BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The boundless starlit universe shook violently.
The infinite void churned without end.
These massive tides, rippling through the fine structure of 3D space-time, birthed as the Norma Cluster tore through space at extreme speeds, were like a legion of demons.
Carrying streams of radiant energy and layers of space-time surges, they roared and shrieked with jagged fury, brutally striking the eight corners of the universe and the deepest reaches of space.
Any vast sector of space they ravaged, whether it was a dwarf galaxy of merely a few million star systems or a massive galaxy with hundreds of billions or even trillions of stars, or even the macro and micro-objects at the broadest levels of the cosmos, was instantly shattered.
They exploded into countless elementary particles and boundless tides of light and heat, scattered into the void until not a trace remained.
In a single second, these massive space-time tides enveloped, ravaged, and crushed everything within the millions of light-years of void.
The chaotic space-time power within them, capable of erasing the entire cosmos, was so terrifying that even if a group of Peak Sages were gathered there, their minds would be dazed and overwhelmed, leaving them unable to even flee, only to wait for death.
Even if a Sage King, thousands or tens of thousands of times stronger than a Peak Sage, descended here, though they wouldn't be as terrified, they would still be on high alert.
They wouldn't dare touch even a fraction of these massive space-time tides, fearing they'd be sucked in and end up scarred or even torn to shreds.
At their core, these tides were caused by the Norma Cluster, boasting a mass a thousand times that of the Milky Way, as it careened through space at quadrillions of times the speed of light.
It forcibly pushed, compressed, and "assaulted" 3D space-time, creating severe warping, inversions, distortions, and disruptions within its deep fine structure. This accumulation of quantitative changes triggered a qualitative shift, resulting in a cataclysmic eruption.
Yet, this massive eruption of space-time collapse, which was erasing countless stars across vast reaches of space, was, in a strict sense, merely the aftershock of Seraphine reaching across the universe to pull the Norma Cluster with one hand.
But even these aftershocks, which were insignificant to Seraphine, caused the tragic destruction of dozens or even hundreds of galaxies every single second. It wasn't until several seconds of rampaging that these violent, chaotic space-time tsunamis were "neutralized" by the surrounding 3D space and slowed down to sub-light speeds, losing their overwhelming power.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The universe boiled; space-time turned frantic.
Every second, the colossal Norma Cluster, charging at quadrillions of times the speed of light, crossed a distance of 30 million light-years.
Any galaxy, large or small, that dared to "block" its path along this long journey was directly smashed to pulp. They exploded into millions of violent, chaotic energy torrents, like millions of cosmic ghosts wailing and shrieking, drifting aimlessly through the vast void that the Norma Cluster had thoroughly cleared.
As for the countless civilizations within those millions of galaxies, they had long since evaporated into nothingness, utterly erased from the boundless universe.
One second, two seconds, three seconds, four seconds...
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
By this point, the Norma Cluster, forcibly crushed into a ball by Seraphine's Light of Infinity, had traversed a majestic distance of 150 million light-years. During this incredibly violent transit, thousands of galaxies, large and small, were obliterated, completely crushed into nothingness.
Furthermore, several massive galaxy clusters and even superclusters had their overall frameworks physically smashed. After enduring this cataclysmic, cosmic-scale disaster, they collapsed, reduced to smaller units that went hurtling away in different directions.
Of course, for these giant celestial bodies at the cosmic level, their "hurtling away" and the "collapse" of their structures must be observed over scales of millions or even billions of years before any noticeable changes can be seen.
Take, for instance, the Hydra Galaxy Cluster 160 million light-years away, the Shapley Supercluster 650 million light-years away, the Vela Supercluster 870 million light-years away, and various other scattered galaxy clusters across the universe. These massive structures, floating in the deep space at various distances, shared a "close" gravitational bond with the Norma Cluster.
After the Norma Cluster suddenly "decoupled" from the super-strong gravitational field they had collectively created, not a single cluster or supercluster showed even a trace of change in its structure or gravity.
This was because the gravitational collapse effect, propagating at the speed of light, would have to undergo a journey of millions, or even hundreds of millions, of years through the vast space before finally reaching those clusters. Only then would they react structurally, creating various grand-scale astronomical phenomena.
Furthermore, due to the Norma Cluster's superluminal, violent transit from the remote deep space directly to Seraphine's location, an ultra-massive vacuum "channel" had suddenly appeared across that vast stretch of universe. It spanned roughly 150 million light-years in length and over ten million light-years in width, filled with massive amounts of high-temperature plasma, burning streams, photons, neutrinos, and high-energy particles.
Within this blazing "channel," which was dozens of times larger than the diameter of the Milky Way, the fine structure of the 3D space-time had also been severely damaged. Structural fractures had occurred, including deformation, discontinuity, and explosive collapse. This resulted in drastic changes to the speed of light in a vacuum, physical parameters, space-time curvature, and even the flow of time within the "channel."
