Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

While the vanguard of the Death Knights swept across the continent, on a distant plateau, Terence was leading a group of core members of the Death Faction in constructing a magnificent altar.

The altitude here is extremely high, the air is thin, and the air pressure has dropped to a level that ordinary people cannot survive after the atmosphere has escaped. Therefore, those who can participate in this great undertaking are all outstanding psionic awakeners.

High altitude also means being closer to the sky and closer to their Lord. The concentration of spiritual energy here is richer than in the lowlands, making it an excellent place to communicate with the gods.

The altar was built of black stone and stood with a circle of stone pillars carved with dragon bone patterns. Every floor tile was covered with ancient runes. Since there were no more workers on the plateau to serve them, these materials were airdropped down and then built up by telekinesis, with exquisite craftsmanship.

Terence was still wearing that gray-black robe embroidered with red piping, and the brooch shimmered with a dark red light in the wind and snow.

Traces of psychic energy burning remained on one side of his face, with faint flames flowing beneath his skin. Under his leadership, members of the Death Faction surrounded the altar, dressed in uniform black robes, their faces hidden under hoods, their expressions solemn and devout.

"The time has come. Begin the ritual of worshiping the gods," Terence transmitted his command through a telepathic connection, carrying an unquestionable authority.

As the greatest master of psychic energy manipulation in human civilization, Terence can be considered the strongest among humans. He channeled his powerful will, guiding the vast psychic energy that permeated nature and belonged to the Lord. Black and red energy currents wrapped around the black stone pillars like silk.

The members of the Death Faction simultaneously activated their psychic energy, and the air currents, large and small, converged and merged into the gradually forming pillar of psychic energy. The power of the mind soared into the sky invisibly, forming a huge vortex of black and red flames on the plateau, like a magnificent flower blooming in a cold land.

At that moment, it seemed as if the endless wind and snow had paused for a moment, and the psionic energy in the atmosphere became unusually active, swirling and flowing around the altar.

Terence closed his eyes and amplified his consciousness fluctuations through the ritual, as if he had become a central hub of the world, receiving the streams of psychic energy flowing into the sea. Then he recited prayers, conveying the beliefs of human civilization to the heavens.

"O Most High Lord, Your devout believer prays here!"

"Your supreme reason has set the scales of judgment for us; the judgment of truth brings peace to all the faithful who have died."

"Like the blazing sun, your authority shines upon the earth, and your mercy is bestowed equally upon every one of your people."

"Humanity, your insignificant creation, we humbly beseech you to send down divine guidance, to show us the way forward!"

The chanting echoed within the psychic vortex, growing louder and louder. Terence could clearly feel this powerful consciousness piercing through the atmosphere, traversing the deep space between the Earth and the Moon, reaching the lifeless satellite, and touching the supreme deity.

On the lunar surface, Lin Ziming's psionic projection hovered silently above the crater. Three pairs of illusory eyes, formed from black and red flames, moved slightly as he captured the mental messages from the planet's surface.

For the suddenly awakened undead dragon, human civilization was nothing more than a tiny group he had encountered by chance in his long life. However, he witnessed the struggles and resistance of these civilizations, which were so similar to his homeland, in the face of disaster. He witnessed their desire for survival and their aspirations for the future. He witnessed how, after the arrival of the spiritual energy he bestowed, humanity used it to show both good and evil, just like the two sides of a tool.

Lin Ziming unleashed his will upon the planet, like a star falling, traversing the void and descending upon the altar on the plateau.

An invisible pressure enveloped the entire area, and the wind and snow instantly stopped. The priests participating in the worship ceremony knelt down, their foreheads pressed against the cold black stone, not daring to look up at the Lord's arrival.

A deep voice resounded in everyone's minds. Instantly, the Death Faction members could not withstand this level of psionic shock. They went from kneeling to falling to the ground, falling into a coma, and were unable to hear the long-awaited teachings from the Lord.

Only Terence was able to persevere in communication that directly affected the level of consciousness. He felt as if a vast sandstorm was raging in his mind, and every fold of his cerebral cortex was being scraped by sand, bringing torture-like pain.

"Humans, speak your wishes."

When the words were uttered, the pain reached its peak; each word was like a raging flame burning in the skull, leaving dark marks.

Terence endured the pain in his mind. He could only try to translate the storm of messages that the Lord had given him in the most devout way. In fact, only the Lord himself knew what Lin Zimo had said.

He responded with difficulty: "Great Lord, we are grateful for your mercy. Human civilization is in peril, and the cold is about to extinguish the flame of survival. We beg you to give us guidance and tell us the way forward."

Lin Ziming's consciousness hovered above the altar, his black and red spiritual energy surging like a tide. "This planet, my place of slumber, the first place I set foot on after awakening."

"I have seen your struggles and I have seen your hopes, so I have given you psychic power as your tool. This power can be a ladder to civilization or a spark of self-destruction."

"I will not interfere with your fate, nor will I directly save you from your suffering. In the universe, the stars of civilization rise and fall endlessly, and the vast majority are just silent. If truth could speak, then the universe would just be a uniform, eternal noise."

"The survival of your civilization depends solely on your own strength."

Terence dared not interrupt the Lord's thoughts, but he gleaned a crucial piece of information from them: the universe was indeed already overcrowded, and human civilization was not a lonely star.

"I will stay on the moon for a while," Terence, the only one who remained conscious, continued to try to translate the Lord's oracle. "Then I will go into the depths of the universe, rediscover this interstellar space, search for my lost people, and explore the mysteries of death."

"If one day in the future you are able to overcome this disaster, escape this predicament, and achieve prosperity, if you are able to break free from the gravitational pull of the planet, venture into the stars, and explore the vast universe... then I will acknowledge you as my followers and entrust the mission of the Celestial Dragon Clan to you."

"To live or to die, to prosper or to perish, is the choice you make."

After the divine message was delivered, Lin Ziming's consciousness, which had descended here, began to rise slowly. The spiritual pressure gradually dissipated, and the spiritual vortex above the altar slowly calmed down. The black and red pillar of light shrank into nothingness, eventually turning into specks of light that merged into the wind and snow.

Terence covered his head, slowly straightened up, and the black and red light in his eyes flickered uncertainly.

He knew very well that this was the first and perhaps only two-way communication between humanity and the gods, and that this divine decree would change the fate of human civilization in any case.

Terence raised his head and looked towards the moon. His mind was filled with meticulous calculations and plans for the future. In the wind and snow that enveloped him, the black stone on the altar, having borne the Lord's spiritual energy, cracked and shimmered with a faint red light, as if foreshadowing the beginning of a new era.