A journey of survival starting from Zhetian

Chapter 602 The "Destiny" Tablet

In this chaotic "ocean" of spacetime, there is a special node with some semblance of order and rules.

The "Foam Realm," formed by the aggregation of dozens of "Foam Worlds," is constantly radiating the power of faith. Relying on the idealistic nature of the Faith of All Souls, it resists the chaotic and uncertain forces of time outside the "Realm Membrane Wall" at all times, maintaining a relatively stable order at this special node and anchoring itself to the relative stability of its infinitely random future changes.

However, even with this idealistic belief that can anchor one's "existence" in the next moment, some energy or matter in this "bubble realm" will still dissipate for no reason, making the living space in this world more tense and making the resources available to mortal beings even scarcer.

At this moment, a magnificent divine city, inhabited by a deity, hovers in the sky at the center of the "Foam Realm." It draws in strands of random energy from outside the "realm membrane," along with slightly disordered and chaotic King Realm laws, solidifying them into dark crystals that float above the city's altar.

"call"

Seven years later, the deity of faith looked at the altar of the divine city and quietly breathed a sigh of relief. It slowly gathered its divine power of faith and controlled the entire divine city to gradually descend, away from the "boundary membrane". As it was freed from the influence of this boundary that represented "chaos", the king-level laws around the deity of faith gradually returned to normal and were filled with the proper rules and order.

Before the divine city could return to the land of the "Foam Realm," this being of faith picked up a dark crystal and poured all its divine power of faith into it, diluting the random power inside the dark crystal and making it somewhat controllable under the constraints of the laws of the King Realm.

He reached out and conjured a divine seal in mid-air, mobilizing the power of the dark crystal to unleash the authority belonging to the deity he believed in.

"Creation and Existence".

The majestic words uttered by this deity unleashed a terrifying power approaching the limit of the King Realm, bestowing a miracle upon the entire "Foam Realm".

In a fleeting instant, golden raindrops fell from the sky, landing on mountains and rivers, sprinkling into oceans and deserts, and merging into plateaus and forests. This caused the matter and energy that had disappeared for nearly a thousand years to regenerate from all places, making up for the weak operational problems caused by the random dissipation of the laws of heaven and earth, and bringing the entire world into a positive cycle.

But after bestowing this divine miracle, a trace of sorrow appeared on the face of this deity of faith, who sighed softly, "Every thousand years, a large-scale divine miracle covering the entire world must be performed. This is a terrifying drain that no god-king can withstand. No wonder those ancient god-kings either perished from exhaustion or entered the deepest slumber."

"But if such a large-scale miracle that can cover the entire world is not performed, as time goes by, the living space of mortal beings will gradually shrink, the supply of faith power will slowly diminish, and eventually their own power will gradually decline."

"The only known way to expand the scope of heaven and earth is for a deity to successfully ascend from a true god to a god-king. But for hundreds of thousands of years, apart from my very fortunate success, all other deities have failed."

The deity, after assessing its own divine power of faith and the rate at which the faith of all beings could be replenished, felt a pang of sorrow and despair.

He can only unleash large-scale divine miracles about six hundred more times, which means that in about six hundred thousand years, his current abundant divine power of faith will be completely exhausted. If, during this period, a deity of faith successfully ascends to the rank of God-King, expands the scope of heaven and earth, and takes over the large-scale divine miracles from him, then there is still hope, and he will not perish from exhaustion.

Once the affairs of the deceased are properly handled, and the authority of one's own insights and the faith in all spirits is handed over to the newly ascended God-King, one can enter the deepest level of slumber, transforming one's own thoughts into the power of faith, slowly restoring the power of the God-King rank, and waiting for the day to awaken again.

But within 600,000 years, is it possible for a believer to successfully ascend from a true god to a god-king?

As the contemporary god-king who governs the faith of all souls, he had no confidence whatsoever.

The divine city slowly descended to the center of the continent, and strands of faith power instantly began to converge from all directions, surging, vast, and magnificent.

However, when all these beliefs were channeled into the altar of the divine city, transforming the dark crystals into controllable consumables that could be used to perform large-scale miracles, and completely integrated into the "boundary membrane" to repair the damage that had been randomly lost over the years, the remaining scattered power of faith was simply not enough for him to restore the divine power of faith that he currently lacked.

