The Universe Cheers Your Birth!

"The gravitational parameters have breached the threshold! He really succeeded in altering some of the cosmic constants. He did it—a mortal accomplished a miracle that only gods could create."

Everyone stared blankly. As a special elite unit among the Taotie, they knew of the upper ranks' so-called plan.

Yet everyone had thought the higher-ups were indulging in wishful thinking. Though they were Carl's dogs, elites were still elites—especially the Taotie, an Astral Civilization.

They had pursuits and dreams as well. But they had no choice. Death God Karl had used every means possible to carve the words "Death God" deep into their genes.

From beginning to end, the Taotie Civilization had only one goal: grow stronger, create more death, and please Death God Karl.

As for why, under Shihao's leadership, the Taotie had spent more than five hundred years seeking an opportunity to ascend into one of the God-making civilizations, that was a story for another time.

Yet when they saw this ordinary divine river body, using the power of a mortal to rival that of a god on the brink of death, hope ignited in their hearts once more.

Cole was blinded by the red light that suddenly erupted from the central control console. Both hands gripped the trembling metal surface tightly.

The data on the monitoring screens fluctuated madly beyond the limits of Taotie comprehension:

- Gravitational anomaly: Local gravity within the cabin fluctuated chaotically between 0.3G and 173G.

- Metallic phase transition: The armor plates inexplicably displayed superfluid properties.

- Energy overload: The fusion core's output reached 4700% of its design capacity.

"The iridium alloy framework in Engine Compartment Three has melted!" A maintenance soldier screamed and pointed at the surveillance feed. The interstellar metal, which should have been heat-resistant, drooped like wax. The falling liquid metal solidified midair into icosahedral quasicrystalline structures.

A teeth-grating tearing sound came from the warship's outer hull, as though countless giant hands were kneading the entire vessel into scrap metal.

The holographic projection in the command cabin had already twisted into a bizarre spiral. Within the Light Energy Pool, the figure curled up in a mass of light was desperately devouring all energy.

The gravitational field surrounding Yuan was like a greedy mouth. Even the projection beams bent into arcs when they came within three meters of him.

"A Gravitational Singularity is forming!" The adjutant's voice broke apart amid the alarms. "Spatial collapse has appeared in compartments five through eight. We're losing the propulsion engines! If this continues, before spacetime curvature twists us into fragments, the star's gravity will capture us first."

Cole wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, irritated by the Science Officer's shrieks.

As his fingertips slid across the control panel, he felt faint ripples in space—an omen of warped spacetime curvature.

It was beyond the Taotie's capabilities. But as an elite civilization under Carl's command, while he could not comprehend the knowledge of the God-making civilizations, he had received a great deal of advanced instruction.

He stared at the wildly jumping numbers on the energy monitor. Yuan's body was devouring solar radiation at a rate equivalent to three thousand tons of mass-energy conversion per second, far beyond the warship hull's design limits.

"Activate the antimatter annihilation protocol. Put in all the antimatter." Cole's voice seemed to come from another dimension, sending chills down everyone's spine.

"Yes, sir." The battle-hardened Science Officer quickly understood Cole's intentions.

Other than the few god-slaying weapons that had leaked out from Dead Song Academy, a fully loaded antimatter annihilation protocol was the greatest trump card in the Taotie's hands.

The key was that the energy pulse produced by a sufficiently massive burst had a chance of briefly rewriting local spacetime curvature.

It could delay the gravitational field's effects on the warship. The pause would be enough for them to escape the star's gravitational capture range.

As for Yuan, his body was slowly repairing itself. Once the warship reached a safe area, they could gradually gather stellar energy to restore him.

"Missile bay unlocked!" the Science Officer roared. "Antimatter reserves: 7,800 grams remaining. Charging!"

Cole's fingers became afterimages over the virtual keyboard. The warship's outer armor opened like blooming metal flowers as three hundred spherical chambers spun free from the hull within an anti-gravity field.

"Detonation countdown: three, two, one..."

