Chapter 12: The Veins of Transcendent Power
Matter in the universe is not evenly distributed.
If a powerful transcendent being were to observe a miniature universe from outside the world, they would discover that the arrangement of all luminous stars and galaxies within the entire cosmos resembles a giant sponge.
Galaxies link together into ribbon-like chains, interconnecting to form a vast network. This network, layered upon itself, constitutes a three-dimensional and spacious universe—a shape akin to a sponge.
Just as a sponge has countless voids, there are also enormous voids between the gaps of the Milky Way and other galaxies. These voids are incredibly empty, nearly absolute vacuum, where not even a trace of matter exists, and even the gravitational pull from other galaxies weakens to near nothingness.
- Starry World · Galactic Great Void -
At the center of this colossal void, measured in tens of millions of light-years, exist several galaxies that emit almost no light. These are celestial structures composed of rapidly spinning black holes without accretion disks. Regardless of the observation equipment used, it is extremely difficult to detect these nearly non-luminous galaxies millions of light-years away. Psionic detection is even more absurd—no psionic energy can approach the vicinity of this region.
Visible outside the event horizons of the black holes is a layer of 'ectoplasmic existence' with nearly zero mass, emitting a silver-blue glow. It absorbs all light and energy escaping from the black holes—this is one of the raw materials of souls.
In other words, a massive soul entity envelops each of these black holes. They are an extremely advanced form of psionic machinery, capable of maintaining dynamic structural balance even under the powerful gravitational influence of the black holes.
Beyond the black holes, there are countless giant machines of various peculiar geometric constructions. Some are ring-shaped rivers orbiting the black holes, others are equilateral triangular mechanical networks distributed normally around the galaxies, and still others are hexagonal grid-like honeycomb structures that rotate and change direction irregularly... These colossal machines, without exception, shimmer with a silver-blue glow. They are interconnected, flickering with light of varying intensity.
This massive ectoplasmic entity periodically transports a portion of matter into the black holes, extracting energy from the radiation emitted by the black holes themselves... This is not actually the most efficient method of energy acquisition. Various methods like annihilation energy and gravitational differential work are also used, but the Kerr black hole engine is the most stable for the path of psionic energy.
After all, unlike other transcendent powers or purely technological civilizations, psionic entities are nearly massless and naturally aggregate, making them best suited for approaching and manipulating super-gravitational individuals. When psionic energy reaches the stars and travels to extreme distances, its efficiency in utilizing black holes far surpasses that of other systems.
These few mechanically constructed galaxies, floating alone in the Galactic Great Void, have drifted through the river of time for an endless age. Relative to the baseline time of the outside world, they have existed for at least seventy million years. But considering the mass of the Starry World, does its passage of over seventy million years mean that some smaller worlds outside have experienced even longer stretches of time? This is unknowable, but regardless, the fact remains.
These galaxy-level mechanical constructs are entities with a lifespan approaching a hundred million years—a near-eternal wonder.
Throughout this long time, they have waited for individuals to be born within other created galaxies who could discover and approach them. If a civilization could detect them, hidden by psionic energy, and traverse tens of millions of light-years or more of vacuum to reach them, this would undoubtedly prove that civilization's capability.
As the super-intelligence overseeing this Starry World, an entity known as the 'Life Preservation Program,' could then confidently entrust them with the legacy left by the super-lifeform civilization known as the 'Founder,' the creator of this entire world.
They have been waiting all along, but even with the invasion of evil gods from beyond the world, they have yet to see any civilization arrive... Long ages, endless cycles—civilizations downstream repeatedly experience destruction and rebirth, yet none can reach the heights.
But today, they are about to welcome a visitor from another world.
Galactic Great Void, Edge.
A galaxy scattered at the edge of the Milky Way.
Chaos is everywhere. Even in the rear of the Galactic Guardian Alliance, chaos can appear, blocking trade routes and transport arteries. After all, among hundreds of billions of galaxies, one or two will inevitably slip through supervision, breeding evil entities.
At the center of the galaxy is a common G-class star. The galaxy once nurtured life. On a somewhat dry world where oceans covered only a third of the land area, with most water resources hidden in underground cavities, life emerged from hot springs around volcanoes in the dark subterranean water systems and oceans. These waters teemed with various strange lifeforms and even intelligent races. Natural lava elements were born from the hot springs, becoming gods revered by many intelligent races.
