34: Amber of Space and Time! The Ark's final legacy!

"Forward four! All fleet! Disperse! Evasive maneuvers!"

Lin Feng's command, like a red-hot iron poker, pierced through the roar of engines and the shriek of alarms. The Deep Blue's massive hull let out a muffled groan in the vacuum of space, its vector thrusters erupting in an eerie blue flame, propelling it into an extreme evasive maneuver that nearly tore its structure apart! Almost simultaneously, a dark breath, deeper and more ravenous than the cosmic background, silently grazed the stern!

That section of space was instantly "erased," leaving behind a transient, heart-stopping void of absolute nothingness!

"Deep Blue Watcher 04! Evasion failed! Signal dis--" The radar officer's shriek was drowned out by the terrifying sight of another Pioneer dreadnought silently annihilating. There was no explosion, no fire, only the complete disassociation of matter, like a sandcastle collapsing into nothingness.

The Star Eater's projection writhed in the depths of the void, its gaping "maw" slowly closing, its cold "gaze" once again fixated on the Deep Blue, like a fly struggling futilely in a spider's web. Each attack carried the certainty of destruction, each movement brought the Ark's massive, silent silhouette closer and clearer into view.

"Captain! We are still a thousand kilometers from the Ark's hull! But its gravitational field is abnormal! Our conventional engine thrust is severely weakened! Our approach speed is decreasing!" The navigation officer's voice was hoarse with despair. The Ark was like a giant, cold black hole, not only devouring light but also distorting the rules of space, forming an invisible quagmire.

"Use the Xing Chen (Stardust) core! Overload the thrusters! Tear through this swamp for me!" Lin Feng's voice was squeezed out from between his teeth, his eyes fixed on the increasingly close, battle-scarred dreadnought on the main screen. The Ark's hull was covered in impact craters and scorch marks from energy weapons, giant cracks like scars on a planetary surface, silently recounting its tragic journey across the star sea, finally stranded here. On the hull, massive, unfamiliar Pioneer characters reflected a cold, ghostly light under the searchlights. Some of these characters subtly echoed the dormant brand on Lin Feng's left hand.

"Overload initiated! Thruster output 120%! Warning! Structural stress approaching critical!" The roar from the engine room was accompanied by the groaning of the ship's metal, unable to bear the strain.

The Deep Blue, like an enraged beast, unleashed an unprecedented blinding light from its stern thrusters, struggling to tear through the viscous space created by the Ark's gravitational field, inching forward. Each small advance came at the cost of a Deep Blue Watcher vessel being annihilated to provide cover.

"Captain! Energy readings detected on the Ark's hull! Not weapons! It's like... like some kind of identification beacon!" Su Jin's voice suddenly rang out, with a hint of incredible tremor. She quickly zoomed in on the scan image—below the Ark's scarred bow, on an inconspicuous platform resembling an ancient altar, a faint, pure, ethereal blue light pulsed rhythmically, its frequency... perfectly synchronized with the Deep Blue's own main engine core fluctuations!

"It's the Deep Blue Project's identification code!" Old Zhao cried out, his eyes blazing with ecstatic light, "Su Yuanshan! He succeeded! He left a signpost for home here!"

"Lock onto the beacon's position! Prepare for forced docking!" Lin Feng didn't hesitate for a moment. This faint blue light was like the only lifeline in a desperate abyss. "Lei Lie! Prepare the assault team! Target—the beacon platform! Establish a landing channel at all costs!"

"Yes!" Lei Lie's voice held the grim determination of one going to their death, and he turned and rushed towards the hangar.

"Deep Blue calling Thor Squad! Cover the assault craft! Target—Ark bow beacon!" Chen Hai's voice boomed across the fleet channel.

The remaining seven Deep Blue Watchers, like loyal guardians, fearlessly blocked the path between the Deep Blue and the Ark, their cannons firing in unison, weaving a final, fragile interception fire net in the void, drawing the Star Eater's destructive "gaze."

