68: Blood Talisman Stained Star, Wheel of Fate Opens

The eternal pressure of the Hall of Fate Wheel froze time and space. The chaotic, murky star Origin, like thick amber, locked the broken star dome ark firmly within the Void Realm. The star vortex core at Su Wanzhao's chest resonated with the majestic summons emanating from the massive light-wheel structure, rotating incessantly and emitting a pure, yearning starlight.

At the instant the roar of the tribulation remnant soul exploded deep within Chen Feng's Soul, that dark red blood talisman—condensing its desperate will and laced with eerie dark-gold patterns—had already pierced through the frozen Origin space. It ignored the Universe Ruin shield shadow Chen Feng had hastily conjured and was now only a hair's breadth away from the star vortex core at Su Wanzhao's chest!

Time seemed to stretch into eternity.

Chen Feng's eyes nearly split from the strain. His blood-stained palm, accompanied by a mournful cry that tore through the air, reached for Su Wanzhao's shoulder, attempting to pull her away from this imminent destruction. Within his Dantian, the Universe Ruin Vortex reversed frantically, trying to forcibly 'return to ruin' and devour the blood talisman! However, this strike—long-plotted by Punishment Calamity and fueled by burning 20% of his recovery Origin—was far faster and more uncanny than Chen Feng, heavily injured and suppressed by the Hall of Fate Wheel, could react to!

In Su Wanzhao's starry eyes, which reflected the destructive blood talisman, her pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints due to the extreme crisis! The powerful resonance between the star vortex core and the Hall of Fate Wheel was instantly interrupted by this sudden malice. A cold premonition of death, born from primal instinct, froze her blood.

At the very moment the blood talisman was about to brand itself onto the star vortex core—

All the confusion, weakness, and pain in Su Wanzhao's eyes vanished instantly! They were replaced by an icy, absolute rationality and resolve, as if stars themselves were entering nirvana!

She didn't try to dodge Chen Feng's reaching hand, nor did she care about the blood talisman about to strike her. Her intent, with a speed exceeding the limits of thought, sank completely into the star vortex core at her chest! That newborn stellar will, yearning for the Hall of Fate Wheel, exploded with unprecedented control under the stimulus of death!

“Congeal!” A cold thought, like a decree from the cosmic vacuum, exploded deep within her Soul!

Hum—!!!

The star vortex core, which had been rotating steadily and emitting a warm starlight, suddenly collapsed inward! Its rotation speed increased more than a thousandfold in a billionth of a second! The spark of light at the center, representing Su Wanzhao's true self-will, shone as brilliantly as a supernova! The massive suction instantly transformed into a terrifying repulsive force that collapsed inward, freezing everything!

This repulsive force wasn't for outward defense; it acted upon the star vortex core itself! In a self-destructive manner, it forcibly froze the time and space in the immediate vicinity of the core! It managed to—briefly—'freeze' the dark red blood talisman, along with the malicious Path of Slaughter curse and the eerie Hall of Fate Wheel primer within it, onto the surface of the star vortex core!

Sizzle—!

The dark red blood talisman, like a red-hot branding iron, pressed hard against the surface of the forcibly frozen star vortex core! The filthy power of the Path of Slaughter curse and that eerie fate wheel primer, like maggots on a bone, frantically corroded and penetrated the frozen starlight barrier! The star vortex core shook violently, its pure starlight instantly contaminated, stained with a layer of demonic dark red and ominous dark gold! Deep within the core, Su Wanzhao’s brilliant spark of light dimmed sharply, like a candle flickering in the wind!

“Ugh, ah—!” Su Wanzhao felt as if ten thousand blades were piercing her heart. Her body arched backward violently, and she sprayed out a mouthful of blood mixed with starlight fragments and dark red mist! Forcibly freezing the core's space-time to block this fatal blow had caused an unimaginable backlash to her nascent dao foundation! The light of the star vortex core at her chest flickered violently, alternating between brightness and darkness as pure starlight and filthy dark red and dark gold frantically intertwined, conflicted, and annihilated each other! The newborn stellar pulse instantly became chaotic and pained!

“Wanzhao!” Chen Feng’s hand finally grabbed her shoulder. The touch was cold and slippery, covered entirely in the blood she had coughed up! His heart was torn asunder as the power of Universe Ruin flooded into her body, attempting to suppress the rampaging Path of Slaughter curse and purify that eerie fate wheel primer! But this desperate blood talisman from Punishment Calamity was more malicious and uncanny than he had imagined! While the power of Universe Ruin could devour and end things, it was difficult to instantly purify such a hybrid contamination that reached into the core of the dao foundation and carried the aura of the Hall of Fate Wheel's Origin!

