Another Civilization

In the depths of the universe.

Yang Xuan, dressed in white, stood in the void like one of the Gods and Devils.

His current body had been created through the divine ability [Myriad Worlds Manifestation Dharma Body], and its essence was a planet.

So his essence was no longer human, but planetary life.

It could be understood as the planet's Gaia consciousness being Yang Xuan.

At this moment, in the palm of his right hand, "Painter" had shattered into countless tiny fragments.

Those fragments were wrapped in spiritual energy within his palm and slowly revolved, like a miniature nebula.

Yang Xuan sensed the energy pattern operating within them, and a trace of satisfaction flashed through his eyes.

"So that's how it is."

He muttered, "Compressing gravity until escape becomes impossible... it shares the same wondrous path as the Primordial spatial laws."

Yang Xuan spread his palm. Spiritual power reversed, and the creation laws of his innate divine ability activated.

Though the creation path of a True Immortal was not enough to reverse the time of the entire universe, reversing a dead object was more than easy enough.

The cracks in the fragments fused back together, and the smooth, mirror-like sphere reappeared in his palm.

"Painter" had been restored to its original state.

Yang Xuan held the sphere in his hand, his gaze falling upon it.

Light flickered across its surface, and images changed continuously. Through the power of creation, he traced back the timeline along this thread of karma.

The image thus arrived three hundred years earlier, when a Trisolaran Civilization probe ship discovered "Painter" amid the interstellar dust at the edge of the Three-Body Star System.

Then came a long interstellar voyage. Images of cold, dark void flickered past, finally freezing on an utterly unfamiliar star system.

The star of this system was a red dwarf. It was not large, nor was its temperature high. It emitted a dim crimson light, like a half-closed eye.

Eight planets orbited this red dwarf. The seventh, the one farthest from the star, was the homeland of "Painter."

It was a planet composed entirely of metal.

From its core to its surface, every inch consisted of some silvery-white alloy gleaming with cold light.

There was also a strange civilization on that planet.

Yang Xuan was slightly stunned.

They were a group of lifeforms composed entirely of pure energy.

They flowed through cities within the metal planet, like light passing through water, like electricity racing through wires.

The Black Hole Civilization!

Yang Xuan understood the name of this civilization.

It was the mark they had left behind in the universe.

Within "Painter's" core storage unit was a piece of information encoded with gravitational waves. Translated, it read:

"We were born in black holes, and to black holes we return."

This was the civilization that had created "Painter."

A civilization made up of pure energy lifeforms, dwelling within a metal planet and possessing the ultimate technologies of gravity and black holes.

Yang Xuan continued tracing time backward.

He saw the height of this civilization's prosperity.

They had not been born as energy lifeforms.

In the distant past, like humanity, they had possessed flesh-and-blood bodies and lived upon the surface of that metal planet.

At that time, the planet had not yet become metal. It had been an ordinary rocky planet, with an atmosphere, oceans, and abundant carbon-based life.

But their star was aging.

Although red dwarfs could live for hundreds of billions of years, their luminosity was unstable.

Every few tens of thousands of years, it erupted in a powerful flare, releasing energy equivalent to millions of nuclear explosions, stripping away the planet's atmosphere, evaporating its oceans, and reducing everything on the surface to ashes.

Every flare was a calamity that blotted out the sky and covered the earth.

That civilization struggled through the flares for millions of years.

They evolved radiation-resistant skin, evolved the ability to survive underground, and evolved the capacity to reproduce in extreme environments.

But every flare was fiercer than the last, and every disaster more deadly than the last.

So they chose to abandon their flesh.

They uploaded their consciousnesses into computers, transforming their bodies from flesh into data, and from data into energy.

It took twenty thousand years to complete this evolution of life, turning them from a carbon-based civilization into an energy civilization.

The entire planet became a gigantic computer. Metal alloy replaced the surface, while energy networks formed its rivers and atmosphere.

In the final years of the red dwarf's aging, the star's gravity began to weaken, and the planet's orbit began drifting outward.

They embedded a miniature black hole into the planet's core, using the black hole's immense gravity to hold the planet firmly around the red dwarf.

The black hole devoured matter, releasing enormous energy that was converted into power for the entire civilization.

This was the pinnacle of the Black Hole Civilization.

They possessed inexhaustible energy, eternal gravity, and the power to reshape celestial bodies and manipulate space.

Yet such a civilization had still ceased to exist.

Where had they gone?

Yang Xuan continued tracing backward.

The timeline advanced to the final days of the Black Hole Civilization.

