The World Overturned, Deciding Humanity's Fate!

Following the press conference, the entire world was shaken. Though not every citizen across every nation had watched the full broadcast, clips were subsequently edited and posted online. In a mere half day, people across almost the entire globe were talking about nightmares, cultivators, and gods. "Why haven't the authorities issued a clear response? We need to know the truth about nightmares! Stop hiding things from us!" "I told you God Taiyi was real long ago, and now you finally believe it!" "No! This is all a conspiracy by the State of Dongping! Nightmare aberrations, dream expellers, cultivation, gods—it's all fake! Fake! You've all been fooled by their clumsy parlor tricks!" "The guy above me has lost his mind. How pathetic." "My life is too boring. I honestly hope extraordinary beings really do exist in this world to add some excitement to this dull routine." "Friend, once a nightmare fixes its gaze on you, you won't find it fun at all—you'll only feel endless terror!" "Huh? I was scared before God Taiyi descended, and I'd still be scared after God Taiyi descended? Then what did the deity come for?! What are nightmares compared to that? I'll say a prayer to the deity, then sit back and watch how the nightmare gets wiped out!" "Excuse me, can the Taiyi Society in Moore State really commune with the deity? I'm thinking of joining—" Netizens across various nations engaged in heated debates. The overwhelming majority believed in the existence of nightmares, dream expellers, and gods; only a tiny fraction of stubborn holdouts refused to concede. While discussions flared online, the streets were just as boisterous. In numerous cities around the world, many citizens spontaneously organized protests, demanding that authorities provide a clear answer as soon as possible—the public had a right to know. And these massive demonstrations gave governments worldwide a massive headache. In Novareign, a nation on the Ancient Star whose power rivaled that of the State of Dongping, its president sat in a well-lit conference room, brow deeply furrowed. "Gentlemen, who can give me a definitive answer? What should we do? Do we make everything public, and do we mobilize according to that being's will?" Silence settled over the room as the sharply dressed, middle-aged men sat without a word. Rap, rap, rap! The president rapped his knuckles against the long mahogany table. "Answer my question! Please do not evade it. Remember, that being gave us only three days. In reality, we cannot afford to wait until the third day to react. Either we mobilize immediately today, or we ignore it completely." "..." Yet still no one spoke. In his exasperation, he casually pointed at the man seated second on his right. "You speak." An awkward smile appeared on the named man's face. "I obey your commands in all things, Mr. President." "You know that's not what I want to hear! I want a clear answer!" "Ahem... I will always support your decision." "Are you talking nonsense?" "No, no, I simply support you unconditionally. Your wisdom is as vast as the sea, far deeper than mine, far—" "Stop, stop!" The president said helplessly. "You can shut your mouth now." The man promptly zipped his lips, secretly heaving a sigh of relief. The others showed signs of taking notes from this display. Stricken with a mounting headache, the president swept his gaze across their faces before finally settling on a stern-faced man. "McMullen, why don't you speak? I want to hear your thoughts." McMullen wore a pair of glasses, was balding, and looked around fifty years old. Called upon, he did not dodge the question like the previous man, offering instead a concise reply: "Mr. President, I believe we should make all information public and immediately act in accordance with that being's command." The president paused, startled. "Give me your reasons." McMullen adjusted his glasses. "The former requires little elaboration. News of nightmares and dream expellers has already spread across the globe; it can no longer be covered up. There is no need for us to keep hiding it and needlessly incur public outrage. As for the latter, the reason I say we must obey that being's command is... we have no choice." "No choice?" The president pressed his lips together. McMullen nodded, opened his laptop, and pulled up a video. "I believe everyone present has seen this footage?" Everyone looked up, only to see the recording of Huang Tian's divine intent avatar annihilating the Holy Light Society. "Of course. We saw it long ago," someone remarked. McMullen followed up immediately: "Regarding the power displayed by that being in the video, I consulted several of our nation's Rank 3 dream expellers in detail. They told me that even if every dream expeller in the world combined forces, they could never defeat that being. In addition, I consulted several physicists, and they told me that humanity is utterly fragile before him!" At this point, he paused for a moment before continuing, "Regarding this hundred-meter-tall... god, based on footage of his strikes, we have derived several pieces of data. "First, a casual strike of his is enough to easily demolish a hundred-meter-tall skyscraper, shear off a mountaintop, and produce shockwaves spanning a dozen or so kilometers. "And judging by his miraculous might in projecting his voice thousands of li, a full-power strike from him could perhaps destroy an entire city! Even if it fell short, it wouldn't be far off. "That is his overt offensive capability. "Second, his defensive capability. "If this hundred-meter giant is a physical entity, then