“No... use...” Su Wanzhao's voice was weak as a thread, carrying a tearing pain. She suddenly grabbed Chen Feng's wrist with surprising strength, her nails sinking deep into his flesh. “Its... goal... is the Hall... use me... to open the door...” Her eyes were fixed on the nearby Hall of Fate Wheel, her starry gaze filled with the coldness and resolve of one who had seen through the conspiracy.

Boom—!!!

As if to confirm her judgment!

At the very moment the dark red blood talisman contaminated the star vortex core and Su Wanzhao suffered the horrific backlash!

The absolutely calm, chaotic, and murky star Origin region ahead suddenly began to boil! The Hall of Fate Wheel suspended at the center—that massive structure composed of countless nested and rotating light wheels of dark gold, astral purple, and chaotic gray—saw its outermost layer of slowly rotating dark gold light wheel suddenly erupt with unprecedented brilliance!

Upon the light wheel, those ancient and profound natural dao patterns flowed frantically! A majestic, cold, impersonal will, carrying the sense of absolute judgment like an awakening cosmic Dominator, instantly locked onto the star dome ark! More accurately, it locked onto the star vortex core at Su Wanzhao's chest, which was contaminated by the dark red blood talisman and emitting an eerie dark gold and Path of Slaughter aura!

That will had no emotional fluctuation, as if it were merely executing a predetermined rule-based program. It 'saw' the contaminated state of the star vortex core and sensed the eerie primer within it—which belonged to the Hall of Fate Wheel's Origin aura—as well as the filth of the Path of Slaughter!

“Detected... unauthorized... contamination source... carrying... Level One authority fragment... attempting... forced access...” An emotionless, cold mental message, like the grinding of billions of gears, pierced through space and echoed deep within Chen Feng and Su Wanzhao's consciousness!

“Executing... Core Protocol... Purge contamination... Reclaim fragment... Erase... associated carrier...”

Hum—!!!

At the center of that erupting dark gold light wheel of the Hall of Fate Wheel, an energy vortex composed of pure, chaotic, murky star Origin—emitting an aura of absolute 'ending' and 'annihilation'—instantly formed! The vortex rotated, its core containing a void darker than the cosmic abyss! A terrifying, irresistible suction capable of turning stars into basic particles erupted violently! Its target—aimed directly at Su Wanzhao and her contaminated star vortex core!

This suction was far more terrifying than that of the Ancient Star Marrow Whale! The frozen star Origin space shattered like fragile glass under this suction! The hull of the star dome ark, which had already reached its 91% damage limit, groaned under the weight of this suction. The bow section, as if squeezed by an invisible giant hand, began to twist, disintegrate, and turn into fly ash! The self-destruction patterns on the nirvana star dome fragments flickered frantically, but they didn't even get a chance to detonate before being decomposed by that annihilation power!

Death! Absolute, unquestionable death! A 'cleanup' program from the Hall of Fate Wheel itself!

“No—!” Chen Feng let out a beast-like roar! The Universe Ruin Vortex spun frantically to its limit, attempting to erupt with Universe Ruin power to resist this terrifying suction! But his newly formed dao foundation was like a mantis trying to stop a carriage before this annihilation suction from the Hall of Fate Wheel's Origin! The dark Universe Ruin power had just emerged from his body when it was forcibly torn apart and devoured by that chaotic, murky annihilation vortex! The backlash caused him to bleed from all seven orifices, and a tearing pain shot through his Dantian and dao foundation!

He held Su Wanzhao tightly, trying to use his body to block the annihilation suction! But it was all in vain! The suction was like an invisible giant hand that instantly seized Su Wanzhao! The star vortex core at her chest, with its contaminated dark red and dark gold light, erupted with a blinding radiance under the pull of the annihilation suction, acting like a lighthouse in the dark and creating an even stronger resonance with the Hall of Fate Wheel's annihilation vortex!

“Chen Feng... let go!” Su Wanzhao's voice carried a strange calm. Her blood-stained fingers suddenly exerted force, and a weak but pure stellar repulsive force erupted, briefly shaking off Chen Feng's tight grip! On her cheeks, stained with starlight and blood, a sorrowful yet resolute smile appeared. Her starry eyes reflected Chen Feng's desperate face. “What it wants... is me... the key... to open the door... can't... take you too...”

Before she could finish, the terrifying annihilation suction suddenly intensified!

“Wanzhao!!!” Chen Feng’s eyes nearly split from the strain. His blood-stained hand reached out in vain toward Su Wanzhao as she was pulled away by the suction, but he only managed to catch a torn piece of her sleeve!

Su Wanzhao's body, like a kite with a broken string, was instantly swallowed by that chaotic, murky annihilation vortex! The contaminated star vortex core at her chest erupted with its final, most blinding mixed radiance—pure starlight, filthy dark red, and eerie dark gold—like a multi-colored gem thrown into a furnace, it crashed violently into the center of the annihilation vortex of the Hall of Fate Wheel's outer light wheel!

