Chapter 20: Joe's Encyclopedia 8000
[In the very beginning, it was born in narrow places.
Warm seabed hydrothermal vents, scorching underground cavities, places where celestial ice elements gather, dense mana crystal plains... The original origin came from seemingly insignificant places.
Then, it began to spread, from ocean to continent, from underground to the surface—and then, the entire world.
Perhaps a continent, perhaps a planet, perhaps the boundless starry sea, and even the void wider than the starry sea and other worlds beyond the void... It multiplied, copied itself, then infected, and spread into a multitude.
This common yet extraordinary thing, its name is...]
In the void, worlds are endless. Each world shines with starlight, infinite rays of light converge into a vast star river, and countless star rivers once again converge into the Multiverse Star River. This is the largest physical structure in the current Multiverse.
The smallest worlds are an extremely special kind of existence. Generally speaking, they only have a few mountains and a plain, with an area not exceeding a few hundred square kilometers—indeed, not even as large as a big city.
However, within worlds of this size, there absolutely must be an extremely vast concentration of Transcendent power. As the core of the world, it stabilizes the world barrier. It is not even strange for a Singularity-level Transcendent power aggregate to appear within them. Therefore, this kind of extremely small world can be described as a hidden treasure in the void, and their numbers are also very few. Even on the scale of a World Star River, it is difficult to see such a small world.
This kind of extremely small world is different from demiplanes and planes. To summarize roughly: a demiplane is a plane without internal self-circulation capability, while a plane is a world attached to another world. Most of them are man-made, and natural planes are also extremely rare. Their sizes vary, depending on the world they are attached to.
The most common world size is the so-called 'Small World.' The smallest confirmed Small World with life has an area of about 150 million square kilometers, just a bit larger than a big country in the Mycroft World. However, the largest world that can be defined as a Small World has an area of a full 600 billion square kilometers, enough to hold dozens of Mycroft Worlds.
Worlds of this level have a complete self-circulation ability and a very long lifespan. Without accidents, their natural extinction would take hundreds of millions or even billions of years. Because Transcendent power can greatly accelerate the evolutionary process, life might be born within them in just a few million years. If lucky, it's not impossible for intelligent life to emerge in just over a hundred thousand years.
Small Worlds are the most numerous type of world in the Multiverse. The concentration of Transcendent power and the total volume within them can mostly reach a balance, thereby most quickly catalyzing the birth of life. The intelligent life within will also discover the void at the fastest speed, beginning to explore the unknown outside their world.
Next up are Medium Worlds, which are second in number only to Small Worlds. The size range of Medium Worlds is extremely vast. Generally speaking, they have hundreds of times the area of the Mycroft World; this is the smallest capacity batch. Because the vast majority of Medium Worlds possess one or even several stars, forming multiple star systems, with a large number of planets—the so-called Galaxy Worlds. Here, compared to Small Worlds, the concentration of Transcendent power is too low to produce Transcendent catalysis. The number of planets is too small, the probability too low, and no special cases can appear. Currently, in the Multiverse, the vast majority of Medium Worlds are still in the process of gestating life. It may take hundreds of millions or even over a billion years before the organic matter and single-celled organisms just born within them slowly evolve into true intelligent life.
The lower limit of a Medium World is a star-sized supercontinent or super planet, while the upper limit is over a thousand star systems forming a small galaxy. There, the stars rotate quietly, hoping that with the passage of time, the life they gestate can be safely born in this overly young Multiverse.
Larger than the typical Medium World is the 'Large World,' which contains an entire galaxy, or even more galaxies, within a single world. In this level of world, hundreds of billions of stars shine brightly. This is just the foundation. A slightly normal Large World basically has multiple galaxies, with over a trillion stars.
