Chapter Ninety-Two: The Divine and the Mortal

【Northern Demon Sect】

In the cluster of artificial divine realms, there exists a faction so profoundly mysterious that no records of it remain, save for the Daoist arts and fragmented hearsay passed down through time.

While the 【Southern Saint Sect】 and 【Divine Heaven Peak】 are equally enigmatic, one can at least excavate their ruins or trace the inheritance of their predecessors, such as the remnants left by cultivators at the Void-Refining stage. The 【Northern Demon Sect】, however, is truly a void. Its first sect master, Li Huai, left no trace behind other than his name.

Did Li Huai truly exist? What caused their rise, and what led to their eventual extinction? Behind it all…

At this moment, Lan Yi was operating a dozen computers simultaneously. He bypassed the inefficient method of typing on a keyboard, instead using his 【Canghua】 to probe directly into the underlying circuitry, manipulating electrical signals to force inputs. To an ordinary observer, Lan Yi appeared to be merely standing there, turning his head occasionally. The circular array of monitors automatically projected running programs, exporting results as they were calculated, as if the God of All Machines had descended, with the machine spirit frantically laboring away.

Lan Yi was attempting to decipher the secrets of a Daoist art from the perturbation control of a nuclear explosion model. This art was the supreme technique of the Northern Demon Sect: The Great Ivan 9,999-Fold Chain!

In ancient myths circulating in certain artificial divine realms, it is said that during the conflict between the Dao and the Demon, when the Demon Sect was on the verge of annihilation, the disciple Li Huai—later the first master of the Northern Demon Sect—suddenly stepped forward. He unleashed a technique known as the Great Ivan 9,999-Fold Chain, obliterating three thousand Daoist masters in one blow. Thus, he was dubbed the most wicked demon in history, and the technique he employed became known as the legendary strongest art of the Demon Sect.

For psionic cultivators, this move is not unfamiliar, as its essence is simply the release of nuclear force. In the later stages of cultivation, every top-tier psionic cultivator plays with the four fundamental forces as they please. This makes the Great Ivan 9,999-Fold Chain seem somewhat unworthy of its reputation; as the "near-divine" ultimate technique of the Northern Demon Sect's founder, its upper limit appears to be mere continental shelf destruction, which is truly baffling.

Before his rebirth, Lan Yi had not cultivated this art. It was not due to a lack of prerequisites or knowledge; rather, he had been far too busy, and at his seventh energy level, the power of this technique seemed rather lackluster, so he had simply shelved it as a collection piece. He was taking it up now because Lan Yi sensed a crisis.

Indeed, he smelled it. The Conquest Space operates on dynamic difficulty. During his first trial, Lan Yi had violently shattered the scientific worldview, creating an ultimate causality that triggered the resurgence of spiritual energy; if the Conquest Space had consciousness, it would have applauded his performance. Thus, for the second trial, Lan Yi estimated the Conquest Space would ramp up the intensity to the maximum, likely throwing in numerous top-tier "reborn" individuals as well, since the second trial was a collaborative mode for the civilization.

Beyond that, detonating nuclear bombs to earn titles and emerging as a powerhouse from the blast was not solely for cultivation. The entities behind the "Life-Cluster Psychosis" might have already noticed him. Facing a psionic cultivator who could already "steal fire from the nucleus," how would they react? Would they follow the original trajectory, slowly infiltrating via the Life-Cluster Psychosis, or would they interfere directly, attempting to drive him into madness as well? These were all unknowns.

As the nuclear fire soared in the Northwest, ghouls swarmed the Far South, and civil war broke out in the Americas, in Tianhai City:

The ruins of the battlefield where Lan Yi had led the fierce struggle against the Evil God race had undergone a massive transformation in just five days. A large contingent of black-clad armed personnel had moved in, guided by psionic cultivators, and a complex of buildings arranged in a Bagua layout had risen from the ground. At the core of this arrangement floated two transparent spheres that defied the laws of nature.

These two spheres perturbed the ripples of space. As they slowly rotated and crossed each other, if one caught the right angle, one could peer through the overlapping spheres to glimpse scenes on the other side. Sometimes it was deep, desolate space; sometimes a vast, azure sea; sometimes towering, majestic mountains. But more often, it was a chaotic blur of color, as if corrupted signal noise were flooding the passage, turning everything into a mess.

This was the temporary channel undergoing calibration. Before leaving Tianhai, Lan Yi had selected this location for the channel. Other psionic cultivators involved in the two-world project used their various unique abilities to stabilize the channel, shielding it from interference while attempting to seize strategic initiative and anchor the channel in a position favorable for their own intervention. It could be said that, aside from the Northwest desert, Tianhai City had gathered a large group of psionic cultivators with extraordinary knowledge and power. Once they coordinated with local forces, their strength was truly formidable—the advantage of numbers.

Zhang Shou-zheng, left in charge, was utterly perplexed. "What is going on? Why has it been five days without a successful calibration?"

"An unknown source of interference?"

"Haven't we eliminated all interference factors on our end? We even drew power from two separate sources."

