"What is the catastrophe of the Qilin? What does it mean?"
Fang Yuan furrowed his brow, continuing to analyze. After much effort, he finally deduced the answer.
The Will of the Universe is a form of selection for the Qilin's catastrophe. From the moment a Qilin is born, it must go through a trial of catastrophe in order to truly evolve and propagate; only then can it progress further.
In this process, if a Qilin cannot withstand the baptism of the catastrophe, it is considered to have no potential for development and will be destroyed. However, the heavens always leave a glimmer of hope. The Qilin's catastrophe is meant to destroy only the Qilin and not all living beings.
However, when Fang Yuan looked around, he saw that the beings in the entire world had been affected, all of them descending into madness. He could not perceive any glimmer of hope.
If he didn't intervene, it seemed that all the beings of this world would face extinction. Though with his status and power, he could easily help the Qilin survive the catastrophe, he knew that such survival wouldn't truly count, as another catastrophe would occur in five thousand years, possibly even more severe.
At the Magic Pet Store, Xu Xiaomeng suddenly noticed the television on the wall, which had been playing continuously for half a year, suddenly paused.
Xu Xiaomeng froze for a moment. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the game arena previously displayed on the "television" was now covered in blood, with countless corpses of both magical beasts and humans scattered everywhere.
There were even some magical birds frozen in mid-air and magic users and warriors on the ground descending into madness.
"Zombies? Undead?"
Xu Xiaomeng was startled upon seeing the blood-soaked humans. Those who had fallen into madness resembled zombies, yet they didn't eat people. Instead, they were consumed by madness, eager to kill. Of course, if they got hungry, they would eat people, but they were not as frightening as the traditional zombies.
At that moment, someone entered. Xu Xiaomeng instinctively stood up, greeting politely, "Welcome… Uh, Miss Wang, what is this...?"
It was Wang Yuanyuan. She glanced at the strange "television" on the wall and then asked, "Where is Fang Yuan?"
"You're looking for the boss? He's inside," Xu Xiaomeng replied.
"Oh, I'll go find him." Wang Yuanyuan hesitated for a moment and walked into the inner room.
Xu Xiaomeng wanted to stop her but decided against it, recalling that Wang Yuanyuan seemed to have a special connection with the boss. She then planned to enjoy a long-awaited game, but before she could start, the paused screen on the "television" began moving again, and the movement accelerated rapidly. Soon, the "game characters" blurred into indistinct shadows.
The seasons changed before her eyes, and time passed so quickly it was frightening.
Xu Xiaomeng could only helplessly shrug. She had never seen such a strange "game machine" before. It was devoid of wires, and there wasn't even a remote control, leaving her unable to intervene.
Meanwhile, in the Steel Marble Universe, Fang Yuan accelerated the flow of time to a million times its normal speed, scanning the entire world.
"The information from the Will of the Universe suggests that there is a glimmer of hope in the Qilin's catastrophe. Where is this glimmer?"
Fang Yuan frowned. If this supposed glimmer didn't show up soon, he would have to intervene. After all, watching his universe's sacred beings face extinction wasn't something he was willing to let happen.
Time passed rapidly. Year after year, the death toll among the living grew, and it seemed like the world was on the verge of total extinction.
It was in the seventh year of the great disaster, just as Fang Yuan was about to intervene, that he suddenly noticed a group of small, pure creatures emerging from the vast plains, joyfully consuming the red mist in the air.
As the red mist was devoured, the surrounding beings showed signs of regaining their sanity.
Fang Yuan's eyes lit up. "This is the so-called glimmer of hope?"
Upon closer inspection, he froze in shock. The creatures devouring the red mist were the small beasts he had once brought from the only living planet he had seen in the stars—a group that appeared to be snow-white Qilin.
Now there were over twenty of these snow-white Qilin, with the largest being the size of a horse, and the smallest no bigger than a fist. Their size varied greatly.
These snow-white Qilin were running joyfully across the plains, devouring the red mist, and wherever they passed, the mist disappeared.
As they consumed the red mist, their power grew rapidly. Snowy flames began to appear around them, and a strange force was awakening inside them.
Fang Yuan's face became more and more puzzled. "Is this really the glimmer of hope the Will of the Universe spoke of?"
If that were the case, did that mean he himself was part of the hope?
If he hadn't brought the snow-white Qilin from the outer world, would the universe still face destruction?
But at this point, Fang Yuan was even more curious about the snow-white Qilin. What had once been ordinary beasts, after consuming the red mist, awakened miraculous powers and began to grow stronger, their bodies enveloped in snow-white flames.
As their strength grew, the snow-white Qilin cheered and soared into the sky, spreading across the universe to consume the red mist. Everywhere they went, the mist vanished, and the beings that had lost their sanity gradually regained it.
Fang Yuan continued to watch them for some time, his expression becoming even more perplexed. The power of the snow-white Qilin seemed to grow without limit, surging as though there was no end.
It didn't seem like they were gaining power—rather, it felt like they were recovering their original strength, for they showed no signs of any bottleneck.
"Is it because of the red mist? Or perhaps they were always this strong?"
Fang Yuan thought back to the time when he first entered the planet, when his power was suddenly diminished, and he nearly perished. If it weren't for the vibration of the steel marble breaking a certain lock, he might have fallen out of space and died.
"Could it be that these are the legendary Qilin?" Fang Yuan's eyes gleamed.
As Fang Yuan continued to observe the entire universe, with the awakening of the snow-white Qilin, the disaster seemed to have finally ended.
After the catastrophe, the universe was desolate, eerily silent.
The snow-white Qilin had saved the universe and were now revered as auspicious beasts, worshipped by countless intelligent beings.
Ten years after the catastrophe, only tens of millions of intelligent beings had emerged from the ruins to begin rebuilding their homes.
The path of cultivation seemed to have ended. Even though thousands of pseudo-gods were still alive, none of them cared for fame or status. One by one, they hid away.