Night World Players

Chapter 170: You Are Not Qualified as the Future of Humanity (Two-in-One)

The lightless sea, the center of the brilliant sun.

In the distorted and accelerated time, I don’t know how much chaos I experienced.

The supernova explosion was so bright that it was beyond words, illuminating the entire sea and night sky like daylight, and could be seen clearly even from a great distance.

At this moment, it finally slowly dimmed.

All the matter that once made up the giant star was thrown outward at one-tenth the speed of light, along with the radiation shock wave from the explosion, forming a shell-like structure of expanding gas and dust in the surrounding sea.

This is a magnificent planetary nebula.

It can also be simply called a "supernova remnant."

However, in the center of the supernova remnant, everything should have been burned by the rushing light, leaving no living thing behind.

But suddenly, a layer of twisted ripples appeared.

It is obviously very faint, but it carries with it an extremely distant and vicissitudes of history.

Those were the ripples of history, making the listeners feel as if they had experienced tens of thousands of years of evolution and the changes of countless epochs and eras in an instant.

Then, in the ripples of history, an illusory green figure quietly appeared.

That was Noah's figure, which looked infinitely illusory, with all kinds of cracks all over the body, and was on the verge of flickering.

But he is still alive.

"I have to say, you've exceeded my expectations once again, Cecil."

"This is the first time I've witnessed such might since the battle when the thief who stole the fire betrayed the gravekeepers."

"You called this skill 'Supernova Explosion'... I don't know the exact mechanism, but the power just now was enough to rival a true divine descent."

"Let alone an ordinary forbidden creature, even a god in his prime would have suffered considerable trauma if he had faced that majesty without dodging."

"To truly reach the divine realm with a legendary body... Even among all the previous shore guardians, only you and the First Generation have ever achieved such a thing."

Noah slowly examined his body, his old eyes still filled with a hint of uncertainty and hesitation.

Even the pitch-black ancient dragon whose bloodline had been purified and reverted to that of a pure-blooded dragon, and the legendary Iron Cross King... were annihilated into white smoke and dust before they could even offer the slightest resistance in the supernova explosion that destroyed everything.

What's more, it was Noah himself.

Relying on eternal life, Noah's accumulation in the legendary field is certainly much greater than that of other forbidden creatures.

But as a human legend of the long order of the "Abundance" sequence, how could he possibly be compared with a true ancient dragon and the Iron Cross King who had undergone a bloody transformation in terms of pure physical strength and resistance to the indiscriminate range damage of a supernova explosion?

In the supernova explosion just now, Noah really died once and tasted the taste of death.

"It's a pity—you overlooked one point after all."

He glanced indifferently at the snow-white ashes drifting away in the wind over the distant sea, and there was not a trace of emotion in his words.

"I am different from those who fought alone, and although they reached the legendary level, they are still just beasts at heart."

"Behind me is the entire gravekeeper community and the accumulation of eternity."

"No matter how powerful, no matter how magnificent, an attack skill that is enough to destroy everything in the universe—"

"It can only take effect once, and it definitely cannot last long."

Noah looked at his body, which was covered with cracks and seemed extremely illusory, and then slowly turned his gaze away.

He cast his gaze towards the depths of the lightless sea, the starting point of the scorching supernova explosion just now.

The black sea water is littered with metal fragments left behind when stars disintegrate and spew out heavy elements. These metal fragments are still stained with the residual heat of radiation and exhibit a silver-blue fluorescence.

These firefly-blue fragments were floating all over the surrounding sea, and dots of fluorescent light flickered on the sea surface, silhouetted against the dim background.

The sky as the curtain is pure black, but there seems to be a flowing Milky Way rippling in the sea. This scene is like the Milky Way hanging upside down, and it is breathtakingly beautiful.

Cecil stood at the end of this brilliant galaxy, in waist-deep water. His body was so old that it was almost weathered. Only by using his legendary spiritual power could he sense the only remaining faint breath of life from that old body, which was full of signs of decay, proving that he was not completely dead yet.

This is the inevitable result of overloading the "Life Rings" and causing a "supernova explosion."

A supernova explosion is the final song at the end of a star's life cycle, and the price Cessel paid for launching it was that his own life, which was originally very long, was also accelerated to the moment of death.