At this point, the solidity of the world barrier reaches a level where only Legendary beings can enter or leave. For Small and Medium Worlds, with special techniques, Ultimate-rank beings can enter and exit. But facing this kind of Galaxy World, an Ultimate-rank cannot even approach, or can only enter passively and cannot escape. This kind of world is very closed off. The vast majority of life within grows old and dies in the overly vast void, never discovering the truth that there is a void outside their world.
The largest type of Large World has multiple galaxies as its foundation, with over a trillion observable stars. For this kind of world, even a Legendary needs to know special techniques to enter. They do not interconnect with normal World Star Rivers. Except for the Great Magic Tide, they basically do not exchange any information or energy with the void.
However, only this magnitude of Large World has the possibility, with a low concentration of Transcendent power, to forcibly gestate intelligent life through sheer probability. Only this volume of world can withstand the attacks of some weaker Evil Gods.
As for 'Super Large Worlds,' which are even larger than Large Worlds, it is even said that a single world gestates endless stars and countless galaxies. Its size cannot be estimated by the number of stars, but only by 'its radius being tens of billions, hundreds of billions of light-years' to determine its observable range.
This kind of world is born from the Multiverse but refuses to communicate with it. Even Evil Gods wanting to invade is absolutely impossible. Perhaps, in the days when the First Flame was still burning fiercely, it was open. But due to the passage of time and changes in the fundamental forces of the Multiverse, they have become completely disconnected from the Multiverse. It is even said that inside some of these Super Large Worlds, there is still no Transcendent power at all—the most primordial form of the Multiverse.
The electronic pages in the light curtain were flipped through one by one. Sensitive insect antennae clicked on the virtual screen. An elderly Zanya person finished reading the entire manual and then showed a thoughtful expression.
"So the world we are in belongs to the 'Super Large World' category... Larger than us are only those worlds that are considered endless by themselves, guessed to be 'near-infinite single universes.'"
Having read the entire text, Fleet Commander Kedar contentedly closed the e-book in the psychic network app before him. One could see the cover of the book had a very prominent line of Mycroft Common Language text.
Book Title: *Joe's Encyclopedia, Volume Five*
Subtitle: *A Thousand Things You Don't Know About the Void and Worlds*
Introduction: Understand the basic state of the Multiverse in one hour! Note: This book is for basic void knowledge popularization, not for commercial use, only for learning and exchange. — Joshua van Radcliffe.
When Joshua was summoned to the Starry World by the Midgardians and joined forces with the Triple Veil to popularize Emotion Force, he began to vigorously popularize knowledge about the void, Evil Gods, and the Multiverse to the local civilizations of the Starry World.
This was actually one of Joshua's purposes in coming to the Starry World. If he could solve the Chaos problem inside this world, he might be able to pull a large wave of battle-hardened veterans from the Starry World who knew the Chaos Minions very well, even being extremely proficient in fighting Chaos, as reinforcements. Before that, the most important thing was to first tell these locals of the Starry World that there were other worlds and Evil Gods outside their world, and those Evil Gods were the source of the Chaos invasion their world was suffering.
Joshua had no intention of hiding this purpose. Commander Kedar, who had just finished reading this encyclopedia, was also very clear about this. Even the old commander could guess that the power of the Four God Rings he now possessed was an attempt by the other party at Transcendent power. In essence, they were being used as experiments to explore possibilities for his own future path.
Extending his antennae, he touched the red ring on his joint. Kedar smiled slightly.
"But so what?"
As an elder who had lived a long time, fought Chaos for a long time, and deeply understood the human heart, Kedar naturally understood that powerful beings of the level of the Midgard God and the Inferno God Radcliffe, who could cross the distance of endless worlds to come to the Starry World to help them fight Chaos, and even spread Emotion Force without any hesitation in the Starry World—this behavior was barely described as noble; it had already reached the level of selflessness.
Regardless, if a being of this level wanted to pull a batch of reinforcements from the Starry World to help them fight together, they wouldn't need such troublesome methods. Even from the most critical perspective, this was a mutually beneficial matter. Even if it couldn't be called completely selfless help, it was at least a fair transaction, definitely not fraud or deception.
