Chapter 1567 Arriving at the Border
In the boundless gray-white desert, the vast and chaotic sky enveloped the surrounding fields. Lady Ye's majestic throne stood in the center of the kingdom of God like a mountain in the center of the world. Said to the distant voice: "Will you be surprised?"
"Not all living beings can still choose to walk a difficult and solitary path after confirming the existence of gods. There are very few mortals who refuse to bow their heads in front of the god's throne..." the distant voice said unhurriedly, as in the past Like many years before, Ms. Ye could hear this voice, but she could never perceive where it came from. It was a great consciousness that directly cast traces in his cognition, "After all, if you can You can get everything you want in this environment, so why pay a higher price to chase the ethereal future?"
"...Aren't you angry?" Ms. Ye hesitated, but still asked the question, "You are willing to find ways to help, but mortals refuse to bow to you... As a true god, you..."
"The real gods are just some more advanced civilization, some more powerful individuals, I reminded you of this at the beginning," the voice said with a smile, "as for 'angry'... I Why be angry? Because they will not prostrate themselves? Because 'there are mortals who refuse the grace of God'?"
Ms. Ye didn't speak, he seemed to be lost in thought, and the voice said quietly after a moment's pause: "I just said that there are very few mortals who refuse to bow their heads in front of the god's throne - since there are very few, it means that there are still such groups of people. Some. They knew the existence of the gods, but they still chose to go alone. At the end of their voyage, they touched the fortress of the gods, but they still passed with their heads held high. At the same time, more civilizations chose our asylum. I chose the sequence of joining the dependents, but for us... it doesn't make any difference.
"Those who accept shelter, we take care of them carefully, those who are unwilling to bow their heads, we treat each other with courtesy, we welcome people, and we accept friends, because no matter what, we are all sailing in the same void in the end, and such a vast void... …Ben can accommodate everything.
"We call this idea 'safeguarding the diversity of civilizations.'"
Ms. Ye finally raised her head from her contemplation, and she asked thoughtfully: "You once said that the 'empty space' is an endless and vast place, and the 'universe' like the one I live in is as vast as sand and dust. In so many universes, countless civilizations prosper or perish every minute, I always wanted to ask... Are all worlds so...difficult to survive?"
That voice was silent for a long time this time. It seemed that even the gods outside the order of time and space needed to carefully consider their vocabulary to answer this question. After some time, his voice finally came from the far side of time and space: "What is What about difficulty? For civilizations at different stages of development, is there a standard for difficulty?
"For the primitive tribes in the cave, a snowstorm in the cold winter is a catastrophe. For the ancient kingdom that has just established itself in the farming era,
A few months late rain can overturn the entire kingdom, a thriving industrial awakened civilization can not fear these disasters on the earth, but a meteorite is still a catastrophe - the magic tide can destroy a mother planet in the initial stage Civilization, but like you said, home-based mind-calibration patches are even single-use for the voyagers, and they're stocked in every vending machine.
"On a mortal planet I once lived on, there is a periodic disaster, that planet will fall into a state of extremely low temperature called the 'Ice Age' every certain period, and the long cold winter will wipe out all nine of the planet. In the two glacial periods, there was only a very short "warm summer". In the warm summer, which was short to almost one breath compared to the entire planetary climate cycle, civilizations multiplied again and again, and they rose , recede, rise again, recede again... and until the day when they finally had no fear of the glaciers, they never received the slightest help from the gods.
"Today, the civilizations bred on this planet are already flourishing. Driven by a culture that they call 'the homeland is hard to leave', they even transformed their home planet into a distant aircraft carrier, and named it For 'Steel Terra', as the first civilization in the galaxy to break through the barrier of light speed, they and their 'Steel Terra' are still sailing in the vast starry sky. .
"But even so, they still have the possibility of dying at any time-the out-of-control neutron star fragments and the gravitational discontinuity zone of the dark tide on the long voyage may be the next 'blizzard' they will face, and they may be in these storms The fallen, like their ancient cave-dwelling ancestors, may also come back from the storm stronger, taller, and ready to face the next catastrophe.