"What exactly is happening? Do you intend to wait for Lan Yi to return and handle it himself?"

A youth with sword-like brows, star-bright eyes, and a long sword strapped to his back spoke up. "Shou-zheng, this matter is suspicious. The source of the interference is neither with us nor on the other side. With current technology, it is difficult to isolate or detect. We might as well wait two more days."

Jian Ziyue. He was also a "reborn" individual—a powerhouse who dual-cultivated Daoism and martial arts, with peerless swordsmanship. This "traps" sword cultivator inherited his skills from the Sword Dao Royal Court, and his blade had once shattered an entire star-sector sect.

After Lan Yi became the commander, some reborn individuals fled underground, swearing to fight the "Old Demon Lan" to the death, claiming this fiend would eventually destroy the world. Others, especially those who were top-tier in their previous lives, acknowledged Lan Yi’s status but maintained their own factions and territories, adopting an attitude of "not being enemies, but doing our own thing." They would stand together on major issues, but when it came to the opening of the artificial divine realms, they kept to themselves. This was a popular mode of interaction among the powerful individuals of the future civilization, who were as numerous as the stars.

Jian Ziyue was a psionic cultivator of this caliber. He was not originally part of the organization, nor did he want to lower his status to cling to Lan Yi. However, the share of development rights for a primary artificial divine realm was simply too tempting. The "traps" sword cultivator bit his lip and took his people to support Tianhai. Upon arriving, he was nearly infuriated to find that the very same reborn individuals who had sworn they would rather starve than demean themselves by "licking" Old Demon Lan were now all working busily in Tianhai, having succumbed to the "true fragrance" of the situation. It was typical psionic pragmatism.

"We cannot wait," Zhang Shou-zheng said, his expression shifting from confusion to a cold, inorganic state. He activated his Life-Cluster to suppress his emotions and desires, deciding to force a calibration to see what would happen. "Every day lost is a massive loss. If this drags on and delays the launch of the Two-World Mountain pre-project, I will be a sinner against the River Civilization."

"In that case, we will all assist you," Jian Ziyue nodded. In the absence of an obvious problem, psionic cultivators would fulfill their respective duties and assist wholeheartedly when collaborating. If issues arose later, contributions would be deducted, and benefits adjusted accordingly; this was a characteristic of first-generation psionic cultivators. Having been educated by both great civilizations, they were willing to cooperate spontaneously to patch gaps when reasonable.

It was a pity that by the second generation of cultivators, such awareness was rare. Whether in the River or Ocean civilizations, the second generation possessed overly abundant resources and lived in too safe an environment, leading them to appear somewhat naive and arrogant. It was also from the second generation that ideologies such as "care for non-human species," "freedom of thought," "the beautiful heavenly kingdom," and "active unification" emerged. Both civilizations had been excellent in their education and leading by example; it could only be said to be a problem of the era.

With channel clearance, given the knowledge of psionic cultivators, forcibly anchoring and locating the entrance was not difficult. The hardest part was opening the channel; the rest was a matter of reinforcement. The only concern was power consumption. According to the calculations of Zhang Shou-zheng, Jian Ziyue, and others, drawing power from two separate nuclear power plants in Tianhai should have provided sufficient stability and output. But the emergence of unknown disturbances meant they now needed to pull in several more plants. Such temporary mobilization, if it were to be achieved in an extremely short time, naturally required the effort of the psionic cultivators themselves.

While the main world was anchoring the channel, in a certain artificial divine realm, within a luxurious palace, the atmosphere was chillingly grim. Compared to the main world and artificial divine realm 1909, this world was nothing short of hell. Its historical progression during the feudal era was much the same as the main world's, but starting from the year 1638, this world suddenly went mad.

In both East and West, this period saw the dawn of the steam engine revolution, followed by the pursuit of electrical applications, striving toward electrification in the wave of industrialization. Yet, right in the midst of this electrification, groups of "transcendent beings" suddenly emerged among the deeply resentful lower classes.

These transcendents were originally uneducated paupers or individuals with cruel dispositions. With a flick of their hands, they could unleash force measured in tons; their bodies could break the sound barrier; their hair and muscles were as hard as alloys; their five senses, when focused, were dozens of times sharper than those of ordinary people. They could maintain combat effectiveness for dozens of days without food or water, their bodies could withstand the firepower of the Second World War era, and they possessed rapid regeneration and even strange, devastating mental attacks. They were like a horde of berserk orcs unleashed upon a land of Lilliputians!

East and West suffered the same catastrophe. Royal families were slaughtered, millions of rebels were buried alive, and the normal process of electrification was interrupted. One by one, these transcendent monsters grinned as they seized the instruments of power, beginning a brutal and licentious reign. As "gods," they cared not for the lives of those beneath them, indulging in decadent, Slaaneshi-like, pathological pleasures. They even possessed astonishing longevity, showing no signs of aging for two hundred years.

And now, as electrification was being restarted, these "gods," having accidentally discovered certain ruins, seemed to have realized that by utilizing electricity, they could reach another world—a world that could provide them with plenty of forced labor and the resources to sustain their existence.