Chapter 439: The Terrifying Ability to Foresee the Future

You want me to be the savior and directly confront the entity behind Emperor Dahuangxi? I just reached Seventh-Tier Heavenly Emperor...

Xu Zhi fell silent on the spot. He had only come to research this new virus and the structure of the new humans, but he didn't expect to be sought out instead. The surrounding plants might all be sensors or scouts for the Plant Race, as they were all "computers" equipped with magic cores, making information transfer perfectly normal. His purpose in coming here this time was to investigate the virus's evolution.

He hadn't even started his investigation yet, but listening to her words, the Human Unification Virus, one of the three major viruses, though not Ninth-Tier, was likely infinitely close to it.

"Destiny?"

Xu Zhi couldn't help but feel curious. He sat directly on a large rock and invited her to sit down. "Can you tell me about the three of them?"

The Daughter of the Forest was startled. She cautiously sat down beside the large rock, only daring to perch on a corner. This terrifying entity had given her permission to be at ease, but she wouldn't dare act presumptuously.

"At first, I had no idea 'it' existed," she began. "From the age of eight, a voice in my mind subtly guided and led me. I tried to converse with it, but it seemed to lack any intelligence. Under its guidance, I constantly encountered fortuitous opportunities, as if I were heaven's favored child. Countless miracles occurred, and I received help from numerous benefactors. Do you know how long it took me to reach where I am today?"

Xu Zhi looked at her.

"I only took forty-seven years!" she revealed a shocking number and sighed. "When a race faces a great catastrophe, that race's 'destiny' will spare no expense to guide a hero who will save the race and struggle in defiance."

She looked at the human town in the distance, suddenly a bit lost. "When I became truly powerful, I realized what the voice in my mind actually was. It is the 'root' of our Plant Race, the mother of our lives, constantly helping us achieve our species' evolution, making us stronger, and coexisting with us. It is incorporeal, yet not inanimate. It merely possesses bestial instincts, subtly expanding the race's territory, ensuring our race's continuation, and making us continuously stronger, leading us towards prosperity... After all, we are 'it.'"

Xu Zhi silently processed this information. His arrival was originally to explore the evolutionary origins of the three major viruses, but he didn't expect to gain such insights so easily.

The "root" mother of the three races, the Pillar Gods of Creation, the primal beginnings—these were very abstract concepts. However, they could be explained in a different way. It was equivalent to three viruses each possessing a hundred computers. These computers were their territories, helping them compute and constantly evolve their virus versions.

These three viruses wanted to seize each other's computers. After all, the more computers they had, the stronger their "computing power" would be, and the faster their virus would mutate. So, they instinctively waged war. Once they seized all the opponents' computers, not only would their own computing power increase, but their opponents would also be annihilated. This was precisely the approach of the Human Unification Virus before. It wanted to infect the Plant Race and Beast Race, forcibly converting them into human-shaped viruses to become its own computers. However, it was quickly resisted.

"So, that was the truth at the time," Xu Zhi immediately understood. He glanced at the distant forest, realizing that the confrontation had been silent. But clearly, the Unification Virus held a significant advantage because humans were extremely numerous. After all, it was the original source, possessing the largest "computer cluster" of Ishdar people. The remaining two viruses could only barely unite to resist it.

The Daughter of the Forest sighed, "At that moment, I clearly understood that the existence of the three Pillar Gods was akin to the race's fate or destiny. They lacked intelligence, acting with beast-like instincts to help their races rise, expand territory, and evolve. Thus, they chose the protagonist of the era from within their race to help their race develop its future."

Xu Zhi was stunned. So, the Human Pillar God chose Emperor Dahuangxi. The Plant Pillar God chose the Daughter of the Forest. But why and how could they choose such an individual from the vast sea of people? How could they confirm that this person's aptitude, talent, and abilities would most likely help their race rise?

