Within the vast void, Seraphine stood silently, her form seemingly woven from countless radiant starlight and immeasurable dark cosmic dust.
RUSTLE RUSTLE!
Deep within her boundless mental sea, the memories of the Verdant Ancient Matter Sea's many Primeval River Lords, Ungrateful Sons, and Top-tier Sage Kings surged and boiled.
These complex, titanic streams of memory, countless threads like brilliant rivers or phantom tornadoes, intertwined and clashed, sparking infinite flashes of intellectual brilliance. Within this light lay the complete life information of these powerful beings.
This data contained everything they had witnessed, alongside various evolution techniques, some messy and complex, others novel, brutal, or simple and pure. It also included vast scientific knowledge and Black Technology from their respective Primeval River-level civilizations.
From these memories, it was clear that these powerful civilizations, in terms of technology, species evolution, and overall military might, were easily on par with or even superior to the Houiste level.
However, to Seraphine, who had already plundered the memories of 999 Perfected Ungrateful Sons from various Matter Seas, this information was mere database filler. It could elevate a low-level planetary race to a super-observable universe civilization, but it held little significance for her own ascension to the 6th Dimension.
Still, amidst the scientific data, Seraphine found a few things of interest.
"Interesting. The Verdant Ancient Matter Sea truly holds many Perfected Ungrateful Sons. And judging by their lives, these Primeval River Lords are almost all world-shaking geniuses and peerless talents. Augustus was actually only upper-middle tier among them."
Indeed, while scanning the data, Seraphine found that nearly all the Primeval River Lords possessed unparalleled talent for cultivation and evolution, much like Augustus.
The most gifted among them was the absolute strongest of the Verdant Ancient Matter Sea, the Lord of the River of Colossal Marsh, Cassius.
His talent was simply terrifying.
Although the power hierarchy of his Primeval River differed from the River of Primordial, and the names of the ranks were entirely different, all things eventually converge at a certain level.
If judged by the River of Primordial's standards, Cassius, the Perfected Ungrateful Son who looked like a giant jellyfish from the oceans of the old Earth, could be described as a significantly powered-up version of Augustus.
Why?
Because this glowing jellyfish began as a mere aquatic creature and reached the Transcendent level in just a few years. Within less than a century, he attained the Overlord level.
Thereafter, it took him only a millennium to enter the Sage domain, ten thousand years to become a Sage King, a hundred thousand to reach Top-tier Sage King, a million to become an Ungrateful Son, and only ten million years to reach the rank of Perfected Ungrateful Son.
Later, within a few hundred million years, Cassius successfully refined two additional Perfected Ungrateful Son bodies, making him the absolute, undefeated ruler of the Verdant Ancient Matter Sea for a full three billion years. Even Augustus had been defeated by him more than once.
That wasn't the most interesting part, though.
The truly intriguing bit was that the Marsh Lord was a transmigrator. He had soul-transmigrated to this space-time over three billion years ago.
He wasn't the only one. The Expanse Lord, the Beginning Dual Kings, and the Three Emperors of the Net were all transmigrators from the human civilization of an old Earth in some parallel space-time.
Even more amusingly, all these transmigrators were from the same school and the same middle school class in that unknown space-time.
Marsh was the class sports rep and a student-athlete.
Expanse was the vice-monitor and the study rep.
The Beginning Dual Kings were a young couple in love, and the Three Emperors of the Net were a set of triplets who were underachieving students.
Seraphine's assessment of this dramatic setup was simple:
"Probably just the sick joke of some 6th Dimension Observer."
As for how these middle schoolers became so powerful, how they managed to not only survive millions of years of struggle and countless powerful rivals but also rise to become Primeval River Lords, Seraphine found the answer after a closer look.
Through deduction and research, she theorized that before the unknown Observer cast these souls from the parallel Earth into this space-time, they had used some mystical method to forcibly elevate their Spirituality to a level slightly beyond Augustus.
It wasn't the slow, agonizing smelting process that took eons; it was a method that violently surged their Spirituality in a very short time. After studying these semi-materialized Spiritualities, Seraphine guessed the process took no more than a year. At its fastest, it might have taken less than a month.
This was why these transmigrators still possessed somewhat flighty personalities yet held semi-materialized Spirituality of decent quality. Backed by such power, they had carved out their empires with relative ease.
Of course, this was just her speculation. Because if it were true, Augustus, who had endured countless hardships to become a Perfected Ungrateful Son, would look a bit pathetic. The God of Hunger race, who had been defeated by these Primeval River Lords, would look even worse.
