133: Chapter 133 The jade pendant rang, I'm not worshipping heaven.

Smoke still rose from the scorched earth of the Starlight Tower ruins. Chen Fan knelt amidst the pile of broken bricks, and the Su Shuang in his arms suddenly trembled slightly.

His Adam's apple bobbed. The temperature of his palm against the back of her neck was warmer than before—this was the first time in three days.

"Shuanger?" He looked down and saw the tear mole at the corner of her eye glowing faint red under the moonlight, her eyelashes like butterfly wings stirred by the wind.

Just as his fingertips were about to touch those trembling lashes, a sudden heat spread from his waist.

It was the half-piece of the Star-patterned Jade Pendant pressed against his chest.

The bronze-colored jade surface glowed with a ghostly blue light, floating up three inches simultaneously with the qingqiu jade in Su Shuang's hair.

The dark patterns on the surfaces of the two jade pendants were like snakes coming to life, intertwining silver lines in the void. Seven points of starlight snapped together into a golden thread, actually outlining the silhouette of a floating giant city—its spires were like blades, its walls covered in stardust, ten times more magnificent than any Dungeon BOSS territory Chen Fan had ever seen.

"This isn't a map..." Black Crow's voice sounded as if his throat were being squeezed.

Chen Fan turned his head and saw the System Speaker, who always wore a black trench coat, staggering backward. Nosebleed dripped down his chin onto the scorched earth. "It's a summons." His pupils shrank to pinpricks, his eyes swirling with a data stream that didn't belong to humans. "The remnant souls of the entire server are resonating. They are... pulling you to a certain place."

Before his voice could fade, the crisp sound of shattering glass came from the horizon.

Chen Fan looked up as a bright silver rift tore through the night sky, and a floating island wrapped in star mist slowly descended.

Stairs forged of light cascaded down from the floating island, each step reflecting his shadow. At the end stood a silver-haired elder.

The elder wore a plain robe adorned with stars. He lightly tapped his Star-dial Staff, and falling stars smashed like rain onto the edge of the ruins, burning a circle of blazing white barrier into the scorched earth.

"Comer, are you willing to let go of your obsessions and ascend the Heavenly Gate?" The elder's voice was like the corners of pages in an ancient book turned by the wind, every word carrying the heavy melancholy of the ages.

Chen Fan's knuckles tightened against Su Shuang's back.

He could feel that although her breathing was weak, it was slightly longer than before—perhaps if he held on for another half hour, she would wake up?

But at this moment, the pressure of the floating giant city was like a mountain, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

"Black Crow." He lowered his head, gently passing Su Shuang into Black Crow's arms.

Just as Black Crow was about to take her, Chen Fan suddenly paused—Su Shuang's fingertips moved slightly in his palm, extremely light, like a butterfly touching a petal.

"Don't trust the light..." An extremely thin breathy voice entered his ear, mixing with the metallic scent of the scorched earth. "It's choosing the next you."

Chen Fan's pupils constricted sharply.

He remembered three days ago when Su Shuang had taken the Red Candle Judge's 'Soul Branding Technique' head-on to save him. She had been like this then too, leaning into his ear before falling unconscious to say, 'Beware of the Shadow Pavilion.'

He hadn't understood back then, but now...

"Go." Black Crow suddenly grabbed his wrist, warm blood dripping onto the back of his hand. "I'll protect her."

Skylark said this floating island is a ruin of the ancient Purifiers. You must go up—Old Cripple's remnant soul, the nameless players of the entire server, all their signals point here."

Chen Fan stared at Black Crow's blood-stained sleeve.

This guy, who always said 'the system is daddy,' now had a fire burning in his eyes that Chen Fan had never seen before.

He let go of Su Shuang, his fingertips giving a final brush against the silk flower in her hair—a wild chrysanthemum picked in a Bronze Dungeon three months ago, which she had kept fresher than a real flower using Fox Clan secret techniques.

"The wind says you carry the aura of the Starbreaker."

A clear, ethereal female voice came from above.

Chen Fan looked up and saw a blind girl floating down from the clouds, her moon-white skirt stained with star fragments.

Her eyes were covered with plain silk, yet she accurately reached out to him, her fingertip touching the Star-patterned Jade Pendant on his chest. "But the path you walk has one more fire than his."

"My fire doesn't burn my own people." Chen Fan curled his lip.

He had seen Skylark three days ago when saving Shadow Skin in the drainage ditch; this girl had marked all the trap positions just by listening to the wind.

At this moment, the warmth from her fingertips carried a certain familiarity, like the medicine Old Cripple had shoved at him, or the sweet osmanthus fermented rice Su Shuang brewed.

The blind girl suddenly smiled. "So you will burn the heavens."

Before the words finished, Chen Fan stepped into empty air.

When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in the middle of the light stairs.

