Eternal Night

Chapter 537 The First Exploration of a Lost Civilization Begins!
(PS: I'm late with today's update. First, I was so angry about disciplining my child that I almost had a stroke. Second, this chapter was quite long and I revised it several times... Sorry for the long wait, everyone. I'll be resuming the bonus chapters for patrons in the next couple of days. Thank you all.)
Wu Pifu was initially somewhat dismissive, but when the five people spoke of the birth of a primitive civilization on the planet, he immediately realized that they were referring to events that occurred on the 1.0 Absolute Truth Layer.

That's completely different!
The original state of a lost civilization is of immense value. Not only will the mainframe grant a large number of points and other rewards, but studying the root causes of its loss will also help prevent the Gaia people from repeating its mistakes.

"...Human civilization was born, and then, under the call of the Church of the Soul, humanity migrated from all over the world for tens of thousands of years, finally gathering in the most fertile land on the planet. Centered on that place, human civilization united as one and began to fight against nature. That period was known as the Golden Age..."

"...The end of the Golden Age stemmed from the confusion of the ninety-seventh High Master of the Mind. His misinterpretation of the divine oracle led to the division of humanity..."

Wu Pifu raised his hand and said, "Excuse me, but this 'Great Mentor of the Mind' is a unique and extraordinary system of your civilization, right?"

The five elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people all nodded... one of them didn't nod, but moved his arm slightly.

The so-called Mind Masters are indeed special extraordinary beings of the Potions Civilization, and the origin of this civilization's extraordinary abilities, just as the Quantum State Observers of the Alchemy Civilization are the origin of Alchemy's extraordinary abilities, the Mind Masters are the origin of Potions' extraordinary abilities.

According to them, spiritual masters are a special race that has existed since the primitive society of their civilization. They are very few in number, and there is usually only one in each generation, but they are continuous. When each generation of spiritual masters dies, a new spiritual master is born. They have always been the leaders of mankind.

At the level of absolute truth, the spiritual master has only two abilities: one is to receive divine pronouncements, and the other is to gather something similar to the collective unconscious of humanity through a mysterious spiritual calling, thereby macroscopically adjusting human behavior and thought patterns, so that spiritual civilization has achieved the great unity of all races of humankind since the primitive society period.

However, the same spirit that brought him success also brought him failure. During the time of the 97th generation of the Spiritual Master, something unprecedented in spiritual civilization occurred... The Spiritual Master, as a mentor and leader of humanity, was lost.

The divine oracle he received was contradictory, and for the first time, he didn't know how to interpret it.

"...No one knows what contradictory divine revelation the 97th generation spiritual master received, nor how many divine revelations he received, or even the origins of those revelations," the headless woman said.

The mechanical boy continued, "That was a very, very long time later, after we had fallen from the world of absolute reality into the depths of illusion. Only then did we learn that the divine pronouncements issued to the Grand Master of the Mind were actually the work of the Roots, some benevolent and some malevolent. But whether benevolent or malevolent, while we were still in the realm of absolute reality, they would only help us. Because at that time, they couldn't suck us dry; only by helping us could they obtain the reality reflected by the realm of absolute reality. So..."

The old man also said, "So even now, though our spiritual civilization has been lost, we, and the three sources of the past civilizations, still do not know what divine revelation the ninety-seventh generation spiritual master received. According to the speculation of the three sources, perhaps it was not a divine revelation or information issued to us by the source, but rather... a terrifying and indescribable malevolent greeting from the source of pollution."

Three root causes...

The Potion Civilization was more powerful than expected, and at its peak, it actually had three origins!

Wu Pifu asked curiously, "I've heard that as long as a race or civilization has a source, the race or civilization's actual consumption will be greatly reduced. In this way, even if the civilization falls to the source level, it won't be lost. Your civilization has three sources, so why did it still fall?"

All five remained silent, none of them answering Wu Pifu's question. The bald man with the burns said, "...The ninety-seventh generation spiritual master, after being lost for half a century, did something great as he was about to die: he built a pyramid..."

