After completing the Hegemony Domain by fusing countless super-technologies, Seraphine conducted no physical tests.
She refrained because she was the ultimate creator of the technology, knowing every principle and mechanism from the inside out.
Testing was completely unnecessary.
As for using the Authority of Change to alter specific values, such as its coverage diameter:
After careful consideration, Seraphine chose not to experiment blindly.
The reason was simple: "pull one thread and the entire web unravels."
The Hegemony Domain, much like Full-Dimensional self-space, was a deeply complex and exquisite piece of cosmic engineering.
When a machine is this precise, the variables required to maintain its structural stability are infinite. Even a microscopic data error in a single component could trigger a chain reaction, leading to the total collapse of the entire system.
The Full-Dimensional Skyroot Codex was a prime example. While Seraphine could use the Authority of Change to scale the boundaries of her dimensional unit cells, she could not simply alter the number of cells within each dimensional layer.
A 4D unit cell, for instance, must inherently possess eight 3D faces.
The mathematical relationship between them is absolute.
If she used the Authority of Change to force a 4D cell to possess only one or sixteen 3D faces, even Seraphine could not predict the outcome.
It would be like a 3D cube, which naturally has six 2D faces, suddenly warping to have only one or sixteen within a single moment... what would happen then?
It would be like a square circle, something fundamentally impossible to imagine.
According to Seraphine's deduction, if a 4D dimensional unit cell, which geometrically functions as a tesseract with eight cubic faces, were forcibly altered to have an abnormal number of 3D faces, it would likely create something far more terrifying than a black hole's naked singularity.
As for what this anomaly would be, or the horrors of its existence: it might act as a massive cosmic charge, tearing apart and piercing through a vast section of 3D space-time.
Or perhaps a drill that will pierce the heavens, violently boring an unknown hole straight through this 3D grand universe.
No one could say for sure, and even Seraphine could not calculate the result.
Returning to the previous point, the number of unit cells in each dimension is also directly linked to whether Seraphine's entire multi-dimensional true body can exist and function stably.
These parameters were rigorously and precisely calculated during the initial creation of the Skyroot Codex; they cannot be altered lightly.
Like a fragile tower of blocks, if a single error occurs, Seraphine's entire multi-dimensional true body would collapse and self-destruct on the spot.
Although she could use her Root Divinity to perfectly restore herself in an instant, there was absolutely no reason to subject herself to such an ordeal.
The Authority of Change, which is currently only capable of making simple, raw modifications to external phenomena, is entirely unsuitable for making precise adjustments to such delicate structures.
Reckless modification is nothing short of foolish.
Just as erasing a massive chunk of 3D space-time results in a violent eruption of singularity-like fragments, and compressing 3D space-time triggers massive cosmic storms.
Using the Authority of Change always unleashes uncontrollable, severe consequences. If the backlash is so immense that even Seraphine herself cannot withstand it, she would inevitably be killed by the recoil of her own power.
The Hegemony Domain is no different.
If she carelessly altered its reach, it is highly likely that the intricate web of connections would instantly fracture and collapse, turning into meaningless static. Even if she used the Authority of Change to force it to remain in existence, it could no longer function flawlessly, trapping her in a desperate loop of patching one hole after another.
Thus, Seraphine did not, and had no intention to, use the Authority of Change to modify the Hegemony Domain on a whim.
At least for now, the time was not right.
"2.5 trillion light-years, huh..."
Seraphine extended her palm, which was already far larger than the disc of the Milky Way, slowly spread her five massive fingers toward the dark, infinite void, and suddenly clenched her fist.
SWOOSH!!!
Total silence.
She and her 999 Perfected Ungrateful Sons instantly crossed 2.5 trillion light-years to reach the distant void, using the Authority of Change to alter their 3D space-time coordinates.
Facing this abrupt displacement, the Perfected Ungrateful Sons, possessing immense space-time perception, instinctively analyzed the micro-structural data of the surrounding 3D space-time. By comparing it to the telemetry from their previous location, they mapped a detailed curve of the structural shift.
Reading this data curve, they instantly calculated their exact position. The distance from their previous space-time region was a staggering 2.5 trillion light-years.
Stunned, the Perfected Ungrateful Sons began exchanging frantic sensory waves:
"What was your calculation?"
"2.5 trillion light-years!"
"How did we suddenly cross such a distance? Was it the Master?"
"Yes, the Master... but what did she actually do?"
"I have no idea."
"Crossing such a vast distance without causing a single structural tear in the 3D space-time fabric... it's inconceivable!"
"The Master's power... it is truly beyond comprehension."
