Chapter 429: Advancing to a Divine-level Civilization

Era of the Divine Vessel, 1,000,000 years.

After countless explorations and defeats, the Divine Vessel Civilization had almost confirmed that the universe itself appeared to be conscious, and it was preventing the Divine Vessel Civilization from making contact in some way.

The Divine Vessel Civilization could not determine how much longer this path would be; so far, no hope was in sight.

In this hopeless direction, the heavy cost and the indefinite length of the road gradually eroded their resolve.

The endless frustrations in the endless darkness were most despairing when there were no frustrations at all; silence was the greatest contempt, and the universe was treating the Divine Vessel Civilization with the utmost disdain.

The Divine Vessel Civilization began to hesitate and falter, questioning whether any of this still made sense—whether they should continue going forward.

What the Divine Vessel feared was not the pressure from the outside—external pressures like the threats from the Trisolaran Civilization or the challenges from the Fungus Civilization could be met with wisdom and courage as long as there was hope and belief.

The internal struggle and responsibility, the longing for unknown worlds, and the fear of failure—they could bear these too.

Throughout its journey, no difficulty had stopped them; such was the belief in civilization that had been forged over a million years.

But there was still something they feared—that was indifference.

No matter what the Divine Vessel attempted, the universe did not respond in any way.

Over time, the Divine Vessel Civilization began to doubt itself—could they really overcome the consciousness of the universe? Could they uncover the ultimate secrets of the universe?

Initially, it might have been just a few individuals' thoughts, but as the sacrifices demanded by the Divine Vessel grew larger and harder to bear, these thoughts rapidly spread and permeated the entire Divine Vessel Civilization.

They formed a massive torrent that forced the highest governing body of the civilization to make a difficult decision—to submit to the consciousness of the universe and choose to give up.

This perhaps explained why divine-level civilizations were so rare in the vast expanse of the universe.

Because every civilization on the path of exploration would encounter such predicaments: external pressures and internal torment and responsibilities could be endured,

but no matter how strong the emotional vision was, it would ultimately surrender to reason.

To give years to civilization, not civilization to years.

Perhaps that was the destiny of civilization!

*

However, this also meant the dissolution and termination of the Divine Vessel Civilization; the million-year mission of the Era of the Divine Vessel might just be coming to an end at this moment.

Within the Divine Vessel Civilization, there were countless brave individuals who were not resigned, who had struggled fiercely—their emotional vision was to not believe in fate. Under the bounds of reason, they still needed to display the brilliance of gratitude.

However, individuals in the historical torrent were like specks of dust, insignificantly small.

The Divine Vessel Civilization, once self-proclaimed as the protagonist of fate, also had to face the harsh reality. What made them believe they would always be the protagonists? No civilization could last forever.

Lin Sen looked at the current Divine Vessel Civilization; all of this was strikingly similar to humanity during the Great Valley Period in the original story. The wheels of history seemed to inadvertently repeat themselves, as if echoing a certain cyclical destiny.

Recalling the Crisis Era, Lin Sen used his wits in the fight against ETO to win the confidence for humanity to defeat Trisolaris.

During the Great Valley Period, he divided human civilization, "Together we stand, divided we fall," ultimately causing a great technological explosion in humanity and gradually acclimatizing them to the Dark Forest.

In the final doomsday battle, it was only through the realization of a 200-year strategy that they truly defeated Trisolaris.

Recalling the Era of the Divine Vessel, the encounters of humanity with various civilizations and disasters. Eventually, the Divine Vessel also step by step reached the peak of the Dark Forest, and all this in less than 500,000 years.

Now, exploring black holes had also taken up another 500,000 years, the passion of the Divine Vessel Civilization had been eroded by the years, leaving very little.

Lin Sen understood, another moment of decision had arrived.

In the highest decision-making meeting of the Divine Vessel, a proposal to divide the Divine Vessel Civilization was raised and passed.

According to this decision, the Divine Vessel Civilization would be split into two parts: one willing to continue to steadfastly explore black holes; the other opting to return to the familiar Dark Forest.

Lin Sen chose without hesitation to stay; humanity had walked a million years only to have a chance to break through the Dark Forest—how could they give up now?

If he came to this world only to perish alongside the destiny of the universe as in the original story, how could he be content?

In the end, among the six core civilization groups of the Divine Vessel, nearly one-fiftieth chose the same as Lin Sen, deciding to stay and continue exploring.

Apart from the small portion of the civilization group that chose to stay, the majority of the members of the Divine Vessel Civilization and other affiliate civilizations decided to return to the Dark Forest once again, which was also the most rational choice.

Especially those civilizations that joined later, having been nearly wiped out in fierce battles with the Fungus Civilization, were even more reluctant to choose to stay.

For this part of the civilization, their sense of belonging to the Divine Vessel was not strong. The reason they chose the Divine Vessel was partly due to coercion from circumstances, and partly because they were inspired by the spirit of the Divine Vessel to dare to abandon reason.

The million-year journey of the Divine Vessel Civilization can be described as a history of rebellion against reason. However, in the end, they still had to choose reason.

