72: The shadow of the throne, the starlight returns to its place.

Cold. Dead silence. Absolute suppression.

The palm raised from the Dark-Gold Throne, composed of the chaotic, greyish Origin of the stars, did not release a destructive flow of light, nor did it condense a sphere of annihilating energy. It simply made a phantom pressing motion.

An indescribably terrifying will crashed down like the very foundation of the Universe! Transcending space and time, bearing the absolute authority to freeze the Long River of Time, it descended in an instant!

Chen Feng felt as if he had been cast into the absolute singularity before the birth of the Universe! His body, Divine Soul, dao foundation, consciousness... everything that constituted his existence was frozen and solidified in an instant! The inertia of his desperate traversal was forcibly erased; the Domain of Returning Ruins enveloping his body became like frozen flames, its dark light instantly dimming and stagnating! Inside his Dantian, the Universe Ruin Vortex, on the verge of collapse with only 28% solidity remaining, had its rotation forcibly interrupted, jammed tight like a rusted gear! The fire of hope that had just ignited within the ruins of his consciousness was instantly extinguished by this cold will; his self-awareness light was like a candle in the wind, its glow compressed to an imperceptible point!

He could not move! His thoughts were frozen! Before even the emotion of "despair" could arise, it was utterly crushed by this all-surpassing will!

Ahead, that stubbornly flickering speck of faint starlight, representing Su Wanzhao's own will, was likewise enveloped by this terrifying will! Like a firefly trapped in amber, its light instantly stagnated and dimmed, as if it would be completely extinguished at any moment!

Time seemed to lose its meaning. Under this absolute suppression, even "existence" itself became blurred and indistinct.

An unknown amount of time passed—perhaps a moment, perhaps an eternity.

A cold, ancient thought, carrying the loneliness of endless ages and a hint of... unutterable weariness, flowed as if from the end of time. It pierced directly through Chen Feng's frozen consciousness, echoing clearly:

"Returning Ruins... dao foundation... immature... yet... carries... stardust..."

"Thou... art willing... to be... the vessel?"

"Vessel?" Chen Feng's frozen consciousness struggled to process this cold Concept. Not erasure, not refinement, but... a vessel? To contain what? To contain this throne's will? To contain the cold laws of this Hall of Fate Wheel? Or... to contain the even heavier secrets within the myriad ancient stardust?

"Carry... this hall's... true name... operate... for ten thousand years..." The thought continued to flow, carrying an unquestionable sense of destiny. "Thy... Returning Ruins... dao foundation... matches... the order... of the end..."

"Become... my... arm... grasp... this hall's... pivot..."

The cold words were like a final judgment. To become a vessel for this throne's will, to turn into a cold part operating the ancient Hall of Fate Wheel, to lose self and emotion, becoming a part of the eternal laws! This was the so-called "vessel"!

"No..." The remaining self-awareness light let out a silent scream under the absolute suppression, carrying an obsession to protect and a longing for freedom. To become a vessel? Then what about Wanzhao? What did Senior Zhang's protection mean? Was the dao foundation he had struggled so hard to maintain merely meant to become someone else's shell?

However, this faint thought of resistance was as insignificant as dust before the absolute majesty of the throne's will.

Hum!

The floating hand of chaotic darkness slightly curled its fingers!

Ahead, that frozen speck of faint starlight belonging to Su Wanzhao was suddenly seized as if by an invisible giant hand. It was forcibly pulled from the rampaging sea of chaotic dark Origin, slowly flying toward the throne! The starlight flickered violently as it was pulled, its light waxing and waning; the pure light at its core let out a silent wail, as if it would shatter completely at any moment!

"Wanzhao!" Chen Feng roared in the depths of his Soul! Watching helplessly as that Last Light of hope was forcibly taken away, he was like an insect in amber, unable to move even a finger! His obsession to protect burned frantically amidst absolute powerlessness, yet it could only turn into the flames of despair, consuming himself!

