In the star-filled night sky, a pure white star suddenly appeared, even brighter than before.
On the high platform of Duke Village, the village chief suddenly said, "It's been a long time, sage."
Odis saw that the village chief's spirit had turned into a ball of light.
At this moment, he recalled some intelligence he had obtained from the "Knowledge Wilderness" after ascending to Sequence 1.
Those who follow the "Unceasing Words of Eating" can not only spread polluted information, but also listen to the voices of the past.
It is not only about listening to the voice of the "unceasing language," but also to other voices of the past, without any signs of going out of control.
Thinking of this, Odis suddenly laughed: "It seems that your power to descend is very limited. You can only rely on this method to gradually corrupt ordinary people, and then rely on them to corrupt the extraordinary."
"Thanks to you," the "village chief" said, "it is now even more difficult to unleash power."
Before the Celestial Master and Adam joined forces to strengthen the "barrier" with the power of the "Fallen Mother Goddess," the "Unquenchable Language" could still control this stronghold well, and its pollution was relatively restrained, without being discovered by the official extraordinary beings.
But that's no longer the case. We can't even control our own pollution. In just a few months, the official extraordinary individuals have already noticed this place.
The surrounding villagers seemed not to have heard the conversation between the two, and remained sitting quietly, as if waiting for something.
Odis sat cross-legged on the high platform: "Since we're here, let's have a chat."
He asked, "What methods do you usually use to brainwash these villagers?"
"We're just having a philosophical discussion," the village chief said. "It doesn't involve any brainwashing rhetoric."
Odis laughed and said, "When did 'philosophy' become so poisonous?"
He shrugged and said, "Tell me, what brilliant ideas do you have?"
"Many villagers have probably already expressed some of my thoughts." "The Unending Words" sounds like it's going to be an academic debate: "Consciousness and spirit are immortal, therefore, if we exist in the form of consciousness and spirit, that is the ultimate form of life."
Odis retorted, "I can only say that this is wishful thinking on your part."
"Extraordinary beings at the angelic level can exist in a conscious or spiritual form if they find the right method."
"But if lower-level extraordinary beings do this, no matter what method they use, even demigods, it won't take long."
They also couldn't maintain a good condition.
"But for ordinary people, there is simply no way to do this."
Actually, there are still methods, such as the digitization of consciousness used by Odis in the Common Era.
But not everyone is willing to become a string of cold data, and not everyone can maintain their individuality when in a state of cold data.
Odiston paused for a moment and then said, "And have you ever thought about why the Creator would allow the obviously backward, faulty physical body to be in a state of interdependence with the spirit and consciousness?"
This question clearly surprised "The Unending Eating Language": "Why?"
"It is precisely because if only spirit and consciousness remain, then it will be a lifeless world," Odis said. "Only when the body is pursuing desires and fame can there be positive or very dark emotions and changes."
"Therefore, things that are too advanced are not necessarily lasting, and things that are too basic are not necessarily without reason for their existence."
The village chief smiled and said, "That's quite a novel idea."
Odis thought to himself: The level of the past was just so-so.
"Perhaps I've never considered the problems of some lower beings," the "village chief" said. "But your theory doesn't convince me either, because you haven't experienced the perspective of how we used to see things."
Before Odis could refute, the "Unquenchable Language," supported by the village chief, said, "There are other ancient things I want to talk to you about."
Odis was taken aback: "Are you really planning to have a debate with me? Or do you think doing so will corrupt me?"
"We can't get in, and you won't come out." "The Unextinguished Word" continued, "Then what's wrong with having a debate?"
"Of course we know we can't corrupt you, nor do we intend to. We just want to see what your logic is like as a special Old One."
Odis immediately grasped the key point: "The special old days?"
"Yes, the consciousness in the 'wilderness of knowledge' once came directly from the 'original creator,' and in our view, the 'sage' possessed a part of the 'original' creation." The Unceasing Word said, "Although you later abandoned that part..."
