I think Father God summoned me from one world to his home across vast distances (although describing the distance from Shadow City to the Divine Realm in terms of miles is not quite accurate) surely for a major matter, but I never expected the matter to be this significant, obviously what he told me cannot be described as shocking — I persist in believing his primary purpose is to watch the various expressions that roll across my face; in this way, he can somewhat regain his composure. "Void catastrophe..." I smacked my lips, savoring this term Father God just mentioned, back and forth, and then a cold sweat broke over my forehead, "Is the whole world doomed?" You can’t blame me for associating it this way; the term catastrophe is incredibly impactful, and this time, it is preceded by "void." I can hardly imagine what it would look like if the void, such an eternal, unchanging existence as theorized, with no beginning and no end, actually experiences periodic catastrophes. This is something unfathomable, regardless of how you think about it. At this moment, I really hope Father God would say "April Fool’s Day" to me. Father God pondered for a moment, then shook his head slightly: "No, that’s another thing, void reset... which is different from the calamities we understand. Perhaps it won’t destroy anything, perhaps the world will continue to operate on its usual track, or maybe all the Abysses will disappear instantly and then begin anew, any of these results are possible. The term ’void catastrophe’ doesn’t necessarily relate to the events it might trigger. Currently, only Huron knows for sure. What we can ascertain is an exceedingly grand transformation connecting two cycles of the void, but this grand change may not affect every world — it might be you wake up once, and the catastrophe is over; aside from everyone in the world being one hair less, everything remains unchanged." I find Father God to be increasingly vague. What I dislike most is this purely theoretical stuff that seems mysterious over several paragraphs but eventually reaches no conclusion; otherwise, I would’ve passed my political exams ages ago — couldn’t Father God just tell me something normal people could understand? "How did you become certain that such an event would occur?" As I spoke, I turned my head to glance at the Abyss Gate ancestor right under my rear, suppressed by a layer of "lake water." Now, it seems to have adapted somewhat to the surroundings. This Abyss Gate is clearly nearing the end of its life, aside from being irritating, it poses no threat. Father God doesn’t allow ordinary members of the Divine Race to approach probably for caution’s sake, anyhow I reckon if this thing merely makes people uncomfortable, then fetching a severe mental disorder patient from any asylum would be more at ease here. "Some long-duration records, plus a deduction from substantial information exchange with Huron," Father God affirmed, "The void certainly has this attribute, although it is fundamentally an indescribable existence, this doesn’t mean it can’t experience short-term imbalance. However, since the void lacks time and history, there’s no cause and effect distinction, so no one dares to ascertain whether the catastrophe happens or has already happened. Maybe everything you see now has undergone a catastrophe and just appeared seconds ago, including this Crystal Jungle in front of you and me, perhaps they only have a history of a few seconds — these are all possible, yet as a member living within the void, you can’t perceive any of this. In short, what I intend to say is, we don’t dare to confirm whether something will happen, but it undoubtedly has the basis to happen. Of course, as I said earlier, maybe we don’t even need to worry, the word ’catastrophe’ looks different from various perspectives; an upset affecting the entire void might influence each world less than a breeze." "Don’t counsel me anymore, otherwise my paranoia will act up," I hastily waved my hand to let Father God pause on this topic. Actually, having reached this point, I wasn’t very worried anymore; apart from being optimistic, my best trait was saving mental space, things I can’t figure out or even if I do, aren’t useful, I generally don’t bother thinking about. maybe-soon-to-happen, maybe-happening, maybe it’s already happened void catastrophe — just sorting out this sentence requires at least a Level 4 proficiency in Chinese; isn’t obsessing over such affairs too taxing? "Ah, now only three void creatures know of this, including Huron God King?" I reckon since Father God suddenly hastened to inform me of this matter, and Sandora has never mentioned anything related before, there must be very few who are aware of this, perhaps only void creatures can perceive it. Sure enough, Father God promptly nodded: "I only recently figured it out..." Suddenly, I felt like I might be misled, and sure enough, Father God then said the words: "Approximately more than two hundred thousand years ago..." I recalled Bingdisi frequently using one sentence with me: "This matter is not very recent," followed immediately by "Twenty-three million years ago..." Every character exuding a disturbing lack of morality, this group of rich offspring who fundamentally don’t know what time is! "You’ve figured this out two hundred thousand years ago, why only speak of it now?" I muttered, pulling at the corners of my mouth, "Sandora has never brought up the void catastrophe." "Because there’s no significance," Father God glanced at me, "This is an affair even void creatures themselves find challenging; neither your Xyrin Apostle nor my Divine