327: The Void Corridor and the "Broken Mirror"

Looking at the "Void Corridor" from a distance, it resembles a black wound torn into the starry sky.

It has no light, no matter, only pure nothingness—but not the kind of nothingness that devours everything like a black hole; rather, it is a... hollow nothingness. It is like a canvas once filled with stars, from which a strip has been forcibly gouged out, revealing the pale backing beneath.

"Qianlong" hung at the entrance of this "wound," and Wen Youyi and Aila stared at the data transmitted back by the sensors, their expressions grim.

"The spatial readings are completely abnormal." Aila's fingers slid rapidly across the console. "It's not a conventional space rift, nor is it a wormhole. The spatial structure here looks like... it was 'pruned' by something and then glued back together with cheap glue."

Wen Youyi leaned closer to the screen. A programmer's instinct led him to interpret this anomaly as "code that was patched after being tampered with, but the patch was poorly written." Those unstable spatial fluctuations were like memory leaks when a program is running, liable to crash at any moment.

"What does the data from Luo Chen say?" he asked.

Aila pulled up the Sky Patrol civilization's records on the Void Corridor—it consisted of only a few sentences, written in an official tone: "Possibility of risk exists; passage is not recommended." The only valuable information was: "It is rumored that the Void Corridor is a remnant battlefield from the 'Dimension War' of the ancient era, where the spatial structure suffered permanent damage, and internal time and space logic are chaotic."

"Dimension War?" Wen Youyi recalled that Xingyi had mentioned this term before. "The great war from the era of the Star People?"

"Very likely." Aila nodded. "If this is a battlefield ruin, there might still be remnants of the weapon effects from back then or... something worse."

"For example?"

"For example, dimensional misalignment—you might take a step forward but actually move three steps to the left; for example, time fragments—the time in a certain area might still be stuck at the moment the war broke out; and for example... 'war echoes,' the resentment of dead soldiers and warships forming some kind of semi-entity in the broken space."

Wen Youyi touched the master key, which had already fused with four fragments. The master key emitted a faint resonance here, as if guiding the way.

"We have no way back." He took a deep breath. "The Star Devourers fleet will arrive in ten days; taking the conventional route will definitely be too late. We have to take a gamble."

Aila was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Then we gamble. But we must prepare for the worst."

She began to adjust the defensive Systems of "Qianlong": "I'm reallocating energy: 70% to shields, 20% to engines, and 10% to the stealth System. If we encounter attacks, we'll tank them; if we encounter spatial turbulence, we'll accelerate and charge through; if we encounter..."

"If we encounter something we can't fight and can't run from," Wen Youyi interjected, "we'll play dead."

Aila looked at him with confusion.

"An old programmer's trick—when the System crashes, first pretend you don't exist and wait for it to reboot itself." Wen Youyi grinned. "Although it might not work here, it's at least a strategy."

With preparations complete, "Qianlong" slowly sailed into the Void Corridor.

The moment they entered, the world changed.

Outside the porthole, it was no longer the starry sky, but a constantly shifting gray mist. The mist flowed as if it had a life of its own, sometimes condensing into the shape of stars, sometimes dispersing into broken spots of light. Most eerily, Wen Youyi felt his sense of direction disappearing—he was clearly looking forward, yet felt like he was moving to the left; he was clearly ascending, yet felt like he was descending.

"Spatial perception distortion." Aila gripped the control stick tightly. "The instruments show we are flying in a straight line, but the actual trajectory might be spiral. We have to trust the instruments."

"Qianlong" continued deeper.

The first few hundred miles were relatively calm; aside from the disorientation, they encountered no substantial danger. But as they went deeper, the surrounding scenery began to look... wrong.

Broken images began to emerge in the mist.

Wen Youyi saw a fragment of a broken starship, not a physical object, but floating in the mist like a holographic projection. The style of the starship was different from any known civilization; it was made entirely of some kind of crystal, and even though it was broken, it still emitted a faint blue light.

Then came more images: twisted metal, melted armor, exploded energy cores... all floating in the mist like ghosts.

"These are all remnant images of the Dimension War." Aila said in a low voice. "After the spatial structure was shattered, the scenes from that time were 'imprinted' onto space itself, just like a photographic negative."

Suddenly, "Qianlong" shook violently!

It wasn't being attacked; space itself was "twitching." The mist ahead suddenly contracted and then expanded, like a heart beating. Amidst this contraction and expansion, a "river" composed of countless fragments flowed through the mist—these were real material fragments, including metal, crystals, and charred organic remains, all flowing silently.

"Spatial turbulence!" Aila shouted. "Hold on!"

