The triumphant cheers echoing in his consciousness, the metallic touch of the ship beneath his feet, the silent screams of the artworks outside the window... everything began to grow blurred and distant.
The next second.
The entire world, along with his own perception, was instantly stripped away.
Luo Ji suddenly realized that he was no longer on the bridge, nor was he in any known space of the universe.
Before him was a pure, boundless expanse of white.
Up, down, left, right—there were no points of reference. The concepts of time and space lost their meaning here.
A man stood not far away, looking at him with a smile.
The man wore the most ordinary casual clothes from Earth. He looked young, yet his eyes seemed to contain the starry expanse of the entire universe.
It was the very existence that had once appeared deep within his memories, the one who had given him all his revelations and the source of his hatred.
The newcomer was none other than Ian.
Luo Ji looked at him without surprise or vigilance, feeling only a sense of knowing clarity, as if thinking, 'Just as I expected.'
He had already become the god of his own universe; nothing could surprise him anymore.
"Who are you?" Luo Ji asked calmly.
"Me?" Ian smiled, his expression as easygoing as an old classmate bumped into on the street. "Just a passing tourist. Someone who occasionally hands a map to a lost child."
"Then..."
"That's right. I was the one who wiped out that vanguard fleet, and I was the one who branded the memories of the Star People into your soul."
"Why?"
"Because a blood feud must be settled by your own hands," Ian replied, his tone as casual as if he were discussing the weather.
He looked Luo Ji up and down, asking with keen interest, "How does ascension feel?"
Luo Ji fell silent for a moment.
Thinking of the overwhelming emptiness he had just experienced, he answered frankly, "Omnipotent, yet purposeless."
"When the hatred vanished, we realized that besides eternal power, we were left with nothing but... nothingness."
"We became the gods of our own universe, but also its prisoners."
Yes, prisoners.
When a civilization reached the endpoint of omniscience and omnipotence, it also lost all drive and direction to move forward. In this moment, eternal life had instead become the cruelest of punishments.
"Hahaha!" Ian laughed upon hearing this.
"Indeed! Gods are the prisoners of the universe."
"But ultimately, that is still because you are not strong enough."
He extended a finger, gently tapping toward the center of Luo Ji's brow across the void.
"Let me show you the true appearance of this world of yours."
Hum—!
Under this tap, Luo Ji's field of vision was infinitely stretched and elevated!
He pierced through the dimensional barriers of his own universe, seeing it resemble a massive, brilliantly glowing soap bubble, quietly suspended in a higher-dimensional dark void.
And surrounding it were countless other soap bubbles, some large, some small, some bright, some dim.
Each one was an independent parallel universe.
Ian's voice echoed in his consciousness.
"Look at this one."
Luo Ji's gaze was instantly drawn closer, plunging into one of the bubbles.
He saw a dying sun.
And an azure planet was slowly fleeing the solar system.
Its surface spewed blue pillars of light from ten thousand giant thrusters, each pillar stretching for thousands of kilometers.
This planet was being pushed by humanity, embarking on an interstellar wandering journey that would span thousands of years!
There was no Stellaris technology here, no psionics, and certainly no ascension.
There was only a group of weak yet unyielding souls.
Luo Ji heard the collective, heartfelt roar of all humanity in that world.
That voice pierced through the barriers of the universe, shaking even his ascended soul.
"We choose hope!"
The scene shifted again.
Ian guided his consciousness to another universe.
This was a highly technologically advanced Earth civilization. Their level of technology even surpassed the era before humanity encountered the Trisolarans.
But at this moment, an unimaginably massive alien spacecraft hovered in their sky.
The aliens had brought them a choice.
"We can display the ultimate mysteries of the universe, every detail of the Grand Unified Theory model, in a way you can understand."
"But the price is that after seeing it, your lives will be taken by us."
Faced with this seemingly absurd trade, the scientists of that world actually accepted it with excitement.
Luo Ji saw them looking up at the sky, their eyes filled with a fanaticism bordering on pilgrimage.
"If I hear the truth in the morning, I can die content in the evening."
To catch a glimpse of the truth, they were willing to sacrifice their lives.
Luo Ji's consciousness was deeply shaken.
What shocked him was not the wandering planets, nor the madmen seeking the truth.
It was that struggle and progress.
An instinct called civilization, one that would burst forth with its last glimmer of light even in the depths of despair.
Yet his Human Alliance, despite being powerful to the extreme, had ceased to struggle and progress.
They no longer had enemies, goals, or direction.
They were stepping into the most comfortable of deaths.
Luo Ji's consciousness retreated from those countless parallel universes, refocusing on that pure white void.
He looked at Ian, and in those eyes that had been dormant for far too long, a fire was reignited.
It was not the fire of vengeance.
But something entirely new, brighter, and far more blazing.
"I understand."
"The endpoint of comfort is death."
"We... still have work to do."
Ian smiled, nodding in approval.
"Go."
"I have already given you the ability to push open this door at will."
"Whether to become aloof, apathetic spectators, or pioneers who ignite the torch and pass on hope—the choice is yours."
"Also, I look forward to meeting you again on a higher stage."
With that, Ian's figure slowly faded away and vanished, as if he had never been there at all.
The pure white space receded.
Luo Ji's consciousness returned to the Human Alliance Consciousness, constructed collectively by billions of humans.
He did not hesitate.
He unreservedly shared everything he had just seen, his conversation with Ian, and the images of their compatriots struggling across countless parallel universes with every ascended human.
The entire Human Alliance Consciousness instantly fell into silence.
The collective consciousness, which had just been immersed in eternal power and tranquility, was ignited by this sudden influx of information!
No longer for vengeance.
No longer for expansion.
A brand-new, far more meaningful plan was instantly proposed within the Human Alliance Consciousness.
They would cross the barriers of the universe to help their compatriots who were still struggling bitterly in the dark forest!
Agreed.
Agreed.
...
There was no voting, no debate.
Billions of wills achieved perfect unity at the exact same moment.
Passed unanimously!
The will of the Human Alliance began to operate at an unprecedented speed.
Massive amounts of Aether energy were mobilized, aimed at the door leading to the multiverse.
Their first target was already locked on.
It was that very Earth, pushing its ruined homeland through endless solitude, wandering toward the unknown sea of stars.