142: Chapter 143 Black Tide Devours the Starry Sky? Chang'e's eyes were icy cold. These cosmic nitpickers were truly a downer.

Change's eyes were cold. "These cosmic trolls are such a buzzkill."

Just when Jiang Chen thought it was over, the real big shot entered the fray.

"Boring."

A lazy voice resonated directly in Jiang Chen's mind, shielding out all the noise from the outside world.

The next second, Jiang Chen felt the scenery before him shift.

He was no longer in the command center room but had instantly appeared in a forest of sweet osmanthus trees.

This wasn't virtual reality; this was true spatial displacement.

[At this point, I hope readers remember our domain, Taiwan Novel Website, for when you're short on books to read. t ̸ ̸ w ̸ ̸ k ̸ ̸ a ̸ ̸ n ̸ ̸ . c ̸ ̸ o ̸ ̸ m ̸ ̸ is super convenient]

Change lay on her side on a daybed formed from condensed clouds, holding a popsicle she had procured from who knows where (it was actually a fifty-cent classic popsicle), eating it with gusto.

"Husband, those two little girls keep bickering, making Earth a mess. It's really lacking in class."

Change pointed to the empty space beside her. "Come sit. Let them handle the rough and tiring work. We are a proper married couple, we should talk about something with depth."

Jiang Chen sat over cautiously. "Um... Wifey, what counts as 'having depth'?"

"For example... cosmic gossip."

Change smiled mysteriously, her peach-blossom eyes flashing with the cunning light that only someone who had lived for countless eons would possess.

"Do you know why that guy Pangu created the world?"

Jiang Chen was stunned. "Isn't it because he felt stifled in the chaos?"

"Bullshit."

Change rolled her eyes and took a bite of her popsicle. "That's because he had severe OCD. The chaos back then was a mess, with clear and murky indistinguishable, and the color was grayish and ugly as hell. That guy Pangu was a minimalist; he couldn't stand that chaotic color scheme, so he insisted on separating the 'light and clear' from the 'heavy and murky,' and had to prop up heaven and earth according to the golden ratio."

"And the result? He got a herniated disc halfway through, which is why he worked himself to death."

"..."

Jiang Chen's worldview was being reconstructed.

So, creating the world was just a renovation accident caused by OCD?

"And then there's Nüwa." Change became interested and continued to spill secrets. "Mythology says she molded humans because she was lonely. Actually, that's not it at all. It's because she was obsessed with 'figure making' at the time. She molded them quite seriously at first, but later she ran out of mud, and since it was Friday afternoon and she was rushing to get off work for a date with Fuxi, she just used a vine to fling mud spots."

"So you see people now; some look exquisitely carved, while others look... like mud spots that were flung out. It's all the fault of her rushing the deadline that day."

Jiang Chen listened, dumbfounded.

Are these kinds of ancient secrets allowed to be spoken of?

If this got out, wouldn't all the theologians and historians on Earth hang themselves?

But I have to say... it's damn exciting!

The feeling of listening to a cosmic-level big shot tell jokes is way more satisfying than watching cultivation livestreams or playing VR games! It's a sense of intellectual superiority, a pleasure from peeking at the truth of the world.

"So... what happened later?" Jiang Chen couldn't help but ask, completely turning into a bystander eating melon.

Change looked at Jiang Chen's thirsty-for-knowledge (gossip) expression and nodded with satisfaction.

"That's more like it. What's the point of cultivation? What's the point of developing technology? Only by mastering information can one master the truth of the universe."

"Later, ah..." Just as Change was about to continue, her beautiful face suddenly froze.

The half-eaten classic popsicle in her hand fell onto the clouds with a "plop."

In that instant, the space, originally warm and filled with the scent of sweet osmanthus, suddenly became extremely oppressive.

It wasn't killing intent, but a kind of... disgust.

It was like a person with mysophobia seeing a cockroach crawling on their freshly polished floor.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Chen's heart skipped a beat; that animalistic instinct of danger came back online.

Change slowly stood up, and the lazy, casual, domestic aura instantly vanished without a trace. In its place was a divinity that made one dare not look directly at her. A coldness that looked down from on high, treating all things as straw dogs.

She raised her head, her gaze seemingly piercing through this space, through Earth's atmosphere, and looking directly at the Kuiper Belt on the edge of the Solar System.

"What a buzzkill." Change's voice was very soft, but every word fell to the ground like shards of ice. "Just when I got to the exciting part, some dirty thing showed up."

"Dirty thing?" Jiang Chen swallowed a mouthful of saliva. "Is it the Star Alliance's reinforcements?"

"Star Alliance?" Change gave a scornful laugh. "Are those children who are still playing with spaceships and cannons worthy of making me stop telling a story?"

"The ones who came this time are the dogs kept by 'that group of guys.'"

"They are responsible for scurrying around the universe, devouring civilizations that have just started to show promise and are about to touch the threshold of higher dimensions."

"We call them—Dimensional Predators. Of course, in your Earth terms..." Change turned her head to look at Jiang Chen, her eyes showing a hint of seriousness: "They are a group of cosmic-level internet trolls and contrarians. They don't produce anything; they are only responsible for destroying beautiful things and turning them into trash like themselves."

As soon as she finished speaking, Earth's alarms blared.

This time, it wasn't a red alert, but a black alert. A black alarm representing despair and the unknown instantly covered every screen across the globe.

People who were still practicing martial arts with Ji Linglong or having fun in Zero's virtual world suddenly realized that the sky had gone black.

It wasn't the black of night. It was as if someone had poured a bucket of ink into clear water. The ink was spreading, wriggling, and devouring the starlight.

On the far side of the moon, the muscular rabbit that was massaging Xue Youyou's shoulders suddenly stood up, took off its sunglasses, and for the first time, a look of fear appeared in those ruby-like eyes.

"It's over, it's the Black Tide."

"How could those man-eating monsters have set their sights on this broken planet that's just at version 2.0?"

Jiang Chen looked at Change's cold profile. Although he didn't know exactly what had happened, he knew that the "power fantasy" mode of this chapter was over. What followed would likely be a real, hard battle.

"Husband." Change suddenly reached out and gently straightened Jiang Chen's collar. Her tone returned to being gentle, but behind that gentleness was endless killing intent.

"Didn't you just ask me why I, a higher-dimensional deity, would look for a mortal as a husband?"

"Because..."

"Only you can make an 'observer' like me, who has already grown bored with the universe, feel the urge to protect something."

"Sit here and don't move."

"I'm going to sweep up that pile of trash at the door, and then I'll come back and continue telling you the gossip about Nüwa creating humans."

After saying this, she took a step out.

The moment her figure vanished, Earth's entire gravitational field trembled violently. It was as if even the planet itself was afraid, or perhaps... excited?