295: Chapter 295 Star Chart Analysis

A dim blue, seemingly eternal glimmer shrouded this small, damaged isolated island.

Ling Ye sat cross-legged on a relatively flat piece of dark silver metal wreckage, with three crystal fragments neatly laid out before him—they varied in size, but their internal light mists flowed most clearly, and they were the best preserved.

These were the very fragments found in the wreckage earlier, which recorded information about the star map.

He closed his eyes slightly, his breathing steady, and held his hands palms-up, hovering them an inch above the three crystal fragments.

At his fingertips, a condensed, stable, and gentle pale golden halo swirled—this was the manifestation of "the key" mark being pushed to its limit, emitting the purest and most focused perception and analytical energy.

At the same time, wisps of cold, inert, yet exceptionally docile dark blue energy, which he had tamed, circled the outer edge of the pale golden halo like the most loyal assistants, serving to stabilize his mind, isolate interference, and slightly enhance the precision of his perception.

He first immersed all his focus into the middle fragment, which was the largest and had the most regular flow of light mist.

The moment his Mental Energy tentacles probed inside, the familiar, fragmented, noise-filled, three-dimensional star map image unfolded before his "eyes" once more.

But unlike his hurried glance before, this time he did not rush to find the overall outline; instead, he began a carpet-style, frame-by-frame, refined scan, recording, analysis, and comparison, starting from every minute detail, every flickering ray of light, and every blurred symbol mark in the image.

His brain began to run frantically, like the most precise biological computer overclocked to its limit.

Every mark identified—representing energy turbulence, spatial folds, unstable nodes, pollution gathering areas, or perhaps even relatively "calm" zones—of different colors, brightness, and shapes, was instantly recorded, categorized, and analyzed as he attempted to understand its meaning.

Simultaneously, he continuously mobilized the connection deep within "the key" mark—that vague but persistent sense of the "Seventh Star Gate"—and repeatedly performed multi-angle, spatiotemporal calibration and anchoring against the pale golden light spot in the star map image that flickered constantly, labeled "Gate-Seven (Abnormal/Damaged/Polluted)".

This was an incredibly mentally taxing, gargantuan task, akin to piecing together a complete and accurate map from billions of broken mirror shards.

Time lost all meaning in this state of absolute, focused flow.

Fine beads of sweat seeped from his temples again, and his Mental Energy was consumed rapidly, like water from an opened floodgate.

But Ling Ye paid it no mind.

In his eyes, there was only that star map image, constantly being parsed and "understood."

The first fragment was parsed.

He obtained some key information: he confirmed the approximate location of their current dark blue "bubble"-like light spot (Seventh Observation Outpost) on the star map; identified several historical, conventional "main shipping lanes" or "energy channels" pointing from the "Outpost" to the "Seventh Star Gate" that had clearly long since failed or been severely distorted and covered by pollution; and realized that within the vast, seemingly chaotic and irregular colors representing the Chaos of the Void Realm and pollution turbulence between the "Outpost" and the "Star Gate," there existed several extremely faint, flickering regions—likely formed by intense energy conflicts or unstable spatial structures—that were irregular, transient, and relatively "weaker" in energy fluctuation, resembling "vortex eyes" or "fissures."

These regions were likely the nascent forms of the "fissures" or "paths" that the star map recorder (perhaps the last "Monument Guardian" observer) had observed as potentially traversable after the Star Gate disaster erupted and conventional routes were severed.

However, this information was too vague, and the markings were intermittent; relying solely on the first fragment, it was impossible to form any reliable path planning.

Without pausing, Ling Ye immediately cast his focus onto the slightly smaller fragment on the left, whose internal light mist flowed more violently and seemed to record more details of dynamic changes.

The information in this fragment was even more fragmented, filled with interference resembling "snow" on a screen following intense energy impacts.

He had to expend more energy to "filter" and "repair" those interference signals, extracting truly valuable, subtle information regarding the frequency of appearance, duration, patterns of energy disturbance intensity changes, and even the approximate "direction" of those unstable "fissures."

This fragment allowed him to vaguely "see" the outline of a possible, unstable "path" that started from the "Outpost," extended diagonally toward the "Star Gate," passed through at least three "unstable points" along the way, and finally pointed to a region on the periphery of the "Star Gate" labeled "Buffer Fold-γ" on the star map, where the pollution concentration was "slightly lower" (only relatively) and the markings were blurred—this path was extremely tortuous, full of breaks, yet seemingly "existent," connected by several transient "fissures"!

This path seemed to be barely "connected" in the last frame recorded by the star map (on the eve of the total disaster?), though it was already extremely dangerous and unstable.

But this was only an "outline," one of countless possibilities.

Moreover, the information remained incomplete, with too many breaks, making it impossible to determine if those "fissures" still existed, if their connections were still valid, and he remained completely ignorant of the specific risks and details of traversing them.

Ling Ye took a deep breath; his consumption of Mental Energy was already significant, but the light in his eyes grew brighter.

The final hope lay in the third fragment, which was the smallest, but whose internal light mist exhibited a strange, rhythmic pulsation, as if it recorded some specific "algorithm" or "coordinate conversion protocol."

This fragment was clearly different from the first two.

