Chapter 419: The Despair of the Divine Vessel

Time flowed gently, and two thousand years hurried by.

In these two thousand years, the Fungal Civilization had never launched a direct attack on the Divine Vessel Civilization, but their thought infiltration grew increasingly intense, even eroding the cognitive systems of each civilization. This silent invasion was lethal, far deadlier than any weapon.

Hines had attempted to resist this invisible deluge with the "Thought Infection Shield," later renamed the "Mind Firewall" project. However, it ultimately failed to fulfill its promise and was declared bankrupt.

Rey Diaz's two millennia of vigilant defense failed to uncover even a trace of the Fungal Civilization. The existing technological theories found no method to track them, not even the direction. The Divine Vessel Civilization faced nothing but endless mist, shrouded in it entirely.

Logic once published a new theory of the Dark Forest, believing it to be the last battle to break through the Dark Forest, the final darkness before dawn.

If we give up at this moment, it will be an endless regret for the future. The universe is dark, but even darker is our abandonment of our struggle.

Humanity once defeated the Trisolarans with one simple belief: if the Trisolarans are trying to stop us, then it means we are on the right path to success.

Now, the universe is testing us in the same way, which precisely proves that we are still on the correct path.

However, one cannot awaken a person who is pretending to be asleep, nor can one change the mindset of a civilization. For many civilizations, Logic's new theory was nothing but a lofty "chicken soup" that might inspire momentary enthusiasm but could not truly solve the predicaments they faced.

Under the high-dimensional consciousness invasion of the Fungal Civilization, they suffered mental interference, becoming irritable, anxious, extremist, and their thinking dulled. Self-doubt gnawed at their souls like Mr. Poison Snake, leading them to potentially erratic behavior.

They questioned their own memories, emotions, and even the meaning of existence. The boundary between reality and illusion blurred, and the inner conflict and struggle tormented them as if they were on the verge of collapse.

Social unrest followed like a shadow, and a crisis of trust spread like a plague, making interpersonal relationships fragile and complex. People became suspicious of each other, internal conflicts and divisions spread like wildfire, unstoppable. Such social instability undoubtedly exacerbated the plight of civilizations, plunging them into an unprecedented crisis.

With their current level of civilization and technology, they could exhibit astonishing power.

For example, they could escape the constraints of the body, existing between being tangible and intangible. The Membrane Civilization Divine Ship had completed Pure Energy Transformation; their bodies were entirely energy-based, and they could destroy a Stellar System with a mere gesture.

However, despite such immense power, they were never able to break through the ultimate forbidden zone, the realm of thought and consciousness.

Even if they transformed themselves into two-dimensional beings like the Singer, their consciousness remained high-dimensional, still beyond their reach. The lower their dimension, the further they were from their high-dimensional consciousness.

All of this cruelly intensified the despair of the Divine Vessel Civilization. They seemed trapped in an invisible cage, unable to escape or even struggle.

*

Lin Sen also devised countless plans over these two thousand years. Even a supreme civilization like the Divine Vessel, with unmatched wisdom and vast computing power, failed to see through Lin Sen's strategies, as complex as a fog.

Yet, within the Divine Vessel, numerous voices expressed skepticism about Lin Sen, especially civilizations that joined later on.

In their view, Lin Sen leading the weak humans to defeat the powerful Trisolarans was inconceivable, defying the common sense of the balance of power in the universe. They could always find numerous "evidence" to prove its implausibility, considering it all to be a colossal "scam" fabricated by humans and civilizations like Trisolaris.

The purpose of humanity, they believed, was to induce a spiritual reverence in their subordinate civilizations, not fundamentally different from the Fungal Civilization's thought infiltration.

They argued that reaching their current heights of civilization was the culmination of hundreds of millions of years, weathering countless disasters and crises. Each step was filled with a struggle of blood and tears.

By comparison, humanity and civilizations like Trisolaris achieved such remarkable leaps within a mere few hundred thousand years, which they found utterly bewildering and difficult to accept.

And the Divine Vessel Civilization, under the onslaught of this skepticism and distrust, saw its internal conflicts intensify day by day, pushing it to the brink of disintegration.

Eventually, the overwhelm of the Shenzhou Civilization Union, formed by more than fifty civilizations, reached its limit and could no longer hold together.

With the defection of a small civilization, the quiet prologue to the fragmentation of the Shenzhou Civilization Union was also unveiled.

This defection, like a domino, triggered a chain reaction. All the contradictions and disagreements that had long been hidden beneath the surface of harmony erupted like a volcano, impossible to suppress any longer.

Innumerable conflicts arose within each civilization and, to maintain their own existence and stability, going to war seemed to become a reluctant yet inevitable choice.

Mutual suspicion between civilizations intensified day by day, the foundation of trust gradually crumbled, and the once fragile cornerstone of trust disintegrated, turning allies of yesteryear into opponents and even enemies in the blink of an eye as the Dark Forest finally enveloped the Divine Vessel Civilization.

Everyone realized clearly that war might be unavoidable; the string, taut due to the "Dark Forest" law, finally snapped. The outbreak of war came sooner and more fiercely than anyone had anticipated.

However, even at this moment, the alliance among Human Civilization, Trisolaran Civilization, Mountain Civilization, Dinosaur Civilization, Mo Civilization, and Micro Civilization remained as solid as a rock, without the slightest tremor.

They had a deep understanding of the history and current state of the Solar System and the Trisolaran Star System. Especially humanity and the Trisolaran Civilization, as long-time competitors, perhaps understood each other better than anyone else.

They had but one simple belief, "If the universe wants us to attack each other, then we will refuse to conform. Even if we are attacked, it will only prove that we were wrong."

There is no trust in the Dark Forest, yet humanity and the Trisolarans achieved it over hundreds of thousands of years of rivalry. Survival and development are the primary imperatives of civilization, but "trust" has distinctly broken this norm.

This civilizational melee stretched across thousands of light years and lasted over a thousand years, but the outcome was exceptionally tragic.

The main forces of civilizations such as humanity, the Trisolarans, Mountain, Dinosaurs, Mo, and Micro were almost completely exhausted, the remaining forces being less than one-tenth of their original size.

In this catastrophe, over forty civilizations suffered total devastation, with the seeds of a dozen or so civilizations being completely extinguished, leaving no legacy behind.

Some civilizations, although fortunate to escape, retained mere one ten-thousandth of their seed; others, in despair, chose to flee, hoping to find new opportunities for survival in some corner of the universe.

The intensity of this battle far exceeded everyone's expectations. Even within the Divine Vessel Civilization, many questioned whether their past decisions were correct. Was the path of united civilizations truly the right one?

Indeed, the development of civilization technology has incomparable advantages in a united civilization, but a true united civilization is not so simple to achieve. A crudely united civilization, like those over forty civilizations, could also bring about the downfall of the Divine Vessel.

As the dust of war settled, the surviving Divine Vessel realized that the real crisis was just beginning.

The Fungal Civilization, lurking in the shadows, might be nearby, quietly closing in, ready to deliver the final death blow to the remnants of the Divine Vessel.

Finally, the Fungus Civilization appeared!

Originally, the Divine Vessel Civilization thought it could confront the Fungus Civilization. Even though their power was only a tenth of its peak, the battle of civilizations is not directly related to numbers.

The fact that the Fungus Civilization had not acted for thousands of years suggested that it held some apprehension towards the Divine Vessel.

Only after the war truly began did the Divine Vessel realize how absurdly wrong it had been, and it saw how the Fungus Civilization turned rules into weapons.

The moment the war started, the Divine Vessel was enveloped in utter despair…