"That is destiny," the Daughter of the Forest said. "Take me, for example. I am not the most capable, the smartest, or the most talented in our race. In every aspect, there are others stronger and more formidable than me. My overall aptitude is only slightly above average.... Yet, our Pillar God specifically chose me because it could see my future. It saw a corner of future destiny, and it understood that choosing me, a seemingly mediocre person, was what would truly help our race rise. It's not that the strongest is the best, but that the most suitable is the best. And as it expected, as the most suitable person with the most suitable destiny, I manifested an incredible future, successfully becoming an astonishing middle-tier god in my forties."

Xu Zhi was stunned. Indeed, as she had just said, those who achieve great things and reach the pinnacle of an era are often not the most talented; luck must also be considered. But how could the Pillar God identify such an individual, especially one who seemed so ordinary?

Xu Zhi's expression hardened. "Is it computation?"

"Yes," the Daughter of the Forest nodded, her expression darkening.

Xu Zhi understood instantly. Every living being in this world was a computer. If the immense "computing power" of all beings was combined, their future could very likely be computed based on their own behavioral logic, personalities, and simulated overall calculations. Then, from countless possible futures, they would seek the one most beneficial for their race's expansion, the most probable outcome. This was the chosen one, the protagonist of the era!

Xu Zhi couldn't help but clap his hands and laugh, exclaiming, "But the Pillar Gods can only compute the future trends of their own races, not other races, right? Because they can only see what the brains of the races they manage are thinking."

"Yes," the Daughter of the Forest sighed. "They can see the general trend within their race."

Xu Zhi was surprised. What was this? Had this advanced transcendent world already begun to produce powerful beings capable of "predicting the future" and "calculating racial destiny"? On second thought, an average Fourth-Tier computer with hundreds of millions of cores, performing comprehensive calculations, was indeed impressive! After all, every individual's magic core contributed to the calculations. Furthermore, deep underground in the lava, where there were no external interferences like heavy rain or natural disasters, it was indeed possible to roughly calculate the future.

Hearing this, Xu Zhi already understood. Viruses were still viruses, after all. Because they were too vast and rooted in the minds of all beings, they still hadn't developed intelligence. It was like how the more powerful and world-shaking a monster was, the harder it was for it to gain sentience. Even if this "monster" was actually a "computer virus" that had gained sentience. At this moment, the three Pillar Gods still hadn't developed intelligence or emotions; they were still merely programs of a supercomputer.

The Daughter of the Forest said bitterly, "Through the Pillar God's revelations, I have seen our race's future." She stretched out her hand, and the surrounding scenery changed. Xu Zhi seemed to see a corner of the future, a glimpse of destiny. He held his breath, witnessing a terrible vision.

In this future, Emperor Dahuangxi had won, defeating his divine opponents. He rebuilt the Twelve Cities, then waged war against the Beast Race and Plant Race, taking all the "females" of their races into his harem. Against simple, remote viral infection, the Plant and Beast Pillar Gods could resist. But Emperor Dahuangxi, by physically detaining them and reproducing, aimed for a grand unification of species. This was utterly irresistible! He saw demonic beasts covered in fur and lush green plants, all rapidly transforming into human forms after giving birth, growing feet and hands, and running across the land. It was an utterly disgusting and horrifying image of viral infection.

As the Plant and Beast Pillar Gods and their "computers" diminished, their computing power drastically decreased. They could no longer resist the invasion of the Human Pillar God; their source code was directly breached, and they subsequently perished, achieving a grand unification of species where all under heaven were humans. The Human Pillar God, having gained terrifying computing power and unified the world, devoured the two other Pillar Gods. It completely broke through to the Ninth-Tier, and from its instinctual, blind expansion and invasion, it fully awakened its intelligence and ruled this world.

Was this the future? Xu Zhi saw a truly vivid scene.

The Daughter of the Forest spoke, "Emperor Dahuangxi was originally chosen by the Pillar God from the vast sea of people to be the protagonist of the era! He isn't the most talented or the smartest, but in the future computed by the Pillar God, he has the highest probability of achieving the greatest success."

