He stood before the conference room's floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out at Pengcheng's skyline.
The observable universe, ninety-three billion light-years across, had shrunk to a single Solar System.
"The panic started in the first year." Chen Siyao stood beside him, her voice steady.
"Every country went crazy. The doomsday talk was even worse than during the Gold-Eater Clan invasion. 'Humanity is the only civilization,' 'the universe is already dead'—people were saying all sorts of things."
Cai Jingwen continued, "That year, Blue Star didn't regain its vitality after the war ended. Instead, it fell into even greater turmoil."
"You have to understand, a universe with no aliens, no other life at all, is the most terrifying possibility."
"It's like how an ocean can have countless fish, or no fish at all, but there's absolutely no way it could have just one."
"If there's only one fish, that means it's living in a fish tank."
"What about now?"
"People are numb," Chen Siyao said. "After seven years of research with no results, most people decided to stop thinking about it. They go to work, they cultivate, and life goes on."
"Only the Human Alliance and a few independent organizations are still observing it," Cai Jingwen added. "But honestly, no one knows how to explain this phenomenon. It's still an unsolved mystery."
Chen Hao did not speak right away.
He was thinking about what Blind Ancient had said before dying.
You're out of time.
Even if you become an Immortal King... even if you become an Immortal Emperor... the outcome will still be the same.
At the time, he had thought Blind Ancient was talking about the Gold-Eater Clan. Now...
Perhaps it was not just the Gold-Eater Clan.
Perhaps this "vanished universe" was what Blind Ancient had really been trying to tell him about.