26: The Hall of Burial Stars, the Core of the Natal Chart

"Go... take... this chance..."

Su Wanzhao's intent, laden with endless exhaustion and determination, pierced into the abyss of Chen Feng's sinking consciousness like dripping ice springs.

Go!

This word, carrying the urgency of burning bridges, ignited the last trace of survival instinct deep within his life soul!

Inside the chaos moon egg, the light of the Chaos Star Vortex mark on Su Wanzhao's brow had dimmed to the extreme, like a candle in the wind; every weak rotation carried a tremor on the verge of collapse.

Forcibly reversing the Star Vortex and triggering the ruins' Restriction to deflect the Immortal Dao attack had caused unimaginable damage to her nascent Origin.

Silver-gray blood congealed at the corners of her lips, and her beautiful face had lost all color, save for the Star Vortex mark on her brow, which was still stubbornly maintaining the forcibly established Origin link with Chen Feng, channeling the last bit of power to sustain his life.

【Chaos Star Vortex (Prototype): Origin damaged (45%)! On the verge of collapse! Energy depleted!】

【Chen Feng Status: chaos base point weakly maintained (Energy 5%)... fragment of the fate plate on the verge of shattering... consciousness forcibly awakened...】

Outside the eggshell, the brief silence was broken.

Above the firmament, the cold Immortal Dao will of those three ferocious Immortal Dao giant ships surged and locked on like an enraged viper!

The pale muzzles of the xuanming icy fiend crossbows lit up again; this time the light was more restrained and condensed, and the spatial cracks around the crossbow bodies spread crazily like spiderwebs!

The golden light on the prows of the two boundary-breaking immortal shuttles also condensed again, the speed of the Restriction-breaking runes flowing faster and more urgently!

Clearly, they were adjusting their attack mode, preparing to launch a more precise, more difficult-to-deflect destructive strike!

That cold Immortal Dao will, like an invisible noose, tightened around the chaos moon egg once more!

There was no time left! The next strike would surely shatter the moon egg!

Chen Feng's blood-stained left hand remained pressed firmly against the moon-bright ground, maintaining that weak yet crucial link to the core hub of the ruins.

The "Go" intent transmitted by Su Wanzhao ignited like the final spark within his exhausted chaos base point!

"Argh—!" A scream suppressed to the extreme was squeezed from the depths of his throat.

His tightly closed heterochromatic eyes snapped open!

The Chaos vortex in his left eye spun crazily, carrying a hunger to devour everything; the moon-bright flames in his right eye burned fiercely, reflecting Su Wanzhao's Star Vortex on the verge of collapse!

The two forces clashed violently within his body, yet at this desperate juncture where his life hung by a thread, they were forcibly unified by a pure will to survive!

Borrowing the last trace of Chaos Star Vortex power transmitted by Su Wanzhao through the Origin link, Chen Feng's exhausted chaos base point erupted with a final devouring power, as if in a flash of dying brilliance!

But the target of this devouring was not the outside world, but... himself!

Hum!

The faint spark at the core of the base point expanded suddenly, turning into a violent miniature vortex, crazily tearing at his remaining life essence, fragmented Divine Soul shards, and... the fragment of the fate plate pressed against his chest, with its hideous cracks and on the verge of shattering!

"Give... burn!"

Chen Feng roared in his heart, his blood-stained right hand lifted suddenly, five fingers forming a claw, and with the last bit of power squeezed from the base point—mixed with his own essence blood, Divine Soul fragments, and the ancient aura leaking from the fragment of the fate plate on the verge of shattering—he slammed it hard onto the moon-bright ground connected to the ruins' hub!

This strike was not an attack, but a sacrifice!

A sacrifice of everything he could squeeze out at this moment, to ignite the Guanghan Restriction of the ruins' hub—which had been awakened but was rapidly fading—mixed with the aura of Chaos!

Rumble—!!!

The entire ice lake core seemed to have been thrown into a Chaos furnace!

Where Chen Feng struck, a huge vortex formed instantly, interwoven with Chaos Qi currents and shattered moon-bright runes!

The vortex spun crazily, emitting a violent power of spatial tearing!

Deep within the ruins, the triggered ancient formation platform, upon receiving this "fuel" mixed with Chen Feng's essence blood, Divine Soul fragments, and the aura of the fragment of the fate plate, let out a final roar like a dying beast!

