"What is going on…?"
Herta stared in disbelief at the scene before her, quickly pulling surveillance feeds from every region of The Blue.
Countless holographic projections appeared before her.
On the screens, the black beast tide poured into cities, unleashing devastation, ceaselessly hunting humans.
Order within cities and nations had completely collapsed—riots, chaos, energy leaks, skyscrapers toppling, security personnel frantically firing weapons at monsters, the whole world resembling the end of days.
Yet amidst this apocalyptic scene appeared a bizarre sight that did not belong.
Those monsters, which seemed to know only slaughter, deliberately avoided certain humans.
In one feed, a man shielding his family was not attacked. The monsters circled around him, even avoiding his family.
In another, a soldier fought relentlessly, yet no matter how many monsters he struck down, none harmed him—while his fellow soldiers nearby were cruelly torn apart.
In another, a little girl separated from the crowd clutched her doll and wailed amid the beast tide—but the monsters all shied away, as if she herself were a source of fear.
Scenes like this multiplied, leaving Herta increasingly shocked.
But she quickly regained composure. Clever as ever, she instantly realized—this must be the monsters' predation mechanism.
"What is the reason these people are not attacked?"
As the most intelligent human in The Blue's history, Herta accessed the planet's population records at once, scanning and analyzing them in mere breaths.
Her conclusion left her stunned.
"All those spared are individuals society evaluates as kindhearted, with little to no blemish in their life histories!"
She then retrieved the records of those attacked first.
Almost all were labeled by human society as evil or malignant individuals.
Not only them—even some politicians, businessmen, and others with heavy stains upon their records had been the first targeted.
"So that's it… that's it! I've discovered the rule behind their predation!"
Herta slapped the virtual screen in excitement, her fingers flying across keys.
"The trigger condition for these monsters' predation is based on moral alignment—or rather, judged by their life history."
"These creatures from another universe possess the ability to probe the life records of intelligent beings."
"They are not hunting individuals per se, but civilizations as a whole. Within a civilization, they target those individuals who harm, damage, or negatively impact the collective."
"In other words, they prey only on those whose life records mark them as malign—evil people, bad people."
Herta continued her analysis, exhilarated.
"The most critical factor is… information. The negative records in a life's history are an immense lure to them."
Back when the Genius Society first debated the possibility of invasion from another universe, they had assumed it would be a disaster bent purely on destruction.
Now, it was clear—that was not the case. While it was indeed a calamity spanning the entire cosmos…
By this selective mechanism, more than 80% of intelligent life might be wiped out.
Yet over 90% of civilizations themselves would survive.
It was more akin to a vast cosmic cleansing.
A purge that wiped out individuals and forces not aligned with good.
After reaching this conclusion, Herta suddenly thought—it might not be entirely bad.
But the greatest damage from such a catastrophe would not come from the black beast tide itself, but from the chaos and resistance provoked during their predation.
Even if the monsters would not harm kindhearted individuals, the ensuing riots and organized resistance would still cause massive casualties.
If there were no resistance or chaos, and the monsters were simply allowed to cleanse, then at most 60% of the universal population would be lost. But with organized resistance from civilizations, that number would rise, leaving only 20% of the population across the cosmos.
"This is unsolvable…"
Herta exhaled deeply, relinquishing control over the planetary systems.
Wherever there was civilization, there would inevitably be organized structures of governance—whether federations, alliances, nations, or even dictatorial rule.
And as long as such organizations existed, they naturally carried within them the negative information of civilization.
To ensure their survival, these structures would inevitably resist, flee, and counterattack.
"This mechanism of selection—the survivors must have already noticed it. With just a little time, word of it will spread across the entire universe."
"When that happens, internal divisions within civilizations will arise on their own."
"Without a unified will, no interstellar organization can hold together."
Though Herta was a scientist, she was also a scholar—and she understood well what positions and alignments meant.
The kindhearted and the corrupt were natural opposites.
Would those spared by the monsters protect those being hunted?
Obviously not.