To fully recover to its peak state, one can only rely on one's own thoughts to transform into the power of faith and fill these gaps. Moreover, approximately 500,000 years from now, the weary consciousness will no longer be able to transform its own thoughts into the power of faith, and will completely enter a period of decline in the power of faith.

The contemporary God-King closed his eyes, sighed silently, sat down by the altar, and began to restore his divine power of faith with his own thoughts.

But the next moment, he suddenly opened his closed eyes and looked at a divine mountain that was extremely far away from the divine city. He stared at a deity whose rank had already reached the peak of true godhood, watching his figure gradually dissipate into nothingness as he exhausted his own faith power but could not anchor his "existence" in the next moment.

The undisguised gaze was naturally noticed by the fading deity.

He looked at the current God-King, his expression pleading, "Heavenly Boat... God-King, I want to continue existing. Please, save me."

The moment the words left his mouth, the deity vanished completely, leaving no trace. The only things in the world that could confirm his existence were the beings who worshipped him and the few memories of him held in the minds of the various deities.

This was not caused by an attack, nor by any strange occurrence, nor by a malfunction in the operation of one's own divine power.

It was simply a disappearance, like a spark ignited on the sea, which naturally extinguished on a sunny afternoon.

Sitting beside the altar of the divine city, the Heavenly Boat God King had a trace of sadness in his eyes. He looked at the river of time, which was rippling slightly but like a black and white silent film, and sighed, "Ning Shuo, this is the law of nature. Even a God King who can bring down large-scale miracles to Tainan cannot stop this dissipation."

"Moreover, the divine power of faith of the God-King is precious. I cannot waste so much divine power of faith on something that is fundamentally irreversible. If I do so, it would not only be a betrayal of the faith of all the spirits in the world, but also a serious dereliction of duty by the God-King who holds the power of faith of all the spirits in the present day."

At this moment, several god-kings with aged faces and auras so weak they were almost falling from their pedestals emerged from the divine city. They looked at the dissipating figure of Ning Shuo, the true god, and shook their heads slightly.

One of the old god-kings, who was about five meters tall and had a round figure, pointed to the figure of Ning Shuo, the true god, engraved in the long river of time that resembled a black and white silent film, and said in a low voice, "If one day, enough god-kings appear in this world, or if the chaotic and disordered spacetime outside the world can gradually stabilize, it is still possible to revive a true god with the authority of a god-king."

With a somewhat numb expression, the Heavenly Boat God-King looked at the plump old God-King and asked, "Teacher Zhong Hao, when will this era arrive?" Then, in a whisper, he replied to his question, "Unless three or more God-Kings appear simultaneously within ten thousand years, allowing them to take turns wielding the power of the faith of all beings and bestowing widespread miracles, giving them time to recover and rest, and time to replenish their depleted divine power of faith, it will be possible to break through this current predicament of being unable to resist."

"Furthermore, before the birth of the four God-Kings, the three current God-Kings need to be lucky enough not to disappear from the world so naturally like Ning Shuo. However, while this possibility cannot be ruled out, it is so small as to be almost negligible, right?"

"There are precedents of contemporary god-kings who have ruled over the faith of all souls and have even disappeared on their own."

Zhong Hao, the God-King, straightened his slightly hunched back and said in a firm and powerful voice, "There are precedents of contemporary God-Kings who have governed the faith of all spirits dissipating on their own, but hasn't this only happened once in the last ten million years?"

"The higher the rank, the less likely one is to dissipate. This is something that we, the many old god-kings, have all confirmed, and it is also an axiom of cultivation."

Tianzhou God King looked at the several God Kings who came to give him psychological counseling, and his spirits slowly rose, dispelling some of the despair in his heart. However, he did not agree with what Teacher Zhong Hao had just said, and found it difficult to agree with.

This so-called "cultivation axiom confirmed by many old god-kings" is, in the eyes of the Heavenly Boat God-King, a kind of "survivorship bias".

According to ancient historical records, even if the number of god-kings born in their world reached hundreds, it was still incomparable to the billions of mortal beings.