The dim secret runes on the formation platform erupted with unprecedented dazzling light, and a spatial fluctuation far more chaotic and violent than before, carrying the remaining Guanghan Law and chaotic turbulence of the ruins' core, poured into the vortex at the core of the ice lake like an uncontrollable torrent!

"Moon falls... stars... shift... Chaos... void!"

The sigh of that vast, ancient woman sounded again, but it was full of Chaos and loss of control!

Hum!!!

The chaos moon egg bore the brunt!

Under the impact of the violent spatial turbulence, the gray-silver eggshell, like fragile glass, was instantly covered in spiderweb-like cracks!

Immediately after, a terrifying, irresistible power that twisted time and space acted fiercely upon the moon egg!

Pfft! Pfft!

Chen Feng and Su Wanzhao, at the core of the moon egg, spat out large mouthfuls of blood simultaneously (Chen Feng's was pale gold mixed with dark red, Su Wanzhao's was silver-gray)!

The gray-silver energy cocoon wrapping them shattered inch by inch!

The Chaos Star Vortex mark on Su Wanzhao's brow extinguished completely; she groaned, her body went limp, and her consciousness sank completely into darkness.

Chen Feng also felt as if his last ounce of strength had been drained, his vision went black, and he fell into a semi-comatose state, only his left hand pressed on the ground still gripped tightly by his last bit of will, as if it were the only straw to save his life!

Swish—!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a tooth-aching shriek as if space itself were being forcibly torn apart!

The entire chaos moon egg, along with the two dying people inside, was forcibly... swallowed by the out-of-control spatial vortex mixed with chaotic turbulence!

The moment the moon egg disappeared—

Chi! Chi! Chi!

The pale beams of the xuanming icy fiend crossbows and the golden streamers of the two boundary-breaking immortal shuttles tore through the space where the moon egg had just existed and slammed into the ice lake core!

There was no earth-shattering explosion; the three destructive energies were like mud oxen entering the sea, instantly swallowed and annihilated by the rapidly collapsing vortex that still retained violent spatial turbulence!

In its place remained only a huge spatial hole with edges flowing with the aura of Chaos, bottomless, and the ice lake's mysterious ice marrow, which had been thoroughly stirred up like a broken mirror!

Above the firmament, the cold will of the three Immortal Dao giant ships fluctuated violently, carrying a trace of astonishment and even deeper rage!

The target... had disappeared!

Not destroyed, but forcibly moved away by an extremely chaotic, hard-to-track spatial power!

"Pursue!"

The cold decree vibrated at the level of Law, "Lock onto the aura of the Chaos fragment! Even if you have to dig three feet deep, find it, and smash its bones to ashes!"

The xuanming icy fiend giant ship and the two boundary-breaking immortal shuttles changed direction, and their cold scanning fluctuations, like huge searchlights, began to crazily scan this broken ruin space, searching for any trace of spatial residue.

...

Cold. Deathly silence.

The sensation of weightlessness was like a maggot on the tarsal bone.

Chen Feng's consciousness floated in endless darkness and the Void Realm.

His body felt as if it had been thoroughly torn apart, or crushed into powder by invisible giant hands.

The chaos base point in his Dantian was silent as death, with only the spark at the core pulsing extremely weakly, proving that life had not yet been completely extinguished.

The fragment of the fate plate on his chest sent waves of burning pain; the cracks seemed to have deepened, emitting a wail of impending shattering.

Who knows how much time had passed, perhaps an instant, perhaps ten thousand years.

Bang!

A muffled impact, accompanied by the groan of bones unable to bear the burden, forcibly shook him awake from his dying sinking!

"Pfft!"

A large mouthful of reversed blood mixed with organ fragments and dark golden light spots sprayed out, staining the cold, hard "ground" beneath him red.

Chen Feng struggled to open his heavy eyelids; his vision was blurred, double images swaying.

Intense pain came from his limbs and bones, especially his chest and Dantian; every breath felt like a knife cut.

He endured the dizziness and tried to focus his gaze.

What came into view was not the ice crystal world of the Guanghan Ruins as expected, but a... bizarre, deathly desolate ruin.

This was a "corridor" unimaginably huge.

On both sides of the corridor, there were no walls, but piles of countless broken, twisted, and incomparably huge star remains!

These star fragments had long lost their vitality, presenting a cold metallic gray, deathly rock black, or dark red like solidified lava.

Large ones lay across the Void Realm like broken mountain ranges, while small ones floated like houses.

They squeezed and interlocked in a posture that violated the Laws of physics, forming a winding, twisting death passage that led to an unknown destination.