In an instant, every Perfected Ungrateful Son turned their gaze, filled with shock and absolute reverence, toward the magnificent titan standing a hundred million light-years away.
Seraphine, the focus of their gazes, arrived at her destination and casually redeployed her Hegemony Domain in a flash.
Deployment required time. Unlike her Light of Infinity, this powerful artificial field was not an innate ability. In essence, the Hegemony Domain was a technical product, a synergy of Light of Infinity and a series of hyper-complex technologies. It was a formless divine weapon, an externalized cosmic art.
Thus, activating this artificial field required a brief moment, a duration of approximately 1% of a Kṣaṇa.
According to the "Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya": An Ahorātra contains thirty Muhūrta, one Muhūrta is twenty Laya, one Laya is twenty Acchaṭā, one Acchaṭā is twenty Nimeṣa, one Nimeṣa is twenty Eka-citta, and one Eka-citta is a Kṣaṇa.
Therefore, 1% of a Kṣaṇa is precisely 0.00018 seconds.
In other words, if Seraphine were to fully utilize the Hegemony Domain for rapid travel, she could cross nearly 14 quadrillion light-years in a single second.
This terrifying velocity was approximately 4.4 million times faster than Level 9.9 warp travel.
Even at such a staggering velocity, reaching a destination five septillion light-years away in the Dark Ocean, where the Great Eyes might slumber, would still take about eleven years. And if she intended to traverse the Dark Ocean, which spanned at least a Googol light-years, it would take an unimaginable number of years.
Thinking of this, Seraphine sighed.
"The universe is too vast. So vast... it is overwhelming."
Amidst her reflection, a surging, high-frequency, faster-than-light space-time fluctuation reached her from the boundless, lightless void.
Seraphine froze for a moment. Her Eye of Transcendence flickered as she turned toward the source of the faint vibration.
BUZZ!!!
In an instant, her trans-dimensional vision pierced the vast void, covering five trillion light-years of empty space in that direction.
Yet, after scanning, she found nothing out of the ordinary. Space-time structures, matter, and energy layers all appeared perfectly normal.
However, Seraphine could still clearly detect overlapping space-time ripples arriving irregularly from an even more distant location, passing through those five trillion light-years of nothingness to reach her current region.
"The origin of these ripples... must be far beyond five trillion light-years."
Seraphine immediately activated the Eye of True Revelation, Chaos Calculation, and Cosmic Intellect. Using the Verdant Ancient Matter Sea as a reference from her memory, she began her deduction.
Before long, she located the potential origin point of the space-time ripples.
It was nearly eighteen trillion light-years away, at the opposite end of the River of Primordial, within a specific spatial section toward the inner-rear structure of the Verdant Ancient Matter Sea.
It was in the opposite direction of Seraphine's current journey.
She had been going the wrong way.
But the distance and direction were not the most important factors. What mattered was that her Transcendental Perception had suddenly stirred, as if triggered by these ripples.
Driven by that logic-defying ability that Seraphine always questioned, the one that provided answers without explanation, fragmented and blurry information suddenly surfaced in her mind:
[ Houiste Ancestral Land... Sacred God Territory... Final Order Proving Ground... Primordial Integration Array Control Center... Deep Blood... Probability Correlation... Dimensional Ascension ]
"Probability correlation... to achieve dimensional ascension, huh..."
Seraphine laughed in realization. "I see. It means Holy Emperor Augustus established a device called the Primordial Integration Array in the Houiste Ancestral Land, the Sacred God Territory. This device is likely linked to probability manipulation. He intends to modify the probability of random events... to force his own dimensional ascension?"
Seraphine considered this. "It makes sense. Over eons, as Augustus gradually realized there were other, larger Primeval Rivers beyond the River of Primordial, and once he mapped the structural layers of the entire Verdant Ancient Matter Sea, he would have understood that multiple Perfected Ungrateful Sons inevitably existed within this Matter Sea."
"Given his tyrannical personality, he would surely clash with these unknown Perfected Ungrateful Sons. Augustus might handle one, but once faced with two, three, or more, he would undoubtedly hit a wall."
Seraphine almost saw it: the peerless Augustus, who had never known defeat, forced into a desperate retreat, roaring in futility under the siege of multiple Perfected Ungrateful Sons.
"Augustus would never accept such a reality. He wants to defeat every Perfected Ungrateful Son and become the true supreme ruler of the Verdant Ancient Matter Sea, placing the Houiste clan above all," Seraphine analyzed. "But to change the status quo, he needs to be stronger than all of them, possessing a power that overwhelms the infinite lives of the Matter Sea."
