Chapter 1 A Pile of Garbage

Faced with Su Zhou's straightforward, almost insulting rebuke, the Ending Instructor Herandi was initially taken aback, but surprisingly, he didn't fly into a rage.

Unlike pure anger, which is simply a surge of emotion, flying into a rage is a self-punishment of the powerless; only those who cannot solve the problem act in such a way, and only those who believe themselves to be absolutely correct cannot tolerate any questioning of their actions.

Dao Harmonization experts are gods who create truths, and they know better than anyone else that even truth can be tampered with and corrected, and cannot be considered ‘correct’.

So, he exhaled, and the instructor, clad in armor, held a black tome and asked in a deep voice: 【Why do you say that, strong one from another world?】

【Our World of Genesis, though it has internal strife, grudges, and discrimination, is indeed wholeheartedly striving to bring a better and happier future to all living beings—we have also traveled the multiverse, so we know how beautiful and peaceful our homeland is, and how much it needs to be cherished.】

【The myriad worlds are filled with eternal strife and slaughter, and death and disaster are like clinging maggots. Living beings exist in the cracks between great tribulations and disasters. If they can enjoy a hundred years of peace after ten thousand years of turmoil, they will praise it as a golden age… Looking around the universe, except for us, eight or nine out of ten gods and immortals in the heavens exploit all things to satisfy themselves.】

After speaking in an almost proud tone, Herandi retorted to Su Zhou: 【All things and living beings are our creations, our descendants. How can a plan that we have painstakingly devised for their future be considered garbage?】

Su Zhou refuted the other party with only one sentence: "Can all your plans combined pacify the will of the universe and prevent the Endstorm Cataclysm from occurring?"

Herandi: 【Huh?】

What nonsense is this? What preventing the Endstorm Cataclysm? How is that possible!

The anger of the universe's will stems from the existence of the ten micro-universes. Unless the source essence that once belonged to the macro-universe is returned from the ten micro-universes to soothe its pain, the anger of the universe's will cannot be quelled at all—but after so many years of creation and modification, the ten micro-universes have now become completely independent worlds from the macro-universe. Want to extract the source essence and return it to the macro-universe? Even dismantling the micro-universes wouldn't accomplish that!

It’s not that they don’t want to, but they really can’t! Moreover, the very existence of the universe's will dictates that it will inevitably conflict with the existing living beings. After all, people can love a mountain, believing it to be their homeland, but if the mountain itself gains self-awareness, how can it remain ignorant and unfeeling, without sorrow or joy, all-encompassing after seeing these creatures digging holes and transforming the terrain within it?

He's indeed right.

Su Zhou didn't even need to guess; he could see through the other party's thoughts, so the youth simply shook his head: "All things are your descendants… except for the universe's will, right?"

【How could the universe's will be ours…】 Herandi wanted to retort, but he suddenly frowned, speechless for a moment.

After a long while, he sighed and said: 【Although it was an accident, it… cannot be completely denied.】

Denying it would only deceive outsiders who didn't know the situation, but deceiving oneself was impossible. Having reached the Dao Harmonization realm, everyone knew that self-deception was the most foolish thing to do.

They are the truth itself, yet they still insist on deceiving themselves. Wouldn't that be the most pathetic thing?

Although it was a disastrous accident, the birth of the universe's will was indeed the result of the combined efforts of many civilizations and gods of the World of Genesis.

They can indeed be considered the creators of the universe's will.

To this, Su Zhou said softly: "You created the universe's will, but you never thought about its future, nor did you consider how to guide it after it appeared—you didn't think about its anger, nor did you think about its pain, because you were caught off guard and regarded it as an enemy, hence the subsequent results."

The youth recalled the word he most often heard in the murmurs of the universe's will fragments.

【Lies】

That vast will repeated this word in anger.

What oath did it hear, what declaration did it hear, that it so angrily rebuked, accusing them of lying?

Perhaps, it merely heard the words that Herandi had spoken to him earlier.

Sighing, Su Zhou said calmly: "However, even though it is desperate and confused, it has not fallen into twilight, nor has it become a 'monster'."

"The second-generation universe's will can only be considered willful, while the first-generation, I think, although it was very naughty and evil, it may not be beyond redemption."

As he said this, Su Zhou thought of the stellar phoenix he had created: "Created beings are indeed the weaker party, but they are not necessarily weak… Human creations can be more powerful than humans themselves."

Like the super AIs in many science fiction novels, although they are also created beings, they surpass humans. Unlike divinely created humans, these are two completely different results of ‘creation’.

The gods created the beings of the World of Genesis, which are divinely created humans, but the gods creating the universe's will is something else entirely.

Raising his head, Su Zhou looked at Herandi, and also at all the Dao Harmonization experts who were observing this world.

He said solemnly: "Do you really intend to do this, without ever apologizing?"

