345: Chapter 280: The True Form of the Vengeful Spirit, the Remnant Will of the Ancient God-King

Time became viscous and slow amidst the violent collision between the civilization barrier and the endless resentment.

Every second felt as long as a century. Beyond the barrier lay a churning sea of darkness and madness. The Wraith Collective's massive body had fallen into a complete frenzy; it could not understand, could not accept! How could a mere Lesser Divinity, a "bug" it could wipe out at will, release such a strange light that so perfectly countered its Origin power?

The barrier, flowing with a miniature epic of civilization and echoing with the recitations of ancient sages, was like an insurmountable Wall of Sighs, firmly blocking its proudest [Godfall Gaze] and the impact of its infinite resentment. This wasn't just defense; it was a conceptual denial—a direct blow from the essences of "Order," "Legacy," and "Hope" that it loathed against its own nature of "Termination," "Chaos," and "Despair"!

"Roar—!!! Illusory! All is illusory! The false light of civilization will eventually be extinguished before eternal darkness and Termination!" The wraith's crazed will was like a storm, sweeping up more shattered Laws and the resentment of divine remains, transforming into thousands of forms—hideous maws, decaying claws, tides of wailing souls, annihilation rays... From all directions, it bombarded the civilization barrier continuously with higher frequency and stronger energy.

Real-time data of the barrier under pressure (estimated):

External impact intensity: Peak reached the level of a full-strength strike from a Mid-Tier Divine Power (LV700), with an average sustained output at the high-tier Lesser Divinity level (LV450-LV500).

Rule erosion rate: The penetration intensity of negative rules such as "Termination," "Resentment," "Decay," and "Madness" increased by 35%.

Barrier energy consumption: The dissipation rate of the Civilization Marks (tributaries/sprays of the river) increased from approximately 0.8% per minute to 1.5%.

Current barrier integrity: 89% (taking initial generation as 100%). The flow speed of the surface luster slowed by about 20%, and the miniature civilization scenes at some edges began to blur.

Estimated maintenance time (based on current consumption rate): Approximately 59 minutes.

Inside the barrier, the atmosphere was heavy and oppressive. Though temporarily safe, everyone could clearly feel the world-ending assault outside, as well as the immense pressure and the slow but undeniable weakening the barrier was enduring.

Su Yueyao and Qin Qing stood to the left and right, guarding Lin Zhou's Physical Body, which stood with eyes closed, its aura so calm it was almost deathly. Their gazes occasionally turned worriedly to Lin Zhou's pale face and slightly furrowed brows, and occasionally scanned the endless dark impact outside the barrier with vigilance.

Su Yueyao had stopped burning her Origin, but her moonlight remained dim. She reached out a slightly trembling hand and pressed it gently against the back of Lin Zhou's cold hand, trying to convey a sliver of warmth and support, even though she knew Lin Zhou's Divine Soul was currently deep within the river of civilization. "His Divine Soul fluctuations... are very peculiar, as if he has completely merged with that river, engaging in some deep-level... resonance and exploration?" she whispered to Qin Qing, her cool voice carrying an imperceptible rasp and fatigue.

Qin Qing nodded. Her Law divine office was almost completely suppressed here, but her insight remained. "He is looking for a way to break through. Although this barrier is strong, it consumes the fundamental foundation of the river of civilization and cannot last forever. That monster outside... if we don't resolve it completely, we will eventually be exhausted." Her gaze pierced sharply through the barrier, attempting to analyze the wraith's attack patterns, but she was quickly interfered with by the chaotic and violent torrent of rules and had to withdraw her gaze, her face turning even paler.

Behind them, the remaining twenty-odd core vassal heroes sat cross-legged, seizing every second to recover their severely depleted strength. At the same time, they threw their faith and convictions unreservedly toward Lin Zhou, trying to add a weak but firm support to the river of civilization maintaining the barrier.

However, everyone understood that the true key lay in whether Lin Zhou could find a glimmer of hope after merging his Divine Soul into the river of civilization.

At this moment, Lin Zhou's consciousness, just as Su Yueyao perceived, was in an extremely profound state. He had not lost himself; rather, he had infinitely expanded his "self," merging into the vast information ocean of the river of civilization, composed of countless wisdoms, experiences, emotions, and beliefs.

His perception was no longer limited to what his eyes saw or his ears heard. What he "saw" were the countless tiny rule sparks and information fragments bursting forth when the river of civilization collided with the external resentment impact. What he "heard" was a deep-level "debate" concerning the essence of existence between the recitations of the sages' phantoms and the crazed roars of the wraith.

He was like a small boat sailing in the ocean of knowledge, or a calm historian recording, analyzing, and understanding this war between "Civilization" and "Termination."

Gradually, he captured some anomalies.

Although the wraith's attacks were violent and chaotic, at its core—that core of resentment like a black sun—the energy fluctuations were not entirely disordered. Beneath that extreme madness and resentment, there seemed to be a hidden, extremely faint, but astonishingly high-level... Order? No, more accurately, it was an extreme, exclusive, and self-centered "Unique Order"!

