77: The Graveyard of the World: The Mystery of Simplicity

The chaotic sensation of being torn by spatial turbulence vanished abruptly, as if he had been tossed from the center of a violent tsunami into a vacuum of absolute silence.

Chen Feng crashed down heavily, but beneath him was not a hard solid, but a strange, slightly elastic membrane of the Void Realm.

His insides were in turmoil; the backlash from forcibly detonating the Xingtian imprint and activating the Star Dome Eternal Burning Violet Flame clung to him like maggots on bone. Every inch of his Meridians felt as if it were being repeatedly seared by red-hot branding irons. Deep within his Dantian, the violet flame fate wheel spun with extreme difficulty, its solidity having plummeted from 60% to 55%, its surface violet light flickering unsteadily as if it might collapse at any moment.

Although the corrosive sensation of the tribulation imprint had been isolated from the stimulation of external Chaos energy and was temporarily stabilized at 27.1%, that cold, gray aura still lingered in the depths of his Divine Soul like a lurking viper.

He struggled to kneel up, a sweetness rising in his throat, which he forcefully swallowed back along with the metallic taste of blood.

The Star Dome Barrier appeared automatically, flowing with thin purple star flames, its strength maintained at around 10%; this was the baseline he could barely sustain after isolating himself from the external destructive storms.

He looked around.

Silence.

Absolute silence swallowed all sounds, making even his own heartbeat seem deafening.

What met his eyes was a scene whose vastness and desolation defied description. It was an endless, cold Void Realm, without up or down, left or right, without stars, sun, or moon; there was only eternal darkness as the backdrop.

Yet, upon this dark curtain, countless... wrecks were scattered.

Unimaginably huge stellar fragments floated silently, like randomly discarded gravel. They had long since extinguished, their surfaces covered in craters from meteorite impacts and massive chasms that had torn the planets apart, retaining the grayness and coldness characteristic of a star after its annihilation.

Shattered landmasses with jagged edges stood frozen, bearing twisted mountain ranges, dried-up ocean basins, and the outlines of civilization ruins that had long since turned into stone forests, silently recounting the doomsday of a world thoroughly pulverized.

Further away were broken metal structures as massive as galaxies, on which mysterious and complex patterns were faintly visible, but they had completely dimmed, having lost all energy reactions.

One could even see the skeletons of bizarre, long-petrified giant beasts whose bone structures far exceeded cognition; the smallest were comparable to mountains, while the largest were like bridges spanning galaxies, their hollow eye sockets staring into eternal nothingness.

This was the graveyard of ten thousand worlds. It was the place where stars ended and civilizations were buried. A cold fear, stemming from the instinct of life, regarding the ultimate destination, quietly crept into Chen Feng's heart. The air was filled with a pure aura of "Annihilation," so thick it was almost solid. Every breath felt like swallowing ice shards, and even his newly born Star Dome Eternal Burning Violet Flame felt an invisible suppression, its operation sluggish.

[System Prompt: Entered unknown spatial coordinates — "Cosmic Graveyard (Surface Layer)." Environment: Ultra-high concentration of Source of Annihilation, Law inertia, energy activity approaching zero.]

A warm yet heavy sensation came from his palm, carrying a strange pulsation. Chen Feng looked down; the inheritance seal, which had cost him all his Luck and nearly his life to obtain, was lying quietly in his hand.

It was not a physical object, but more like a ball of extremely condensed Law light bound by an invisible force field. Deep within its core, a point of pure purple starlight was slowly circulating, resonating faintly with the guixu fate wheel in his Dantian.

This resonance was the only faint yet real breath of "life" that could be felt in this place.

Just then, the purple starlight at the core of the silent inheritance seal suddenly brightened for an instant!

Hum!

At the position of Chen Feng's heart, the star-glow mark belonging to Su Wanzhao seemed to have been strongly stimulated, suddenly erupting with unprecedented, brilliant radiance! This light was no longer a weak will of protection, but carried a strong desire that seemed to want to break free from shackles and achieve Nirvana and Rebirth!

"Last Light?!" Chen Feng's mind shook violently, and he subconsciously covered his heart.

He could clearly feel that the star seed, which had been silent deep within his Dantian, was, under the guidance of the inheritance seal's starlight, absorbing the near-solid Source of Annihilation of this place at an unprecedented speed! This was not nourishment, but more like a... transformation? A crazy attempt to seek metamorphosis in the desperate situation of annihilation!

On the surface of the star seed, fine cracks appeared and disappeared in the light, as if something was gestating inside, about to break out of its shell! An indescribable palpitation, mixed with worry for Su Wanzhao's safety, filled Chen Feng's chest.