This turned the ultra-massive vacuum "channel" into a massive, elongated Universal Absolute Abyss. Inside it, all matter structured above the level of elementary particles found it impossible to remain stable for long.
Given the universe's self-healing capacity, completely repairing this vast and dangerous void and restoring it to normalcy would likely take thousands or even tens of thousands of years.
And precisely because of this 150-million-light-year path of destruction, the massive void before Seraphine had suddenly transformed into an infinite continent of blindingly brilliant light. In contrast, the endless darkness stretching behind her looked like a void of infinitely extended cosmic space.
As it turned out, 99% of the photons that had existed within those millions of light-years of space, regardless of their source or direction, had been forcibly "swept up" and piled into the void near Seraphine by the surging Norma Cluster.
If one stood deep within the boundless reaches of space and looked back toward Seraphine from a grand perspective, they would see that the dark sector of space, which had previously been an empty void without even half a star's glow, was now completely covered by a massive, blazing circular screen of light, ten million light-years in diameter.
This radiant, circular screen was so vast and magnificent that against the surrounding abyss-like void, it looked like a Kingdom of Heaven radiating immeasurable light and holiness. While the surrounding regions for tens of millions of light-years were shrouded in darkness, the central celestial sector was occupied by a brilliant Continent of Light.
The spectacle was majestic and holy to the extreme...
Wait.
This majestic scene, which nearly shattered the understanding of all sentient beings...
It was somewhat similar to the aftermath of Seraphine's earlier technique, Boundary Obliteration — All Perish, performed back at the Orion Arm. The difference was that one resulted in darkness, while this one resulted in light.
Even more significantly, when Boundary Obliteration — All Perish shattered space, there were a few spectators present to witness it. But now, Seraphine was the only one left to enjoy this heaven-shattering, magnificent scenery.
There wasn't a single spectator.
It couldn't be helped; the scale of this beauty was simply too grand. It was so massive that not even the 150,000 Gods of Hunger, the nearest beings, possessed the ability or the right to appreciate it.
They simply weren't worthy.
Indeed, how could a group of tiny beings whose sensory capabilities were limited to the galactic or sub-galactic level have the right, or the ability, to appreciate a spectacle ten million light-years in diameter?
They didn't.
None of them did.
After the death of the Gluttony King Tu, there wasn't a single being in the Norma Cluster whose perception could exceed a million light-years. Even the thirty-five strongest Ultimate Gods of Hunger only possessed a sensory and manipulative range of 100,000 light-years.
Weak.
Too weak.
Little more than ants.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A mere 0.1 seconds later.
The Norma Cluster, having thundered across millions of light-years, finally reached Seraphine. At first glance, it seemed it would completely overwhelm her. But she merely shifted her stance without haste, extending a single, gargantuan finger and lightly flicking it toward the oncoming Norma Cluster.
BOOM!!!!
It was as if the Big Bang had repeated.
The void for countless light-years around vibrated violently.
Tides of searing light-flow, with diameters measured in millions of light-years, boiled and surged outward, accompanied by tens of thousands of layers of super space-time tides at the galactic scale.
However, since the surrounding millions of light-years were now empty and devoid of matter, these light-flows and ripples simply roared outward into the distant space at faster-than-light speeds without destroying anything further.
As for the Norma Cluster, with its nearly ten thousand galaxies frozen in place, along with the 150,000 Gods of Hunger and their informational true forms hidden within the event horizons of the vast Realm of Phantasm, they were all instantly pulverized and dissolved.
Subsequently, the majestic space-time information and the Root Spiritualities of these existences from both realms converged, forming a phantom dragon. It soared across millions of light-years at faster-than-light speeds toward Seraphine's true body, which stood silently in the vast void.
HUMMM
In a flash, all the information of the entire God of Hunger race converged within Seraphine's majestic sea of consciousness. As she rapidly reviewed this data, she finally understood why these Gods of Hunger were called Light species, and she learned their true origin.
These Gods of Hunger were actually the Earth Civilization from the previous Cosmic Era.
...
Earth, late 20th century. Cathay successfully overcame numerous technical hurdles, including room-temperature superconductivity, wireless energy transmission, and controllable nuclear fusion. Overnight, Cathay's society ushered in an unprecedented energy revolution.
In the years that followed, the brilliant light of nuclear fusion fueled Cathay's rapid development and innovation across various fields: fundamental physics, engineering, materials science, and semiconductors.
Consequently, high-tech breakthroughs such as fusion-powered aerospace engines, propellantless propulsion systems, graphene chips, 6G communication networks, practical quantum computers, affordable anti-tumor drugs, and brain-computer interfaces were developed one after another.