From a few simple deductions, Herta could already foresee the final outcome.
"We've already lost… Before even attempting to resist, we've already lost."
"The final collapse is only a matter of time."
Herta sighed helplessly.
At that moment, the voices of The Blue's parliamentary members crackled through the comms.
[Lady Herta! Please respond, Lady Herta! Why has the defense system been shut down? Have you suffered a fatal attack?!]
[Lady Herta! Answer us, please!]
Herta did not reply. Even without her analysis, The Blue's collapse was inevitable.
[Curse it all! Deploy every security force and soldier to the frontlines! Otherwise, we're all dead!]
The leaders of The Blue had also realized by now that the monsters did not kill indiscriminately. After all, to rise to a civilization's upper echelons, they could not be fools.
But their ugly desperation was laid bare for all to see, to the point where even Herta felt there was no saving them.
It wasn't as if she could spend every moment protecting them, was it?
Ignoring the pleas of The Blue, Herta hurriedly transmitted her analysis to the Genius Society, and from there, through all the Society's Emanators, spread it to the entire universe.
[I am Herta, Seat 83 of the Genius Society. I now broadcast live to the entire universe…]
...
"Quick! Cloud Knights Fleet! Block all large-scale monsters outside the Cavern Realm!"
"Any monsters that have breached the Cavern Realm must be annihilated!"
RUMMMBLE—
"Kill!"
"Kill them all!"
"United against the foe, enduring calamities together—!"
"Hurry! Stop that giant monster! The defenses of the Xianzhou are about to be breached!"
Six massive planet-sized Xianzhou vessels stood aligned in empty cosmic space, with only a distant barren planet as the lone backdrop.
Countless Starskiffs streaked through the void at incredible speed, launching ceaseless energy barrages against monsters like ephemeral mayflies of the cosmos.
Some of these monsters were even faster than the Starskiffs themselves.
The number of Abyssal beasts clashed endlessly with the number of Starskiffs, locked in battle across the starry expanse, explosions erupting like an epic display of fireworks.
Every second, countless Abyssal monsters were slain; every second, Starskiffs were shattered into dust of the cosmos.
Cloud Knights commanding great warships wielded what appeared to be ancient melee weapons—yet in truth, they were overclocked vibration blades—slashing into Abyssal beasts in brutal combat.
The weapons of the Xianzhou Alliance appeared as archaic cold arms, but in essence were sophisticated high-tech constructs.
"Split the heavens, pierce the stars—draw the bow and hunt the wolf—!"
At the very moment the black beast tide erupted within the Xianzhou Alliance, the entire fleet mobilized in full force.
Unlike the IPC, the Xianzhou Alliance had, since Lan ascended as the Aeon of the Hunt, pursued and battled the Abominations of Abundance ceaselessly. Their combat discipline and collective battle power had been honed to the utmost.
One command, and all obeyed without question.
And the Xianzhou were far from ordinary.
The Aeon of the Hunt had granted the Xianzhou Alliance unrestricted access to the Path of the Hunt. Xianzhou citizens could draw freely from this power, pouring it into Cavern Realm technologies to create countless inner realms.
Each Cavern Realm could house tens of millions of Xianzhou people.
At present, each Xianzhou vessel had developed no fewer than a thousand such Cavern Realms.
Moreover, these Cavern Realms slowed the invasion speed of the black beast tide.
Combined with their endless logistics, they could sustain themselves for a time.
Additionally, every Xianzhou vessel bore a Lightning-Lord, bestowed by the Hunt, capable of unleashing Emanator-level might.
The Generals of the Xianzhou were themselves Emanators, and with the Lightning-Lords, their strength could stack and rise even further.
Though the Emanators of the Hunt were not the most powerful among Emanators, each one could summon the arrows of the Hunt.
Within the Xianzhou's inner realms, even new recruits battled ceaselessly against small Abyssal monsters that slipped inside.
"Be destroyed, monsters!"
"Take this! Unstoppable strike—!"