It did not seem to be a mere observation record, but rather a functional "key" or "plug-in" used for "calculating" or "decoding" star map information, or for "locating" and "converting" specific spatial coordinates.

Ling Ye immersed his mind into it, no longer attempting to "watch" images, but instead trying to "understand" and "resonate" with the rhythmic, pulsating, abstract, and non-visual information flow within.

This was even more difficult, because what it contained was not intuitive "locations" or "scenes," but rather a colder, more logically rigorous, ancient "language" on the level of mathematics and rules, concerning space, energy, dimensions, and even some kind of "Gate" coordinate system.

Fortunately, he possessed "the key" mark.

This mark itself contained high-level information and rule permissions related to the "Star Gate" and even existences on a higher plane.

At this moment, under his full activation, the pale golden light emitted by "the key" mark generated a deep-level resonance and interaction with the pulsating information flow inside the third fragment, as if they were of the "same root and origin"!

It was as if a long-dusty, precise lock had encountered the only correct key pattern that perfectly matched it.

"Hum..."

A clear, cold chime that only Ling Ye could "hear" rang out in the depths of his Soul.

Immediately afterward, the fragmented, blurred star map information parsed from the first two fragments, along with the abstract, rule-based "coordinate conversion and path calculation protocol" provided by the third fragment, began an automatic, high-speed, and astonishing integration, deduction, calculation, and reconstruction in the depths of his consciousness!

It was as if an invisible, cold, and precise hand—belonging to the most outstanding star cartographer among the ancient "Monument Guardian"s—was using the power of this "key" fragment, with Ling Ye's mind as the "canvas" and the permissions of "the key" mark as the "pigment," to redraw, correct, supplement, and finally generate a brand-new, dynamic, three-dimensional navigation star map! It started from their current "Seventh Observation Outpost" and ended at the vague location sensed by "the key" mark within the "Star Gate" pollution core region—likely the "Gate" itself or a key node—containing at least seventeen different branches, hundreds of key nodes, countless energy parameters, risk level assessments, and... three paths labeled as "theoretical feasible paths (Low/Medium/High Risk)," all extremely complex, precise, and yet exceptionally clear.

This star map was no longer just fragmented observation records; it was a navigation blueprint on the level of a "battle plan," combining ancient observation data, the "Monument Guardian"s' star cartography algorithms, and the real-time sensing of the "Seventh Star Gate"'s current state by "the key" mark, all comprehensively calculated and deduced to be highly "feasible" for crossing the current Void Realm of Chaos and reaching the target area directly!

The three "theoretical feasible paths," like three threads of different colors, thicknesses, and degrees of tortuosity winding through the chaotic starry sky, were clearly presented before Ling Ye's "eyes":

Low-Risk Path (Blue dashed line): The most tortuous and long, requiring a massive detour to avoid the vast majority of known, high-intensity pollution turbulence and spatial instability points. Along the way, it might be necessary to pass through several other potentially existent, tiny, relatively stable "Outpost wreckage" or "spatial folds" as temporary resting points.

However, the total distance is extremely long, the time required is immeasurable, and information records for some areas are missing, posing unknown risks.

Medium-Risk Path (Yellow solid line): Relatively direct, traversing several areas of moderate pollution and spatial disturbance. It requires precise calculation of the "fissure" opening time windows and enduring continuous, medium-to-low intensity Mental Energy pollution and energy impacts.

Along the way, there are several clear, relatively stable energy "vortex silence points" that can serve as "landmarks" or "temporary shelters."

It is a relatively "compromised" choice after weighing time, risk, and energy consumption.

High-Risk Path (Red flickering solid line): The most "short, flat, and fast," almost a "straight line," but it requires continuously traversing at least two dead zones marked as "highly polluted/active spatial disintegration zones," as well as one dangerous zone marked on the star map as "unknown energy entity activity area (speculated to be highly polluted derivatives or Void Realm distortion creature nests)."

The requirements for timing, power intensity, anti-pollution capability, and luck are ridiculously high.

But if successful, it takes the least amount of time and can reach the outer region of the "Star Gate" pollution core the fastest.

The end point of all three paths points to a light spot within the "Star Gate" pollution core region—not the very center of that writhing dark abyss seen before, but slightly offset, located inside a relatively "depressed" structure on its "side" or "below." It emits an extremely faint but exceptionally stable and pure, pale golden Order fluctuation, specially marked on the star map as "Anchor-α (Status: Unknown/Weak Response)."

That "Anchor-α" perfectly overlapped with the core, most urgent "call" coming from deep within "the key" mark, carrying meanings of sorrow and Guardian!

Ling Ye opened his eyes abruptly. Deep in his pupils, pale golden light and a cold, rational luster intertwined and flickered, reflecting the three crystal fragments before him, which had completely dimmed, their internal light mists seemingly dissipated by this deep interpretation, turning them into ordinary stones.

He stood up slowly, walked to the edge of "The Shelter," and through that layer of dark blue, slightly rippling "barrier," looked out at the endless, insane, and chaotic colors of Chaos outside.

At this moment, in his eyes, that Chaos was no longer just terror and the unknown, but a complex, dynamic "battle map" marked with risk levels, potential paths, energy parameters, and even approximate "landmarks"—though still deadly, it was now "traceable," "plannable," and "challengeable."