"A Perfected Ungrateful Son is already the end of the road for ordinary 3D evolution, a non-steady-state 4D matter-energy entity. To take another step... he must break the 4D shackles and ascend to 5D."
"But doing so is easier said than done. It is practically impossible. If a 4D lifeform cannot even exist stably, how could he reach 5D?"
"So... Augustus thought of using technology to alter the probability of events, turning an impossibility into an inevitability. And the event he wants to change is his ascension to 5D. As for the source of this probability manipulation technology..."
Seraphine looked up, her gaze piercing the boundless, dark universe as if trying to see five septillion light-years away.
"Deep Blood... what is that?"
"A mere Perfected Ungrateful Son, even with ancient civilization tech... could never develop something as inconceivable as probability manipulation."
Seraphine's Eye of Transcendence flashed. "This technology must have come from the Great Eyes. That is why he left the River of Primordial and traveled the Dark Ocean alone for a hundred million years."
After a moment of silence, she turned abruptly, reaching out to warp space-time and gather the Perfected Ungrateful Sons from a hundred million light-years away into her palm.
"Such a valuable prize like probability technology should be mine. It will help me ascend to 6D."
Then, her gargantuan form vanished, racing toward the end of the River of Primordial eighteen trillion light-years away.
...
In an unknown space-time, upon an infinite ice field on the surface of a grey-white planet, a young man with thick glasses and a bowl cut strolled leisurely through a violent blizzard.
He wore a black hooded leather jacket over a gray shirt, with faded black jeans and black sneakers.
At a glance, he bore a strong resemblance to Alex Mercer, the protagonist of the game "Prototype".
Unlike Mercer, however, the young man's expression and demeanor were relaxed, with a faint... disdainful smile that looked down upon all living things.
As he strolled, the space-time environment around him shifted constantly.
One moment, it was an ancient battlefield with the thunderous roars of clashing armies; the next, an ocean of lava where crimson fire dragons surged. Then, a Dyson ring with tens of thousands of starships ascending, followed by an event horizon where the void twisted to the extreme.
After walking for a while and experiencing a hundred million space-time shifts, the jacket-clad youth appeared on a busy commercial street in a modern city.
He wandered leisurely through the noisy crowd.
Men and women with vibrant, stylish hairstyles passed him by. A few fashion-forward pedestrians cast surprised or disdainful glances at his bowl cut, but said nothing, merely tossing their long bangs aside and moving on.
The young man ignored the gazes of these mortals, treating them as if they were air as he headed deeper into the commercial district.
The street was lined with a dazzling array of shops and bustling with people. After another five or six minutes, a dilapidated little internet cafe named Rose's Love came into view.
"Ah, so you ran here."
The young man grinned smugly and stepped forward.
RUSTLE!!!
He pulled aside a thick plastic curtain, and a foul stench of instant noodles, cigarette butts, spicy snacks, and sweat-soaked air erupted from the cafe, hitting him full in the face.
Simultaneously, the continuous CLICK-CLACK of keyboards echoed from within the building, spilling out onto the street.
Mingled with the keyboard clicks were the TAT-TAT-TAT of gunfire, BOOMING explosions, rowdy shouting, and the upbeat tracks of dance games, all swirling around the young man at the entrance.
"Emmmmm~"
The young man put his hands on his hips and scanned the room, his eyes grazing over the rows of computers and the intensely focused patrons.
His gaze finally locked onto a computer at the far right wall, and the thin figure sitting before it playing some unknown game. His eyes lit up, and he headed straight for him.
As he drew closer, the appearance of the scrawny figure playing a kart racing game became clear.
The figure sat with legs crossed, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He was lanky, with sallow skin and messy dark yellow hair. His long bangs covered the left half of his face. He wore a black casual T-shirt with a red cross pattern and tight black jeans, paired with golden sneakers.
Arriving at the spot, the young man pulled out the empty sofa chair to the person's right and flopped down. Without a remote start from the front desk or entering any password, he casually turned on the computer, opened Audition Online, and began tapping away at the keys. TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP!!!
"Huh? Genarkrail?"
The long-bangs youth turned his head while maneuvering his little in-game kart around a curve. He looked Genarkrail up and down and said in surprise, "What are you doing here, glasses?"
Genarkrail pushed up his thick glasses and smiled. "Coo, I'm here to find you for a reason, obviously."
"Ah... what do you want with an idler like me?"
Coo uncrossed his legs and slumped back into his grimy sofa chair, saying lazily, "Let me guess: you want me to help with something. Well, hate to tell you, but I'm not interested in anything right now. I just want to rot and play games, maybe create some cool art occasionally. I don't understand anything, I don't know anything. Finding me is useless."
