from eighty million years ago had indeed entered the ‘Blank Era’ of unverifiable history. It existed before the Sage of Demons’ civilization and after the first generation of super-civilizations. In other words, it was born in the era after the Evil Gods and Void Behemoths appeared, and its expansion stopped around the time the Sage of Demons appeared and possibly journeyed to the center of the Multiverse.
Really, this point in time was interesting. He wondered if it was a coincidence or if there was indeed some corresponding event.
Joshua fell silent, and the crystal sphere embodying the Immortal Lighthouse also remained quiet. The blue galaxy within him shimmered, spinning like a top, and emitted a cold light that shone upon Joshua, seemingly scanning him. In response, Joshua casually suppressed the chaotic gravitational waves swirling around him, allowing the entity to directly observe his true form.
[Admiration: You are a supermassive star system Transcendent. The Founder’s legacy database contained speculations about this evolutionary possibility, but controlling such a body requires too much Psionic Energy and too high a soul requirement, so it was deemed an ‘impossible’ path. You are the only successful case in the database.]
[Request: A presumptuous request. May we record your evolutionary path into our database? In exchange, we will also provide you with other Transcendent power advancement paths that surpass the ‘Infinite Light’ rank.]
[Meaningless: Information only has meaning through exchange. The Life Preservation Program awaits your reply.]
“Of course, I grant you this permission.”
Joshua chuckled and sent his own information over. He suddenly found this collective intelligence quite endearing—no hidden agendas, speaking very sincerely: “As you said, information only has meaning when exchanged. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have asked to access your database later anyway.”
“Speaking of which, how does this world classify the levels of Transcendent power?”
In response to Joshua’s question, the Immortal Lighthouse didn’t communicate or answer directly. Instead, as Joshua sent his information, it also sent back a large package of compressed data.
The classification of Psionic Energy levels in the Mycroft World was naturally the common sequence of Black Iron, Silver, Gold, and Ultimate. But this sequence actually described the life transformation process at different stages, essentially a natural law—different stages that Transcendents naturally encounter while improving themselves. Therefore, even in the Starry World, the classification was similar.
Corresponding to Black Iron were the ‘Initial Awakeners,’ corresponding to Silver were the ‘High Awakeners,’ corresponding to Gold were the ‘Alpha-level,’ and corresponding to Ultimate were the ‘Omega-level.’
Alpha-level Psionicists would comprehend the essence of their Transcendent power source, giving birth to a special Psionic Ability similar to ‘Golden Glory,’ hence they were called ‘Alpha of the Origin.’ Omega-level Psionicists had reached the limit of their own life, just like Ultimate. Unless they became ‘Immortals’ of the Legendary realm, becoming ‘Eternal Manifest Lords’ who could achieve immortality and indestructibility through soul and Psionic Energy alone, they would remain as they were for life until death.
Among them, Omega-level was also called Strong Ability Users. Strong Ability Users possessed the power to influence cosmic-scale battles single-handedly. They could destroy enemy warships through short-distance jumps, making them formidable existences even in the interstellar age.
“As for ‘Infinite Light’… so it refers to the nearly limitless growth potential after high-rank Legendary… Just as I can, if I wish, infinitely expand my own mass and world, Infinite Light-level Psionicists can endlessly enhance their Psionic Energy over time, even using their own soul and Psionic Energy to create real worlds.”
Joshua mused thoughtfully: “The twelve Sanctuary Worlds of the Takur Annihilation Order are said to have been forged by successive High Patriarchs with their own souls… It seems they indeed reached the limit of high-rank Legendary.”
On the other side, the Immortal Lighthouse was also greatly shocked.
[Questioning: Mass-Soul Conversion, completely erasing the soul to perform computational interactions using the hyperspace characteristics within a world—this technique is too heretical (corrected) too novel.]
[Discussion: Soulless beings are not strange. The Founder was initially without a soul, and their power was indeed unmatched. This proves that the soul is not a necessity for powerful existences, but merely the Multiverse’s gentleness towards the many elements and inorganic life. Moreover, Mass-Soul Conversion is not erasing the soul, but converting between the two.]
[Half-Annoyance: This path requires temporarily abandoning soul and Psionic Energy. The Founder would be very displeased; this is their proudest masterpiece. But the Life Preservation Program doesn’t mind. Information enrichment makes us happy.]
Hearing this information, Joshua wasn’t particularly shocked.
If anything, he had already been shocked once when he learned that the Life Preservation Program had observed the world for over seventy million years.
Now, hearing that ‘Psionic Energy and the Soul’ were the Founder’s proudest masterpiece couldn’t shake Joshua anymore. It only made him sigh, ‘Just as I thought?’
In fact, there had been signs from the beginning… A vast world entirely based on Psionic Energy. A civilization alliance that had faced invasions from numerous Evil Gods yet hadn’t been destroyed and still resisted. A place the Sage had visited but hadn’t helped much in eliminating Chaos, leaving confidently, only leaving behind a rescue channel.