Race is competent in this matter. For life beyond void creatures, they can’t access any evidence pertaining to the void catastrophe, it’s simply as though giving them a term, expecting them to research all the background knowledge is equally unrealistic. That’s why I haven’t disclosed this to others; at least until more can be confirmed regarding the essence of the void catastrophe. Of course, you may mention this to others once you return, though there’s likely no point." I expressed understanding but also indicated regardless of its utility, I must mention this upon returning: This relates to personality and environment; upon returning, I must face predictable bombardments; judging by Qianqian’s personality, she would employ the Ten Tortures of the Qing Dynasty just to satisfy her gossip craving, none of the ladies at home are easy to deal with; Father God and I differ in this respect; I’m certain no matter how easy-going he is, under ordinary circumstances, nobody would brandish a ham sausage from Shuanghui at his head, demanding "Speak or not?"... At this point, I suddenly felt curious, according to Father God’s statement, the void catastrophe is merely a theoretically should-happen event, without any current evidence to explain it, even Father God himself doesn’t know what it looks like, only can ascertain at a certain time point the entire void undergoes a simultaneous change. So, what’s the point of telling it to me? In such haste to summon someone over here, this matter should be significantly serious. Upon hearing my inquiry, Father God stared blankly for a moment, then replied: "Because you’re relatively idle." Follow current novels on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵※𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮※𝓷𝓮𝓽 Then added: "And I’m relatively idle too..." "Alright, no kidding," Father God laughed mischievously, patting my shoulder, "I just feel since this matter was discovered by void creatures, I have an obligation to let the other third of the whole Race population information..." It seems ever since the void creature Race’s population exploded by half, Father God is a bit overexcited, you say, just how lonely is our Race of three’s total population usually. "Additionally, telling you about the void catastrophe is merely to lay some background information; this time I brought you over to discuss another matter related to this: you see the Abyss Gate in front of you, right? As I said, if the void catastrophe really happened, then this gate might be a leftover from the previous cycle since this thing is different from any known Abyss. Before I created the Divine Realm, it existed harmlessly for unknown years." "And then?" I asked, utterly confused. Talking to Father God for too long leaves me feeling dizzy and dazed, the stuff he knows is so abundant that when conversing, you can’t help but feel the topic keeps jumping, and each jump lands on things you’ve never heard of before. After conversing for this long, I realised the words I frequently use are extremely monotonous, they’re mainly ’And then’ and ’Why,’ which hurts my self-esteem greatly. "Originally, this Abyss Gate hadn’t shown any activity for billions of years, but a few days ago, it suddenly opened once," Father God lightly tapped the air, and instantly, a black space rift appeared dozens of meters above the Abyss Gate, slowly letting something drift out. "The kids ventured inside, and brought this back." What drifted out of the space rift was a large, irregular metal mass, partially molten, with some shiny blue crystal clusters inside. The thing looked strangely familiar. Father God stroked his chin and said, "I’ve studied it for three days, and besides you, I really can’t think of who else could have made this." I looked up, dumbfounded. This was a part from an Empire spaceship!! Just now, when that big metal lump flipped in mid-air, there was a Xyrin military emblem on it! Speaking of which, should I make a sarcastic comment since Father God took three days to come to this conclusion? "Are you sure this thing was... extracted from here?" I was almost at a loss for words, pointing to the Abyss Gate that lay just a body of water away, "No, I just can’t figure it out, how did a part from an Empire spaceship end up in your Divine Realm’s bottommost Abyss Gate—did you happen to invite an Empire spaceship to tour the Crystal Jungle years ago?" Father God rolled his eyes at me. "Look at this place, could any of your oversized things fit in here?" I was left speechless. Father God slowly lowered the huge metal lump in mid-air, placing it on top of the now calm Abyss Gate, reassured by the layer of a crystal lake beneath, that it wouldn’t fall. Then the two of us started circling the huge lump studying it, and it became clear that the main purpose of Father God calling me over wasn’t really about whether the Void catastrophe was theoretical or real, but rather this suddenly emerged fragment of an Empire spaceship from the Abyss Gate in the lowest part of the Divine Realm. But to discuss this spaceship fragment, I first needed to see the old Abyss Gate relic of the Divine Realm, and upon seeing the relic, Father God couldn’t help but shift the topic to his own research project. I discovered that Father God and I have many similarities: we both get sidetracked in whatever we do, with each detour covering at least 3,000 words... "I can’t tell what this is for; it would be great if Sandora were here, she would surely recognize it." After circling the irregular metal lump with a radius of at least a dozen meters for several minutes, I spread my hands, helpless. If