"Don't be so quick to chase me away, Coo." Genarkrail turned to him with a brilliant smile. "It's been so long. Can't we just catch up?"
"Fine, fine. Catch up then."
Coo tossed his bangs and smiled lazily. "I remember... it's been about 1.8 quadrillion years since we last saw each other. So, how's the performance of those projects of yours after all this time?"
"It's alright, passable."
Genarkrail pursed his lips. "The quantity of [Spirit Crystal] harvested is average and the quality is somewhat low, but it's finally on track. I don't have to waste as much energy micromanaging it as I used to."
"Cool, that's good then."
Coo nodded. "Don't set your expectations too high. Once you find your specialty, you can work toward it slowly. Balance work and rest. No one's career is particularly cool right at the start."
Having said that, he raised his thin arm and gave a slight wave in the foul air of the internet cafe.
BOOM!!!
Space-time vibrated, and the Great Dao boiled.
In a flash, the environment surrounding them underwent a staggering transformation.
The interior of the ordinary, early 21st-century Earth internet cafe instantly shifted into a magnificent territory spanning quintillions of light-years, forged from the tight convergence of countless radiant Superclusters.
Simultaneously, while the thin screens, keyboards, and mice, and the content displayed on them, remained identical in scale, the computer towers themselves disintegrated and reconstructed instantly, expanding into celestial-class supercomputers the size of suns.
And trillions of light-years above them, a super-massive, blazing chandelier suddenly appeared, far exceeding the size of an observable universe, studded with countless solid light-spikes, breathtakingly beautiful and blindingly bright.
Looking up, one could see that this colossal, dazzling chandelier was encrusted with millions of bulbs as radiant as stars.
No, that was not right.
Those bulbs... were not stars at all!
Looking closer with vision, piercing through tens of millions of space-time layers and multiple dimensions, one could see that the million radiant bulbs in this chandelier were actually a million genuine, colossal [Matter Seas].
The smallest of these Matter Seas had a diameter of over ten trillion light-years; the largest reached a staggering hundred quintillion light-years.
Within these million Matter Seas, used merely as lighting, countless quintillions of intelligent civilizations evolved and flourished, and billions of Ungrateful Sons soared and fought for dominance.
Yet, through an unimaginable feat of dimensional warping and compression, Coo had shrunken and condensed these million Matter Seas into a "tiny" chandelier, merely a hundred billion light-years wide, treating them as a cluster of colorful lightbulbs.
Whether those countless Ungrateful Sons or intelligent civilizations knew their true situation, their lives, their history, their glory, and their loneliness had all tragically become nothing more than faint, flickering sparks burning within a "small" lightbulb.
The sheer scale and horror of such a sight was beyond imagination.
If a Perfected Ungrateful Son were present and witnessed this majestic scene, they would likely be shocked into a stupor, causing their unstable physical structure to collapse and self-destruct on the spot.
But beneath the radiance of this gargantuan chandelier, Genarkrail, still slumped in his grimy sofa chair, quietly playing his game, and Coo, who had created it all with a wave of his hand, showed no emotion.
It was as if scenes of this magnitude were something they had witnessed countless times, something they were long accustomed to.
Having finished his display, Coo produced a small, star-shaped candy, another radiant Matter Sea, and dropped it into his green tea bottle. He closed the lid and shook it vigorously like a bottle of mints, scattering the entire Matter Sea into infinite, tiny specks of light. Once they were suspended in the tea, he tilted his head back and downed the whole thing in a single gulp.
GLUG-GLUG-GLUG!!!
"Cool!" Coo shouted, wiping his mouth.
"Right, your start-up capital came from the [Heavenly Hegemon], didn't it? I remember you'd just finished ninety quadrillion years of compulsory education and immediately went to work for him for a long time."
"That's right."
Genarkrail's hands moved at extreme speed, opening seventeen or eighteen chat windows simultaneously. He flirted with a dozen stylish girls while slumping back and lazily replying, "I'd just graduated then. I was still a kid. I wasn't penniless, but I didn't have much savings either. So, I figured I'd find a big boss and work for a long time to save up some Spirit Crystals before starting my own business."
"That's not bad. Everyone goes through that. No one is born wealthy, and no one is born cool."
Coo started another round of karts and said casually, "You could say your hard work finally paid off."
"It was too hard! Let me tell you, I just picked the wrong boss!"
At the mention of this, Genarkrail straightened up and began to vent. "That Hegemon bastard is a slave-driver! I'm completely done with him!
