Chapter 1841 - 1840: The Inevitable Plot of Destruction

This Array from the Stele Divine Being is an Array that severs space. By arranging this Array at specific nodes, it can slice open all the space around the Main World and take the Main World away from this ’time-space’.

In a sense, this is a ’Teleportation Array’: by severing space, it transmits the entire Main World out of this time-space, taking the whole world and running.

From a logical standpoint, this approach is reasonable.

Since it’s clear that they can’t win, then just run.

Of course, none of this comes without a price.

Driving this Array requires massive Sacrifice. Through the formulas and knowledge embedded in the Array, He Ao could quickly calculate what this ’price’ was:

One third of the Main World’s population, nearly 2.7 billion people, as Sacrifices, in order to power this colossal Array.

This Array is different from the one He Ao had just arranged. This Teleportation Array does not accept low-quality Sacrifices.

In other words, livestock and beasts cannot be substituted; only humans can be used as Sacrifices.

It seemed the Stele Divine Being had handed He Ao a multiple-choice question: whether to sacrifice one third of the people to save the remaining two thirds.

Of course, all of this presupposes that this Array truly is a Teleportation Array.

He Ao did indeed see a large number of space-related runes in this Array, but because the structural makeup of this Array had already exceeded his previous knowledge system, he had no idea what else the Stele Divine Being had added into it.

Still, He Ao personally leaned toward the view that this Array truly was a Teleportation Array.

After all, the God of Machinery was currently looming right above the Main World. If this Array were a Descending Ceremony, then with the Stele Divine Being descending here, It would have to clash head-on with the God of Machinery. That wouldn’t be particularly advantageous for It, and would thoroughly offend the God of Machinery to the death.

Conversely, if it were a Teleportation Array, then the Main World would be fleeing with He Ao at the lead, and it would have nothing to do with this Stele Divine Being. The Stele Divine Being could thus divert the hatred coming from the God of Machinery and wash Its own hands clean.

Furthermore, the Stele Divine Being very likely had a way to determine the coordinates to which He Ao would teleport via this Array.

In that case, only It would know where the Main World was. It would neither need to face the God of Machinery directly, nor would It fail to tuck the Main World away into Its arms.

As for He Ao, as long as he chose his coordinates well, even if the Stele Divine Being knew where they were, It would still need time to get there. This would give He Ao time to organize people to flee, even to flee again with the Main World in tow.

If he timed it right, he truly could save the world.

The Stele Divine Being had not hidden any of this, had made no attempt at concealment.

In reality, all of this was obvious once touched upon; the Stele Divine Being definitely knew that He Ao could figure it out.

This was an explicit open scheme.

He Ao understood these ’calculations’, but he had no choice.

Using this Array was indeed like drinking poison to quench thirst, but compared to the certain death of the God of Machinery’s Advent, this Array still offered the Main World a possible ’escape’.

It was just that this ’chance of survival’ was infinitesimal.

Ten deaths without life turning into a thousand deaths for one life.

Though in reality, the odds probably weren’t even that high.

And even such a feeble chance of survival required the Lives of 2.7 billion people.

He Ao fixed his gaze on the Array drawn on the sheet of paper in his hand, on the countdown displayed upon it.

There were eight hours left. Even if he decided right now and began arranging the Array, this Array required a large number of fixed points throughout the entire world; eight hours likely would not be enough to set up these points.

And just as He Ao was staring at this countdown, a piece of information was transmitted into his mind.

It was another ’usage method’ of this Array.

He Ao could begin Sacrifices in a small number of regions. The function of these Sacrifices would not be to teleport the Main World directly, but to sever the upper layer of space of the Main World.

And this severing would also affect the Advent of the Relic Planet, affecting the Advent of the God of Machinery.

It would delay the Advent time of the God of Machinery.

Through this method, they could buy enough time to arrange the Array.

It seemed the Stele Divine Being had long since accounted for all of this.

Judging from this whole chain of arrangements, this was nothing more than a simple sausage-slicing tactic.

To obtain the key secret and complete Array of the Teleportation Array carried by the latter two lines of the prophecy, one had to first complete the resistance Arrays carried by the first two lines of prophecy.

And although the resistance Arrays were only meant to resist the cognitive interference of the God of Machinery, they still required Sacrifice, albeit very little Sacrifice.

