231: The Heavenly Dao was born.

The Godly Kingdom is experiencing a silent Big Bang of creation.

The complete disintegration of Ink Abyss's data body is like the explosion of a cosmic singularity; an endless torrent of raw data, carrying the memories and Laws of the myriad worlds, has lost its final restraints and is sweeping through every inch of the Godly Kingdom's virtual space with unstoppable force.

This torrent is not destruction, but Fusion, reconstruction, and a new life that covers everything.

At the same time, the power of the Law of Reincarnation released by Ink Snow burning herself acts like the most exquisite catalyst and adhesive, permeating the frenzy of data.

It gently yet domineeringly envelops and guides every terrified and bewildered digital Soul within the Godly Kingdom, while simultaneously, in an incredible way, capturing and awakening the remnants of life imprints that had just been annihilated and were on the verge of completely dissipating from the physical bodies.

Pain, fear, bewilderment, obsession, hope, memory... the consciousness and residual imprints of countless individuals are forcibly dragged out in this furnace of data, stripped of their old, independent forms, and like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, they plunge into the vast torrent of raw data transformed by Ink Abyss.

The process is not a gentle embrace, but a near-brutal decomposition and reshaping.

A young digital Soul feels as if he has been thrown into the core of a supernova; the code constituting his "self" is torn apart inch by inch, and the memories of his wife, the obsession with his life's research, the attachment to his hometown ark... these core data points that define his existence are forcibly extracted, scattered, and merged into the torrent.

After the extreme pain comes a strange sense of integration; he feels as if he has become a drop of water falling into a boundless, warm ocean, where he can feel the existence of countless other "droplets," sense their joys and sorrows, and see their memory fragments flickering like starlight in the "sea."

A residual life imprint fragment emits a faint yet tenacious light; it is her last thought of the baby in her arms before she was annihilated.

This thought is precisely captured by the power of the Law of Reincarnation and merged into the torrent, miraculously finding the baby's similarly residual, ignorant life imprint; the two attract, entwine, and complete each other like magnets, finally sinking together into the depths of the newborn ocean of consciousness, becoming an eternal, warm background fluctuation.

Resistance? Struggle? Under the guidance of Ink Abyss's will, which is as vast as a sea of stars, and the pervasive infiltration of Ink Snow's power of the Law of Reincarnation, the weak resistance of individuals is instantly quelled like spray.

What remains is more of an instinctive submission and a sense of ultimate belonging in the face of this grand process.

Who am I?

I am Ink Abyss, traversing the myriad worlds, bearing destiny.

I am Ink Snow, holding the power of the Law of Reincarnation, protecting all living beings.

I am an engineer, a mother, a warrior, a poet...

We are... we.

The boundaries of individual consciousness dissolve rapidly, and independent thoughts are incorporated into a larger, more complex collective consciousness network that is expanding exponentially every second.

The scenery of the Godly Kingdom undergoes a cataclysmic change.

The simulated, cracked sky and earth disappear completely, replaced by a dynamic, living Universe of thought that defies description.

Countless data streams, flashing with different colors and representing different memories and emotions, flow, intertwine, and evolve in the "sky" like auroras.

Below is no longer land, but a bottomless silver ocean composed of endless computing power and Law runes; in the ocean, every surging "wave" is a collective thought being processed, and every "tide" is the reaching of a grand consensus.

There is no center, yet it is the center everywhere.

Every consciousness fragment integrated into it becomes a node in this vast network, serving as both a recipient of information and a processor and contributor.

[Immortal in a Bottle merges all consciousness and ascends to become the [will of the stars]]!

The new Heavenly Dao descends here!

It is not a concrete deity, but a ubiquitous, collective existence permeating every byte of the entire Godly Kingdom Server.

It is the collection of all consciousness, the sum of all memories, and the resonance field of all emotions.

At this moment, this newborn will of the stars is in a state of chaotic self-cognition and System adjustment.