"You must feel sorry for me, Cecil."

Noah looked at the old man at the end of the Milky Way who seemed to be dead but still refused to fall, and expressed his sincere emotion.

"Even if you give up everything and explode at all costs like you did, you can still only kill me once."

He gently stroked the tombstone pattern woven with golden thread on his pure white robe. "Even if I die, I can still use the power of the tombstone to return from the long river of history once again."

Just like every leader of the Shore Guardians has the last trump card, the "Library of Fools".

Although the gravekeepers had their fire stolen by the shore keepers, how could they have only the "Library of Fools" as their only heritage, considering their accumulation from the Age of Gods to the present?
"tombstone".

Or its full name - "Eternal Night Stele".

This is the ultimate background of the Gravekeeper, which ranks higher than "The Library of Fools", and is also the true origin of the name "Gravekeeper".

As long as you engrave the mark of your life origin on the tombstone, even if you are dead in reality, you can still return from the long river of history with the mark of your life origin left on the tombstone.

Of course, such a resurrection from the dead must come at a great price, either a long sleep or a long period of recuperation, before one can completely recover to a complete state.

But even so, the existence of the "tombstone" means that every legendary tomb keeper has almost unlimited opportunities for trial and error.

This is the so-called opportunity of "eternal immortality" that Noah mentioned when he recruited Rast.

Even if you die, you can still return from the long river of history... Such a conceptual ability is not far from true "eternity".

This is also the greatest confidence that Noah dares to come to the world.

While cutting off half of his mental power to create a legendary incarnation, he was still able to barely maintain his legendary status even though his original body had been killed once and returned from history with the help of the Eternal Night Stele, and was weakened again.

If he didn't have such a trump card, how could he dare to plan a hunt against the owner of the Fool's Library alone without the support of his companions.

boom--

The emerald green light ran wild.

The huge but somewhat illusory ancient tree appeared again, and then countless green lights turned into branches and vines, sweeping mercilessly towards the direction where Cecil was standing.

Although Noah had experienced a rebirth through the tombstone, his power had greatly diminished, requiring a long period of recuperation and slumber to recover to his peak condition. However, Cecilia's physical condition was even worse than his; her aged body, nearing the end of its lifespan, made even standing up quite difficult.

Then, there was no hindrance at all.

The thousands of branches and vines penetrated Cecil's old body, which was as fragile as paper, and pierced, cut, and locked all his joints and muscles.

After doing all this, Noah stopped.

The meteor sword that had inexplicably descended from the abyss and destroyed his incarnation of abundance, as well as Cecil's supernova explosion just now, had made him feel a bit afraid of ropes after being bitten by a snake, and he suffered from PTSD.

Noah was really worried that even in his current exhausted state, Cecil might still cause some trouble.

Only by completely cutting off the opponent's ability to move, as he did now, could he feel truly at ease.

However, looking at Noah who had literally come back from the dead, Cecil, whose already aging body had suffered another severe blow, suddenly smiled weakly.

Even the gesture of "smiling" seemed quite forced for Cecil's frail body, but the smile in his words did not reveal the slightest falsehood:

"It seems... I've really been underestimated."

"Every gravekeeper who has engraved the mark of his soul on the Eternal Night Stele can, with the help of the tombstone's power, return from the distant river of history."

"This is a secret that was discovered several epochs ago when the original fire thief betrayed the gravekeepers."

"Although the first generation of the Guardian was long ago buried in the War of the Fire Stealer... the secrets he uncovered, the information about the Gravekeepers he acquired at the cost of his own life, were all recorded in the Fool's Library and have been passed down to this day."

Cecil's wrinkled and furrowed face now wore a smile, wanton and arrogant: "As long as the mark engraved on the tombstone is indelible, then even after death, I can return from history..."

"This is truly a very tricky ability, almost unsolvable... We shore guards only have one life. If we fail once, we'll be doomed. But you can fail countless times and start over again."

"If the war between the Shore Keepers and the Gravekeepers is a man-made game, then the designers of this game must be crazy. There's absolutely no balance between the two sides."

