# Chapter 25: The Voice of Yesterday 6400
"Code 'Ultimate Pasture' recovered. Regrettably, the Charil United First Agricultural World has been confirmed completely destroyed."
The shrill gale howled across the shattered lava plains, vortex winds exceeding a hundred meters per second tearing apart soil and rock, forming a massive dust tornado that created an obvious, constantly shifting dark patch on the world's surface.
The battle between a Legendary expert and an Ultimate creature had utterly destroyed this planet's ecosystem. The Fishman High Priest's power was sufficient to fling the world's entire atmosphere out of its atmospheric envelope—if that had happened, at least the surface destruction would have been less severe. But because the First Agricultural World's "round sky, square earth" world structure trapped all the impacts within the world itself, creating a rather peculiar implosion effect, the aftershocks had yet to subside even now.
This was one of the drawbacks of small worlds formed after the appearance of "Aether." If overly powerful beings fought within them, even if fortunate enough not to tear the world apart, the residual shockwaves would be blocked by the world barrier, echoing within the world for millions of years. Barring unforeseen circumstances, what was once a scenic, habitable agricultural world would become a shattered storm world. In time, wind, earth, and fire elements might be born within this high-temperature dust vortex over ten thousand kilometers in diameter, nurturing new species and civilizations.
And on one side of this storm, at the bottom of a massive pit that plunged straight to the planet's core, Godar—whose body had gradually returned to its normal state, becoming the old fishman he once was—stood alongside the Nature Mentor Galannod, who had also reverted to her elven form. They stood beside a mass of milky-white root entanglements sealed within a massive barrier of natural power, communicating with the distant Pope Eagle: "Recovery mission successful. This thing isn't weak—I went all out and pinned it into the planet's core to stop it from thrashing around. But without this thing's roots anchoring it, the continent, already mostly eroded, can't maintain its original form. This world is finished."
"Of course it's alive. Galannod is treating it on the side. Ultimate creatures have incredibly tenacious vitality—no need to worry about that."
"Yes, the core activity of the Ultimate Pasture still exists. The two of us working together against a Legendary-rank monster driven only by instinct—we won't fail. Right, we can proceed to the next step."
"Eagle, do we wait for you to arrive, or do we start now?"
The emerald-green natural power formation was like an unusually orderly mass of vines, entwining around the milky-white root aggregate, simultaneously drawing energy from it while using its own energy to maintain the target's bodily functions. Above the natural power formation, Galannod, also communicating with Eagle, furrowed her brow slightly, as if she had heard some bad news. "No need to wait? You've encountered trouble?"
"...The plague has already spread that far? Have you warned the surrounding void civilizations? Preventing this virus isn't particularly difficult in itself—the main concern is guarding against possible Ultimate creatures."
"Really?!"
The conversation didn't last long. When Godar and Galannod simultaneously ended their communication, the two instinctively exchanged glances, both wearing equally grave expressions.
"Seven Ultimate creatures have appeared in the star domain where Eagle and Barbarossa are. Two of them are reincarnations of intelligent beings—very troublesome..."
The Nature Mentor waved her staff, causing the formation binding the Ultimate Pasture's core to tighten further, making it spasm in pain and spray out large clouds of white viral mist. Galannod's tone was heavy: "How long has it been? This inexplicable plague has already caused tens of billions of casualties and infected so many civilizations. Just in the surrounding star domains alone, it's created nearly ten Legendary-rank monsters! Even if an Evil God were launching a full-scale invasion with its minion army, it wouldn't be this bad!"
"At least an Evil God has a physical body we can attack."
The Fishman High Priest shook his head, gazing at the Ultimate Pasture before him, speaking somewhat indistinctly: "As for this plague... to be honest, we don't even know its true origin. We can't find a direction to directly solve it—we can only defend passively."
"So we came."
Clenching her fist, the Nature Mentor's voice sounded almost gritted through her teeth. The hand holding Galannod's staff had visible plant roots emerging, proof of her extreme anger. This elven Legendary couldn't help but wonder: if Mycroft civilization hadn't received Joshua's warning, hadn't been protected by the Seven Gods—if, like those civilizations completely ignorant of the plague, they had been infected by the Ultimate Virus—what would have happened then? To all intelligent life? To all elves?
Even imagining the possibility sent chills down the Nature Mentor's spine. It was a terror that could destroy the thousand-year efforts of multiple generations in an instant, a disaster that could turn all achievements to nothing in a single moment. The elf clan had only just managed to return to the void, to step onto the grand stage of the Star River. Yet a single artificial transcendent plague, with no known origin or purpose, could erase everything.
