Chapter 376: Evil Remains

Creation is equivalent to destruction.

Tidal light surged, surpassing the great sun; the true light of creation, under the operation of the power to create, clarified chaos and forged the primordial void.

Even as the crimson of the primordial age shook the cosmic laws, and the Golden King's single sword stroke replayed the miracle of creation, Su Lin was continuously absorbing fragments of the great will's soul—each aggregation bringing cataclysmic power.

The gear-like light wheel grew ever brighter; as it rotated, Su Lin's features subtly shifted, his power encircling him amid the boundless starry expanse of shattered dimensions, illuminating all things.

It was unclear whether reality had become a dream, or the dream had become reality.

Antimatter orbital projectiles, light particle strikes, sub-universe collapse—all the civilization's treasures of this universe emerged from the Cosmic King's Treasury, spilling forth the crystallization of civilization to display their own glory before the Creator, the legendary being at the apex of myth, from the primordial civilization!

Yet all of this instantly froze into eternal stasis, crushed utterly beneath the Creator's hand, collapsing into meaningless illusions.

"Would you care to visit me?" Su Lin smiled, his voice directly echoing in Gilgamesh's mind: "Your sword, Enkidu, is intriguing. Mind if I take a look?"

"I am not like the version of myself from human history—I see the very essence of your power with perfect clarity!" Golden armor on Gilgamesh ignited with tree-like crystalline circuits; his body, a product of the Third Law, unleashed boundless magical energy:

"I shall offer you a send-off worthy of your station—with half the stars of this universe!"

"When you reach your limit and your power returns to its origin, I shall serve you a sacrifice befitting your stature at the victory feast!"

Such is his nature.

Even before the Creator's might, if any words were judged as provocation, Gilgamesh would still reveal his true self.

But Su Lin saw through him clearly: the other was openly declaring he could act without restraint, while Su Lin had to protect the solar system behind him.

"Impressive, impressive." Su Lin clapped lightly, gazing across the endless luminous dimension at the newly emerged sign of creation:

"Could the omniscient and omnipotent star of cosmic scale be linked to the Akashic Records?"

Ever-shattering, a profound fissure beyond the abyss of darkness tore through space; Gilgamesh's Enkidu fused with it, as if lifting the celestial chasm high, swallowing and spitting forth billions of stars, its vortex of swirling stars unraveling all phenomena.

If he unleashed this blow fully, even if Su Lin had not yet reached his own limit and the great will had not yet recalled this power, the aftershocks would still be immense.

Yet Su Lin still stood smiling in the starry void, casually waving away excess light pollution effects and clearing the shattered dust from the sky, making the scene more objectively pristine.

"Such a scene would be a shame without an audience."

Using the stolen Holy Grail as a medium, layered, interwoven parallel timelines reflected countless realities.

Gilgamesh frowned, but Enkidu swung without hesitation; the moment this motion began, destruction already spread—this strike sought to pierce through nothingness itself.

Eternal Core

Soul force, magical energy, spiritual power, divine power—whether innate or temporarily borrowed—all surged into Su Lin's artificial "heart," an imprint-like core within him, all converted.

Stepping forth from the eternal inner time-space, carrying the vastness of heaven and earth, the faint aura of immortality, Su Lin—still in his original form, clad in the "River of Heaven Battle Robe"—appeared in the abyss where star rivers poured downward.

From the moment he appeared, the catastrophe halted—not through time stoppage, but forcibly frozen by a supreme force.

"Reaching your limit? That's a good joke."

River of Heaven Battle Robe: Past and present flow through it; ancient traces remain in the River of Heaven.

A robe woven over 108 cosmic cycles, using the primal essences of the twelve sacred beasts from the birth of a certain universe as dye and the Dao as thread—a garment of record.

Aside from once attempting to use it under Heaven's granted permission, this was Su Lin's first true unveiling of it before others—and his first use of it in combat.

Before this, Su Lin had only used this powerful battle robe, which required Immortal Dao energy to activate, as defensive gear for traveling between worlds; its true effects were "recording" and "replay."

