88: Graveyard of Time and Space, a mutilated body guarding the tomb

Absolute nothingness.

No light, no sound, no up, down, left, or right, not even the concept of “existence” itself.

Only eternal cold, and an absolute stillness that seemed to freeze and obliterate the soul itself.

Chen Feng's remaining consciousness drifted in this boundless void. Like a speck of dust thrown into a cosmic ice river, he felt no passage of time, no boundaries of space. Only that faint, star-blue light deep within his dantian, representing Su Wanzhao's last will, flickered stubbornly like a candle in the wind, maintaining his last shred of “existence”.

"Chen Feng... live on..."

That faint thread of will was the only anchor in this absolute void.

He didn't know how long he had drifted—a billionth of a second, or a billion years.

Buzz... An extremely subtle, viscous resistance brushed past his broken perception without warning.

Then came gravity.

Faint, yet truly present.

As if slowly surfacing from the absolute silence of the deep sea, passing through layers of viscous, icy water, Chen Feng's almost completely dormant consciousness was pulled by this faint gravity, struggling to... “float” in a certain direction.

Thump.

A dull thud, like an object falling into a swamp.

Chen Feng's shattered body crashed down heavily.

The sensation... was cold, viscous, carrying an indescribable aura of decay and ruin. This wasn't soil; it was more like... some kind of cosmic corpse mud, solidified for billions of years, mixed with stardust and the debris of civilizations.

Faint, icy air, carrying the scent of sulfur and metallic rust, surged into his broken lungs with a strong irritant, causing a tearing cough.

"Ugh... cough, cough, cough..."

He struggled to open a slit in his eyes.

His vision was blurry, as if covered by a thick layer of flowing, decaying grease.

The sky... if it could be called a sky. There were no sun, moon, or stars, only a chaotic firmament of constantly twisting, writhing, flowing viscous light bands of gray, black, and dark red. These light bands, like the intestines of a living creature, slowly writhed and intertwined, emitting a nauseating aura mixed with annihilation, decay, and faint radiation. Occasionally, huge, pale cracks, like solidified lightning, flashed across the chaotic firmament, bringing instantaneous, deathly pale light that illuminated the desolate land below.

The land... was solidified despair.

As far as the eye could see, there were endless, undulating “hills.” But these “hills” were not naturally formed; they were piled, squeezed, and frozen together from countless unimaginably huge, long-lost luster, rusted, twisted, and broken metal structures, stellar remnants, and even bizarre giant beast skeletons! They were covered by a thick layer of gray dust that emitted a faint radioactive glow, like being draped in shrouds. The air was filled with a heavy smell of rust, ozone, and a certain... sweet, fishy stench of utterly putrefied protein.

Dead silence. Absolute dead silence. Not even wind. Only the low hum of the chaotic firmament slowly writhing, like the internal organs of a giant beast.

[System Prompt: Entering unknown space-time coordinates—Deep Space-Time Graveyard (suspected edge of Guixu layer). Environment: Space-time inert (low activity) | Energy inert (dominated by Source of Annihilation) | Law contamination (moderate) | Life activity: extremely low.]

Space-Time Graveyard!

The last thought transmitted by the inheritance seal instantly exploded in Chen Feng's blurry consciousness!

Is this the destination it pointed to? The end of Guixu? The final tomb burying all space-time and civilization?

He struggled to move, but his body felt as heavy as if filled with lead and mercury. Excruciating pain, like maggots on a bone, radiated from every corner of his body. Looking down, he barely recognized it as his own body.

His skin exhibited a strange, grayish hue, like rock weathered for billions of years, covered in spiderweb-like cracks deep enough to expose bone. Deep within the cracks, there was no longer flesh and blood, but viscous, icy, crystalline matter emitting a faint, deathly gray glow! These were the marks of erosion left by the backlash of the end crystallization! His right arm was particularly severe; below the forearm, it had almost completely transformed into rough gray crystal, his five fingers twisted and solidified, like grotesque stone carvings.

[Body Status: end crystallization Erosion (moderate) | Active tissue ratio: 41.3% | Continuously worsening]

[guixu fate wheel: Nirvana Star Vortex form (extremely dim) | Core: Su Wanzhao's will (deeply dormant) | Star Dome Eternal Burning Violet Flame (extinguished)]

[Punishment Calamity Imprint: Suppressed by end erosion | Recovery: 12.0% | Dormant]

[primordial ultimate end crystal: Status (dormant) | Erosion activity (low) | Energy fluctuation (weak)]

Dying. Truly dying. More thoroughly than when he was on the Star Dome Throne. Su Wanzhao's will, to protect him, had exhausted its last strength in the space-time turbulence, falling into the deepest slumber. The Nirvana Star Fire was extinguished, and the fate wheel was dim. The only “active” thing was the dormant primordial ultimate end crystal within his body, and the slow but steady crystallization and erosion it brought.

inheritance seal... Chen Feng struggled to move his eyeballs, looking at his right hand. The jade seal, which had consumed everything he had and guided him here, was tightly clutched in his crystallized right hand, which only had instinct left. The seal body was dim and cracked, and the purple star light at its core... had completely vanished. It had completed its final mission, exhausted its last strength, and turned into a mere piece of common iron.