As for the experiment... that also required the civilizations in the stars to have the value of being experimental subjects!
One must know that Emotion Force was not some messy mixed power, but a system carefully considered and created by a powerful being, and it was fully compatible with Psionic Energy! The higher the civilization level, the clearer the preciousness of this system. It could allow a tribal civilization to leap to the heavens. If the people of the Starry World had no power, who would waste this opportunity that could allow a civilization to leap to the heavens to experiment on them?
And besides.
"If it weren't for you, how could I have gained the courage to step out of my predicament, and then... vent my anger on Chaos?"
Raising his head, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Blazing Fleet, Five-Star Commander, Zanya Kedar, gazed outside the bridge. He stared at the planet being suppressed by the combined bombardment of an entire fleet. He stared at that planet, already eroded by the plague, nearly turned into a desperate dead land. In his eyes, a red light burned.
Since Emotion Force spread throughout the Starry World, the Galactic Guardian Alliance, centered around the original Blazing Fleet—more precisely, around Commander Kedar, the bearer of the Courage Ring—had formed a 'Brave Blaze Fleet.' All members of this fleet were ability users who had awakened the Emotion Force of Courage, or at least strong Psionics with this awakening tendency.
The purpose of this fleet, filled with courage and anger, was to eliminate all unstable factors on the starry front before the great counterattack began.
Just like the planet being bombarded before their eyes.
A planet completely infected by the 'Extreme Plague.'
"Could it be the work of the 'Plague Evil God'..."
Kedar walked to the front of the bridge, staring at the planet almost completely covered by starship artillery fire. His gaze was solemn, without any contempt despite holding an absolute advantage.
Extreme Virus—Joshua, through the power of the Four God Rings and the Triple Veil, sent a report to the entire Galactic Guardian Alliance proving that this was a super Transcendent virus that could survive in a vacuum and withstand temperatures exceeding six thousand degrees.
This virus had strong infectivity, high latency, and high lethality. In less than a month, it had already caused hundreds of billions of deaths, the fall of hundreds of infected planets, and even some heavily affected alliance member civilizations had their entire races fall, completely exterminated by the virus. This level of casualties was close to the number of casualties in a large-scale battle against Chaos. And this time, the Guardian Alliance didn't even know the true face of the enemy, nor how to defend against it.
However, if it were just this, it wouldn't be necessary to mobilize the current sharp sword of the alliance, the 'Brave Blaze Fleet.'
"ROAR!!! UGH!!!"
A great roar that transcended space and directly resounded in the psychic space was heard. Sensing this angry roar, Kedar lowered his head and coldly stared at a certain place on the bombarded planet.
In the gloomy black clouds rising from the evaporation of the ocean by starship artillery, pale purple lightning flashed. One could see a massive object, clearly visible even from orbit, shuttling through this thunderous cloud. It withstood volley after volley of psychic light spear salvos, occasionally revealing parts of its body due to particularly intense explosions. The entire planet's atmosphere was stirred by it, causing ripples.
Kedar could estimate its size by visual inspection. Based on the body currently revealed, its length probably exceeded fifteen hundred kilometers.
Its body occupied a small ocean.
"ROOOAAARR!!!"
Accompanied by a high-pitched angry roar, perhaps annoyed by the artillery harassment, the head of this massive monster swung, clearing the surrounding clouds and revealing its true form to everyone. It was a head as black and white as a killer whale, but its entire body had a glass-like luster, effectively reflecting the lethality of psychic beams. On its back, metallic bone spurs jutted out high, and scattered crystals on them flashed with dangerous cold light, as if ready to fire psychic beams in retaliation.
The sea of mist churned. The entire planet's atmospheric structure was stirred. One could see that the original atmosphere surrounding the planet had been manipulated by this monster, turning into an overly dense sea of mist that could reflect a large number of beam attacks. It churned within this sea of mist, using the planet's power to withstand the bombardment of an entire fleet.
