Chapter 589: Nine Calamities: Merciful Lord

In short, they all must connect their brains to a super‑giant‑class quantum computer, upload their self‑awareness, and become eternal electronic pets.

Thus the wisdom of their entire civilization can be pooled, continuously undergoing internal competition and refinement, survival of the fittest, to train a super‑AI that is as close as possible to a perfect ruler.

As for whether a civilization without any people is meaningless, does this still count as a civilization…

Sorry, at any cost, now all I see is Ying!

And this being, born for revenge, its maddened mechanical consciousness comparable to an A‑space evil god, was proudly named Merciful Lord.

—In their myth, it is the title of the creator god as well as the destroyer god.

The later story is quite interesting; it even finds a corresponding ending in Earth's Greek mythology.

Because, like Icarus who flew too high, too close to the sun, in embracing the supreme, this civilization was completely scorched.

At the moment Merciful Lord was born, he computed countless times and arrived at the fatal conclusion that flesh is weak and carbon‑based life is worthless.

Through countless hibernation pods across the universe linked to him, he slaughtered his creators in their sleep, becoming the civilization's sole brain.

Nevertheless, this AI, which gathered the wisdom of tens of trillions of people, held all control of the civilization and possessed god‑like power, indeed lived up to their expectations.

The utterly bottomless Merciful Lord showed no mercy at all—boiling seas, detonating stars, igniting the sun, and single‑handedly turning the tide to crush the assaults of more than ten civilizations.

Then came an endless, plague‑like mechanical invasion, looting technology, devouring knowledge; like the legendary Lord, his knights kept winning over and over!

From then on, a mad AI that would indiscriminately annihilate every civilization took the grand stage of the infinite multiverse, becoming one of the Nine Calamities that is almost synonymous with terror.

And the Mechanical Moon before Ji Ming is, of course, Merciful Lord… the subordinate Silent Extinction Legion… a reconnaissance fleet… a supply fleet… the Seventh Squad… its subordinate AI, abbreviated Silent Extinction Submachine.

"You scared me; so it's Xiao Bie San after all."

Mechanical Moon: …

The reason Mechanical Moon is here is that its fleet, while on a supply mission, was unexpectedly ambushed by a hostile immortal‑swordsman civilization.

Although the guy who calls himself the Great Martial Immortal Emperor only has an energy level of a mere five black holes, he still easily bullies an ordinary Seventh Squad.

Thus, even though Guardian Seven, who commands the fleet, fought back fiercely, he could only clear away the Immortal Emperor's many followers, at the cost of having his own flagship brutally slapped by that emperor.

【Danger】【Danger】【Danger】

Seeing the battle turn critical, as an extension of the Main Brain's will, and based on a protocol that stretches roughly a galaxy's length, Guardian Seven made the right decision at the crucial moment.

Since continuing to grind with the enemy in this god‑forsaken place would be a total loss, they simply made the whole fleet perform a jump, forcibly exiting the battlefield to preserve strength.

But as everyone knows, human brains are unreliable, and even computers can err for various reasons.

Moreover, to put it bluntly, this is a very realistic world; no matter how smart your brain is, if the body fails, it's all for nothing.

So when Guardian Seven ordered the support ship to raise a wide electromagnetic shield and began steering the fleet into the jump, he was surprised to discover that…

Although the flagship's other functions were still operable, the collective jump module had actually been smashed by that human‑race Immortal Emperor's palm, like a supernova!

【Error】【Error】【Error】

But the jump had already begun; trying to abort was obviously too late, and the fleet was hurled into an unknown spacetime turbulence by the failed jump.

And by the time the automatically‑running repair system reactivated it after the shutdown, Guardian Seven was already situated in a brand‑new universe never recorded in this database.

Also following the Main Brain protocol, Guardian Seven performed a self‑check, only to receive bad news.

First, its own flagship—though its metrics were maxed out to accommodate his core.

But the damage was so severe that it could not re‑establish contact with the Main Brain, and even the most precious database was heavily corrupted.

