Chapter 1842 - 1841: Genesis

"So you called us here to tell us," Jie An looked at He Ao, speaking slowly, "that the world will be destroyed in a few hours?"

He Ao raised his gaze, looking at the people in front of him. Instead of answering Jie An’s question, he fully unfurled the Array on the paper and explained its origin and effects to everyone.

After hearing this explanation, everyone paused slightly, sinking into a long silence.

Even the surrounding glow of the Array had completely dimmed, yet no one noticed.

"So, we have to sacrifice some people to ensure the survival of the majority, right?" Finally, Jie An broke the silence, lifting his head to look at He Ao. "Our Tia Empire has no issue with that."

Beside him, Wu Ganglie looked at him, slightly opening his mouth as if wanting to say something.

But before Wu Ganglie could speak, Jie An continued, "I can be among those sacrificed. People like me, B-level, should be more effective as sacrifices than ordinary people, right? At least worth dozens or hundreds of ordinary people?"

Wu Ganglie gazed at Jie An and slowly closed his mouth.

"According to your estimate, how many people need to be sacrificed?" Liu Zhengyun looked up at He Ao.

"About one-third of the world’s population, approximately 2.7 billion people," He Ao said slowly.

Upon hearing this, the crowd once again fell into silence.

"So, what do we need to do?" Goya raised her head, looking at He Ao.

"If we are to carry out this plan," He Ao began in a low voice, introducing the elements required to set up the Array in the array knowledge, "the Array needs a node setup approximately every 10,000 square kilometers. We can also place ocean nodes on land. According to the current area of the Main World, we need 50,000 Array nodes."

He looked at the crowd, "Based on the division of our controlled regions, how long do you think it will take?"

"Here in Central Earth," Liu Zhengyun glanced at He Ao, then looked down at the Array, pondering, "it will take at least three days."

"Tia Empire requires four days," Jie An said directly.

Rudel paused slightly, then lifted his head to look at He Ao.

Currently, He Ao is the actual manager of the Western Lands.

"The Western Lands should be able to be completed in four days as well." He Ao took a slight breath, pondering, "Central Earth can act as redundancy, supporting other places after completing its task, but at the very least it will also take four days."

"Are you calculating the time needed to delay?" Liu Zhengyun glanced at the countdown on the paper, looking at He Ao and asked in a low voice, "If we need to delay for four days, how many sacrifices are needed?"

He Ao paused for a moment, then calmly said, "One hundred million people."

The entire scene suddenly fell silent.

When the number becomes vast enough, Life seems to lose its reality and becomes merely a bargaining chip for decisions.

"Should we announce this," Rudel said hoarsely from the side, "for instance, letting people vote to decide whether to ’sacrifice’ or not, as one hundred million or 2.7 billion is nonetheless too many."

"Your hair has turned white, you’ve aged, but why doesn’t your mind seem to have grown," Just as Rudel finished speaking, Jie An sneered, "Let those ordinary people vote, would they choose to sacrifice themselves to protect others? I guess the result will be to do nothing, and everyone waits together for death."

He shrugged, "Trusting in the goodness of human nature is the most foolish behavior. Not only will you not get a good result, but you’ll also cause the spread of destructive panic, plunging the whole world into chaos. People might think since the world is about to end, why not go out and burn, kill, and loot? In the end, the dead might be more than the sacrifices."

"Your words—" Upon hearing this, Rudel’s face turned somewhat red, looking at Jie An.

But Jie An had no intention of responding to him and instead looked towards He Ao, "So there’s not enough time. Otherwise, I would start a world war. In a war, the death of over two billion people is quite normal, then we’d have enough sacrifices."

He glanced at the others, "Then, you could hang me on the gallows, proclaim I’m a warmonger and a sinner. This way, a sinner is present, everyone is virtuous, everyone is happy, and the remaining people gain more living space, achieving post-war prosperity in the new world."

