Reverse flow of the Yellow Springs

The holder of the book did not seem to be faking it; he genuinely believed that the predictions in the Book of Destiny were the most accurate, and that even if he were to die, it would inevitably be the optimal solution to achieve some kind of 'ending'.

Perhaps, if the Book of Destiny, in order to find a more suitable holder, truly indicates in its calculations that he needs to sacrifice himself, he would gladly accept his fate without hesitation.

This fanatical fervor sent a chill down the spines of many voters.

Damn it, you're insane! A complete and utter fanatic of the Book of Destiny!
They always believed they were right, even just.

Even if they had previously surrounded and killed the human champion, even if they had previously wanted to sacrifice millions of people to create a strong one!
The voter from the Third Ring Road frowned: "Are you crazy? You really believe the predictions in this lousy book?"

"No, it's not about believing." The one holding the book wasn't annoyed, but calmly replied: "The Book of Destiny doesn't force us to believe anything; it merely allows us to glimpse countless possibilities for the future. You've never witnessed firsthand the splendor and cruelty of those billions of threads of destiny intertwining, extending, breaking, and renewing. And we, from that endless, intricate torrent of destiny, select and pinpoint the only 'optimal' path that can lead the world through its end and towards continuity."

"It's reasonable that you consider the human champion a human hero. If he hadn't been a 'variable' who didn't interfere with the predetermined trajectory of fate, I would also have praised him as a hero without reservation, and might even have supported him."

"But he is a 'variable'!" The voice of the one holding the book turned cold: "No matter how many lives he saves through his personal will, in the face of a grand destiny, they are nothing more than castles built on quicksand! When the inevitable end comes, all this redemption will be nothing but emptiness, utterly meaningless!"

"The only correct choice is to follow the path indicated by the Book of Destiny!"

"He arbitrarily altered predetermined fate, saving lives that should have perished in a moment of passion, but in doing so, he also inadvertently stifled the greater possibility of humanity, and even the entire world, surviving the final catastrophe safely!"

"Stars that should have shone brightly through trials have been tarnished, and heroes who should have risen from the ashes have become ordinary people. All these deviations and losses are due to the intervention of 'variables'!"

The voice of the person holding the book was not very melodious, yet it silenced the entire Ark Hall, forcing all the voters to listen intently.

"Distorted logic!" A voter from the second ring seat, who rarely appeared in public, finally spoke up. His voice was deep and resonant, carrying an undeniable authority: "I only look at the results! The emergence of the human champion has indeed saved millions of people who were destined to die in several calamities! This is a real achievement!"

"But what is the price?" the book-holder immediately retorted, his tone still calm: "The price is that several peerless geniuses who should have honed their skills through despair and sacrifice, and ultimately shone brightly, lost their opportunity to grow! All the tributaries were completely disrupted and interfered with! You only see the surviving population in front of you, but you cannot see the peak power that will be lost in the future, enough to turn the tide of the final battle!"

"Absurd!" The second-ring supreme being seemed to be provoked, roaring in a low voice. Even when facing a monarch, he did not hide his anger: "Does this mean that without calamities and casualties, geniuses cannot rise? Can't peace and hope give birth to strong people?"

However, the next words from the book holder caused the volatile emperor to fall into a deathly silence, as if he had been choked.

"If it weren't for your most respected teacher back then, who resolutely sacrificed himself to give you a chance to survive, dying at the hands of the forbidden zone's henchmen..."

"If your lover and child hadn't known they were going to die, and hadn't kept from asking you for help, preventing you from falling into the trap."

"How could you possibly make the painful decision to abandon everything, risk your life to infiltrate the heart of the forbidden zone, seize its inheritance, ultimately become a hegemon, and ascend to the supreme position in the years to come?"

"How can such a massive city of millions be protected?"

He so easily and precisely uncovered the other person's sorrowful past.

The supreme seat in the second ring road fell into a deathly silence, anger and a deep-seated fear intertwined wildly in the depths of his consciousness.

The teacher's kind yet stern face, the lover's gentle smile, the child's innocent face, and the disciples and comrades who had fought side by side but ultimately fell... countless faces flashed before his eyes, as clear as if they were yesterday.

"Their...their sacrifices...were they all within the calculations of your Book of Destiny?" The Supreme's voice trembled, each word seemingly squeezed out with difficulty from between his teeth.

"As you just said, I... only look at the results." The book holder's response remained calm: "You are a genius among one in ten thousand, that's beyond doubt. But you lack 'driving force'. So, they died, and with their sacrifice, they paved the foundation for your path to becoming a strongman."