Next, Seraphine was surprised to find the truth behind the mysterious time coordinates of Augustus's downfall in the lords' memories.
"Everyone's memory is different? History was rewritten? Not just in one place? And these histories, with different progressions and origins, all coexist within a single Matter Sea? This is hard to explain."
RUSTLE!
Faced with this anomaly, even Seraphine fell into confusion.
At that exact moment, her dormant Transcendental Perception suddenly stirred, flashing a blurred piece of information into her mind.
"This is..."
Seraphine examined it with confusion.
The Transcendental Perception revealed information from an unknown source: the chaos and blurring of past history in the material world was real, and it was closely related to her.
"Because of me... the true time of Augustus's death has become so unstable?" Seraphine muttered in shock. "Do I really have that kind of influence? Why didn't I know?"
After several minutes of silent, fruitless deduction, she abandoned the search. If there were no immediate answers, it was better to set it aside and deal with the matter at hand.
With that thought, Seraphine 'glanced' toward the Sacred God Territory, hundreds of billions of light-years away.
From the memories of the Primeval River Lords, she knew that this colossal, bizarre geometric structure had first appeared in the universe millions of years ago, when the Holy Emperor Augustus failed his ascension.
That failure had triggered a massive annihilation spanning eighteen trillion light-years. Every supercluster, galaxy, star, and subatomic particle within that radius was erased in an instant, without even a trace of residual heat.
Because of this event, the middle and tail sections of sixteen Gravitational Primeval Rivers were wiped out, resulting in a total loss of trillions of light-years in length. The nearest, the River of Primordial, was shortened from thirty-three trillion light-years to twenty-three trillion, a loss of ten trillion light-years. Some smaller Primeval Rivers vanished entirely. Countless eons of civilizations were snuffed out in this cosmic catastrophe.
Strangely, the massive void created by the cataclysm had originally been eighteen trillion light-years in diameter. Yet, millions of years later, it had silently expanded to thirty-six trillion light-years.
Furthermore, the civilizations of the various Primeval Rivers had absolutely no record of this. They hadn't noticed the expansion of the surrounding void or the shift in their own positions.
It was only upon arriving in this region that the Primeval River Lords realized the strangeness of the situation.
Similarly, the Houiste Ancestral Land, the Sacred God Territory, which had originally been only a hundred million light-years across, had expanded and distorted during this great change into a massive, bizarre geometric entity. Within minutes of its appearance, it had detached from 3D space, vanishing into a sideway of the universe where it could not be found.
Only now had it returned to the light of day.
Seraphine gazed at the distant Sacred God Territory and muttered hesitantly:
"So, the probability manipulation technology should be within this chaotic space-time structure."
As a 5D spatial lifeform, Seraphine could see at a glance that the Sacred God Territory was far more than a simple collection of a hundred million continents.
At its core, it was clearly a multi-dimensional conglomerate, a space-time structure possessing segments of 3D, 4D, and 5D space, all undergoing rapid, chaotic, and dynamic changes.
If a standard 3D or even a 4D lifeform were to enter recklessly, there was an extremely high probability they would be instantly shredded by the high-frequency dimensional shifts, leading to their total disintegration.
The best way to handle it was to exert force from the outside and dismantle it directly.
No sooner said than done. Seraphine activated her boundless Hegemony Domain, enveloping the super-colossal, multi-dimensional chaotic structure from all sides.
HUMMM!
In an instant, the invisible Hegemony Domain completely blanketed the Sacred God Territory. Approaching from the 3D, 4D, and 5D dimensions, she began the demolition process.
Because the multi-dimensional structure was so complex and chaotic, Seraphine exercised extreme patience. She worked meticulously to ensure that the objects and information within were not lost or destroyed.
As the dismantling continued, time slowly ticked away.
One hour, two hours, three hours...
Ten hours, fifteen hours, twenty hours...
Nearly a full day and night passed in silence.
Finally, Seraphine completed the incredibly tedious task of dismantling the multi-dimensional structure.
She successfully unlocked and converted the 165.8 million layers of continents, each spanning hundreds of millions to trillions of light-years, from their multi-dimensional state back into standard 3D space.
During the process, Seraphine realized the true nature of these flat-earth continents.
They weren't actual solid matter.
