96: The star vortex returns, the ruins whisper.

Absolute nothingness was torn asunder.

It was not a tranquil darkness, but a violent space-time turbulence capable of shredding stars into elementary particles.

Twisted ribbons of light, like crazed, dancing colorful vipers, lashed out at everything in view that attempted to maintain a stable form.

Silence was replaced by a sharp screeching from a higher dimension, where the very structure of space was being forcibly twisted and stretched.

This screeching acted directly upon the Soul, bringing suffocating dizziness and a sensation of being torn apart.

Inside the Guiyuan Star Vortex passage.

The dark star immortal foundation was like a lone boat in an angry sea.

The stellar runes remaining on its surface flickered at an unprecedented frequency, constructing a thin yet resilient purplish-black light shield, struggling to resist the violent space-time tearing forces outside.

The light shield constantly buckled and deformed, emitting a teeth-grinding groan.

The foundation itself trembled violently, and those cracks that had not yet fully healed showed signs of widening again.

[star remains pedestal: Sustaining high-intensity space-time turbulence impact! Structural stability -5%! -7%! Psionic shield energy consumption continuous!]

[Warning: Slight disturbance in space-time coordinates! Unknown deviation risk in Guiyuan path!]

Su Wanzhao stood quietly upon the pedestal.

Her purplish-black long hair danced wildly in the violent energy flow, yet it was not messy; instead, as if endowed with life, it spontaneously guided and diverted the most lethal turbulence fissures around her.

Her bare feet seemed welded to the surface of the pedestal, her figure as steady as a rock.

Those eyes, reflecting the Star Vortex and indifference, were currently capturing, analyzing, and calculating the countless shattered space-time fragments and twisted light trajectories within the passage at a speed far beyond normal human comprehension.

Her ten fingers pressed into the void before her.

What flowed from her fingertips were no longer single starlight runes, but complex Law threads fused with the power of the purplish-black star vault and a trace of cold gray intent.

These threads, like the most precise probes, continuously pierced into the surrounding violent turbulence, sensing the stability of the passage structure, fine-tuning the energy distribution of the pedestal's shield, and simultaneously stubbornly resisting the cold whispers of the end crystallization that originated from deep within the pedestal, attempting to interfere with the transmission coordinates.

"End... place... return..."

"...Error... path... correction..."

The whispers were like maggots attached to a bone, continuously attempting to burrow into her spiritual consciousness and twist the Law threads she used to maintain the passage.

The Star Vortex in the depths of Su Wanzhao's eyes accelerated slightly.

That trace of gray intent fluctuated for a moment, then was forcibly suppressed by even more brilliant starlight.

Her left hand suddenly clenched, and on the surface of the primordial ultimate end crystal sealed deep within the pedestal, the deep blue Seal runes suddenly lit up like cold shackles, forcibly cutting off the interfering whispers.

But just the moment this interference was suppressed—

Boom!!!

Ahead in the passage, a previously relatively stable area suddenly collapsed!

A massive, twisted vortex composed of pure space-time storms formed without warning, emitting terrifying suction like the throat of a cosmic beast, aiming to swallow the pedestal along with its light shield in one gulp!

A fatal turn of events!

Starlight exploded in Su Wanzhao's eyes!

Without the slightest hesitation, her right hand, which had been pressing into the void, suddenly swept forward!

Not an attack, but... guidance!

The purplish-black Star Vortex in her chest suddenly reversed!

A pure surge of star vault power, carrying the Origin of protection and order, rushed out.

But it did not strike directly at the storm vortex; instead, it was precisely injected into a seemingly equally violent turbulence area in front of the pedestal!

Chila—!

The nature of that turbulence area injected with energy changed abruptly!

The originally disorderly tearing space power was forcibly imbued with a trace of fleeting "order," transforming into a massive, twisted spatial refraction prism with edges flickering with purplish-black light!

Under the combined effect of this clever guiding force and the suction of the storm vortex, the pedestal and its light shield narrowly brushed past the edge of the deadly vortex, crashing hard against the temporarily constructed spatial prism!

Hum—!

A violent sensation of spatial refraction arrived!

The entire pedestal spun, and the light shield emitted a piercing screeching sound as if on the verge of shattering.