Next came He Ao obtaining the Teleportation Array and Sacrificing a portion of people to create spatial fault lines and drag out time.

Once the first Sacrifice began, the subsequent Sacrifices would become a matter of course.

By the time He Ao needed to Sacrifice 2.7 billion people in the end, he would no longer hesitate so much.

It was evident that the Stele Divine Being feared He Ao’s mercy, his indecision, his unwillingness to act, and had even prepared ’psychological counseling’ for him in advance.

He Ao folded the sheet of paper bearing the Array and took a deep breath.

He had barely been acting as this Acting Director for long, and he already had to face this kind of choice.

It seemed this ’person in charge’ really was not an easy position.

——

Martial Arts World

He Ao once again emerged from the bottom layer of the world.

He raised his head, looking at the deep forest around him, the clear sky overhead, and the slowly rising morning sun.

Compared with the beginning, the general scenery of the Martial Arts World had not changed in the slightest.

But its ’clarity’ seemed to have ’decreased’ by half.

Whether the forest, the mountains, or the sun and moon.

Everything in this world seemed to have become a little more ’thin’.

Though it looked no different on the surface, and for ordinary people it might be exactly the same.

But for Angels and Higher Beings above them, they could faintly sense that this world seemed to have become more ’crude’.

Before, it had been like a house built of dense reinforced concrete; now, it was as if only a skeleton of rebar and concrete remained, and the rest had been plasterboard slapped on.

From a distance it looked roughly the same, but upon closer inspection there was an inexplicable shabbiness.

The reason behind all this was simple. Previously, the Martial Arts World had been a complete world. Though most of the rules within it had been severed, the overall framework remained, and each component framework still existed, so overall it still appeared to be a complete world.

But the current Martial Arts World had almost all its broken rules extracted by He Ao to assemble the new world in the upper layer.

What remained in the lower layer was only the former core, the main framework most deeply entwined with the Eternal Silence Mark, so naturally it looked much simpler.

These main frameworks, in fact, existed as a ’Cage’ locking in the power of the Eternal Silence Mark, and did not possess any practical function.

The primary function of this framework was to make the Eternal Silence Mark believe that it was still erasing this world.

Of course, if He Ao had enough time, he could also weave those broken half-rules back into wholeness and restore the Martial Arts World to its original state.

But at the moment, he did not have much time. He raised his head and looked toward the sky.

He looked at the ’world’ above this main framework, which had already been more than half constructed.

——

Main World·West Land

A somewhat distorted old-fashioned train had stopped in front of a luxurious church.

A white-haired girl slowly walked out of the church. Her white pupils lifted, looking at the young man standing at the train door.

An almost nonexistent white-haired Elderly stood beside the young man, also raising his head to look at the white-haired girl.

"Goya, we’re just waiting on you." The Elderly looked at the girl and said in a low voice.

The girl glanced at the young man standing at the door, then walked over quickly and stepped into this somewhat twisted train.

She lifted her gaze and looked at the scene inside the train.

The original decorations in the train were all slanted and askew; several figures were standing in the carriage.

With a slight tremor, the young man outside stepped into the car, and the train drove into the darkness.

Goya raised her head and looked at the people in the train.

Moonlight’s Leader Jie An, the Research Institute’s vice director Liu Zhengyun, vice director Wu Ganglie.

Plus the white-haired Elderly Rudel behind her, and the one who had closed the door—now the acting director of the Research Institute, He Ao.

The leaders of all three Transcendent organizations in the Main World were gathered here.

"So, has something big happened again?" Jie An, leaning against the window and keeping a bit of distance from the others, lifted his head to look at He Ao who stood at the train door holding onto it. "Why isn’t Hao Yi here? He’s not on the train?"

Jie An did not get along well with the other two organizations’ leaders; among the Main World’s "B-levels," the only one he got along "decently" with was that mysterious Hao Yi.

"He’s not attending this meeting," He Ao said calmly. "Wait a bit. We’re almost there."

As his voice fell, the whole train shuddered once.

"We’re here." He Ao pushed open the door and was the first to step out.

The others followed him out.

The first thing that came into their field of view was several huge factory buildings and a somewhat wide road.

"This is a slaughterhouse?" Liu Zhengyun quickly noticed the nameplates on the factory buildings. "In Beidu?"

