Chapter 496: Winter Has Come (Two in One)

The bar’s decor was reminiscent of centuries past, with mahogany counters and chairs. The shelves were lined with many outwardly impressive yet empty wine bottles. It was dark and dimly lit, creating a uniquely tranquil ambiance.

Black-suited nobles served as waiters, coming and going, adding a peculiar charm to the scene.

“Looks delicious,” Milac peered around, licking his lips. “If I kill them to gain energy, I could definitely level up several times and achieve a qualitative breakthrough in my realm.”

“Please, my lord, spare me,” the young leader of the black-suited youths pleaded, looking distressed. After painstakingly recovering to the fourth tier, dying again would mean he wouldn’t return to his peak level for an unknown amount of time.

“I won’t kill you.”

Xu Zhi smiled. “Ultimately, it’s a persistent thought formed from the dark consciousness of all beings... Milac, if you have the ability, do it yourself.”

Milac pursed his lips.

Just kidding...

He was the one who nearly died!

Xu Zhi wasn’t bothered by the ‘evil god’ system created by Meng Mei’s online game. The Three Realms were already very mature and wouldn’t collapse, so he just watched to see what new tricks the ‘Guixu World’ would come up with. In contrast, the ancient Lava World, which had only been developing for a week, was the one most likely to crumble.

Sitting at a table in the bar, Xu Zhi asked with some curiosity, “You originate from the collected spiritual power of all beings, much like the righteous gods worshipped in temples, churches, and cathedrals. Now that you’ve gained sentience, you’re essentially a new type of demon, seizing fortune in an alternative way... Why don’t you follow the ‘Hundred Scholars’ in striving for your own era? Why not compete for supremacy with the righteous gods?”

The black-suited noble paused, then lowered his head and said, “My nature isn’t strong enough. I’m not needed yet.”

Xu Zhi was speechless.

Indeed, these sentient evil gods, though still living within defined rules, had begun to ponder the meaning of their existence: why they were born, and where their future path lay.

This world truly was a landfill of consciousness, where the spiritual power of all beings converged.

People’s unconscious thoughts, fantasies, and evil intentions were all discarded into this void, a desolate graveyard of the cosmos, where all kinds of incredible, mysterious, bizarre, and terrifying scenes could be found.

Perhaps it truly fulfilled the saying: If you can imagine it, it can manifest here!

As for forcing others to dance?

Xu Zhi probably guessed it had something to do with the thoughts emanating from the people dancing enthusiastically in the bar.

His goal this time was to study the characteristics of these evil gods.

As aggregations of thoughts from tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of beings, they had formed mysterious characteristics similar to “laws”: time, space, spirit, wind, fire, thunder, and lightning... After much thought, Xu Zhi decided that the abilities of the "New Humans" should be based on the evil gods' unique laws.

Such an extraordinary new species, possessing fragments of these laws, would truly have infinite potential!

After all, this was a unique entertainment world coexisting with a large number of players, and its time flow rate was only one to one year. The native beings within it were naturally not a traditional grand world in the usual sense.

“Milac, I came to find you for something specific.”

Xu Zhi thought for a moment and said, “I hope you can issue a task to everyone in the entire novice village. The task is for every ‘evil race’ member to detail the dream they had when they entered and their specific characteristics! Then, compile this into a data file and give it to me.”

Milac was slightly startled, then couldn’t help but exclaim excitedly, “You want to research the nature of evil gods? The reasons for the emergence of various characteristics?”

He once possessed the ‘Dream God,’ so he naturally knew that the dream upon entry was the "evil race" ritual initiated when the Dream God descended into an ordinary person’s brain!

And that dream was precisely what awakened a person’s deepest experiences, pain, obsessions, and bonds, giving rise to the characteristic evil god.

This was clearly about collecting big data to research the underlying mechanisms of various evil god characteristics!

Milac immediately got goosebumps.

Wasn’t this the kind of insight and approach expected from beings on the level of the Earth Mother Niangniang and Hundred Scholars?

Researching origins?

Was he trying to create an evil god with specific characteristics?

Or create some new race?

He wasn’t unaware that becoming the ancestral origin of a race was a path to 'harmonizing with the Dao,' like Medusa the Demon God in the past, or the Evil Ancestor Dream God today!

“He’s definitely not just a simple giant of the Three Realms!”

Milac’s mind raced, growing more and more astonished. “He was able to find me even before Earth Mother Qing Teng Niangniang back then...”

“Can you do it?” Xu Zhi asked calmly, unaware of Milac’s thoughts.