The red dwarf was collapsing. Its mass was increasing geometrically, its volume shrinking geometrically, and it was transforming into a black hole.

A true stellar-mass black hole.

Tens of thousands of "Painters" had been deployed in the red dwarf's core and activated simultaneously, creating countless miniature black holes.

These miniature black holes merged with one another and devoured one another, ultimately forming an enormous, unstoppable gravitational collapse.

The Black Hole Civilization was creating a true world-destroying black hole.

Their civilization fell into the spiral.

Or rather, they had chosen to fall, burying themselves within the black hole, just as they had been in the beginning.

"We were born in black holes, and to black holes we return."

This was the ultimate goal of their civilization.

Yang Xuan withdrew his divine sense, and a trace of respect arose in his heart.

The evolution of a civilization stirred countless feelings within him. Without realizing it, his use of the power of creation had improved considerably.

This had originally been a struggle of life. Perhaps the other side of a black hole was not utter annihilation...

When two opposing forces collided, perhaps they could give rise to an even stronger divine ability.

"It seems Luo Ji's world is more valuable than I imagined."

Yang Xuan had not forgotten that Luo Ji's world contained quite a few civilizations.

For example, the Level Six Civilization mentioned in the original work, the Singer Civilization, which carried out work similar to that of scavengers. Above Level Six were Levels Seven, Eight, and Nine, shouting across the void, returning proton space, and allowing the universe to evolve anew...

If compared to the Primordial Great Realm, a Level Six Civilization had already touched upon laws, similar to another form of Golden Immortal level.

Yang Xuan placed his planetary true body within the Milky Way as an outpost. The next time he crossed worlds, he would be able to arrive directly rather than hastily fashioning one on the spot.

He had no intention of displaying his divinity before others. When the essence of life was not on the same level, everything looked like ants.

The only thing worth praising was that the gains from this cross-world journey had already surpassed his expectations, not to mention the system reward.

With a shift of his mind, this strand of Yang Xuan's divine sense returned to the Primordial Great Realm.

Mount Buzhou.

Yang Xuan opened the chat group and saw that the task interface had already marked the task as complete.

"World-Saving Mission: Completed."

"Mission Reward: 1,000 group points have been credited. Reward: Choose one of three Legendary Gift Packs."

"What generous terms."

As he looked at the three options that appeared on the screen, his gaze tightened slightly.

[Option One: One Great Dao Comprehension Session (Great Dao may be specified)]

"Specify a Great Dao and directly gain one session of deep comprehension. The degree of comprehension depends on one's foundation and fortune. At minimum, it will not be below minor achievement; at maximum, it may reach major achievement."

Great Dao comprehension, at minimum minor achievement.

This meant that if he chose the Dao of Creation or the Dao of Chaos, even minor achievement would be enough to let his cultivation break through several realms in a short time.

Taking form within a hundred years would no longer be a vain hope.

But the risks were equally present.

Great Dao comprehension required a foundation to support it. His cultivation was currently only at the early True Immortal stage. Though his foundation was solid, he was not certain whether he could withstand the impact of minor achievement in a Great Dao.

If his comprehension went too deep and his foundation proved unstable, the lightest consequence would be qi deviation; the worst would be the collapse of his Dao foundation.

[Option Two: One Great Dao Furnace Cultivation Technique Deduction]

"Activate the Great Dao Furnace and fuse the core essence of cultivation techniques into one, deducing an entirely new cultivation technique that surpasses its original limits. Fusion success rate: 100%."

The Great Dao Furnace was equivalent to having the Heavenly Dao descend upon him, helping him deduce the cultivation technique best suited to himself. It would surpass the limits of his current comprehension, equivalent to having seven Great Daos advance side by side, without any law in which he particularly excelled.

It was a risk-free choice.

[Option Three: One Designated Group Member Invitation Card]

"After use, you may designate and invite any living being from the myriad heavens and worlds to join the chat group. Ignores the system's random selection rules, the target's cultivation level, and world barriers. The invited party may refuse."

A designated invitation card meant he could actively choose the next group member rather than passively wait for the system's random selection.

If he invited a mighty expert with great strength and abundant resources, it would be of tremendous help to the development of the entire group.

But the question was, whom should he invite?

Countless names flashed through his mind: mighty experts of the Primordial Great Realm?

The Three Pure Ones, Nuwa, Fuxi?

Those people were too powerful. Once they entered the group, his "immortal" persona might be exposed.

Inviting top-tier existences from the myriad heavens and worlds—someone too strong was uncontrollable to him.

This option was far less useful than the first two, and the invited party also had the right to refuse. It was utterly useless.