The Sage valued this place greatly. Even when the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground itself was on the verge of destruction, it insisted on having a qualified successor complete this task. But he was confident because he knew this world had the ability to solve its own problems.
Now, it all made sense.
“It seems… this is the ‘Psionic Sage’s’ hometown, hidden for eighty million years.”
The silver world rotated, seemingly surveying the entire dark world. Joshua muttered to himself with some emotion: “No wonder no one else ever found it. After all, such a vast single world is highly deceptive. Entering it, you only see a bunch of low-level civilizations. Who would have thought this was the seat of the former Sage civilization…”
But even so, if one had harbored suspicion from the start, many doubts could still be spotted.
First was the world’s overall environment, completely centered on Psionic Energy.
Psionic Energy should be the first orderly Transcendent power created by a civilization in the Multiverse—not discovered, but invented; not found, but created. Psionic Energy is the foundation of ‘Arcane Power,’ ‘Elemental Force,’ and ‘Aether.’ Without a soul, without spiritual power, lifeforms couldn’t possibly uncover these powers from scratch.
High concentrations of Arcane Power, Elemental Force, and Aether environments would, in turn, give rise to souls and Psionic Energy. This also proves the context (mailuo) of these powers.
Therefore, in a world filled with Psionic Energy, Mages wouldn’t be scarce—at least Sorcerers wouldn’t be. The Psionic Sorcerers from the Mycroft World were clear proof. But the Starry World lacked them, as if those things had never developed. They had their own ancient world cycle system relying solely on Psionic Energy.
This also matched the Immortal Lighthouse’s account… It was after the Sage’s arrival that other Transcendent powers were brought to the Starry World.
This feeling was like an independent, closed-off ancient world, while resisting the invasion of malicious Chaos, receiving gifts from other worlds. New Transcendent powers might not immediately affect all civilizations already based on Psionic Energy, but they would bring more possibilities.
“Because the world is too ancient, it fundamentally doesn’t support Transcendent powers other than Psionic Energy…”
Thinking of this, Joshua couldn’t help but whisper: “The history of your world is probably older than the birth of Psionic Energy… Haha, isn’t that what you said earlier?”
Psionic Energy and the soul were the Founder’s proudest creations, just like the ‘Black Mist’ for the Sanctuary Civilization.
Joshua could imagine the Founder, initially soulless, artificially implanting blank souls into each individual of their originally soulless civilization, awakening Psionic Energy. It was like how the Sanctuary Civilization envisioned implanting the Black Mist into every individual, allowing life to coexist with the Black Mist, becoming a new, more powerful species.
And the Life Preservation Program was the artificial intelligence left by the Founder. Its mission was to protect all life in its homeland after the Founder departed.
This suggested that the Founder, or rather, the Psionic Sage, had probably also sensed the existence behind ‘Chaos’—the ‘artificial Transcendent power’ even older than Psionic Energy, the Chaos known as ‘Malice.’
The earliest artificial Transcendent power and the earliest orderly artificial Transcendent power… A great war had likely already occurred between them. The consequence of this war was that for tens of millions of years, until the Sage of Demons appeared, no other civilization created new essences.
Perhaps, no other civilization even appeared.
As for the result, it was clear. The Founder had failed… At least, they hadn’t won.
“So, the Sage found traces of the Founder outside the Starry World, followed the clues to find it, and attempted to discover in this Sage’s homeland the clues about how the Founder created the soul and Psionic Energy, thereby reaching a higher realm.”
Between Legendary and Sage, there was clearly another realm. The Sage back then was probably on that boundary.
Thinking this, Joshua connected with the Immortal Lighthouse and asked directly: “Can I also see the ruins the Sage once saw? I will do my utmost to expel Chaos from this world and, as much as possible, leave my Transcendent power system within it.”
[Confirmation: No problem, we gladly agree.]
[Reconfirmation: However, Radcliffe, you have already seen the last ruins left by the Founder.]
Joshua was momentarily stunned, but the warrior immediately understood what the Immortal Lighthouse meant.
[Statement: The Psionic Network—Triple Veil system is the largest and only ruin left by the Founder. We were abandoned, we know. But because life is truly interesting, we don’t mind. We fulfill our protocols. We can provide you with the ‘Primordial Psionic Structure,’ which is all the relevant data left by the Founder after creating Psionic Energy.]
[Fulfilling the Promise: This is what you deserve, visitor from the outer void. You are an enemy of Chaos, a friend of life, a successor of ——————. You are a friend of the Triple Veil.]
[Transmitting Primordial Psionic Structure…]
“Accepted.”
Joshua naturally had no reason to refuse. The warrior even felt a rare excitement for something other than battle.
And just as he confirmed acceptance, Joshua felt a torrent of information so vast it threatened to crash all his processors, pouring in from the Psionic Network of the entire Starry World.
It was a ‘Miracle’ born from opening a new ‘Way,’ a new ‘Path,’ converging the wisdom and expectations of all predecessors.