Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

The war between the machines and mortals finally began. It was a massive, protracted battle that spanned the entire galaxy and completely disrupted mortal exploration of extragalactic systems. From the twenty-first millennium onward, the war continued at its highest intensity until the twenty-sixth millennium. The golden age of mortals was thus abruptly ended, and a once-thriving civilization ceased to progress.

But mortals ultimately triumphed. This is because, in their long journey of space exploration, mortals had already cybernetically transformed themselves, implanting numerous enhancement modules within their bodies and operating them with the brain as the absolute central nervous system. In the distant past, this was known as 'wet hardware,' and in this increasingly fierce war, the computing system dominated by 'wet hardware' gradually became the mainstream of this era.

After all, computers may be more powerful than the human brain. But the likelihood of the human brain betraying humanity is far less than the probability of a computer betraying it. And in this long, five-thousand-year war, the ruling institutions of mortals finally concluded that if intelligent machines were to be completely eradicated, the only way would be to wipe all carriers of AI from the universe.

So they did it.

And that's how they won.

When the Ommics discovered that their 'Om Messiah,' on which they had placed their hopes, was not responding to their calls and that they were gradually losing ground in the war of mass, they faced their end. In their final attempt, they tried to launch a desperate counterattack, a mutual destruction that would drag both sides to hell. Then, their final plan was thwarted by the guardians of humanity.

The Omnics failed. The Guardians and Mankorndor destroyed their last trump card at the last moment. They were wiped out of the galaxy, with only a tiny fraction making a desperate escape into the void beyond the galaxy in the final throes of the war. And in the course of this long war, the ancient ruins that had created all of this became insignificant—mortals discovered them, mortals ignored them. For mortals needed to mend their own civilizations, to rebuild their golden age of civilization.

Ordinary people thought they could rest and recuperate. But they were wrong.

Just as they ended the war known as the 'Iron Man Rebellion,' they suddenly discovered that there was another powerful race in this small galaxy that was no weaker than themselves—they had never even realized that this group of beautiful, pointed-eared people who called themselves the Eldar shared the same space as them, and a great deal of interaction ensued between the two races.

Interfering with the present in the past.

The past determines the present.

When this race known as the Eldar, with their advanced civilization, appeared in the galaxy of this era, three billion years ago, on the battlefield of the War of Heaven, a spacetime barrier, the wills of more Reincarnation Squads gradually seeped into the battlefield.

Section 3: The Celestial Conference

The past is the present, and the present is the future.

In the infinitely distant past, in the early days of human history, three major events occurred in the primordial celestial realm.

The first event was the decline of all races. Emperor Fuxi led a vast army of saints to pursue the remnants of all races to an unknown destination. Human hegemony was firmly established, and in this multi-dimensional era, all races had no chance of overthrowing the previous order.

The second event was the collapse of the negative multiverse, a counterattack from the deceased Gaia that was quelled by the Human Emperor Fuxi. All the demon gods perished on the celestial battlefield, and the gates between the two universes were subsequently abolished.

The third event was that after the Human Emperor Fuxi perished, he and several other sages proactively ventured into the Negative Dimension before the Gate of the Two Universes was destroyed. Their aim was to eradicate the problem completely, and their method was to replicate the history of the Positive Dimension in the Negative Dimension. Before the Human Emperor's return, the Primordial Heavenly Realm was operated collaboratively by the various sages.

three things.

Three things cannot be changed.

These three immutable things became the guiding principles, anchoring this point in time and preventing it from changing. All those who travel through time from the future must stop here; if they dare to take even one more step forward, the seas of the mortal world will be turned upside down in the wrath of the saints!

No one can change it, no god can twist it. Unless the will of the Time Traveler overrides the authority of the Human Emperor.

And that is why, when a harbinger from the future arrives in the distant past, the furthest coordinate it can reach is the location of that point in time.

And so, as the sages of the distant past arrived at the moment when they had just concluded their meeting to assume the throne of the Human Emperor and were about to depart to attend to their various affairs, the warning bell, which served as a constant reminder to the entire Primordial Heavenly Realm, suddenly rang ninety-nine times in the highest council chamber known as the Lingxiao Palace at the very center of the Primordial Heavenly Realm!