Instead, they were blurred products existing between reality and illusion, birthed from the convergence of the Realm of Phantasm, the physical void, and the non-continuous 4D space of the universe.
On these surreal continents, the four fundamental forces were blurred, the light-speed limit was irrelevant, fantasy and reality were intertwined, and energy, matter, and information coexisted.
In other words, these millions of layers of continents were like fantasy worlds that existed under the influence of massive Black Scepter Arrays, completely ignoring the physical laws of the universe.
HUMMM!
At that moment, after a day of cooling down, the [Infinite Attributes] system reactivated.
Seraphine, familiar with the process, channeled the Authority of Change to influence the system.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
As the system interface blurred, her attribute values updated to:
[Host: Seraphine]
[Physical Strength: 1.8 Quintillion Galaxies]
[Soul: 1.8 Quintillion Galaxies]
The figure 1.8 Quintillion Galaxies is so staggering it's almost impossible to comprehend. To put it simply: it is the equivalent of 300,000 observable universes.
This meant Seraphine's body and soul now pulsed with the total mass and raw power of 300,000 observable universes. With a mere flick of her finger, she could likely send thousands of observable universes flying.
Furthermore, compared to the previous update, her attributes had surged by a factor of 600. The rate of increase was growing with each cycle. Soon, Seraphine would be living a life where her power multiplied by thousands or even millions every single day.
However, her focus wasn't on her attributes right now.
After thoroughly dismantling the Sacred God Territory, she had finally found what she was looking for:
A super-colossal device, thousands of times larger than the Sloan Great Wall.
This machine existed simultaneously across four space-time dimensions: 4D non-continuous space, the physical universe, the Sentience Realm, and the Realm of Phantasm.
On the "segment" of the device facing the Symbolic Domain of the Sentience Realm, it was connected to countless thick, yet fragmented, hallway shards.
Indeed, these were the hallways scattered throughout the various galaxies of the River of Primordial.
Seraphine froze as she examined the structural segment of this device within the Symbolic Domain. It was linked to broken hallways that were hundreds of thousands of times thicker than high-level Milky Way hallways, millions of times thicker than low-level ones. These fragmented hallways had diameters spanning hundreds of millions, or even over a billion kilometers. (See Chap 75)
"These are..."
She focused, carefully identifying these shards. They looked like standard Otuben channels but were infinitely larger, glowing like cylindrical "Suns" of radiant light.
"...These are all Primordial Channels," she said slowly, her voice deep.
Seraphine recalled in thought...
For eons, within the Sanchegues super-structure in the heart of the Milky Way, specifically in the empty region facing the galactic core's black hole, there had existed many unknown, fragmented devices spanning 10 astronomical units in size: the Primordial Channels.
Because of Saknussim, the six races of the galactic core vaguely knew the names of these devices, but they never understood their specific purpose.
Driven by various motives, the six races had built a series of monitoring stations around these fragmented devices to watch them from every angle.
These stations were dedicated to monitoring the complex changes in energy, information, and space-time curvature within the super-structure in full 360-degree detail, ensuring that any potential danger from the black hole could be detected immediately.
It was the existence and operation of these Primordial Channel observation stations that had led to the accidental discovery of the Gravitational Dragon clan's plot to "awaken" the galactic core black hole. This exposure peeled back a corner of the God of Hunger race's conspiracy, eventually igniting the inter-species war that engulfed the entire Galactic Continent. (See Chap 90)
Truthfully, Seraphine had never known the purpose of these Primordial Channels, nor had she paid much attention to them. She was far too busy, and the memories of the six galactic core races contained very little relevant information. She had simply assumed the Primordial Channels were ruins of some massive device damaged during the space upheavals of countless eons past.
But now, as the seemingly unrelated information fragments in her mind clicked together, Seraphine suddenly understood what these devices were for.
"These Primordial Channels are used to connect the countless galaxies of the Primeval River to this Primordial Integration Array."
Indeed, Seraphine deduced that this super-colossal machine was the very "Primordial Integration Array" mentioned in the information provided by her Transcendental Perception.
It was an array that the Houiste Federation had meticulously constructed for some unknown purpose, likely to integrate something from the River of Primordial.
"The overall framework of the Milky Way's hallway network uses high-level hallways as its backbone. A single high-level hallway branches into numerous mid-level ones, which then branch into even more low-level ones."
Seraphine pondered. "Ultimately, countless hallways of all levels interconnect and entwine to form a massive, complex, yet orderly system. The starting point for many of the Milky Way's high-level hallways is, in fact, the Sanchegues super-structure."