"Extreme Lifeform..."
Kedar muttered to himself, his expression returning to calm. "Even if it's only in its transformation period, its strength already surpasses ordinary Immortals. If I didn't have Emotion Force, didn't hold the ring, and only relied on my own power to advance, I'm afraid I really wouldn't be a match for this monster."
The Immortal realm of Psionic Energy only achieves the 'eternity' of body and spirit through Psionic Energy. Its key point lies in eternal immortality. Even if killed, it can make a comeback through spiritual entrustment. Combat power is not a hard standard. Ordinary Immortals are indeed at a disadvantage when facing Extreme Lifeforms.
After all, it was a monster that had devoured most of the life in the ocean and, given time, could even eat the planet.
"Report, Commander. The refugees on Planet Minglida have been recovered. It has been confirmed that they are not infected with the Extreme Virus!"
Just as the 'Extreme Killer Whale' controlling the planet's atmosphere was contending with the suppressing starship firepower, a tired but excited telepathic message appeared in Kedar's mind. It was Kedar's former deputy, now the vanguard commander of the Brave Blaze Fleet, the Midgardian Faya. "Confirmed! No normal life exists on Planet Minglida. The atmosphere is entirely filled with mutating Extreme Virus! Rain and fog are its transmission conductors!"
"Understood. You did well."
Nodding slightly, Kedar encouraged the other party, then raised his head again to stare at the Extreme Killer Whale.
Indeed, Extreme Lifeforms were strong. An ordinary Immortal rashly confronting them might have their intelligence devoured. But could that alone deal with an entire interstellar fleet composed entirely of Emotion Force ability users?
Absolutely impossible!
The only reason they hadn't directly destroyed it was that the aftermath of its destruction would annihilate all possible survivors on the entire planet. But now, with the rescue team that had infiltrated the planet successfully completing their mission, it was time to go all out and completely eliminate it.
"Disinfect. Sterilize."
Taking a deep breath—manifested in the Zanya as opening their mouthparts wide—Kadar instantly performed a short-range Psionic Leap to outside the flagship 'Blaze.' He stood in the cosmic vacuum, as if the most solid ground was beneath his feet.
Seeing their fleet commander, the natural leader of the Courage Ring ability users, personally come to the battlefield, all fleets immediately stopped their bombardment of the Extreme Killer Whale, turning their gazes to Kedar. Even the Extreme Killer Whale, startled and uncertain by the temporary halt of the enemy's attack, raised its head to stare at the dark vacuum.
Then, it saw a red flame light slowly beginning to ignite.
Kedar lowered his head, staring at the monster below that had almost devoured all life on a planet, causing the complete destruction of a planet's ecosystem.
He recalled his homeland destroyed by Chaos. He heard the wails and laments of countless lives dying in pain.
War, gloom, death, despair—all darkness clung like a stubborn bone cancer, attaching itself to the Starry World, gnawing at the flesh of intelligent life and civilization.
But precisely because he had witnessed darkness, experienced despair, precisely because Kedar had gone through all this, experienced it personally, etched it into his bones.
Therefore, anger ignited from this, and courage was born from this.
"Everyone—"
In the vacuum, Kedar raised his joint. He felt all the power within him surge along with his spirit. Clear commands spread throughout the entire army, as calm and firm as ever. But this time, everyone could hear the blazing fire behind this calm.
"Lend me your power!"
And so, millions of soldiers, all those who were angry and possessed courage, raised their hands and let out a unified roar.
Courage! Faith! Anger! The three merged into one!
On Kedar's raised joint, on the shining red ring, a red light like ripples began to appear out of thin air. The temperature that burned everything, surpassing the sun, was grasped by him. Overflowing emotional energy condensed into one entity after another—swords, spears, axes, halberds; guns, cannons; huge interstellar warships; inconspicuous Transcendent weapons.
