Chapter 1675: Chapter 653: One Hundred Thousand Cycles of Destruction and Rebirth

Time accelerated once more. Modern cities appeared on the Blue Planet, ablaze with neon, crowded with cars.

Then came war, and then reconstruction. After reconstruction was complete, several more millennia passed. As a new annihilating war broke out, one primitive controlled-fusion starship after another blasted free of the Origin Star System, lunging toward the nearest South Nine Star System.

After a long accumulation of hundreds of thousands of years, the first-generation Source Star humans finally developed controlled nuclear fusion before completely exhausting all usable resources in their own Star System, and in doing so broke away from the Source Star.

What followed, naturally, was the rise of the Mechanical Empire so familiar to Tai Hong, then its split, humanity dividing toward four different directions, four nations standing in a tense balance, chaotic war, the Mechanical Empire falling behind, three sides uniting in an attempt to completely annihilate the Mechanical Empire, victory just within reach...

In this entire sequence, Tai Hong was both a witness to history and a participant in it.

He had thought he would see a thoroughly satisfying victory, and inferred that afterward the Ascenders, Pilgrims, and Spirit Demon Race would contest supremacy among themselves, that in the end humanity, after internal schism, would once again achieve unification within the Ancient Disk Galaxy, and then depart from the Ancient Disk Galaxy.

But the evolution that followed completely defied his expectations.

He saw an unprecedented great explosion: the ultra-massive quasar, variously named Empire Supercomputer, Origin of Life, End-Point of Science, Cosmic Consciousness Collective, suddenly stirred.

It was a surge of light and heat that illuminated everything, annihilated everything, tore everything to shreds.

Protons and neutrons were ripped into fragments.

Within the Ancient Disk Galaxy, everything except the stars was wiped out.

Near the central supermassive Black Hole of the Ancient Disk Galaxy, the ultra-massive quasar suddenly erupted in blinding light. This light and heat spread outward at light speed, sweeping across the entire Ancient Disk Galaxy. Countless ships of the Mechanical Empire, the spacefaring lifeforms of the Ascenders, the Intelligent Machinery of the Pilgrims, and the skiffs of the Spirit Demon Race all tried in despair to flee, but in the end these escapees either perished in the true vacuum of space when their energy ran dry, or were devoured by the quasar’s light and heat.

"Destroyed. All destroyed. What is this? Our ultimate fate? A prophecy?"

As the light and heat consumed everything, Tai Hong muttered thus. His rational mind told him there could no longer be any survivors; no matter which of the four branches, all had been completely exterminated.

Everything the four human branches had built in the Ancient Disk Galaxy over tens of millions of years was torn down to quark-level fundamental particles, without any residue.

The history belonging to humanity had been Zeroed, erased.

Just then, however, his consciousness was once again pulled back to the very earliest Blue Planet. Under endless radiance and heat, he saw that this long-abandoned Origin Planet was still barely holding on, slowly melting. On the magma-covered surface of the planet, there was actually still a city—the very city he and Zhi Nü had first seen.

"Greetings, new Inheritor. What you just witnessed was the process of humanity’s First Destruction. I am the City Lord of this Nameless City."

A voice rang by Tai Hong’s ear.

Hearing this voice, Tai Hong came back to himself and hastily looked around, only to find that his surroundings had once again changed, turning into a solemn, austere stone hall.

On the left and right sides of the hall were two rows of chairs.

He could even see that outside the hall’s doors lay the same city he had just seen.

A faint human-shaped silhouette appeared before him.

Unlike those outside whose faces were clearly visible, this figure’s outline was unusually tenuous, like a mass of coalesced mist, with only a dim halo of light, no discernible features.

After a moment of silence, Tai Hong asked, "What is your name? How should I address you—should I simply call you City Lord?"

In a subtle way, he deliberately skipped over the key information, and instead asked the other party’s name and form of address.

There was deliberation in this.

When others are asked their name and how to be addressed, they rarely show much vigilance, and will answer almost reflexively—but that in turn reveals an enormous amount of information: culture, race, lineage, customs, and many other fine-grained details are all hidden within.

Though Tai Hong was not as innately shrewd and alert as Zhi Nü, and served as the support role in their duo, the fact that the Pilgrims had chosen him as a core Strength in the Alliance Army showed that he did possess substantial capability. This was a basic quality of a sharp Special Agent Level Divine Level demon-being.

The City Lord, hearing this, seemed to fall into reminiscence. "My name? I’m sorry, I’ve already forgotten it. Truly. You may call me City Lord, or you may call me Administrator."

Tai Hong pressed on, "What do you mean? A name can be forgotten too?"

The City Lord answered, "Yes. That is a fact. And for me, a name is merely a designation; what matters are my identity and my duties."

Tai Hong: "You just said that was the First Destruction. Is there a Second? How many times are there in total?"

The City Lord did not reply, but merely moved a finger.

Tai Hong’s consciousness was immediately pulled back once more into the cosmic Void.

He saw the Source Star System once again.

This was yet another cycle and looping, seemingly on the surface almost no different from before.

Tai Hong nearly wanted to say, isn’t this just a replay? But very soon he realized it was not.

The location of the first primitive human village on the Source Star was indeed the same as before, but the arrangement of the wooden huts and the distribution of the surrounding vegetation were slightly different.

The subsequent development, wars, escape, establishment of the Empire, branching, wars, and so forth were all highly similar to before, the main storyline nearly identical, yet differing in some details.

This time, in the final moment, Tai Hong’s consciousness was once again pulled back onto the Source Star, returning once more to the stone hall.

Tai Hong immediately turned his head and looked toward outside the city.

The scene differed slightly from before: outside the city was utterly empty, no flourishing ancient city, no bustling crowds.

There were no two rows of chairs in the stone hall either; it too was bare.

Then Tai Hong saw, at the front of the hall, in the very first row, a single chair appear out of thin air. On the chair, a humanoid silhouette materialized, bathed in intense light.

As the light dimmed somewhat, Tai Hong saw an ordinary-looking woman, her brows tightly furrowed as if deep in thought.

Tai Hong recognized this woman. Earlier, when he had entered the city, he had seen her on the main street by the city gate.

Immediately after, the scene reverted to its previous appearance: two rows of chairs, and a single figure.

This figure was the City Lord: "This was the Second Destruction, another complete cycle. The woman you just saw was my first companion."

Tai Hong: "How many companions do you have in total? And what exactly happened in that final moment?"

The City Lord: "Aside from you and your companion, I previously had ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine companions, counting myself in. Before you two arrived, this Nameless City held exactly one hundred thousand residents. As for what you mean by ’that final moment,’ what are you referring to?"

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