In the reversal of time, those who had died were revived, destroyed mountains and rivers restored, blood returned to the spiritual bodies, and everything was flowing backward.
However, all of this was merely a phantom of time's reverse flow, not the true unfolding of events.
Soon, one year before this reversal of time, a red smoke suddenly emerged from a magical academy. This red smoke carried a strong factor that caused people to lose their sanity.
As time flowed backward further, it was revealed that people in the magical academy were fighting to seize medicinal pills.
Fang Yuan furrowed his brow slightly. Everything seemed insignificant and not serious enough to cause such disastrous consequences. What exactly was the cause?
He gritted his teeth and decided to trace back the time by a thousand years, starting from when many divine magi ascended to the divine realm, watching every detail closely, leaving nothing to chance.
Fang Yuan always felt something was off—how could a world just collapse like this?
Of course, it wasn't the world's destruction, strictly speaking, but the destruction of civilization. After this event, how much of the magical system could possibly remain? It was hard to predict, especially if the creator deity (himself) didn't intervene.
Under normal circumstances, Fang Yuan wouldn't care too much about such events. After all, in his own world, as long as he wanted, he could create a new civilization at any time, no matter how many died.
But the last battle of the divine magi seemed to have taken place after over a thousand years of world development.
Now, a thousand years after the battle of the divine magi, civilization's destruction was happening again.
This situation seemed to make sense, but Fang Yuan detected a faint sense of something amiss. Could it really be that simple?
Tracing time back a thousand years, and then flowing forward again, at first, nothing special seemed to appear. Divine magi, sword saints, fighting gods, and others all broke through to their final stages and built powerful forces before ascending to the divine realm.
Later, those who came after destroyed the forces established by the previous ones and took the thrones, eventually ascending as well. This cycle continued, with little special change.
However—
A thousand years ago, a great mage invented a pill.
This pill allowed mages to easily ascend from magus to divine magus, sword saints to sword gods, and fighting masters to fighting gods.
In other words, the pill facilitated the transformation of the soul.
But no one knew at the time that this transformation was one-time only and had very severe consequences. Once consumed, the soul would be trapped in the ascended state and could no longer progress.
Moreover, those who ascended using this pill, such as the divine magi, sword gods, and fighting gods, were not truly gods. They were pseudo-gods who achieved their status through external aid and had not undergone the true transformation. Hence, their strength was only half that of a real god.
At the time, no one noticed this issue. Moreover, the pill's production cost was not high, and later the formula was stolen. As a result, powerful forces across the world learned of the recipe.
Now, anyone who could reach the threshold of godhood could directly ascend to a divine magus, without the need for a gradual soul transformation.
However, after more than a decade, those who had ascended using the pill began to feel something was wrong because they could not sense the call of the divine realm and could not ascend further.
Thus, more and more gods began to stay in the mortal realm, and the situation worsened. Since they could no longer increase their strength, they fought for fame, status, and other worldly matters.
Thus, the world entered a new age of divine magi fighting for dominance.
At this point, no one had yet discovered the issue with the pill. The new generation, oppressed by their predecessors, still tried to obtain the pill once they reached the corresponding stage and rebelled after their ascension.
The mortal realm began the real age of divine magi warfare.
However, the world was now vast, much larger than during the previous battle of the divine magi. Even though there were many pseudo-gods, it was impossible for them to destroy the world. It remained in a state of constant conflict, with a cycle of attacks and counterattacks.
Finally—
A year ago, the number of pseudo-gods reached tens of thousands. It was at this point that someone seemed to have realized that the famous alchemist mage who had created the pill had limited the ascension of all 'gods' in the world.
In fact, because so many 'gods' had accumulated over a thousand years, the will of the world seemed to be congested. Even those who didn't use the pill could no longer ascend to true godhood.
In other words, after a thousand years, the true divine magi who could transform on their own had become legends.
Thus, a talented alchemist from a thousand years ago created a new pill capable of breaking this imprisonment. The pill was said to allow pseudo-gods to truly become gods after consumption.
This genius was indeed remarkable, but why did they have to boast about it?
They even revealed the timing of the pill's creation, hoping to make all the strong ones aware of their discovery, seeking fame and glory.
Now, who wouldn't covet such a valuable pill?
In the instant of pill creation, those pseudo-gods who were invited to 'watch' all rushed to seize it. A new round of war was imminent.
Thus, the reason for civilization's destruction became clear: the blood of countless pseudo-gods was spilled into the alchemy furnace, mixing with the pill that was said to break the thousand-year taboo. This resulted in a disastrous reaction, causing the furnace to explode and release a towering red smoke.
Anyone who inhaled the red smoke would lose their sanity, becoming immensely strong and filled with a desire for destruction, seeking to kill everything around them.
The most terrifying part was that this phenomenon was contagious. As long as something with breath existed, it could be infected, spreading like a virus. In just under a month, the entire world was infected, and the true apocalyptic war broke out.
Some powerful practitioners were still able to control their murderous desires, but they couldn't help when facing strangers.
The situation worsened, and eventually, the entire world was reduced to a slaughterhouse, with only the pseudo-gods left standing. The result was the scene Fang Yuan finally witnessed: a mountain of bones, rivers of blood, and the world stained in crimson.
After witnessing all of this, Fang Yuan felt an urge to curse. He thought, "These people must be tired of living. Why couldn't they just stay hidden and progress instead of attracting attention?"
However, after careful analysis, Fang Yuan had an unsettling feeling. Everything seemed coincidental, but somehow, it all seemed too coincidental.
Looking at it logically, it seemed like an inevitable outcome.
From the moment the alchemist mage created the pill a thousand years ago, the destruction of civilization had already been unstoppable. As pseudo-gods reached their limits, they sought fame and glory. That was how the event a year ago came to be, and it led to the spilling of so much divine blood into the same alchemy furnace, causing the disaster.
"A thousand years ago, during the last great battle of the divine magi, civilization was destroyed."
"And now, it's been another thousand years, and the entire world's souls almost perished."
Fang Yuan used the will of the world to deduce the events, and he vaguely arrived at an idea that seemed to suggest, "Heaven's secrets cannot be revealed." This thought gave him an ominous premonition.
"Is this a joke? I am the god of the world, the ruler of this entire realm. In this world, I am the heavens. How can there be 'heavenly secrets' to me?"
Fang Yuan felt a sense of disbelief.
After repeatedly performing the deduction, he reached the same result. He also seemed to touch upon some pattern, with vague concepts transmitted by the world's will. After translation, it roughly meant: The Catastrophe of Civilization!