As for how it records

Su Lin, clad in a luxurious purple robe, extended his hand; twelve shadowy figures covered the starry dawn, ancient scenes reappearing upon the mortal realm.

All of Gilgamesh's treasures, fully unleashed—including the celestial chasm from Enkidu—were stripped away and fused into a single rune embedded upon the robe.

A faint neon glow flickered; finally, upon the garment that seemed to contain an entire galaxy, a single ordinary crimson star appeared.

And the starry sky reverted to its state before Gilgamesh had used Enkidu.

"Did you think you could seize me once time ran out?" Su Lin smiled with playful mockery: "The last group of outer gods who predicted the future thought the same."

Then

Manifest Heaven, Mirror Earth!

In the brilliant star river, a colossal figure clad in luxurious purple robes and crowned with a diadem appeared in the boundless cosmic void, where no direction existed.

Su Lin looked at Gilgamesh, stunned, and swept his sleeve; countless River of Heaven Imperial Guards "reappeared" in this universe, forming a formation with overwhelming force and crashing into the sub-space beyond the solar system, onto the immortal Qin mother-ship that continuously produced puppets and unmanned vessels.

"Executed."

Reappearing in Su Lin's palm, hovering above Gilgamesh's head, was

The slash just released by Enkidu.

Lu Lu Mingfei: "My Wang Jiang and I are stunned. I knew his robe was no ordinary thing, but this is insane."

Lu Lu Mingfei: "Forget it. Anyone at Moonlight Tavern want to grill some skewers?"

Ye Fan: "That robe you stole from Tony's body is nice. Mind if I try it on next time? Su Lin."

Su Lin: "Bound equipment. Soul authentication."

Ye Fan: "Tsk. If you ever want to loot Tony's gear in the future, count me in."

Su Lin: "?"

Song Shu: "Senior Su Lin, earlier you told us not to spam the chat group, so I didn't get to tell you—White Senior has returned."

While everyone trained in the dimensional corridor, Su Lin traveled through realms with different time flows; initially, he'd see dozens of days' worth of their chat logs in just one hour.

So Song Shu and the others later switched to using the in-game friend list for communication, until now their time flows synchronized.

Su Lin: "So… no, good that he's back. Please deliver some local specialties from my home to White Venerable."

Song Shu: "Understood."

Song Shu: "One more thing—why doesn't my personal menu have a 【Exit】 button?"

Song Shu: "This isn't Sword Art Online, is it? My roommate loves that."

Su Lin: "."

Irena: "That's exactly the kind of thing he'd do."

Star: "Learned how to properly use attribute team composition."

Klein: "666"

Klein: "Sorry, I was just spamming '666' watching you single-handedly crush a million troops. Network lag, sorry."

Purple Golden Divine Dragon: "6"

Xiao Yan: "6"

Song Shu: "My physical body in reality is currently undergoing a one-time flying sword shipment— Zhou Mingming an hour's trip, yet forced to experience an endless-extending high-altitude flight…"

Zhang Zhang Chulan: "Rough."

Su Lin: "Probably a glitch in the Fourth Catastrophe Simulator. You know, 1.0 versions often have random bugs—it's normal."

Su Lin: "Like playing League of Legends—Sylas and the Broken King have skill mechanics that cause code errors and trigger bugs. Ask Huo Wang if it's true."

Huo Wang: "Senior Su Lin… I've never played those two heroes."

Su Lin withdrew his gaze—not because he avoided the topic, but because he was now focusing his mind, attempting to forcibly open the gate to the Source using the Holy Grail's mechanism.

Simultaneously, his avatar arrived on the far side of the Moon.

The Moon—or rather, the "Lunar Crystal 【Mooncell】."

A photon pure-crystal of satellite size, created by some unknown entity as a "supercomputer" to observe Earth, storing vast amounts of Earth's data. The Lunar Crystal records "everything" on Earth, even souls, as data and stores them.

When Su Lin entered the Moon's interior, he began interfacing with its internal photon network.

"Due to limited energy, certain worlds must be periodically eliminated."

Until now, Su Lin had confirmed one thing: Earth in this world possesses a certain uniqueness.

