Chapter 36: A Big Problem 6200
Currently, all worlds observable by intelligent life, even the most extreme and desolate ones, can sustain life as long as life-support equipment is sufficiently advanced.
After all, the inability of life to survive is primarily due to life itself being too fragile—it can't handle heat, it can't handle cold, it lacks air, it lacks water. Even elemental lifeforms that don't need air or water and aren't afraid of extreme heat or cold still require mana, aether, elements, and other factors.
In short, the very existence of life requires various conditions. If those conditions aren't met, it leads to death or dormancy.
The most basic and fundamental ability of a Super Lifeform is to ignore any conditions and live freely and comfortably in any world.
But here's the problem—even such Super Lifeforms at least live in the same kind of world as ordinary life, merely ignoring the environmental conditions. These worlds, capable of nurturing matter, energy, and space-time, are essentially narrow and stable worlds resulting from the survivor effect. They can be observed only because their stable lifespans are long enough to be discovered and observed by short-lived, fragile life.
Are there worlds completely different from these?
In such worlds, can life, even Super Lifeforms, survive?
—Legend has it that at the source of all realms and things, within the torrent of light from the First Flame, countless strange and ephemeral worlds are born and perish, like bubbles rising and bursting in a river. Their lifespans vary; the shortest vanish before even the concept of time is born.
Different speeds of light, different gravitational constants, different electromagnetic forces... these completely symmetrical, or perhaps completely asymmetrical worlds with entirely different constants—strange, fleeting, and beyond comprehension—some are so extreme that even gods cannot endure or 'survive' within them.
Perhaps that is what is called 'Chaos.'
And at this moment, the 'virtual world' that the Triple Veil created using a 'Reality Rewrite Port' entirely simulated with psionic energy is precisely such a world where even the constants are completely random, and even he himself doesn't know how chaotic the internal data is.
—A speed of light that is sometimes fast, sometimes slow.
—Matter and energy that twist, expand, and cannot even combine or interact.
—Space-time waves that surge without reason, or rather, follow another set of unstable 'reasons.'
—Everything within the fifth state of matter, completely rejecting supernatural power and any solid, liquid, gaseous, or plasma state.
—The 'Big Crunch' and 'Big Bang' caused by the gradual collapse of the virtual world itself, along with various forms of world destruction.
The Differentiation Evil God and the Stagnation Evil God were trapped within, enduring destruction and pain assailing them from the world's very roots.
The Triple Veil, the Infinite Seeker, is essentially a 'Life Preservation Program' created by the 'Founder' of the Sage clan of Creation Psionics, used to guard, protect, and care for all life within the entire Starry World. Its power is naturally connected to the 'Veil,' the psionic net surrounding the entire Starry World. Even the World Will, the Steel Serpent 'Star,' is merely a junior it witnessed being born. In terms of pure energy level, the power the Triple Veil can mobilize is enough to instantly create thousands of stars, forming a small star cluster.
Its power and technology have reached the pinnacle in terms of psionics. For it, a being capable of creating worlds, the Evil Gods born from world destruction are nothing special.
But unfortunately, this world isn't just about psionics.
Being born too early can sometimes be a disadvantage.
[Report: Detected anomalous subspace wave diffusion. 'Random Virtual World' unable to imprison Evil God-level entities. Detected meme diffusion.]
[Warning: Detected anomalous supernatural power. 'Random Virtual World' lost control. Detected abnormal time flow.]
The physical manifestation of the Triple Veil in the material world is a silver-blue, luminous nebula resembling a miniature universe. In a sense, it differs from the dark nebula of an Evil God's true form only in color. Now, while controlling the random virtual world composed entirely of psionics to imprison the Evil Gods, it had to interrupt its control.
One could see that within the curved space-time bubble, time on one side seemed frozen, all internal and external motion halted. On the other side, large patches of mosaic-like black smoke burst from the collapsed virtual world, coalescing in the vacuum into the nebula of the Evil God's true form.
Because the Starry World is almost completely isolated from all realms, any supernatural power other than psionics is a seed brought by the Sages and Joshua, let alone the malicious Chaos belonging to the Evil Gods and the hand behind them.
[Emergency: Change plan. Proceed with physical suppression and annihilation.]
Encountering an unexpected situation, the Triple Veil naturally wouldn't wait for these two Evil Gods to break free. The moment anomalies appeared inside the virtual world, it had already begun preparing its next attack. Mobilizing nearly endless psionic energy, it prepared to directly teleport all matter within a radius of one hundred and thirty-two light-seconds, using absolute force to send the Stagnation Evil God and Differentiation Evil God into the accretion disk of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Dark Galaxy.