"This is the dark multiverse. Effort, courage, conviction—without sufficient power, no matter how beautiful and steadfast the will, no matter how passionate and inspiring the emotions, they mean nothing."
Suspended above the Ultimate Pasture, the Nature Mentor calmed herself. She slowly descended, her feet landing on the core of the Ultimate Pasture. Sensing some danger, the Ultimate Pasture began struggling desperately, even emitting crying sounds like a child begging—after absorbing billions of people and hundreds of billions of livestock, even an originally ordinary man-eating plant could develop enough intelligence. But Galannod felt no pity whatsoever. Her gaze was cold, her expression hard: "Fortunately, thanks to the legacy of our predecessors, Mycroft civilization... I still have some power."
"So I can come here and try to solve the problem."
As she finished speaking, the place where Galannod stood suddenly blazed with light, dyeing the surrounding atmosphere with the richest, deepest emerald green.
Within the deep green, sounds like a forest tide rising echoed. Rustling noises transformed into a sacred symphony, spreading in all directions. Wherever it passed, vitality flourished. Even the Ultimate Pasture, bound in place and barely clinging to life, seemed to recover some energy.
But after recovering its energy, the first thing the Ultimate Pasture did was continue struggling desperately—though under the suppression of the natural power formation, its struggles were useless, seemingly irrational. Standing nearby, Godar could see that beneath the Nature Mentor's skirt of flowers and leaves, deep green veins like tree roots were spreading, invading into the depths of the Ultimate Pasture's core. This bizarre yet sacred, seemingly natural scene made the Fishman High Priest click his tongue in admiration, his face showing emotion.
"Most of the Ultimate Virus spreading everywhere isn't even complete—it's mutated several times. Even if deciphered and studied, no real solution can be obtained—in other words, a 'vaccine.'"
Godar watched intently as Galannod 'eroded' the Ultimate Pasture, muttering to himself: "Only Ultimate creatures—specifically those that have completely transformed—have the most primitive and complete Ultimate Virus information at their core. With this first prototype, at least we can try to decipher it and create a vaccine."
This was the dangerous one of the 'two plans' designated by Mycroft's powerful beings—to penetrate deep into the Ultimate Virus epidemic zone, capture an Ultimate creature, and while maintaining its vitality, decipher the fundamental data of the Ultimate Virus, thereby creating a vaccine!
Galannod and Godar, as rare 'biology specialists' in Mycroft civilization, naturally became the core of this plan. Whether it was the Seven Gods Pope Eagle or the Legendary Archmage Barbarossa, they were all there to escort them, clearing other dangerous Ultimate creatures that might exist in the surrounding worlds. Of course, even they hadn't expected that a mere peripheral star domain could spawn so many Ultimate creatures.
Of course, if they knew that the Amos Royal Court in the Bloody Star River had seen over seven hundred Ultimate creatures appear at the very first moment of the plague's outbreak, they would certainly be grateful that there were very few creatures in the surrounding star domains that met the Ultimate Virus's conditions.
In the plan, Nature Mentor Galannod was responsible for directly extracting the primitive Ultimate Virus and using her own body as a culture medium, using Legendary power to analyze the virus's mutation and infection process in real time, attempting to weaken and detoxify it, and finally deconstructing the weakened Ultimate Virus, completely breaking it down into the most basic design blueprint. Fishman High Priest Godar, on the other hand, was to assist Galannod in recovery if she failed, and through another set of high-speed evolution processes, forcibly cause the Ultimate Virus to coincidentally reproduce a weaker offspring, then repeat the first stage's work, layer by layer deciphering from there.
Only in this way could all Ultimate Viruses and their derivative variants be completely deciphered, ensuring that individuals in Mycroft civilization would not be infected.
"How is it, Galannod? Can you manage?"
Noticing that the deep green natural power veins had deeply rooted into the Ultimate Pasture's core, even knowing that because the Ultimate Pasture was a plant type, it was very familiar to Galannod and she could handle it with ease, Godar still couldn't help asking: "If there's a problem, let's return to the void base's laboratory—the equipment there is more complete!"
"We can't go back!"
The Nature Mentor's firm voice could be heard: "I can't bring this dangerous virus prototype to any area related to Mycroft world. If something goes wrong, you and I would be sinners against civilization!"
"As for whether I can manage... I can only say it's difficult."
"Very, very difficult."
As she said this, Galannod slowly closed her eyes. Most of her bodily functions completely ceased, all her energy condensed within the Ultimate Pasture's interior—the primitive Ultimate Virus. Substantialized mental messages could be heard: "But that doesn't mean it's 'impossible.'"
