Actually, we all wanted to immediately understand what was going on with this strange young lady who seemed to be very familiar with us. However, it seemed like we didn't have much time. This red universe was collapsing. The Fallen Apostles obviously had slightly more advanced control technology than we did. The speed at which they were destroying the constants of this world was beyond imagination. Of course, there was also a possibility that this world was indeed too unstable. A universe built on fragments had most of the constants at the edge of mutual contradiction. As long as one lever was destroyed, what followed would be a chain collapse of the entire world. In order to prevent further losses from occurring due to such nonsensical reasons, we could only first take this large group of abyssal warships that didn't seem to be in a good condition but were no longer a threat and leave this world.
The retreat process was smoother than expected. This was because Lin Xue's prophecy ability had gradually recovered from the "interference." In reality, as long as she didn't spy on a certain strange young lady, her ability wouldn't be affected. Having a prophecy ability in battle was of great significance. It was impossible for the Fallen Apostles to find the path of retreat of the Imperial Army. We were always able to change course a few minutes before their spy probes arrived. In the words of the missy, such a small matter didn't give her a sense of accomplishment.
However, after successfully leaving the Fallen Apostles' sphere of influence, Lin Xue was still quite tired. She had already performed accurate prophecy too often today.
Because of a special battle and the addition of a large group of rather special "followers," the main fleet didn't directly return to the Empire. The Sixth Fleet and the First Fleet took a detour and first headed to a low-energy buffer universe at the border for a comprehensive inspection. This was because no one could guarantee that a fleet would not be contaminated after fighting in the Fallen Apostle's territory for more than two hours. Only after completing the inspection could they head to the Empire. Meanwhile, the Empire Admiral and the Royal Fleet simply stopped in the Void. Our location was far from the border of the Fallen Apostles and the Empire. There was only a Void node nearby that the New Empire and the Protoss had jointly established and guarded for a long time. This node was one of the first cooperative projects to restart after the resumption of communication with the Divine Realm. It was mainly used to observe the movements of the Abyss in the Void and the laws of the world's evolution in the Wastelands. At the same time, it could also coincidentally monitor the movements of the Fallen Apostles. However, this third function had yet to be used. Even though we could confirm that the Void node was not exposed, the Fallen Apostles seemed to be able to sense that this place wasn't too safe.
The Royal Fleet and thousands of Abyssal spaceships stopped in the scanning area of the node to resolve some troublesome matters.
In the resting area, the First Family sat in a large circle. In the circle were the three main parties involved. Lin Xue and I sat side by side, while on the chair opposite us was the strange girl who had called out to her parents right from the start. Miss Lin had a dejected look on her face. When she saw that the girl in front of her was not behaving properly, she could not help but knock on the table. "Sit up straight, don't move around, don't bite your nails, don't make faces — by the way, why do I have to nag like your mother?"
After Miss Lin muttered for a while, her face was full of confusion, while the girl in front of her giggled. "Haha, mother, you really are my mother. These words sound so intimate. Now, have you guessed how I came to be here?"
This girl really made me not know whether to laugh or cry. She was giggling, carefree, and always joking around with us. She did not treat herself as an outsider at all, and no matter what, she would not tell us where she came from, forcing us to imagine it ourselves. But the strange thing was, I could not bring myself to do it. Logically speaking, such a person who was very likely to be in the Fallen Apostle's camp should not be stirred up by us. But in fact, it was not just me and Lin Xue, even Sandora and my sister had an inexplicable sense of familiarity with this girl. Lin Xue called it a strong spiritual individual's super intuition towards things that involved oneself, similar to a sixth sense. Intuition told us that this girl in front of us was not an enemy.
"What's your name?" I shook my head and pointed at the girl's forehead. "Don't smile like an idiot. Why do I feel that you look so familiar?"
"My surname is Chen." The girl pursed her lips for a few seconds, and suddenly spoke before Lin Xue exploded. Her face was full of a naughty smile. "My name is Chen Xiaoxue!"
The surrounding people couldn't help but be stunned.
I rubbed my forehead. "You're not allowed to lie."
"To be honest, I really hope that it's a lie." The girl who called herself Chen Xiaoxue looked at me with a pained expression. "This name is definitely something that you randomly typed in Sogou. There are so many good names out there, why did you choose such a common name? When I was in school, when Teacher Ge Mu called out names, at least four people would call out with me, and that's not counting those with the same name but different surname. I even asked you, you said that this name must have the two characters' Chen 'and' Xue ',' Chen Xue ',' Chen Xiaoxue ', and' Chen Yu 'and' Chen Jiaxue '… Childhood is unspeakable! Are you saying that this is the name of a princess!? "
The elder sister was dumbfounded. Then, she poked my neck from behind. "Ah Jun, this style sounds like something you would do."
"Alright, based on what you've said, I'm guessing that you came from the future." Lin Xue laid her head on the table weakly. Although the girl in front of us didn't directly tell us where she came from, her various actions had already led us in a certain direction. It was just that both Lin Xue and I weren't willing to admit it. After all, this matter was a little too bizarre. Miss Lin looked at the girl in front of her who had more tricks up her sleeves than she did. For the time being, she didn't care how she managed to get from the Fallen Apostle to us. She first turned to Shallow Shallow. "Hey, you're an expert. Can such a thing that reverses history happen on a macro level?"