"The numerous Primordial Channels within that super-structure are designed to connect with these high-level hallways. Or rather, it's highly likely that all the high-level hallways in the Milky Way originally branched out from the Primordial Channels."
"Eventually, these Primordial Channels must 'emerge' from the Milky Way, joining Primordial Channels from countless other galaxies. Through various possible parallel or linked connections, much like a vast network of arteries, they all lead back to the distant Sacred God Territory."
"However..."
She muttered in confusion. "The Sacred God Territory is so far from the countless galaxies in the Primeval River. Across trillions of light-years of vast, empty space, how did the Houiste Federation ensure all these Primordial Channels reached this place quickly and safely? Neither the physical universe nor the Sentience Realm are that stable."
Amidst her whispers, Seraphine suddenly recalled Saknussim's strange behavior eons ago, how he had, for some unknown reason, installed numerous "Scepter-like" devices in the desolate outer regions of the Milky Way's spiral arms. (See Chap 116)
Seraphine pondered: "Is the existence of those 'Scepter-like' devices linked to the Primordial Channels and this Primordial Integration Array? He wouldn't have done it for nothing."
"The Realm of Phantasm... World Gates..."
She suddenly thought: both the heart of the Milky Way and the outer reaches of its spiral arms possessed entrance mirrors to the Realm of Phantasm. The former were products of the Black Scepter Array's influence on real space, while the latter... were likely products of the many "Scepter-like" devices acting upon the material universe. (See Chap 88, 95)
"Right! I get it. That's it."
Seraphine felt a surge of realization. "The Primordial Channels in the galactic core could use the Realm of Phantasm gates created by the Black Scepter Array to enter the Realm of Phantasm directly."
"Then, these channels could diffuse outward toward the edges of the Milky Way into corresponding areas within the Realm of Phantasm. From there, the detailed hallways of the entire Milky Way Sentience Realm network, extending to the very edges of the galaxy, could connect through the 'World Gates' formed by the Scepter-like devices at the tips of the spiral arms."
"Ultimately, this would merge all the hallways into a single, unified system, achieving a perfect closed loop."
"This must have been one of Saknussim's primary goals in installing the Black Scepter Array at the galactic core and the 'Scepter-like' devices at the edges: to pave the way for the Primordial Channels, allowing the low-level hallways to enter the Realm of Phantasm and link up."
"Since the Realm of Phantasm has no light-speed limit, an object can accelerate indefinitely as long as it has enough 'thrust.' As for ensuring the safety of these Primordial Channels within that realm... haha."
Seraphine let out a soft laugh. "That's also simple. Saknussim has already done it. As Vassago saw, the Houiste Federation only needed to deploy their troops and wipe out every Realm of Phantasm settlement along the path of those countless Primordial Channels. Killing them all would solve the safety issue and provide plenty of hallway construction materials, killing two birds with one stone. In fact, these two actions were likely carried out simultaneously." (See Chap 92, 95)
"Ultimately, those billions of Primordial Channels would exploit the Realm of Phantasm's conditions to cross trillions of light-years. Along the way, they would continuously link with even more channels from countless other galaxies, eventually bundling together to connect with the Primordial Integration Array inside the Sacred God Territory."
As her thoughts swirled, Seraphine's Hegemony Domain, which enveloped the super-colossal Primordial Integration Array, began to penetrate the device's complex exterior and internal framework. She ensured that no information, matter, energy, or space-time conditions were disturbed as her perception seeped toward the array's absolute center.
HUMMM!
After carefully passing through millions of defensive layers, Seraphine's perception suddenly entered a miniature pocket universe only ten light-years in diameter.
RUSTLE RUSTLE!
Space-time rippled, and matter-energy churned.
In this "narrow" space, filled with countless terrifying gravitational flows and violent space-time vortexes, there were no precise machines. Instead, it was filled with massive piles of twisted, broken, and even mutated fragments of unknown components.
No, it wasn't just fragments.
Through her vast and precise perception, Seraphine could clearly "see" that deep within this pocket universe at the very center of the Primordial Integration Array, surrounded by countless shards, floated a single drop of blood. It was only the size of a human baby's fist, yet it possessed a mass equivalent to several observable universes and radiated an infinite, evil, and filthy aura.
"Such a foul and ferocious aura."
She first had a realization, then spoke solemnly. "This is... Great Eyes' blood? No mistake, this is the Deep Blood mentioned in the Transcendental Perception!"