Just as this palpitation climbed to its peak—

In the silent Void Realm ahead, behind a piece of floating stellar wreckage that resembled a small landmass, the space rippled silently like the surface of water into which a stone had been thrown.

A point of pure starlight, growing from weak to strong, pierced through the heavy darkness of annihilation.

The starlight condensed into a figure, floating quietly above the huge stellar wreckage.

The figure was shrouded in a hazy star-glow; the face could not be seen, only a blurred outline could be discerned. The figure was tall and straight, carrying a calmness born from having experienced the vicissitudes of life.

The aura flowing around it was completely out of place with the silence of this Cosmic Graveyard. It was not powerful, but rather appeared introverted and distant, like an ancient jade buried deep underground, revealing an indelible toughness within its gentleness. This aura... was actually faintly of the same origin as the star-glow mark of Su Wanzhao on Chen Feng's heart, and the newly born Star Dome Eternal Burning Violet Flame in his Dantian!

What made Chen Feng's pupils shrink even more was that at the blurred cuff of the figure, a extremely dim mark, almost about to merge into the star-glow, flashed and disappeared!

The shape of the mark was an incomplete ancient character, as if outlined by the trajectories of stars—"Guard"!

Zhang Shouzhuo?!

This name exploded in Chen Feng's Sea of Consciousness like a thunderclap! The protective will of the throne phantom, the furious roar of Xingtian, and now this same-origin star-glow aura and the "Guard" character mark... countless clues connected instantly!

"Is it you?" Chen Feng's voice was slightly hoarse from excitement and injuries. He braced himself to stand straight, the violet flame fate wheel in his body accelerating its rotation, the Star Dome Barrier flowing with violet light. His gaze, intertwined with wariness and anticipation, locked tightly onto the starlight figure. "Senior Zhang Shouzhuo? Was it you who helped me in the Hall of Fate Wheel? That throne phantom..."

The starlight figure seemed to move slightly, the star-glow shrouding the face gently undulating. A gentle voice, yet carrying endless exhaustion and complex emotions, echoed directly within Chen Feng's mind, as if spanning across ages:

"The star fire... has not been extinguished after all. The fate wheel has returned to truth, the violet flame has reignited... You have done better than I imagined." This voice was exactly the same consciousness he had heard before being sucked in! It had admitted it!

"Senior!" Chen Feng's heart was stirred, and he was just about to ask about the mystery of Xingtian, the truth of the Hall of Fate Wheel, and the mutation of Su Wanzhao's star seed.

A sudden change occurred!

The huge stellar wreckage beneath the starlight figure, in the depths of the darkness shrouded by its shadow, began to boil without warning!

A pure, extreme will of destruction from the Path of Slaughter, one that made Chen Feng's Soul tremble with familiarity, erupted like a volcano that had been suppressed for hundreds of millions of years! Gray, viscous blood-light, carrying endless resentment, instantly polluted that part of the Void Realm, illuminating the cold stellar wreckage as if it were a blood pool of Hell!

"Traitor!!!"

Xingtian's roar, full of endless fury and hatred, did not come from the outside, but exploded directly from the core of that boiling blood-light, like the collective curse of billions of wronged Souls, slamming fiercely into Chen Feng's Divine Soul! The tribulation imprint in his Dantian instantly became scorching hot, and its recovery rate jumped sharply—27.5%!

An extremely condensed dark red halberd shadow, carrying the terrifying killing intent to tear through ages and sever Karma, slashed out silently from that boiling blood-light! The moment it appeared, the surrounding floating stellar fragments and landmasses silently turned into dust, and even the Source of Annihilation here was forcibly pushed aside! Its speed exceeded the limits of perception; its target was not Chen Feng, but pointed directly at the starlight figure that had just condensed above the stellar wreckage!

This strike carried Xingtian's boundless hatred for being obstructed, having his power stolen, and having his Legacy taken away! It was a killing blow! It was the will of the Path of Slaughter's primal ancestor, projected across endless space-time and Seals into this graveyard, a fatal strike!

The starlight figure seemed to have expected this and did not dodge. The star-glow shrouding him suddenly became incredibly solid, and his hands held a void in front of him. A tiny vortex, yet one that seemed to have condensed the trajectories of the birth and death of ten thousand stars, instantly took shape, meeting the heaven-destroying halberd shadow!

"Watch out!" Chen Feng's eyes were splitting, and he had no time to think. His body reacted before his consciousness! The scorching pain of the tribulation imprint and the roaring instinct of the Star Dome violet flame were activated simultaneously!