The spiritual master mobilized the power of humanity, which had already entered the Bronze Age, and through the labor of millions of people, built an incomparably magnificent pyramid, far exceeding the largest pyramid on Earth that Wu Pifu knew of. Its size could even be described as a smaller version of a colossal structure, a building that could be seen even from space.

Over ten years, millions of people directly participated in the construction, with more than 50,000 deaths from accidents alone, not to mention deaths from overwork. Finally, the magnificent building was completed, and then the spiritual master sealed himself inside the pyramid, while more than 500,000 people were buried alive with him.

"...When I rise from the dead, humanity will enter the age of mythology."

These were the last words left by the 97th generation spiritual master. Since then, the pyramid has been a sacred site for mankind. Countless people have come here on pilgrimage, but they can never get within 100 meters of the pyramid, except for each subsequent generation of spiritual masters.

From then on, every great spiritual master would enter the pyramid before their death. No one knows why they went in, or what they experienced inside. Since then, spiritual civilization has begun to progress continuously, from bronze to iron, to feudalism, to modern times, to the future...

Unlike other civilizations, the core intellectual life of the Mind Civilization has been unified from beginning to end. There are no nations, although there are various forces. However, its civilization has never experienced a break in continuity. Until the future, according to technology, around the 22nd century of the Gaia humanity, the 97th generation Mind Grand Master was resurrected, along with a giant eye that occupied one-third of the visible universe...

At this point, the five gods simultaneously fell silent. Wu Pifu looked at them in confusion, but the five old, weak, sick, and disabled people remained tight-lipped.

Wu Pifu glanced at a number that had just appeared at the corner of his eye: Mind Civilization Exploration Progress: Nine Percent...

Only nine percent?
Wu Pifu frowned and said, "Why don't you continue? Keep going!"

The five elderly, weak, sick, and disabled men all gave bitter smiles and shook their heads. The rotting corpses said, "It's not that we don't want to talk, but once we say what we're about to say, this place will undergo a drastic change. We only managed to turn this place into a silent tomb with the help of the containing civilization. Once we speak, even our final tombstones will be lost..."

Wu Pifu frowned and looked around.

After the giant tentacle extinguished the sun, the whole world began to darken. The tentacle transformed into another source of light in the sky, but this light was blood-red and filled with a foul stench.

"Is this a graveyard?" Wu Pifu asked curiously.

The five elderly, infirm, and disabled men all gave bitter smiles. One of the old men, panting, said, "Yes, this is not only a graveyard, but also the world where our civilization fell, and the moment when our civilization was lost..."

Wu Pifu asked again, "Was all of this achieved by containing the civilization?"

The five elderly, weak, sick, and disabled nodded. Wu Pifu was about to ask something else when the headless woman said, "You are the new civilization of this era? Are you right?"

Wu Pifu nodded. The five old, weak, sick, and disabled people looked at each other. The bald, burned man said, "Then this information will definitely be very useful to you... Starting from your new era, the twelve real civilizations traced back are all special civilizations. Their specialness lies in the fact that when we were still in the Absolute Truth layer, our civilization already had the budding of extraordinary origins. At the same time, we were observed by the source of pollution in the Absolute Truth layer. Moreover, the next generation of civilization is more and more bizarre and powerful in its extraordinary nature." The rotting corpse said, "Our spiritual civilization is six iterations away from the containment civilization and about seven iterations away from your era. It only took our civilization 60,000 years from being observed by the source of pollution to falling down, while the containment civilization only took 9,000 years. By the time of your civilization, it may only be two or three thousand years... According to the calculations of the containment civilization, the next generation of civilization falls down after being observed, which means that the source of pollution may have already completely eroded the Absolute Truth."

Wu Pifu was startled. This information was indeed very useful, and he memorized it all. At the same time, the mental civilization exploration level at the corner of his eye jumped to ten percent, and then the main brain's voice rang out.

"Judgment in progress... Judgment complete, reaching the critical point for the exploration of lost civilizations."

