Chapter 1868 — The One Who Shepherds the Gods

At the two-hundred-billion-year mark, Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua sought out Young Master Wuji, Taishang, and Taiyi to discuss the universe's future. They persuaded the three to jointly seek out the Elder Without Bounds, and at last came with him to Jade Capital.

The titans of the Seventeenth Epoch finally sat down together to deliberate on how to counter the void's expansion.

"Only by casting aside our prejudices, by imprinting the Dao Achievers' Great Luotians into the Ultimate Void, can we fix the void and halt its expansion!"

The Elder Without Bounds declared: "The Ancestral Court's Dao Realm system is also a Dao Realm system. Jingping's Dao Achievers attain the Dao within—this can be changed to attaining the Dao without, imprinting their Great Luotians into the Ultimate Void. And Young Master Wuji's Way of Guixu can devour the Ultimate Void. With myself and Miro Palace's Dao Achievers added, we can surely halt this expansion."

The titans of the Seventeenth Epoch finally joined hands—the first Miro Palace Alliance in history.

One after another, Great Luotians soared into the sky, imprinting themselves into the universe's Ultimate Void. The mightiest beings of the Seventeenth Epoch attempted to forestall the Great Silence. This was the first attempt.

Yet the Ultimate Void's evolution did not stop expanding as they had predicted, nor was it crushed into chaos by the Dao Achievers.

The void's power pressed on. The Ultimate Void merged with the other thirty-five layers of void. The Great Luotians of tens of thousands of Dao Achievers could not crush the Ultimate Void—indeed, even their Great Luotians were torn, expanding outward with the void's expansion!

At the second Miro Palace Alliance, Young Master Wuji spoke: "Cultivating the Way of Guixu can restrain the void. Only thus can we devour the expanding void and bring its expansion to a halt."

She held nothing back, transmitting her Way of Guixu to all.

The Dao Achievers' second attempt began. Yet when Great Abysses of Guixu appeared in the void, attempting to devour it, those Abysses evaporated and decomposed of themselves.

Seventy billion years later, the second attempt was declared a failure.

At the third Miro Palace Alliance, Lan Yutian spoke: "Jingping attains the Dao within, the cosmos hidden inside. This can prevent voidification."

Yet by now the Seventeenth Epoch's universe had reached the three-hundred-billion-year mark. The spiritual energy between heaven and earth had grown incomparably thin. Not to mention Dao Achievers—even new deities grew fewer and fewer. Divine ability users became the strongest power in the mortal world.

No new Dao Achievers.

After the third Miro Palace Alliance, wars over holy lands erupted once more. At last, the War of Holy Lands ended.

What ended the War of Holy Lands was not the reason of the various titans, but the universe's sheer breadth.

An expanding universe made even waging war impossibly difficult.

The Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge—that innovation which had once catalyzed Jingping's reforms into qualitative change—became useless too. As the most recent Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge between two great Heavens was severed, journeying to other Heavens became a vain hope.

The connections between the great Heavens gradually severed.

Despair spread through all the Heavens.

Just then, the Thief Sage sought out Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua and said: "After I was rescued, I once stole many treasures from the Elder Without Bounds and Miro Palace, hiding them in the chaotic space of Chaos. These treasures may emit spiritual energy and power, delaying the Great Silence for a time."

Xu Shenghua shook his head. "No matter how many treasures, they only delay the inevitable briefly."

"What if they are Chaos treasures?"

The Thief Sage said: "Chaos told me that he and the Daughter of Chaos once gathered treasures from the Long River of Chaos during the calamities of destruction of sixteen cosmic epochs, hiding them separately in the Chaotic Space and the Filth Field. Perhaps they will serve some use yet, easing the present crisis."

Hearing this, Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian were stirred. They set out separately for the Chaotic Space and the Filth Field.

Even though they were among the mightiest Dao Achievers, it took them several hundred thousand years to reach these two places.

The treasures hidden by Chaos and his daughter became the Seventeenth Epoch's last straw. When those Chaos treasures were retrieved and brought back to the various holy lands, the spiritual energy of the holy lands grew abundant once more, prolonging the universe's life.

Yet even Chaos treasures would one day exhaust their spiritual energy.

That day would come, sooner or later.

At the four-hundred-billion-year mark, most stars in the universe had gone dark, evaporated. Only the holy lands remained, emitting spiritual energy and power, sustaining life.

On this day, an inexplicable tremor spread through the universe, its ripples reaching every corner of the cosmos.

Lan Yutian sensed it and said to Xu Shenghua: "The World Tree has collapsed. The Elder Without Bounds has been torn apart by the void's power. He has returned to the Dao."

Xu Shenghua felt the faint desolation from the depths of the universe and shook his head: "The Elder did not return to the Dao. His Dao foundation was unstable—his great Dao was evaporated by the void. It exists no more."

For this enemy, their hearts held only desolation, not resentment.

The Elder Without Bounds' existence had prolonged this universe by a great span.

Without him, the Great Silence would likely have arrived far sooner.

After the Elder Without Bounds' death and the dissolution of his Dao, a strange tremor came from the void. Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian saw new universes being born in the void's Filth Field, and were astonished beyond measure.

Young Master Taishang and Taiyi found them and said: "That is Taiyi's physical body, and the Heaven-Opening Host—Dao Achievers from the past sixteen cosmic epochs who were suppressed by Chaos. He sent them into the Filth Field to evade the Calamities of Creation. Now the Calamity of Creation has caught up with them."

Taiyi said: "My body and Tiandu's are there as well. Our bodies are undergoing the Calamity of Creation. This is Chaos's contingency—using this method to prolong the Seventeenth Epoch's life."

Taishang said: "I could not understand before why he did these things—why he gathered so many Chaos treasures in the Calamities of Destruction, why he targeted the Heaven-Opening Host and Taiyi so, why he sealed those prehistoric powerhouses in coffins. Now I finally understand."

He was overcome with emotion. Chaos had begun his preparations as early as the Calamity of Destruction of the First Epoch—nearly two trillion years ago.

What moved Taishang even more was this: this was the future Shen Mu had spoken of—the future the master of Miro Palace had failed to see, the future changed!

Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian trembled in spirit.

Nothing in the void's Filth Field could escape the Calamity of Creation. It was only a matter of how long it was delayed.

Shen Mu had subjected those prehistoric powerhouses, the Tiandu Heaven-Opening Host, Taiyi's body, and Tiandu's body to the Calamity of Creation in order to inject one final surge of spiritual energy into this universe hastening toward silence.

Yet even that final spiritual energy could not prolong the Seventeenth Epoch's life for long.

After five hundred billion years, the last sun went dark. The remaining holy lands gradually lost their energy.

The Yuan Realm, Xuandu, Youdu, the Heaven Yin Realm—all were no more. One after another, the Heavens decomposed in the void, turning to nothingness.