Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

Chapter 114 Digital Weapons

The pilgrims explained their history to the undead dragons.

"We realized long ago that the High Heavens are filled with malice and psychic energy corrupted by negative emotions, making them dangerous and chaotic for us."

"Our ancestors once tried to venture into the highest heavens to seek the ultimate truth of psychic energy, but most of them got lost in that chaos and never returned. The few who managed to return were twisted by the chaos and turned into monsters that could only destroy, bringing near-annihilation to our civilization."

"So, you can only rely on those gods to communicate with the subspace for you?" Lin Zimo was fully aware of this civilization's choice.

The pilgrims respectfully replied, "As you expect, we seek benevolent deities to filter out the filth and malice of the highest heavens and to transmit to us the purest spiritual energy. In exchange, we offer them faith, and—our souls—so that they may enlighten us in times of crisis. We create idols for them, allowing their will and power to briefly descend into the real universe to fight for us."

Lin Ziming fell silent for a moment. Soul sacrifice—perhaps civilizations that have gone astray on the path of psionic energy will always be involved in this dangerous area, using life as a sacrifice to exchange for power in the warp.

"You want to worship me, and you also want to form a contract with me?" Lin Zimo said slowly.

"We are willing to offer everything, great being," the pilgrims said fervently, as if they had seen a glimmer of hope. "We will sculpt your statue and engrave your image in every corner of our civilization. We will spread your faith so that every pilgrim knows your renown. We will offer you the power of our faith, so that your power may grow stronger in our offerings."

If he accepts the offerings of this civilization, his power may indeed be enhanced to some extent, because "Death of Zero" will receive more fuel.

"If you make offerings to me," Lin Ziming continued, "what do you want me to provide for you?"

The pilgrim hesitated and said, "Great being—we dare not ask for too much. We will be content as long as you allow us to make offerings. Of course, we would also like to serve you better."

Lin Ziming understood the subtext in the civilization's words: they wanted to establish a connection with him similar to that between them and entities in the warp, to receive psychic blessings through worshipping him. However, Lin Ziming did not intend to be bound by faith.

"I cannot provide you with psionic power," Lin Zimo said calmly but resolutely. "You cannot withstand my power."

The pilgrims were somewhat disappointed, but quickly regained their reverence. "We understand, great being, your power is so great that ordinary beings cannot reach it, but we still hope to worship you and are willing to offer you our purest faith. You are the embodiment of spirituality."

Looking at the deep purple ships conveying their piety and longing through psionic energy, Lin Zimo could sense that this civilization's persistent pursuit of psionic energy had perhaps become an obsession.

"I don't need your offerings," Lin Zimo finally replied. "I don't need statues, I don't need faith, I don't need sacrifices. My path is different from yours."

The pilgrims understood Lin Ziming's intentions. "Please allow us to humbly retain this reverence. We will not presume to proclaim your name, nor will we arbitrarily modify our doctrines or incorporate you into our faith without your consent."

The deep purple nebulae slowly receded beyond the galaxy, like subjects leaving court after paying homage to their king. Lin Zimo didn't say anything more, but simply flapped his bone wings and continued flying towards the other territories of the alliance.

After that, the deep purple light flickered in the darkness, as if countless devout eyes were watching the departing black and red dragon shadow.

"Great being—" that choral voice echoed through the starry sky, carrying an indescribable emotion, "May you one day accept our offerings."

After bidding farewell to this psionic civilization, Lin Zimo continued to cruise between different galaxies. He unleashed destruction upon the Homborian Covenant, but no civilization stepped forward to uphold justice. Perhaps, at least within this supercluster, interstellar society had not yet formed a community where everyone could speak together.

However, Lin Ziming still encountered an obstacle, not from the Hamborya Covenant, but from a strange sight that suddenly appeared in his psionic vision.

Countless illusory, silvery-white rays of light are intertwining in the starry sky, forming complex geometric patterns that are constantly changing and recombinating, as if some kind of protracted calculation is underway.