The universe fell silent in that instant. (There had never been any sound in the first place. Or perhaps we simply could not hear it.)

The instant 7,800 grams of antimatter came into contact with normal matter, the command cabin's observation window was dyed pure white. Cole felt as though his retinas were burning.

Amid the blinding light exploding across the monitoring screens, the Taotie seemed to witness a miracle:

- Spacetime curvature was reshuffled beneath the energy shockwave.

- The rampaging wormhole cluster was violently stitched shut.

- The spacetime curvature created by Yuan reached a delicate balance with the energy from antimatter annihilation.

Everyone watched as two intertwined singularities took shape before them. The gravitational vortex created by Yuan and the energy pulse generated by antimatter annihilation tore web-like cracks through spacetime in the vacuum.

"The curvature readings are abnormal!" The adjutant screamed with a sob in his voice. "The spatial structure is... repairing itself?"

"The gravity readings are plummeting! Spatial parameters are returning to normal ranges! We survived!!!"

Cole suddenly understood. When the pseudo-singularity formed by the annihilation energy collided with Yuan's gravitational field, the spacetime curvature that had been on the verge of collapse found a new point of balance.

It was like placing two equal weights on a taut membrane. The violent shock instead neutralized the spatial distortion.

Outside the observation window, the detonated antimatter swept the starlight for thousands of miles around into an energy vortex.

The solar storm resonated with the annihilation pulse, and a torrent of gold and crimson energy surged like an overturned heavenly river. The still-deployed Energy Collector absorbed all that energy even more frantically.

For a moment, the Energy Collector's quantum chromodynamic membrane began to evaporate. It was a sign that the energy density had surpassed the critical threshold of the strong interaction.

The very next moment, the entire Energy Collector exploded.

Fortunately, Yuan's body seemed to have had its fill at the final moment.

"Gene Chain restructuring progress: 98%... 99%..."

The warship's central system suddenly spoke. Only then did Cole notice that unfamiliar runes had lit up across every console.

Those symbols flowing with dark golden radiance lay beyond his understanding. Like a child looking at letters from a heavenly book, he could recognize their shapes but not their meanings.

When the light faded, only crystallized Yuan remained in the medical chamber. His body possessed a suffocating perfection.

"Life-sign stability: 100%..." The medical officer's voice trembled like a dying candle in the wind. "Detected: super-grade dark energy readings."

"They've already reached the levels around Dead Song Academy. We... we witnessed the birth of a god." Everyone's eyes were filled with disbelief.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

At that moment, Yuan's heart resumed its normal beating. Cole did not know whether it was merely psychological, but the sound seemed to grow louder and louder.

The gravitational waves unconsciously released by Yuan resonated with the circulatory systems of everyone in the cabin, making every Taotie heart beat in rhythm with his. Faster and faster they beat, until they were nearly beyond control.

The next instant, the crystal shell around Yuan shattered, and he opened his long-closed eyes.

What perfect eyes they were. Within his pupils, projections of a rotating galaxy and universe swirled.

Every breath he took created unimaginable energy tremors across the bridge. At that moment, the Taotie soldiers felt as if their eyes were under attack from the energy itself, stinging with pain.

"Warning! Local CP symmetry has completely broken!" The monitoring system went mad.

Yuan seemed to wave his hand instinctively. All the shrieking detection equipment instantly shut down, and the entire ship fell into complete silence.

"My consciousness has been awake the entire time. It seems you were trying to save me? But we do not appear to be the same species. I was captured by you, wasn't I?"

The gentle voice sounded beside Cole's ear. Then his tense expression eased as he released the firing button of the god-slaying weapon in his hand.

"From the moment you became a god, there have been no more captives aboard this ship." Cole lowered the head that belonged to the upper ranks of the Taotie Civilization.

"Salutations, Your Excellency! The universe cheers your birth!"

"Salutations!"

"Salutations!"

Everyone placed their right hands over their chests and lowered their heads in salute before Yuan.