This "Unique Order" was diametrically opposed to the "inclusive, diverse Order of inheritance and development" represented by the river of civilization. It excluded all "others," denied all "dissent," and pursued the idea that "only I am real, all others are illusory." It was this extreme essence that created the most fundamental conflict with the principles of civilization and gave birth to that hate-filled desire for "Termination" directed at "existence" itself.

"Found you..." Lin Zhou's consciousness rippled within the river.

Just by perceiving this sliver of essence, his Divine Soul felt a pang of pain, as if sliced by the sharpest blade tempered with infinite pride and paranoia. But he did not retreat; instead, he focused his mind even more, extending his consciousness cautiously beyond the barrier along the "front line" where the river of civilization and the resentment impact collided most fiercely and information exchange was most frequent. Like a wisp of the finest Fire of Civilization, he quietly penetrated toward the wraith's violent and dark core.

This process was extremely dangerous! If this wisp of investigative consciousness were discovered and intercepted by the wraith, it could be instantly polluted and assimilated by its terrifying resentment, or even traced back to directly attack his main Divine Soul merged within the river!

But he had to do it. Passive defense was a dead end. Only by piercing the enemy's deepest roots could he find a glimmer of victory, or... a glimmer of "understanding."

The Fire of Civilization is all-encompassing and can also illuminate the subtle. At this moment, Lin Zhou pushed the characteristics of the Fire of Civilization—"understanding," "analysis," and "inclusion"—to their limit. His investigative consciousness was no longer a sharp probe but transformed into incredibly flexible and fine "tentacles of light." Mimicking certain fluctuation frequencies of the resentment itself, he cautiously avoided the most violent energy turbulence and wound his way toward the deepest darkness along the hidden "Unique Order" veins within the torrent of resentment.

[Divine Soul investigation in progress...]

[Fire of Civilization stealth mode activated, consumption: 50 Divine Power/second]

[Encountering resentment erosion, Fire of Civilization purifying... consumption intensified]

[Deep-level rule veins discovered, attempting to analyze...]

Lin Zhou's Divine Soul endured immense pressure and consumption, but he remained steadfast. After an unknown amount of time (which might have been extremely long in terms of consciousness but only a few minutes in reality), his "tentacles of light" finally pierced through the layers of resentment shells composed of the lingering thoughts of countless fallen beings and touched the most central and essential region of that "black sun"!

At the moment of contact—

"Boom!!!"

Fragments of memory—broken, distorted, yet containing world-shaking information—surged back like a bursting dam along Lin Zhou's investigative consciousness! Had his consciousness not been connected to the entire river of civilization at that moment, with the wills of countless sages and epics of civilization acting as buffers and anchors, this single impact would have been enough to collapse and assimilate the Divine Soul of any True God!

These memory fragments were filled with infinite glory, extreme loneliness, misguided stubbornness, the fury of being besieged, and the overwhelming unwillingness and resentment at the moment of final fall!

Lin Zhou "saw":

An ancient divine kingdom whose vastness and splendor were beyond words. In the center of the kingdom stood a divine throne that reached the heavens. Upon the throne sat a majestic figure shrouded in infinite divine light. His aura was supreme, as if he were the center of the Universe and the source of all Daos. His Dao was "Sole Supremacy," firmly believing that he himself was the truth and the Law. Beyond him, all was illusory accompaniment, and all things must take his will as their sole criterion. This was the "Unique God King"—the "Sole Master of My Dao"!

His divine kingdom had rules so strict they were mechanical. The operation of all things was like clockwork. All vassals, even mountains, rivers, stars, and moons, could only exist, operate, and offer faith according to the single "correct" mode he had set. Any deviation, any autonomy, any sprout of "heretical thought" would be ruthlessly eradicated. He ruled a vast territory with absolute will, his power rising continuously until he reached the Peak of a God King, touching the edge of a higher level.

But extreme "self-centeredness" also brought extreme "loneliness" and "paranoia." He began to find any bit of "uncertainty" intolerable, unable to bear any existence that did not belong to his "Unique Order." His gaze began to turn outside the divine kingdom, toward those Star Domains and races that had developed different civilizations, paths, and thoughts.

"Heresy," "Illusion," "Must be corrected," "Must be unified under My Dao"... such thoughts grew more intense by the day.

Finally, he launched a "purification" war. In the name of "Sole Truth," he campaigned against thousands of civilizations, intending to bring the entire Universe into his unique, rigid, and unquestionable "Unique Order"!

In the memory fragments, the flames of war swept through countless Star Domains. Some civilizations were destroyed in an instant under the God King's matchless power, becoming nourishment for the divine kingdom; some rose in resistance but were easily crushed like a mantis trying to stop a carriage; but some civilizations showed amazing resilience, wisdom, and... the power of inclusion and Harmony in Diversity!

Lin Zhou's heart suddenly trembled!

In a fragment of a fierce battle memory, he saw a scene that caused both him and the river of civilization to resonate violently!

