Chapter 40: Birth of the Fallen Angel, Tribulation of the World

One day later.

Upon the Wutong tree, the terrifying news arrived.

The One Emperor and Four Marquises suddenly recalled that ancient, aged divine trial known as [Deep Affection Cannot Last Long].

Every single zhang they approached meant an extra layer of aging.

How different was the current state of wisdom from that?

"O Precursor, what should we do?" Butterfly Luming said, "They've gone mad, the entire world has gone mad. Wisdom is spreading downward from the highest to the lowest."

Yet how could Liu Jun possibly have a solution?

Even he had not anticipated that [High Wisdom] would be so terrifying.

In reality, a single saint was already an extreme rarity.

And now?

The entire world had been infected, turned into pseudo-saints approaching the level of true saints.

Civilization was bursting forth, driving forward with unstoppable momentum.

And what could Liu Jun do?

He was left with only two choices.

1. Wait for the next 100% completion, extract the [High Wisdom] talent mushroom, and leave the Broth World.

However, this amounted to a suicidal rescue.

To extract this [High Wisdom] into his own body—Liu Jun shuddered just thinking about it.

This thing was utterly terrifying.

2. Leave this talent behind within the broth.

Yet if left in the broth, the entire world would continue to be infected like this. What would the world eventually develop into?

No one knew what the ultimate outcome of this catastrophe would be.

Liu Jun could only hope that they would find a way within the broth themselves to resolve this plague of wisdom!

At this thought, Liu Jun could only offer this explanation:

"This is a trial. The divine treasures will bring disasters of varying scales."

"If the living beings of the earth fail to pass this trial, you can well imagine the fate of the world."

The upper echelons of the butterfly clan all fell into a heavy silence.

"Then... then what about you, O Precursor?" Butterfly Luming suddenly asked with a trembling voice.

Liu Jun shook his head faintly, offering no direct answer: "Back then, the Calamity of Longevity was no less terrifying than the current Calamity of Wisdom."

The Calamity... of Longevity?

Merely these four words, coupled with the current catastrophe, set Butterfly Luming's imagination racing wildly.

Nowadays, everyone was infected with wisdom...

Could it be that back in the Precursor's era, everyone had been infected with longevity?

Butterfly Red-Spore hurriedly asked, "Respected Precursor, what do you think will be the ultimate consequence of the Calamity of Wisdom? Is it a good thing?"

Liu Jun replied, "The consequences of the Calamity of Wisdom are the same as those of the Calamity of Longevity back then. At the time, no one could guess what it would turn into."

"During the Calamity of Longevity, the entire world was plunged into longevity, and just like many living beings today, they thought it was a blessing, until later..."

The Precursor did not continue, yet they felt a nameless terror grip their hearts.

Liu Jun sighed softly, his thoughts shifting:

"As the God of Longevity, after that Calamity of Longevity, I came to understand that birth, aging, sickness, and death are the natural order. Looking down upon this era, I naturally dwell in the high heavens, serenely watching the flowers bloom and fade in the mortal world."

"As for this tribulation, I know not how it should be overcome; you must look to yourselves."

"I only hope that a thousand years from now, you will still be able to walk by my side."

Butterfly Luming understood. Ever since the Precursor had instructed them, he had always maintained a distance from them.

Because he was a true being of longevity, while they were merely the flowers he casually glanced at by the roadside, the stone path he walked upon, the stream he caught sight of along the way.

The Precursor's gaze was always fixed upon higher realms.

Perhaps his eyes were ever resting upon words such as... the Creator, epochs, longevity, and breaking through to higher realms.

"I understand." Butterfly Luming led them away.

Liu Jun watched them go and shook his head.

There was truly no way to help.

These talent mushrooms remained within the broth; they had to find a method of management themselves.

...

Half a day later, the ancestral grounds of the butterfly clan issued an urgent summons:

"An unknown calamity is spreading. All clansmen across the land, hasten immediately to the ancestral grounds."

Vast throngs of butterflies came rushing in.

"Save me, they've gone mad! They are actually searching through soil and ores for so-called beauty."