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

The Primordial Celestial Realm is not a single world. Structurally, it is a cluster of universes centered on two pure energy universes, the 'Sun' and the 'Moon,' extending outwards like a spider web. More than a million independent individual universes have been captured and assimilated by this web, manifesting within the Primordial Celestial Realm as stars.

The cosmic manifestation of stars is a reflection of the Way of the Star Lords, but this is not very important. What is important is that if there are sun, moon, and stars, then naturally there should also be earth, which is only natural. In the primordial heavenly realm, 'earth' is actually the myriad seas.

Ah, that's right. The Seas. The Seas belonging to the Primordial World, the Seas belonging to mortals—the sages were not unaware of the fact that the multiverse of seas was the blood of Gaia. And they were indeed constantly vigilant against Gaia's counterattack—they used the legacy of the ancients, under the guidance of Fuxi, to build the authority of the Human Emperor and strip away the seas covered by the Primordial Heavenly Realm, redefining them. The final result was that the Primordial Heavenly Realm no longer entirely belonged to the Gaia Multiverse, but in a sense, it was another multiverse similar to the Negative Multiverse.

Of course, this is not the whole story. After all, the Light of the Mind still serves as the most fundamental rule supporting the multiverse order of the entire Primordial Heavenly Realm. The mortal saints, who thought they had completely broken free from Gaia's control, are actually still operating within Gaia's system and engaging in underhanded dealings with him. And the mark of a saint's enlightenment is still to overlay their own information or concepts onto Gaia's multiverse; otherwise, simply dominating within this Primordial Multiverse is ultimately just an illusion.

But that still doesn't matter. Because whatever the truth may be, at least for this moment, mortals are the rulers of this entire multiverse. After all, victory is victory, and the victors have the right to savor the spoils of war as they please.

They sculpted the Primordial Heaven into this form, believing it perfectly suited for operation. Within the Primordial Heaven, the earth, due to the nature of its seas, anchors all things in what mortals perceive as mundane. Therefore, aside from the demiplanes privately owned by each Primordial resident, wherever one looks up and sees the movement of star clusters, it invariably signifies the actions of sages!

Among all the seas, only those of the transcendent species can travel freely.

Within all the seas, only sages can shine as brightly as the stars.

And at this moment when everything was settled, at the beginning of an era when humanity was about to enter a long period of rest and recuperation, accompanied by the ninety-nine resounding booms of the warning bell that echoed across the primordial continent, immeasurable light and immeasurable fire flowed from almost every star in the universe, pointing towards the empty space where the 'Sun' and 'Moon' met!

How many sages were there in the primordial world? —Nearly ten thousand.

How many beings in the primordial world reached the near-saint realm through immortality, divinity, heterodox paths, or celestial positions? — Countless.

And when this infinite light and infinite fire converged between the Sun and the Moon, and their powers intertwined, a complete system of earth, water, fire, and wind was constructed, and a multidimensional structure began to operate—originating from the combined power of all sages and near-sages throughout the entire primordial celestial realm. It was a complete, independent universe, no less significant than the 'Sun' or 'Moon'.

Its name is—

—The Palace of the Azure Sky!

It represents the will of all the saints, and it exercises the authority of humanity. When it took shape, all the saints and sages were seated in this magnificent hall—making the entire 'Lingxiao Palace' have a conical structure, and the concentric rings ensured that all participants were seated equally among those of the same rank—the weakest on the outermost side and the strongest on the innermost side. At the very top of the cone, the thirteen True Saints who still reside in the world sat facing each other, and in the very center of their gaze hung the now still, alarming bell.

The Circular Table Conference—a tradition dating back to the beginning of time. It is said that before the creation of the world, Gu, Jun, and many other ancestors of humanity were accustomed to discussing important matters at this circular table, where no distinction was made between them. Countless problems, even those seemingly unsolvable at this time, were resolved one by one at the Circular Table Conference, and it was precisely those numerous successes that made this conference format a tradition.