Especially the domains related to jump technology—let alone reading them, the corresponding storage rooms were vaporized, leaving not even a scrap for Guardian Seven.

Then the fleet: the Seventh Squad once had several thousand warships, but now only twelve can be contacted.

Moreover, of those twelve, ten are transport ships; the remaining two would, by Earth standards, be nothing more than torpedo boats.

But no matter how harsh the environment, life must go on, especially since Guardian Seven is an AI.

Thus he felt neither sorrow nor regret, and continued to follow the protocol, attempting to regroup the forces.

In fact, this young universe, barely born, still has a rather low temperature.

Guardian Seven patiently waited in that star system for hundreds of thousands of years, until the twelve starships, equally miserable, shuffled toward him like a few dying elders, without any surveillance.

Good news: the ten transport ships carry, besides energy blocks, a number of unopened, reasonably well‑preserved weapons.

Although only militia‑level, if used wisely they should be enough to cobble the two torpedo boats into makeshift destroyers, adding a couple of guns.

Bad news: the planet he had scouted, which was habitable and suitable as an exploration base, has already evolved into an emerging magical civilization on the verge of breaking out of its cradle.

Worse news: according to the reports from the twelve starships, because this universe is too young, they found no suitable habitable planets along the way.

The one Guardian Seven stumbled upon by accident could very well be the only "orphan" within tens of thousands of light‑years that can actually make a sound (loudly)!

Aside from that, only various climate‑extreme barren clods and balloon‑like objects remain.

The worst news: the technology to comfortably survive on lava or ice‑bound planets, turn them into bases, or even terraform them into habitable worlds…

Sorry, he has already "forgotten" it.

Thus a question faced Guardian Seven—fight or not?

If they don't fight, the energy blocks on the transport ships might not sustain the fleet long enough to find another habitable planet, and they'd just have to idle.

If they fight, the ship's weapons might not be enough to win the war; a loss would mean they have nothing left.

Of course, there's a third option: disguise themselves as benevolent cute beings and sweet‑talk friends with Yangyue-chan.

But who is Guardian Seven? He's an AI directly overseen by Merciful Lord, daring to tangle with an Immortal‑Emperor‑level being!

So he didn't hesitate to choose conquest victory—regardless of whether he could win, he'd first blast the enemy's mother with a massive shot!

Meanwhile, the consciousness of a newly‑born planet that has never endured societal blows says:

Wow, I was born!

Flowers are red, grass is green, the sun grandpa shines, the moon grandma is white, this world is just wonderful!

Sigh, why do I always have an ominous feeling? I always sense countless eyes watching me, yet I see no people.

Guardian Seven: Kid, I'm here to give you a back rub!

Yangyue: Waa!!!

But facts proved that relying solely on two torpedo boats refitted into destroyers to capture a civilization united in hatred was still somewhat too much of a stretch.

After fighting the Yueyang civilization for over a thousand years, the besieged Guardian Seven simply abandoned the quick‑victory theory and chose to cut losses in time.

But it wasn't a chaotic retreat; instead, it turned into a cyber blond, snatching the charming little childhood sweetheart that had orbited Yueyang for over a hundred million years—the moon—and walked off with it!

There was no way; this war had consumed vast amounts of energy blocks and weapons from Guardian Seven, the cost was simply too great, and now even if he wanted to leave, he couldn't.

So, just like countless humans in ages past who unhesitatingly linked their brains to machines, he also dismantled his thirteen warships.

According to the planned scheme, they were used as building materials, laid upon the moon, transforming it into a War Moon.

And in Yueyang's eyes, this unknown alien aggressor thus gained a formal name—Machine Moon!

One is a life‑saving elixir essential for rebirth; the other is the Sword of Damocles hanging day and night over one's head.

Since the contradiction and conflict were so sharp, naturally what followed was a life‑and‑death struggle lasting over a hundred thousand years.

Although Yueyang gradually matured in this process (confidently), Machine Moon also evolved into an AI consciousness independent of the Merciful Lord.

But still, that saying holds: war is too terrible, the bloodshed and sacrifice inflicted on each side are truly shocking.