The energy held by the Suppressing Force lacks the capacity to grant alternative possibilities to deviant worlds—but this is itself a restriction, or rather, a trial from the Source upon this civilization.

The divine-era magicians, including the "gods" and fantasy beings on the world's reverse side, are like fish—large or small—while the Source is an infinite ocean; these fish cannot control the ocean, yet they are closer to it than anyone else.

The divine-era magicians never sought the Source because, in the divine era, magicians were already one with the Source—there was no need to pursue it.

"Hiding within the solar system to forge parallel worlds is pitiful. Come with me to the Source and beg for some gold coins."

At the edge of the solar system, the information barrier—existing in the liminal space between the Star Star Youjie and the material realm, long used by the Lunar Crystal to interfere with signals from beyond the system—ceased functioning.

Gilgamesh opened his eyes, stepped naked from the vessel filled with green liquid, took the velvet towel offered by a nearby soldier, wrapped himself, and descended the cold steel steps from above.

"As I said before, you needed to pre-grow a backup body using your subatomic particles—this was correct, wasn't it? Facing such a powerful being, your treasures would never have time to be used." The First Emperor smiled at Gilgamesh:

"Though our fleet lost about one-third, it wasn't without gain. Gilgamesh, how do you feel?"

"Do you think that was Hao Tian?" Gilgamesh replied with a question.

The First Emperor shook his head:

"Who knows? I've long wished to journey beyond the Immortal Realm, to even more distant universes—I've purged troublesome chaotic lifeforms and studied the universes they inhabited, but I know little of the outer cosmos."

"Whether they share the same origin is unprovable. Besides, the Three Great Heavenly Sovereigns are blocking the entrance to the Immortal Realm—talking about this is pointless."

"Come look at this."

A holographic projection displayed multiple 3D map models.

These were logs and data reports transmitted by the vanguard force after the dimensional rift synchronized with the outside.

Using the most advanced computers of the Servant universe, they had already analyzed roughly seven or eight tenths of the areas the vanguard had reached.

Not all Qin Servants perished and returned to the Star Star Youjie to await download and revival; beyond the mass-produced puppet armies, many Servants dispersed and joined the group known as "players."

In short, the enemy knew of their existence—but had set up zero defenses.

"So being angry is useless. They're even more arrogant than you—no, more accurately, more confident. They have the power." The First Emperor smiled.

"Possibility eliminated. The ones most likely affecting us are not these extraterrestrial visitors—in every possible analysis, we hold negligible value to them."

"So, it's almost certainly the legendary one."

"But combining your insights from the Omniscient and Omnipotent Star, they appear to be using the Holy Grail to construct a system that directly channels power to open a path to the Source. A crude method, yet genuinely viable—likely completed within half a day."

"Tch." Gilgamesh spat, brushing back his golden bangs, turning toward the exit of the growth chamber.

The First Emperor withdrew his gaze, smiling faintly as he walked down another corridor.

Passing through layers of checkpoints and increasingly tight security lines, skirting the prisoner cells where the Servants, whose spiritual bases were fused with the collective human history, temporarily refused to cooperate, he stepped through a portal and left the star-class fortress.

Ultimately, he arrived at the convergence of countless celestial bodies—the "Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall," formed by multiple massive superclusters.

Unlike the vanguard reconnaissance force, eighty percent of which consisted of puppets, the forces here were composed entirely of Servants—and among the very top tier under his command.

In the deepest region, within the closed timelike curve area deep inside a massive black hole, a prison had been established.

The First Emperor sat upon his dragon throne, gazing at the white-haired girl bound in chains and covered entirely in yellow talismans, his eyes filled with coldness, and said:

"You, a relic of corruption, I accept your proposal."

BB lifted her head, her eyes glinting with malevolent light, and smiled: "Why the change of heart?"

"Though an uncontrollable factor, if used in the right place, it can become a useful tool." The First Emperor waved his hand, and the yellow talismans on her body burned to ash; he smiled:

"Even gods seated high above the clouds must bear corresponding risks if they wish to use us."

(End of Chapter)