Naturally, the Evil Gods would resist, deviating the teleportation coordinates. Moreover, due to the space-time distortion caused by the black hole, the success rate of teleportation was extremely low, which is why it hadn't done this from the start. But since it couldn't quickly annihilate or isolate them, it might as well teleport the Evil Gods near an area capable of destroying them, then slowly compress and destroy them.
The light of psionics began to glow. Within the one hundred and thirty-two light-second space centered on the Triple Veil, a storm suddenly arose. All matter, energy, and even indescribable things were covered in a layer of hazy radiance.
But just as the teleportation began, the dark nebula composed entirely of mosaic clouds—the Differentiation Evil God—suddenly pulsed for an instant.
Many gaps appeared in this nebula, and even its internal structure was severely damaged. It could be seen that compared to the largely intact Stagnation Evil God beside it, the Differentiation Evil God had suffered considerable damage while breaking free from the virtual world. A significant portion of its body and even its essence had been destroyed along with the virtual world. It was clear that the Differentiation Evil God wasn't very powerful. If it had faced Joshua, it would probably have been directly crushed into the black hole and have all its information purified.
But the strength of absolute energy levels and damage to the body couldn't reduce the danger of this Evil God.
In that instant, the Triple Veil, this massive psionic aggregate, suddenly lost control for a moment: the First Veil, Second Veil, and Third Veil, which had been combined for nearly a hundred million years, a collective of thought that could almost be considered a single will, suddenly issued three different commands simultaneously. And because the Founder itself was a collective being, the programs they designed were mostly modular combinations that could only issue complete functions. While this design had its advantages, now, when the equal permissions of the three core intelligences conflicted, a massive program conflict began to rage.
However, it was only for an instant. The Triple Veil had already prepared for this the moment it perceived the 'differentiation' nature of the 'Differentiation Evil God.' Its teleportation work wasn't interrupted. But at the same time, the Stagnation Evil God launched its own attack.
Not erosion, not energy impact, not creating celestial bodies to collide—in that instant, the Triple Veil didn't detect any related 'attack' at all. It even felt the pressure around it lighten, as if all forces acting upon it had completely disappeared.
Or rather, were stagnated.
The Stagnation Evil God stagnated the information nodes within the Triple Veil. Translated to humans and other life, this would be like stagnating the operation of neural bundles in thinking organs like the brain. The number of stagnated nodes wasn't small, but it wasn't large either. However, the chain reaction it caused was extremely vast. The temporal and informational chaos caused by the exchange between stagnated and non-stagnated information nodes directly created damage far more profound than that of the Differentiation Evil God.
Because for the stagnated set of information nodes, the non-stagnated set was almost a different individual. The brief stagnation caused a more terrifying 'differentiation' than 'differentiation' itself. Both sides held equal permissions and intended to inspect and repair the 'erring' other side. Faced with this, the Triple Veil had to pause the collective teleportation, perform internal repairs, and create patches to counter the attacks of these two Evil Gods.
It must be said that the instinctive cooperation between the Stagnation Evil God and the Differentiation Evil God was extremely effective. Was it that stagnation could promote differentiation, or that differentiation led to stagnation? Just as the Triple Veil paused the teleportation, the Stagnation Evil God attacked again.
This time, it was stagnation on the physical level. All forces acting on the Triple Veil were eliminated, causing it to be flung away by the rotating Dark Galaxy at a speed of seven hundred kilometers per second. This speed was naturally not fast, but at this moment, the army of Chaos Minions had already pressed forward. They used methods like self-destruction to forcibly interfere with the time it took for the Triple Veil to break free from the banishment. One could see stellar-level mother beasts creating energy waves comparable to supernova explosions, impacting the surface of the Triple Veil.
Of course, no damage was done.
Neither the Evil Gods nor their minions had the ability to harm the Triple Veil; they could only rely on various methods to interfere with it. So, instead of tangling with the Triple Veil, it was better to deal with another individual.
However, just as the Stagnation Evil God and Differentiation Evil God changed direction to deal with Joshua, who was fighting the Famine Evil God on the other side, the Famine Evil God happened to cease all reactions in a brilliant explosion.
Evil God, annihilated.
Then, they observed the four-armed giant god leap without hesitation, delivering a near-light-speed kick that solidly struck a seemingly empty vacuum.