But the impact that part had on you must have made you understand the concept of "primitive deities".
"And the other part of you is that of an ordinary intelligent being, and you have preserved this aspect of your nature very well."
This is something we lack.
"I once proposed a concept that from the first period to the present, there have been two pillars on Earth: one Old One, one Quasi-Old One, and one Half-Old One."
"As the 'sages' of the past and the quasi-past 'sun god'—oh, you now call yourselves 'ancient sun gods'."
Only the two of you have a record far exceeding your level. Most of the time, you are two against ten, but your counterattacks are still precise and effective.
"In the First Age, when there were two pillars, they didn't cause us as much trouble."
"I think this is related to the fact that you have aspects of ordinary intelligent beings."
Odis laughed and said, "Not only do I study you, but you study us too."
He pondered for a moment before saying, "In my impression, you were a complete mess of words that could drive people crazy, but I didn't expect your consciousness to be so stable, or rather, your logical thinking to be so strong."
"The Unquenchable Language" countered, "You use a 'tidal wave of knowledge' to overwhelm the enemy's logical thinking. Does this affect your status as a rational, stable, and extraordinary individual?"
"I understand." Odis nodded and said, "Alright, let's have a debate then."
"There may not be another opportunity like this in the future."
Tonight, Odis will surely destroy this "philosophical village" of the Outer Gods. When they meet again, they will be enemies, and it will be impossible for them to have a calm and peaceful conversation like this.
Then the "village chief's" voice became hoarse: "Everything will eventually decay. Whether it is matter or organization, everything is rushing down the path of entropy increase and corruption. Even the supreme ruler will come to an end due to the erosion of time. Since the end is already determined, it is better to let the universe rot and die directly, so as to avoid intelligent beings making futile struggles."
"I don't think so," Odis said with a smile. "Whether it's humans or other creatures, they all have a strong desire to live."
Even though I am seriously ill, even though I know my life is short.
"I believe that the greatest courage is not to die a heroic death, but to have the will to live even when you know that you are in a dark world and a hopeless era."
"This is the most beautiful color of life, not a futile struggle."
Here's a saying for you: Let the storm rage on!
Then the "village chief's" voice became somewhat erratic: "The universe is a universe full of uncertainty. All certain outcomes and processes are just certain trajectories within uncertainty. These trajectories are erratic, and even the most precise calculations cannot guarantee their accuracy."
"So what seems like a certain result is actually just one of many results, and does not mean that the existence of this universe is certain."
"I don't think so," Odis said. "As long as there is a result, it is a manifestation of 'certainty'."
"Of course, you could say that a few variables in the trajectory of something could have led to a different outcome, but the fact is that those 'few variables' did not occur."
"Like 'Schrödinger's Cat,' you emphasize too much the state of the cat being 'both alive and dead' when the box is closed, but you ignore the fact that the box will be opened sooner or later. And if the box is not opened, for example, for a month or half a year, then the certainty is that the cat is dead."
The "village chief's" voice rose again: "A higher dimension represents more possibilities. I really like a human analogy: there is a shooter who shoots a bullet hole every ten centimeters on the target. Scientists of two-dimensional life on the target, through continuous observation and research, discovered a cosmic law: every 10 centimeters, there must be a hole."
"This metaphor perfectly illustrates the undeniable fact that higher dimensions can completely dominate lower dimensions. And three dimensions also belong to the category of lower dimensions."
"I don't think so," Odis said. "I think the lower the dimension, the larger the space, which means there will be more possibilities."
"I have always felt that three dimensions are a very good dimension. Intelligent life that arises in this dimension cannot see the river of time or real space."
"Because they cannot see this information, three-dimensional life forms can instead focus their energy on other things."
"I've heard of the concept of eleven dimensions. In that dimension, the universe is as big as a yard, and you can easily get from one end to the other. What's the point of a dimension that you can see the end of at a glance?"
