Chapter 402

"It seems Teacher Ryze had long guessed that I would come..."

Chu Yang sat opposite Ryze, a smile on his face.

Ryze took off his glasses, sighed, and said, "I know. Actually, you already discovered last time that I was keeping something from you."

"You didn't press me for answers, and I am very grateful for that, because I promised the Headmaster that I would not tell anyone about those matters until the time was ripe."

"But things are different now. Half a year ago, the Headmaster told me you had already begun exploring the unknown universe. Even if I didn't say anything, you would soon find out..."

Chu Yang smiled without a word, waiting for what was to follow.

Ryze continued, "Regarding the prehistoric era, even the Headmaster knows very little."

"All the clues grasped by the Super God Academy point toward the unknown universe..."

"There, it is very likely that prehistoric survivors exist!"

Chu Yang rubbed his chin, thought for a moment, and then said, "Teacher Ryze, you just said you were keeping something from me—you couldn't have been referring to this, right?"

"Since I didn't discover the greatest secret of the prehistoric truth in the Void, it means those secrets can only exist in the unknown universe."

"You should be clear that the answer I want today goes beyond this!"

Ryze spread his hands, acting quite like an old urchin as he said, "As for the truth of history, that is all I know."

"However, the biggest secret I kept from you is actually about myself..."

"Oh?" Chu Yang's gaze sharpened.

Ryze's expression became uncharacteristically serious. "The Headmaster and I are both prehistoric survivors!"

Chu Yang was stunned for a moment, then frowned and said, "In a certain sense, all life in the known universe can be considered prehistoric survivors."

"Even brand-new life forms born after the Big Bang have, at the deepest level of their genes, more or less mixed in some factors of prehistoric life."

Ryze shook his head and said, "No, no, no... The Headmaster and I are very special..."

"Unlike other life in the known universe, we are not new life born after the Big Bang, but survivors of the Big Bang itself!"

Chu Yang's pupils suddenly constricted. Could the historical truth he had been pursuing all this time be right before his eyes?

Thinking carefully, for Zilean to become a high-dimensional life form, there must be something special about him; otherwise, relying solely on technological power, it would be very difficult to achieve that.

And then there was Ryze...

This old man appeared crazy and foolish on the surface, but in reality, he was unfathomable. Even Chu Yang had never seen him take action, nor did he know to what extent his true strength had reached.

Even Pan Gu only judged Ryze's power to be weak, like a 'battle power of five' scrub.

But how could a 'battle power of five' scrub survive from the Super God era to the present, and even hold such a high position in the Super God Academy? One must know that from the end of the Super God era until Keisha became the King of Gods, there was a period of cosmic chaos.

During that period, those who held cutting-edge technology would have become fat sheep in the eyes of major civilizations if they did not possess matching powerful strength.

Ryze held the legacy of the Super God Academy, and the core technology he mastered was even more critical than what the Shenhe and Deno civilizations held. How could he not be coveted by others?

Yet, under such circumstances, Ryze not only lived safely to the present day, but the technology and data he held had not leaked in the slightest.

From this point alone, one could see that Ryze was definitely not the 'battle power of five' scrub that Pan Gu had judged him to be!

Chu Yang slowly calmed his emotions, took a deep breath, and said, "Can you elaborate?"

Ryze nodded and said with a chuckle, "Since I have told you about this matter, I naturally won't hold anything back."

"As I just said, this is everything I know about the matter."

"Although the Headmaster and I survived that Big Bang, we only retained incomplete genetic codes."

"After being resurrected in the true sense, we both lacked memories regarding the prehistoric era and lost a portion of critical genes."

"Afterward, whether it was founding the Super God Academy or conducting various research on genes, it was all to complete the genes we were missing and to recover our lost memories."

"The Headmaster defined the part of the genes we were missing as 'divinity'."

Speaking of this, Ryze paused, reached into a package Ge Xiaolun had just brought, took out two walnuts, and gently crushed them.

Tossing the walnut meat into his mouth, Ryze chewed while continuing, "Hmm... The Headmaster said that technology can only accelerate the evolution of life and raise the upper limit of genes..."

"But all of this is just to approach the level of 'divinity'!"

"It is precisely because of these concepts that the concept of gods later appeared in the universe."

"But no matter how hard we tried, we failed..."

"The Headmaster prepared two final plans, which were used on the two of us respectively."

A sharp glint flashed in Chu Yang's eyes, and he said softly, "So, the plan used by Headmaster Space was to pursue divinity by becoming a high-dimensional life form and abandoning humanity?"