On an ancient battlefield surrounded by a sea of stars, the divine kingdom army of the "Sole Master of My Dao" encountered a peculiar allied force. Within the alliance, there were Cultivators in Confucian robes wielding brilliant Righteous Qi and whose words became Law; Mohist Practitioners manipulating Mechanical Creations with rigorous logic; iron-blooded legions deploying School of Military battle arrays with surprising and orthodox tactics; pure cultivators performing natural Daos with the rotation of Yin and Yang... and many other civilization powerhouses with diverse styles, all containing profound wisdom and unyielding will!

Their individual strength might not have matched the God King's, but they cooperated with each other, their thoughts complementing one another, their tactics flexible and varied. More importantly, the "Dao" they guarded was not a single "Sole Supremacy," but "a Hundred Schools of Thought Contending, each following its own path, coexisting and prospering together"!

These were the powerhouses of the ancient Huaxia Civilization!

"Paths that are different do not seek each other's counsel? Yet how can there be only one Great Dao in the world? Your Dao is solitary and lonely; it is not the Dao of all living beings!" In the memory fragment, a leading sage phantom with a noble aura (his face was blurred, but his character was inspiring) issued a questioning cry that shook the stars to the "Sole Master of My Dao."

"Absurd! My Dao is the truth! You heretical paths, gathering the strength of ants, dare to block my heavenly army? You shall be executed!" the God King roared, launching a world-destroying attack.

That battle was tragic to the extreme. The Huaxia ancestors, together with other invaded civilization powerhouses, paid a huge price to dismantle the God King's assaults time and again. In various ways, they tried to make the God King understand the principles that "the Dao is not walked alone" and "civilization is wonderful because of diversity." They even tried to use the principles of civilization to encompass and dissolve the God King's extreme "Unique Order."

However, the "Sole Master of My Dao," who had reached the Peak of paranoia, could no longer listen to any "dissent." He viewed the ancestors' efforts as provocation and civilization's diversity as an "error" that had to be eradicated. The battle continued to escalate, drawing in more and more forces.

Finally, a final siege affecting nearly half the Universe broke out at a certain turning point of fate. Although the "Sole Master of My Dao" was strong, under the joint efforts of countless civilization powerhouses—especially the unique fighting style of the Huaxia ancestors, which used softness to overcome hardness and used the principles of civilization to dissolve the intent of destruction—his seemingly perfect "Unique Order" divine kingdom developed irreparable flaws.

The last of the memory fragments showed the collapse of the "Sole Master of My Dao's" throne and the shattering of his divine kingdom. He himself, amidst endless unwillingness, fury, and a bone-deep hatred for "heretical" civilizations, walked toward his fall. His extreme and powerful Divine Soul will did not completely dissipate. Instead, mixed with the despairing wails of billions of vassals and subordinate civilizations when the kingdom shattered, and his own ultimate resentment toward "paths not my own," it settled, distorted, and merged in this special battlefield. After countless ages, it finally formed the Wraith Collective before them, which hated all civilizations and sought to wipe out all "heretical existences" with "Termination"!

That central "black sun" was exactly the last unextinguished core of the God King's will, filled with paranoia and resentment!

"So... that's how it is..." Lin Zhou's consciousness sighed deeply within the river of civilization.

The root of everything lay in a misguided, extremely exclusive path. War was launched due to paranoia, hatred was sown due to war, resentment was born due to the fall, and because of that resentment, it hated all civilization existences different from itself.

And among the key forces that besieged him and ultimately led to his fall were the ancestors of the Huaxia Civilization! No wonder the river of civilization and the resentment here reacted so violently; this was not just a conflict of ideologies, but a Karma and ancient grudge spanning time and space!

At the moment Lin Zhou understood all this and his mind was shaken by this shocking secret—

The wraith core also seemed to sense the deep prying of this "heretical" consciousness and that bone-deeply hated Legacy aura belonging to the ancestors of the Huaxia Civilization!

"It's you... it's you again!!! You are everywhere!!!" A will ten times more violent and a hundred times more resentful than before, like billions of poisoned needles, lashed back fiercely along Lin Zhou's investigative consciousness!

"Pfft—!"

Inside the barrier, Lin Zhou's Physical Body, which had been standing still, suddenly jolted. His face instantly turned from pale to sallow, and a mouthful of pale gold divine blood, containing the glow of civilization, was sprayed out without warning!

"Lin Zhou!" Su Yueyao and Qin Qing cried out at the same time, their hearts suddenly tightening!

Outside the barrier, the Wraith Collective's attack suddenly stalled. Then, the "black sun" core erupted with unprecedented dark light. A more condensed and terrifying destructive energy, seemingly gathering all its resentment and paranoia, was frantically converging! Its locked target was no longer the entire barrier, but the source inside the barrier that had just "provoked" its deepest scar—Lin Zhou!

The true fatal crisis, along with the revelation of the truth, had not eased but instead suddenly escalated to its Peak!