In his Dantian, the violet flame fate wheel, which was struggling to maintain itself, let out a moan of being unable to bear the burden, its solidity dropping another 2% instantly, falling to 53%! But the violet flames burned violently!

"Block it for me—!"

Chen Feng's figure turned into a burning purple meteor, recklessly interposing himself between that destructive halberd shadow and the starlight figure! He crossed his arms in front of his chest, and the violet flames flowing on the Star Dome Barrier surged instantly, condensing into a thick shield composed of countless rotating purple Star Vortexes—[Star Dome Barrier · Eternal Burning Defense]!

Boom—Crack!!!

The dark red halberd shadow slashed fiercely onto the violet flame Star Vortex shield!

Time seemed to freeze completely at the point of collision.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a screeching sound that made one's Divine Soul freeze, the sound of Laws being forcibly annihilated!

The violet flame star shield vibrated violently, and countless tiny Star Vortexes on the shield's surface were instantly crushed and extinguished by the Path of Slaughter will contained in the halberd shadow! The bones in Chen Feng's arms emitted a teeth-grinding groan, his skin cracked inch by inch, and purple-gold blood sprayed out like a fountain, only to turn into nothingness the moment it touched the destructive aura of the halberd shadow! The strength value of the Star Dome Barrier plummeted crazily—10%... 8%... 5%... 3%!

The gray aura of the tribulation imprint, like a shark that had smelled blood, crazily backlashed against Chen Feng's Divine Soul along the destructive will of the halberd shadow. Its recovery rate, like a wild horse off the leash, instantly broke through 28% and surged toward 29%! The severe pain and the cold corrosive sensation almost made him faint instantly!

"Argh—!" Chen Feng let out a beast-like roar, and bloodshot with a gray aura seeped from his seven orifices. The violet flame fate wheel in his body, under overloaded operation, let out a moan of being on the verge of shattering, its solidity closing in on the 50% collapse critical point!

Just at the moment when the violet flame star shield was about to shatter completely and Chen Feng's body was about to be torn apart by the aftermath of the halberd shadow!

The starlight figure behind him pushed his hands, which were holding the void, forward abruptly!

The condensed tiny stellar vortex suddenly expanded, not to clash hard with the halberd shadow, but to generate a powerful yet gentle traction force, acting precisely on Chen Feng!

Whoosh!

Chen Feng, along with the violet flame star shield about to shatter in front of him, was pulled away diagonally by this force!

Boom!!!

The destructive dark red halberd shadow slashed fiercely past the edge of Chen Feng's broken Star Dome Barrier, and the aftermath shook him, sending him flying backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into a piece of floating giant metal structure wreckage in the distance, smashing a deep dent into it. A mouthful of blood mixed with viscera fragments sprayed out, and his consciousness instantly blurred.

And that halberd shadow, having lost its main target, poured its terrifying torrent of destruction entirely onto the position where the starlight figure had been!

The stellar wreckage annihilated silently, turning into the most primitive stream of particles. That space was completely shattered, forming a terrifying rift that would not heal for a long time, flowing with dark red blood-light.

The starlight... had disappeared.

Was it annihilated head-on by the halberd shadow?

"Senior!!!" Chen Feng struggled to crawl out of the metal dent, disregarding the wounds all over his body and the crazy backlash of the tribulation imprint in his Divine Soul. He roared hoarsely, looking at the destroyed rift area with eyes splitting.

In the silent Void Realm, only the blood-light of the Path of Slaughter flickered at the edge of the rift, exuding an aura of despair.

Yet, right at the center of that destructive rift, a weak point of starlight, as if it could be extinguished at any moment, tenaciously lit up again.

The starlight condensed with difficulty, even dimmer than before, and its outline even more blurred, like a candle in the wind. That exhausted voice sounded again, carrying a hint of the weakness of having survived a disaster, yet it passed into Chen Feng's chaotic consciousness with exceptional clarity:

"Annihilation... is also firewood... The star vault... shall burn eternally..." The voice paused, carrying a clear understanding of the situation inside Chen Feng's body, "The Xingtian imprint... the star seed metamorphosis... Your time... is running out..."

Before the voice had finished, that faint starlight seemed to have exhausted its last bit of strength, suddenly extinguished, disappearing completely into the dark red blood-light surging in the destructive rift, leaving no trace of aura at all.

"Senior—!" Chen Feng's roar echoed in the silent graveyard, but received no response.

Only the inheritance seal in his palm, the purple starlight at its core, seemed to dim slightly the moment the starlight figure disappeared, transmitting a deep sense of sorrow and determination.