Lin Ziming sensed a threat from this.

The threat did not come from a specific enemy, but from the light itself. The spatial structure there was undergoing a subtle change, and then a fleet suddenly appeared in the starry sky ahead.

The fleet's ships were shaped like giant crosses, their metallic surfaces gleaming coldly under the starlight, as if designed according to some perfect mathematical proportion, without any superfluous decoration.

When the fleet first appeared in Lin Ziming's field of vision, it was still normal and had a physical form, like a sculpture, without launching any attacks or making any communications.

However, just as he was about to observe further, a sudden change occurred, and the ships began to disintegrate.

It wasn't an explosion, but rather like being erased by an invisible eraser. This disintegration was a more bizarre change; the ships began to disappear, becoming increasingly illusory, and finally melting into a pure stream of information.

The silvery-white light surged from the ships, and the entire fleet was transforming from a material form into a more fundamental form of existence.

Lin Zimo could sense that those lights were not ordinary energy bodies, but rather more essential information states. They simplified the existence of matter into two sides, "existence" and "non-existence," representing "existence" and "nothingness," which constitute the most basic information units of the universe.

Those information flows intertwine and recombine in the starry sky, eventually forming a huge, dazzling pattern, a Möbius strip, a circular structure with no beginning and no end, like an ouroboros lying across the sea of ​​stars.

Countless streams of information flowed through this ring-shaped structure, like an endless river, constantly influencing the surrounding space, making faster-than-light travel impossible, and turning this place into a forbidden zone from which there was no escape.

Those substances that were originally stable, those particles that operated normally according to the laws of physics, are being affected by that torrent of information, and their composition is being redefined.

Lin Ziming discovered that the information deluge was influencing the world. In that Möbius strip, the "1" representing "existence" and the "0" representing "non-existence" were causing corresponding changes in the real world in a complex way.

In the areas covered by these data streams, everything is transformed into modifiable numbers. They are like a group of painters who have broken into a painting, wantonly modifying every line and every color on this canvas called the universe.

The balance that should have been maintained is being disrupted.

When "1" dominates a certain region, that region begins to decrease in entropy, constantly drawing away surrounding matter, causing energy density to rise sharply, making matter more compact, and raising the temperature to the point where the bonds between elementary particles disintegrate, as if returning to the high-energy state of the universe at its birth.

The light from several surrounding galaxies is rapidly dimming at a visible speed, as if being drawn away by an invisible black hole and disappearing without a trace. They are all being drawn into this galaxy by the trend of entropy reduction, constantly raising the high-energy state here.

Lin Ziming saw several planets and a large number of asteroids in that star system begin to glow under this influence. Their surface temperatures instantly soared to unimaginable levels, and the entire planet seemed to be ignited into small stars.

Conversely, when "0" dominates a certain region, that region falls into a strange state of nothingness, as if the lifespan of the universe has come to an end in an instant, and entropy increases become the only theme. Energy and matter diffuse towards outer galaxies, and begin to become thin and uniform, as if heading towards the end of heat death.

As some planets became like the sun, comets on the other side gradually disintegrated under this influence. Their material structure was completely destroyed, turning into countless elementary particles that dissipated into space.

This was the first attack Lin Zimo had encountered since his awakening that could truly have a substantial impact on him, surpassing any attack he had encountered before. It was not attacking the matter itself, but attacking the information that constitutes matter, attacking the most basic rules that allow matter to exist stably. In essence, it was a mathematical weapon, an informational weapon.

Lin Ziming quickly felt the impact of this attack on him.

The Möbius strip of information was constantly rewriting the numbers around him to "1", making the area around him increasingly hot and bright.

Lin Ziming looked down at his dragon-bone body. He could feel the surrounding temperature rising at an alarming rate, soon becoming even more dangerous than the event horizon of a black hole.

This galaxy is melting into a primordial furnace.

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