"Son, if that's what you want to ask, then I'll tell you the answer—yes, survival is so hard, both in childhood and in adulthood, life is fragile and full of hardships, so that any kind of natural phenomenon in a certain A specific period and a specific form of ethnic group can become a catastrophe, and even those ethnic groups that have been sheltered by us have moments of overturning in disasters—it’s just that it will be a bigger natural disaster, so terrible that even the gods will fall."
The voice stopped, and Ms. Ye remained silent on the throne for a long time. After a few minutes, she finally broke the silence: "So, all roads are full of thorns."
"Yes, and the crux of the problem is this: After knowing all the worlds and all the roads ahead are full of thorns, does a civilization still have the courage to take the next step—compared to the blizzard whistling outside the cave, Still deciding to take the "next step" in the face of the blizzard is the greatest courage of a civilization, and it is also the greatest difficulty they will face.
"Compared with this 'step', all other options are secondary."
Ms. Ye was suddenly a little curious: "So...is there any civilization that chooses not to take that step? I mean, after it has developed to a certain level, it suddenly realizes that there are still dangers beyond the planet, and realizes that no matter how powerful the power is, I can’t guarantee my own long-term survival, but will encounter difficulties in the process of development, so I choose to take that step back, is there really such a thing?”
The distant god was silent for two seconds, and answered softly: "Yes, and there are many, and even various stages will appear-some will curl up and die in the primitive city-state, some will be drunk and dreamy in the empire era, and some will appear in the nerve potion. Stepping into the end under anesthesia, most of them have silently disappeared before they really see what the world they live in looks like, and it is difficult to leave even a trace.”
Ms. Ye opened her eyes slightly: "Then you..."
"They have the right to choose their own path, and every civilization has the right to choose their own path, but when they repent and start praying at the end of the day... we will not give the slightest response, after all, we are also very busy."
"...I understand," Ms. Ye finally breathed out, he seemed to relax a lot, and his eyes were clearer than before, then he thought for a while, and asked another question, "You said, are the sailors true?" Can it successfully reach the end of the recognizable universe?"
"I'm not sure," the voice said frankly, "since the Battle of the Spiral Rift dragged hundreds of worlds into the zeroth quadrant, the gods' observation of these universes has been greatly disturbed, and now the zeroth quadrant has become a A solidly existing area, and we have yet to find a way to re-establish shipping lanes in this quadrant.
"Perhaps as the prophet and the god of omens said, the only way to rebuild the waterway in the zeroth quadrant is to break the situation from the inside out. A civilization that has successfully survived in the ruins is willing to give up the opportunity to escape and choose to be a pioneer. This group will naturally have the talent to sail in the zeroth quadrant. They may be the "starters" in your mouth, or they may be the successors after the founders, they may be Loren, they may be Noy, More likely a pioneering civilization in some other universe near yours, who knows?"
Ms. Ye thought for a while, and said with some uncertainty: "Then if one day, the Loren civilization becomes the 'pioneer' who successfully reached the end of the recognizable universe, but instead of choosing to continue going out, it stops. , and even turned back to pray to God, what would you...or your friends do?"
"We will accept—they have reached their promised land, and they will have their due reward," said the voice indifferently, "All beings have the right to make choices, and it is not okay to ask God for help after doing everything possible Despicable, on the contrary, refusing to pray is normal. In the final analysis, it’s just that not every world needs God’s salvation, and not every civilization has only the option of ‘bowing down to God’. It’s just…”
The voice suddenly paused, and then, he seemed to have a little smile: "It's just that if they can really walk alone to the end... maybe they can be friends."
...
On the long bridge formed by the dim light at dusk, Gao Wen suddenly stopped and looked back at the direction he came from with a thoughtful expression.
The majestic throne has disappeared in the background of the boundless desert at some point. Looking back, all you can see is a monotonous and pale chaotic mist. The faint light forms barriers on both sides of the long bridge. The endless wind in the Shadow Desert was completely blocked by the barrier. Looking at it from this perspective, he felt as if he was walking on a endless and repeating road, and he had no way of judging where he was going. How far this goes.