The widespread implementation of these new technologies completely overhauled Cathay's social systems and brought the dawn of a new era. Over the following decades, Cathay naturally completed a comprehensive, multi-layered upgrade of its entire industrial chain.
During this period, the clean, sustainable, and massive energy from nuclear fusion, pushed forward by Cathay, systematically dismantled the global fossil fuel energy system based on limited resources like crude oil, coal, and natural gas.
As the old system collapsed and the new one rose, the world could not escape the labor pains filled with the stench of gunpowder and the smell of blood. Because a change in a civilization's core, its energy system, inevitably involved a shift in global discourse power, or rather the transition of absolute hegemony.
Inevitably, the massive economic structures of countries worldwide that relied on the fossil fuel system came into high-intensity conflict with Cathay across every level of society. There were disputes in industry, economy, culture, aerospace, race, and belief. There were even fierce ideological and social system clashes, along with the most direct and brutal hot wars across air, space, land, and sea.
After immense costs were paid and vast numbers of casualties suffered, the final result was the tragic dissolution of the previous era's hegemon and its many client states.
Cathay, standing upon the remains of the previous era's giants, established the Earth United Government, also known as the Earth Civilization Alliance, with itself as the leader and the nations of the world as subordinates.
However, as the early 21st century approached its midpoint, the world was suddenly struck by extreme weather events: abrupt temperature spikes and drops, violent fluctuations in rainfall, torrential rains, floods, droughts, and storms.
The frequent occurrence of these extreme weather events severely impacted the global economy, transportation, agriculture, industry, social development, and the daily lives of the populace. Most notably, as the growth of global crops was seriously affected, food production plummeted, triggering worldwide shortages and regional famines.
While it hadn't reached the horrific levels of late-stage feudal societies where people resorted to cannibalism, numerous humanitarian tragedies occurred nonetheless.
Before human society could catch its breath, a global shift in plant species migration occurred, accompanied by the degradation of nature's regulatory systems, the loss of biodiversity across various natural zones, and the inexplicable imbalance and total collapse of the entire global ecosystem.
As the saying goes, a great disaster is inevitably followed by a great plague.
Under the dual impact of severe climate anomalies and ecological collapse, the transmission patterns of many diseases within nature underwent drastic changes. Many pathogens underwent unknown mutations, resulting in immense loss of life and health across human society.
Consequently, for the full twenty years following the establishment of the Earth Civilization Alliance, the global mortality rate remained high. The death rate among the middle-aged and elderly, in particular, reached new highs every year.
Conversely, the birth rate of newborns plummeted annually.
To make matters worse, scientists within the Earth Civilization Alliance's Supreme Academy of Sciences, who specialized in human genome sequencing, discovered something terrifying: the palindromic sequences, the crucial gene-loss mitigation mechanism within the human Y-chromosome, had inexplicably failed.
This meant the Y-chromosome, which already lacked the ability for homologous recombination, would continuously lose its genes during the reproduction and replication process of each generation, with no way to mitigate the loss. It would inevitably shrink until it vanished entirely.
Filled with terror and unease, the scientists compared the genetic data of newborns from each year over the twenty years since the Alliance's inception. Through extensive data analysis, they were shocked to find that the generational shrinking of the Y-chromosome, or rather the speed of its contraction, was inexplicably and continuously accelerating.
After gathering massive amounts of data and performing detailed simulations, the trembling scientists reached a conclusion that left them speechless with fear:
If a generation is twenty-five years, then within just two centuries, eight generations, the Y-chromosome would completely vanish from the cells of all humanity.
Strictly speaking, the primary factors determining human maleness are key genes within the Y-chromosome, such as SRY and Sox9; the rest of the chromosome primarily exists to reinforce its structure. Theoretically, these key genes could be transposed and spliced into the X-chromosome structure without affecting gene expression.
But theory is just theory. Achieving such a result was practically impossible.
If the Earth Alliance could not develop powerful enough gene-editing technology within these two hundred years to ensure the safe transposition, perfect splicing, and expression of key male genes across different chromosomes for every male on Earth, then in two hundred years, humanity would face a grim fate.
Unless humans suddenly evolved into an asexual species or found some new method of reproduction, the human race on Earth was destined for... extinction.
With heavy hearts, the scientists jointly submitted this thick research report to the high-ranking officials of the Earth Alliance. Already exhausted by the myriad of domestic and global issues, the officials were left dazed and terrified by this report from the Supreme Academy of Sciences.
The Y-chromosome vanishing? Within two hundred years? Is this a sci-fi movie? How could humanity face so many calamities?!
They hurriedly began organizing series of high-level scientific conferences, inviting wave after wave of top scholars and experts from various fields to discuss this grave issue and find a specific solution or a credible line of thought.