Blades of ice bloomed again and again within the beast tide, freezing Abyssal monsters into sculptures before shattering them into shards.
"Yaaah! Take this—my Supreme Void Sword!"
"Ouch! I'm hurt! Don't move if you're injured! I'll heal you all! Miracle pills, miracle pills—!"
"Little Gui, don't you dare follow me! Find somewhere safe to hide!"
"This is terrifying! Sushang, I'm leaving! Promise me you'll stay safe! Running away when you can't win isn't shameful at all!"
...
ROOOAAAR—
Just as the battle raged fiercely, a deep roar shook the cosmos. A colossal black head tore through space itself, thrusting forward.
The massive head dwarfed even the long-withering Ambrosial Arbor aboard the Xianzhou Luofu.
"The Xianzhou Alliance, blessed by the Hunt… in terms of heritage and strength, truly unmatched. At minimum, it would take a being of Primordial rank to break you."
A low voice rumbled from the black head.
Its arrival did not halt the beast tide—rather, it drove them into greater frenzy.
On the Xianzhou side, countless Cloud Knights and pilots froze in terror, their eyes vacant.
The suffocating aura struck directly at their spirits, crushing their minds. Those less resolute fainted outright under the weight of it.
Just as morale was about to collapse, golden radiance surged from the Xianzhou Luofu. Along with the light came a voice of solemn majesty:
[Resplendent Divine Might, hear My command—strike without mercy!]
A golden figure of a general swelled in size, expanding until it matched the colossal black head. Only then did it halt.
The awe-inspiring golden general's shadow hefted a blade capable of cleaving a planet in half and swung it down toward the black head.
Vmmm—BOOM—
The cosmic starry sky was dyed gold by the energy of the Path, forming swirling clouds of radiance as if this golden giant were engaged in the act of star-forging.
With a single slash of the golden giant's blade, swathes of the black beast tide were obliterated back into Abyssal energy. Even the domains covered in Abyssal power were shattered apart.
"So this is the power of an Emanator of the Hunt? The vessel itself is so weak, yet with this strength, it can reach nebula-class. If reckless, it might even touch God-King-class."
The black head spoke in a low rumble.
"But… so-called Emanators are nothing more than wielders of borrowed power—the concept of a Path. It is not their own strength."
"They are but lenders—akin to the spirit-invocation arts practiced by certain cultivators within the great planes under Liyue's dominion."
The black head slowly parted its Abyssal maw.
Within appeared a violet-black black hole, birthing a strange and terrifying gravity.
The surrounding cosmic laws began to warp.
BOOM—
The golden giant's strike landed squarely upon the violet-black black hole. The blade shattered instantly, and an explosion of energy more dreadful than a gamma-ray burst erupted.
A straight column of energy shot in opposite directions across the cosmos.
Its speed far surpassed that of light, warping spacetime into distorted curvature.
On the scale of a galaxy, a single radiant beam split an entire galaxy cleanly in half.
Yet even in such close combat, the Xianzhou Alliance suffered no damage. Instead, one-third of the Abyssal beast tide assaulting them was annihilated, a vast region of space scoured clean.
"Not a bad strike, Emanator of the Hunt. But you have drawn upon power far beyond your limit. At most, you could unleash it once more—before the backlash of the Path destroys you."
The black head gradually closed its Abyssal maw, scarlet eyes gazing upon the small figure who had struck it.
That small figure, utterly calm, questioned it: "To speak with such wisdom, you must possess a rich consciousness."
"Before I begin battle with you, I have a few questions."
The black head's monstrous visage curled into a dreadful smile. "Stalling for time?"
"But you have the right. After all, that Aeon's gaze has already turned toward me. Were it not for the Xianzhou being so close, I would already have been pierced by one of his radiant arrows."
"I know I cannot take you down. Otherwise, that Aeon would not hesitate to sacrifice a ship or two to kill me outright."
"I am called Erinas, a galactic-class beast of the Abyss. Ask your questions, Emanator of the Hunt."
—
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