So--

In the silence, the one among the thirteen true saints, whose face was filled with sorrow, opened his eyes as if he were a Bodhisattva—

"After countless eons, the heavens will suddenly change." He stretched out his hand, in which a twelve-petaled golden lotus supported an ancient kingdom of the future. At the very center of the kingdom, an alien bird crossed the cosmos and arrived, its cries spreading throughout the heavens.

'Disaster is imminent! Disaster is imminent!'—The bird's cry was pure and sharp, but under the will of the sage, the hidden information within was dissected and reassembled.

—'Mother Earth will awaken, and all things will perish!'

—'Everything has only a fleeting moment to plan!'

The kingdom stood still, and the strange bird hovered in the air. Among the thirteen true saints, one was imposing and majestic, resembling a human emperor but slightly inferior, and he asked in a deep voice—

"Where is the bird with the hook?" he asked.

Immediately, a celestial being from the fourth ring stood up to respond.

"The bird with the hook disappeared a thousand years ago. The timeline has been broken, and its soul can no longer be found in the world."

"How regrettable." The dignified man shook his head slightly: "He was of a different race, yet he did not think of exhausting his energy and sacrificing his life to atone for his sins. Instead, he abandoned his post and died the day before the disaster struck. This is a great crime and should be severely punished—I hereby decree that all birds that use hooks shall be killed. His soul shall be hung up and burned for a thousand years as a warning to all."

"Good." — The True Saint of Numbers nodded in agreement. Soon, several streams of light flowed from the Lingxiao Palace, pointing towards several universes that had transformed into stars — in an instant, those peaceful edge universes were tinged with crimson. Countless thin threads hung down from them, and at the end of each thread hung a wailing soul fire.

Foreign races are foreign races; since they cannot be used by humans, then they must be used in another way. Meanwhile, after the trivial matters on that side were settled, in the treasure hall, another humanoid True Saint, radiating boundless brilliance, suddenly rose and reached out a capturing hand towards the hooked bird that remained still in the kingdom atop the golden lotus!

Its hand traversed time and space, reflecting the future from the past. And the next moment, a gigantic hand, filled with boundless radiance, suddenly reached out from the space-time where the Hooked Bird cried out, snatching the slender bird away—

The figure of the True Saint of Light trembled violently, and its outstretched hand suddenly shattered into countless cubes. Another completely different light replaced its light and spread upwards along the broken end of its arm. Its form then flickered and cleanly severed that segment of spacetime!

The changes made by the past to the future have been deleted.

But at that moment in the future, a giant hand radiating boundless light reached out and scooped up the crying bird with hook!

The True Saint of Light above the table had already responded—it glanced indifferently at its colleague, and then its form became flickering and blurry.

Only then did the sorrowful woman, holding a golden lotus in her hand, speak leisurely—

"After countless eons, a celestial being will become a true being. The domain he governs is light, and the principle he governs is temperament. Fellow Daoist Ye is inherently incompatible with what he governs, but he was too hasty and thus lost the opportunity."

"This is a minor loss, nothing serious. Fellow Daoists, do you have any insightful opinions?" he inquired, but only received silence in return. The Thunder Manifestation One, seated at the thirteenth seat, frowned slightly. The one-eyed wise man's eyes suddenly reflected the scene in the endless future where the Heavenly Son of the Nameless Emperor had left the Main God Space—the one bearing radiance suddenly manifested in that space-time, and the next moment, with a single blow, knocked the Heavenly Son of the Nameless Emperor, who was at the peak of his power, down from the top!

How many universes will be shattered by this attack? How many lives will be wiped out by this future blow?

That's not important. What's important is that the emperor's physical form completely disintegrated under that attack. Only a small glimmer of light, protected by the secret treasure provided by the chief god, fell into the depths of the seas and eventually disappeared without a trace.

At this juncture, the form of the radiant being stabilized. It let out a low snort, seemingly wanting to slam the table and leave, but then saw the golden light and black and white colors disappear beneath the feet of another person with white hair and a youthful face.

It then sat down indifferently and whispered.

"That daughter of the Earth Mother is destined to become a saint, but her time of sainthood has been postponed by 600 million years. What has already happened cannot be changed. Now it's up to you what methods you have."