The "village chief's" voice then changed four times, representing "the ring of destiny," "the super-star overlord," "primordial hunger," and "the mother tree of desire." To Odis's surprise, each Outer God had his own unique worldview and values.
However, in Odis's view, their worldview and values had obvious flaws and were rather extreme in a certain direction.
During his debate with them, Odis realized that they might have such flaws and extreme values because they existed since the beginning of creation, since they have always represented a symbol of a certain field, and they all believe that the symbol they possess is the most important.
Therefore, their values are more like an explanation of their own symbolic meaning.
Finally, the "village chief's" voice took on a distinctly feminine tone, and the other party said, "We meet again, but I won't discuss with you what intelligent beings call philosophical issues."
"I'd like to continue our previous discussion: should a great will rule the entire universe?"
When Odis ascended to Sequence 1, she had met the "Fallen Mother Goddess". At that time, Odis argued with her that the gods' blessings were just wishful thinking on the part of the gods.
At this moment, the "Fallen Mother Goddess," who had descended upon the "Village Chief" with a trace of her will, said: "The reason why people have conflicts is because people's thoughts are too complicated. If everyone had a common understanding and shared values, there would be no so many conflicts."
Odis replied, "It is recorded in the Wilderness of Knowledge that Nuwa of ancient times was your incarnation."
"I'd like to ask, when you were creating humans, did you only intend to create one human, and then all the other humans were copies of him?"
Then he smiled and said, "I thought you would want the universe to be filled with depravity, or follow the idea that 'all things have a spirit,' so that all living beings have their own wisdom and spirituality."
"I've said it before, people's descriptions of me are very one-sided," said the "Fallen Mother Goddess." "Fallenness" is a common trait among all living beings.
Where there is a spirit, there is depravity.
"It's true that everything has a spirit; that's how the universe becomes lively."
"But the problem is that this has caused far too much conflict and consumed most of the universe's power, which is a serious waste."
"I hope that a guiding ideology for resolving disputes can emerge, so that any dispute can be resolved using that guiding ideology."
Odis suddenly laughed and said, "I think I understand what's going on. You have these thoughts because of your maternal instincts."
"Mothers like to make demands on their children in every little detail, and to make them live according to their own intentions and plans. I dare not say that this is necessarily wrong, but there must be a better way."
"Children have independent consciousness; they are merely a continuation of your life, but not a continuation of your will and thought." I can guess that the "guiding ideology" you're referring to is most likely a form of corruption of intelligent beings. But one undeniable fact is that by corrupting intelligent beings, you are tantamount to making them lose their sense of self.
The Fallen Mother Goddess paused for a few seconds before saying, "It seems that we still cannot convince the other side in this discussion."
"Because in my opinion, losing oneself is not a very important thing."
"The process of becoming an extraordinary person and advancing step by step is actually a process of losing oneself and ultimately becoming a psychic Frankenstein's monster."
Odis smiled and said, "Yes, what we cherish, what we have been fighting for, seems to you to be something not so important."
"This may be the root of our conflict. Of course, it's not just this issue that causes the conflict; there are irreconcilable conflicts in many things."
"We simply cannot understand each other, so we can only solve problems through fighting."
He paused, then added, "I'm still very curious. When you created humanity in ancient times, did you only intend to create one 'template' of humans?"
The Fallen Mother Goddess took a deep breath: "In the beginning, all humans looked exactly alike, had only one gender, and thought much the same."
"But at that time there were no barriers on Earth, and the influence of other ancient times caused all sorts of mutations in humanity."
"Ultimately, humanity developed males to represent masculinity, came in all sorts of appearances, and had many crazy ideas."
"After 'enlightenment,' human thought became completely beyond my control."
Odis remarked, "In that sense, I should thank that chaotic era and the influence of those bygone days."
"In my opinion, the Earth of that era, though full of madness and chaos, was truly vibrant."