The silhouette of the floating giant city was close at hand. Seven giant bronze gates were lined up in sequence, each engraved with twisted ancient seal script.

The nearest gate suddenly trembled, and the mechanical voice of the Stone Dial Child boomed: "First Level, Gate of Severed Wrath."

To pass this gate, one must sever a piece of wrath."

The moment the ground cracked open, Chen Fan's temples throbbed violently.

Illusions surged in like a tide—a foreman wielding a belt, whipping a young worker huddled in a corner, blood splattering onto his junior high graduation certificate; the Red Candle Judge sneering as he held an ID card, 'Contract breaker, soul extinguished'; Shadow Skin peeling off half his own face, revealing white bones crawling with maggots beneath the skin...

"Strip away the emotion of anger to pass safely." The system prompt stung his eardrums.

Chen Fan looked at his own trembling hand in the illusion—it was the bruise from being hit with a shovel by the foreman when his wages were withheld at fifteen.

He suddenly laughed, his laughter mixed with the metallic sweetness in his throat. "I'll only feel satisfied if I remember these debts."

Heart Returning Blast exploded within his body.

blue flames surged from his knuckles. As the first level of illusion was blasted into fragments, the critical hit system's prompt followed with a bang: [Chain Critical Hit Triggered × 2.1].

Just as the second level of illusion took shape, his left fist, wrapped in orange light, smashed out—it was the 'Mountain Breaker Awl' that dropped in the Starlight Dungeon yesterday. It already had +30% armor penetration, and now, pulled to ×4.7 by the critical hit system, the illusion's skeletal chest cavity collapsed on the spot.

"Boom!"

The moment the purple lightning struck, a flash of white light crossed Chen Fan's eyes.

He staggered two steps, leaning against a gate pillar to catch his breath. The fragments of his childhood being bullied were like a ball of yarn being pulled away; the memory of his father's last smile and the candy his mother shoved at him before she died suddenly became blurred.

"Second Level, Gate of Relinquished Memories. Give up a segment of memory in exchange for a step toward survival."

The Stone Dial Child's voice continued.

Chen Fan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Just as he was about to force his way through, Skylark's voice suddenly rang in his ear: "0.8 seconds before the lightning comes, the wind will stop." He started, only then noticing that after every critical hit, there would be a momentary stagnation in the air—just like Old Cripple taught him when practicing military boxing: "Hold your breath to build power."

The moment the next critical hit triggered, Chen Fan rolled sideways across the ground.

The purple lightning grazed his left shoulder as it struck, shattering half a gate pillar.

He used the momentum to leap up, his right fist smashing toward the knee joint of the guardian colossus.

Just as the [Equipment Critical Hit × 4.3] prompt faded, the colossus's bronze leg bone let out a tooth-aching crack. The airwave from its thunderous collapse flipped his collar, revealing the Star-patterned Jade Pendant glowing with ghostly light on his chest.

"Exchanging pain for opportunity is not wisdom, but madness." Bai Qi's voice drifted down from the high platform.

Chen Fan looked up and saw the elder's Star-dial Staff hanging by his side, three of the stars at the head of the staff having gone dark.

The bronze patterns of the third gate, the "Gate of Bonds," suddenly glowed with red light.

Su Shuang's figure emerged within the gate, wearing his favorite moon-white qipao, the silk flower in her hair blooming brilliantly.

Her voice was like a spring breeze brushing through the bamboo curtains of a Teahouse: "Let go of me, and only then can you live."

Chen Fan stared at her feet.

Shadow—Su Shuang's shadow should be pale pink because she has the Fox Demon Bloodline.

But the "Su Shuang" inside the gate had pitch-black darkness by her feet.

He strode forward, bending down to pick up the unconscious Su Shuang's physical body—the body Black Crow had just placed in his arms, still carrying body heat.

"I'm damn well taking her with me to punch a hole in the heavens!"

The moment he crashed into the gate, the entire floating giant city trembled.

The system prompt's frequency became unusually chaotic: [Emotional weight exceeds logical judgment, forced passage].

Bai Qi closed his eyes as the last star on the Star-dial Staff shattered with a 'pop'.

The bronze gate behind Chen Fan exploded with a roar.

He staggered two steps, and the Su Shuang in his arms suddenly let out an extremely soft whimper.

Moonlight shone through the shattered gate, revealing the tear mole at the corner of her eye glowing with a strange golden light—looking exactly like the Fox Clan spark sealed within the qingqiu jade.

"The third gate... has shattered." There was an indescribable complexity in Bai Qi's voice.

Chen Fan looked up and saw the fourth of the seven heavenly gates slowly opening. Behind it was a star-chart he had never seen before.

And the Star-patterned Jade Pendant on his chest, together with the qingqiu jade in Su Shuang's hair, was now emitting a blinding light.