348: Chapter 348 Stellar Anomaly: The Secret Behind the Collapsed Dimension

The afterglow of the setting sun spilled across the Xu Family's back garden like shattered gold.

In the quiet atmosphere, a dull roar echoed from far beyond the Nine Heavens.

The sound was not loud at first, but it carried a vibration that pierced the Soul.

The Extreme Dao Imperial Formation covering the entire Xu Family Manor rippled with visible water-like patterns; the Spiritual Fish in the garden pond dove to the bottom in fright, and the blooming flowers trembled amidst the vibration.

Xu Chen, lying on his rocking chair, opened his eyes.

In those deep eyes, laziness and leisure instantly dissipated, replaced by the sharpness and majesty unique to a Late Stage Saint King expert.

"Husband?"

Sitting nearby, Su Qingge put down the account book in her hand, her brows furrowed slightly as she looked toward the sky with worry, then at Xu Chen. The other lovely wives resting nearby also stopped what they were doing and turned their gazes toward the backbone of the manor.

Xu Chen stood up and gently patted the back of Su Qingge's hand with his broad palm.

"It's nothing! The formation hasn't been attacked; it's a spatial resonance coming from the distant Void Realm. Qingge, take the others and stay in the back garden, then activate the Inner Residence's protective Restrictions. I'll go take a look myself!"

With just a few words, he calmed the panic in the women's hearts.

Xu Chen did not delay; his body lit up with the silver-white light of the Law of Space. He stepped into the Void Realm, and his figure instantly vanished from the back garden.

When he reappeared, Xu Chen was already standing on the highest point of the Xu Family's Star Observation Platform.

On the broad platform paved with white jade steps, several Elders responsible for monitoring the Star Domain's movements were gathered around a massive Orrery, sweating profusely. The three-dimensional star map suspended in the center of the Orrery was flashing frantically with a piercing crimson light.

"Young Lord!"

Seeing Xu Chen's arrival, the Elders seemed to have found their pillar of support and hurriedly bowed in greeting.

"A violent spatial collapse has erupted deep within the Void Realm, and the energy fluctuations have already affected our Boundary Wall!"

Xu Chen nodded slightly, walked straight past everyone, and arrived at the very center of the Orrery.

He activated the majestic Primordial Creation True Qi within his body, pressed two fingers together, and tapped the core formation eye of the Orrery.

Buzz!

The star map expanded abruptly. With the amplification of the Star Observation Platform, Xu Chen's Saint King Divine Thought pierced the sky like an invisible sharp sword, crossing millions of miles of the starry river to probe the source of the anomaly.

The image gradually became clear in Xu Chen's mind.

He locked onto those coordinates—it was precisely the foreign world he had recently led his army to conquer and whose Plane Core he had personally drained.

It was only a matter of time before a plane without its core support faced destruction.

In Xu Chen's vision, that once dark-red, vast continent had completely disintegrated.

Countless massive landmasses, like meteors that had lost their gravity, drifted and collided aimlessly in the cold, dark vacuum of the Universe, turning into dust that filled the sky.

This was originally a natural Law of the birth and death of heaven and earth, nothing unusual.

Xu Chen's brow furrowed slightly. Just as he was about to withdraw his Divine Thought, his sharp intuition made him stop abruptly.

Something's not right!

In the center of the collapse, space had not healed due to the plane's destruction; instead, it seemed as if an invisible pair of giant hands had forcibly torn open a bottomless abyssal rift.

A thick, ink-like black mist was continuously rolling and surging out of that rift.

This black mist emitted a hair-raising deathly stillness. It did not belong to the Origin aura of the foreign land, nor did it belong to the known Three Thousand Realms.

Wherever the black mist passed, starlight was devoured, and even the floating land fragments corroded silently into black sand the moment they touched the mist.

Xu Chen's Divine Thought had only slightly touched the black mist at its edge when a strong aura of decay, death, and despair spread along the Divine Thought, attempting to corrode his Sea of Consciousness.

With a cold snort, Xu Chen severed the connection to that strand of Divine Thought. The Hongmeng Purple Qi in his Sea of Consciousness surged, instantly purifying that trace of Death Qi completely.

He withdrew his finger from the Orrery, his expression becoming solemn.

Even if that cheap father-in-Law of his from the foreign land sacrificed the entire royal court, he couldn't produce this level of deathly aura. This was definitely not a natural phenomenon caused by the destruction of a plane.

The most likely possibility was that the foreign world itself was suppressing some unknown, terrifying zone. By draining the foreign land's Plane Core, he had essentially pulled the plug on that ominous land, exposing this black mist hidden deep within the Void Realm to the starry sky.

Judging by the speed and direction of the black mist's spread, it was slowly permeating toward the Boundary Wall of the Upper Realm.

"Interesting."

A sharp light flashed in the depths of Xu Chen's eyes.

He had long since put away the laziness and playfulness he had while accompanying his wives in the back garden. In this Era of Great Competition, facing such an unknown change, any underestimation or carelessness could plunge the entire Family into a situation beyond redemption.

Without any hesitation, Xu Chen directly activated his True Qi, condensing his voice into a line and transmitting it into the Xu Family's Inner Cabinet with a powerful stance.

"Pass down This Young Master's command!"

The grand voice exploded in the mind of the Inner Cabinet's Intelligence Elder.

"Immediately activate the Family's highest-level intelligence network at full capacity! Dig out all the ancient books and Incomplete Manuals regarding the Ancient Era, spatial rifts, and Void Secret Realms from the Library Pavilion! Find out for me exactly what is hidden beneath the coordinates of the foreign land's former site! Just what is that black mist that devours starlight!"

"Within one hour, I want to see a detailed dossier on my desk!"

After issuing the absolute command, Xu Chen stood at the edge of the Star Observation Platform with his hands behind his back.

The high-altitude night wind made his Dark-Gold Casual Robes flutter loudly.

He raised his head, his gaze seemingly able to pierce through the Astral Winds above the Nine Heavens, staring intently at the expanding shadow deep within the starry sky.