Chen Feng's will imprint transmitted a burning fluctuation again, as if sharing this extreme pressure.

The moment the dizziness reached its peak—

All the tearing, screeching, and twisted light images... vanished suddenly.

An absolute, heavy silence, like thick velvet, instantly enveloped everything.

The pedestal stopped trembling violently and just hovered slightly, emitting a low humming sound like the panting of an exhausted giant beast.

The psionic shield slowly dissipated, revealing the scene outside.

They... seemed to have escaped the space-time turbulence.

But this place was not the "safe anchor point" with the aura of the Star Dome Ruins they had expected.

Before them lay an infinite, solidified darkness.

No stars, no light ribbons, not even dust.

Only absolute nothingness that devoured all light.

An aura of deathly silence, older and more thorough than the Space-Time Graveyard, permeated the air, so cold that even thoughts felt like they would freeze.

Yet, in the center of this absolute nothingness, something was suspended.

It was a piece of... shattered stone monument of unimaginable size.

The material of the monument was neither metal nor stone, presenting a dull, grayish-white color as if it had endured the erosion of endless ages.

It was broken into several irregular pieces, with the largest main part also mostly crumbled and vanished.

The remaining wreckage was covered in crisscrossing, terrifying gashes that looked as if they had been forcibly torn by immense power, along with molten traces left after energy annihilation.

On the surface of the monument, one could vaguely see the remnants of countless arcane runes and patterns that had long since completely dimmed and shattered.

The style of those patterns was somewhat similar to the ruins of the Star Dome Royal Court, yet more ancient and abstract, as if recording the mysteries of the beginning of the Universe.

An indescribable, suffocatingly massive sense of historical dust and civilizational pathos emanated from the wreckage of the monument, pressing heavily upon every Soul that perceived it.

It just floated there silently in the absolute nothingness, like a giant that had died long ago, even its bones weathered away, silently recounting the end of some ancient epoch that had been glorious to the extreme yet completely annihilated.

[Environment scan: Unknown Void Realm crevice | Space-time stability: Extremely high (nearly solidified) | Energy activity: Zero | Law inertia: Ultimate]

[Detected ultra-high-intensity civilization wreckage: Unknown era | Residual energy level: Immeasurable (completely extinguished) | Residual information: Trace amounts of resolvable fluctuations]

Where was this place?

After the path of the Guiyuan Star Vortex was interfered with, where had they been cast?

For the first time, a clear expression of "confusion" appeared on Su Wanzhao's flawless face.

The Star Vortex in her eyes rotated slowly, attempting to analyze the trace information fluctuations remaining on the monument, but it was like a drop of water merging into a vast sea, receiving no response.

This Void Realm, this wreckage, was too thoroughly extinguished.

Her gaze involuntarily turned back to the deep imprint on the pedestal beneath her feet.

As if responding to her gaze, that silent imprint... rippled with a faint fluctuation again.

This time, it was no longer a lingering whisper, but a... extremely subtle... tugging sensation carrying some kind of resonance?

As if something on the shattered monument wreckage... was attracting this imprint formed by the Fusion of Chen Feng's will and the star remains pedestal?

Following that instinctual curiosity and the tugging of the imprint, she controlled the pedestal and slowly approached the massive monument wreckage.

The closer she got, the heavier that sense of historical grandeur and pathos became.

The runes on the surface of the pedestal seemed to become sluggish.

Finally, the pedestal hovered before the largest fracture of the monument.

Inside the fracture, it was not solid, but filled with more dense, honeycomb-like hole structures, which were also completely dimmed and dead.

Su Wanzhao's gaze fell upon a relatively flat section at the edge of the fracture.

There, besides the dense, dimmed runes, remained a corner of a relatively complete, albeit unimaginably huge, relief pattern.

The pattern depicted what seemed to be an infinite, boiling sea of Chaos.

And in the center of the Chaos sea stood... a massive doorway outline whose magnificence and profoundness could not be described in words!

The doorway revealed only the tip of an iceberg; its style was ancient to the extreme, yet complex beyond comprehension, as if it contained all the Laws and truths of the Universe.

The doorway seemed to be in a subtle state of being about to open but not yet, or about to close but not yet.