Upon hearing him, Liu Zhengyun’s eyebrows twitched slightly, unclear whether it was in support or opposition.

Whereas Rudel was completely speechless.

"So, are we going to choose this plan?" Goya turned her gaze towards He Ao.

He Ao lowered his head, looking at the Array paper laid out in front of him.

——

Martial Arts World

He Ao’s original body raised his eyes, observing the array of radiant lines in front of him.

Above that grey fissure, a new framework had been erected. Dense lines rapidly interweaved within the framework, and the entire structure was already largely formed.

The framework was certainly incomplete, but with He Ao’s current level of knowledge, he couldn’t discern exactly what was missing.

Since it was indistinguishable, he attempted to adjust parameters, seeking to discover the missing elements through practice.

He Ao’s consciousness quickly floated up, instantly returning to that original tranquil forest.

Immediately afterward, the scene in his field of view started to change rapidly, as if his body was swiftly ascending, or as if the whole world was sinking.

Soon, his body passed through the clouds spreading across the sky, through the elusive grey fissure deep in the clouds, and reached the highest point in the sky.

He arrived amidst a realm of vague and chaotic mist.

Then, he passed through this mist as if crossing a certain Boundary.

At that instant, all five senses disappeared, surrounded by pitch blackness, unable to see anything.

Or rather, indeed, nothing existed around.

Not even the void existed, just an extreme, absolute nothingness in its original state.

He had glimpsed this original state before, but at that time, the original structure seemed unstable, devoid of anything.

But now, the basic framework and foundation had already been constructed.

He Ao slowly raised his hand, attempting to touch that fragment of primordial chaos.

Various thoughts flickered in his mind.

A glimmer suddenly erupted in his field of view, as if a certain gathered substance underwent a violent explosion.

Immediately, dazzling light and hot air rushed forth, countless particles birthing from the original.

Thus, the world came to have the concept of ’existence’ and ’non-existence.’

When the first ray of light burst forth in the Firmament, the world thereby had the concept of ’light’ and ’dark.’

These particles collided, interacted, and continually interwove, forming massive material nebulae.

He Ao lifted his gaze, watching this vast and magnificent scene.

Then in an instant, these material nebulae abruptly shrank back. Time seemed to rewind at this moment, all that was and wasn’t, light and dark, all imploded, collapsed, returning to the initial primal state.

That all-consuming darkness appeared once more around He Ao.

He Ao blankly watched this scene, and after a momentary stupor, his consciousness once again ventured deep into the world, looking at those radiant lines, seeing the rule framework constructed by the lines.

He re-examined the mended rules, then realized the cause of everything that had occurred.

The fundamental framework of the Martial Arts World had ’overclocked.’

He had just attempted to simulate the Big Bang, to create a ’new’ universe.

But the framework he constructed at this moment was based on the Martial Arts World, a small world.

The rule volume, boundary constraints, and inherent support of this small world were insufficient to create a new universe.

Can’t even create a Constant Star System.

Attempting to create a universe on such a foundation would ultimately result in the foundation being unable to support it, causing the ’new world’ built on it to shatter and return everything to its original state.

It’s like trying to build a skyscraper on a foundation of foam, where the foam ultimately cannot withstand the strength of reinforced concrete, collapsing in an instant.

Such an excessive act even caused some ’damage’ to the ’foundation’.

This led to cracks appearing in the framework of rules that He Ao painstakingly built.

Thankfully, these rules had not been fundamentally damaged and could still be used, although they likely couldn’t withstand a second blow.

The root cause of this situation was still He Ao’s lack of understanding of the ’quality’ of the world and the support of the rules framework.

He really suffered due to a lack of education.

Choosing a wild path requires some detours.

Gathering his thoughts, He Ao’s consciousness once again floated up, returning to that original state.

He raised his hand, his fingertip touching the chaotic origin, and a point of light flickered at his fingertip, emerging from the origin. Then, some hazy, foggy state began to spread in all directions from this point of light.