Despair, like an icy tide, once again tried to drown him.

Live on?

In this graveyard that buried everything? Dragging this broken body, eroded by the end crystallization, with life extinguished?

For what?

"Last Light..." He called out silently in the depths of his consciousness, and the only response was the faint, almost imperceptible star-blue light deep within his dantian, and boundless dead silence.

Just then—

Shhh... shhh... shhh... An extremely faint, yet piercing friction sound in this dead silent environment, came from behind a “hill” made of huge mechanical wreckage not far away.

Chen Feng's remaining consciousness instantly tensed! He instinctively wanted to conceal his presence, but found it incredibly difficult even to move his eyeballs.

The rustling grew closer.

A figure slowly rounded the pile of rusted mechanical debris and appeared in Chen Feng's blurry vision.

Could that... still be called a “person”?

It was hunched over, less than five feet tall, its entire body covered in thick, caked gray grime and dust, like it was wearing a dirty shroud. Beneath the grime, vaguely visible tattered fragments of fabric, long faded from their original color, clung to its shriveled, stick-like body. Its head was bowed, also covered by thick grime, its face unclear. Only two extremely dim, dark red pinpricks of light, like dying embers, flickered faintly between the cracks in the grime.

Its movements were stiff and slow. Each step on the solidified corpse-ridden ground produced a rustling friction sound. In its hand, it dragged a bone shovel crudely fashioned from the leg bone of some giant creature. The shovel head was severely worn and also covered in gray dust.

It didn't seem to notice Chen Feng immediately, but simply moved mechanically and slowly, stopping in a relatively flat, dust-covered area nearby. Then, it began to use the bone shovel, one stroke after another, extremely slowly and laboriously... digging into the ground.

Puff... puff... The bone shovel dug through the caked gray dust, revealing the equally gray and lifeless “soil” beneath. It dug very shallowly, creating only a shallow pit barely large enough for one person.

Then, it stopped digging and stiffly turned around. Its two dark red eyes, like rusty searchlights, slowly swept across the surrounding solidified corpse hills.

Finally, its “gaze” settled on Chen Feng's location!

The two dark red lights instantly... brightened a fraction!

That was no longer mere dimness, but a cold, numb, yet primitive predatory... greed!

"New... re... mains..." A dry, hoarse voice, like two rusty irons rubbing together, came intermittently from its grime-covered head.

It dragged the bone shovel, step by step, stiffly but with clear purpose, walking towards Chen Feng!

With each step closer, Chen Feng could more clearly feel the aura emanating from it—a heavy scent of decaying corpses, mixed with an extremely faint but icy and malicious energy fluctuation. Its dark red eyes, like a venomous snake locking onto its prey, were fixed on him.

Gravedigger?

A thought flashed through Chen Feng's consciousness. In this Space-Time Graveyard that buried all things, digging shallow pits to bury newly appearing “remains”? And he himself was the new “remains” in its eyes, waiting to be buried!

Fear? No, in Chen Feng's remaining consciousness at this moment, even fear seemed a luxury. There was only a cold, absurd feeling of being treated as a dead object.

The hunched Gravedigger walked up to Chen Feng, looking down at him (though it was short). Its dark red eyes swept over Chen Feng's broken body, covered in crystalline cracks, seemingly assessing the “value” and “completeness” of these “remains.”

"Not... completely... annihilated..." The hoarse voice held a hint of imperceptible confusion, but was quickly covered by icy greed. "Nutrients... weak... but... usable..."

It slowly raised the heavy bone shovel in its hand! The shovel head pointed at Chen Feng's head! Its two dark red lights locked onto his glabella!

It wanted to... “dispose” of these “remains” that still had a faint breath of life, right here!

Chen Feng's pupils constricted! He wanted to move! To resist! But his body was like being nailed to the ground by billions of ice needles; he couldn't even move a fingertip! The dim fate wheel in his dantian remained unresponsive, Su Wanzhao's will was dormant, the end crystallization was still... He could only watch helplessly as the rusty, heavily decaying bone shovel, carrying the cold shadow of death, swung down fiercely towards his head!

The bone shovel tore through the viscous air, letting out an ear-splitting whistle!

Death had never been so close!

Just a billionth of a second before the shovel's edge was about to touch Chen Feng's forehead—

Buzz!

