Divine Flame Crystal

Chapter 683: The 1000th Restart

Ten rift cannons roared at the same time, and the sky suddenly split open with ten silver-white beams of light!

The void was shaking, the clouds were collapsing, and the sky seemed to be torn into a huge crack!

The ground shook, the continent's oceans surged, volcanoes roared, and storms swept across.

The cheers drowned everything:

"Success!"

"We tore the sky apart!"

"The barrier of the gods—has been broken!"

However, the next moment after the carnival, the whole world suddenly became quiet.

All clocks stopped, the rivers stopped flowing, the wind froze in mid-air, and even people's heartbeats slowed down for a moment.

Then, vast swathes of the city vanished, as if wiped out. The hundreds of thousands of residents who had once lived there weren't simply dead, but completely dissipated—no bodies, no trace, as if they had never existed.

Panic spread across the mainland.

"Why?! Why is this happening?!"

"The rift... swallowed their future!"

Celia stood on the high tower, looking at the empty space, tears rolling down her face.

"This is the price. You borrowed the future, and they lost the present."

The rift in the sky did not close.

In the deep darkness, a vast light and shadow emerged. It was not a cloud, nor a star, but an unattainable existence.

The whole world trembled as if it was being watched.

Kronos stood on the ruins, looking up at the crack, his eyes full of pain and despair.

"Sure enough, you attracted them."

He slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath:

"Record this. In the 341st Restart, humanity built the Rift Fleet and tore open the sky with its Star Destroyer Cannon. The price was the future's fading, the city's annihilation. The gods... have been awakened."

Ten Star Destroyers sat quietly at anchor within the harbor's steel docks. Their hulls shone coldly silver, and the rift engines rumbled deep within their bellies, pulsing like the heartbeats of countless terrifying beasts.

On the deck, the soldiers lined up neatly with complicated expressions.

"Can we really win?" a young soldier asked in a low voice.

"We must at least try once," his comrade replied, his fingers tightly gripping his weapon. "Otherwise, we will always be trampled underfoot."

In the factory, apprentices were repairing the guide troughs while complaining quietly.

"When my brother woke up yesterday, he forgot his name."

"Stop talking about it. Everyone is like this. As long as the fleet can fly, our memories are nothing."

Celia stood in the distance, gazing at the massive ship, her heart tightening. She knew this battle could very well engulf the entire world.

In the highest control tower, the director's face was as cold as iron.

"All ships, prepare. Objective—engage those coming from beyond the sky."

The crack in the sky widened.

A brilliant light descended from the deep darkness. It wasn't the sun, but it was more dazzling than the sun, carrying a pressure that made all things submit.

People subconsciously knelt on the ground, breathing rapidly, and their hearts almost stopped.

"Lord of Light..." someone whispered hoarsely.

Immediately afterward, a storm rolled in, the ocean roared, and the mountains trembled. From the rift, another wave of massive beings stepped in: gods who controlled storms, gods who controlled the earth, gods who controlled fire... Their auras crushed the sky like a heavy pressure.

The entire continent fell into unprecedented fear.

Kronos stood on the top of a distant mountain, his eyes gloomy: "Here they are. You have finally alarmed them."

"Fleet, set sail!"

boom--

Ten star destroyers took off at the same time, their rift engines roaring, and silver light illuminated the sky palely.

The rift cannons on the bow were all aimed at the sky, and energy condensed in the barrel, forming a dazzling silver-white beam of light.

"volley!"

boom--!

Ten beams of light shot up into the sky at the same time, directly hitting the descending God of Light!

The sky was torn apart, and the barrier of the divine realm shook violently. The figure of the God of Light paused slightly in the light, as if he had actually been forced back half a step.

The entire ship cheered: "Hit! Hit!"

However, the next moment, the God of Light raised his hand, and blazing holy light overflowed from his palm.

"Your light is but an illusion that steals the future."

The holy light poured out like an endless tide, instantly engulfing the ten beams of fissure light!

Boom boom boom——

The Star Destroyer shook violently, its hull groaning in pain. Several ships lost control and plunged into the sea, stirring up huge waves.

In the sky, the God of Light and the gods spread out their divine domain.