At this moment, the Ultimate Pasture had completely stopped struggling, because the natural formation, while slowly replacing its life-sustaining power, had fully controlled its body. It could be said that the core part of the Ultimate Pasture had been completely assimilated by the Nature Mentor, leaving only the last remnants of spiritual attachment within the Ultimate Virus aggregate inside its body, being slowly studied by Galannod.
And Galannod held nothing back. As she had said before, she was using Legendary-level power, bit by bit at the microscopic level, to remove the layer of transcendent power formation covering the outside of the Ultimate Virus... This seemingly tiny virus was essentially an ultra-miniature composite formation with an extremely complex structure, composed of various kinds of transcendent power. In a sense, it really wasn't a virus—it was more like a computer program, assembled from transcendent power, similar to a computer virus that could infect and spread itself rapidly through various methods—a 'curse.'
Or rather... a 'inheritance'!
"The puzzle is solved!"
For about ten-plus hours, the underground scene remained unchanged. After a long time, Galannod finally opened her eyes. The Nature Mentor's gaze was extremely bright, her face showing joy as she raised her staff high: "I understand the 'Plague Spreader's' purpose!"
"The Ultimate Virus, though it appears to be a virus and plague—that's just the surface! Just a negligible byproduct of its true function! That's why it has such a high fatality rate and such abnormal infectivity!"
"The 'Plague Spreader' who created it—its essential purpose was to use the Ultimate Virus to increase its own kind, to leave behind an inheritance—in other words, to leave behind offspring!"
It could be seen that the natural power formation binding the Ultimate Pasture's core shattered with a boom, turning into large patches of scattered energy mist deep underground. The milky-white root entanglement, now completely covered with green root veins, lay motionless, fully controlled by the Nature Mentor. Having roughly deciphered the inheritance obtained from the Ultimate Pasture's core, extracting the information left in the primitive Ultimate Virus, Galannod turned around and said excitedly to Godar beside her: "I've preliminarily deciphered the peripheral information of the Ultimate Virus. I can basically determine that the creator and spreader of the Ultimate Virus intended to do something very dangerous—something that, in its heart, was a certain death with no 'future'!"
"But this matter, it had to do. So before embarking on this dead-end path, it wanted to 'reproduce'—or rather, 'sow seeds'! To some extent, it could also be said to be forcibly spreading its own 'inheritance'!"
"The so-called infection is actually the Ultimate Virus transforming the host, adapting it to the result of leaving behind its inheritance. The dead individuals are mostly 'failures' eliminated due to insufficient personal quality, insufficient energy reserves, insufficient talent, insufficient adaptability. Failures, naturally, are not worthy of inheriting the 'Plague Spreader's' power and becoming its offspring!"
"But if one can adapt, consuming large amounts of energy to complete the most basic 'Ultimatization,' then the life that passes this step can leap directly, becoming the juvenile of this special super-lifeform—the 'Plague Spreader'! And they would receive the inheritance specially left behind, inscribed in the microscopic formation inside the Ultimate Virus! In this way, having experienced death and rebirth, they would completely shed their original identity and race, becoming the offspring of a powerful super-lifeform!"
"No wonder some intelligent beings become so abnormal after Ultimatization... But this inheritance also has its limitations. First, individuals who have already reached the Ultimate level are basically immune to infection. If one hasn't reached the Ultimate level, their own quality might be insufficient, leading to complete self-destruction—that's how the Ultimate Plague's high fatality appears."
Speaking to this point, the Nature Mentor showed a troubled expression, her brow slightly furrowed: "But what the inheritance specifically is, I haven't been able to extract yet. Its encryption level is too high, and the environment and tools here aren't good... If I could, like Lord Radcliffe, rely on the Magic Net and the power of the entire civilization to decipher it, then the speed would definitely be much faster..."
"Wait, Aydril, do you mean that this Ultimate Virus is actually some kind of 'inheritance'?!"
After listening to the Nature Mentor's series of analyses, the Fishman High Priest was practically dumbfounded. He looked up through the underground passage at the great whirlwind still sweeping across heaven and earth. Godar's gaze seemed to pierce through to the surrounding star domains, seeing the other colonial worlds that had been completely turned into dead zones by the Ultimate Plague. This Legendary fishman truly couldn't understand: "It killed trillions—actually, in the Multiverse Star River, that number could be hundreds of times more! But now you're telling me that the essence of this thing isn't a curse, not a plague, but a 'reproductive activity' of some powerful super-lifeform to create 'offspring'!?"
"Indeed, that's the case."