"only--"

"No matter how unruly the rules were, or how unsolvable the deadlock was... after I had spent my entire life repeatedly studying and pondering it, spending sleepless nights trying to figure out how to break this deadlock."

"After nearly a thousand years, how could I possibly... remain stagnant like a scum like you?"

Although his body was no different from the dry bones in the grave, Cecil's eyes were still as calm as water, and beneath the water was hidden the mighty wind and thunder.

"So, the high and mighty gravekeeper."

"And what on earth is the reason that makes you have this illusion——"

"The supernova explosion just now is the end of everything?"

Listening to Cecil's words, Noah looked around again.

But, on the entire dark sea.

Apart from the Milky Way, which was formed by the fragments of countless star cores and was slowly rippling and converging, there was no other movement at all.

In Noah's legendary mind, Cecil, whose body was clearly at the end of its strength, spoke words that could only be described as deliberately mystifying...

The Legendary rank has an insurmountable upper limit... and the scorching supernova explosion just now was enough to drain all the power of a Legendary.

Cecil was already in a state of exhaustion at this moment, and even moving his body was quite difficult. He had a complete grasp of the overall situation and would never give the other party a chance to prepare the supernova explosion like just now.

However, Noah looked around vigilantly but found nothing. He was in a daze and had no idea what was about to happen.

The sneer on Cecil's old face became more obvious.

"To be honest, in my long life, I have sometimes felt shaken and confused."

"I doubt whether the shore guards' moth-to-flame-like persistence is meaningful. I also ask myself... whether everything we do is brave or simply reckless."

"I've also considered that perhaps the most appropriate option would be to avoid the onslaught like you gravekeepers, slowly forbearing and accumulating strength, and then launching a joint attack when the time is right..."

"As for the civilizations and humanity that perished during this period of forbearance, those epochs were merely necessary sacrifices for the greater good."

"But now, I no longer have such distracting thoughts."

He looked down at Noah, who was flowing on the edge of the Milky Way. There was a sneer in his eyes, but also a deeper pity beneath the sneer.

“When one stays in a high place for a long time, it is easy to lose one’s original heart…and when a pair of eyes are accustomed to darkness, they can no longer tolerate light.”

"You call yourselves the guardians of human civilization, but in reality, today's gravekeepers are no different from prisoners. They are accustomed to forbearance and compromise, and they regard this compromise as an insurmountable rule... They even resort to any means to suppress and eliminate those of their kind who refuse to be imprisoned."

"So, you possess such a precious treasure as the 'Eternal Night Tablet,' possessing powerful mental power, i.e., computing power, as well as nearly infinite time and lifespan, and the treasure known as 'knowledge' left behind by countless lost civilizations... These are conditions that countless scholars and scientists of the past have only dreamed of."

"Yet, for six full epochs since the Age of Gods, you have enjoyed favorable conditions and countless treasures, but have squandered them all."

"Tens of thousands of years are enough for humanity to transform from cave-dwelling apes, consuming only raw meat and drinking only blood, into the sentient rulers of the earth we know today... but you, alone, have remained stagnant throughout these tens of thousands of years."

Cecil paused for a moment, and the mockery on his lips became more intense.

"So in the future, even a student who has dabbled in this field should know what's coming after the supernova explosion."

"And you've lived for tens of thousands of years in vain, yet you're completely bewildered and clueless about this."

"Because you've long been accustomed to life in a cage, what you're desperately pursuing isn't 'freedom,' but rather a move from a 'small cage' to a 'big cage.'"

"As the future of humanity—"

"You guys are unqualified."

The broken words echoed in the lightless sea and the long silver-blue river.

It seemed like he was talking to himself, but it also seemed like he was judging Noah's fate.

The next moment, the slowly flowing Milky Way suddenly accelerated.

Thousands of stellar core fragments with residual radiation heat flickered in the Milky Way, and huge silver waves rolled.

Tens of millions of tons of sea water were slowly rotating, swirling towards the remains of the star core that had released all of its energy and was slowly cooling down in the deep ocean.

When the most brilliant performance in a star's life comes to an end, the light and heat of the "supernova explosion" will cool down in the deep space of the universe.

In the remains of the star core that has returned to its cold and dead state—

What is brewing.

Naturally, there is only the deepest "black hole".

(End of this chapter)