to support such a colossal frame, the density and tensile strength of his skin and bones must be astronomically high. Conventional weapons such as artillery shells and missiles hitting his body might not even register as a tickle, leaving at most faint scratches. "If the giant is an energy construct, that would be even more terrifying. He could likely shift into an intangible form, giving our weapons zero chance of even touching him. "Third, his movement speed. "Setting aside for now his ability to teleport when summoned by voice, and looking solely at the giant's inherent movement speed, we project that he can fly through the atmosphere and space at a minimum of Mach 10, if not tens of times the speed of sound. "This means our weapons cannot even keep up with him, while he can reach any corner of the Ancient Star in an instant. Anyone who opposes him would be effortlessly slaughtered. "Furthermore, based on the cultivation spells that being taught to Li, Guan, and Zhou, we can deduce that he also wields telekinesis, lightning induction, wind summoning, and other abilities. "In other words, he is not a rigid brute who only knows close-quarters combat; he is a magician, a cultivator. Even across distances of over a hundred kilometers, he can attack enemies by manufacturing natural disasters. He is a walking natural calamity! "In short, all of humanity's existing conventional weapons are completely useless against him. The only weapon with any possibility of causing harm would be a high-yield hydrogen bomb, and that would require a direct hit. "Yet that possibility is minuscule—comparable to a penniless beggar being courted by and marrying the daughter of the world's richest man the very next day. The probability is negligible. "What's more, we cannot afford to fight this war. Win or lose in the end, our entire national economy would completely collapse, major cities would be flattened, civilian casualties would be beyond count—leaving one in a hundred alive would be a stroke of pure fortune—and what is far more likely is the extinction of all humanity, while he might not even sustain an injury!" Having finished, McMullen closed his laptop, picked up the glass of warm water before him, and took a slow sip. The conference room was dead silent, save for the sound of his swallowing and the heavy breathing of the crowd. After a long while, another person rasped, "In truth, even if we did manage to kill him, it would be completely pointless. Because the one on the Ancient Star is not his true body..." As everyone now knew, this being was merely an avatar of God Zhonghuang Taiyi descended into the mortal world—nothing more than a wisp of divine intent. The president frowned, asking hesitantly, "Do you truly believe that man is a so-called god?" McMullen shrugged. "Mr. President, whatever he is, he certainly cannot be an ordinary native of the Ancient Star. Ten days ago, this 'Huang Tian' was purely an ordinary person, and an ordinary person could never possibly attain such terrifying power within a matter of days. "Therefore, he is either a god or an extraterrestrial. If the former, his power is boundless; if the latter, it is still beyond anything we could resist. For an alien capable of crossing who knows how many light-years to reach the Ancient Star, their technological means would be indistinguishable from a god to us." The president slumped in dejection. Indeed. Whether that man was a god or something else, he was simply beyond humanity's ability to contend with. Since that was the case, there was no point in deliberating any further. With a solemn expression, he said, "Then, gentlemen, let us mobilize. Release all information regarding nightmares and dream expellers to the public. At the same time, inform our citizens that whenever they encounter a nightmare event, they may call upon the name of God Taiyi. God will protect all living beings." "Yes, sir!" Following his order, major media outlets throughout Novareign launched an all-out blitz reporting on nightmares and the deity, carrying the name of Zhonghuang Taiyi into the ears of every citizen. With Novareign, one of the world's leading superpowers, backing down on the very first day, other nations naturally had no reason to hold out. They mobilized one after another. In no time, media across every corner of the globe were discussing God Zhonghuang Taiyi, analyzing his name, origins, divine abilities, and more. The citizens of every nation were whipped into a frenzy. "Extraordinary powers really do exist in this world! I want to become a dream expeller! No, wait, dream expellers are about to become history! I want to cultivate and learn magic from the deity!" "Idiot, that's not magic, it's immortal cultivation spells! Get it right!" "Whatever it is, as long as it lets me wield power beyond ordinary mortals!" "..." While the general public was boiling over with excitement, dream expeller organizations worldwide, after deliberations that were hardly contentious, decided to accept Huang Tian's "transformation." First, one dream expeller stepped forward and shouted, "Zhonghuang Taiyi, deliver the dark and light!" In the next instant, Huang Tian's divine intent avatar descended. Under a sea of awe-filled gazes, Huang Tian extracted the dream relics from the man's body, destroyed them, and bestowed an empowerment of spiritual energy. When the man not only survived the extraction of his dream relics but also successfully became an early Qi Refinement cultivator, all the onlookers were electrified. After that, everything fell into place naturally. One after another, the dream expellers lined up in an orderly