Underfoot was a "road" also paved with star fragments, uneven, full of huge impact craters and hideous textures from cooled lava.

The air (if it could still be called air) was thin to the extreme, permeated with star dust and an ancient, deathly aura of coldness, metal rust, and rock weathering.

There was no light, only the faint, extremely weak, dark red light occasionally flashing from inside some huge star remains in the distance, barely outlining the contours of this Burial Star land.

Where... is this?

Chen Feng struggled to sit up, but it triggered wounds all over his body, causing another bout of heart-rending pain.

He panted, subconsciously reaching out to touch his chest.

The fragment of the fate plate was still there, but the feeling under his touch made his heart sink—the crack was deeper!

It almost ran through the entire fragment, and the edges emitted unstable gray light, as if it would completely crack at any moment.

【fragment of the fate plate: Cracks intensified (on the verge of shattering)! Energy completely depleted! Warning!】

He turned his head sharply and looked to his side.

Su Wanzhao lay quietly on the star debris not far from him.

Her eyes were closed, her breathing weak but steadier than before.

The Chaos Star Vortex mark on her brow was dim and lusterless, almost imperceptible, but the previous fluctuation on the verge of collapse had disappeared; it seemed to be temporarily stabilized in an extremely weak state.

On the skin exposed by the damaged Guanghan Palace attire, silver-gray blood stains remained, but her complexion was no longer the deathly pale, but carried a sickly, almost transparent jade color.

【Su Wanzhao Status: Deep coma! Chaos Star Vortex silent (Origin damaged 45%)! Life aura weak and stable... Unknown Immortal Dao erosion energy remaining in the body (weak fluctuation)...】

Immortal Dao erosion?

Chen Feng's heart tightened.

Was it the vicious power left by the Immortal Envoy's decree? Or the damage brought by forcibly crossing the spatial turbulence?

He propped up his body, crawled to Su Wanzhao's side, and placed his trembling fingers on her wrist pulse.

The touch was icy, and the pulse was as weak as a spider thread.

What shocked him even more was that in the depths of her silent Origin, a trace of extremely subtle, yet cold, orderly, and viciously corrosive golden energy, like a maggot on the tarsal bone, was entrenched at the edge of the Chaos Star Vortex prototype, slowly and continuously emitting weak pollution fluctuations!

【Unknown Immortal Dao erosion (Immortal Curse residue): Continuously eroding... Target: Pollute Chaos Origin... Disintegrate Star Vortex...】

Damn it!

A flash of fierceness appeared in Chen Feng's eyes.

That Gold-Robed Immortal Envoy, his methods were actually so insidious!

He tried to mobilize his exhausted chaos base point, wanting to devour that trace of vicious Immortal Curse residue.

However, the base point was silent as death, and the spark at the core was so weak that it could hardly repair its own cracks, let alone attend to other things.

【chaos base point: Silent (Energy 0%)... core spark maintained... crack repair stalled...】

Despair surged into his heart like a cold tide again.

Being in this weird Burial Star Corridor, surrounded by strong enemies, his own energy exhausted, and Su Wanzhao unconscious and poisoned by a vicious Immortal Curse...

Just then—

Hum...

The fragment of the fate plate on his chest, which was on the verge of shattering, suddenly vibrated... extremely weakly!

Immediately after, an indescribable, extremely weak but supreme "call" with immense attraction seemed to pierce through the obstruction of endless star remains, faintly coming from the very depths of this Burial Star Corridor!

This call was not a sound, but a palpitation originating from the depths of his life soul!

It produced the most fundamental resonance with the fragment of the fate plate in his hand!

The unstable gray light at the edge of the fragment's cracks seemed to flicker extremely weakly in rhythm with this call.

At the same time, the spark at the core of Chen Feng's silent chaos base point also jumped... extremely arduously under this mysterious call from the depths of the corridor!

A trace of energy, so weak it could almost be ignored, yet extremely pure and carrying the aura of the ancient star Origin, actually ignored the silent state of the base point, seeped in bit by bit, and merged into that spark!

【fragment of the fate plate: Sensing the aura of a high-level star core of the same Origin (distant)... cracks temporarily stabilized...】

【chaos base point: Core spark receives weak star Origin nourishment... crack repair (0.1%)... extremely weak...】

Star core?!

Chen Feng looked up abruptly, his bloodshot chaotic left eye staring fixedly into the dark, endless depths of the Burial Star Corridor!