"Qianlong" was swept into this river of fragments. The fragments pelted the shields, and the shield energy dropped at a rate visible to the naked eye. Wen Youyi desperately tried to stabilize their course, attempting to break free from the river, but the distortion of space itself made them feel like they were swimming in glue.

Just then, he saw something.

In the center of the fragment river, a... mirror was floating.

It wasn't a glass mirror, but a "mirror surface" composed of pure space, constantly changing shape. What was reflected in the mirror was not "Qianlong," but a bizarre scene: countless starships exchanging fire, energy beams flying everywhere, but all the actions were played in reverse—the flames of explosions were contracting, broken hulls were reassembling, and fallen soldiers were "standing" back up.

"Is that... time reversal?" Wen Youyi widened his eyes.

"Not entirely." Aila analyzed the data. "That is a 'time segment misalignment' caused by spatial fragmentation. The flow of time in that area is opposite to ours, but it's limited to that small range. It's like in a pot of overcooked porridge, there are a few grains of rice that aren't cooked yet."

The mirror surface rotated slowly, and wherever it passed, the matter in the fragment river began to "flow backward"—the already broken wreckage was reassembled, and the melted metal returned to its original state. A few fragments that were about to hit "Qianlong" suddenly changed direction after the mirror surface swept past and flew back to where they came from.

"That thing is repairing space!" A flash of inspiration struck Wen Youyi. "It's not a mirror; it's a... 'spatial repair node'! Left behind by the Star People!"

He immediately maneuvered "Qianlong" and rushed toward the mirror surface.

"What are you doing?!" Aila exclaimed.

"If it can repair space, maybe it can help us stabilize our course!" Wen Youyi said, having already piloted the ship to the front of the mirror.

The mirror surface showed no reaction to the appearance of "Qianlong," continuing to rotate and repair on its own. But when Wen Youyi took out the master key, the mirror surface suddenly stopped.

It "looked" toward the master key.

Then, the mirror surface began to deform—changing from a plane to a sphere, and then from a sphere to a complex polyhedron. Finally, it stabilized into the shape of a regular dodecahedron, with patterns similar to the markings on the master key appearing on its surface.

A hollow voice resounded in their minds:

"Detected 'Star People' authorization key. Identity verification passed. Welcome to Void Corridor maintenance node G-7."

Wen Youyi and Aila looked at each other.

"Are you... an artificial intelligence?" Wen Youyi asked tentatively.

"I am the intelligent core of the 'Spatial Repair Array' node 7, serial number G-7. Duty: Monitor and repair spatial damage in the Void Corridor." The voice was emotionless. "According to records, the previous authorization holder's visit time: 8742nd standard year of the Star People era. Current time: Unable to synchronize. Time System is damaged."

Aila's eyes lit up: "Can you help us pass through the Void Corridor?"

"I can." G-7 replied. "But a trade is required."

"Trade what?"

"Data." The mirror surface (or rather, G-7's core) turned toward Wen Youyi. "My database was 73% damaged during the Dimension War and cannot repair itself. If you can provide the basic physical constants of the current Universe, the distribution of major civilizations, and... complete data on the 'Star Devourers' threat, I can plan a safe path for you and temporarily stabilize the spatial structure along the way."

Wen Youyi hesitated. Providing this data was equivalent to exposing their trump cards and the current state of the Universe to an unknown AI. What if this G-7 had already been corrupted by the Star Devourers?

But Aila nodded: "We can. But we need you to provide an equivalent guarantee—for example, tell us the truth about the Void Corridor, and what the Star People did here back then."

After a brief silence, G-7 agreed: "The deal is made."

In the next hour, "Qianlong" stopped beside the mirror surface, exchanging information with G-7 via a data link.

Wen Youyi provided some basic physical data and the basic situation of the "Spark" civilization (a simplified version, of course), while Aila provided the Sky Patrol civilization's research records on the Star Devourers. In exchange, G-7 told a shocking story.

The Void Corridor was indeed a battlefield of the Dimension War—but not a battlefield between the Star People and an enemy, but a "civil war" battlefield within the Star People themselves.

"After the 'Guardian' project failed back then, a split occurred within the Star People." G-7's voice remained calm, but the content was thrilling. "One group believed that all experimental data should be destroyed and the creation of the 'Heavenly Dao' System should be completely abandoned; another group believed that research should continue, just with stricter control. The disagreement eventually evolved into armed conflict."

"This was one of the battlefields." G-7 displayed a holographic image—two fleets of Star People with similar designs but different liveries were fiercely exchanging fire in this Star Domain. The weapons they used were extremely advanced, not energy beams, but "rule weapons" that directly modified spatial structure and physical Laws.