fashion to undergo the "transformation" and surrender their dream relics. Across the entire State of Dongping, there were over six hundred dream expellers, while worldwide the total was roughly three thousand. Within two days, nearly 2,900 of them underwent the "transformation." The remaining hundred or so were either eccentric lone wolves burdened by misgivings who refused to undergo the transformation, or members of sinister factions who dared not meet Huang Tian, terrified he might squash them like bugs in passing. Novareign's Tomorrow Society was precisely such a sinister faction. The entire organization comprised nearly thirty dream expellers. Its president was a Rank 3 dream expeller, beneath whom were two vice presidents and several squad leaders—all Rank 2 dream expellers—with the remainder being Rank 1 dream expellers. Such strength was only slightly inferior to the Holy Light Society that Huang Tian had obliterated, and it commanded great renown in Novareign. Inside a villa in an upscale neighborhood, Lowell, president of the Tomorrow Society, sat on a sofa and surveyed his core subordinates. "I have received detailed intelligence. The Rank 3 dream expellers in our country have all switched systems. Their current strength has plummeted compared to before! Those flashy spells and magic tricks are utterly vulnerable before the power of dream relics!" Rank 3 dream expellers, after undergoing the "transformation," were essentially equivalent to late Qi Refinement cultivators. Naturally, their immediate combat prowess had fallen considerably. However, the cultivation system was safe, complete, endowed with boundless potential, and capable of prolonging one's lifespan—far superior to the dream relic system in the long run. Though Lowell mocked it aloud, envy inevitably stirred in his heart. He wanted to cultivate too! He wanted longevity too! Yet he didn't dare utter the deity's name, fearing the deity would slap him to death with a single palm... The vice presidents and squad leaders shared the same dread. They chimed in, "Cultivators, magicians—their power is pathetic, and that supposed longevity is a pipe dream. It doesn't hold a candle to fusing dream relics and wielding true brute force!" Suddenly, inspiration struck one squad leader. "Since the official dream expellers have grown weaker, could we take advantage of this to pull off something big?" At those words, several people were tempted, but Vice President Ramu shook his head. "The timing is terrible. That being is currently watching the every move of all dream expellers. We had better keep a low profile over these few days so we don't draw his attention." The other vice president countered, "Why worry so much? As long as we don't speak his name, he won't notice us. What's there to fear?" "Actually, even if you speak his name, it isn't much of a problem. Over the past few days, at least tens of thousands of people around the world have been saying his name simultaneously. How could he possibly keep track of them all?" A tall, thin blonde youth stood up with a grin. "As long as we don't recite the eight words 'Zhonghuang Taiyi, deliver the dark and light' together in full." The moment those words left his mouth, every person present looked on in sheer horror. Lowell, the president of the Tomorrow Society, was terrified out of his wits. "Colton, have you lost your mind?!!" The blonde youth named Colton seemed to suddenly realize what he had uttered, and a look of panic washed over his face as well. Whoosh—! Above the villa, a palm spanning several mu materialized out of thin air. Shattering ripples across the atmosphere and churning with the mighty tempest of wind and thunder, it pressed down toward the villa with deceptive slowness! Hearing the commotion, everyone inside went pale as sheets, desperately activating their dream relics to flee into the distance. Yet no matter how hard they struggled, they could not escape the area covered by the descending palm, as though space itself had frozen solid. "Colton, you moron! Scum! Bastard! Useless piece of trash! Son of a bitch!" Driven to despair, the crowd screamed in fury. In contrast, the corners of Colton's lips curled upward as he spread his hands and shrugged. "Sorry. I'm an undercover agent sent by the authorities!" BOOM!! Amid the realization, dread, and despair contorting the faces of Lowell and the others, that palm struck their heads and bodies. Clouds of blood mist burst across the air as a drizzle of blood pattered down, eerily beautiful. Standing amidst the crimson shower, Colton bowed with consummate elegance toward the sky. "Colton pays homage to the great, mysterious, and supreme God Taiyi. My mission is accomplished. Please extract my dream relic—" On the other side of the planet, in an ordinary room in Qingyang City, Huang Tian casually annihilated the Tomorrow Society and extracted Colton's dream relic. He then sensed the surge of spiritual power within his body, churning like a vast ocean. "So much... This spiritual power is not only enough to push me into the Dharma Idol realm, but will also allow me to quickly reach the late Dharma Idol realm, or even perfection!" Thoughtful, he murmured, "However, once I break through and trigger the resonance between heaven and earth, that source will probably awaken immediately. But no matter. A few days earlier or a few days later makes little difference. In the end, we must determine who reigns supreme." With that thought, he hesitated no longer, settling his mind to swiftly refine the spiritual power within. "Once I break through, let humanity's fate be decided once and for all!"