Those civilization groups that chose to stay decided to continue using the name Divine Vessel and affiliate themselves with the Wallfacers, taking on the responsibility of exploring the unknown.

Lin Sen was also surprised at the number of groups that chose to stay; he had estimated that those staying would be less than one in a thousand, maybe even one in ten thousand.

The actual situation far exceeded Lin Sen's expectations, the tenacity and resolve of the Divine Vessel Civilization once again filled him with hope for the future. Moreover,

what surprised him the most was that the greatest number among the remaining civilization groups was the Trisolaran Civilization. This civilization, which once had deep grievances with Lin Sen, now chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with him.

Next came the Mountain Civilization and the Mo Civilization, their curiosity about the universe and their desire to explore were in no way inferior to that of humanity.

They too were unclear why they chose to stay; perhaps they were inspired by the determination of the Wallfacer.

Or maybe, in the long course of their lives, they could find no other pursuits more meaningful, and only the exploration of the unknown could make them feel the value of life.

They all understood that exploring the black hole might never have an end, that might be a matter of beyond time.

*

Today, the remaining groups of Divine Vessel are numerous, but this force is still surging like a torrent.

The number of civilization groups had reached a staggering near trillion in scale; they shone brilliantly like a sea of stars!

They had attempted every method to detect black holes, yet continuing with the previous methods of exploration had become utterly meaningless.

Thus, they resolutely decided: to embark en masse towards the black hole for the final, most magnificent exploration!

They understood that this exploration was the last gamble; failure would mean the end of the Divine Vessel Civilization.

Yet, they showed no fear, pressing bravely forward. They embraced this final challenge with a determination to face death,

with unshakable belief.

What is true civilizational consciousness? It is daring to defy the established rationality of the universe, daring to challenge the limits of the unknown!

To survive, we need rationality, but to live, we also need to defy rationality.

The entire Divine Vessel Civilization, every civilizational entity retained this common belief: unknowable or death.

If this universe is unknowable, then they would rather choose death.

The resonance formed by this belief created massive waves in the High-Dimensional Space.

And at that moment, a miracle occurred again.

The universe finally responded to the Divine Vessel.

The pulsations of the black hole resonated with the beliefs of Divine Vessel; in that moment, in the High-dimensional World, the beliefs of the Divine Vessel seemed to entangle with a mysterious existence in a special state.

The Divine Vessel Civilization once again faced death to find rebirth; near the black hole, they discovered a miracle.

At that moment, the million-year persistence of the Divine Vessel Civilization once again paid off.

Their beliefs and determination, gathered from nearly a trillion group entity, truly broke through the final unknown limits of this universe.

This might indeed be the greatest challenge to ascending to a Divine-level Civilization.

If civilizations knew this method, gathering such faith would nearly be impossible. If knowledge of the drill was evident, the display of bravery would also be a false belief.

If civilizations did not know this method, gathering the whole civilization's faith would also be difficult. Such determination and belief are common in a few individuals, but to gather it in nearly a trillion group entity, how could that possibly be achieved?

Since the entire Divine Vessel had entered the periphery of the contracted event horizon of the black hole, their flow of time had become incredibly slow.

But now, the Divine Vessel could no longer care about the outside disturbances; the universe's greatest secret lay before them.

They wanted only to study this ultimate mystery of the universe here.

Ten thousand years had passed, but for them, only a few decades had elapsed, and their research had deepened further, even establishing a pulsation model of the black hole.

Another fifty thousand years had passed, and they resolved to move closer to the black hole, where the flow of time would be even slower.

Another one hundred thousand years had passed, and they felt only a little over a century had gone by, with their research still ongoing.

Ten million years had passed, yet the Divine Vessel Civilization still had not emerged from the black hole. The outside world no longer knew whether they still existed, having forgotten them entirely.

However, they had not given up, but were persisting.

...

Finally, the Era of the Divine Vessel reached one hundred thirty million years.

The Divine Vessel Civilization emerged from the black hole, now they had become a Type 3 Civilization, or Divine-level Civilization.

Now, being a Divine-level Civilization, they had transcended the bounds of physical form and were almost akin to the rules of the universe itself; their ability was immense, capable of almost anything except reversing the entropy of the universe.

PS: Although the original text states that after eighteen million years, Cheng Xin entered the Small Universe, and the universe faced resetting not long after,

that does not mark the time of the resetting of the universe; considering the flow rate of time in the Small Universe, possibly billions of years had passed in the Big Universe during those few years Cheng Xin lived.

So, accelerating time to the scale of billions of years here is reasonable.

Another point is that the Divine Vessel Civilization will continue to evolve. If transitioning from 2.9 to 3.0 Level took nearly a billion years, then further advancements might be even more difficult, and they likely won't reach the higher echelons of a Type 3 Civilization before the resetting of the universe.

Firstly, a Type 3 Civilization no longer needs to differentiate levels of civilization; that would be meaningless.

Secondly, the reason the Divine Vessel succeeded is because of the slow flow rate of time in the black hole; externally, a hundred thirty million years had passed. For them, the actual time spent was less than ten thousand years. Such a rate of advancement is not only not slow but exceptionally rapid.