466: Chapter 465 One palm shatters, eternal green

Zhou Wannian's palm pressed out, unremarkable and plain.

There was no earth-shattering roar, no brilliant radiance tearing through the Void Realm. This palm strike seemed even more casual and indifferent than when he had been tapping rhythms between the white jade pillars earlier.

It was just like an idle old farmer who, seeing an obtrusive, protruding rock by the courtyard wall, gave it a casual slap, wanting only to flatten it and push it into the soil so it wouldn't trip anyone walking by.

However, it was this seemingly understated palm strike that caused the core area of the Universe backstage, which had just tended toward calm, to undergo a heaven-turning and earth-shattering change once again.

Time seemed to be infinitely stretched and frozen at this moment.

Zhou Wannian's palm did not directly touch the black whetstone that was already covered in cracks and constantly flaking off. Between his palm and the giant rock, there was less than three zhang of the Void Realm.

But this three-zhang stretch of the Void Realm now became the ultimate stage for the manifestation of Law.

The warm jade light that had gathered in his palm, no longer existing as chains, was not some single type of energy. It was more like the embodiment of a certain "concept." It was the distillation of the Mortal world, a kind of "momentum" precipitated over billions of years by Mortal beings through their eating, drinking, excreting, living, aging, sickness, death, love, hate, and grievances.

This kind of "momentum" could not be measured by the spiritual power Rank of the cultivation world, nor could it be labeled by the energy level of the Universe backstage.

It did not reason.

Or rather, it was itself a kind of Dao—the most simple, primitive, and indestructible Dao.

Palm strikes, momentum follows.

The warm jade light, like the first ripple spreading across a calm lake, expanded silently. It did not penetrate the Void Realm; instead, it directly "defined" it.

Wherever this jade light reached, the cold and dead physical rules originally established by the Universe's cleanup program instantly failed and collapsed, replaced by another, more ancient and domineering rule—

"Here, there shall be vitality."

"Here, all things shall be accommodated."

"Here, even a stubborn rock shall nod."

This three-zhang stretch of the Void Realm became the battlefield for two diametrically opposed supreme rules. One side represented "Nothingness," the ultimate entropy increase and heat death point of the Universe; the other represented "Existence," the essence of life and the birth of order from Chaos.

There was no explosion, only an ear-grating "creak," as if the bones of the entire Universe were being forcibly twisted.

Zhou Wannian's palm finally "touched" that huge black whetstone.

At the point of contact, there were no brilliant sparks of energy collision; instead, it fell into an eerie silence.

The black stone skin, which was enough to erase the Dao and sever the threads of Law, was as fragile as a piece of cheese dropped into boiling water before this warm and domineering "Mortal momentum."

Centered on the point where Zhou Wannian's palm landed, a tiny crack emitting a warm white light appeared silently on the broken surface of the black whetstone.

This crack was not a fracture in the physical sense. It was more like a "negation."

It declared: the concept of "absolute destruction" represented by this stone was, at this moment, negated by a higher level of "existence."

"Crack... crack, crack, crack..."

The cracks spread rapidly, like wild vines, instantly covering the entire black whetstone. The giant rock, which had previously only been shedding its stone skin, now seemed to have been injected with infinite vitality from within; a restless "growth" force, diametrically opposed to its nature, was bursting it from the inside out.

"Logic... error..."

"Core... overload..."

"Cleanup... program... terminated..."

The mechanical vibrating sound hidden deep within the giant rock, which had already been on its last legs, now became rapid and sharp, filled with incomprehensible Chaos and panic. It was like a supercomputer that had been forcibly fed the wrong instructions, its processor burning crazily, attempting to calculate the probability of the scene before it, only to always receive a result of "zero."

Zero possibility.

Zero fault tolerance.

Zero chance of survival.

But this "zero" had actually, truly happened.

"Boom—!!!"

It was no longer the disintegration from before, but a thorough, inside-out explosion.

The black whetstone that carried the ultimate erasure will of the Universe was transformed by Zhou Wannian's palm into billions of tiny black crystal shards, shooting out in all directions. Each fragment still retained the aura of death, but the moment it detached from the main body, it was wrapped and penetrated by the surrounding rich, warm yellow halo; that intent of destruction was quickly neutralized and purified, eventually turning into harmless, ordinary dust of the Void Realm.

The "Nothingness" brand at the core, the moment it shattered, let out a screech that almost shattered the logic of the entire backstage space.

That screech was not a sound, but an information shock acting directly on the level of the Soul and Law: "Why... why would 'End' be defeated by 'Process'?! 'Nothingness' is the only eternal! 'Existence' is all illusion!"

Zhou Wannian withdrew his palm and stood with his hands behind his back, letting the incoming stone fragments and dust fall and dissipate three feet away from his body.