Boom, boom, boom—the nebular material formed by the destruction of stars in the sparse cluster was accelerated by the terrifying force, creating mechanical waves clearly audible even in space. Amidst the roar exceeding four hundred decibels, an intangible, formless existence carved a transparent path through the turbid cluster cloud.
Of course, 'intangible and formless' is only relative to most other lifeforms.
For Joshua, what he had just kicked away was an unmistakable Evil God—the Evasion Evil God.
The power of the Evasion Evil God allowed it to always be in a state where it could not be normally observed under any circumstances. It could distort light, energy waves, gravity, and everything else. Because the Evasion Evil God was not composed of any normal matter or energy in the universe, it could easily achieve quantum invisibility and even quantum tunneling under any conditions. It could even shuttle back and forth between the spiritual realm, shadow realm, psionic realm, and material world, existing even as pure information.
So-called evasion means turning a blind eye, actively concealing oneself, pretending not to exist. Theoretically, no observation method or attack could harm the Evasion Evil God. It could avoid all harm, even 'observation' itself—photosensitive beings couldn't see its light, energy beings couldn't detect its energy, electronic beings couldn't perceive its information flow, and psionic beings couldn't sense its fluctuations. It never existed in a place where it could be observed.
Evasion is the hardest problem to solve in the world. Even Joshua's Steel Vision was not a 'perfect' observation method; the Evasion Evil God could still conceal itself.
But Joshua didn't need to observe it. To deal with it, he needed to destroy it. So the giant god condensed a portion of Steel Force crystals—a 'World Embryo' at the level of a supernatural singularity—on the bottom of his foot during the kick, then directly detonated it upon impact, equivalent to detonating a small world.
If the Evasion Evil God could evade even this level of supernatural power eruption, which penetrated everything from the spiritual realm to the material realm, it would have already invaded the Starry World. Why would it need the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate to open the Eternal Void Anchor teleportation? As the saying goes, there are no invincible abilities, only insufficient output.
Fancy abilities are often less effective than a single, powerful, heavy blow.
So, as the Evasion Evil God, kicked away silently, halted its backward momentum and gathered with the Stagnation and Differentiation Evil Gods in the same star region, the Triple Veil also stirred up a psionic storm, flinging away all the Chaos Minions trying to interfere.
Expressionless, Joshua and the Triple Veil, two entities, approached this star region from front and back simultaneously.
They surrounded the three Evil Gods.
What followed was a chase.
Of course, the ones fleeing were the Evil Gods.
In this chase, where space-time was suppressed and teleportation and travel were interfered with, space was warped, time was affected by massive individuals. On this superluminal pursuit path, stars along the way were merely swept by the aftermath, turning into supernova dust. Millions of years later, the collective brilliance and cosmic radiation of these explosions would become an inexplicable wonder for future civilizations—a straight-line nebular track called the 'Path to the Galactic Center.'
On a cosmic scale, space measured in light-years was like a canvas, painted with colors by energy impacts that sometimes exploded and sometimes brightened. Countless stars were flung away by the slingshot effect of overly powerful gravitational changes. Their gravity caused changes in other celestial bodies, changes that would normally take tens of thousands of years to become apparent, but now, the change had already been wrought.
Countless times, the Evil Gods attempted counterattacks. This was not without effect. Even Joshua was affected, experiencing differentiation of thought, stagnation, and even temporarily losing track of the Evil Gods. But he was not alone. The Triple Veil helped him when he was attacked, just as he did the same.
The Evil God minions, capable of destroying numerous civilizations, were not even worth a pebble in this battle. The army of World Devourers, enough to terrify any void empire, could not even survive the aftermath of the two ultimate transcendent beings' passage.
Finally, Joshua and the Triple Veil, chasing or rather 'herding' the Evil Gods, forced the three Evil Gods back to the vicinity of an ever-expanding, black-and-white contradictory, super-massive space-time distortion.
That is, the vicinity of the Eternal Void Anchor.
[Target Confirmed: Our next goal is to close this super-massive Eternal Void Anchor.]
After applying patches against the Stagnation and Differentiation Evil Gods, the Triple Veil was basically in complete control. Neither the Differentiation Evil God's decomposition attack, which could separate neutrons and protons, nor the Stagnation Evil God's 'pseudo-absolute zero,' created by stagnating material motion, could cause it any substantial harm. After all, if not for suppressing the Emotional Vortex and ensuring the survival of most life, the Triple Veil, without any burden or encumbrance, would never fear Evil Gods.
