Cataclysm: Undead Dragons and Zero Empire

Stepping back into the lost paradise of the universe, Lin Ziming is no longer the child who once lived under the protection of his parents.

As a being adapted to the cosmic environment, he actually did not understand this universe. From the beginning of his transmigration to his death on the battlefield, Lin Zimo had not even gone through the childhood of the Heavenly Dragon Clan.

The long hours passed leisurely in the breeding chamber where the dragons were raised, like an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, whose only impressions of the outside world were the cradle, a small patch of sky, the scent of their parents, and those unknown things that floated past their eyes.

Now that baby has grown up. He has lost his parents and is wandering alone in an unknown foreign land, needing to get to know the world anew. In this respect, Lin Ziming is no different from those orphans who have to enter society at a young age to earn a living.

This universe is now completely different from what he imagined, to the point of being utterly unfamiliar. Over hundreds of millions of years, countless stars have been born, collided, and destroyed, enough time for civilizations to rise and fall again and again, like an hourglass that keeps turning.

This timescale is so long that Lin Ziming cannot be certain what kind of powerful civilizations have been born in the universe, or what kind of grand stories have taken place.

During his lifetime, he learned from the information passed down by his parents that he had chosen the empire he was in now as his mission: to do everything in his power to protect this civilization and help it achieve its ascension.

Have the parents completed their mission? Lin Ziming felt that they hadn't. If the mission of the Celestial Dragon Clan had ended, this universe shouldn't be like this, at least that's what his racial intuition told him.

Lin Ziming himself couldn't quite explain his mission. Protecting civilization and helping it achieve ascension was not simply about breaking through the historical cycle and extending the natural world's lifespan.

For the human civilization that Lin Zimo has just left behind, several calamities are nothing but insignificant matters in the grand scheme of the universe. Many civilizations will stagnate and self-destruct over a long period of development, with technology and history regressing, to the point that they will have to rely on archaeology to improve their technology.

Human civilization has existed for only a few thousand years from its origins to its peak. It is fortunate that we have been safe and sound on our home planet. But since it is fortunate, there will always be an end to it. Perhaps in the future, humanity will forget its past glory and become one of the countless self-destructive civilizations.

However, under the disaster and interference brought by Lin Zimo, human civilization broke through its own shackles, disrupting social structures, resource allocation, and technological directions. This was a rebirth after destruction, an upgrade and evolution of civilization, which can be called an ascension.

The mission passed down through generations of the Celestial Dragon Clan, the ascension mentioned, is by no means so simple. In the depths of his mind, Lin Zimo could sense that this mission was more sublime than the fate of the universe itself. Whether human civilization could shoulder this task remained an unknown, and he could only hope for it.

After flying a certain distance, perhaps tens of thousands of light-years, Lin Zimo exited the faster-than-light state and cruised in a new star system at sub-light speed. His skeletal wings were reshaped back to their former appearance by psionic energy, and he soared freely in the form of a celestial dragon.

This is a standard single star system, seemingly unremarkable, like a grain of sand picked up randomly in the desert. However, on a terrestrial planet captured by this star, silver rivers meander across its surface.

The planet has mountains, which indicates that it has undergone geological activity. Geological activity suggests that it has a liquid, hot core, and may have once had an atmosphere and an active magnetic field, or even nurtured life. However, what Lin Ziming sees now is a desolate landscape.

Looking at the familiar, silvery-white living metal flowing on the ground, Lin Ziming always thought of the first food his parents fed him. These metals, which share many characteristics with organic life forms, are excellent food for the Tianlong clan. They can promote development and can also be used to repair the body during wartime.

He had turned into a black skeleton and no longer needed to eat, but Lin Zimo still landed on this lifeless planet and lowered his dragon head toward the largest metal lake here, as if he had rediscovered the joy he felt when he saw living metal in his previous life.

Lin Ziming was searching for the secret of his current state. He was undoubtedly dead. The living metal that he had touched had lost its activity and become pale and silent.

Death is ever-present, and as Lin Ziming awoke from his eternal slumber, this mysterious power reignited. Had he not taken the initiative to control it, the flames of death would have consumed all of human civilization the moment his consciousness returned.

Humans respectfully call it "the death of zero," and Lin Zimo accepts this name and is troubled by it. Just as humans do not always understand how their bodies work while living normal lives, but in order to further explore and train, humans must understand their own bodies.

Lin Zimo extracted all the living metal mineral deposits from this planet, and in his hands, they resembled an inverted silver-white ocean, which was then molded into various shapes like clay toys.

He used these living metals to cloak himself in a protective layer, with psychic energy acting as a buffer to isolate the overwhelming deathly power from the surface of his skeleton, allowing the deathly fire to remain smoldering within him.

Lin Ziming instantly transformed into a silver-white figure, as if his bones were coated with a luxurious decoration. These living metals flowed continuously on his body like a pool of water, refusing to stop.

Before he has mastered the power of death to the finest degree, he cannot allow anything he touches to wither uncontrollably, as if a walking calamity has befallen the world. At least for now, he has no such intention.

Lin Ziming was using this method to hone his control over death. If one day he could keep the living metal on his body flowing forever without using psychic energy, he could take off this outer garment. Death would become the most obedient and convenient tool, just like an extra limb he was born with.

If there were something in the universe that required the fire of death to burn with all its might, it would surely be the moment of its end. Lin Zimo wondered if he, who had already died once, could die again.

He spread his wings and left this lonely star system. The planet, which had lost a large amount of mass, would inevitably experience frequent geological activity again. Whether life would emerge in the long future remains to be seen.

Lin Ziming urgently needs to know the current state of the universe and how he is regarded in interstellar space. Perhaps launching an attack would be a good choice, just like a wild beast on land venturing into unknown territory, always trying to prey on all creatures to determine its position in the food chain.

However, before that, what first came into his view was not the sign of interstellar civilization, but a star that was gradually dimming, at an unusually fast speed, as if a terminally ill person was beginning to experience rapid organ failure on their deathbed.

Lin Ziming sensed the death of Hengxing and determined that this sun-like star was not dying of old age and did not undergo the aging process of expanding into a red giant and ejecting matter. Instead, it was becoming dimmer and dimmer, like a light bulb gradually going out.

Having encountered this anomaly at the very beginning of his return to the universe, Lin Ziming felt that the current starry sea was not so boring, but rather still undecided, full of vitality, with all things vying for attention, and countless lives crowding this vast stage.

In the midst of Hengxing's death, he sensed the presence of life and flew towards it.