This time, he did not attempt to create a grand universe but tried first to create a material state prior to the world. Through this material state, he aimed to test the boundary of the world’s framework support.

In He Ao’s field of view, the surrounding ’fog’ spread rapidly in all directions the moment it was born, with countless fogs seemingly born from the origin, forming an endless mist.

Quickly, He Ao sensed the limits of what this foundation could bear.

He withdrew his hand, and the point of light flickering in the origin suddenly dimmed, halting the spread of the fog born from the origin.

This foggy region was the area he could create a world within.

Compared to the nebula universe he previously attempted to create, this region was obviously much smaller.

But this region could stably exist and belonged to his world.

He Ao looked at the ’fog’ before him.

In this ’fog’, there was nothing, no time or space; it was the primal state of all material.

Perhaps this is what those legendary stories referred to as ’chaos’?

At the source of those ancient legends, had someone also reached a similar point of creation? Created a similar state?

With fleeting thoughts, He Ao raised his hand, his palm like a knife, sweeping forward, cutting horizontally through the fog.

The whole fog boiled over like it was brought to a roiling boil.

The trace left by He Ao’s swinging arm acted like a sweeping Sword Light across the fog, dividing it in the middle.

He Ao stepped forward, walking into the depths of the fog.

Even though he patched things up and took many shortcuts, he still reached this point.

This is his world.

He raised his hand, allowing threads of Void Consciousness to seep from his body, penetrating the depths of the rolling fog, into the foundational rules roaming in the mist.

He Ao gazed at the boiling chaotic mist, beginning to ponder the structure of the entire world.

"Let there be a sky."

Cloud Qi rose from the fog, floating upward.

"Let there be earth."

Dark material descended from the fog, forming solid rocks and soil, and fell downward.

Soon, the ascending Cloud Qi formed the sky, and the descending material formed the earth.

He Ao stood on hard black rock, between this newborn heaven and earth, looking ahead.

This world was still shrouded in pure darkness, with hazy mist mingling between heaven and earth.

"Let there be light, let there be the Sun."

A ray of light emerged from the Firmament, piercing through the heavens and earth, illuminating the ground covered in pitch-black rocks.

The entire world illuminated in an instant, with a magnificent Sun hanging high in the Firmament, lighting up the entire world.

"Let there be the Moon and Stars, let there be night, let there be the alternation of Sun, Moon, and Stars."

The giant Sun swiftly swept across the sky, sinking into the western skyline, as a bright Moon emerged in the sky and twinkling Stars appeared.

"In the earth, let there be mountains and lakes, and the earth’s surroundings be enclosed by an endless sea."

Rumble—

The center of the majestic earth began to rise, forming mountains, as streams and lakes emerged from the void, spreading in all directions.

At the edge of this land, those boundary parts began to tilt and sink rapidly, as seawater generated from the void fell upon that edge, forming a vast ring-shaped ocean, enveloping the entire land.

"Stars also have gravity, pulling the ocean to rise to a Tide."

As these words fell, the ring-shaped sea began to surge violently, with waves striking the rocky shoreline, creating a rolling sound.

At this point, He Ao lowered his head, looking at this barren newborn world, feeling something was still missing.

"Spring." He raised his hand.

The barren rock stood beneath the sky, with warm sunlight shining upon the earth.

"Summer."

The weather suddenly grew hot, as the sunlight baked the earth until it was scorching.

"Autumn."

The rock developed some cracks.

"Winter."

Snow covered the cracked rock, as the sunlight dimmed considerably.

He Ao raised his hand, slight movements causing the surrounding scenery to switch rapidly between Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

But when he stopped, the world froze in a certain scene, without changing.

He did all this as if constantly changing computer wallpapers.

This world was born yet not entirely born.

This world was lacking something crucial, and He Ao kept switching between the states of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

Gazing at those changing scenes in his field of view, at that moment, he realized what was missing:

Time.