"It is precisely because humans have different choices that they ultimately make the choices they want."
The Fallen Mother Goddess said, "That makes a lot of sense, but I still can't understand it. Or rather, I can't understand why humanity would choose such an inefficient method?"
"If you can be taught knowledge, why bother learning it?"
"Because one is active and the other is passive," Odis said. "Learning knowledge is an active behavior. You can learn whatever you want. If you don't want to learn grammar, you can learn how to make shoes. If you don't want to learn mathematics, you can learn how to navigate social situations."
"But if it's just about indoctrination, then he can only take whatever others give him."
At this point in their conversation, both of them fell silent.
Odis knew very well that the "Fallen Mother Goddess" truly did not understand his thoughts. As a born Old One, she could not possibly understand the thoughts of ordinary people, just as nobles do not understand why ordinary people are poor.
After their exchange, the representatives watched the debate conclude.
This should be considered a communication between Earth civilization and extraterrestrial civilization, but neither side could convince the other, so such communication was completely ineffective.
After the debate, the spirits of the village chief and the villagers returned to normal.
They all had a sudden realization, as if they understood the debate between the outsider and those great beings.
At this point, Odis said, "Alright, it's time to end this."
"Forget it, you don't need to know the truth."
As Odis spoke, streams of information emanated from beneath his feet, instantly striking everyone around him. Before they could even react, they had already been transformed into streams of information.
Odis realized that many of them had received power from the Outer Gods, but the level of power was not very high.
The next second, Odis "modified" their life state, causing them to die before they could even feel pain.
Then a stream of information converged in Odis's palm; it was about all the "outsiders" who had come to Duke Village.
And information about the meteorite mentioned by the village chief.
Having obtained useful information, Odis waved his hand, and the torrent of knowledge spread outwards, turning the surrounding houses and farmland into streams of information.
Odis reshaped this information, turning the torrent of knowledge from abstract to concrete. The previously rolling symbols and numbers became towering trees, clumps of withered grass about to sprout, and rocks in the grass.
Odis, who had just been in a village, now found himself in a vast wilderness in early spring, with no trace of anyone else ever having been there.
Odis glanced at the stream of information gathering in his hand. The next second, it turned into pages of paper, each page containing detailed information about an outsider from Duke Village.
There were two other information streams, which, under Odis's manipulation, turned into two small images. One image showed the village chief finding the meteorite, and it included both visuals and audio.
As Odis had predicted, the "Unquenchable Word" used this meteorite to spread his pollution across the Earth.
When the village chief saw the meteorite, he heard a not-so-harsh, sharp sound, which was the pollution of the "Unquenchable Word".
However, "The Unextinguished Language" was very careful to keep its pollution within a completely controllable range, and did not even cause a major mutation in an ordinary person.
After that, the village chief developed a liking for philosophy.
Another scene shows the village chief talking to an outsider who claims to be a follower of the "Great Being," teaches the village chief how to pray to the "Unquenchable Word," and then takes away the meteorite.
Odis had seen this outsider before.
In Backlund, in order to confirm whether Odis had the ability to seal the awakening Hades, the "Goddess of Night" had the "Ascetic Order of Morse" bring forward its plans. A member of the "Ten Pillars" intended to bring the Outer Gods to Backlund.
The outsider that Odis saw was a member of the "Ten Pillars" who hoped to bring the Outer Gods to Backlund.
Odis thought to himself: That meteorite likely contains the method to bring down the "Unquenchable Word." After the members of the "Ten Pillars" obtained it, they began to study how to bring down this Ancient.
Unfortunately, his plan was discovered by the "Goddess of Night," and the plan failed, but it also gave Odis valuable sealing experience.
Taking a deep breath, Odis felt as if her days living in Backlund were from the last century.
With that thought, he disappeared from the spot and reappeared at Bazel's camp.