The earth trembled, the sea churned, storms raged, and fire burned the sky.

The entire world seemed to be pulled into the realm of the gods, and the human fleet was like a plaything trapped in a cage.

"Rift Engine, forced overload!" the Director roared.

"But—it will destroy us!" cried the engineer in despair.

"We have no way out!"

All the rift engines were turned on, and silver light gushed out from the belly of the ship, tearing through space.

The speed of the star destroyer suddenly increased, and it rushed into the depths of the divine realm like a sharp arrow!

"Fire!"

The Rift Cannon roared again, and the silver-white beam of light hit the Storm God directly!

boom--!

The figure of the Storm God was completely swallowed up, and the people on earth were astonished to see that the storm actually stopped for a moment!

"We did it!" the soldiers cheered wildly.

But the next second, the Storm God walked out of the light without a single scar on his body.

"Your future...I swallowed it."

The storm arose again, more violent than before.

With each salvo, the Rift Engine began to break down.

Flames burst from the guide grooves of the hull, the coolant evaporated, and the silver light lost control, tearing at the hull like a beast.

"Time is messed up!"

"Our memories are fading!"

"Stop now, or the entire fleet will be swallowed by the void!"

But no one can stop.

The roar of the rift engine drowned out all other sounds.

Soldiers collapsed in agony, their bodies still there but their souls and memories gone. The apprentices on the ship were horrified to find that their companions were turning into hollow shells one by one.

Celia stood in front of the console, her vision blurred by tears: "The future... can no longer be borrowed."

In the end, the Rift Fleet completely collapsed in the Divine Realm.

The massive ship exploded, its wreckage falling to the earth. The final ray of light from the Rift Cannon tore through the heavens, dragging the entire continent into nothingness.

Cities disappeared, mountains and rivers collapsed, and time was broken.

In this battle, there is no victory, only destruction.

Kronos stood on the ruins, with unconcealable pain in his eyes.

"Remember this. In the 341st Restart, humanity challenged the gods with the Rift Fleet, but was ultimately annihilated. The future was borrowed, and the world fell into nothingness."

He slowly closed his eyes and murmured softly:

"The 342nd time... Can I still go back?"

"There must be a... completely different existence."

The Eye of Time and Space slowly rotates in the darkness, as if looking at the intersection of countless worlds.

"Another world." Kronos' voice suddenly became clear.

"Perhaps, only by pulling a soul from another world, a soul that does not belong to this world, can he avoid being crushed by the wheel of fate. Because he is not on the established track, he can... innovate."

He stretched out his hand, and the light on his fingertips slowly outlined a name.

"Starfall."

"From this moment on, you will be my experiment."

"If I fail 1000 times, then at least, at the end of history, I have... tried."

Under the starry sky, Luoshen Village was silent. Only the newly reinforced wellhead still trembled slightly. Seal-bound, the God of Light's eyes remained open, coldly gazing down upon the earth.

"Mortal...your struggle is nothing more than another chance to die."

Kronos did not respond. He simply closed his eyes, the power of time and space resonating around him.

From that night on, the Great Age of Magic entered a new cycle.

And the falling stars, the souls that have yet to arrive, are crossing countless worlds and are slowly being drawn towards this continent that is about to be plunged into a war between gods.

After countless restarts, Kronos was already very tired, but he finally gritted his teeth and overdrawn his potential to start the "1000th restart."

A dull roar sounded, like a sigh coming from the depths of the universe.

The whole world unfolds anew.

There was no longer the roar of giant ships, no longer the light of rift cannons, and no longer the trail of burning magic runes and fighting spirit.

Between heaven and earth, only the misty spiritual energy remained, surging like a tide.

This is the 1000th restart.

After countless failures, destructions and setbacks, Kronos overdrew his potential and pushed humanity onto another path: cultivating immortality.

——The spiritual energy of heaven and earth irrigates all things.

——If a mortal has spiritual roots, he can absorb spiritual energy and embark on the path to immortality.

The stages of cultivation, from shallow to deep: Qi Refining, Foundation Building, Golden Elixir, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, Void Refining, Body Fusion, and Mahayana.

This is the limit of what humans can achieve.