Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 337 Cold Wave Diffusion (3k)

Luo Qing suddenly felt a chill.

The universe is very cold. The residual heat radiation after the Big Bang is the background temperature of the universe, which is equivalent to -270.425 degrees Celsius, very close to -273.15 degrees Celsius, which is absolute zero.

These are remnants of the early universe's hot state, evenly distributed throughout space, and were originally cold.

But at this moment, Luo Qing truly felt an extreme cold, colder than the universe itself, emanating from outer space orbit.

A dazzling ice-blue particle, carrying no weight of its own, fell into the core of Jupiter at the standard speed of light.

Subsequently, absolute coldness spread in all directions at the speed of light, centered on Jupiter's core.

What exactly is the working principle behind this advanced weapon called Ice Cube?
Extreme cold deprives microscopic particles of their ceaseless thermal motion, deprives electrons outside atomic nuclei of their dynamic transitions, and deprives Jupiter's nucleus of its ceaseless thermonuclear reactions. Except for failing to freeze the motion of photons, it penetrates deep into quarks and freezes everything.

Jupiter’s rotation and revolution stopped abruptly at the same time.

An eternal Jupiter has appeared.

Two water droplets on Jupiter's Io and Europa, which were destroying large-scale space industrial facilities, were instantly covered with a layer of gray as their perfectly smooth surfaces were struck by the cold wave. They remained suspended in the void, frozen in place, maintaining the posture of their previous maneuver or impact.

The freezing also takes effect at the quantum level. The Digital Republic, the Digital Graph Universe, gazes at the sky and notices that everything has frozen into ice crystals. Because the flow of time is different for both sides, the Digital World is the intelligent entity that witnesses the spread of the freezing.

Humanity in the macroscopic world was also frozen in place. Countless warships that had already exploded, their molten metal blazing and their ever-moving debris, including the entire new rings of Jupiter—all matter remained frozen in a state of exuberance, becoming a purely static scene.

A sophon resting on Jupiter's rings seemed to realize something was wrong, and crashed into the spreading cold waves, falling into silence.

Another sophon, located four light-years away, was also frozen due to quantum entanglement. No matter how the Trisolaran world called out to it, this sophon did not respond.

The sophon operator behind it felt a chill run down his spine.

Even after Jupiter's rings were frozen, the cold waves continued to spread at the speed of light and will continue to spread for one Earth rotation day, covering an area the size of a standard cube with an edge length of 259.2 billion kilometers. This range is sufficient to cover the Kuiper Belt and extend to the inner boundary of the Oort Cloud.

The fleeing warships, the pursuing water droplets, the gliding humans, and the lonely prisoner will all be frozen solid.

Li Bai sheathed his sword, his voice light and ethereal: "For the human world, this piece of ice may have arrived a little late... but it has finally caught up with us."

Luo Qing said, "But it's still too late."

Li Bai: "The Carbon-Based Federation has done its best. Three years ago, that warship was still docked in the second spiral arm, a full 30,000 light-years away from the remote solar system. It took dozens of stellar leaps to get to the solar system... This place is really too remote."

Luo Qing said, "I don't mean to blame the Carbon-Based Federation. I mean, all the responsibility for the loss of the solar system lies with me."

Li Bai: "It's my fault that you got entangled with me, but you broke my ring while I was away, and I stopped you from saving your 4100 small warships, so we're even."

Luo Qing lowered her head, not looking at Li Bai: "No, what's stopping me is my inner demon, not you. You are just a convenient excuse to appear."

Li Bai failed to understand this sentence.

After saying that, Luo Qing casually swung his sword, and the sword light blasted open the black hole's gravitational trap at the speed of light in an instant, releasing the trapped light amber. The light amber immediately fled at the speed of light. Luo Qing felt the light amber's ability to move at the speed of light and many insights arose in his mind.

Li Bai then took a step back tactically and fell into deep thought.

Can a single sword destroy a singularity gravitational trap?
Li Bai's blurred face was furrowed with worry. When Luo Qing fought him just now, he was not as relaxed as he was now when facing the singularity gravitational trap.

Under pressure, Li Bai scanned Luo Qing inside and out countless times in a short period of time, even recording how the 'strings' that make up Luo Qing vibrated, but he still couldn't guess where the energy came from.

Luo Qing remained standing there, watching the gradually spreading cold waves, watching all the sophons flying towards Earth, watching the water droplets flying in and out of the solar system, and watching Zhang Beihai's escaped warship.

A sense of despondency welled up from Luo Qing.

Li Bai sensed that the human god before him seemed to be caught in a state of turmoil and contradiction, a turmoil and contradiction that had persisted for a long time... at least 40 time particles.

In other words, this god named Luo Qing has been mentally conflicted for two hundred Earth years, which is a terrifying thing for a god-level individual.

Will he fall and become an evil god?
Then Li Bai would have to scare Du Fu and Wang Wei.

Li Bai studied Luo Qing for a long time, but unfortunately, he couldn't find the answer.