Shallow Shallow was busy taking pictures of Chen Xiaoxue. When she heard that, she was stunned for a moment. Then, she suddenly changed her personality and started explaining to us seriously, "Of course it can happen. It is possible to forcefully send a person back to the past. However, what happens after that is a disaster. There will be a logical paradox. The change in history can lead to two consequences. The first is that the current timeline of the world will collapse. The entire world will become a static snapshot. Just like how humans would go into shock to protect themselves when faced with a huge biological crisis, the world will also stop working to protect its own logic tree …"
Icetis interrupted, "We call this a downtime. When a world encounters a huge mistake, it will suddenly stop working. At that time, the Protoss will come to fix the problem."
Shallow Shallow glared at Icetis. "I don't like people interrupting me when I'm talking!"
Alright, this personality. Even Icetis couldn't do anything about it. The female rogue shrugged and gave me a look that said, "When she recovers, she will definitely apologize to everyone again."
Shallow Shallow continued, "Other than the fact that the timeline is stuck, the other consequence is the creation of parallel worlds. Some worlds have very strange structures. They can split on their own. Whenever there is a deviation in the timeline, a copy will be created at the deviation, and then two worlds will be created. Although I have never done this in real life, I have used Tawil's laboratory to simulate a similar situation. Basically, these are the two situations. In conclusion, it is very difficult to change history. Going back to the past is feasible, but doing anything after going back to the past is not feasible."
After saying that, Shallow Shallow retreated from this harsh and irritable personality and started apologizing to Icetis …
"Ahem, let me add a few things. This is the Protoss's information." Icetis coughed. "Actually, there are a few fixed models in Creation. Basically, they can be divided into the two that Shallow Shallow mentioned. The two situations that she mentioned are safety locks to prevent the world from completely collapsing. The first one is called 'Logic Malfunction Emergency Shutdown Process', commonly known as the 'Dead Brake'. When someone tries to attack the timeline, all information in the world will freeze, and the local God of World Management will go and fix the problem before restarting the world. The second one is called 'Progressive Data Stack Repair Process', commonly known as ABS. You just need to get the gist of it. This method is to create a backup of the world when history is tampered with, and another backup will be created when the process is tampered with. The lifespan of each backup is not fixed, and in each backup, other than the source of the malfunction, everything else is actually a shadow copied from the original. After a period of time, the shadow will return to the correct path of history, and the two worlds will merge back into one. Other than these two methods, there are other more obscure methods to correct the deviation, but those are basically strange phenomena that developed in the original world. The Protoss would not mess with such a hidden system, or else they would be locked up for at least a few thousand years if they were found out by the quality control department … "
I: "…"
"In other words, your claim that you are the daughter of Chen and Lin Xue from the future is suspicious." Icetis turned her head to look at the girl who called herself Chen Xiaoxue. Although her words were doubtful, there wasn't much hostility in them. "Firstly, the people here are either Void Creatures or Derivatives of the Void. No matter how you look at it, they are all related to the origin of the world. When it comes to our situation, the world is unable to produce a parallel history because there isn't enough data. Secondly, an emergency shutdown is also not feasible — the reason is the same as above, the world's braking system doesn't have that much power. In other words, it is impossible for an individual from the future to appear in front of us. Any actions that attempt to change our history will be corrected before it happens, and it will be corrected by the Void."
When Icetis said the last sentence, she glanced at me. I instantly sat up straight and put on a solemn expression. We are Void Creatures. Other than the Void itself, nothing else can affect the history of a Void Creature.
The mysterious girl named Chen Xiaoxue sized us up one by one as she said, "Yep, yep, well said, well said. The Grandfather Paradox is a rather troublesome thing. Oh, sometimes it is also called the Grandmother Paradox, but it doesn't work on me — I didn't say that I came from the future. This body is just a medium, so its appearance in front of you will not affect the harmony of Order. The way I exist is a little strange. From the perspective of the conventional dimension, it is impossible to understand which node I am at. Well, that will be explained later. I was born after that incident — oh right, Dad, what year is it now? Err, I mean, do you already know about that incident? "
Lin Xue gritted her teeth. "Speak clearly, or do you want a mixed male and female double."
"Oh, I mean the Void Cataclysm. You should already know about this, right?"
The atmosphere around us became stagnant. Sandora's expression became serious. "You mean, that incident really happened in the future?"
"I thought it was just Father's speculation." Icetis glanced at me. "Is it really going to happen soon?"
"It happened, and I was born after the Void Cataclysm." Xiaoxue tapped on the table. "Everything was divided into two parts by that incident, just like the two logical partitions of a hard disk. Changing history is indeed a troublesome thing, but it won't be affected if you cross over to the Void Cataclysm. As for the specific reason … until I left, you were still discussing it with my Second Uncle. You didn't even understand what was going on."
I was stunned. "Your Second Uncle?"