"And you, in the end, ascended to the Supreme Realm, protecting tens of millions of lives far exceeding their numbers. In terms of the outcome, wasn't this trade... quite worthwhile? You exchanged the sacrifice of a few of them for the survival of many more."

"Fuck your mother! I'll kill you!"

The extreme grief and rage erupted like a volcano that had been dormant for thousands of years!
The supreme being suddenly stood up, and the magnificent chair beneath him was instantly vaporized by the violent divine power. The supreme weapon roared at this moment, and the three forbidden objects were revived.

Mythical stance liberation, mythical stance second liberation!
In that instant, an extremely terrifying divine pressure filled the entire Ark Hall.

A burst of light erupted, and a giant over a hundred meters tall rose from the ground. Its face was blurred, yet it exuded a hatred and killing intent that even the three rivers and five seas could not wash away!
The spatial rules of the entire Ark Hall seemed to adapt accordingly, instantly becoming gigantic, pushing all the horrified voters' consciousnesses far away and making way for the core area.

This supreme being is incredibly powerful, so powerful that even Li Yelai felt suffocated. He's even stronger than that Blood Sea Supreme!
If that Supreme Being of the Goat had such strength, Li Yelai would probably have to avoid his sharp edge.

It's a good thing that such a supreme being has murderous intent towards the holder of the book.

But this is the Ark.

Faced with the Supreme Being's wrath, the Book Holder sighed softly: "It's merely a necessary sacrifice, and you are the most suitable. Imagine if unforeseen circumstances arise and interfere with your growth. Who would protect those millions of compatriots?"

The enraged Supreme didn't care about any of that; he unleashed terrifying power and punched the one holding the book.

In that instant, the entire virtual realm seemed to be churning.

But the captain's cold voice rang out at the same time: "You need to go back and calm down first, get your teeth tightened."

There was no earth-shattering collision, no fierce clash of laws.

The next moment, the hundred-meter giant vanished instantly, like dust casually wiped away by an invisible giant hand. He was forcibly kicked out of this space by the power of the Ark's rules, without any room for resistance, and returned to the physical world.

The enormous space inside the Ark Hall that had been stretched open returned to normal in an instant, as if the cataclysmic scene had never happened.

Everything returned to silence.

Voters at a slightly lower level might only feel a brief spatial distortion and a flash of oppressive force, and look around blankly.

Those powerful individuals who witnessed all of this fell into an even deeper silence and awe.

The person holding the book remained calmly seated in their original position.

'So easily it affected the rise of a supreme being'

'Sacrifice some to save more.'

Is he issuing a warning, or perhaps a declaration?

'The Book of Destiny. How terrifying! Has our fate also been altered?'

Or rather, have we been influenced by the Book of Destiny as we've grown up to this point?

Many voters were horrified, becoming increasingly wary and fearful of the Book of Destiny. Of course, some voters were also tempted; wouldn't it be wonderful to cooperate with such a powerful entity?

After a few suffocating seconds of silence, the calm, unwavering voice of the book-holder rang out again, as if the conflict that had just occurred—a conflict powerful enough to drive a supreme being to rage uncontrollably—had never happened: "Continue, everyone. Continue sharing information. I will release information regarding the sixth and eighth murals in the final stage."

The voters remained silent for a moment, seemingly processing the shock they had just experienced, before gradually beginning to exchange information.

Most of the shared information concerns the escalating localized conflicts between certain megacities and restricted areas.

Or some rumors, neither too big nor too small, whose truth is hard to discern.

For example, inexplicable strange phenomena may occur within a restricted area or a large city, or a new genius may emerge in a certain place.

When the topic of a genius's rise came up, many voters subconsciously looked at the person holding the book, wondering if this was an arrangement by the Book of Destiny.

After the discarded deductions from the Book of Destiny were circulated, many powerful figures at the pinnacle of power and influence began to involuntarily examine the key moments in their lives, wondering if they had already been written down.

And this is exactly what the Celestial Walkers hoped to see: when their own interests become linked to the prophecies of the Book of Destiny, someone will always make a choice that aligns with their expectations.

After intelligence from all over the world was shared.

The person holding the book then spoke, saying, "The calamity represented by the sixth mural has already descended upon the sea and is currently spreading in all directions."

"Its origin is a biological weapon from a powerful civilization, which can be called a 'Calamity Inheritor'. Those of you who have met orcs should understand this. It is a biological weapon created with destruction as its ultimate goal."

"It has an extremely high infection rate. Flesh and blood creatures killed by it will mutate in a short period of time and become one of them."

