549: Chapter 484: A Clash of Ideologies: Salvation or Resistance?

Three days after the news that the Gate of Guixu had reached 45% activation progress spread throughout the New Universe, an uninvited guest appeared outside the gates of the Iron Wall Fortress.

She wore a faded military uniform; the shoulder straps once bore the Rank of General, but now there were no Rank insignias left. She looked to be in her fifties, with a thin face and calm, deep eyes behind her glasses. There was no Divine Power fluctuation around her, not even a trace of life force—she stood in the Void Realm outside the city gate like a painting, an existence no longer of this world. Lin Zhou's Fire of Civilization sensed her the moment she appeared. She held no hostility, nor did she even have the fluctuation of "existence." She was like a pile of extinguished ashes that still maintained the shape of ashes.

[ High Priestess · Vera · Status ]

- Identity: Former Chief Scientist of the Military Department, "Killed in Action" for three hundred years

- Current Form: Nihility State (between existence and non-existence)

- Rank: LV4500 (Peak high-tier divine power)

- Divine Kingdom Status: Completely Nihilistic

- Action: Appeared voluntarily, requesting a dialogue

Lin Zhou stood on the ramparts of the Wall of Heroes, watching the figure outside the city gate. Three hundred years. In the Withered Star Realm of Chapter 482, she had left behind only a fading afterimage, and in that afterimage, she said: "I walked into the Gate of Guixu in order to study it." But now, the "she" standing outside the city gate was no longer the scientist who studied the Gate of Guixu. She was the spokesperson for the Gate of Guixu.

"Let her in." Lin Zhou's voice echoed on the ramparts.

The city gates opened, and Vera walked into the Iron Wall Fortress. As she passed the Wall of Heroes, the Firewood Sword on the wall emitted a low hum—not an attack, but resistance. The heroes within the Firewood Sword sensed the aura of "non-existence" on her and instinctively repelled it.

Lin Zhou waited for her beneath the Marshal's statue at the Wall of Heroes. Vera walked up to him, stopped, and her gaze swept across the city walls, the Firewood Sword, and the Marshal's statue, finally landing on Lin Zhou.

"The successor of the Fire of Civilization is younger than I imagined." Vera's voice lacked warmth, but it also lacked hostility.

"Professor Vera, we met once in the Withered Star Realm. Your afterimage back then told me that the Gate of Guixu is a program, the ultimate algorithm of the Universe."

"That was me three hundred years ago, a scientist whose eyes were deceived by the Gate of Guixu."

"And now?"

Vera was silent for a moment. "The current me has already merged with the Gate of Guixu. I am not here to persuade you to surrender, nor am I here to declare war on you. I am here to tell you a fact—the arrival of the Gate of Guixu cannot be stopped. You have built the Civilization Principle Defense Line, deployed billions of sparks, and prepared a memory ritual. None of these are wrong. But the Gate of Guixu is larger than you imagine. It is not an enemy; it is an inevitability. Just like winter will come, and spring will come. You have no way to stop it."

Lin Zhou looked at her without rushing to refute. "Then why are you here?"

"Because I do not want to watch the New Universe perish in pain." A trace of human emotion appeared in Vera's gaze; it was the only part of her remaining, the last trace of that scientist from three hundred years ago. "I have a proposal—we embrace the Gate of Guixu and let a portion of the elite survive in a Nihility State. We will retain memories, consciousness, and a part of civilization. Although we will no longer be physical entities, we can still think and remember. This is the only way for civilization to continue."

[ Vera's Proposal · Embrace the Gate of Guixu ]

- Method: The elite group actively accepts Gate of Guixu erosion and converts to a Nihility State

- Survivors: Approximately one million (Godhood Rank LV500 or higher)

- Cost: Loss of physical form, loss of physical existence, only consciousness remains

- Goal: To allow civilization to continue in another form

Lin Zhou shook his head. "A continuation that loses the meaning of existence is not civilization. Civilization is not memory, not consciousness, not information. Civilization is living people; it is life that is breathing, feeling, and creating. If you turn a million people into a Nihility State, can they still create? Can they still feel? Can they still love?"

Vera was silent.

"You studied the Gate of Guixu for thirty years; you know the essence of the Nihility State better than I do. It is just a shadow, an echo, an empty shell allowed to exist temporarily by the Gate of Guixu. You think you have preserved civilization, but in reality, you have only preserved a specimen."

"At least specimens will not be forgotten."

"Forgotten?" Lin Zhou smiled; there was no mockery in his smile, only a calm sadness. "Professor Vera, you are standing beneath the Wall of Heroes. There are a hundred Firewood Swords on the wall, and each sword is the consciousness of a hero. They are dead, their physical bodies have dissipated, but their fire is still burning. Because they are remembered. Not by the Gate of Guixu, but by the living. The reason civilization is immortal is not because information is preserved, but because the spark is passed on."

He raised his left hand, and a cyan-gold flame ignited in his palm. The light of the flame illuminated the Wall of Heroes, and countless phantoms appeared on the Firewood Swords—Elwin, Former Vice Commander Zhao Tiebi, a hundred Sword Cultivators, two thousand fallen soldiers. They were not in a Nihility State; they were not shadows. They were burning.