Upon the throne, the blurred figure seemed to take a certain "interest" in the speck of starlight it had forcibly seized. With a light beckon from the hand of chaotic darkness, that faint yet pure starlight drifted slowly toward the core of the throne like iron filings drawn to a magnet. A cold will, carrying the intent of analysis and assimilation, enveloped the starlight, seemingly intending to dismantle, study, and eventually integrate it into the cold laws of the palace.

"Star Lamp... remnant... will... exceptionally... pure..." The cold thought carried a hint of inquiry. "Can... be refined... into... the guiding... candle..."

Refinement! To refine Wanzhao's last self-will into a guiding lamp for this cold palace!

"No—!!!" Chen Feng's consciousness struggled frantically under the absolute suppression, like a Raging Ape pinned beneath the Five-Finger Mountain! The Ruin Vortex let out a deathbed wail deep within his Dantian, attempting to reverse, attempting to erupt! But under the absolute suppression of the throne's will, it couldn't even stir a ripple!

Just as Su Wanzhao's speck of starlight was about to be completely seized by the throne and Chen Feng was falling into total despair—

A sudden change occurred!

Deep within the long-dormant dark-red tribulation imprint on Chen Feng's chest, a tiny, extremely condensed speck of dark-gold light suddenly lit up like the waking eye of a venomous snake!

This was not the will of the tribulation remnant soul! The tribulation remnant soul had already been completely purified in the previous beam of annihilation! This was... the last sliver of the Hall of Fate Wheel's Origin aura, stolen and hidden by the Punishment Calamity deep within the imprint! It was like the purest poison, kept as the Punishment Calamity's final trump card. Now, at the perfect moment—when Chen Feng was absolutely suppressed by the throne's will, his mental defenses at their lowest, and Su Wanzhao's starlight was being drawn to the throne—it was triggered by a certain "self-destruct" mechanism remaining in the depths of the imprint!

Whoosh—!

A thread of dark-gold light, condensed to the extreme and moving faster than the limits of thought, shot out from the depths of the tribulation imprint like the most insidious cursed arrow in the Universe! Its target was neither Chen Feng nor the throne's will, but... Su Wanzhao's last speck of pure starlight currently being seized by the throne!

This light thread was incredibly malicious! It did not contain direct destructive energy, but rather the purest contamination of the Hall of Fate Wheel's Origin! It sought to completely pollute that final pure starlight, turning it into a malignant tumor that would detonate the throne's will! This was the final strike left by the tribulation remnant soul before its fall! It was pure, vicious revenge! Since it couldn't have it, it would destroy it utterly! It would plunge this damned Hall of Fate Wheel, along with the vessel and Star Lamp it coveted, into total Chaos!

Fast! Sinister! Perfect timing!

Ignoring the suppression of the throne's will, the dark-gold light thread instantly pierced through the solidified space, stabbing viciously toward the pure starlight drifting toward the throne!

Upon the throne, the blurred figure seemed to pause for a moment. For the first time, a clear ripple appeared in the cold thought: "Contamination... Origin... Clear..."

Hum!

An invisible barrier of laws instantly condensed in front of the starlight!

However, it was too late! The Origin contamination within that dark-gold light thread was so pure and strange that it actually merged into the law barrier for a brief moment like a key! Although the light thread itself was instantly annihilated by the barrier, the sliver of the purest contaminated intent at its core was like a maggot in the bone, instantly piercing through the gap in the barrier and branding itself onto the core of the pure starlight!

Hum—!!!

Su Wanzhao's speck of pure starlight, like cold water thrown into boiling oil, suddenly erupted with blinding and chaotic light! Pure starlight, strange dark-gold contamination, and the pained wail of Su Wanzhao's own will deep within the starlight frantically intertwined and clashed! The volume of the starlight instantly expanded and distorted, becoming extremely unstable!

"Logic... error... contamination source... invading... core... associated entity..." For the first time, the cold thought of the throne's will carried a clear "Chaos" alarm! That speck of contaminated starlight produced intense conflict and interference with the core laws of the Hall of Fate Wheel! The absolute suppression originally placed on Chen Feng and Su Wanzhao developed a... gap for a billionth of a fraction of a second due to this sudden core contamination interference!