"Their voices and appearances also possess the ability to corrupt and distort. Non-psychics would be crippled at a glance. Even psychics below the fourth sense would be distorted after a period of contact. They carry an infection source similar to the Forbidden Zone Order, and will instinctively modify the environment."

Upon hearing this, one voter spoke up: "A super-enhanced version of Resident Evil? Then we just need to concentrate our firepower and eliminate them before they snowball."

"What is Resident Evil?" another voter, who was clearly not very familiar with the culture of the old era, asked in confusion.

"A fictional disaster concept from before the Age of Calamity. Roughly speaking, it refers to a virus infecting humans, turning them into mindless 'zombies' who only know how to devour, and then the disaster sweeps across the globe... Well, in our understanding, it's roughly similar to a weakened version of a 'living zombie' outbreak."

"This little bit of stuff, how could it sweep the globe?" One voter frowned, finding it hard to believe. "With the level of technology available to humans at that time, wouldn't clearing out these zombies be a piece of cake? Zombies have no reason and don't know how to use weapons. A simple night watch squad could easily wipe out tens of thousands of zombies without causing any harm, right?"

“So that’s just a fictional concept,” the voter who had explained earlier responded. “And it’s nowhere near as terrifying as the ‘Calamity Entity.’ To be infected by just a glance or a sound, and even to be able to alter the environment… it’s practically a walking, highly active forbidden zone order!”

“That’s one way to understand it,” the book holder replied. “But the real problem isn’t just their infectiousness, but their unique path to promotion.”

"They are a race, but they can also be seen as a community, and as their total number increases, their individual levels will rise."

This caused everyone to change their expressions; a group promotion?
One voter asked, "What if ordinary flesh-and-blood creatures were infected?"

"Then they will instantly grow to the strength of their current race." The book holder paused. "Of course, the best among them will be even stronger. They also have node creatures."

"You mean, even if the most ordinary sea fish is mutated into a 'Calamity Spawn,' it will also advance in rank due to the expansion of the entire 'Calamity Spawn' population and the improvement of its overall strength?" A voter gasped: "If their overall strength grows to the second awakening level, then the Calamity Spawn that this fish becomes... will also be at the second awakening level?"

"Yes, but there is an upper limit. The strength of a race is difficult to break through to the level of a divine being, but some node beings within it are not subject to this limitation. Overlords, supreme beings, monarchs, and even emperors may emerge."

"In other words, the highest level of a 'Calamity Heir' in an ordinary unit is only the sixth level of awakening, and only a very small number can break through this limit?"

"You went too far with that word 'only'. Thousands upon thousands of Sixth Awakenings, even a champion would be worn down!"

All voters, regardless of their camp, felt a chill run down their spines at that moment.

The number of organisms in the ocean is an astonishing astronomical figure.

If these creatures are all transformed into calamity offspring and continuously grow stronger through this bizarre 'group promotion' mechanism.

Even if there's a limit, it's still incredibly terrifying!

Sixth Awakening, a Great Spiritual Power User. There's only one Sixth Awakening among the captain-level powerhouses in the giant city.

We absolutely cannot allow the Fiendish Heirs to advance to this level!
The person holding the book responded: "It should have already reached the second awakening stage, almost the third. As for the specific level..."

“East of the Underground Palace of Death and Sleep, south of the Throat of Return to Ruins, west of the Sea of ​​Devouring Light, and north of the Lost Paradise.”

"That concludes the information regarding the calamity of the sixth painting."

Many voters from human forces or the forbidden zones on land breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

Meanwhile, some voters from the restricted ocean area were somewhat anxious and uneasy, finding the evil spirits too troublesome, and their restricted area was the first to bear the brunt.

Some people exclaimed, "Wow, it's completely surrounded by the four forbidden zones in the central sea area! Does that mean it has little to do with the giant human cities on land for the time being?"

"This is actually good news; this time, it won't affect humans."

"Great, this time the restricted area is suffering." The human voters sneered.

Some voters seized the opportunity to ask further: "Bookholder, what was the information you mentioned earlier about the eighth painting? Where will the calamity it foretells befall?"

The person holding the book calmly replied, "The eighth mural is expected to reveal more details in half a month. The calamity it represents will befall...the Western Hemisphere. I have finished telling you all the information about the calamity."

“Damn it!” a white voter from the Western Hemisphere muttered under his breath.

Those voters from the affected restricted areas could no longer sit still and immediately left the ark, clearly eager to return to the real world to devise a response.

Chu He naturally didn't stay either; it would be unusual for him not to react as a pure-blooded human from the lost land.

After all the voters had left, the person holding the book looked at Li Yelai, who had remained.

"Lord Copperface, it's time for us to have a talk." (End of Chapter)