Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

She shook her head inwardly, a glimmer of data appearing in her eyes.

—Power Unleashed: 10%

Ah... it's nothing. After all, creation is always harder than simple destruction. Paying a price is only natural. But now...

She turned her head to look at the Imanitic citizens who were already lined up under the high priest's guidance, devoutly worshipping her and offering their prayers. With a light touch of her toes, she rose steadily into the air amidst the decorative glow—her previous plan was temporarily abandoned; the gods shouldn't be too close to mortals. This could easily cause the weak mortals to lose their reverence, thus viewing the gods as objects to be deceived or even manipulated.

More importantly, she has no interest in speaking now.

So the goddess returned to her temple. The still-fervent Immanetians, led by their high priest, prayed and worshipped, and soon threw themselves into the work entrusted to them by the goddess with even greater enthusiasm than usual.

But time continues to flow.

Side Story: The Moon Goddesses...

"I heard the wish."

In the unpredictable flow of time, the high-dimensional warship 'Golden Horned Deer,' aboard Artemis, the Moon Maiden, silently changed course. The ship, devoid of any concept of size, stirred up a void storm in the Cancer Nebula of 13 million AD—a storm so vast that even calculating its magnitude was absurd. The twinkling stars faded silently, like extinguished lamps, as if they had never shone in the first place.

Artemis then extended her hand and placed a decaying giant star in the Draco Nebula in the year 10700 AD. Inside the Cancer Nebula in the year 9.6 million AD, she placed two neutron stars that would collide millions of years later. Finally, she cast her will upon the Andromeda constellation in the year 7680 AD, and with a gentle stroke at the edge of the galaxy, a gamma-ray burst, its direction predetermined, pointed towards the location of the Cancer Nebula.

Three points, a broken line—a very simple way to handle the aftermath. The neutron star that collided in 13 million years ago, the decaying and collapsing giant star, and the slowly arriving gamma-ray burst will collide in a suitable place. And the wake created by the higher-dimensional warship rotating in the time stream will be smoothed out.

It was a trivial matter, not worth worrying about. And when Artemis withdrew her gaze, she and her chariot had arrived at the destination she had hoped for.

September 9th, 2009 AD. Morning on the western side of the Earth.

Roman General Varus led three full-strength legions, totaling over 30,000 elite Roman soldiers, into the border of the Teutoburg Hills—the weather was cold, and the leaves rustled in the wind. Something seemed to be writhing deep within the thick morning fog, and along with the unpleasant dampness, an uneasy atmosphere began to spread through the Roman ranks.

The weather was cold, and it seemed as if fine raindrops were falling from the sky. General Varus, who had been feeling somewhat uneasy ever since crossing the Rhine, hesitated and looked up, beginning to carefully consider whether he had made a mistake somewhere, and whether retreating immediately would be the right decision.

He felt confident he wouldn't fail, because Arminius, who had encouraged him to launch this armed march and secretly informed him of many Germanic tribes, was a close comrade-in-arms who had fought alongside him—his intelligence shouldn't be wrong, at least not in the previous marches. And he couldn't believe that this comrade, granted citizenship, would betray the great Rome.

"General?" his aide asked in confusion—because the commander had stopped, so the entire army had also stopped.

“It’s nothing.” General Varus shook his head, clearing the jumbled thoughts from his mind. He was about to order his troops to continue their advance. But what came out of his mouth was—“Artemis, may my journey be safe.”

This is strange, since the Roman moon goddess is Diana. Even the most conservative people who don't accept Greek culture should pray to Luna, Minerva, or even Juventus. It shouldn't be Artemis at all, especially since it's daytime. If anyone were to pray, they should be pointing to the sun god Thor or Helios.

Before he could correct his slip of the tongue, a clear and melodious echo came from the sky that everyone present could hear clearly!

— "As you wish."

With a deafening roar, the clouds and moisture in the sky vanished in an instant. A pair of enormous, platinum-gold eyes appeared in the heavens, casting their gaze upon the entire Teutoburg Forest.