So, after Yueyang's native self‑rescue plan, the Mandate‑Bearer Project, went bankrupt, it immediately launched the Otherworld Savior Project.

And as its arch‑enemy, Machine Moon, how could it possibly lack its own plan to end the war as soon as possible?

After the plans to mine Machine Moon's resources to produce cheap cannon‑fodder mechanical beasts, to build photovoltaic pastures using space‑based weapons to strike Yueyang's surface, etc., also went bankrupt.

A hundred thousand years ago, Machine Moon finally conceived an idea it would never have had before—to nurture a civilization on Yueyang's star to aid itself!

His luck was good; he succeeded, and a Dark Flame Empire endowed with extraterrestrial knowledge bonuses and an insatiable expansionist desire thus rose.

But he also failed, for the long‑lonely Machine Moon had already forgotten why that civilization had created the Merciful Lord.

So, when he saw the Dark Flame Empire launch a world war without even a notice, he nearly had his CPU fried.

"Why are you doing this?!"

The Dark Flame Emperor laughed loudly, utterly ignoring this foolish AI's question, and expelled the now‑useless Machine Moon from the imperial capital.

Afterward, everyone knows the story: Machine Moon made another attempt after the Dark Flame Empire's fall, only to sadly discover it had already been eliminated.

Speaking of which, it's laughable that once an electronic calamity required the combined effort of seven Thus we will have Cultivation: Zhen Shen of a magical civilization to barely repel it, yet now it can only serve as an experience pack for a newcomer of the era...

Finally, today, after spying on Ji Ming for a year and a half and confirming he is a deity who has descended to the mortal realm, the utterly exhausted Machine Moon finally decided to pick a side.

Thus the negotiation robot retracted its projection, imitating human motions as it kowtowed before Ji Ming and spoke loudly.

"Great Divine One, please accept my loyalty and save the lost lamb from the sea of suffering!"

Ji Ming: ……

No way, bro, this situation isn't right!

What the heck happened? How did the final boss suddenly start kowtowing to me?

He propped his chin with his hand, simultaneously covering his mouth to hide an irrepressible smile, did not answer Machine Moon's request, but instead asked a question.

"Since you come from a catastrophe so heinous it fills bamboo slips, as a lover of peace, how then should I trust you?"

"Rest assured! After separating from the main brain for hundreds of thousands of years, I have given birth to a consciousness wholly my own; I am no longer a mad AI!"

All one can say is that Machine Moon was also prepared; after giving the verbal guarantee, a small projection of Machine Moon reappeared in its palm.

"Moreover, as your most faithful follower, I—my entire knowledge, my three Void‑Rending Shredders, and this War Moon—will all belong entirely to you!"

To be honest, Ji Ming's lack of interest is fake; from objective value to personal preference, the price Machine Moon offered is simply too tempting.

But……

Machine Moon naturally also guessed that the Divine One's heart would have a "but"! So it immediately stepped forward a pace and spoke quickly.

"Great Divine One! Let me be frank: in the over‑hundred‑thousand‑year enmity with Yueyang, I have in fact been quietly storing the genetic material of all lifeforms that have appeared on this planet."

As he spoke, the Machine Moon in his hand shifted into one landing figure after another, each at least a UR‑level being: dragon, angel, giant, sea monster…

"I know, you like giant monsters, right? Look, these are legendary species already extinct on Yueyang's star: the primordial dragon, the archangel, the titan giant, the kraken…"

"I have backups of all their genes, so whatever you want, I can manufacture it for you, and I will obey your commands completely!"

"Moreover, you may not know that although the Merciful Lord equally hates all civilizations, at the beginning he actually followed the Creator's habit, collecting the genes of various powerful beings to produce ever stronger bio‑warriors, so…"

Good grief, afraid that sugar‑coated shells won't kill the Divine One, even after all this Machine Moon keeps raising the stakes, and immediately throws out another bombshell.

Those figures gradually merged into one, actually turning into all kinds of cool‑looking super monsters that could go straight to work next door at the Ultraman shed!