Under him, I never had a single second of free time. Every day, he either sent me to collect debts from the [Ancient God Swarm] or to pick up stock from the [Gluttony Swarm].
Those two hell-holes are incredibly far away! Even taking the shortcut through the Creeping Sea channel from the [High-Level Realm of Phantasm], it takes ages. You just sit there staring into space the whole way. I still don't understand how he manages to do business so far away."
"And that wasn't enough! That bastard even sent me with the Negative Boundary pioneering team into the damn [Nothingness Region] to suffer through infinite, surging storms. I had to risk encountering [Negative Boundary Scavengers] just to painstakingly scavenge some high-quality singularity-like crysters for him. He's a total skinflint!"
"[Negative Boundary Scavengers]? I've heard rumors of those."
Coo sat up slightly in surprise. "Nowadays, those pests should be quite rare. I remember... there were several joint Swarm extermination operations. Haven't they been wiped out yet?"
"You can't ever wipe those things out, Coo."
Genarkrail slumped back again and waved his hand. "You've been a shut-in for too long and haven't dealt with Scavengers. Those things have the same nasty habit as 3D lifeforms.
If one suddenly appears in a 3D Great Boundary for no reason, then as time passes, a massive swarm of them will simultaneously emerge in every parallel reality spawned by that 3D space-time every single moment.
Then those parallel realities each spawn another swarm of parallel worlds every moment, creating a massive, overlapping stack. The number of Scavengers just explodes exponentially along with it, they're practically infinite.
Normally, that wouldn't matter. Just like those 3D lifeforms, if they want to spawn, let them. They're just a bunch of weeds that can be erased in a blink. At worst, you just freeze a bunch of 3D Great Boundaries, turn on the full-spectrum scan, and wipe them out nest by nest.
But the real issue is that pests like the Negative Boundary Scavengers, those cold-blooded, professional killers, grow fast.
Unlike 3D lifeforms that evolve at a snail's pace, if you look away for a second, those vile things crawling out of the Negative Boundary will grow. Within a few years, countless 3D Great Boundaries would be ruined. And if a massive group of those Scavengers, all from the same origin, decided to perform a self-devouring ritual and breed a super-colossal pest... then the situation would really get out of hand."
"So what if they're ruined? You're worrying about nothing."
Coo casually flicked his finished cigarette butt into a space-time millions of parallel layers away, saying indifferently, "Don't you know? From the moment our [String Swarm] was born, Aleph-null number of [Original Singularity] 3D Great Boundaries were simultaneously created.
And regardless of whether an original 3D Great Boundary is a [Static Local-Inflation] universe or a [Non-Static Global-Inflation] universe, each one spawns infinite parallel realities every single moment.
This... tsk tsk. Even if those legendary big shots, the String Emperors, String Sovereigns, or even String Gods, stepped in, they could never count that many space-times. Hahaha, so let those Negative Boundary Scavengers destroy all they want, let them trample to their heart's content. Just how many could they actually wipe out?"
"You can't really put it like that~" Genarkrail smirked and shook his head, clearly disagreeing.
He sat up and closed all his chat windows, then pulled up "White Album 2". He started intently watching the anime, lighting a cigarette and exhaling thick clouds of smoke as he spoke:
"Sure, the various space-times are endless, numbering into True · Infinity. But our energy, our focus, and the flags we can plant... I mean, the Time-Space Beacons we can sow, are strictly limited.
Only those 3D Great Boundaries with Beacons are my productive soil. Who knows where the infinite parallel realities branching off every second end up? I don't give a damn where they run; once they mix with unrelated parallel space-times, they're impossible to find. They might as well not exist."
Hearing this, Coo just looked up at him lazily, offering no reply.
Genarkrail continued to chatter: "Ah, let me give you an example. Say I work for years, finally scrape together some capital, and then spend a massive amount of time and energy setting up a project in a 3D Great Boundary. I'm all set to harvest a wave of Spirit Crystals and then expand, grow stronger, and create more glory.
But then, BAM!, some damn Scavenger pops up out of nowhere and ruins the whole 3D Great Boundary. Wouldn't all my investment just go down the drain?!"
"Alright, alright, you've got a silver tongue, I can't beat you."
Coo stood up and stretched, saying helplessly, "You're so agitated that I can already guess. You have some asset in a 3D Great Boundary, but the Time-Space Beacon is lost, and you want me to help you find it, right?"
"Coo, you're brilliant!"
Genarkrail gave a thumbs-up with a radiant smile. Then, his smile faded slightly as he said in a low voice, "Exactly. I set up a Spirit Crystal cultivation park in a [Static Local-Inflation] universe, and the flag I planted there... was pulled."