Boom—!!!!

An indescribable, terrifying explosion!

There was no sound, only the annihilation of pure light and shadow! At the center of that massive dark gold light wheel of the Hall of Fate Wheel, a chaotic, murky sphere of light that devoured everything erupted! The sphere expanded rapidly; everywhere it passed, the frozen star Origin, shattered space fragments, and the final remains of the star dome ark... every existence, tangible or intangible, was instantly decomposed and turned into nothingness!

Chen Feng was violently sent flying by this destructive shockwave! Had the Universe Ruin Vortex not spontaneously protected its master at the critical moment of life and death, emitting an extremely faint dark halo that barely offset the most direct annihilation power, he would have already followed in the footsteps of the star dome ark! Even so, he felt as if he had been struck by billions of giant hammers. Every bone in his body made a gut-wrenching cracking sound, and his consciousness instantly fell into a chaotic darkness, leaving only Su Wanzhao's sorrowful and resolute smile before she was swallowed by the vortex, branded deep within his Soul!

At the very moment Chen Feng was about to lose consciousness completely and be torn apart by the explosion's aftershocks—

Hum!

The outer light wheel of the Hall of Fate Wheel, which had swallowed Su Wanzhao and erupted with the terrifying annihilation sphere, suddenly stalled in its rotation! Upon the surface of the light wheel, those ancient and profound dao patterns—at the very center where the annihilation sphere had erupted—eerily manifested wisps of dark red and dark gold patterns! These were the traces of the Path of Slaughter curse and the fate wheel primer left behind after Su Wanzhao's contaminated star vortex core had merged with it!

These filthy patterns twisted and spread like living things, briefly interfering with the perfect operation of the light wheel's dao patterns!

Then, at the core of that expanding chaotic, murky annihilation sphere, a tiny but pure spark of starlight—like a firefly struggling in endless darkness—lit up with extreme tenacity! It was the spark of Su Wanzhao's true self-will! In the double desperation of annihilation and contamination, she still hadn't given up!

The appearance of this pure spark of starlight was like a grain of errant sand thrown into a precise destruction program!

For the first time, the cold, impersonal judgment will of the Hall of Fate Wheel experienced an extremely subtle, nearly imperceptible... 'Chaos' fluctuation!

“Level One authority fragment... contamination... conflict... logic... error... re... evaluating...”

Hum—!!!

The massive annihilation vortex of the outer light wheel, its terrifying devouring and decomposing suction, actually... experienced an extremely brief deflection and delay due to the interference of that pure starlight spark at the core and the conflict with the contamination patterns!

It was this billionth-of-a-second deflection and delay!

Chen Feng, who had been sent flying by the explosion and whose consciousness was in a semi-comatose state of Chaos, was carried by the violent energy turbulence like a rootless weed. By a strange stroke of luck, he was lightly 'swept' toward the Hall of Fate Wheel by the edge of that deflected annihilation suction!

He wasn't devoured or decomposed! Instead, it was as if he were captured by a chaotic gravity, tumbling and falling toward a tiny, almost imperceptible chaotic, murky 'fissure' that had briefly appeared on the surface of the massive light-wheel structure due to the dao pattern conflict!

In the final moment before falling into that fissure, Chen Feng's remaining consciousness caught a blurry 'glimpse' through the light and shadow of the chaotic explosion:

Deep within the countless nested light wheels of the Hall of Fate Wheel, in that chaotic, murky core region, there seemed to be a massive, ancient dark gold throne constructed from the skeletons of countless stars. Upon the throne, a blurry figure emitting an aura of indescribable loneliness and antiquity seemed to... slowly... lift its head. The silhouette of that figure actually carried a hint of... an indescribable sense of familiarity!

Zhang... Shouzhu?!

This thought flashed like a bolt of lightning through Chen Feng's chaotic consciousness, only to be completely submerged immediately after.

In the next instant, the cold, chaotic murkiness containing endless rules and the aura of time completely swallowed his perception. His body passed through that tiny fissure, falling into the unknown, eternally sealed internal space of the Hall of Fate Wheel.

Behind him, on the outer light wheel, that spark of pure starlight—amidst the frantic conflict between the annihilation vortex and the contamination patterns—was like a lone boat in a raging sea. Its light flickered, struggling tenaciously, but was ultimately swallowed and submerged bit by bit by the endless chaotic murkiness and filthy dark red...

The star vortex is defiled, and the fate wheel opens the door. One falls into the eternal hall, the other is trapped deep within the annihilation vortex. Is the road ahead an unknown Legacy, or an eternal cage?