The Four Rings of Gods repurposed the psionic emotional vortex, also liberating the Triple Veil's combat power.
[Analysis: This is a major project, likely much harder than eliminating these Evil Gods.]
"I think it's more than just that problem."
Maintaining contact with the Triple Veil, Joshua was currently fighting the Stagnation Evil God. The warrior's thoughts would indeed be stagnated for an instant, causing a difference in self-perception, but he wouldn't be confused by this, because whether he was stagnated or not, his only goal was to fight and destroy the Chaos before him.
So, throwing a punch that shattered the Evil God, which had stagnated surrounding material motion and created a spatial barrier, along with its barrier, Joshua turned his head, looked at the incomparably huge contradictory spiral before him, and said in a grave tone: "What we should worry about is that guy in the void."
Now, Joshua felt his strength had far surpassed ordinary Evil Gods. After devouring the Decay Evil God, his full power had probably already exceeded that of a typical Evil God. In subsequent battles and progress, he had become a top-tier existence taking steps toward the Sage realm.
The Famine Evil God, which in the past had easily destroyed the Carlis World merely by relying on its minions, its true form wandering the void with countless legendary-level minions—now, with brute force, it was something he could completely eradicate in half a minute. And these three Evil Gods before him, though their abilities were bizarre and could even complement each other to form extremely troublesome chain effects, under the suppression of absolute output, it was only a matter of time before he and the Triple Veil eliminated them.
Of course, these Evil Gods were certainly not in their complete forms... They were prisoners who had been defeated, captured, and imprisoned, 'scouts' and 'door handles' banished into this world.
The only problem was the existence outside the Starry World—the Ultimate Sublimation Aggregate. That was the real big problem.
"Let's act. Around the Eternal Void Anchor, even I can't casually warp space-time. It's a good time to eliminate them."
Saying this, Joshua clenched his four fists. Continuously plundering and devouring stars along the way kept him in perfect condition. As long as those three Evil Gods didn't run, Joshua felt he could crush them one by one within three minutes and stuff them into a black hole as an energy source.
And at that very moment.
Perhaps triggered by the arrival of Joshua and the Triple Veil, or the retreat of the Evil Gods, or more simply, this massive Void Portal had grown to a certain point during this time. The rotation speed of the black-and-white, light-and-dark, constantly cycling contradictory spiral suddenly increased significantly.
One could see a dozen or so dark shadows like nebulae, and flesh-and-blood individuals gushing out like a fountain, like the nebula produced by a supernova explosion, all bursting forth simultaneously from the center of the Eternal Void Portal amidst violent space-time tremors so intense that even light shattered.
The energy released in this instant would be enough to illuminate half the Dark Galaxy in the future.
"...Uh oh."
Joshua opened his mouth. He was naturally unaffected by the space-time tremor. The giant god's expression stiffened slightly as he exhaled a 'breath'—a plasma flame comparable to a black hole jet—and then looked at the Eternal Void Anchor, which was expanding as over a dozen unnamed Evil Gods and an uncountable number of Ultimate Beings continuously poured in. He said stiffly: "As I guessed, it wasn't going to be this simple."
[Work Report: Estimated workload increased by 1669587%. Radcliffe, estimated working time exceeds 8 days, 17 hours, 41 minutes, and 52 seconds.]
"Recalculate that."
Faced with such a scene, Joshua could only sigh, raising his two right hands high. Behind him, a massive mass point began to materialize. The amplified gravitational field completely eliminated the space-time tremors brought by the Void Anchor.
As the quasar-like mass point materialized, the giant god's body began to continuously enlarge. Its original star-sized volume expanded to the level of a red giant in a short time. Mass filling from an unknown source caused even more terrifying gravity to spread, directly twisting the Ultimate Monsters, which should have emerged from the Void Portal in a 'straight line,' into arcs.
At this moment, Joshua had completely shed his human form, transforming into a colossal, ever-expanding, and spreading silver world. It could be seen that within this world, there was another incomparably huge mass point. The two mass points, one in front and one behind, attracted each other, tracing complex and chaotic arcs. Infinite gravitational potential energy was extracted and released as they rotated, turning into a nearly limitless power source.
Black Hole Engine.
And at this moment, within this gravitational field, where even space-time was toyed with, amidst the radiation of matter evaporated by the black hole, extremely complex information was being transmitted. It converged, gathered, and finally transformed into a voice familiar to the Triple Veil.
"Just reduce it by twenty or thirty times, that'll do."