"But where... where did Augustus get this blood? Did he steal it from Great Eyes? Was this the goal of his journey across the Dark Ocean for eons after leaving the River of Primordial? How did he even know about this? How could it be such a coincidence that he found the place where Great Eyes sleeps?"
BOOM!
Amidst her confusion, the Transcendental Perception suddenly jolted awake, vibrating within Seraphine's mind like a series of thunderclaps.
Within these vibrations, threads of fragmented, mottled, and blurred information flashed continuously.
RUSTLE RUSTLE!
This data contained vast amounts of anomalous knowledge, formulas, calculations, theorems, propositions, laws, and configurations, that defied the laws of the physical universe and trampled upon the logic of the material world.
From this information, which the Transcendental Perception had inexplicably grasped due to the surroundings and the drop of Deep Blood, Seraphine suddenly understood: Augustus's mysterious and mystical probability-related technology used this single drop of Great Eyes' evil blood as its core to initiate and operate its bizarre, eerie mechanisms.
Stripping away the complex technical components of this bizarre technology, its core philosophy was deeply idealistic:
[The birth and existence of all things are the convergence of causes and conditions.
This convergence is the union of infinite certainties, infinite coincidences, and infinite results.
Every result is inevitably the accumulation of infinite certainties.
Every certainty is inevitably the accumulation of infinite coincidences.
Therefore, within the result, certainty must exist.
And within certainty, coincidence must exist.
The material world is not a solid reality, but an infinite superposition of probabilities.
Thus, by researching, manipulating, and controlling these infinite probabilities, one can fulfill every certainty, every result, and every miracle.
To achieve a miracle, one must inevitably treat everything within the material universe as a sacrificial fuel to be burned away,
To knock upon and communicate with that hazy, unknown, and mysterious Great Domain that exists above all time, space, matter, energy, information, causality, and logic.
Finally, by summoning the Great Power of this Great Domain, one can accomplish the Great Work.]
"The Essential Realm?! This... description of a Great Domain existing above all reality... that is the Essential Realm."
Seraphine was stunned.
Following her shock, she discovered the official name of this mysterious technology within the Transcendental Perception's data: [Probability Theory - Reality Strong Selection Technology].
In short, the core purpose of this Reality Strong Selection Technology was to use the Great Eyes' Deep Blood as the primary "engine" for the entire Primordial Integration Array.
By utilizing the vast Otuben channel network spread across the River of Primordial, the total matter and energy of countless mid-sized and larger galaxies, the very essence of the entire River, would be converted into "fuel" for the integration array and burned away.
This would allow the array to knock upon the gates of the Essential Realm, summoning a sliver of that Great Power to forcibly manipulate event probabilities. It would erase all possibilities of failure, perform a Reality Strong Selection, and lock onto the single solution in Probability Theory, transforming the infinitesimal chance of Augustus, a 4D lifeform, ascending to a 5D lifeform into a probability approaching infinity.
"So, the so-called Final Order..."
Seraphine mused hesitantly, "...is an order that sacrifices countless galaxies to elevate a single man, Augustus. His order was to thoroughly impose his will upon the entire Verdant Ancient Matter Sea after becoming a 5D lifeform, rewarding those who obeyed and destroying those who didn't."
For eons, countless species had believed the hallway network was the foundation of civilization, prosperity, and growth. But Seraphine had always doubted Saknussim's motives for creating the Sentience Realm Hallway network. As her understanding of the Houiste grew, her suspicions leaned further into the darkness.
In this world, there is rarely love without a reason. Behind every seemingly benevolent act, there usually lies some hidden, brutal purpose. Now that everything regarding the Houiste was clear, Seraphine understood.
Behind the "Light" hallway system that brought enlightenment to a billion universes lay a "Dark" system destined to bring oblivion to infinite lives. This union of light and dark was the true face of the Otuben channel network.
Saknussim was never a "Cosmic Sower."
He, like the countless other Houiste who ventured into the vast reaches of the galaxies, was an executioner carrying great malice, prepared to turn the entire River of Primordial into a sacrificial offering for Augustus's ascension.
Seraphine felt nothing toward Augustus's plan to "sacrifice" the entire Matter Sea. However, she had one deep question: where did this extraordinary Probability Theory - Reality Strong Selection Technology come from?
Seraphine didn't believe for a second that Augustus had the capacity to research such a thing himself.