Chapter 1547: Resentment and Hope

The sky, the earth, and the universe gradually returned to calm.

The planet, which had been shaking incessantly and nearly shattered, slowly stabilized, leaving only a scarred starry sky.

Two-thirds of Blue Star's moon was missing, teetering on the brink of collapse, about to be captured by Blue Star's gravity and crash into the surface, triggering another round of ecological catastrophe.

Mars, Jupiter, and other planets were utterly shattered; the Immortal Dao Industrial Zone was severely destroyed, planetary landscapes were permanently altered, and mass extinctions of plants and animals occurred.

Even the mother planet Blue Star, concealed by numerous arrays, suffered continuous volcanic eruptions, with mountains rising and falling unpredictably, peaks protruding then sinking into deep trenches and canyons, while the earth kept cracking apart...

The entire solar system had undergone permanent changes!

Fortunately, everything had settled down. Just as in countless life-and-death tribulations throughout history, the Immortal Gate once again achieved victory through great difficulty.

"Victory... has been achieved..."

Yuan's eyes grew slightly moist as he extended trembling hands to catch the Xuanjin flying sword soaring from afar.

His body suddenly sank heavily, his arm bones nearly shattering; even the military array controlling the entire Central Group Fleet could not bear it for a moment, and it took a long while before he recovered.

This three-foot-long flying sword looked small, yet its mass was comparable to a cosmic black hole!

Its sheer weight alone would have crushed many Minor Thousand Worlds, shattered world barriers, toppled Shanfeng, cracked the crust, caused mass extinctions of living beings, and required countless millennia to restore the surface ecosystem.

Such a terrifying flying sword, in the past, in the hands of its master, was as light and agile as a feather, easily reaching near-light speed, with world-destroying power being merely trivial.

"The individual experts of the Immortal Dao are truly terrifying..."

Yuan took a deep breath.

His divine soul connected with the collective will of the fleet's citizens, generating waves of spiritual particle divine sense radar, carefully scanning everything on the Xuanjin flying sword, especially focusing on locating the life force within the sword.

Zhenjun Shenji True Venerable, Senior Wanji True Venerable, Mieri True Venerable, and others watched tensely.

After a long while.

"He is still alive."

Yuan exhaled lightly, revealing a smile: "Just as we predicted back then, the Great Sun Sword Master's life is harder than a cockroach's; as long as he wins the sword duel and his innate flying sword remains, it will be difficult for him to die."

"A complete set of living cells is preserved within his flying sword; recovery is no problem."

"Even if no one tends to him and he is simply thrown anywhere in the Immortal Dao universe, he can absorb and transform chaos to recover on his own."

"However, such natural recovery might take ten thousand years, perhaps even twenty thousand, given the severity of his injuries; his entire physical body has turned to ash..."

"Hahaha!"

"I told you, everything would be fine..."

Mieri True Venerable laughed heartily.

Immortal Gate cultivators around him all smiled, their hearts finally at ease.

The Great Sun Sword Master did not die.

As long as the Great Sun Sword Master is alive, the Immortal Gate has nothing to fear; even if the mother planet is shattered and the Immortal Dao Industrial Park becomes ruins, as long as people remain, everything can be rebuilt and restored to its former state.

Surrounded by everyone, Yuan carefully placed this Great Sun Immortal Spirit Gold flying sword onto the highest-grade healing ship of the Central Group Fleet, nurturing and treating it with the full power of the entire Central Group Fleet.

"With the mother planet damaged, this is the only option for now."

"Judging by current conditions, he will likely need around eight thousand years to fully recover; however, once the mother planet's healing array is restored, it should accelerate the process by several thousand years..."

Yuan silently calculated for a moment and shared the result with everyone.

Everyone rationally handled various battlefield matters. Looking at the mother planet, they saw piles of citizen corpses with dried-up essence blood, stacked like Shanfeng, filling their hearts with uncontrollable waves of grief.

Devastating.

Too devastating!

The Immortal Gate had never suffered such horrific casualties; over three trillion citizens died directly, scattered across the nine planets of the solar system and throughout various spatial arrays and Secret Realms, with corpses nearly covering entire planets.

The greatest casualties in Blue Star's history occurred today.