Ryze nodded, then sighed and said, "That's right, but in the end, it still failed..."

"High-dimensional life is completely different from the 'divinity' the Headmaster pursued, but he had no way to lower his own dimension, which caused him to lose the chance to start over."

"However, the plan used on me did show some initial results..."

"Oh?" Chu Yang raised an eyebrow. He vaguely guessed that it was precisely because this plan took effect that Ryze was able to survive that turbulent and chaotic period! Sure enough, Ryze tossed the walnut shells onto the coffee table and said with some melancholy, "This plan was actually very simple: it was to combine various genes in the universe and extract the factors from prehistoric life within them."

"I fused with the final gene crystal obtained, but it only allowed me to possess some of the 'divinity' power from those factors, yet it still failed to make up for the lack of 'divinity' that belonged to me in my genes."

"On the contrary, because the genetic chain was too chaotic, it caused me to become increasingly forgetful, and my temper and personality also became somewhat eccentric..."

Speaking of this, Ryze suddenly stopped, and then his eyes were covered with a layer of white light.

After a long while, he muttered, "Hmm... At least I didn't make a mistake this time!"

As the white light dissipated, he smiled bitterly, "Excuse me. When I first discovered the side effects of the gene crystal, I stored all this critical information and secrets away."

"After learning that you had returned from the Void, I would take them out from time to time to review them."

"Come to think of it, our last conversation was also recorded by me..."

Chu Yang was speechless, then said thoughtfully, "So you failed in the end?"

Ryze shook his head and said, "It can't be considered a complete failure. At least the gene crystal played a role, which is enough to prove that this direction is correct."

"It's just that, as I am now, I have no way to conduct in-depth research."

Chu Yang leaned back on the sofa, closed his eyes slightly, and fell into thought.

He did not doubt Ryze's words, because the information Ryze revealed mostly matched the clues he had obtained in the Void. The most critical question...

... was that when he displayed the original power of the Deno Ultimate Gene, the Empress in the Void had mistakenly thought he possessed the power of a true prehistoric god.

The Deno Ultimate Gene is a fusion product of multiple top-tier super genes, and all the characteristics of every super gene in the sequence were infinitely amplified under the action of extreme matter.

This included factors of prehistoric life! Since the plan used on Ryze was effective, it meant the general direction was not wrong; it was just that problems appeared in the details.

In a certain sense, wasn't the gene crystal Ryze fused with just a defective version of the Ultimate Gene? So...

... in the original power of the Ultimate Gene, does the "divinity" that Zilean and Ryze pursued exist? Divinity from prehistoric life! Chu Yang slowly raised his head, looked at the sky outside the window, and narrowed his eyes slightly.

Heavenly Dao... is this also your calculation? Leaving behind two prehistoric remnants, yet letting them lose the most critical parts of their genes and memories, thereby guiding new life in the universe toward a controllable direction for you during their pursuit of the truth? What a massive game of chess! The Heavenly Dao of this Super God world is practically on the verge of becoming a spirit!

There was also a critical question that Chu Yang had never figured out, which was that the Super God Heavenly Dao was suspected to be incomplete, or had been subjected to certain restrictions! This was also one of the reasons why he was so eager to figure out the greatest secret in the historical truth.

Putting away his thoughts, Chu Yang looked at Ryze again and asked, "Since you and Headmaster Space have already guessed that it is highly likely that prehistoric survivors exist in the unknown universe, why don't you go and take a look?"

Chu Yang was very puzzled as to why they would rather choose two extreme plans in the end than explore the unknown universe.

After all, by comparison, whether it was risking genetic mutation or embarking on the "point of no return" to become a high-dimensional life form, neither was as steady as exploring the unknown universe.

Since Zilean was able to drive the technological progress of the entire universe and created the Great Clock, as long as he was given enough time and the technology tree climbed a bit higher, presumably crossing the cosmic boundary to explore the unknown universe would not be impossible.

Ryze shook his head and said, "That is an impossible thing..."

"To be honest, that you were able to do this completely subverts my understanding!"

"Why is it impossible?" Chu Yang frowned.

"Because..." Ryze opened his mouth, then a look of confusion appeared on his face, and he said somewhat awkwardly, "Wait a moment!"

After he "reviewed" the stored information once more, he said slowly, "Regarding this matter, the Headmaster only left behind one sentence as an explanation..."

"'Heavenly Dao is irreversible and inviolable!'"