it were intact, my makeshift knowledge accumulated from dealing with various spaceships over the past two years might at least identify which type of starship it’s from. But now this thing has been so completely burned that its distorted state, if human, would require three million spent in South Korea for plastic surgery, and even then it might not restore its appearance, something only a top expert could handle. "I see, then just take it back with you when you leave." Father God nodded in understanding, and I curiously asked, "Just take it back? You’re not keeping it for research? I could actually send a few experts to Divine Realm to assist with the research." I said this mainly out of a bit of embarrassment. Evidently, this was another incident caused by the Empire’s habitual discarding of non-biodegradable waste. And this time, the non-biodegradable waste was tossed into a very remarkable place: Father God’s basement. Not to mention anything else, you can’t just casually retrieve a football from someone’s living room without leaving a pane of glass as compensation, right? Father God did mention that the Abyss Gate only recently became active, though he lightly touched on the matter, avoiding the issue. But considering the recent reinforcement of Divine Sentry troops, I have ample reason to believe it relates to this scrap heap in front of me—probably the Abyss Gate got a gut ache from it. However, Father God didn’t mind at all, pointing to the house-sized metal lump and saying, "Just take it back, we have no use for it. I’m also worried some mischievous one might secretly dismantle it." Hearing Father God use "mischievous" to succinctly describe the numerous gods of the Star Domain left me speechless. I could only surmise that this might indeed be the ultimate dad figure of the cosmos. Regardless of how many gods resembling white-bearded Gandalf are among them, in Father God’s eyes, they’re just a bunch of rowdy kids. Just this mentality makes me think the title "Father God" is more than a title—it may very well be a position, casually expressing the "God of Dadhood"... Thinking of this, I recalled Father God’s family, plunging into chaos once again... I don’t know if it’s my illusion, but after retrieving that spaceship fragment, the surrounding environment seems significantly improved. Despite the Abyss’s oppressive air still being present, the image of the Abyss Gate beneath the water clearly seems a bit shallower. The purple mist in the air also dissipates, creating the impression that this Abyss Gate was constipated for quite a while and finally had relief—hm, this analogy is a bit gross, but you get the spirit. Departing from the Crystal Jungle, I glanced back, seeing only a thin bright line through the woods near the now Abyss Power shrouded Crystal Lake. From outside, no sign of the lake’s purple-black mist was visible. I asked Father God curiously, "Haven’t you thought about dealing with that Abyss Gate? Though it’s benign, having it in your own home seems unsafe to me. Besides, keeping it does you no good—unless you have a hoarding habit?" "Destroying this Abyss Gate isn’t that simple; practically the entire Divine Realm might have to relocate," Father God’s words startled me. "Don’t let its modest scale fool you, and though it seems virtually powerless, being something that has existed alongside the Divine Realm till now, it has some special properties." Father God didn’t elaborate on what those particular properties were, making it clear it bordered on confidential information. Of course, I’m not terribly nosy, considering this matter has little to do with me, so I refrained from asking further. We retraced our route, eventually exiting from the Central Square. As we left, I observed the sentries around us withdrawing in batches, making the already vast square seem even more empty. Along the square’s edges, bright lines were gradually extending toward the platform’s interior, slowly dissipating into the air. "Actually, once the kids recovered that fragment from the Abyss Gate, the Crystal Jungle was already stabilizing," explained Father God. "The final sentries here mainly guarded the fragment while preventing others from entering the Crystal Jungle. Now that you’ve taken it away, this temporary passage can close." Looks like my business in the Divine Realm was all about this, chatting with Father God, hearing him talk about the Void catastrophe (in his words, it’s like sharing intel with a third of the tribe—his excitement unmistakable), and most importantly, taking that spaceship fragment that inexplicably surfaced from the bottomless Abyss Gate back for research, then heading home. But before returning, I must wait for two people: Dingdang finishing tasks at the Life Goddess Temple, and Bingdisi being escorted by her dad to apologize to every Divine Realm leader who got stood up. Seems I’ve suddenly become idle. I decided to look for those two rascals, so I bid farewell to Father God at the Central Square of the Brilliant Divine Court, wandering off. Usually, places like the Brilliant Divine Court wouldn’t allow anyone to roam freely, but evidently, I’m an exception. Setting aside being a "friendly leader," just by my Void Creature household registry alone, I enjoy many privileges. As I embarked toward the Life Goddess Temple, I even tried to create an atmosphere for myself, hypnotizing myself: this is a third of the Void Creature tribe’s entire population advancing toward a deity’s temple... (Starting overtime... Updates will probably be delayed by one to two hours...)(To be continued. 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