Luo Qing asked, "In your universe, what is the definition of God?"

"Our universe... are you referring to a god-level civilization or an individual god-level civilization?"

“All of them count.” Li Bai said, “There are only three definitions of a god-level individual: pure energy, information body, and low-entropy state. For example, I, Light Amber, and the Risk Eliminator Sensor all meet the criteria of being pure energy, containing information, and being in a low-entropy state with low disorder and high order, hence the term god.”

"Is the Risk Eliminator sensor considered a god-like entity?"

"Don't underestimate it just because it's a sensor. In a real fight, this ideal blackbody could swallow up light amber, so it counts as one."

Luo Qing sat with his seat empty. "In your universe, I sensed a vast difference between god-level individuals."

Li Bai did not deny it: "After all, these three prerequisites are not difficult to achieve, and many civilizations in the universe can do them. The information body is the simplest, since all matter contains information. As long as we can find a way to store information in non-material things, then the information body is complete."

Achieving both pure energy and a low-entropy state is quite difficult because they are mutually exclusive. Pure energy inherently possesses the highest degree of disorder, belonging to the highest entropy state. Achieving both pure energy and a low-entropy state is very complex, involving many cosmic laws. Even mastering the Grand Unified Formula wouldn't be easy, but it's not impossible. When all three conditions mentioned above are met, and intelligence is also present, that constitutes a god-like individual.

The combat power difference between different god-level individuals is vast. For example, Entropy Flat Light Amber can be considered a god-level individual, but at best, it can only match the ideal blackbody of the Risk Remover's sensor; it's far from being my match. And I, too, am no match for the Risk Remover. After all, the Risk Remover can wholesale trillions upon trillions of sensors comparable to god-level individuals. The Risk Remover of this fiber is a true cosmic behemoth, and such Risk Removers are everywhere in the universe.

Luo Qing then asked, "What about god-level civilizations?"

"The definition of a god-level civilization is simpler: it meets the criteria of a certain population size and has similar goals and behavioral patterns. The Poetry Clan behind me is a typical god-level civilization. The Risk Remover Sensor is not a civilization, but the Risk Removers behind the sensor are definitely a god-level civilization. The Light Amber Civilization behind Entropy Flat Light Amber originally had the potential to advance, but unfortunately, it encountered ideological problems and ultimately failed to overcome this hurdle."

Luo Qing grasped the key words.

"Ideological issues?"

"Hmm..." Li Bai didn't know how to explain.

Luo Qing: "From you and the Risk Eliminator, I have discovered a pattern, which is that you have strong ideals to pursue. For example, you pursue literature and art, while the Risk Eliminator is committed to protecting the universe."

Li Bai nodded.

Luo Qing: "All advanced civilizations face a ideological problem before they become god-level civilizations, right?"

Li Bai nodded.

Luo Qing: "God's civilization also faced this ideological problem, couldn't answer it, and therefore declined, right?"

Li Bai continued to nod.

Luo Qing: "This question of thought is related to the universe itself, isn't it?"

Li Bai hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Luo Qing: "As for the carbon-based federation, does this civilization face any ideological problems?"

Li Bai nodded again: "We've faced that too."

Luo Qing: "Has the carbon-based federation found the answer?"

Li Bai glanced back at the carbon-based Federation warship that was flying towards Earth at the speed of light and said, "It seems they want to follow a similar path to the Risk Removers, making the protection of civilization their obsession, in order to reach the level of a god-level civilization. But to be honest, they are bound to fail, because among the current god-level civilizations, none were born by violating the Dark Forest Law; they all rose from the bottom through fierce battles."

The threat posed by the carbon-based federation isn't limited to the silicon-based empire; it also includes enemies in the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Andromeda Galaxy. Even if they unify the Milky Way, they will struggle to withstand extraterrestrial enemies, even with my help. A small number of god-like individuals do not possess a suppressive advantage against advanced civilizations.

Furthermore, it is a consensus that god-level civilizations and god-level individuals do not participate in the Dark Forest War.

The Carbon-Based Federation's actions, attempting to ascend to heaven with their entire families, are essentially undermining the Bright Ocean and are doomed to failure. If this is not addressed, they are destined to follow the same path as the God-like civilization.

Luo Qing seemed to have seen through something, and said self-deprecatingly, "So you really think that the demise of some low-level civilizations is nothing, right?"

Li Bai cautiously stated, "Civilization is being born every moment, but—"

"The universe is finite," Luo Qing added for him.

Li Bai nodded.

Civilizations are destined to perish, so there's not much difference between dying sooner or later, especially for gods.

Li Bai further stated, "I admit that the vast majority of gods are free individuals who have seen through the bleak future and are obsessed with realizing their self-worth. 'Doing whatever one pleases without overstepping the bounds' is the common spiritual principle among gods. In fact, everyone is quite happy, isn't that right?"

Luo Qing smiled and said, "Yes, everyone is having a great time, so why bother making a fuss?"

Li Bai nodded with satisfaction: "It's good that you've figured it out."

(End of this chapter)