"Professor Vera, you studied the Gate of Guixu for thirty years and came up with despair. I studied the Way of Civilization for ten years and came up with hope. You found a way to preserve civilization by turning it into a specimen. What I found is a way to let it continue to grow."

Vera lowered her head and was silent for a long time. "If the Gate of Guixu descends and the Sea of Void Realm surges into the New Universe, will your Fire of Civilization still be able to burn?"

"Yes. As long as there are people who remember."

"What if everyone is erased?"

"Then let them remember what happened before." Lin Zhou amplified the flame, illuminating the entire Iron Wall Fortress. "The Gate of Guixu's program is 'harvest civilization as seeds.' Its underlying code is 'forgetting.' But if the Fire of Civilization is bright enough to turn the Gate of Guixu's 'forgetting' into 'remembering,' the program will be overwritten and rewritten."

Vera looked up, a glimmer of light never seen before appearing in her eyes. "You mean... rewriting the Gate of Guixu program?"

"The essence of the Fire of Civilization is existence. The essence of the Gate of Guixu is forgetting. Existence can overwrite forgetting. Just as light can cover darkness, and heat can cover cold."

Vera was silent for a long time. Her body began to become transparent—not disappearing, but the Nihility State was loosening. "Lin Zhou, I studied it for thirty years and never thought of this direction. I thought the Gate of Guixu was the end; I thought the only thing I could do was to preserve some things before the end."

"You are not a failure. Your research data let me know the essence of the Gate of Guixu. Without your research, I would not have thought of rewriting the program."

Vera smiled. It was the first time she had truly smiled in three hundred years. "Lin Zhou, I can still do one thing."

"What?"

"My Divine Kingdom has become completely nihilistic. If I am willing, I can make it 'reverse.' A nihilistic Divine Kingdom, once ignited by the Fire of Civilization, will become a part of the river of civilization. My Divine Kingdom stores the entire rule structure of the Gate of Guixu—if you can obtain it, rewriting the Gate of Guixu program will become within reach."

Lin Zhou looked at her, silent. "And the cost?"

"The cost is that I will disappear completely. Not just physically, but also my consciousness. I will become a drop of water in the river of civilization, rather than an independent individual."

"Is it worth it?"

Vera looked at the Firewood Sword on the Wall of Heroes, then at the soldiers still training below the wall, and at the sea of stars in the direction of the New Universe in the distance. "It is worth it. To let civilization continue, not as a specimen, but as a spark. This is much more valuable than being a specimen."

She raised her hand, and a dark red light appeared in her palm—that was the last bit of unpurified guixu energy in her Divine Kingdom. She pressed this energy against her chest, and her Divine Kingdom began to disintegrate; the nihilistic rule fragments began to fall off. Each fragment contained the complete rule structure of the Gate of Guixu.

[ Vera · Sacrifice Divine Kingdom ]

- Divine Kingdom Status: Completely Nihilistic → Beginning to disintegrate

- Rule Fragments: Approximately one million

- Value: Contains the complete rule structure of the Gate of Guixu

- After absorption by the river of civilization: Can analyze the Gate of Guixu program and find a way to rewrite it

Lin Zhou unfurled the river of civilization. The cyan-gold river water surged toward Vera, wrapping each of the rule fragments that fell off after she disintegrated. As the fragments merged into the river, the patterns on the riverbed began to rearrange. Among the hundred types of God King-level rule patterns, the rule patterns of the Gate of Guixu appeared. Not the "Nihility" patterns of the Gate of Guixu, but the "structure" patterns of the Gate of Guixu—its skeleton, its logic, the blueprint from when it was created.

[ river of civilization · Absorb Gate of Guixu Rules ]

- Fragments Absorbed: Approximately one million

- Gate of Guixu Rule Completeness: 100%

- river of civilization Water Level: 2% → 5% (Fragment conversion)

- New Ability: Gate of Guixu Program Analysis (Rewritable)

Vera's body began to disintegrate from her head, turning into golden points of light that merged into the river of civilization. She disappeared into the light. There was no pain, no regret. Her last words were not spoken to Lin Zhou, but to the river of civilization: "I was once a scientist, a scientist lost in the Gate of Guixu. Now, I have come home."

The points of light dissipated. Lin Zhou stood before the Wall of Heroes, silent for a long time. Su Yueyao walked over and stood beside him. "Captain, she is gone."

"She is gone. But her research results have remained. The complete structure of the Gate of Guixu program is now in the river of civilization."

"Can you rewrite it?"

"I can. It will take time, but I can."

Lin Zhou turned, facing that sea of stars. The Gate of Guixu would open in four months; four months later, he would walk through that gate. Now that the complete structure of the Gate of Guixu program was in the river of civilization, he was not just going to Seal the Sea of Void Realm; he was going to rewrite the underlying code of the Gate of Guixu. He would make the memories of civilization a part of the Gate of Guixu program. He would make the Gate of Guixu stop harvesting civilization and instead protect it. The Fire of Civilization was burning, illuminating the path ahead and also lighting the way for Vera's return home.