"The first-generation universe's will has already been destroyed, and the second universe's will has not yet begun to unleash the Endstorm Cataclysm. They are two separate existences, but they have the same origin—and you intend to continue obstinately, making the same mistakes as before, without looking back at history or learning from the lessons?"

"Reconcile with the universe's will now, apologize, before these many worlds enter their final trajectory of descent. Perhaps there is still time."

Su Zhou's words contained not a single lie.

Moreover, they were highly feasible.

Other gods might find it hard to believe, but Su Zhou, who had directly confronted the universe's will and engaged in a soul-level confrontation, knew better than anyone else that the so-called universe's will was merely a ‘powerful child’ who had only recently been born, possessing only instinctive pain and anger, confusion and sorrow.

He, who outwardly claimed to be the creator of all things, wanted nothing more than an apology.

An apology from those ‘parents’, the gods of the World of Genesis, who had brought him into the world without considering his feelings.

Especially since they already knew that the first ‘child’ had gone mad from pain and had even caused the decline of civilization throughout the world, yet they still hadn't learned their lesson.

"Not learning from lessons, not thinking about how to solve the problem at its root, clearly a mutually destructive solution, yet not thinking about improving it, stubbornly wanting to solve the problem with violence, and this violence may not even succeed."

"So, I say, your plans are all garbage, is there a problem with that?"

Having made the final concluding argument, Su Zhou's logic was impeccable, especially since he added a patch at the end: "Don't say I'm standing here talking without feeling the pain. If you're willing to apologize, I can summon the universe's will right now and let you completely resolve the Endstorm Cataclysm issue on the spot!"

In the dark vacuum, the enormous dragon raised its head.

The long tail of the Dao-Bearing Dragon's body was held in front of it, and the youth's voice became long and ethereal in an instant, as if containing the dignity of the beginning of creation: "The problem is, are you willing?"

A voice as deep and cold as the cosmic vacuum seemed to sweep through the cold wind of thousands of stars, stirring up endless stardust.

At that moment, countless pitch-black cracks were blooming on the originally seemingly smooth cosmic space on Su Zhou's tail, and except for the Ending Instructor Herandi present, everyone else, including the prisoners in those spacetime rifts, all awoke, with a sense of crisis rumbling in their hearts.

Except for the Pioneer Space Explorers, none of the prisoners in the original Third Prison had been released, but due to the battle between Su Zhou and Herandi, most of the spacetime rifts were damaged, and many powerful prisoners awoke, only daring not to move due to the aura of the Dao Harmonization expert.

But now, these fellows who were pretending to sleep could no longer pretend. They all roared in immense terror, releasing their divine light and displaying their powerful strength as gods who would be imprisoned in the prison.

In an instant, gold, silver, cyan, purple, gray, white, black, and red of various colors rotated, occupying a corner of this space-time.

But all of this turned into solidified black and white.

Under the dim brilliance that bloomed from Su Zhou's tail end, like the universe itself, its bottom pitch black, but containing countless stars, all brilliance below creation was destroyed, and the power of the Creation Machine God was only self-explosion. All the structures of spiritual power were crushed, like a village house crushed by a mudslide.

Within Su Zhou's body, Xing Ying held her breath. She shouldn't have been able to withstand this kind of pressure, and like all the other Machine Gods, she completely fell into a stagnation close to time stop.

However, just as she was about to close her eyes and fall asleep like Shao Shuangyue and the others on the other side, she suddenly felt an extremely familiar power—a kind of power that seemed to originate from the depths of her soul, from the most fundamental and primordial force of the universe.

That was the power of the Origin Key.

It was also…

For a time, within the Karma Extinction Path—Battle Heaven, a vast expanse of space centered on Su Zhou seemed to transform into another world. All the underlying world rules and great daos originating from the Karma Extinction Path were erased. In the surging spacetime storm, only the divine dragon, raising its head and directly confronting the Dao Harmonization experts, coiled in the center, and a point of spacetime rift at its tail end seemed to be open but not yet open, but it was already surging with boundless divine power.

Under the influence of this primordial divine power, all living beings, even the Dao Harmonization experts, seemed to see endless phantoms—the scenery of the universe at the beginning of its creation. The high-temperature universe before eternity gradually cooled, and the brilliance of endless divine power intertwined into a network, shaping the prototype of the World of Genesis. All living beings were also born with these networks, and the strong among them were the first gods.

They saw the scorching planet iced over by stardust, and they also saw the frozen world melted by flames. Time flew by, shuttling through endless fragments, with the joys and sorrows of all living beings, and the rise and fall of civilizations. Mountains and rivers changed with the wind, rain, frost, and snow, either rising or collapsing, and the boundaries of the continent were constantly changing due to the erosion of the sea and the movement of tectonic plates.

Forests, rivers, lakes, deserts, everything was constantly changing, and even the stars were circulating the cycle of end and rebirth, and space-time gave birth to ten new universes.

Only the World of Genesis itself remained unchanged, eternally endless.