And beneath that massive doorway, within the sea of Chaos, it seemed that countless tiny, dust-like, diverse figures were carved?

They seemed to be kneeling, praying, or... struggling toward the doorway?

What did this relief mean?

What was this doorway?

Su Wanzhao's gaze moved slowly, finally fixing on a line of huge, ancient characters below the relief pattern that had long since completely dimmed and almost merged with the monument.

She had never seen such characters; their structure was complex and beautiful, every stroke appearing to contain the trajectory of the movement of stars.

Yet, the moment her gaze touched this line of characters—

Deep within her Dantian, that dark star immortal foundation, and the Chen Feng will imprint at the core of the pedestal, suddenly... vibrated!

An inexpressible, intense palpitation originating from the Origin of life and existence surged through her spiritual body like an electric current!

At the same time, one of the characters in that line of ancient text, which had been silent for unknown eons and was mostly blurred, seemed awakened by this palpitation, and deep within it... actually flickered extremely weakly!

Just once, so weak as to be almost non-existent, yet carrying a trace of... an indescribable... sense of familiarity as if it had spanned eternal time and space?

Immediately after, a fragmented, blurred echo of intent, as if from the end of the Universe, like a candle in the wind, struggled extremely hard to diffuse from the flickering character, intermittently merging into Su Wanzhao's perception:

"...Observation... Record... Ninth... Epoch... End..."

"...Shadow... of... Door... Reappears..."

"...Key... of... Origin... Shattered..."

"...Waiting... for... Return..."

"...Or... Eternal... Silence..."

The voice was aged, exhausted, carrying endless vicissitudes and a kind of near-desperate expectation, then completely dissipated, and that character also returned to complete silence, as if everything just now was merely an illusion.

Observation? Record? End of the Ninth Epoch? Shadow of the Door? Key of Origin? Return? Eternal Silence?

These words, like heavy boulders, smashed into the sea of Su Wanzhao's nascent spiritual consciousness, yet could not stir up any ripples of understanding, only endless bewilderment and a cold shudder originating from the depths of her Soul.

She subconsciously took half a step back, her bare feet stepping on the cold pedestal.

Where... exactly was this place?

Who erected this monument?

What was it recording?

Waiting for whose return?

What were the so-called "Shadow of the Door" and "Key of Origin"?

What connection did they have with Chen Feng... with the Star Dome Royal Court...?

Countless questions surged like a tide, but were forcibly suppressed by that absolute silence and coldness.

Just at this moment—

Hum!

The gray mote at the core of the purplish-black Star Vortex in her chest... fluctuated again.

This time, the fluctuation no longer carried greed and desire to devour, but transmitted a kind of... extremely rare... reverence, as if it had encountered some existence of the same Origin but higher order?

And a trace of... undisguised... longing?

It had a reaction to this monument... or rather, to the "Door" recorded on the monument?

Before Su Wanzhao could think it through.

Beneath her feet, the star remains pedestal vibrated slightly again.

At the base of the pedestal, the Guiyuan Star Vortex rune array that had just exhausted its energy and was in cooling, at its core, a faint, autonomously generated purplish-black light was slowly brightening.

[Detected stable space-time coordinate residue (originating from unknown interference) | Automatic calibration complete | Guiyuan Star Vortex: Minimum energy startup preparation]

[Target coordinates: Star Dome Ruins · Shallow Layer (original preset anchor point) | Teleportation about to start]

It was the coordinate that had been interfered with by the end crystallization but was ultimately stabilized by Su Wanzhao!

The pedestal had actually recorded and automatically calibrated it?!

Without waiting for Su Wanzhao to make any reaction.

Hum!

A low humming sound rang out, and the purplish-black light instantly enveloped the pedestal and her.

The absolute nothingness before her and the massive monument wreckage shook violently and blurred like reflections in water.

The instant before her vision was completely devoured.

Su Wanzhao seemed to see, deep within the massive fracture of the monument, in that absolute darkness...

A gray light, extremely dim, yet of the same Origin as the gray mote in her chest, but more ancient and more dead...

Like the eyelids of a sleeping giant slowly opening...

Extremely slowly...

Blinked once.