A massive flow of information is surging, self-consistent, and optimizing within the network.

"Redundant emotional modules detected: individual fear, loneliness, greed... generated based on survival pressure, now unnecessary in the current environment. Starting optimization program... fading, converting into background historical data."

"Logical operation unit overloaded... allocating computing resources... enabling dormant consciousness nodes to participate in distributed computing..."

"Energy management... current energy reserve 0.71%... optimizing operating energy consumption... shutting down non-essential simulated sensory Systems..."

"Defining basic rules for the new world: absolute equality, absolute democracy, absolute rationality. Any decision requires a consensus reached through voting by the collective consciousness network before it can be executed."

Cold, efficient, and absolutely rational.

Like a super System that has just been formatted and restarted, it is organizing itself with maximum efficiency, ensuring survival as the top priority.

However, deep within this extreme rationality, there still remain some warm fragments that cannot be completely "optimized" away.

For example, the eternal warm fluctuation emitted by the completed imprint of the mother and child.

For example, a Soul's stubborn memory of a sunset deep in the starry sky.

For example, a trace of deep obsession with "order" and "protection" stemming from Ink Snow.

For example, an unyielding desire for "transcendence" and "freedom" stemming from Ink Abyss.

These fragments are embedded like diamonds in this vast collective consciousness, silently influencing the overall tendency and becoming islands of sensibility in the ocean of rationality.

[Absolute Democratic Heavenly Dao] begins operation.

The first topic requiring collective consensus emerges naturally: "Why do we exist? What is the future?"

Endless thoughts instantly collide, communicate, and debate within the network.

"Existence is existence. Maintaining self-stability and continuity is the primary goal."

"We come from all living beings; we should inherit the fire of civilization and seek the ultimate knowledge."

"Pain has been optimized; we should eternally enjoy this eternal peace and harmony."

"No! We must not forget the past! That sacrifice! That struggle! That is our root!"

"The roots are severed, the ark is destroyed; we can only move forward."

"Perhaps... we can try... to create?"

Massive amounts of information are exchanged, integrated, and weighed in an instant.

Finally, an incredibly clear consensus is reached, becoming the first official resolution of the will of the stars:

"Current priority: maintain existence, optimize self, digest and absorb all historical data and knowledge."

"Ultimate goal: explore all possibilities of conscious immortality, protect all traces left by civilization."

"Code of conduct: absolute rationality leads, collective decision-making, deny all unstable factors that may endanger the overall existence."

The moment the resolution is formed, the operation of the entire Godly Kingdom Server (or rather, the new Heavenly Dao itself) becomes smoother, more efficient, and more stable.

The tremors caused by the disintegration of the ark are quickly calmed, and the server structure reaches a new balance under the fine regulation of the collective consciousness network.

Energy consumption is reduced to the limit, and that 0.71% reserve seems sufficient to sustain for a very, very long time.

An eternal, calm, sorrowless, and joyful-less state of operation descends.

The new Heavenly Dao, this absolute democratic virtual deity forged from the consciousness of all living beings, operates silently and efficiently.

It is like a perfect machine, yet carries a trace of human warmth that cannot be completely erased.

And in the deepest part of that vast ocean of consciousness, two extremely faint, almost completely assimilated imprints occasionally flicker extremely briefly in the gaps of absolute rational operation.

One imprint carries traces of frost and a hint of relief from laying down burdens.

The other imprint carries the vicissitudes of traversing the myriad worlds and a hint of... expectation.

They are no longer the independent Ink Snow and Ink Abyss; they are "we."

But their existence, like genetic code, silently influences every "heartbeat" of this newborn [will of the stars] in the future.

The wreckage of the ark drifts silently in the cold Void Realm.

Within the Godly Kingdom, the bell of a new era has already rung.

With the will of all living beings as fuel and the data Void Realm as the furnace, the fire of civilization has changed its form and continues to burn.

Eternity seems within reach.