Facing that screech, which contained endless unwillingness and questioning, he merely glanced at it indifferently, the corners of his mouth curling into a mocking arc.

"Eternal?" He chuckled and shook his head. "You rock, after all, still haven't understood life."

"How can there be an unchanging 'Nothingness'?"

"Even if this Universe truly reaches heat death in the end, becoming a dead silence, that is only the destination reached after countless 'Existences' have walked the paths they were meant to walk. You cannot deny all the scenery and liveliness along the way just because you saw that the destination is a void."

"You are in such a hurry to zero out the ledger, but you forgot that the process of bookkeeping itself is the most interesting part."

Zhou Wannian's words were plain, yet they were like the sharpest sword of truth, completely severing that last trace of remaining will.

The "Nothingness" brand flickered violently, then dimmed and became transparent, finally shattering quietly in the endless Void Realm like a bubble, disappearing without a trace.

The entire core area of the Universe backstage, at this moment, welcomed a true, deathly silence.

No, not a deathly silence.

It was the tranquility after a rebirth.

Without the suppression of the black whetstone, without the erosion of Death Qi, and without that Sword of Damocles hanging overhead, ready to fall at any moment.

The transparent threads of Law that had previously been protected by the white jade pillars were now completely liberated. They were no longer just trembling slightly within the pillars, but were like fish freed from shackles, happily weaving, interlacing, and extending through the Void Realm.

The originally grey and cold background of the Void Realm began to be lit up by these revitalized threads of Law. Strands and wisps of color and luster that originally belonged to the "normal Universe" flowed along these threads like trickling streams, re-injecting into this long-dried core area.

Zhou Wannian floated quietly in this reborn space.

He looked down at his right hand.

The warm jade light in his palm had faded, returning to normal. But he could clearly feel that his connection with this Universe backstage had reached an unprecedented depth.

Those happily swimming threads of Law were no longer enemies he had to laboriously lock onto, nor were they cold objects of observation. They seemed to have become a part of his body, a natural extension of his Divine Thought.

If he wanted a certain Law to become more stable, that thread would light up slightly and adjust itself spontaneously.

If he wanted to slow down the flow of time and space in a certain area, the surrounding Void Realm would naturally produce corresponding ripples.

There was no need to mobilize mana, no need to perform hand seals or chant incantations.

With a single thought, heaven and earth resonated.

This was Great Perfection.

It was not a piling up of power, but a thorough mastery of "Reason."

He stood here, and he was a part of this heaven and earth, even the dominant part. The so-called Universe cleanup program and the so-called world-ending crisis, before the true Realm of Great Perfection, were like a toddler who hadn't learned to walk but wanted to tear down the house, easily pinned down by Zhou Wannian, a true "adult," who even took the opportunity to lecture it on life's great truths.

Zhou Wannian's gaze passed over those happy threads of Law and cast toward the deeper parts of this core area.

The black whetstone was shattered, and the cleanup program was scrapped. But this Universe backstage clearly had much more worth exploring.

After all, this was the "machine room" of the Universe's operation, the location of the underlying logic that supported all phenomenal worlds.

He lifted his foot and walked forward.

There was no path under his feet, but with every step he took, a lotus flower condensed from warm light would naturally appear in the Void Realm, supporting the soles of his shoes. The lotus flowers bloomed and withered, radiating brilliance with every step, yet without the slightest trace of worldly aura, as if this was how the world was meant to be.

As he went deeper, the surrounding scenery changed once again.

Those white jade pillars gradually thinned out and eventually disappeared. Replacing them was a more vast and even more incredible sight.

He seemed to be walking in an endless ocean composed of pure light and data.

The surroundings were no longer the Void Realm, but were flowing with countless brilliant ribbons of light. Each ribbon of light represented a complete world line, a branch of the Universe currently evolving. Some ribbons were bright and dazzling, full of vitality; some were dim and lusterless, seemingly having reached their end and about to be extinguished; others were twisted and tangled, filled with conflict and instability, clearly indicating that the worlds there were experiencing great turmoil.

Zhou Wannian could even see that in some ribbons, familiar cultivation civilizations were rising, flourishing, and declining; Mortal dynasties were being established, waging wars, and changing; stars were being born, burning, and exploding into brilliant nebulae...

All of this was playing out silently before his eyes.

He had become a true bystander.

"So that's how it is..." Zhou Wannian understood in his heart.

The so-called All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, the so-called vast Universe, at the most fundamental level, were nothing more than the flow of data and the permutation and combination of Laws.

This was similar to some conjectures he had seen in books and novels in his past life.