Barzel's subordinates were surprised that the president was personally investigating the matter. The group, who had just been complaining about having to stake out the case in the cold night, suddenly became excited and all their previous fatigue disappeared.
Odis briefed Bazel on her investigation process and how sophisticated the contamination in this case was, urging everyone to be careful in their future investigations.
Then Odis took out the information he had obtained and asked Bazel to find those "outsiders," who were likely also secretly contaminated.
After glancing at the documents, Bazell said, "Several of them are already dead."
"Captain, look, this is a member of the Fred family, the original noble family of Lenburg. Now the Fred family only has a few branches left."
"And this one, this is a member of the Harry family, a nobleman who opposed the Lenburg Progress, who died before you were elected president."
The so-called "nobles who opposed the progress of Remnantburg" were among the targets of the new regime's purge on the night Odis seized power.
Bazel was Odis's first confidant in Azshara, and he knew the nobles of Lenburg inside and out. He was the one who devised the plan to purge them.
Odis nodded: "That saves some trouble."
Barzel added, "Since they may have been secretly contaminated, I can send people to check their residences or private properties to rule out the possibility that they left behind any contamination."
Odis grunted in agreement, indicating that the matter would be left to Bazel to handle.
He then offered a few words of encouragement to the other official extraordinary individuals before leaving.
Two days later, Odis received Bazel's report.
All the outsiders were investigated, and some manuscripts, notes, and other items that were contaminated were indeed found.
However, three people seem to have disappeared, and their whereabouts have been unknown for several years.
Bazel suggested closing the case like this for now, since the three people had most likely gone out of control and turned into monsters in a deserted place, and might have already been hunted down by the Extraordinary.
If the case is not closed, it will consume a lot of the official extraordinary resources, and it will be difficult to find clues about the other party.
Odis wrote to Bazel that the case could be closed, but that the three missing persons must continue to be monitored because the pollution they were carrying was dangerous.
Then, Odis looked at the report submitted by Bazel and fell into deep thought.
These past two days, Odis has been reflecting on her conversations with the Old Ones. At the time, she didn't think much of it, but her continued reflection made her realize that the Old Ones' values seemed extremely extreme, as if their existence was purely for the purpose of bringing chaos and madness.
But for those ancient beings, the thoughts of Earth's humans must be incomprehensible.
What impressed Odis the most was that she had always thought the Old Ones were a group of evil gods, but after that debate, Odis realized that each Old One had something they held dear.
Of course, using the word "holding on" seems a bit anthropomorphic. In fact, what the old folks were holding on to was not anything, but their authority and symbols!
Or rather, their purpose in existing in this world is to gain wider recognition for their authority and symbolism.
This way of gaining "widespread recognition" includes, but is not limited to, corrupting those who do not recognize him, defeating gods who do not recognize him, seizing more source matter and extraordinary properties, and gaining a greater advantage for himself.
In essence, they are not so chaotic and crazy, but to humans who hold different values and do not agree with their ideas, they are very dangerous, chaotic and crazy.
Then, Odis thought of an important concept: the Tao!
The true gods possess only authority, and that authority is the meaning of their existence.
But things are different in the old days; they will definitely have a special and irreplaceable meaning.
This is something that we must clearly understand in the past.
This understanding is what Odis perceived as the "Tao," representing the most unique part of his thoughts and achievements that allowed him to stand between heaven and earth.
Odis further realized that after becoming an angel, one must have one's own "way".
This is essentially your own anchor point, your basic self-awareness, and the most steadfast part of your heart!
Thinking about this, Odis felt his spirituality was more vibrant than ever before, and he realized that his current thoughts were very important.
But this was not the end. Odis further realized that the cause he had been carrying out was his "Tao".
At this moment, Odis noticed that on the tea table not far away, another characteristic of the "Knowledge Emperor" had appeared.
He breathed a sigh of relief. It was clear that his own thinking was more effective than his previous acting. Adam believed that it could provide him with another Sequence 1 characteristic.