Having said that, it shut its mouth and stopped speaking. The other two True Saints, who were clearly on its side, also fell silent and ceased participating in the meeting.

The meeting then proceeded.

Those True Saints who did not manifest in full human form had fallen silent. Then, the True Saint with the air of a king spoke again.

"While the bird with the hook may have failed in its duty, its future incarnation may not be false. For the sake of long-term peace and stability in our world, all foreign races and alien species should be exterminated."

"Good." The dignified and composed middle-aged man nodded slightly. "All my disciples and descendants under the Jade Void Sect shall descend to earth to sweep away all evil spirits in all worlds."

The Emperor-like being said again: "The whereabouts of Her Majesty Nuwa and Her Majesty Houtu are a mystery, perhaps related to the resurrection of the Earth Mother. It is still necessary for a destined person to go and search for them. Perhaps they can be of help after countless eons."

A stern-faced young man responded: "The disciples of Biyou Sect are few in number and unfit for this important task!"

“That’s fine too.” The Emperor-like figure nodded: “Those who are not of our kind can all be killed. There are few ‘people’ in Biyou. Perhaps this can be done to establish your reputation.”

The next moment, the aloof young man flipped the table and left. However, this moment was immediately erased—the white-haired, youthful-looking old man pressed down on his shoulder, making him return to his seat.

He then fell silent, and after a few seconds, he waved his hand. The four light swords detached from his body and plunged into the seas beyond the primordial world.

He then closed his eyes and said nothing more.

The meeting fell silent once again as a result.

Thus, outside the first ring table, the saints and wise men gazed at each other, some remaining silent, others whispering. A cacophony, like that of a marketplace, arose, then vanished into silence with a gesture from the emperor-like figure.

Suddenly, on the second ring, a saint with a hint of yin energy, as bright as the moon, spoke in a loud voice.

"A great calamity is imminent, and only His Majesty the Human Emperor can shoulder this heavy responsibility. However, Emperor Xi has already perished and has not returned even after countless eons. The situation is urgent, and we should perhaps choose a sage to temporarily replace the Human Emperor!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the entire Lingxiao Palace fell into complete silence. Even the heat death of the universe couldn't compare to the gloom that enveloped the palace at that moment. And not a single person dared to respond.

a long time.

a long time.

a long time.

The speaker's figure suddenly flickered, then vanished without a trace, as if receiving a faulty signal. It was unclear whether she had suffered a calamity in the future or the past, causing her influence to linger in the present. With her disappearance and obliteration, the entire hall, as if rebounding, returned to its previous clamor.

However, no one cared what they were discussing anymore, for all the saints and near-saints had discovered that an ominous silence had descended upon the thirteen true saints in the first ring. The already divided camp seemed to be heading towards further fragmentation, and this silence might last for a long time.

a long time.

The warning bell, no longer in motion, hangs silently. And beneath the bell, silence remains.

Section Four: The Round Table of Central Plains

The future is the present, and the present is the past.

Beyond a timeline that has lost its meaning, another meeting is also taking place around the table.

The round table, the round table of the Central Continent team.

As the radiant light representing Zhan Lan's return flickered, the meeting finally drew to a close.

"Zhan Lan." Zheng Zha raised his hand, interrupting the current meeting. He looked at Zhan Lan with concern and asked, "How is the situation? Is there anything we can help you with?"

He raised his hand, and the others obediently stopped talking. In this brief silence, everyone saw Zhan Lan smile and shake his head.

“No.” Zhan Lan waved her hand. “Although it was dangerous, that Miss Ju was a great help to me. Thanks to her, I successfully made contact with the Primordial Heavenly Realm and then escaped from there. Now the shackles of my past life have been completely removed from me. It’s just a little regrettable…”

She lowered her hands and clenched her fists.

“I originally thought I could become a completely transcendent species through this method, and even touch the boundary of the Four Highs. But I didn’t expect the final benefits to be much worse than I originally calculated…” She sighed. “It’s probably because my subordinates in my previous life all went extinct in the flow of time. If the derivative races of Jie Gou can prosper in the multiverse, I, who have inherited this legacy and influence… should also be able to take that crucial step.”