69: Burying Stars in Haikou: A Choice for the Future

The light bridge beneath their feet trembled violently, like a spider's silk in a gale, as if it would completely snap in the next moment. Behind them was the silent roar, filled with destructive aura, emanating from the corrupted Dragon's remains, and a second, even more terrifying attack brewing. The Void Realm currents, like invisible tentacles, continuously tore at the protective spiritual light of the four.

"Hold steady!" Lin Xuan roared, injecting his Mid-stage Golden Core magical power without reservation into the immortal abode pivot token. The clear, misty radiance desperately stabilized the chaotic spatial power around them, providing the last support for the precarious light bridge beneath their feet. Su Wanqing, Qu Feiyan, and Gongsun Yu also tightly linked their magical power with Lin Xuan's. The four individuals' auras merged into one, like a bedrock in a raging torrent, struggling yet resolutely charging towards the other side of the abyss.

"Roar—!"

The second, thicker, and ink-dark impact wave tore through the Void Realm, hot on their heels! Wherever it passed, the light bridge shattered and annihilated inch by inch, at an astonishing speed!

"No time! Full speed ahead!" Lin Xuan's eyes were bloodshot. He fiercely burned a portion of his Golden Core Origin, increasing his escape speed by another thirty percent! At the same time, he punched out with his backhand, his Supreme Yang Fist Intent mixed with the cardinal edict's clear light, forming a barrier to slightly hinder their pursuers.

"Bang!"

The barrier only held back the black impact wave for a single instant before shattering, but it bought the four a crucial moment!

Just before the light bridge completely vanished into the black torrent, the four, like shooting stars, burst out of the light bridge's range, crashing heavily onto the hard, cold ground on the other side of the abyss.

"Rumble!!!"

An earth-shattering roar came from behind them. The entire Dragon Fall Abyss trembled. The terrifying black energy impact was blocked by an invisible spatial barrier at the edge of the other side, raging furiously but unable to cross, finally slowly subsiding. The eerie red ghost fire in the Dragon's eye sockets stared fixedly at the other side, letting out an unwilling roar, but seemed limited by some rule, unable to leave the abyss's range.

The four collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, their magical power almost exhausted. Lin Xuan, especially, whose Origin had been burned at the last moment, looked even paler. Su Wanqing and Qu Feiyan had fresh bloodstains at the corners of their mouths, and Gongsun Yu was almost completely drained. They had truly escaped death by a hair's breadth.

After a long while, Lin Xuan struggled to sit up, took out Medicinal Pills, and distributed them to the Three women to consume. He also swallowed a few himself and silently circulated his cultivation to recuperate. He felt the dimness of his Golden Core and the stinging pain in his Meridians, a sense of awe in his heart. The danger of the Dragon Fall Abyss far exceeded expectations; if not for that spatial barrier, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

After recuperating for a moment, and once their magical power had recovered slightly, the four began to survey their surroundings.

They were in an extremely desolate black stone plain. The sky was eternally dim, with no sun, moon, or stars visible, only a faint light originating from unknown sources. A dry, dead silence permeated the air, and Spiritual Qi was pitifully thin, far less than in the Misty Hidden Ruins. As far as the eye could see, apart from black rocks and gravel, there was almost no sign of life.

Most striking was a 'fissure' far ahead, where heaven and earth met, spanning east to west, incredibly vast. This fissure was not in the earth, but in the Void Realm itself. Its edges were twisted and blurred, and its interior was a deep, boundless darkness. Countless shattered stars and remnants of continents could vaguely be seen floating, colliding, and annihilating within. A Dao of Annihilation, devouring all things and ending everything, caused one's mind to waver and feel small and fearful, even from such a distance.

"Is that... the 'Burial Star Sea'?" Su Wanqing gazed at the terrifying Void Realm fissure, her clear, cold voice carrying a hint of imperceptible dryness. She had seen fragmentary records in the Sect's most ancient texts, legends that spoke of it as one of the most dangerous forbidden lands in the Desolate Sea, a wound of the world, a graveyard of all things.

Lin Xuan silently sensed the immortal abode pivot token. The star map information previously recorded, after the "Dragon Fall Abyss," indeed pointed to this area named "Burial Star Sea," but it did not mark specific paths or safe routes. The star map almost completely broke off here.

"The star map leads here. It seems that passing through this Burial Star Sea might be the true path to leave this Desolate Sea region, go to other fragmented worlds, or... return to the mainstream cultivation world," Lin Xuan said in a deep, grave tone. The danger of the Burial Star Sea before them felt even more terrifying than the Misty Hidden Ruins and Dragon Fall Abyss combined.

"This damned place doesn't look like there's any way to cross it," Qu Feiyan frowned, feeling the distant Dao of Annihilation. Even with her fearless nature, she felt a tremor in her heart.

Gongsun Yu's small face turned pale, and she instinctively moved closer to Lin Xuan.

As the four gazed at the Burial Star Sea with heavy hearts, an inconspicuous black stone tablet nearby caught Lin Xuan's attention. The tablet was mostly buried in the gravel, with only a corner exposed, on which a few lines of ancient characters, long blurred but imbued with Dao rhythm, were carved.

Lin Xuan brushed away the gravel and carefully deciphered them.

"To cross the stars... requires a boat... treasures from beyond the realm... can be forged..."

The characters were incomplete, and the meaning was vague, but combined with the current scene, it was not difficult to infer.

"It seems that to cross this Burial Star Sea, a special 'boat' is needed," Lin Xuan mused. "'Treasures from beyond the realm'... does it refer to special Materials from other worlds, or from beyond the heavens? Only by forging a 'boat' with these can one resist the power of annihilation in the Burial Star Sea?"

This was undoubtedly an extremely demanding condition. Treasures from beyond the realm, how rare they must be!

As he pondered, the immortal abode pivot token suddenly emitted an extremely faint yet clearly directional fluctuation, not pointing towards the Burial Star Sea, but towards a certain direction on this black stone plain. It seemed that somewhere far away, something related to "treasures from beyond the realm" had resonated with it.

At the same time, Lin Xuan also keenly sensed that in another direction, several powerful and sinister auras were rapidly approaching. One of them was precisely the Black-Robed Figures they had encountered earlier before the star chart!

The Guixu Cult's pursuers had, after all, tracked them down! Ahead lay the forbidden land of the Burial Star Sea, and behind them, powerful enemies from the Guixu Cult!

In this desperate situation, a faint glimmer of hope and an even more urgent crisis seemed to have emerged.

Lin Xuan's gaze swept over the tired but resolute Three women, then looked at the direction the cardinal edict was sensing and the direction the pursuers were coming from, quickly weighing his options.

Should they risk searching for that slim chance of "treasures from beyond the realm" to fight for a chance to cross the sea and survive? Or should they immediately flee, avoid the Guixu Cult's sharp edge, and find another way out in this forbidden land?

Every choice concerned life and death.