"The result of the war was mutual destruction. The spatial structure was shattered, the flow of time was disrupted, and both sides paid a heavy price. Eventually, the Star People civilization realized that internal friction would only accelerate their demise, so they ceased fire and collectively ascended to a higher dimension, leaving this Universe. And we, these 'Spatial Repair Arrays,' were set up by them before they left to slowly repair the wounds of war."

Wen Youyi and Aila listened, stunned.

The Star People weren't defeated by an external enemy; they split internally and almost destroyed themselves.

"Then the Star Devourers..." Aila asked.

"The Star Devourers were a contingency measure left behind by the 'Continue Research' faction before they were defeated." G-7 said. "They were unwilling to have their research results destroyed, so they 'optimized' the split fragments of the Guardian prototype into the Star Devourers. The initial instruction was 'collect enough data and energy, and wait for our return.' But over the long years, this instruction was distorted into what it is today."

Wen Youyi remembered when they were at the Heart of Lava, those fire creatures regarded the fragments as "mother." Now it seemed that was not just a metaphor—the fragments truly carried a part of the will of the Star People's "Mother Civilization."

"Then, if we collect all seven fragments, what will happen?" Wen Youyi asked the most critical question.

G-7 was silent for a long time.

"According to the undamaged records in my database, when the seven fragments are gathered, it will trigger the 'Ultimate Protocol'." It said slowly. "But the specific content... there are only two words in my database: 'Judgment'."

Judgment.

Was it a judgment on the Star Devourers, or a judgment on the Star People themselves? Or perhaps a judgment on all civilizations?

Wen Youyi wanted to ask more, but G-7 interrupted: "Data exchange complete. Now, I will fulfill my promise."

The mirror surface suddenly disintegrated, turning into countless points of light that flew into the depths of the Void Corridor. Wherever the light points passed, the mist dissipated, space stabilized, and a clear path of light appeared in front of "Qianlong."

"Follow this path, and you will reach the exit on the other side of the Void Corridor in three standard hours." G-7's voice began to grow weak. "My energy is about to be exhausted. Remember, young life—do not repeat the mistakes the Star People made."

The last word fell, and the mirror surface completely disappeared.

The surrounding space stabilized, and the path paved by points of light looked like a galaxy in the starry sky, guiding the way.

Wen Youyi and Aila looked at each other, both seeing the shock in the other's eyes.

The truth they had just learned overturned many of their perceptions.

But there was no time to think about it in detail.

"Let's go." Wen Youyi gripped the control stick.

"Qianlong" sped along the path of light.

This voyage was exceptionally smooth. G-7 had stabilized space for them with its final energy; those spatial turbulences, time fragments, and war echoes all avoided this path of light.

Three hours later, "Qianlong" rushed out of the Void Corridor.

Outside the porthole, the familiar starry sky reappeared.

And not far ahead, a Star Domain composed of countless tombstone-like wrecks floated silently in the void.

"Silent Graveyard." Aila said softly. "The fifth fragment is there."

Wen Youyi nodded and was about to adjust their course when an emergency signal sounded on the communications console.

It was sent by "hope."

Zhao Iron Pillar's voice was full of anxiety: "Boss! Something happened! Luo Chen's scout ship has been discovered by the Star Devourers! They are being pursued! We must go save them!"

Wen Youyi was startled: "Location?"

"It's on our way to the Return to Ruins, about two days' journey from the Silent Graveyard!" Zhao Iron Pillar shouted. "Luo Chen says they can hold out for a day, but after that..."

Wen Youyi looked at Aila, and Aila was also looking at him.

On one side was the fifth fragment that had to be obtained as soon as possible, and on the other was an ally being pursued.

Both were urgent.

Neither side could be abandoned.

"Split up." Wen Youyi made a decision. "'Qianlong' will continue to the Silent Graveyard to get the fragment. 'hope' will go save Luo Chen."

"But there are only the two of you on 'Qianlong'..."

"It's enough." Wen Youyi said. "We don't know the situation at the Silent Graveyard; having more people might actually be troublesome. You go save Luo Chen, and after saving them, head immediately to the Return to Ruins. We will rendezvous at the Return to Ruins."

After a brief silence, Zhao Iron Pillar gritted his teeth and said: "Okay! Boss, you guys be careful!"

The communication ended.

Wen Youyi looked at the Silent Graveyard ahead, then looked at the direction where "hope" was on the star map.

Time was getting tighter and tighter.

And danger was everywhere.

(End of chapter)