302: Chapter 302 Energy Guidance

Like the first pebble thrown into a dead-silent pool, it sent a faint but exceptionally clear ripple through the depths of Ling Ye's nearly exhausted consciousness.

A spark of hope was suddenly ignited by this resonance.

But what followed was an even deeper, colder, and instinctive fear of the unknown risks.

This metal plate was the remnant of an ancient "Suppressing Object," originating from the same source as "the key" and the "Ancient Ring."

The energy potentially remaining inside was of an extremely high level, its properties unknown.

In his current state—oil-depleted and lamp-withered, with broken Meridians and a weak Soul—forcing himself to guide and extract such energy was akin to trying to catch scalding, high-pressure magma, possibly containing unknown toxins from the depths of the earth, in a cracked, crude clay pot.

Deep within "the key" mark, the last trace of pure, pale golden Order fluctuation—representing "Permission," "Connection," and "Return"—had been forcibly triggered and gathered at his fingertips.

At this moment, this fluctuation was engaging in an extremely preliminary, fragile, and tentative "contact" and "resonance" with that ancient, cold resonance coming from the depths of the groove, albeit very weakly and stubbornly.

Ling Ye took a deep breath, even though he was still inhaling the nauseating, foul, blood-reeking air.

He wrapped all his remaining Mental Energy—like the finest yet toughest silk thread—tightly and anchored it to this fluctuation of "the key."

Then, using the last of his strength, he extended it like a tentative "tentacle," carrying a clear intent of "guidance" and "extraction."

Following the contact point between his fingertip and the groove, he carefully probed deep into the groove, past the cold, dead silence, as if reaching behind a dark, unknown "portal" that connected to some extremely profound, ancient energy "Core," long buried by time and dust.

"Hum..."

The resonance seemed to become a fraction clearer and more stable.

But immediately after, Ling Ye felt his weak, probing fluctuation of "the key" collide with an invisible, yet exceptionally thick, cold, non-living, pure, and highly concentrated "wall" of dark blue Order energy, which existed in a state of near-absolute "stillness," "freezing," and "eternity"!

This "wall" was not physical matter but energy itself, forcibly "solidified," "sealed," and "stored" here by some power beyond comprehension.

After passing through an unimaginably long period of time, it had formed a near-"solid," inert-to-the-extreme, pure energy "crystal" or "amber"!

The total amount and quality of Order contained within far exceeded Ling Ye's imagination, yet its "activity" was shockingly low, as if it had been "dead" for billions of years.

Was this the last remaining Order energy of the ancient "Suppressing Object" inside the metal plate?

Or rather, was it that the core of this "Suppressing Object," before becoming completely silent and eroded by pollution, had used its final strength to undergo the most extreme "inactivation" and "freezing" process on its most core, essential, and simultaneously most dangerous and unstable energy?

Had it sealed and preserved itself, waiting for... the return of "the key," or the triggering of some specific "protocol"?

Ling Ye did not know.

He only knew that his weak fluctuation of "the key," in front of this "energy ice wall," was as insignificant as a ray of sunlight trying to melt a glacier, as feeble as an ant trying to shake a mountain.

Forget about "guiding" or "extracting"; even trying to "touch" or "penetrate" it in the slightest was nearly impossible.

Despair coiled around his heart once again like a cold viper.

Had he bet wrong?

Was this final glimmer of hope just a cold phantom that he could see but never touch?

No! He could not give up!

In Ling Ye's eyes, the cold, nearly extinguished flame stubbornly burned again.

He remembered his previous experience in "The Shelter" when he established a connection with the core energy node.

That dark blue, cold, and inert energy, though difficult to control, had ultimately been successfully guided, absorbed, and converted by using the Order power of "the key" as a "bridge."

The energy here, although more "solidified" and "inert," seemed to originate from the same source as the energy at the core of "The Shelter"!

Both were ancient Order powers that tended toward "freezing," "stability," and "inactivity"!

The only difference was that the energy here was "solidified" and "sealed" more thoroughly, and its level might be even higher.

Then... the method might be the same!

It just required a stronger "bridge," more precise "resonance," and a firmer will to "melt" that outermost, most "hardened" "ice shell"!

He had no other "bridge."

He only had this weak, final Order fluctuation originating from the Origin of "the key" mark.

He had to use this fluctuation to "ignite" himself!

He had to use his own broken body and Soul—which were deeply bound to "the key"—as an additional, active "catalyst" or "sacrifice" carrying the final "spark" of "the key" mark.

He had to forcibly "resonate" and "vibrate" with the deepest part of this "energy ice wall," reaching for that potentially still-existing, most basic, and essential "rhythm" of Order that shared the same source as "the key"!

This was an even crazier and more dangerous idea.

It meant he had to treat his last, weak spark of "the key," along with his broken body and Soul, as "fuel" to be thrown into that cold, inert, and vast "energy ice wall."

He was betting on a one-in-a-billion chance—betting that the interior of this "ice wall" was not completely "dead," and that deep within it, there remained a trace of an "active" Order "Core" or "source" capable of creating a deeper, more essential resonance with "the key"!

Then, he stopped controlling and constraining the weak fluctuation of "the key" at his fingertips.

Instead, using his last bit of Mental Energy, he forcibly and inversely extracted, gathered, and compressed this fluctuation, along with the last trace of the pale golden Order light from the dim "the key" mark deep within his Soul—the light that sustained his life and consciousness.

It was like pulling out a nail deeply embedded in his Soul, flesh and all.

He then, regardless of the consequences, poured and detonated it through his fingertips into the depths of that cold groove, slamming it fiercely into that vast, cold, and inert "energy ice wall"!