But he did not feel disappointed or nihilistic. Because he knew that no matter how abstract or data-driven the underlying level was, the joys, sorrows, and separations that truly happened in the surface world were absolutely real.

It wouldn't be the case that just because the underlying level was code, love would turn into 0s and 1s, and hatred would turn into electrical signals.

Reality lies only in the perception itself.

Zhou Wannian's gaze swept across the various world lines, his eyes possessing a power that could pierce through to their essence.

He could easily see the "bugs" in the operation of these world lines, see the "turbulence" generated by conflicts in the Law, and see the "deadlocks" that were heading toward destruction due to energy imbalances.

If it were the him from before, he might have felt pity, wanted to intervene, and wanted to save them.

But now, he just watched quietly.

Because he understood that these "bugs," these "turbulence," and these "deadlocks" were themselves a part of the world's evolution.

Just like the snoring of the Old Shopkeeper, just like the dry corner yielded by a beggar—imperfect, even filled with flaws and suffering, but it was precisely these "problems" that constituted the sense of reality of "living."

If everything were perfect and pre-set programs, that would be true dead silence.

"It seems this broken black whetstone isn't completely useless after all." Zhou Wannian suddenly smiled.

At the very least, it allowed him to see clearly the operating mode of this "server room." It also made him more firm in his own Dao.

His Dao was not to become the new administrator of this server room and set more perfect rules.

His Dao was to protect the right to this "imperfection," to ensure that all world lines had the right to continue operating in their own way, even if it was a stumbling, error-filled way.

As long as they were still "running," this Universe was alive.

Suddenly, Zhou Wannian's footsteps halted.

His gaze was drawn to an unusually "stubborn" world line.

It was an extremely inconspicuous band of light, its brightness far inferior to other prosperous world lines, appearing even somewhat dim and coarse. It was like a rope woven from the lowest quality thread, filled with the risk of snapping.

But strangely, the degree of distortion and wrinkling of the space surrounding this world line far exceeded that of any other world line.

In its periphery, Zhou Wannian sensed a familiar aura.

It was not Death Qi, nor was it a cleanup program.

But rather a kind of... "repulsive force."

An instinctive repulsive force coming from the Universe's backend itself.

It was as if this underlying System was determining that this world line was "erroneous code" or an "illegal program," and was attempting to "format" or "isolate" it.

Zhou Wannian frowned slightly and focused his gaze.

As his vision focused, the scene inside that coarse world line rapidly magnified and became clear in his eyes.

It was a world he was intimately familiar with.

A long street paved with bluestone slabs, flanked by shops with faded banners, the air filled with the aroma of steamed bun shops and the smell of horse manure. Pedestrians wearing coarse cloth jackets walked hurriedly, rushing for their livelihoods. In the dilapidated temple at the end of the alley, several tattered beggars huddled together for warmth. In the distance, one could still hear the clanging from the blacksmith's shop and the immature sound of reading from the school...

Wasn't this the very corner of the Mortal Lower Realm where he had first achieved Ascension?

The starting point that had the Old Shopkeeper, the muddy alleys, and all the smoke and fire of the human world.

Zhou Wannian's heart jolted violently.

He understood.

The reason this world line was so coarse and dim, and the reason it was viewed as an "error" by the Universe's backend and subjected to repulsion, was because it was too "old."

It was one of the earliest, most primitive, and closest to "Chaos" worlds generated in this Universe. Its underlying Law was not precise enough, its energy circulation efficiency was low, and it was filled with various redundancies and loopholes.

In the eyes of the backend program that pursued extreme efficiency and absolute order, such a world line was trash, redundant code that should be cleaned up to free up resources to run more efficient and more magnificent "new worlds."

Just like that black whetstone, which felt that Mortals were greedy and selfish and the world was chaotic, and therefore wanted to grind everything flat.

It was just that the black whetstone was aimed at the final destination of the entire Universe, while this backend program was aimed at every specific, not-so-"perfect" micro-world.

"Heh..." Zhou Wannian let out a chuckle of ambiguous meaning.

It contained both mockery of this cold mechanism and a hint of sudden realization and relief.

No wonder he had grown up in this world and had come to comprehend that unique "Human Dao."

So, at its root, he himself came from a flawed world that had been marked as "pending cleanup."

He and this Universe's backend cleanup mechanism were indeed naturally at odds.

Zhou Wannian extended a finger and gently tapped toward that world line, which was being continuously compressed by spatial wrinkles and was on the verge of snapping.

His fingertip did not touch it, but a gentle power had already been transmitted across.

That power was of the same origin as the power he had used to crush the black whetstone just now, but its nature was diametrically opposite. The previous one was "destruction," it was "negation"; the current one was "creation," it was "affirmation."

"Hum..."