Endless grief and sorrow filled the hearts of the Central Group Fleet soldiers; many had red, swollen eyes, tears falling uncontrollably as they sobbed, unable to control their emotions even as cultivators.

Trillions of casualties.

What does this lightly written number in the report represent?

It is their fathers and mothers, their brothers and sisters, their sons and daughters, their close friends they spent day and night with, their lovers...

How could these casualties be merely cold numbers?

"Children, restrain your grief..."

Senior Wanji True Venerable opened his mouth but ultimately remained silent, saying nothing.

He had experienced such times, during the era when the Immortal Gate was ruled by Brother Brother Xuanwu's Heavenly Palace, and when the Great Sun Sword Pavilion invaded the mother planet; back then, many relatives departed just like this, not offering comfort from a detached, superior position.

Yet precisely because he had experienced the loss of these relatives, he knew even more clearly that comforting words could change nothing, could not make people feel much better, and that one could only wait for time to pass and gradually adapt to everything.

Every ancient cultivator must inevitably experience all the grief of the human world.

"This tribulation... the fault lies with me."

"As the ruler of the Immortal Gate, I failed to detect the dangers facing the mother planet; it is entirely my personal fault."

Yuan remained silent for a long while, then said: "Once the political situation stabilizes, I will resign from my position in the Immortal Gate and leave it to a more suitable

citizen to assume; I am incompetent, and I beg you all to punish me."

He bowed deeply, apologizing to both the deceased and the living.

"You need not do this."

"It is not the ruler's fault."

Many citizens, though grieving deeply, waved their hands to stop him.

"There is indeed resentment in our hearts, Ruler; this is an instinct we cannot suppress. Humans always seek someone to blame; this is a weakness of human nature, so you need not mind..."

A cultivator with red, swollen eyes sighed.

Having lost both parents, he did not wish to speak much, merely staring blankly into the distance.

"Yuan, it is not your fault."

"This is the immortal sect's continuous expansion, the ceaseless flow of time—it will inevitably draw the attention of ever more powerful enemies, and will surely bring upon us a terrible calamity."

Zhenjun Shenji Zhen-zun sighed deeply and said, "The enemy wields immortal-path science and technology far beyond our own—how could they not see through our tricks?"

"And how could mere caution and prudence be enough to defend against it?"

"If being cautious and prudent could handle everything, then why would we spare no cost to develop immortal-path science and technology in the first place?"

"If everyone harbors resentment, that is normal; if grief lingers in your heart, you need not mind it."

"It is not your fault…"

Everyone offered words of comfort and sighs.

Through such mutual consolation, many felt a little better in their hearts.

In this world, although they had lost their kin, there were still the citizens beside them to lean on one another, to grow together, and to live out the lives that lay ahead.

Everyone would work together to restore the immortal sect, to rebuild it, so that the descendants of the future would no longer suffer the calamity of the present.

"The task of utmost urgency is to continue restarting the Central Array Spirit Computer!"

"Post-war reconstruction can be set aside for now."

Senior Wanji Zhen-zun said in a heavy voice, "Although that old mongrel Ancient God was beaten to death by the Great Sun Sword Master, the hidden tricks he left inside the Central Array Spirit Computer are still there—who knows when they might erupt."

"To be safe, it is better to restart and re-equip the system."

"Indeed."

"We cannot take the risk…"

This was a prudent and steady plan, and everyone agreed to it.

Yuan immediately used his authority as the administrator to issue an order for a forced restart of the Central Array Spirit. This time it went very smoothly, without any obstruction. A blazing great data-fire once again appeared upon the Shenmu Shenmu Futianrong, and the azure light of destruction shone upon the faces of every immortal-sect citizen.

Suddenly, the data-fire paused, then went out once more.

Everyone's hair stood on end; they started in fright and looked toward Yuan.

The Ancient God Ancestor—was he not dead?

"Honored guests,"

"There is good news."

Yuan revealed an expression complex and hard to read.

"There are still over a trillion citizens alive, existing within the Central Array Spirit Computer—"

"Inside their divine souls is the aura of the Ancient God Ancestor; their lives are tightly bound to the present version of the Central Array Spirit Computer."

"Once it restarts, they will die."