The forest mist evaporated instantly, and the vast forests that had sheltered the Germanic people dried and withered at a visible speed. The Germanic army, which was supposed to launch an ambush ten minutes later and use the rain to completely seal off the Romans, watched in stunned silence as this unfolded. Meanwhile, Varus, usually a mediocre general, suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He spurred his horse forward, sword raised, and shouted—

"In the name of the sacred and exalted Artemis, slaughter the barbarians!"

He charged ahead, and at that moment, not a single barbarian had the will to raise a weapon. As he entered the enemy ranks, the Romans, roused from their divine power by their commander's encouragement, followed him with unprecedented fervor and launched an attack on the still-dazed Germanic tribes.

History was forever altered; the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest still lasted three days. However, fewer than a hundred Roman soldiers died in this battle, while the Germanic forces suffered over fifty thousand casualties. The traitor Arminius was captured alive and executed. After that, the Romans continued their northward advance.

Varus is remembered as a general whose talents rival those of Scipio and Hannibal. Meanwhile, the status of Artemis, the moon goddess, was elevated to an unparalleled level in Roman civilization. She was worshipped as a god-king, surpassing even the Old Twelve Olympian gods. This led to the development of numerous cultural customs and beliefs related to the moon among the Romans over the following centuries.

Of course, this was not important to Artemis. She had no need for the worship and faith of mortals, and having achieved her goal, she turned her gaze back to the East, hundreds of years earlier.

There, she saw others who shared similar goals.

....................................

"I heard the wish."

In the primordial chaos, at the beginning of the universe, at the point in spacetime where Aleph Zero was expressed as one, the Wangshu chariot, existing yet not existing, rolled down the stream of time. The world lines were split into many, many lines by the movement of the chariot tracks. One was the main line, and the rest were all parallel. However, the main line and the parallel lines could easily transform into each other, so they needed to be corrected at different points in time.

Fortunately, only Earth was affected, not other intelligent celestial bodies in the universe. This amount of work wasn't too much for Wang Shu. At least she still had time to prepare tea and refreshments for her meeting with one of her future consorts.

The first worldline split point she arrived at was the Early Cambrian period. In one part of this worldline, some trilobites established civilized societies before their natural extinction and, using a unique biotechnology tree, survived the subsequent global upheaval and became the masters of Earth.

This won't do; Earth is humanity's planet—so, in the late Cambrian period, Wang Shu picked up those little creatures that could become intelligent life. She copied them into a non-intelligent version and threw the parent body onto a terrestrial planet in the Andromeda Galaxy. That planet was the nesting planet where the trilobites should have developed civilization, and that was their destiny.

Having taken the first step, the second step is naturally quite simple. Throw the intelligent dinosaurs of the Triassic period into the constellation Aquila, and the intelligent plants of the Cretaceous period into the constellation Taurus. And when the Mesozoic Era ends, and those deep-sea soft-bodied creatures are about to evolve into advanced life forms similar to intelligent octopuses, then expend a little more effort to simply throw them into the outer reaches of the Virgo Supercluster, letting them reign supreme among other intelligent planets.

Everything went smoothly; after all, the universe is so vast, there's always room for a suitable intelligent race. It was the Atlantean sea creatures, born in the later stages of the Cenozoic era due to changes in the aquatic environment, that gave Wang Shu a little trouble. But that wasn't difficult. Although they didn't have a place at this point in time, they would have a place in the Cancer Nebula 60 million years from now.

It's troublesome, but work is work. After all, even gods have responsibilities, or rather, they are the embodiment of responsibilities. Maintaining the timeline isn't Wang Shu's responsibility, but cleaning up her own mess is something she should do.

And when the last timeline disrupted by Wangshu's carriage tracks was restored, she arrived at her destination.

210 BC, Xingtai, Sand Dunes. Night on the eastern side of the Earth.

Ying Zheng dismissed his trusted attendants and stood alone on the high platform, gazing at the sky. Moonlight streamed down, and the temporary palace called Sand Dune was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

He was going to die—and he knew it. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow… no, it was definitely today, because just now he had taken the elixir left behind by the alchemist Xu Fu before he went overseas. Only then had he barely struggled out of his weakness and pain, and was even able to walk alone in this cold night.