"Mm." He Ao gave a slight nod. He raised his hand, and strands of gray radiance lit up around them as a huge Array was rapidly traced out.

Seeing this Array light up, Jie An froze for a moment, then his body instantly tensed and his hand moved toward his back.

The others, though a bit surprised, showed no particular signs of nervousness.

Just then, they heard He Ao’s voice: "Lift your heads and look up there."

The group all raised their heads.

Seeing the others beside him look up, Jie An followed suit and raised his head.

Then his entire body abruptly went rigid.

A massive, gray-white planet was reflected in his pupils, almost filling them completely.

"What is that?" Rudel beside him was slightly stunned.

"A relic," Liu Zhengyun reacted quickly. There was still a trace of shock on his face, and some fragmented memories seemed to surface in his mind. "The Relic Planet is descending?"

"Is that the real relic?" Jie An lowered his head as well. He quickly forced his tense body under control and looked at He Ao. "Or is it some kind of illusion?"

"Why did you bring us here?" Goya, on the contrary, retracted her gaze, looked to He Ao, and asked a question that seemed unrelated.

"Walk out a bit and try it. Just walk two or three meters out, any direction is fine," He Ao said calmly. "See what’s the highest place you can see."

The few of them were a bit puzzled, but all did as He Ao said and walked two or three meters away.

"Alright, come back." When they had all moved about that distance, He Ao quickly called out.

They walked back.

He Ao looked at them and asked evenly, "What was the highest thing you could see? Could you see the sky?"

Hearing this question, they all paused for a moment, then a pensive look flashed across their faces.

After a brief pause, horrified expressions appeared one after another on their cheeks.

"We couldn’t see the sky." Liu Zhengyun was the first to speak. As he spoke, he looked up at the sky above again. "But when I was just walking outside, I didn’t sense even the slightest trace of any Mysticism power affecting us."

He reached up to rub his neck and said thoughtfully, "So all that neck pain was actually from looking down too long? Everyone in the entire world has been affected?"

"This area is some kind of special ’immune’ zone," Rudel said. "It lets us stay unaffected by that Mysticism power?"

"Is it this Array?" Goya lowered her head and glanced at the radiance shining around them.

"So the relic really has descended?" Jie An also lowered his head. He swept his eyes over the others and said hoarsely, "What kind of power can bring a relic down into the Main World and also interfere with our thoughts and behavior without us sensing it at all?"

His tone paused slightly. "This is a bit too terrifying."

For a time, everyone fell silent, seemingly with heavy thoughts.

As B-levels, the very top tier of people in the Main World, the vast majority of Mysticism incidents and Extraordinary Power they had encountered were below their grade.

Even in the previous large-scale High Positional Grade Advent incidents, they hadn’t been completely blind; they could still see the enemy, could still put up some resistance.

But this time, they had no chance to resist at all—there hadn’t even been time for the thought of resistance to form.

And this was when the other party had not even descended—just a sliver of power cast across the space-time of Advent.

This had already gone beyond their understanding, beyond their cognition.

Their worldview was being partially reshaped in this moment.

He Ao looked at the silent group and said calmly, "A Divine Being."

Everyone started slightly and raised their heads to look at He Ao. For a moment, they all fell into another brief silence.

"Do we have any chance of winning?" Goya spoke, breaking the dim silence.

"I don’t know either." He Ao shook his head. "If we face it head-on, there should be no chance at all."

"Then do we have any way to go to the relic and destroy the Advent Array up there?" Liu Zhengyun asked tentatively. "We successfully disrupted the Descending Ceremony several times before."

"The main body of that Divine Being is very likely on the relic," He Ao said calmly. "Going to the relic would let It discover us directly."

"Is there anything we can do in the Main World? Destroy this Descending Ceremony?" Jie An asked in a low voice. "Aren’t you familiar with Hao Yi? Did he give you any method? Doesn’t he know a lot of Mysticism Knowledge?"

He Ao shook his head slightly.

The group sank into silence all at once.

"How long until the Relic Planet’s Advent?" Wu Ganglie, who hadn’t spoken the whole time, asked in a muffled voice.

He Ao raised his hand and took out a paper scroll, spreading it open in front of them. "A few hours."

As that countdown lit up, everyone froze for a moment.