"Oh, Father. Actually, I'm not really Second Uncle, but you made me call him that since I was young."
Sister poked my neck again. "Ah Jun, that's your style too."
"Alright, one day in the future, your Second Uncle and I were studying about the Void Cataclysm … That incident really happened. What happened after that? What were the consequences? Err, more importantly — you said that you didn't cross over to this place from the future, but you should at least be living in a specific future moment. Doesn't that mean … in your eyes, all of us here are destined to walk the path of history? "
Once I said that, even Sandora's expression became conflicted. No matter what, everyone had always thought that their lives were rather pleasant. But now, they suddenly realized that they were already destined to be part of history in the eyes of others. That didn't feel good at all.
"No, no, no. That's the crux of the problem. The Void Cataclysm cut off everything. Dad, from the birth of the first Void Creature to the Void Cataclysm is a period of time, and from the Void Cataclysm to me coming to find you and Mom is another period of time. But even if I jump from my starting point to here, I can't connect the two timelines. You can do whatever you want, because no matter what I say here, there's only one thing that's destined in the future, and that is that I was born — that's the only piece of information I can bring from the future. Even if an intelligent and lovable daughter suddenly appears in your life from today onwards and affects some of your decisions, none of the things that will happen after the Void Cataclysm will be affected. Of course, if you experiment and blow up the City of Shadows now, then I can't do anything about it. After all, no one would dare to try that."
The group of people was confused by this convoluted theory. Even Sandora was rubbing her forehead because this matter had gone beyond any scientific logic and had risen to an unreasonable level. "Alright, history is actually uncertain. Even what has happened is only what you think it is now. If that's the case, we can pretend that Xiaoxue Chen doesn't exist and do whatever we want, including blowing up a world or surrendering to the Abyss. But there's only one thing we can be sure of in the future, and that is that Miss Lin and I are finally blessed with a daughter who can cause a ruckus. This daughter has traveled through time and space to send a surprise to her father …"
Miss Lin suddenly knocked on the table. "So you're saying that you don't know the direction of the future? Err, I'm talking about the direction of the future before the Void Cataclysm. That should be history to you. "" I know quite a lot.
"I know quite a lot. Dad told me about it when I was young." Chen Xiaoxue shrugged. Her movement was exactly the same as mine. "But it's useless. Those events might not necessarily happen. At least, the process isn't fixed. For example, if a person is destined to die, in my memory, he died from a gunshot. But in the real history that you and Dad experienced, he might have died from food poisoning. And my research topic is, when I carry these memories through the Void Cataclysm and transmigrate back, will my memory be immediately corrected, or will there be two memories? Of course, there's also the possibility that nothing will happen. After all, to me, I'm used to living an uncertain life …"
It seemed that this daughter who descended from the sky really had a lot of secrets — what did she mean by 'uncertain life'? By the way, what did Lin Xue and I actually develop in the future …
"What actually happened during the Void Cataclysm that actually split everything in two?"
Seeing that Xiaoxue Chen didn't intend to explain her 'essence', Sandora asked another question that we were all concerned about.
"The end of the world, a collective apocalypse." Xiaoxue Chen's tone was solemn. This time, she didn't look like she was joking. "Now, my Second Uncle should have noticed some clues. In the original history, he was the first to predict this outcome. But this time, I'll be the first to tell you: The entire Void stretched itself, and countless worlds were extinguished."
I gasped. Then, the girl in front of me continued the second half of her sentence. "But no one knows which worlds were destroyed."
Seemingly satisfied with the surprised gazes she received, Chen Xiaoxue Chen nodded. She counted on her fingers and told us that the future was destined to happen, but no one knew when and how it would happen. "When the Void Cataclysm happened, no one noticed it, including Second Uncle and Eldest Sister-In-Law (I'm guessing it was the Divine King of Huron — but how did this relative figure it out! These titles aren't ethical, right?!). It didn't have any symbolic events. Because in the eyes of the Empire, the Star Domain, and Huron, everything was progressing normally. But slowly, someone noticed a strange phenomenon: The exploration teams hadn't discovered any new worlds for a long time.
"Under normal circumstances, the exploration teams of the Empire, the Star Domain, and Huron would basically discover new worlds in the Void every day. But suddenly, all the exploration teams returned empty-handed. The Void that should have been brimming with vitality seemed to have become empty. Only the worlds that we knew were still operating normally, but there wasn't a single undiscovered virgin land. At first, some people guessed that it was because we had finally explored the end of the Void and found the last world. Of course, that guess was abandoned because there was still no end to the Void. It was just that the worlds that the three Void creatures didn't know about had disappeared without anyone knowing. That was the Void Cataclysm.
"After that happened, you, Second Uncle, and Eldest Sister-In-Law were very concerned. You used almost all the exploration teams and radars to scan the Void. There should have been active areas where worlds should have gathered, but there was only a huge blank space. There weren't even world fragments or remains. Later, everyone slowly found new unmarked worlds, but those worlds were newly born — they were only born after the Void Cataclysm."
"The old worlds, other than those that had been discovered and located by the three Void creatures, had been wiped out without anyone knowing."
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