"My neighbors are already researching something called mathematics, covering the earth, trees, and stones with dense, scrawled texts. They claim the principles of mathematics make our woven knots more beautiful! But those are clearly the ugliest things that only make one drowsy!"

"The shell-butterflies next door have also fallen. When I passed by, they were studying pearl bracelets, stringing themselves together, and even inviting us to join..."

...

It was as if some terrifying transformation had befallen the entire heaven and earth overnight.

Yet the speed of fleeing still could not match the speed at which wisdom spread.

They discovered that wisdom propagated by using personal interests as bait!

Every butterfly that pursued beauty possessed its own aesthetic inclinations.

While some refugees managed to avoid certain tribes, as they ran, they would find themselves drawn to tribes catering to their own interests, gradually losing themselves and wandering right in.

A family of three was in the midst of fleeing.

"Mother, do not go in there! What Titan giants, what brainstorms of defeating angels? It's a cult!"

A child wept bitterly.

"No, no, no! Size is beauty." The mother looked as though she had laid eyes on the most wondrous thing in the world, and she joined a tribe dedicated to researching Titans.

Soon, she donned garments, began discussing academic theories, and joined others in the forest to weave a super-lifeform larger than a dragon.

In the eyes of this giant, angels were mere little toys.

With no other choice, the despairing father could only clutch his child and continue fleeing.

They arrived at yet another tribe.

Here lived a group of dark, thin, oversized-headed green creatures.

"Child, those steam airships, steam gunboats... they are all sheer nonsense! You cannot be tempted by them; they are heretical!"

The remaining father wailed upon the ground, and in the end, he had no choice but to abandon the child who wished to enter the tribe, continuing his flight toward the ancestral grounds alone.

And as this father ran, he suddenly caught sight of yet another tribe.

In their central plaza stood a novel breed of dragon modified from a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

"Indeed, Titans and mechanical steam are sheer nonsense! The life-knot, pure biological evolution—this blueprint of the five-colored dragon is the most magnificent thing in this world."

As if he had laid eyes on something intoxicating, in a trance, he walked right in.

"The five-colored dragon? Ah, please, by all means, let me weave the red dragon's brain!"

The family of three was thus completely wiped out.

Soon, parents from all directions who had been infected and lost their families arrived at the ancestral grounds.

Here, the halos of [Medium Wisdom] and [Low Wisdom] exerted their suppressing influence.

Fighting infection with infection.

Instead, this place became a pure land untouched by the plague!

Here, they maintained the normal middle-tier wisdom of living beings.

This place became the final ancestral sanctuary of the entire civilization.

...

Outside the broth, Liu Jun gazed at this horrifying spectacle.

"Though I know not what the future holds, my intuition tells me it will be terrifying."

"I need to seek help."

Yet where was the help he could provide?

[High Wisdom] had endowed all living beings with pseudo-saint wisdom, falling just a fraction short of true saints.

If a solution was ever to be found, it could only come from a true saint!

Only a true genius could suppress this horde of pseudo-geniuses.

Even more, acting as a leader, they could guide these pseudo-geniuses and transform this catastrophe into an opportunity!

Yet the probability of a saint naturally coming into existence was one in ten billion.

The quantitative base of his mushrooms was far too small; it was currently impossible for such a savior to be born.

Modern academic factions possessed certain methods to elevate the probability of descendants becoming saints through saintly bloodlines, and coupled with encouragement for childbirth, their numbers were considerable.

As for himself, how could he possibly invite a truly innate saint from reality to help?

That was courting death!

As for something like the Amber Phoenix Butterfly, a cloned model of a saint?

Liu Jun immediately ruled it out.

Because that was a saint's cloned brain devoid of a soul, which had only generated a soul through [Low Wisdom].

An Amber Phoenix Butterfly born in such a manner was currently unworthy of sitting at the same table as a true saint.

Yet Liu Jun still harbored an unrealistic fantasy:

"If only there were an underage infant saint whom I could kidnap and bring home as a transmigrator, to go and save my world."