They should have had a bright future—a story that, while ordinary to the universe, would be interesting and memorable. But now, that star has become a lair of chaos. All meaning has been extinguished. The entire underground water system and continental surface have become a logistics factory and small-scale breeding base for chaos.
At the center of the galaxy, visible around the star covered in chaos, are toxic chaotic particles lethal to life. They aggregate and split in the vacuum, conducting basic information exchange in an unnoticed process. A large number of chaos minions are born from the reproductive cavities around the star's periphery, then gather according to information guidance, forming a fleet heading toward other stars.
This is one of the most typical chaos strongholds rooted in many galaxies—hidden in galaxies at the edge of the Milky Way, they continuously dispatch minion fleets to harass the alliance's logistics, delaying the gathering speed of the guardian fleet. If sixty percent of the alliance's combat forces are concentrated at the front lines, then the remaining forty percent are pinned down by these strongholds, which account for less than one percent of chaos's total.
Visible, another fleet is preparing to depart from the star to cause trouble on other worlds. But just as they break free from the star's direct gravitational interference, make a short-range jump beyond the heliosphere, and accelerate to prepare for a long-distance jump spanning light-years, suddenly, this fleet defies the orders of the star's chaos lair, turns around, and scatters in panic.
It's clear that the fleet's formation is completely disrupted. The once-unified chaos minions have become separate individuals, scattering in flight, as if trying to evade some terrifying existence.
But it's too late.
Space-time trembles.
Zooming out the perspective, from a multi-galactic viewpoint, one can see that along the edge of this galactic spiral arm, dark gravitational depressions are lighting up in almost 'simultaneous' rhythm. These gravitational depressions pierce through the entire galaxy, forming a path like black footprints.
A super-massive entity, capable of distorting and attracting even light, is rapidly jumping.
Each time it jumps to a location, it temporarily swallows the surrounding light, forming a huge gravitational depression. The next instant, it jumps again, and the depression moves forward in mid-air, like a person stepping on a beach leaving footprints—only this person's mass surpasses the combined mass of dozens of galaxies, and the beach is an entire galaxy.
Just as footprints on a beach are smoothed by seawater, this gravitational depression will soon be smoothed by surrounding space-time. However, the massive gravitational oscillation, mixed with peculiar energy waves, spreads outward from the depression. These energy waves are harmless to ordinary life, like a gentle breeze, but for various anomalous existences and chaotic entities, no matter how well they hide, they cannot avoid the inevitable destruction.
Edge galaxy, chaos lair. The massive chaos mother nest also begins to tremble—not from fear, nor from suppression of life rank, but from the physical 'trembling' and distortion of space-time. As a sphere emitting blazing light abruptly appears near this solar system and then abruptly disappears, an invisible silver wave sweeps through the surrounding cosmic space like a tide. The chaos minion fleet, the eroded star bodies, and even the stellar nest that collide with this silver wave all silently decompose into molecular particles barely detectable in the galaxy.
"Hoo... wooo!"
The stellar nest struggles and writhes. A strange, distorted light shield spreads from its surface, emitting a multicolored black glow. This is a biological defense shield composed of massive molecular-level phagocytic spore mist. The main cannons of ordinary psionic warships are nearly useless against these living defensive rings. Only space weapons like subspace fragmentation cannons, which use jump principles, can theoretically cause some damage.
After all, the stellar nest contains a star within it. Its self-repair speed far exceeds the charging speed of a warship's main cannon.
But facing the surging silver mist, this stellar nest, capable of single-handedly withstanding attacks from over a dozen normal guardian fleets and still having strength to counterattack, can only let out a silent wail in the vacuum. Then, it slowly turns into nothingness. Its body disappears and disintegrates as if erased by an eraser. Some remaining wreckage loses activity, falls into the star, and is burned to ashes.
Everything happens within minutes—merely passing by, so a stellar-level chaos minion is thus annihilated, leaving no trace behind.
This is the power of an ultimate transcendent being—the power of Joshua.
In the past, the Plenty Evil God traversed the Multiverse Star River. The mere aftershock of passing by could destroy countless worlds, give birth to many small evil gods like Atmosphere, create Void Great Maelstroms comparable to the prototype of the Genesis Maelstrom, and cause visible large cracks in an entire Starry World.
Now, Joshua walks this path as well... Perhaps, in terms of reserves, he cannot compare to the Plenty Evil God, born a hundred million years ago. But as an intelligent life with a future, he always has ways to surpass the evil god, which has been fixed and turned into a dead eternity.