His completely crystallized right hand, tightly clutching the remnants of the inheritance seal, suddenly... trembled without warning!

It wasn't his conscious control! It was his dormant primordial ultimate end crystal, upon sensing the faint but icy and malicious energy fluctuation contained in the bone shovel, instantly... like still water disturbed by a pebble, produced a trace of... imperceptible ripple!

A cold, tyrannical, all-consuming instinct, imbued with the will of absolute finality, like a sleeping venomous snake flicking its tongue, quietly emanated from the depths of the primordial ultimate end crystal!

Hiss——!!!

The edge of the bone shovel fiercely struck the crystallized crack on Chen Feng's forehead!

The anticipated scene of his skull shattering did not occur.

At the point of impact, an extremely bizarre, melting sound erupted, like a red-hot iron pressed into ice!

The two dark red lights in the Gravedigger's eyes suddenly froze!

The heavy bone shovel in its hand, at the moment of contact with the crystalline crack on Chen Feng's forehead, its point of contact... soundlessly... melted away!

It wasn't melted by high temperature; it was more like... being forcibly decomposed, assimilated, and returned to nothingness by some higher-level power! The shovel head, as if encountering its nemesis, softened, collapsed, and disappeared at a visible speed! A pure energy, carrying faint traces of annihilation and decay, surged along the shovel's handle, like being drawn by an invisible straw, frantically pouring into the crack on Chen Feng's forehead, into his body... greedily devoured by that dormant primordial ultimate end crystal!

[primordial ultimate end crystal: Activity slightly increased | Erosion rate +0.01% | Energy fluctuation (extremely weak)]

"Eh?!" A short, startled, and suspicious grunt escaped the Gravedigger's hoarse throat! It abruptly tried to pull back its bone shovel!

But it was too late!

Once that devouring instinct originating from the end crystallization was activated, how could its prey escape?

Buzz!

A stronger suction force suddenly erupted from the crack on Chen Feng's forehead! It not only devoured the residual energy on the bone shovel but also, like a maggot on a bone, fiercely counterattacked the Gravedigger's grime-covered, withered hand clutching the shovel!

"No——!!" The Gravedigger let out a clear, terrified roar for the first time! It struggled desperately, trying to shake off the bone shovel!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Where its hand touched the bone shovel, the thick grime covering it melted and vaporized instantly, like snow encountering strong acid! Revealing beneath... not flesh and blood, but equally grayish-crystallized, like inferior rock, “skin”! At this moment, this crystallized skin also rapidly dimmed, lost its luster, and even developed fine cracks under the devouring power of the end crystallization! A pure energy, carrying a richer scent of decay and icy malice, was forcibly stripped and devoured from its hand!

"Roar!!" The Gravedigger let out a painful and furious roar! It no longer hesitated, its other grime-covered hand swung out fiercely, not to attack Chen Feng, but to... brutally sever its own adsorbed wrist!

Crack!

A sickening crunch! Its grayish-crystallized wrist was actually severed by itself! There was no blood from the severed wrist, only a gushing stream of viscous dark gray energy, most of which was instantly sucked away by the devouring force on Chen Feng's forehead! The broken bone shovel and its severed hand became sacrifices to the devouring force, rapidly turning to dust before Chen Feng's forehead and being completely devoured!

The Gravedigger staggered back several steps, energy gushing from its severed wrist, which it then forcibly stopped in some way. Its two dark red eyes stared fixedly at Chen Feng, who still couldn't move on the ground, filled with extreme apprehension, venom... and a trace of unbelievable... greed?

"The aura of... finality...?" Its hoarse voice, punctuated by heavy gasps, came intermittently, "The remains... actually contain... a seed of finality?!"

It did not approach again, merely staring intently at Chen Feng, as if at an extremely dangerous yet tempting poison. After a moment, it suddenly turned around, its movements several times faster than when it arrived. Dragging its severed wrist, it flashed a few times and disappeared into the shadow of a much larger, terrifying “hill” made of countless giant beast skulls in the distance.

Crisis... temporarily averted?

Chen Feng lay in the cold corpse dust. The crack on his forehead slowly closed, and the devouring instinct of the end crystallization became dormant again. But he could clearly feel that the faint gray glow within him, after devouring part of the Gravedigger's energy, seemed... a little more active? And the crystallization and erosion of his body also seemed... to have sped up a little?

He used his last ounce of strength to move his eyeballs, looking towards the giant skull hill where the Gravedigger had disappeared. At the bottom of that hill, in the darkest shadows, the outline of an extremely dim, yet somewhat familiar... stellar vault emblem, was faintly visible beneath the covering dust.

Star Dome Royal Court?

There are... also Star Dome ruins here?