Since the dawn of intelligent life, all entities related to weapons and destruction gathered behind Kedar. The common power carried within, named 'Destruction,' was drawn out, forming a bright light mass above the old commander's head. It felt like a dazzling sun, composed of various weapons, had suddenly appeared in the dark sky. And this sun was not a phantom but an entity materialized by Emotion Force!
"GUOOOAAAH!"
On Planet Minglida, the Extreme Killer Whale, wondering what the enemy was doing, suddenly felt a chill run down its spine. It let out a strange cry, then turned its head and plunged deep into the planet's crust, seemingly trying to avoid this strike.
But it was useless.
"The ultimate technique taught by the Midgard Inferno God, said to be a strike capable of igniting a giant star!"
Raising his joint, Kedar felt the power of the entire fleet, all Emotion Force ability users, converging above his head, finally condensing into a several hundred meters wide, extremely solid red light mass. This light mass bore the phantoms of all weapons in the human world. It was gradually becoming brighter until its brightness made it impossible to distinguish colors, illuminating half the star system.
Lurking behind courage and anger, the power named Madness and Destruction surged, turning into sparkling arcs, winding around the light mass. Kedar shouted angrily: "Witness the Inferno God's, and our, wrath!"
"Blazing Sun Flash!"
Relative to the planet, the extremely tiny red light mass was thrown heavily by Kedar, reaching its extreme in an instant. It shuttled through space at sub-light speed, plunging straight into the planet's body, not even causing a ripple in the sea of mist.
But in the next instant, accompanied by a earth-shattering roar and howl, the entire sea of mist formed by the planet's atmosphere was directly ignited by the high temperature surpassing the star's core, turning into a blazing sea of fire!
One could see countless cracks like blood vessels and scars spreading across the entire Planet Minglida. Red light burst forth from these cracks, turning into countless sword-like light pillars dispersing. The power condensed by millions of high-level Emotion Force ability users turned into a fire of destruction, directly igniting and melting the entire planet. On the planet where the flames spread like a runaway horse, mountains were gradually melting, softening; the ocean was directly evaporated, blown away.
There was no violent explosion, no strong shockwave. In just a few minutes, the original life planet, the place completely infected by the plague, turned into a red-gold furnace planet. On the planet, there were no longer any high mountains or oceans, only a monotonous sea of fire.
And the Extreme Killer Whale had naturally long since wailed and turned to nothing under the impact of the Emotion Force version of the Blazing Sun Flash.
"..."
Kedar silently stared at the melting planet beneath him, his face expressionless.
According to the original instructions of the Guardian Alliance, he should have used the planet-destroying ship Blaze to shatter the entire Planet Minglida, cutting off the possibility of plague transmission. But based on his judgment, merely shattering the planet could not completely eliminate all Extreme Viruses on it. So, to prevent future trouble, he deliberately learned the ultimate technique left in the appendix of the encyclopedia by the Midgard God, the 'Blazing Sun Flash,' which, when cultivated to the extreme, was said to be able to truly create a star.
Of course, these were all just temporary reasons fabricated to allow himself to personally take action and eliminate the Chaos enemy.
Only by hearing the enemy's wails, by personally witnessing the enemy dissipate into nothing under his own hands, could the old commander, who had lost his homeland and offspring, feel that the anger in his heart could become purer.
Of course, it wouldn't dissipate. Before Chaos was completely eliminated, a warrior's anger would only grow stronger. As a father, a husband, and the hope of his homeland's people, Kedar's anger as a lifeform towards Chaos would absolutely not dissipate so easily.
"...Set sail."
With a flicker, Kedar returned to the flagship's bridge. He turned around, his back to all the fleet staff who were looking at him with reverence, and issued the command in a low voice: "We depart. To the next target."
But the bridge was silent.
"What's wrong? I said, to the next target. The Alliance should have given out the mission, right?"