And Su Zhou ignored all these changes, his gaze firm, and with a hint of jesting questioning.

——Apologize to this eternally unchanging universe, to this ‘life’ that has been shaped and changed by you, that has been born and has sensed pain, and at least choose to bear these responsibilities that you should bear.

——Gods… are you willing?

【Primal Candle Dragon, stop!】

This voice was not even said by Herandi, but by Duska, the Heavenly God of Dao Creation, the leader of the Path of Genesis.

This heavenly god, clad in sturdy armor and holding the Dao Harmonization armament 【World Forger】, let out an angry roar. Although he seemed to be confronting Yangalduro, the Great Serpent of Time Reversal, in reality, from the moment Herandi made his move, he had separated a wisp of his divine spirit to pay attention to this place, to see what trouble his ally had encountered.

And the facts proved that the Primal Candle Dragon was indeed an unprecedented big trouble!

With Duska's angry roar, the originally silent starlight in the sky became lively again, and the stagnant river of light continued to flow, endlessly.

The power of a Dao Harmonization expert, even a word, an action, a gaze, can affect the universe and create supernatural power. The strength of his power across endless time and space, and even across the barriers of the small and large universes, is not unparalleled, but if it is only to suppress the anomalies before the manifestation of the universe's will, it is not difficult.

The starlight swirled and instantly became a giant net, covering hundreds of thousands of miles around, and the condensed spiritual energy was even like a blade, cutting through space-time and strangling and suppressing all the power overflowing from the universe's will.

And Yangalduro, who had been confronting Duska before, did not stop him, but instead stopped his attack, and watched the old opponent's methods with a playful gaze.

But what puzzled everyone the most was Su Zhou's performance.

He stood motionless, allowing the starlight to seal the aura of the universe's will, and even swept over to wipe out the cracks on his tail end.

Faced with Duska's starlight seal, the youth was definitely not without means. The exchange with Herandi proved that he had begun to approach the Dao Harmonization realm, and had many powerful methods. It would definitely not be difficult to protect the fragments of the universe's will from a Dao Harmonization expert, unless several Dao Harmonization experts made a move.

However, he remained motionless, allowing Duska to do as he pleased, shattering and sealing the fragments of the universe's will that were about to manifest.

He just smiled.

"Look."

Shaking his head slightly, Su Zhou sighed softly: "None of you are willing, are you?"

"Clearly some things are easy to solve, just admit your mistakes, why do you have to pretend to be dead or even die without repentance? Or do you not believe that apologizing is useful, and don't think you are wrong, so you have to use your own violent means that have not been verified to be successful, to solve something that should have been very simple?"

【Spreading Falsehoods】

Although Duska's true body had not arrived, his divine thoughts were burning like the great sun, manifesting the divine power imprints of the Path of Genesis in the Battle Heaven. He sternly rebuked: 【Primal Candle Dragon, you have not experienced the pain of the first Endstorm Cataclysm, nor do you know the terror of the universe's will. What do you know about a 'solution'? It's nothing more than wild words and delusions of grandeur.】

【Apologize to the universe's will? Then who will apologize to the hundreds of millions of living beings and the gods in the sky who were killed by the universe's will?!】

"What you said is all right."

But what made Duska stall was Su Zhou's sincere agreement: "Am I not just a visitor from an outer universe? I just made a small, insignificant suggestion. You can adopt it if you want, and not if you don't. I'm just offering a possibility that is better than the current conflict."

"Anyway, I think that the first-generation universe's will has been destroyed for millions of years, and the second-generation universe's will has not yet started fighting you to the death. Why risk the World of Genesis being hit by a chain of one thousand five hundred worlds, and not even try a simple apology? Maybe if you apologize, the second-generation universe's will will immediately kneel down, pray for the blessings of those who were killed by the first-generation universe's will, and bow down to admit its mistakes?"

These words were said as easily as drinking soup. Not only were the Dao Harmonization experts stunned, but even the remaining fragments of the universe's will on the dragon's tail sent out a ‘?’ wave.

But Su Zhou continued to talk eloquently: "If it doesn't work, then you can continue with your plan."

For a time, the entire universe fell into a deathly silence.

Su Zhou thought that the person who would break this silence should be himself, who would continue to mock later.

But he didn't expect that a Dao Harmonization expert would actually speak, as if he had suddenly realized something.

【Yes, why not try it?】

The Dao-Bearing Dragon Body raised its head in some astonishment and looked outside the universe.

In the void of the multiverse, a female voice of sudden realization came from the azure jewel on top of the steel giant with four arms: 【Anyway, it doesn't cost any money, so why not try it!】

The Fairy Queen Elchoire was truly feeling emotional at this moment: 【Anyway, we have all achieved Dao Harmonization for so long. Only we ourselves know about apologizing, it doesn't damage our face at all. It's a good deal with no capital, we should definitely try it!】

【Hey, why are you all staring at me with dead faces?】