This is called a final burst of energy before death, and he understood it.

Just half an hour earlier, he had instructed his subordinates to make arrangements for his funeral and then banish them all from his sight.

—I am the emperor, and emperors have their own ways of dying. I will not linger on my sickbed like an old man suffering from a chronic illness, displaying my ugly side and clinging to life for a mere breath!

He took a deep breath, feeling the sharp pain in his throat as if it were being stabbed, and looked up at the bright moon in the sky.

It's not the right time yet... Now is not the time for him to die. The six states have only just been pacified, and the Xiongnu and the southern Yue are already stirring. Qin laws have only been in effect for a short time, and although Fusu is capable, his personality is too weak. As for Huhai... let's not mention him.

—A myriad of matters, countless affairs, all rest upon my shoulders. If I were to die now, the Qin dynasty would likely face a great storm. I wonder if Fusu could withstand it…

His vision blurred; the power granted by the elixir was rapidly fading from his body. His time was almost up, and then…

Ying Zheng stretched out his hand and grasped the sky. The name he was supposed to call out, 'Changxi,' transformed into the name of the moon goddess of Chu as he spoke.

"Wang Shu, if only I could have another thirty years..."

The next moment, pure light shone down from the sky, illuminating tens of thousands of acres of land in pure white!

From the heavens above, a deity cast down its gaze.

— "As you wish."

And in this pure radiance, Ying Zheng's form visibly turned back to the past!

His broad, stout physique returned to its former strength, his dim eyes cleared, his damaged organs recovered, he regained his health, his beard fell out, his white hair turned black, and his limbs were once again filled with immense power—and he was restored to the state of thirty years ago amidst the stunned gazes of the guards and officials who had been waiting nearby, ready to mourn the passing of the First Emperor!

He regained the robust physique he had at age nineteen, when he had only been in power for six years.

And the future has taken another huge turn.

The Qin Dynasty did not end after three generations. The First Emperor, rejuvenated, completely crushed the remnants of the six former states and the foreign tribes on the borders. Even during his lifetime, no one dared openly criticize him, and after this unmistakable miracle, even those who secretly slandered him vanished. When Prince Fusu's son ascended the throne as the Second Emperor, not a single dissenting voice remained in the Central Plains.

Similar to the West two hundred years later, Wangshu, originally just the moon goddess of the Chu region, rose to become a supreme deity, even above Heaven and Earth. From then on, the Fengshan ceremony no longer involved worshipping Heaven, but instead involved worshipping the moon first, followed by Heaven and Earth. After all, when only the moon goddess had ever displayed divine power, and more than two hundred years later, when the 22nd Emperor of Qin suffered a setback in his western expedition and learned that a moon goddess had also descended to Earth in the West, even the most conservative and old-fashioned scholars had to admit—Heaven and Earth might indeed be a step below the moon.

Of course, these things were actually none of Wang Shu's concern. She was simply looking to the future, to another Moon Lord who, more than two hundred years later, shared similar goals with her.

She prepared refreshments, and Artemis provided the venue.

..............................

And so, when time was no longer subject to divine interference, the two unified kingdoms of East and West, after more than two hundred, nearly three hundred years of time-bound barriers, finally began to collide. On the surface of the sun, in the palace of aura formed from the corona, Wangshu stepped down from her chariot of time, and Artemis also departed from her 'Golden-Horned Deer' high-dimensional warship.

"Long time no see, Wangshu."

"Nice to meet you, Artemis."

The goddesses sat facing each other, gazing into each other's eyes at their own reflections.

"What about the other gods?" Wang Shu, from the other side of time, asked Artemis.

“Those who could run have run, those who couldn’t run are asleep, even the moon goddess is dead, only you and I remain,” the Greek moon goddess answered with a smile, then asked her Eastern counterpart, “What exactly happened outside this single universe?”