Sensing something wrong, Kedar turned his head in confusion, looking at the communication personnel who should have responded. He wondered if the Alliance had suddenly shown great kindness and decided not to keep the fleet running non-stop. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
At this moment, he could see his subordinates showing expressions of shock.
"Commander!"
Because they were all holders of Courage Force, even in shock, they wouldn't stammer out of fear. A communication officer was the first to come to his senses and then said with extreme seriousness: "Look, I'm afraid we don't have a next mission!"
Kedar stepped forward. His compound eyes could clearly see all the details on the light screen before the communication soldier. It was a local star domain map, divided into sixty-seven small areas, each with a few star systems. Generally, if there was Chaos or an accident, the graphic representing the area would light up red; otherwise, it was blue.
In this large star domain, there weren't many red areas originally. Even if there were, they had recently been eliminated by the Brave Blaze Fleet. But now, Kedar discovered.
The star zone map before him was completely red!
"Alliance Warning—Plague is spreading on a large scale!"
"Attention all front-line fleets! It has been confirmed that the Extreme Plague has a significant relationship with the Chaos Evil God. Near places close to Chaos Minions, the probability of Extreme Virus generation is higher!"
"All front-line fleets, retreat! Fortify the nearest high-level stellar base!"
Continuous warning communications came in, occupying most of the screen. In just an instant, the surrounding planets and star systems all fell. The only blue area was the point where the Brave Blaze Fleet was located. In a flash, they were isolated and without support!
"Is this a conspiracy of the Evil God?!"
Even Kedar was shocked. If every life-bearing planet in these fallen star domains could gestate an Extreme Lifeform, then in the end, it might be them who were eliminated!
No, not just them. If the entire Starry World was like this, then the Alliance was in imminent danger!
But clearly, things weren't that bad.
Just as Kedar was about to notify the entire fleet to prepare for an immediate departure, break through the red plague-infected zone, and temporarily return to the rear stellar base to hold their ground and await further instructions, he suddenly felt a strange fluctuation.
The Courage Ring on his joint suddenly turned red and bright, emitting a clear and thorough radiance.
—Psionic Domain. The Psionic Network converged. The location of the Four God Rings.
Within four blazing flames of emotional fire, four completely different runic rings were sinking and floating, interacting with the Great Source with infinite Divine Power. This process seemed as if it could continue until all intelligent life in the Starry World perished.
But this emotional fire, which seemed as if it could last forever, suddenly became vigorous, as if stimulated, turning from slumber to activity. And so, they began to counterattack, releasing an invisible fluctuation that swept across the star river!
And with the Four Emotion Rings, using all individuals who had awakened Emotion Force as nodes, transmitting this invisible fluctuation, the originally extremely hidden, silent, and invisible weak fluctuation that had been quietly passing through the Starry World was immediately disturbed and interrupted. Losing the persistent inducement of this fluctuation, at that instant, all the Extreme Viruses that were spreading and appearing out of thin air immediately, like a network losing its signal, interrupted their download and collapsed into meaningless aggregates.
Kedar could sense that, centered on the Courage Ring he held, an invisible fluctuation was spreading in all directions. Wherever it passed, the originally faint feeling of discomfort completely dissipated, making one feel much lighter on a spiritual level.
"This is..."
As the sole bearer of the Courage Ring, Kedar was slightly moved. He could sense that this fluctuation was not the action of the Courage Ring itself but was guided by another powerful being. And the name of that powerful being needed no further explanation; it could only be that one great one.
The one who gave him the power of revenge, the one who returned his courage to him.
As if sensing something, the old commander raised his head and looked at the empty cosmic vacuum. And at this very moment, on that dark cosmic curtain, a bright star suddenly lit up.
At this moment, with the help of the Triple Veil.
Joshua van Radcliffe left the Starry World and arrived outside the Starry World, in the void that had been silent for nearly eighty million years.