The Withering of Gods, Culling the Universe's Population

Smack

A crisp the Snap.

In the vacuum of space where no air can travel, this sound should not exist.

But at this moment, it transcended the physical medium and exploded directly in the depths of the Soul Stone of all living beings in the Solar System, in the code sequence at the bottom of the universe.

Jiang Li's right hand remained in the position after snapping his the Snap.

The dark gold starry sky pattern rippled like water at his fingertips.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

Nothing happened. There were no devastating beams of light, no storms tearing apart galaxies.

"Bluff..."

The [Exitar], who had just unleashed the destructive ray, had a hint of doubt flash across his massive cross-shaped mask.

He suddenly raised his arm, preparing to gather energy once more.

Click.

The Exitar froze.

He looked down at his right arm.

That arm, larger than Jupiter, forged from dark matter at the beginning of the universe.

Suddenly, countless cracks appeared on the surface.

No blood flowed. There was no explosion.

Those seemingly indestructible divine armor and flesh lost their "mass" and "form" the moment they were torn apart.

Desertification.

They transformed into countless golden specks of light, shimmering and dancing in the sky.

It's like being gently erased on drawing paper by an eraser.

"What... happened...?"

The Exitar wanted to roar, but he discovered that his vocal cords had already been removed.

Half of his body turned into golden sand in the breeze and drifted backward.

This most brutal executioner in the Celestials didn't even get to utter a complete scream before his massive head was scattered by the wind.

Completely vanished. Thoroughly "deleted"—physically, Soul Stone, and conceptually.

In space, only a golden haze large enough to cover tens of thousands of kilometers remained.

But this is just the beginning.

"No... no!"

Beside him, [Yinsen the Explorer] stared in horror at his own hands.

His hands also began to turn into golden specks of light.

Next is [the Collector Gamiel]. Then comes [the Calculator].

Fifty statues!

At this moment, half of the hundreds of Celestials surrounding the Solar System were selected with remarkable precision and without any logic.

They are the creator gods of the universe. They have lived for billions of years and witnessed the destruction and rebirth of countless galaxies.

But at this moment.

With a the Snap Jiang Li's fingers, they were like files in a computer system's recycle bin that were selected and emptied.

There was no room for resistance. No law could offer any protection.

Softly fluttering.

In space, a spectacular golden rain of light fell.

Fifty gods, whose size surpassed that of planets, were transformed into countless golden pixels that danced in the sky within a mere ten seconds.

The sunlight they had blocked has once again pierced through the cracks of truth and shone upon the earth.

The Solar System's gravity instantly returned to half of its equilibrium.

On Earth.

New York Sanctum. Wakanda. Main Base of the Lunar Plumbers.

Everyone who witnessed this scene turned into a frozen statue.

[Bite!]

[Erase command completed!]

[Memory usage cleared: 50 Celestials entities!]

[System speed increased by 10000%!]

Jiang Li was suspended in space.

He slowly lowered his right hand, bathed in the golden light that drifted across the sky.

On his face, devoid of features and shrouded in starlight, his dark golden eyes gazed upon the remaining fifty Celestials.

"It's much quieter now."

Jiang Li's grand, cold voice, filled with code, echoed in the vacuum.

The remaining fifty Celestials went completely mad.

Their cold, logical processing units completely collapsed at that moment.

Death. It's an emotion that was never written into their code.

Escape! We must escape!

The fifty gods turned around and frantically tore at the spatial dimensions, trying to squeeze back into the World Forge.

"Stop!!!"

Sudden.

A furious roar, reaching its absolute limit, shattered hundreds of meteorites at the edge of the Solar System.

Judge Arishem.

The supreme leader of the Celestials was not erased in the Snap.

He stared intently at his kin, who had vanished into specks of light. Those six enormous red eyes had now turned an extremely terrifying dark red!

His logical reasoning process was completely destroyed.

Instead, there was pure, unbridled rage that transcended divine reason!

"You... deleted the gods..."

Arishem's massive body trembled. The energy core in his chest erupted with the violent flames of the early stages of the Big Bang.

"You have defiled the laws of creation!"

Arishem suddenly spread his arms wide!

He knew that the dark golden monster before him possessed supreme authority to alter reality and erase established settings.

Using energy to clash? Using dimensional laws? It's all a waste of effort. You'll either be turned into a butterfly or simply deleted by the opponent.

There is only one way.

Buzz--!!!

The "Judgment Core" within Arishem shattered with a deafening roar!

He actually burned away his cosmic origin lifespan accumulated over hundreds of billions of years!

A pure red, absolute barrier, centered on him, instantly enveloped the entire Solar System.

This isn't a defensive shield. This is a "Reality Anchor."

"In the name of the highest judge of the World Forge..."

Arishem let out a roar that shook the galaxy.

"Forcibly lock onto the underlying logic of this galaxy!"

"Block the authority to modify reality! Block the authority to Concept Erasure!"

Click click click click--!

On Jiang Li's retina, the system unusually displayed several red garbled warning messages.

[WARNING! Cosmic-level forced self-destruction lockdown detected!]

[Current galaxy reality modification permissions... have been forcibly frozen!]

Arishem, at the cost of nearly destroying his own life, forcibly disconnected Jiang Li's "programmer privileges" from the network cable!

The battle was forcibly dragged back to the most primitive physical level!

"A variable! I will use the most primal power to crush your godhood bit by bit!"

Boom!

Judge Arishem, whose enormous body was dozens of times larger than Earth, shattered the void.

With the blazing flames of nascent life that could incinerate everything, it swung its enormous fist, powerful enough to smash through a star.

Like an ancient behemoth that had gone completely mad, it launched the most brutal physical charge towards Jiang Li!