Simultaneous travel: Starting from returning to the main god space.

Chapter 478 What kind of class do you have that you dare to sit at the same table as me? (Seeking monthly votes! Seeking follow-up subscriptions!)

The ancient gods are not gods, at least not artificial gods created by the Mana Empire. They are true high-dimensional beings who existed since the beginning of the universe, or even earlier.

They possess the fundamental laws of the universe, transcending time, space, matter, energy, destiny, and cause and effect; they are the beginning of all things and also the end of everything…

Of course, the above is only a partial understanding of the ancient gods by the Mana Empire, but even this is enough to drive the Mana Empire's royal family and gods mad.

Driven by desire, they boldly communicated with this ancient god who had possessed a portion of his consciousness, attempting to obtain more powerful and comprehensive knowledge from him!
Surprisingly, the ancient god did not refuse or make any excessive demands, whether it was knowledge or anything else; as long as the Mana Empire dared to ask for it, the ancient god would give it to them.

I'll give you as much as you want, and it's free!

The Mana Empire was overjoyed by this. Even though they knew there was no such thing as a free lunch, they couldn't help but accept it all and frantically absorb the knowledge given by the ancient gods, going further and further down the path of evolution.

And then... that was it.

About a century later, life in all the colony star systems of the Mana Empire gradually descended into madness, as if cancer cells were spreading, and the gods of the pantheon also suffered a mental breakdown.

This is the result of a state of mind that cannot match one's knowledge; one thinks one understands everything, but in reality, one has been assimilated by the truth of the universe.

Of course, the Mana Empire was not completely wiped out; the Mana Primordial was one of the lucky survivors.

She was originally a princess of the imperial family. If the Mana civilization had not encountered the ancient gods, she would have undergone an ascension ceremony upon reaching adulthood and become one of the Mana gods.

Unfortunately, all of this ultimately turned into a dream, and the Mana Empire collapsed overnight. This noble princess became a star-level refugee, and her status plummeted.

Undoubtedly, Mana Primordial was not content with this situation, so when she fled her home planet, she also took with her the Empire's biological gene bank and a box named "Heart of the Universe," intending to rebuild the Mana Empire with the help of these two treasures.

The biological gene bank stores the bloodline gene samples of all organisms in the Mana Empire. As long as there is enough life source material, the entire Mana civilization can be reshaped through cloning technology.

The so-called Heart of the Universe is a technological achievement invented by the Empire after it received knowledge of the ancient gods. It can be regarded as an independent pocket universe, or a miniature world of Sumeru.

The Mana Empire once successfully placed a star system into the Heart of the Universe and infused it with a large amount of life essence in an attempt to cultivate new intelligent life in order to simulate the leap of life from lower to higher dimensions.

Once a sign of success is detected, the Mana Empire will reclaim all the life essence in the box, then gather the wisdom of all living beings to complete itself, intending to become a higher-dimensional life form on the same level as the ancient gods.

Unfortunately, the Mana Empire was destroyed before the experiment could be completed.

At that time, Mana Primordial, as the princess of the empire, regarded this experiment as her last lifeline. She made a desperate gamble, merging the biological gene pool with herself and transforming half of her mind into the Mana Giant, which she then threw into the heart of the universe in an attempt to complete the experiment.

Undoubtedly, Mana's initial actions involved a gamble. In fact, she suffered a severe blow as soon as she entered the Heart of the Universe, with her left brain atrophying significantly and her mind falling into a semi-dormant state.

Fortunately, she made the right bet in the end.

This blue planet, chosen as an experimental petri dish, began to show signs of life after hundreds of millions of years of evolution.

Meanwhile, the other half of her mind, remaining outside the box, intervened in multiple life iterations based on observations, manipulating the vines to eliminate the failed products and recover a large amount of life essence from them.

Ultimately, human civilization began to emerge, gradually prospering under the guidance of the Mana Primordial. The Mana Primordial, possessing half of her consciousness, was excavated from the deep sea for research, and step by step, it moved towards the leap of life.

Thus, human civilization developed rapidly. Then, under the kind "warning" of the Mana Primordial, it was inspired to crave the truth and soon touched upon the secrets of immortality. Its civilization reached the minimum standard for life leap. At this time, the Mana Primordial began a new round of harvesting. Just like the previous mass extinctions, it manipulated the earth vines to ravage the continent and induced the Mana ecology in its gene pool to grow into countless Devouring Beasts. It then recycled all the life essence in the human body, completed the ascension ceremony, and ascended to godhood.

Even if she cannot ascend to the heavens in one step and become an ancient god, her ascension to godhood is enough to rebuild the glory of the Mana Empire.

Furthermore, with this successful experience, her confidence in ascending to a higher dimension will increase significantly. If this cycle is repeated several times, there will eventually be a chance to succeed.

In short, things have been developing in the direction that Mana Primal wanted.

The only unexpected thing was that Bai Yuekui's father, Bai Jingyu, actually created ASH, a super artificial intelligence with the potential for mechanical ascension, which brought a slight obstacle to her revival.

In addition, among the Devouring Beasts she nurtured, there was a strange individual that gained independent consciousness during the evolution process and actually tried to compete with her for the opportunity to become a god, which was simply a rebellion against the heavens.

However, the problem is still not significant. She is but a mere ant, and no matter how much she resists, it will be in vain. Her revival is destined.

Even though the offspring born from her left brain betrayed her, she had already taken control of the clone whose life essence had migrated. She was just waiting for the right time to complete her path to godhood.

Mana was initially confident about this, until... Wu Xian appeared.

From the moment she sensed Wu Xian, she knew he was not from this world, and his life essence was unfathomable, almost incomprehensible like an ancient god.

Moreover, the other party's subsequent actions proved to be a huge variable, and the originally foolproof plan suddenly felt like it was slipping out of control.

Fear of the unknown prompted Mana's initial body to take immediate action, feigning cooperation with ASH to lure Wu Xian into the Klotor system, attempting to integrate this variable into the ecosystem.

To her surprise, the corrupting power she had obtained from the ancient god had no effect on her at all; instead, it severely damaged her will, which was simply unbelievable.

According to the Empire's records, no person or god can resist the influence of the ancient gods' information unless the other party, like oneself, has also received gifts from the ancient gods.

Could it be... that this guy is a follower of an ancient god, and because he discovered the existence of the Heart of the Universe, he wants to get there first and seize this opportunity to become a god?
Thinking of this, Mana was both shocked and angry, and at the same time felt a sense of powerlessness.

He was in a "dormant" state and had not yet completed the ritual to become a god. Even though the box was the home ground of the Mana Empire, he had little chance of winning against a follower of an ancient god.

So after careful consideration, Mana put aside her pride and began negotiating with Wu Xian.

Furthermore, he took a step back, expressing his willingness to share the experience of this life leap with Wu Xian and work together to take another step towards achieving the status of an ancient god.

However, as a condition, Wu Xian must also help him recover the life essence, especially Mark, who is the clone of his left brain. Mark must merge with him to complete the revival in order to complete the advancement ceremony.

"Cooperation? Ha! That's laughable. What kind of class do you think you are, daring to sit at the same table as me? I, Wu, have always wanted it all, okay?"

However, when faced with Mana's initial surrender, Wu Xian smiled disdainfully and then launched an even more fierce offensive to dismantle and distort her will.

To be honest, Wu Xian was quite interested in the ancient gods in Mana's initial memories and was curious whether they had any connection with the Great Old Ones he knew.

If possible, he wouldn't mind exchanging ideas with the other person to gain more knowledge and provide some help to the other versions of himself in the space.

(End of this chapter)