Galannod replied in a heavy tone. The elven Archdruid narrowed her eyes, her pointed ears trembling slightly. She looked around at the underground rock layers and lava fractures, full of pits and depressions eroded by the Ultimate Pasture, and said solemnly: "The truth is often this simple. It's just that the super-lifeform doesn't care at all about the survival of ordinary life—just as we wouldn't care how many insects and bacteria are burned to death in a slash-and-burn farming fire that burns a forest... However, I have glimpsed its essence. In about half a month, I will be able to completely decipher its original information, and then begin attempting to create a vaccine, completely shielding against the Ultimate Virus's impact on intelligent life."
As she spoke, the Nature Mentor's tone carried a hint of relief and joy. After all, the plan was successful—they had indeed captured an Ultimate creature, obtained the primitive information of the Ultimate Virus from it, and discovered the true purpose behind this mysterious plague: 'creating inheritance, creating offspring.'
"Wait!"
But soon, Galannod's expression, which had carried a hint of relief, suddenly changed: "No!"
Her staff slipped from her loosening grip and fell. The Nature Mentor's originally calm face suddenly became panicked: "No! If all this is true... if all the information I obtained is correct!"
"If this is really some kind of inheritance left by a super-lifeform, a powerful intelligent existence, a means to create offspring, then there's no reason it could only spread through this virus-plague-like method!"
This statement also jolted Godar, who had seemed somewhat relaxed due to the mission's perfect completion. The Fishman High Priest thought for a moment, then his expression also changed dramatically: "Damn! You're right!"
"Plague infection is just the fastest method. That super-lifeform doesn't care about the survival of other lives at all, but that doesn't mean it only knows this crude method... Things like inheritance, the carriers it can be loaded onto are far too many!"
It could be a ritual! It could be an inheritance crystal! It could be a recording, or... a passage of text in a book! A song or sound spreading through the void!
Even randomly prophesying about certain things existing in the distance, obtaining some revelation from it, randomly opening some space-time passages to the distance, causing some otherworldly information clusters to drift over—all of this could lead to an irreversible plague outbreak!
As long as it contains enough information, enough to leave a sufficiently obvious impression on the world, then forget viruses—even an imperceptible subspace oscillation wave—just like the waves shielded by the Seven Gods and Radcliffe—would be enough to create sufficiently complex information, creating inheritance out of thin air, and then 'infecting' other lives!
"What we must guard against is absolutely not just 'plague' and 'virus,' but all unknown information related to the outside world!"
Exchanging glances, Galannod and Godar simultaneously reached the same conclusion. Both wore extremely grave expressions. Among them, the Nature Mentor said solemnly: "We must notify Mycroft headquarters."
"Even if the 'dangerous plan' has succeeded, the 'steady plan' cannot be paused! Until this 'Ultimate Plague' completely stops, we must never relax our vigilance!"
Although the conclusion was correct.
It was already too late.
As early as dozens of days ago, before the Ultimate Plague had appeared in the outer star river colonies near Mycroft world, a void exploration ship had been urgently recalled by the Mycroft External Exploration Department to prevent it from exploring too deeply and being interfered with by a possible plague outbreak, causing losses.
This exploration ship had indeed not encountered the plague, nor had it encountered the virus. All records indicated it was very safe, everything very normal.
But even so, before recalling this exploration ship, the External Exploration Department headquarters had thoroughly disinfected it from the inside out more than a dozen times. The exploration personnel stationed inside had almost changed their physical bodies, ensuring absolutely no possible hidden dangers remained.
After undergoing what could be called a life-threatening ultimate disinfection procedure, this exploration ship was finally determined to be safe and was brought into a void base in some otherworldly star river. The External Exploration Department began extracting the built-in database of this void exploration ship to perfect the Mycroft people's Multiverse Star River star chart.
But in this database, there was not only the geography and world distribution of the Multiverse Star River... There was also a large amount of communication records with void civilizations they had passed by, as well as records of all special information, wavebands, and space-time turbulence in the void.
And within that seemingly ordinary audio database... lurked a segment of deadly poison called 'inheritance' that was fundamentally impossible to detect.
"Record of Analyst 531. Analysis operation about to commence."
Jetram Star Domain, Mycroft Civilization's Multiverse Star River Star Gate Void Base Headquarters. An elven information analyst methodically opened his work information terminal, called up a light screen, and began his daily task—analyzing the large amounts of seemingly meaningless information in the database, extracting meaningful data, such as messages transmitted from distant special worlds and void phenomena, or communication wavebands that had drifted in space-time turbulence for countless years.
Today was just like any other, nothing special. The void base had a comfortable temperature, a hearty breakfast, and last night's nightlife had been quite rich. Recalling those moments of passion, this information analyst smiled slightly—but this didn't affect his work. He calmly entered his secret key, opened the database, and began retrieving information for browsing and analysis.
"Time: Era of Falling Stars 848, March 29. Beginning analysis of the 'Dawn Void Exploration Ship' information database."