Regrettably, after numerous rounds of consultation and research, everyone realized that no concrete plan or reliable solution could be found.
The Earth Alliance's current technological level offered no effective or reliable way to solve this challenge.
At that very moment, several astronomers and astrophysicists from the Supreme Academy of Sciences reported another major discovery to the Alliance officials.
After synthesizing vast amounts of observational data and performing detailed simulations, they determined that the sun, for unknown reasons, had begun to age rapidly.
Theoretically, the sun, which illuminated humanity, was not supposed to experience Helium Flash, the short-term uncontrolled nuclear fusion reaction that occurs during the Red Giant stage, for billions of years.
Yet, it was about to happen prematurely.
A Helium Flash is the hallmark of a star entering its final years and marks the end of its main sequence glory.
Essentially, once the star's core runs out of hydrogen, the heavier helium elements sink into the core under the influence of gravity, taking the place of the hydrogen. The fusion of helium is more violent and releases far more energy than hydrogen fusion. To maintain the balance between gravity and pressure during this process, the sun's volume would rapidly expand.
Following the Helium Flash, the sun's outer layers would become even more active, releasing intense radiation. Most critically, the swelling sun might even swallow Earth's entire orbital path. As for the Earth civilization and the human race... they would likely be vaporized in a very short time.
Scholars from the Supreme Academy of Sciences also pointed out that after synthesizing data, including human Y-chromosome changes, shifts in Earth's and the sun's magnetic fields, and variations in solar radiation frequencies, they suspected that the various disasters of the past twenty years, including the Y-chromosome anomaly, were highly likely related to the sun's rapid aging.
Theoretically, the sudden, silent transformation of the sun and its resulting anomalous celestial magnetic field and radiation had caused everything they were experiencing.
...
"The plight of the Earth civilization in the previous era... feels very similar to the background story of the movie "Wandering Earth".
Hmm, then these Cathay humans must have gone through some events to eventually become the God of Hunger race.
Otherwise, with their technical level, which was worlds apart from even a basic interstellar civilization, no matter how much they struggled, it would have been impossible to resolve a civilizational catastrophe rooted in the sun's internal mechanics."
Seraphine leisurely contemplated while 'browsing' the ocean of information compiled from the God of Hunger race's memories. "However... cracking practical controllable nuclear fusion in the 90s and achieving global unification by the mid-21st century... that really does seem a bit too fast."
This suddenly reminded her of an anime she had seen in her previous life... "Gunbuster". What struck Seraphine most about that series was its setting, where human civilization managed to master faster-than-light interstellar travel as early as the start of the 21st century.
Simply ridiculous.
Indeed, within this massive amount of data, Seraphine confirmed that the God of Hunger race had indeed been born before this current universe began. They were the human civilization from Earth in the Solar System, located on the Milky Way's Orion Arm during the previous Cosmic Era.
The time spanning from that era to the present was an unfathomable gulf, perhaps hundreds of billions, trillions, or even more countless eons.
"Hmm, after all, it was the Earth civilization from the previous era. In terms of nature and parallel space-time, they're quite similar, so anything is possible."
Seraphine, colossal as a cosmic giant, sat firmly cross-legged in the boundless void, deep in thought. "But... why did an Earth civilization appear in the previous era as well? And why are their culture, race, history, and even entertainment, movies, anime, games, music, so similar, if not identical? Could it be... Poincaré Recurrence?"
The Poincaré Recurrence is fundamentally a mathematical theorem, not a physical law requiring verification. The Poincaré Recurrence Theorem itself doesn't have much to do with whether the universe can repeat itself.
The reason they are linked is that certain physical rules and laws in our objective reality happen to satisfy the conditions for the theorem to hold.
However, similar phenomena do exist in physics and are indeed named after Poincaré. Specifically: a finite, closed, isolated system of matter in motion, unaffected by external forces, must undergo cyclical, periodic movement.
Furthermore, M-theory contains predictions similar to the Poincaré Recurrence phenomenon.
M-theory suggests that the universe can spontaneously emerge in its entirety from nothingness. Even if the universe continues its current trend of cooling and thinning indefinitely, diluting until all elementary particles fall into black holes and are converted into Hawking radiation, a quantum-scale universe could still randomly emerge within that distant future, near-quantum-vacuum state and inflate into a new universe.
M-theory suggests that this emergence could happen an infinite number of times.
And since the ways matter, energy, and information can combine within any finite spatial range are finite, then according to the previous conclusions and the Poincaré Recurrence, one can derive a set-based conclusion:
If the actual universe Seraphine inhabits follows M-theory and the recurrence theorem, then Poincaré Recurrences can, and will, occur an infinite number of times.
After enough cycles, the speed of light might be identical between two specific universes, chemical bonds could form based on the same atomic distances, the Milky Way reappeared, and human civilization... could likewise be born again.