He turned his head again and looked at the City of Night on the other side of the road. That silhouette-like city really stood on the border of sand and dust, but since just now, that silhouette never seemed to get any closer.
"What are you looking at?" Amber's voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting Gao Wen's look, "Is there anything else I forgot to ask Ms. Ye?"
"...That's not true," Gao Wen frowned, "It just feels like we've been walking this road for a long time, why don't we have any intention of 'arriving at the station' at all?"
"Who knows? The things in the Shadow God Kingdom are fictitious, and the sights seen by the naked eye can't be used as a reference." Amber seemed quite relaxed, "Anyway, Ms. Ye said that she was heading towards this road. Just move forward, He will never joke with us on this kind of thing."
Gawain took a look at the Shadow Assault Goose: "...you really trust him."
"That's no way, who made him my 'source'? And it also helped me solve the problem of 'stability'. Anyway, from the moment we met, I felt that he could be trusted," Amber said on the side He waved his hand while shaking, "By the way, you haven't finished talking just now, you said that Ms. Ye created a test illusion for you, and then you stayed in it for fifty years, and Ms. Ye dressed up as me in the middle I fooled you, but in the end you were not fooled at all? Was it true that you have never been fooled? Could it be bragging? "
"Am I bragging in front of you?" Gao Wen casually pressed Hu Po's head, "An Hu Po who hasn't even missed a day of overtime work and hasn't been late or left early for meetings for fifty years, you don't even think about who can be fooled by this? I'm afraid that if Hetty and Rebecca come here, they will notice something is wrong within 24 hours."
Amber thought for a while, then bared her teeth: "Although you are right, why do I always feel that I am being ridiculed by you?"
Gao Wen Yile didn't mean to deny it at all, but his steps didn't stop at all, and he continued to walk towards the night city at the end of his vision.
But in the next second, the scene in front of him was suddenly in a trance, and then the majestic giant city suddenly "flashed" in front of him from a distance!
This scene was astonishing and strange, as if he jumped over some kind of discontinuous time and space at the instant of this step, and the city that was so far away that he would never be able to reach was directly in front of him, which made him even feel in a trance I heard a "boom"!
Amber next to him was also taken aback by the sudden change. This guy jumped up and hung on his arm more than half a meter high. Then he pointed at the black city in front of him while grabbing his arm: "Mom... Mom! How did this thing jump over here!"
Gao Wen quickly calmed down, and while picking off the amber, he thought of the information he had received before: "...Do you still remember? It is said that there is a section between Lady Ye's throne and the border of the Shadow God Kingdom that cannot be reached by conventional means. 'Road' is like an illusion of light and shadow reflected at a fixed distance, and the distance is always a silhouette that can be seen and cannot be touched... This may be the embodiment of this phenomenon."
Then he paused, and then said: "We walked along the road built by Ms. Ye, and suddenly arrived at the City of Night, but if we go out along that desert... probably no matter how far we go, The city is in its original place in our eyes."
"...Going on a journey and still chattering like this," Amber also realized at this time, her slightly frizzy head gradually recovered, and at the same time she chanted about her "source" unceremoniously, "It seems that I am usually too I have nothing to do when I have nothing to do, He just..."
Before Amber finished speaking, a young female voice suddenly came from the side: "I'm sorry, it seems that the border wall has caused you trouble?"
Amber stopped for an instant, she raised her head in astonishment, and looked in the direction of the sound with Gawain.
A woman in a black cloak stands at the entrance to the city.
The woman was not wearing a hood, and her long white hair was casually draped behind her back. Her complexion was as pale as paper, and her eyes were equally pale.
At this moment, those pale eyes were staring at Amber and Gao Wen beside him.
"My tribute to you," the pale girl smiled. She first took a breath, as if trying to calm down her slightly agitated mood, and then lowered her head deeply, "Your Majesty Gawain Cecil, and Amber Chief—the hostess of the City of Darkness."