"Secondary judgment... Judgment complete, confirming that we are in the world of the beginning of a lost civilization."

"Three judgments... Judgment complete. Citizen Wu Pifu, do you wish to initiate the Lost Penetration?"

"Warning: Lost Penetration carries extremely high risks. You may very well fall into the Lost Realm. Once you fall into the Lost Realm, all your information will be lost and completely erased. All the causes and effects related to you, all the fate related to you, all the past, present, and future related to you will disappear completely."

"Should we initiate the Lost Penetration?"

Wu Pifu nodded three times and said very firmly, "No, goodbye."

After saying that, Wu Pifu was about to tell the five old, weak, sick and disabled people about the information about the contained civilization, since that was the main quest anyway.

The mainframe paused for a moment, then its voice echoed in Wu Pifu's mind again.

"Judgment in progress... Judgment complete. Initiating the Lost Penetration and continuing the exploration of the loss of spiritual civilization. A portion of the shared human points will be allocated as a reward for citizen Wu Pifu."

"One item will be randomly drawn from the regular reward pool below..."

"no!"

Wu Pifu directly clasped his hands in the air and said, "Can't afford to offend you, can't afford to spend money, African chieftain, luck can't save you, money can't change your fate, farewell."

The mainframe paused again, then the voice continued.

"...will be randomly selected from the following Essence Reward Pool."

"The complete set of techniques for the Human Immortal Martial Arts Blood Exchange Realm to the condensation of 108 acupoints, the National Martial Arts upgrade to the level of Divine Invulnerability and above, the Star River Martial Arts from the beginner to the constant method, the innate five metals of heaven and earth, the copper spleen and silver kidney, the title: You're Too Tiger, 100 million points, simplified repair of the Nodos Contract Crystal (fragment) into pieces, Gourmet Cells (without Gourmet Demon version), Zanpakuto (without any unlocks), Ultraman Transformation Device (30-second version), Magical Girl's Heart Flower (broken)..."

"grass!"

Wu Pifu shouted, "Mastermind, what's wrong with you?! There really are magical girls? Me? Are you sure there's nothing wrong with me?"

"...Super Brain Assist Device (equipped with Dragon Rider System), Level 7 Portable Super Shelter (rechargeable for repeated use of Level 7 shelter functions)..."

Wu Pifu fell silent upon hearing this. The words "Level 7 Portable Super Shelter" began to float before his eyes. This wasn't just a descriptive term; the mainframe was actually projecting these words onto his retina, and they kept flashing by like bullet comments. The mainframe didn't continue talking about the subsequent reward items.

Wu Pifu remained silent. After a long while, he lowered his head and said, "Okay, okay, I know. I know it's a random draw. It's unlikely that you, the mainframe, would give me this right now, but since you've already brought it out, it's obvious... you have this thing, right?"

Mastermind: “…”

Wu Pifu paced back and forth for a moment, then took a deep breath and said, "Mastermind, I don't know if you have intelligence or wisdom, but since you do, I'm willing to fight to the death for you, whether for you or for humanity... Don't let me down. If you don't give it to me this time, I'm still willing to fight to the death, but don't go too far, don't disappoint me..."

Wu Pifu said in an unprecedentedly serious voice, "I am willing to be a human being because I want to be a human being, a good human being. My parents, my education, and my values ​​all tell me this. I am willing... But you certainly don't want to see me not wanting to be a human being. I swear... you, or any being, don't want to see that. So, the contract is made. This thing... is mine. Even if I have to fight a hundred times for it, this thing is mine. Is that alright?"

"...Judgment in progress...Judgment complete. Citizen Wu Pifu, would you like to initiate the Lost Penetration?"

The mainframe's voice rang out, and Wu Pifu took a deep breath. He said solemnly, "Yes, deploy Lost Penetration."

While the five elderly, weak, sick, and disabled were still in a daze, everything before Wu Pifu's eyes began to change. He... heard a sound.

The voice of the heart...

On that day, the people shared in His food...

That day, my heart enveloped the world...

(End of this chapter)