“In the multiverse, Changxi in one of the individual universes has taken the final step. Soon, only one Moon Goddess will remain in the entire multiverse,” Wang Shu replied calmly.

"Changxi... or Chang'e? Never mind, it doesn't matter." Artemis nodded and sighed softly. "It seems you and I are both going to die."

“It’s not that we are all going to die, but that we are already in the process of dying,” Wang Shu corrected, pointing to Artemis’s eyes. At some point, Artemis’s platinum eyes had turned pure black.

Artemis also noticed that Wangshu's chest had flattened out a bit, and her hands and feet had become thinner.

Black hair, black eyes, and a slender body—that's what Changxi looked like.

This is the phenomenon of Dao Erosion, a natural reaction of a great being who roams the multiverse and takes its final step. All powerful beings within the same power domain and possessing a certain level of life will transform into it. It is unavoidable, unresistable, and inescapable.

In the multiverse, there are many powerful beings, including powerful Moon Gods capable of traversing between individual entities. These were the first to be corrupted by the Dao, thus becoming 'Changxi'. There are also many relatively weaker beings in the multiverse who wield the power of the Moon Gods and bear the name of the Moon Gods in their smaller worlds. When 'Changxi' is completed, these weaker beings wielding the power of the Moon Gods will also become 'Changxi' upon their ascension.

Wangshu and Artemis are neither strong nor weak; they represent the upper limit of this single universe, yet they cannot exist without it. Therefore, as long as they are not currently on the Moon Palace, they will be among the last to become 'Changxi'.

So they are now sitting opposite each other on the sun.

“I came here because I heard a young girl who doesn’t believe in me make a wish,” Wang Shu suddenly said after a while.

“What a coincidence, I just happened to hear a young girl who isn’t one of my followers praying, which is why I came to this era.” Artemis tilted her head and replied with a slight smile.

“It seems the girl who made the wish to us is the same one.” Wang Shu nodded, stretched out her hand, and created an image on the table between the two of them.

She was a true chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) girl, a second-year high school student. In the picture, she had just finished grinding through a difficult level in a tower defense mobile game, and was slumped in a chair, muttering to herself like a salted fish that had lost its salt.

"Ugh...so boring, so dull...so empty...can't this world be a little more interesting?"

The girl in the picture is looking at the moon, muttering to herself with a bored expression.

"Like, letting Rome win the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, letting Qin Shi Huang live thirty more years... Damn! That doesn't seem that interesting. Anyway, just some random, fun changes that can make me forget the miserable reality that tomorrow is Monday!"

The video abruptly ended.

"Is this considered making a wish?"

“Speaking your wish to the moon is considered making a wish.”

The two goddesses smiled at each other. The wish itself wasn't important, nor was the person making the wish. What mattered was an opportunity, a chance that would naturally allow them to leave their current positions and meet at this point in time.

After all, gods have responsibilities, or rather, they themselves are part of the rules.

“Death is not terrible, but I do not want my path to be abandoned,” Artemis said, her fingers interlaced. Now, almost all the characteristics of a Western goddess had faded from her; aside from her name, most people would probably think of her as a gentle and graceful Eastern woman.

“What a coincidence, I also don’t want to agree with Changxi’s Dao.” Wang Shu replied with a smile: “That guy’s methods don’t suit my style or preferences.”

“This is a difficult situation. As long as we are still the moon goddess, as long as we were once the moon goddess, and as long as we will be the moon goddess in the future, we are destined to become her.” Artemis rested her chin on her fingers. “Unless the moon goddess dies here, unless you and I die here.”

“Then let the Moon Goddess die here, and let you and I die here.” Wang Shu’s smile vanished, and she answered seriously. “Exhaust divine power, shatter the soul, annihilate the self, and leave nothing but the path.”

"Nothing is left?"

Nothing was left.

"I remember that the girl actually made three wishes; she also hoped that the world would become a more interesting place."

"He's quite greedy," Wang Shu commented.

“We’re quite greedy too,” Artemis replied with a smile. “After all, it takes two goddesses to do something like this, and we happen to have two here.”