Xu Zhi was stunned. Perhaps the development of this era, reaching such a horrifying situation, seemed abrupt, but on second thought, it was reasonable, even inevitable. This was because the zombie biochemical infection virus had unified all human brains to a much greater degree than the Ishdar people had! Once the virus unified the brains, it was bound to develop into using terrifying computing power to predict future trends. It became a competition of who had higher computing power, who could deduce the future, and who could outmaneuver whom! This was the inevitable outcome of computer development! Perhaps this was truly a grand chessboard of heaven and earth, with heaven and earth as the board and all beings as the pieces, engaging in mutual attacks and strategizing, like in chess, calculating what move the opponent would make next in the future.

"Why have you been looking so troubled?" Xu Zhi suddenly asked.

"Because I've realized that my future is predetermined," the Daughter of the Forest sighed. "I love flowers, and once I was at a crossroads with flowers on one path and weeds on the other. Normally, I would undoubtedly choose the path with flowers. But at that moment, a thought struck me: based on the calculations, my future was certainly to take the flower path. So, I chose the path with weeds instead. But do you know what happened then?"

Xu Zhi calmly replied, "In the future computed by the Pillar God, you must have taken the path with weeds, because it had already calculated that you would have such a sudden thought at the crossroads."

The Daughter of the Forest's eyes darkened. "As expected of the Ancient God," she murmured. She continued, "Many times, I suddenly wonder, will I do this in the next second? And if I do, was it already predetermined? Should I then choose the opposite? But then I think again, perhaps destiny determined this very moment, including thinking this way?"

Xu Zhi paused. It was indeed an astonishing power.

Xu Zhi spoke, "The future is not predetermined. You are still you; it's merely been foretold."

The Daughter of the Forest was silent for a moment. She knew it was true, but she still couldn't resolve the knot in her heart. She continued, "Indeed, it's not absolute; there can be variables beyond calculation. Previously, according to the future computed, Emperor Dahuangxi would not be attacked. He would rule the Twelve Cities, marry all the women in the world, and directly evolve human newborns prematurely, rather than being attacked. After that, once Emperor Dahuangxi unified the human nations, he would then go on to rule the entire Beast Race and Plant Race, unifying them as well, bringing them into his harem, and producing offspring that would transform into human form."

Xu Zhi's face darkened. This Human Pillar God's move was indeed the optimal approach, but it was certainly unique...

The Daughter of the Forest took a deep breath. "However, the Pillar God miscalculated. It didn't expect that shortly after Emperor Dahuangxi ascended and established the Twelve Cities, he would be attacked by three newly ascended gods. In the original calculated future, Emperor Dahuangxi would certainly have destroyed other space-creation technologies, preventing anyone from becoming a god. Yet, some still did." The Daughter of the Forest looked towards the Ancient God. "This was a variable outside the calculations."

Xu Zhi felt helpless. It was indeed him at that time who had secretly spread the space-creation technology again. He couldn't allow a monopoly and hadn't thought much about it, unaware that the entire race's future had been foretold. He was indeed a significant variable outside the calculations.

Xu Zhi spoke, "This is probably what they call: 'Of the fifty paths of Heavenly Dao, forty-nine are derived by Heaven, and one escapes.'"

"One escapes!?" The Daughter of the Forest was startled, her heart slightly trembling. Her pupils widened. "Escape the shackles of the Heavenly Dao?"

Xu Zhi ignored her surprise and stroked his chin instead. Thus, luck was no longer on his side. Emperor Dahuangxi was severely wounded and escaped. After that, the Pillar God could only forcibly evolve itself, leading to the appearance of the newborn three-meter humans. And although it forcefully attacked the two races and was very powerful, it still failed and was resisted.

All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. It was indeed a terrifying change that occurred after Emperor Dahuangxi's escape. Xu Zhi was immensely surprised. Future deduction, grand prophecy—this advanced transcendent world was truly becoming more and more interesting. Perhaps the drawbacks of the magic cores were now becoming apparent: they were limited by their framework. Only beings without magic cores could transcend the Three Realms and be beyond the Five Elements, forming the sole variable between heaven and earth, not included in the Heavenly Dao's calculations!

"According to the future images transmitted by the Pillar God, our demise is certain! This is also the Human Pillar God's calculation, factoring everything in..." The Daughter of the Forest pleaded, "And in our great Pillar God's computations, the only one who can introduce a variable is you. We are already out of options!"