That coarse world line, the moment it was touched by Zhou Wannian's power, emitted a slight tremor. The spatial wrinkles compressing it from around it, as if meeting their nemesis, quickly smoothed out and dissipated.

The world line itself also stabilized from that precarious state.

Not only that, Zhou Wannian could even feel that inside that world line, those people who were originally destined to encounter misfortune—such as the beggar who almost froze to death in the dilapidated temple, the old horse that died of exhaustion on the road because its owner was rushing, the dangerous bridge about to collapse due to heavy rain—their fate trajectories, at this moment, underwent an extremely tiny deflection that even the Heavenly Dao would find difficult to perceive.

They were not forcibly changed, but rather gained more opportunities for "choice."

That was enough.

Zhou Wannian retracted his finger.

He did not need to be a savior who intervened in everything. He only needed to ensure that this world had the right to continue existing, the right to experience everything it was meant to experience, whether it be fortune or misfortune.

He continued to walk forward.

But this time, his pace seemed more composed and more determined.

He walked past one world line after another, witnessing one rise and fall of civilization after another. He saw glorious Immortal Dynasty collapse due to internal decay, saw savage tribes rise due to tenacious vitality, saw the annihilation of stars, and also saw the birth of new stars.

He was like a true idler, strolling in the garden of the Creator.

Finally, he reached the end of this ocean of light.

At the end, there were no more world lines, nor were there any entities.

There, floating was a gigantic "mirror surface" that constantly changed colors.

Reflected in the mirror surface was not any scenery, but countless dense, rapidly flowing runes and data.

These runes and data were billions of times more complex than any Cultivation Technique or Restriction Zhou Wannian had ever seen. They constituted the most core "source code" of this Universe's backend, the general outline supporting all physical Laws, conservation of energy, and the Laws of Karma.

If those world lines were rivers, then this mirror surface was the source of all rivers—the glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Zhou Wannian stopped his footsteps.

He looked at that mirror surface, a flash of realization passing through his eyes.

This, perhaps, was the true "core" of the Universe's backend.

The black whetstone was merely a powerful tool of the execution layer. And this mirror surface was the maker of rules, the source of logic.

By crushing the black whetstone earlier, he had only destroyed a disobedient "weapon." But now, what he was facing was the "brain" of the entire System.

A bold thought arose in his heart.

What he needed to do was not to destroy this mirror surface.

Doing so might lead to the collapse of the logic of the entire Universe, causing all world lines to be destroyed together.

What he needed to do was to implant a "patch" into this cold brain.

A fundamental patch that allowed "imperfection" to exist, allowed "errors" to occur, and allowed all world lines to have the rationality of their existence.

What he wanted to modify was the underlying logic of the Universe's operation.

Zhou Wannian took a deep breath.

The air here (if air existed) seemed to carry a kind of supreme majesty.

He slowly raised both hands; this time, it was not a single-handed press, but both hands forming an extremely ancient and simple seal.

This seal had no flashy light, no powerful fluctuations. It looked just like a child who had just started, clumsily imitating the first hand seal formed by an elder.

But it was this simple seal; the moment he formed it, the entire Universe's backend, all the flowing world lines, all the operating threads of Law, trembled slightly in response, as if resonating, as if cheering.

Zhou Wannian's hands gently pressed toward that gigantic mirror surface with its constantly changing runes.

His eyes were calm, and he uttered three words from his mouth. The voice was not loud, but it was like the first clap of thunder at the creation of the world, resounding in every corner of the entire Universe's backend:

"Permit. Grant. Live."

"Permit" — — Allow everything to exist.

"Grant" — — Give all possibilities.

"Live" — — Let the fire of life never be extinguished.

Boom!!!

The mirror surface vibrated violently, and countless runes crazily reorganized and reconstructed.

New logic, new rules, at that moment, were permanently written into the depths of the Universe's source code.

From then on, no cleanup program could ever deprive any world of its right to exist.

From then on, the ultimate meaning of the Universe was no longer moving toward the heat death of nothingness, but in this endless evolution, to experience every possible way of "living."

Zhou Wannian retracted his hands, looking at that mirror surface that was gradually calming down, its colors becoming soft and inclusive.

He knew that this time, he was truly "off the clock."

He turned around, not looking back.

Taking one step, his figure merged into the vast Void Realm, and following the path of return, he strolled leisurely toward that surface Universe filled with trivialities, troubles, but also infinite vitality.

Behind him, upon that mirror surface symbolizing the ultimate rules of the Universe, there quietly appeared two faint imprints that seemed as if they should have been there since birth.

One, was the outline of the Old Shopkeeper snoring.

The other, was the pair of footprints of Zhou Wannian, stepping to a rhythm, extremely idle.