Chapter 498: Chapter 430: History of the Past (Double-Length)
The original Reincarnation Plane was not naturally a war fortress like a meat grinder.
It once nurtured a unique civilization, a group of beings who accidentally sparked the flame of wisdom from ignorant insects.
They were resilient, united, with astonishing learning and evolution abilities.
Wisdom brought technology, and technology drove development.
They moved from their underground nests to the surface, established city-states, explored the mysteries of the stars, and eventually set their sights beyond the plane, into the vast unknown that Wizards called the "Endless Chaotic Void."
For the first time, they assembled an Expeditionary Army, for the first time, full of hope and trepidation, tried to break free from the cradle that nurtured them, and move toward the sea of stars... This was supposed to be a civilization’s glorious coming-of-age ceremony.
Then, disaster struck without warning.
On that day, the Endless Void, which originally followed a certain chaotic rhythm, abruptly boiled.
Terrifying energy currents, material storms, spatial folds, and even time ripples beyond the current civilization’s cognitive limits, stirred like an invisible giant hand, turning into destructive tides that swept in.
The Expeditionary Army fleet, having just escaped the Plane barrier and not yet embarked on a voyage, was extinguished like a candle in a storm, leaving no wreckage behind.
The dreadful aftermath even shook the Plane itself, causing the shifting of continental plates, a rampage of Earth Vein energy, and the ecosystem teetering on the brink of collapse.
For this fledgling civilization, this was nothing short of a catastrophe.
Merely repairing the severely damaged Plane drained almost all the civilization’s resources and the scientists’ efforts.
And an even more despairing hypothesis soon emerged from the top scientific community: according to the trajectory and characteristics of the destructive impact, reverse inference suggested that it was not a natural phenomenon but rather the aftermath of a battle involving some unknown entity at an immensely distant location.
Just a trace of leaked aftermath, spanning unknown light-years, almost destroyed their entire civilization.
Panic spread like a plague.
Luckily, some innate collective and disciplined instincts of the insect civilization took effect, and society was forcibly pulled back from the brink of collapse to order.
After prolonged and painful debate, the high council made a decision: since such terrifying external threats exist that could possibly destroy them again at any moment, they must possess the power to counteract them.
As it happens, the Plane also needs complete transformation to repair the damage, so why not... forge the entire Plane into an unprecedented super weapon.
An colossal, almost insane plan was launched.
The entire civilization put forth effort to transform mountains and rivers, rewrite energy circuits, attempting to turn the Plane itself into a war fortress that could actively defend and even retaliate against such "cosmic disasters."
The process was incredibly difficult, filled with technical barriers and sacrifices.
But through sheer willpower, they stumbled to the finish line.
Yet, just as success was within reach, scientists responsible for the core system brought devastating news: due to the lack of basic theory and limits of material technology, their initial concept of an "active super weapon" capable of affecting the outside world... had failed.
The finalized system had its core function severely dismantled, leaving only one—when the Plane’s civilization faced an insurmountable threat and was on the verge of extinction, it would activate a mandatory time reversal covering the entire Plane, resetting everything to a "safe point" before the threat occurred.
This meant they created a seemingly indestructible "shell" but could only trap themselves inside.
Once they left the Plane, they were still the fragile insects possibly destroyed by a trace of an aftermath.
The more lethal issue was the power of time reversal couldn’t exempt themselves.
Each reboot would reset their memories, technology, and social structure, even causing civilization to regress.
This infinite loop was akin to slow suicide, wasn’t it?
To resolve this paradox, the civilization, already stretched thin in technological capabilities, ultimately chose an extremely cruel "solution."
They abandoned their physical bodies to unify their spirits.
They forcibly stripped the consciousness, memory, wisdom... the entire "Soul" of their civilization at the highest technological level they could achieve.
The aftermath was fused and digitized, injected, and fixed as the "core will" of the Time Paradox Generator’s core control unit.
Then, they conducted large-scale Biological Transformation on their bodies, turning them into biological weapons with basic combat instincts and certain learning abilities—the prototype of the Reaper Race.
Theoretically, the "Orb Will" having an independent timeline hideout could be immune to the effects of time reversal and wield some sort of spiritual connection to remotely control the external body army, conducting infinite reincarnation trial and error.
For the external bodies, whether they died or were reset, it didn’t matter; as long as the Orb Will survived, the spark of civilization remained, and it could continuously "optimize" its armed forces through reincarnation.
Thus, a scroll of memory concludes that a civilization, for survival, chose to collectively "ascend" as ghosts in the machine, driving its own "relic husks" into eternal war.
Consciousness struggled up from the depths of the sea, escaping the sticky and mournful data flood.
Jeming "opened" his eyes abruptly, instinctively breathing heavily, as if he had nearly drowned in the vast and despairing sea of memories.
Consciousness broke free from immersion in history, and a complex sentiment swept through Jeming’s heart.