[Prompt: Next, we will perform an ultra-long-distance jump. Jump distance: 45.62 million light-years. For the remaining distance, we will use short-range jumps and sub-light speed flight to approach.]
[Surprise: Your power seems to have a very strong influence on the material plane... No wonder you were able to create 'Emotion Force,' which is based on psionic energy but has a significant impact on the material world.]
[Curiosity: Radcliffe, do you plan to use 'Emotion Force' as your future core?]
"No."
Facing the Eternal Lighthouse, which had transformed into an invisible psionic entity hovering around him, Joshua, who was in the midst of jumping, replied briefly: "Emotion Force is just the first step of my experiment. What I want is not such a simple mixture."
[Understanding: Understood. But even a mixture has its own mysteries. If it can be pushed to the limit, it may not be impossible to open a new path... This is what the Sage once said to me.]
"Perhaps, but it's not suitable for me."
Joshua emitted an information stream representing 'laughter.' Then, he temporarily paused his pace to accumulate energy for an ultra-long-distance jump spanning tens of thousands of light-years. During this energy accumulation, his thoughts began to scatter due to the Eternal Lighthouse's words.
There is indeed a lineage among transcendent powers.
Excluding the relatively special power of malicious chaos, representing the 'Divine Power' and 'Steel Force' directly derived from the First Flame and Origin Steel, the remaining numerous transcendent powers have their own peculiar genealogy.
First, based on Divine Power, the 'Founder' created [Soul and Psionic Energy]. The fine derivations of this power also gave birth to many secondary special systems like 'Psychic Power' and 'Psychic Perception.'
Then, according to the Knowledge Seizer, the civilization represented by the Sage of Demons, due to the powerful psychic power derived from strong souls and psionic energy, perceived the ubiquitous overflowing creative force in the multiverse—the light of existence illuminated by the First Flame in the void. Through this powerful psychic power, they unearthed the potential of the Light of Existence, creating [Magic and Mana], which can form any phenomenon.
The fine derivations of mana also gave rise to many 'Arcane Energy,' 'Curse Power,' and various primitive totem forces... These systems all stem from mutated mana.
Around the same era, perhaps also inspired by mana, [Life Energy], derived from Steel Force, was discovered. This power, which directly acts on matter and can easily change its form, should have also given birth to a sage, but their name and civilization have not been passed down. Perhaps due to the same era and direct correlation, mana and life energy can be directly converted through intelligent life, and their relationship is unexpectedly close.
Even the Nature Force, which lies between the two, was born, becoming a secondary derivative power.
These two transcendent powers ushered in a new era of multiverse transcendence.
Next, [Element] and [Aether] appeared successively. Their creators were civilizations and individuals with deep research into mana or life energy. They, like finding quarks within protons and neutrons, unearthed new essences from other transcendent powers—similar to how humans discovered strong and weak nuclear forces—using these essences as foundations to create entirely new powers.
Because their origins come from other transcendent powers, elements and aether can mix well with other transcendent powers. And since psionic energy is the source of mana, it naturally integrates well with them.
"Every transcendent power is a completely different system, yet they all have traceable veins."
Joshua gazed at the dark, empty Galactic Great Void before him, calmly pondering in his mind: "It's like how inorganic matter gives rise to organic matter, and flesh-and-blood intelligent life creates strong artificial intelligence. The former and latter are completely different, yet in some essence, they are close. This is something difficult to describe or compare."
If one day he could express the differences among various transcendent powers in the simplest language, then perhaps he would have become a sage.
"The birth of psionic energy was to allow people to prove that they are themselves. Mana and life energy are about using one's own power to change the world."
"Elements and aether were born from the two, standardizing all transcendent powers, laying the foundation of the multiverse, changing the origins of many life worlds in the multiverse, and influencing the birth of all subsequent new worlds."
"As for [Holy Light]... it also seems to be a power derived from mana, life energy, or even Divine Power and Steel Force. It also changes the world, but Holy Light leans more toward restoration... or rather, reversing a certain scale. No, higher than that—the purification and restoration of Holy Light, if examined in essence, might be a power that reverses 'entropy' and restores material changes."
Life energy can also achieve this, as can Steel Force, and magic naturally can as well. But Holy Light can take this as its foundation, directly accomplishing what other transcendent powers need to do indirectly.
And the newly emerged [Shadow] seems to be like the relationship between mana and life energy, elements and aether. Because they have completely different yet similar essences, the birth of one drives the birth of the other.