CHAPTER 43: CHAPTER 40: BIRTH OF THE FALLEN ANGELS, TRIBULATIONS OF THE WORLD

One day later.

On the Cangwu Tree, they received this terrifying news.

The One Emperor and Four Marquis suddenly recalled that aged Divine Trial of "Deep Love is not Long-lived" from years past.

Anyone who came within ten feet would age by increments.

Is today’s Wisdom not the same?

"Prophet, what should we do?" Die Lvxiang said, "It’s madness, the whole world is mad, Wisdom is spreading from top to bottom."

But Liu Jun was equally at a loss.

He never imagined that High Wisdom could be so terrifying, and that on the surface, it seemed purely intelligent, while in essence, it carried a quality of utter rationality, mania, and coldness.

In reality, just a single Saint is already very rare.

And now?

The entire world has been infected, turning all into Pseudo-Saints close to the level of Saints.

Civilization is erupting and advancing.

And what can Liu Jun do?

He has only two choices.

1. Wait for the next 100% opportunity, extract the Gifted Mushroom of High Wisdom, and leave the Mushroom Soup World.

But this is akin to a suicide mission to save someone else.

The thought of extracting this High Wisdom into himself made Liu Jun fearful.

This thing is truly terrifying.

2. Leave this gift in Mushroom Soup.

But by staying in Mushroom Soup, the whole world would continue to be infected like this. What will the world become?

No one knows the ultimate end of this disaster.

Liu Jun can only hope that they find a way to solve this Wisdom Pandemic on their own in Mushroom Soup!

Thinking of this, Liu Jun can only explain thus:

"This is a trial, and God’s treasures always bring disasters of varying sizes."

"If the sentient beings on the earth cannot pass the trial, you can imagine the world’s end."

The Butterfly Race leaders fell silent.

"Then, then what about you, Prophet?" Suddenly, Die Lvxiang asked, trembling.

Liu Jun shook his head lightly, not answering directly: "Back then, the Disaster of Longevity was no less than today’s Wisdom Disaster."

Disaster of... Longevity?

Just these four words, coupled with the current calamity, made Die Lvxiang’s imagination run wild.

Now everyone is infected with Wisdom...

Was it the case during the Prophet’s era, that everyone was infected with Longevity?

Die Hongjun quickly asked: "Lord Prophet, what do you think the final outcome of the Wisdom Disaster will be? Is it a good thing?"

Liu Jun said, "The outcome of the Wisdom Disaster is like that of the Disaster of Longevity from back then; nobody anticipated what it would lead to."

"Back then, during the Disaster of Longevity, the whole world fell into longevity, just as many creatures now believe this is a good thing, until later..."

The Prophet did not continue, yet they felt a baseless fear rise within.

Liu Jun sighed softly and thought to himself:

"As the God of Longevity, after that Disaster of Longevity, I understood that life, aging, illness, and death are the norms. I overlook this era, naturally residing high above, watching the world as flowers bloom and wither."

"I do not know how to get through this trial, but it’s up to you."

"I hope that a thousand years from now, you can still accompany me."

Die Lvxiang understood that the Prophet kept his distance from them after his teachings.

Because he is a true Longevity Seeker, and we are merely the flowers by the roadside he gazed upon, the stones he walked past, the streams he noticed by the road.

The Prophet’s gaze was always fixed on higher places.

Perhaps it always lingered on words like Creator God, Era, Longevity, breaking through to higher realms.

"I understand." Die Lvxiang left with them.

Liu Jun watched them leave, shaking his head.

Indeed, he could not help.

These Gifted Mushrooms remain in Mushroom Soup, and they must find their own ways to handle them.

...

Half a day later, the Butterfly Race’s ancestral grounds sent a message:

"An unknown calamity is spreading, giving creatures exceptional Wisdom, but also imparting reason, indifference, and a mechanical coldness... All tribespeople worldwide, quickly come to the ancestral grounds."