Ordinary believers and practitioners of faith experience self-dissolution every day, and even among these god-kings, there have been instances of self-dissolution. When the probability of self-dissolution is fixed at the level of an actual existing individual, the probability of self-dissolution is the same for everyone.

The only difference is between 100% and 0.00%, which is also the difference between whether an actual individual exists or not.

If given enough time, even without encountering the crisis of exhaustion and death, a god of the god-king rank will eventually dissipate on its own.

This "axiomy" is nothing more than a psychological placebo.

The Heavenly Boat God King forced a smile, changed the subject, and asked softly, "Teachers, didn't you observe a special 'order' beginning to resonate in the 'ocean' beyond the 'Foam Realm' millions of years ago?"

"Can a divine king make prophecies about when things will gradually stabilize in the chaotic and disordered spacetime beyond heaven and earth?"

A god-king, leaning on a cane, short in stature, with a kind face, and resembling an ordinary old woman, slowly approached the Heavenly Boat God-King.

She said with some weariness, "Tianzhou, our divine power is already at its limit, as long as we can observe changes beyond the heavens and earth while maintaining our consciousness. As for the divine miracle of the God-King's prophecy, which is a limited glimpse into the future, even if we old folks burn off the little God-King essence we have left, we still cannot complete the first half of the great miracle."

"You haven't been in power for long, so you may not have fully grasped the authority of the Faith of All Souls. Large-scale miracles and great miracles require a massive amount of divine power of faith, as well as unstable external energy, as consumables in order to be successfully activated."

"The strongest god-king is always the current god-king who holds the authority of all faiths. Once he hands over the authority and successfully abdicates, apart from the abilities that come with his rank, the amount of divine power of faith that he can use is probably less than that of an ordinary god of faith."

Looking at the weakened old god-kings before him, the Heavenly Boat God-King was stunned for a moment, but the response from the authority of the Myriad Spirits Faith within him confirmed that the words spoken by this old god-king who resembled an old woman were entirely correct.

This was truly beyond the expectations of the Heavenly Boat God King. He thought that as long as he awoke from his slumber, even if he couldn't completely return to his peak, he would still possess most of his power. However, after waking up, the divine power of faith he could use was actually less than that of an ordinary god of faith.

Before the Heavenly Boat God King could react, the old god king, who was about eighty centimeters tall and resembled an old tree man, slowly moved his roots under the tree trunk and came to the Heavenly Boat God King, handing him a stone slab with strange patterns engraved with the word "destiny" or something resembling characters.

The old tree swayed its body and said with a hint of amusement, "Tianzhou, although it is difficult for us old god-kings to help you with the power of faith, as god-kings, even if we have abdicated, even if our strength is not at its peak, even if we no longer hold the authority of faith over all spirits, we have still made some achievements in observing the outside world over the long years."

"With subtle divine power of faith resonating in the outside world, it seeks out possible new worlds, examines the chaotic spacetime structure of the outside world, establishes a 'boundary membrane' anchoring the 'existence' of the world itself, and discovers a wisp of orderly power fluctuating regularly in the outside world, suspected to be a cyclical 'tide' forming."

"These are all contributions made by us old folks after we stepped down, assisting the current God-King. Of course, many of our old comrades have completely vanished in various accidents."

Tianzhou took the stone slab, reached out and touched the strange patterns of the two characters resembling "fate," a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes.

With a slightly solemn expression, he said, "Dear teachers, is this stone slab the result of your nearly one million years of observation of the outside world and your research?"

The old tree stretched out a branch, tapped the stone slab, and said with a hint of solemnity, "To be precise, this is not the result of our research, but rather a rule that we perceived from the 'seawater' outside that seems to not dissipate on its own, and then, through various means, inscribed it onto the stone slab."

"But we cannot draw conclusions about the specifics, or whether it truly will not dissipate on its own; it is beyond our comprehension. Therefore, we need you, the contemporary God-King, to use the power of faith and perform a great miracle to verify our conjecture."

"Of course, whether or not to use a great miracle depends on your own judgment."

As the Heavenly Boat God King touched the "Destiny" stone tablet, his emotions gradually fluctuated, and his expression became even more solemn.

He felt as if he were standing at a crossroads of fate.

(End of this chapter)