“Yes, I can...” Milac took a deep breath, his gaze becoming even more serious. “But to issue a task, there must be a reward...”

“Rewards are not an issue,” Xu Zhi had already prepared. He reached out and tossed a spatial ring. “It contains some simple alchemy equipment materials, which can serve as rewards for the players.”

For Xu Zhi, these low-grade alchemy materials were merely a matter of accelerating the proliferation of a species.

“Good,” Milac nodded.

Peter and the others in the distance were startled, feeling bewildered.

The village chief of the novice village seemed to have reached some kind of agreement with a mysterious high-level NPC?

Was this a new quest?

Xu Zhi smiled and then suddenly said, “That’s the first thing. The second thing is the great catastrophe... It seems like there are still ten years, but that’s merely a blink of an eye. You should understand what you’re facing.”

“Understood. In ten years, there will be a continuous, thirty-year long frost storm!” Milac took a deep breath. “But this is just the first closed beta. Soon, the official open beta will begin, and each wave will be larger than the last. Although the evil race has just emerged... within ten years, we are confident of having three hundred thousand players above level forty!”

Three hundred thousand powerhouses above the fourth tier?

Xu Zhi pondered, finding it not bad.

Fourth-tier powerhouses, distributed across various regions, building shelters and protecting the people, wasn’t a bad idea.

Xu Zhi left quietly, not disturbing the players' progress.

Look at other people’s native online games, how proper and pure their customs are, leveling up and fighting monsters, purely for the sake of improving their own realm of cultivation! Then look at the online games on our Earth, full of crazy shenanigans.

Such a pure atmosphere must absolutely not be corrupted.

In reality, the reason Xu Zhi was researching their nature was his suspicion that the essence of these evil gods’ abilities was a kind of ninth-tier characteristic—a phenomenon of natural law... Their bizarre abilities were a type of naturally refined Daoist magic, precise down to the molecular level, given that they were formed from the converged thoughts of tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, of beings.

“This in itself is a form of computing power!”

This might not only be about researching new humans; it could also be about exploring the unknown ninth-tier realm to perfect the Food Realm.

In the living room, Xu Zhi opened his eyes.

He opened the washing machine and took out his clothes. “If the eighth tier represents the lowest level of cosmic civilization, just barely capable of leaving their planet, then the ninth tier... is an entirely different cosmic civilization.”

After temporarily finishing his daily tasks of creating new species, he stretched, pushed open the door, and found a mahogany chair at the entrance, where a group of bizarre little monsters were chattering.

“Holy crap! The Creator God is here again!”

“I heard the Dream God from the Three Realms tried to peek at the famous scene — the Creator God eating an apple — and instantly went cold! You know, that was an eighth-tier saint, an immortal and indestructible evil god!”

“Indeed, witnessing the Creator God is a privilege reserved for players!”

Xu Zhi sat on the chair, looking up at the sky, which was overcast and threatening heavy rain...

If he hadn’t shielded the sky of the "Evolution Sandbox," they would probably have seen the same scene as the Wizard World: a thick cloud layer covering the distant sky, inevitably revealing the truth:

They and the Wizard World lived on the same land.

“I wonder if it’s fortunate or unfortunate; in the past two months, the orchard has only had a few light drizzles. But with winter approaching, a severe cold snap has arrived, the fiercest kind. Not only does the Wizard World need to find a solution, but the Evolution Sandbox and the Wizard Community should also figure out how to isolate themselves...”

“What a hassle.”

Xu Zhi took a deep breath. “There’s no need to move them. When winter fully arrives, the Evolution Sandbox will simply be a freezing winter outside!... These guys will naturally evolve species capable of resisting the cold. They’re all tenacious little cockroaches who will keep going even if their heads are bald. Perhaps, even changing their environment and giving rise to new creatures could be a new path.”

He looked at the sky.

Xu Zhi took another deep breath, his gaze settling on the overcast sky, becoming a little more serious. “Over there, they’re starting preparations for resistance. I need to start here too.”

Game Announcement: This game will soon undergo server maintenance. Forced logout will occur in thirty minutes. Players, please prepare accordingly.

Before anyone could react, the players erupted in a frenzy.

“Holy cow! This hardcore game actually has a conscience now?!”

“What happened to the promised three-second forced logout?”

“You’ve changed! You’re not the game development team I knew!”

Immediately, countless people sat in front of their computers, yelling, and a storm instantly swept through the forums.

Soon enough, the server maintenance even climbed to third place on the trending topics.

Xu Zhi, however, was speechless.

They complained when he didn’t announce it, and they complained even more now that he announced updates in advance.