A great number of the Butterfly Race were on their way.

"Help! They’ve gone mad, they’re actually seeking what’s supposedly beautiful in soil and minerals."

"My neighbors have started studying something they call mathematics, writing densely packed texts on the ground, trees, and stones, claiming that the logic of math makes our crafted knots more beautiful, when clearly it’s the ugliest, most sleep-inducing thing!"

"The Shell Butterflies next door have also fallen; I passed by and saw them studying pearl necklaces, stringing themselves together and even inviting us to join..."

...

As if overnight, something terrifying had changed in the whole world.

But no one could run fast enough to escape the speed of Wisdom’s spread.

They discovered that: Wisdom spreads using interests as bait!

Any butterfly pursuing beauty will have its own aesthetics.

Some refugees, unaffected by certain tribes, would be irresistibly drawn to tribes they found interesting, slowly losing themselves, and entering.

A family of three was fleeing.

"Mother, don’t go in! What Titan Giants, defeating Angels of imagination? It’s an evil cult!"

A child sobbed uncontrollably.

"No, no! Big is beautiful." The mother, as if seeing the most beautiful thing in the world, joined a tribe studying Titans.

Soon, she donned clothing and started discussing academia, weaving a super-life form in the forest, larger than a Giant Dragon.

To this Titan Giant’s eye, an Angel was just a small toy.

Out of sheer necessity, a desperate father could only clutch his child and continue fleeing.

They reached another tribe.

Within were a group of black, thin, large-headed green beings.

"Child, those steamships, steam gunboats... all nonsense! You mustn’t be tempted, that’s heresy!"

The last remaining father, prostrated and sobbing, finally had to abandon his child who entered the tribe, and continued alone to the ancestral grounds.

As this father ran, he suddenly saw a tribe.

Their central plaza featured a new dragon breed transformed from a Tyrannosaurus.

"Indeed, the Titans, mechanical steam—all nonsense! The Life Rope Knot, pure biological evolution, this blueprint of the Five-Colored Giant Dragon is the most wonderful thing in the world."

As though seeing something mesmerizing, he stumbled inside in a daze.

"Five-Colored Giant Dragon? Ah, please let me weave the brain of a Red Dragon!"

The family of three was thus entirely lost.

Soon, all the infected and family-less parents arrived at the ancestral grounds.

Here, the halos of Middle Wisdom and Low Wisdom suppressed everything.

Using infection to counter infection.

Ironically, it became a sanctuary untouched by the pandemic!

They maintained a normal life with Middle Wisdom here.

This was the last ancestral ground of the entire civilization.

...

Outside Mushroom Soup, Liu Jun watched this terrifying scene.

"Although I don’t know what will happen, my intuition tells me it will be horrific."

"I need to find help."

But what help could he himself offer?

High Wisdom bestowed upon all beings a Pseudo-Saint Wisdom, only a bit inferior to that of a true Saint.

If a solution is indeed possible, only a real Saint might find it!

Only true prodigies could suppress this batch of pseudo-prodigies.

Even possibly leading them, turning this disaster into an opportunity!

However, the natural birth rate for a Saint is one in ten billion.

His own supply of mushrooms is too limited; the birth of such a savior is not possible now.

Modern academic monopolies possess certain means to increase the likelihood of Saint births through Saint bloodlines combined with encouraging reproduction; hence the numbers.

And how could he, then, possibly request the help of a true Innate Saint in reality?

That would be suicide!

As for Saint clones like the Amber Swallowtail Butterfly?

Liu Jun immediately dismissed it.

For these are soulless clones with the brain of a Saint, born with a soul only through Low Wisdom.

Such Amber Swallowtail Butterflies, for now, are unworthy of sitting at the same table as a true Saint.

Yet Liu Jun still entertained some unrealistic thoughts:

"If only there were a not-yet-grown child Saint, whom I could kidnap home to be a Transmigrator, to save my world, how wonderful it would be."