Chu Yang suddenly realized, and many of his previous doubts were cleared up.

No wonder! No wonder that apart from Void creatures, the known universe had never encountered invasions from other extraterrestrial life.

No wonder that in the last hundred thousand years, no one had successfully explored the unknown universe.

No wonder that in historical records, the scope of the known universe had always been fixed.

Heavenly Dao!

With the obstruction of Heavenly Dao, even the strongest "pseudo-god" or the most high-end technology, how could they possibly cross that "chasm"?

At least for now, in this game of chess, Heavenly Dao could be called flawless in its calculations.

Creating explosions, cleaning up "viruses," isolating the "recycle bin"! It turned the entire known universe into a prison, and used Zilean and Ryze to promote the development of cosmic technology, letting the known universe enter a "pseudo-god era," while erasing the traces of true gods having existed!

Karl's Ultimate Fear theory was likely also guided by Heavenly Dao in the dark.

Heavenly Dao was intentionally creating a cycle of life every hundred thousand years; this was a seamless trap!

Every hundred thousand years as a cycle, it treated the life of the known universe as experimental subjects, conducting "trial and error" batch after batch, until in one of the life cycles, cosmic life achieved the results Heavenly Dao wanted.

If not for his own appearance, how could this trap be broken? Ge Xiaolun! A sharp glint flashed in Chu Yang's eyes! The one destined to face the tribulation?

He suddenly remembered that conversation with Zilean back in the Dark Nebula.

This old guy was actually lying to him! Where was there any so-called person destined to face the tribulation?

It was clearly Zilean who wanted to win half a move against Heaven, so he created the Power of the Galaxy and left behind many layouts!

As long as Ge Xiaolun could repel the Void and protect the known universe, it would be equivalent to protecting all cosmic life.

Zilean did not want to see cosmic life, in cycle after cycle of "reincarnation," cause the factors that might contain "divinity" in their genes to be worn away.

But neither Zilean nor Heavenly Dao had ever expected that in this game of chess, a variable like Chu Yang, who jumped outside the chessboard, would actually appear!

The extreme matter that did not exist in the Super God world allowed Chu Yang, by a stroke of luck, to possess so-called "divinity" power.

As a special existence influenced by the Soul Palace, Ao Ting naturally would not be restricted by the Super God Heavenly Dao, so he was able to easily cross the cosmic boundary! Heavenly Dao would not go to great lengths for this; after all, in its eyes, compared to Chu Yang, Ao Ting's threat seemed somewhat insignificant.

Chu Yang, the culprit, had even turned the "recycle bin" that Heavenly Dao used to create "reincarnation" and clean up "garbage" and "viruses" completely upside down!

He was getting closer and closer to the truth...

Chu Yang slowly stood up and said with a smile, "Many thanks to Teacher Ryze for clearing up my confusion. Before I leave, let me ask one more thing..."

"Are the Deno Super Gene and the Shenhe Super Gene both products created by purifying factors of prehistoric life?"

Ryze nodded, then shook his head, and said, "Barely, I suppose!"

"Their super genes do indeed contain many prehistoric life factors, but these life factors were 'waste' screened out during the purification process."

"Perhaps because the complete forms of these factors suffered devastating blows during the Big Bang, even if bits and pieces of the factors were preserved, there was not a shred of divinity aura within them."

"The Headmaster simply made use of the waste and created some super genes!"

"By comparison, genes with a relatively powerful starting point, such as those of angels and demons, as well as some higher civilizations, are the ones that contain prehistoric life factors with a divinity aura."

Chu Yang nodded thoughtfully, then took his leave.

He understood Ryze's words. To use a somewhat inappropriate example, it was like the "tadpoles" that are a necessary factor in human reproduction.

Some of these "tadpoles" possess activity, while others have lost it.

Zilean used the active "tadpoles" to create gene crystals, while the inactive ones were used to create super genes.

Although they lost their activity, their essence remained unchanged, and they could more or less retain some power.

Walking out of the Super God Academy headquarters, Chu Yang left Earth and headed straight for the cosmic boundary.

Since he had already deduced the ins and outs of the matter, only one question remained...

... and that was the secret regarding prehistoric civilization and prehistoric true gods! Or rather...

... that power from the prehistoric era! Chu Yang had a great interest in this! However, judging from the information fed back from Ao Ting, he had not yet encountered prehistoric survivors, nor had he entered the true unknown universe.

Chu Yang's trip to the cosmic boundary this time was just to see Heavenly Dao's reaction...

(End of chapter)