During the half-hour, with nothing to do, he didn’t even bother hanging the laundry from the washing machine. He even brought in the clothes he’d hung in the orchard yesterday, moved his electric scooter and other items indoors, and then took a few turns around the village.

The village was mostly inhabited by middle-aged and elderly people, with only a scattered few truly old folks. Young people had gone out to farm or work, and those with better prospects wouldn’t return here. It was a typical 'left-behind village,' with many empty houses and fields, making it rather desolate.

After a leisurely stroll, Xu Zhi felt a pang of emotion. He, too, had once been a young man who didn't want to return, struggling in the city, dreaming of buying a house and marrying. How could he have known such tranquility then?

Now, he spent his days farming in the orchard, nurturing deities and celestial emperors, and exploring the next stage of transcendent cosmic civilization. He even occasionally observed the cosmic flight of the Zerg Explorer — the "Di Qi" — spacecraft!

Drip-drop.

It finally started to rain.

He lazily returned to the orchard, gazed at the thirty-square-meter Wizard Community and the Evolution Sandbox, and gently extended a hand. “It’s almost here... I need to set up a small shield to protect them...”

*Whoosh!*

Slowly, a translucent, light-blue protective shield, sixty square meters in size, appeared above the land. As a Celestial Emperor, he could naturally afford such a small burden with ease.

The outcome came later than everyone expected. The drizzling rain stopped.

After more than ten minutes, within a mere few seconds, the sky suddenly unleashed large raindrops that turned into a torrential downpour, gushing forth.

“Not bad,” Xu Zhi said, sitting on a chair under the eaves of the courtyard, taking a bite of fruit. He quietly watched the heavy rain, feeling a sense of peaceful tranquility, as a cool breeze carrying rain washed over him. “This means winter is beginning in the orchard, a completely new environment.”

His gaze shifted.

The entire Wizard World had already transformed into a vast, white expanse, with a colossal curtain of rain.

“Attack!”

Xu Zhi, munching on his apple, looked up. The scene across the entire orchard was magnificent.

Ancient saints stood in the sky, working together. The mighty power of the deities erupted, beams of light shining, forming a massive protective shield that actually covered the entire Wizard World!

“It’s blocking the impact, but some of it still needs to flow slowly into the ground.”

Almin spoke slowly.

It was impossible to resist indefinitely. Over thirty long years, the beings of the land would ultimately have to adapt.

Under the protective shield of the Demon Realm, openings began to appear. Pillars of water descended from the sky, 360 of them in total, like slides at a kindergarten, gushing down in vast streams and flowing into the entire land through spiral energy pipes.

*Whoosh!*

The terrifying rainwater landed, spreading like a tsunami in all directions, a magnificent sight like an eternal myth. It washed over the surrounding circular cities and reinforced high-rise buildings made of special materials, but soon the floodwaters submerged the entire land, reaching up to the third floor.

Countless land beasts began to be swept away.

The cold water rapidly drained the animals’ body heat, and a vast winter ocean quickly formed underfoot, as if a long-enduring Ice Age had fully arrived!

In the huge farm.

“Mom... our fields,” a little girl anxiously tugged at her mother, watching the crops being washed away outside, tears welling up in her eyes.

“It’s alright, as long as we’re alive,” the mother said, her heart aching.

*Boom!*

In the city.

Despite complete protective measures, some buildings still collapsed, burying people alive, and some were swept away by the massive white torrent.

“Attack!”

Peter and his group were frantically rescuing people.

In the distance, various evil races were also taking furious action.

“They’ve been preparing for a long time... it’s just a heavy rain near nightfall.” Xu Zhi smiled and went straight to bed, as he, too, was about to fall into slumber.

Early the next morning.

The bed felt several degrees colder, making one not want to get up.

He rustled into his clothes, pushed open the door, and the ground was wet, with a damp, cold chill greeting him.

The weather suddenly felt like deep winter. The world seemed to turn bleak in an instant. Just yesterday, it was weather for long sleeves and light jackets, but now a thick coat was needed to ward off the cold. “A night of rain has made life in the Demon Realm quite arduous.”

Xu Zhi looked up.

The population of the Demon Realm instantly decreased by three-tenths!

This was despite their utmost efforts at protection, considering the thirty-year long frost storm.

Across the entire land, people were suffering, and countless creatures froze to death.

“However, the days ahead will be even more difficult. Winter has fully arrived, and this will be an Ice Age spanning over ten thousand years!” Although Xu Zhi was no longer afraid of the cold, he still habitually put on a black jacket and glanced at the sandbox in the distance.