"Boom——!!!"

A silent, thunderous roar exploded deep within Ling Ye's Soul!

His vision was instantly submerged by a pure, cold, absolute dark blue light that seemed capable of freezing time and solidifying the Soul!

In his ears and mind, nothing remained but a chaotic and vast frenzy of information—the most intense, essential, and direct clash, annihilation, resonance, assimilation, and Fusion of Order against Order, activity against inertia, spark against ice, life against death, and existence against annihilation!

He felt as if his consciousness had been thrown into the core of a star made of pure Order energy at absolute zero!

The extreme cold instantly froze his thoughts, memories, emotions, and even the very concept of "self"!

At the same time, the fragments of the most ancient, basic, and cold Order "Laws" and "information" contained within that vast, inert energy—seemingly from the time of the Universe's creation, the forging of the Star Gate, and the anchoring of all things—were like billions of cold, sharp, orderly scalpels, crazily cutting, dissecting, decomposing, and restructuring his tiny, fragile Soul and consciousness that carried the final "spark" of "the key" mark!

Pain? No, that had already transcended the category of pain.

That was the process of existence itself being most thoroughly and ruthlessly "defined," "analyzed," and even "formatted" by a higher-level, colder, and more absolute "Order" power!

He was going to die.

No, it was something more thorough than death—being "erased" and "assimilated" by "Order" itself, from the most fundamental level.

But just at the final moment, when his consciousness was about to completely freeze, dissipate, be swallowed by that endless dark blue light, and become a part of this "energy ice wall"—

Deep in the depths of his Soul, that "Ancient Ring" mark, which had always only passively emitted vast, guarding rhythms, seemed to be "awakened" by this extreme, cold, orderly, same-source, yet "erasure"-threatening frenzy of energy and information!

"Hum..."

A deeper, vaster, more ancient, and more unquestionable humming—a golden rhythm of guarding and anchoring that seemed to come from the eternal starry sky and the foundation of the Universe—rippled out from the deepest part of Ling Ye's Soul, from that "Ancient Ring" mark, extremely faintly yet incomparably clearly!

This humming was not grand, nor was it aggressive.

But the meaning it contained—that most fundamental "existence" and "stability" of absolute Law, transcending time, space, and all chaos and Order—was like a needle that calms the sea, instantly suppressing, smoothing, and stabilizing Ling Ye's Soul and consciousness, which were on the verge of being completely "frozen" and "formatted"!

At the same time, it also extremely slightly interfered with and influenced the most core, deepest part of that vast "energy ice wall," affecting the most basic Order "source" rhythm that shared the same source as the "Ancient Ring" mark!

It was this extremely slight, yet higher-level, same-source "anchoring" interference that caused that small area on the surface of the "energy ice wall"—the part in contact with Ling Ye's "the key" spark—to experience a trace of "loosening," "melting," and "activation" in its state of extreme "inertia" and "freezing."

This was extremely brief and tiny, but undeniably real!

It was like dropping a tiny, golden Order "spark" from the core of the sun—one that contained "activity" and "definition" authority—onto an ice surface at absolute zero!

"Sss..."

A sound like cracking ice or boiling water poured over snow, extremely faint yet incomparably clear, rang out in Ling Ye's Soul perception!

Immediately following this, a stream of dark blue liquid energy—still cold and inert, but at least no longer "solidified" like a solid, instead flowing like extremely viscous, slow-moving liquid—flowed out from the crack in the "loosened" "ice wall."

It flowed extremely slowly but continuously, tracing back along the "trajectory" of the "the key" fluctuation at Ling Ye's fingertips—the one that was nearly extinguished but still stubbornly maintained the last trace of "connection" and "guidance" intent—and surged into Ling Ye's long-dried and broken body!

The moment the energy entered his body, Ling Ye felt as if he had been instantly drenched in liquid nitrogen!

The extreme cold almost caused his blood, cells, and even his Soul to freeze and die instantly!

But the "quality" of this energy was simply too high; although cold and inert, it was exceptionally pure, stable, and vast, and it possessed the deepest, same-source affinity with the Order power of "the key" mark and the guarding rhythm of the "Ancient Ring" mark!

Under the "irrigation" of this same-source, yet more ancient and pure dark blue energy, "the key" mark, like a dry well meeting sweet rain after a long drought, suddenly lit up with an unprecedented, blazing, pure, and stable light.

It even faintly took on a brand new, more solid, and more vast radiance, interwoven with pale gold and dark blue, carrying a hint of ancient, cold, and majestic aura!

The mark itself seemed to have received some kind of "sublimation" and "completion," emitting a higher-level Order pressure closer to its "Origin"!

Meanwhile, Ling Ye's broken body, under the forced flushing, repair, and nourishment of this high-grade energy, also began to heal, undergo Rebirth, and strengthen at an incredible speed visible to the naked eye!

His Meridians were widened and reinforced, his bones became denser and tougher, his muscle fibers rearranged and filled with explosive power, his internal organ injuries healed rapidly, and even the deepest hidden injuries and Soul exhaustion caused by excessive consumption and overdraft were slowly and firmly smoothed, repaired, and nourished by this cold, vast energy!

Power—unprecedentedly abundant, even stronger, more condensed, colder, and more stable than in his prime—began to flow and circulate within his body again, slowly, like an ancient, cold galaxy awakening!

He had succeeded!

He had won the bet!

Not only had he guided out the energy and repaired himself, but he had even allowed "the key" mark to achieve an unexpected and immense "sublimation"!

However, just as a cold, ecstatic feeling of surviving a catastrophe rose in his heart—