It was that billionth of a fraction of a second!

Chen Feng's consciousness, which had been frantically scorched by despair and the obsession to protect, snapped back like a spring compressed to its limit the moment the throne's suppression faltered!

"Returning Ruins... De... vour!" A thought originating from biological instinct, transcending thought, exploded in the depths of his Soul!

Inside his Dantian, the absolutely suppressed Universe Ruin Vortex, on the verge of collapse, seemed to sense the eruption of the host's Soul-deep obsession to protect. At the core, that speck of darkness that encompassed the end of all things spontaneously and desperately... collapsed inward the moment the gap in suppression appeared!

Not rotation! Not operation! But the purest... ultimate collapse... of the Origin of Returning Ruins!

Hum—!!!

A "point" darker and purer than the cosmic abyss was born at the core of the Ruin Vortex! An indescribably faint suction, yet one that contained the Concept of the Origin point of the end of all things, erupted instantly with Chen Feng as the center!

This suction was so faint it could almost be ignored, but at this chaotic node of a billionth of a fraction of a second—where the throne's suppression had a gap and the starlight was interfered with by contamination conflict—it produced an incredible effect!

It did not go to oppose the throne's will, nor did it touch the contaminated speck of starlight. Its target was the extremely brief... "gap" created by the conflict between Su Wanzhao's starlight fragments and the sliver of dark-gold contamination within them, just as they were being seized by the throne and were only inches away from Chen Feng!

It was like throwing the tiniest grain of sand into precision gears!

That contaminated, expanding, and distorted speck of starlight was lightly "tugged" by this extremely faint suction of the Origin Point of Returning Ruins amidst the Chaos of its own contamination conflict and the throne's law interference!

Its direction... underwent an extremely subtle... deviation!

No longer drifting toward the cold core of the throne, it instead... tumbled and fell... toward the boiling, rampaging sea of chaotic dark Origin below, which was filled with destructive beams of annihilation!

"No—!" For the first time, the cold thought of the throne's will emitted a ripple akin to "anger"! That hand of chaotic darkness lunged toward the falling starlight!

But it was already too late!

Boom—!!!

An annihilation beam as thick as a galaxy, which had been rampaging indiscriminately, happened to sweep through that area! That contaminated, distorted fragment of starlight was like a moth to a flame, instantly and completely swallowed... by that destructive beam of chaotic darkness!

Blinding light erupted instantly! The pure starlight, the strange dark-gold contamination, the final wail of Su Wanzhao's own will... everything was decomposed and dissipated within that chaotic darkness representing ultimate annihilation...

The starlight... was extinguished?

At that moment, Chen Feng's heart seemed to shatter, freeze, and sink into a bottomless icy abyss.

However, the instant that speck of starlight was swallowed by the annihilation beam and its light completely vanished—

Hum!!!

A faint yet incredibly pure and familiar ripple of the star Origin quietly emanated... from deep within the dormant tribulation imprint on Chen Feng's chest without any warning!

Immediately following, right next to the imprint, a speck of pure, gentle, and restrained starlight, like a newborn star, abruptly... emerged and lit up!

It was only the size of a grain of rice, its glow faint, yet it carried a purity and resilience that had survived the baptism of annihilation! At its core, a faint yet incredibly clear light of Su Wanzhao's own will was slowly and firmly... reigniting, like a Phoenix reborn from the ashes!

**The Star Lamp... Returns!**

Under the ultimate trial of annihilation and the subtle pull of the Origin Point of Returning Ruins, Su Wanzhao's final Origin light had miraculously escaped the contamination and the throne's seizure. Like a traveler returning home, it followed the aura of the Fate Wheel starlight within Chen Feng's body—which shared the same source—pierced through the chaotic storm of laws, and returned to the place closest to his heart!

Chen Feng's frozen consciousness felt as if it had been cast into a furnace! Despair instantly turned into a torrent of wild joy!