The Star Eater's projection seemed to be further piqued by this dying struggle, and the center of the writhing darkness once again split open its nauseating "maw." This time, its target was precisely those few fearless Watcher ships!

"Now! Thor Squad! Go!" Lei Lie roared in the assault craft's cockpit. Three specially modified assault craft, their engines overloaded to the limit, shot out like arrows from a bowstring, battling the Ark's chaotic gravitational field and spatial distortions, rushing towards the platform with its pure, ethereal blue beacon in the milliseconds before the destructive beam descended!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Behind them, three Watcher ships turned into cosmic dust in silent annihilation, buying these precious few seconds for their comrades with their lives!

Violent tremors shook the craft! The assault craft, relying on extreme speed and overloaded engines, slammed into the edge of the beacon platform like a nail! The hull twisted and deformed, alarms blaring wildly!

"Docking successful! But the channel is unstable! Can only be maintained for five minutes!" The engineering department's report came with desperate urgency.

"Assault team! Follow me!" Lei Lie kicked open the deformed hatch, enduring the biting cold wind mixed with the smell of metallic rust and some ancient dust, and was the first to leap onto the Ark's cold, silent deck. Lin Feng followed closely, his high-frequency particle oscillation blade gripped tightly, his fusion core armor glinting with cold light in the Ark's dim ambient light.

The sight before them choked everyone. The massive bow deck was like an ancient battlefield, strewn with twisted wreckage melted by energy weapons and the remains of Pioneers frozen in their last battle stances! The skeletons of these alien lifeforms were slender yet tough, covered in crystal-like carapaces, and even after countless years of death, still emitted a faint energy glow. Their postures were frozen in moments of charge, defense, and repair, as if the time of the entire dreadnought had been forcibly paused the moment a catastrophic disaster struck!

"Temporal Amber..." Su Jin looked at the unusually stable temporal field readings on her scanner, her voice trembling with awe, "The core area inside the entire Ark... the flow of time is almost stagnant! This is... this is their last means of protection!"

"Core control room! Target unchanged! Hurry!" Lin Feng suppressed the shock in his heart, his gaze sweeping like lightning over a massive, cracked passage on the deck leading deep into the hull. The inner walls of the passage were covered with thick, ice-crystal-like energy condensates, emitting a faint blue light.

The squad sprinted across the frozen battlefield of death, their footsteps echoing jarringly in the silent interior of the massive ship. The closer they got to the depths of the crack, the more pronounced the sensation of time stagnation became. The air was as thick as glue, making every step incredibly difficult. On both sides of the passage, more scenes frozen in time could be seen: Pioneer engineers futilely trying to repair broken pipes, warriors holding strange energy weapons pointing into the void, scientists hunched over control panels, their fingertips mere millimeters from a button... Despair and defiance, eternally preserved in this moment.

"Warning! High-energy life readings detected! Forward passage!" A team member's detector suddenly shrieked.

Before the words finished, the thick energy crystal cluster in front of the passage suddenly exploded! Several twisted figures roared and lunged out! They had once been Pioneers, but now their bodies were severely mutated, their carapaces shattered, revealing writhing, fleshy tissues emitting a foul, blood-blue glow, and their compound eyes flashed with mad red light!

"Corrupted! They are outer source's pawns! They weren't completely frozen!" Lei Lie roared, his electromagnetic rifle spitting out a scorching barrage!

Bullets struck the mutated bodies, splashing foul goo, but failed to stop their twisted charge! Their speed in the viscous temporal field was even faster than the assault team's!

"High-frequency oscillation blade! Aim for the joints!" Lin Feng thundered, his figure transforming into a black lightning bolt to meet them! The particle oscillation blade, with a hum that tore at space, precisely sliced through the knee joint of one of the mutated creatures! The tough carapace shattered like rotten wood under the ultra-high frequency vibration! Foul blood splattered!

"Roar!" Another mutated creature seized the opportunity to lunge at Lin Feng's side, its fanged maw opening to spray a stream of foul, corrosive energy-laden slime!

Lin Feng spun to dodge, the slime grazing his armor shield and corroding deep, sizzling pits into the frozen energy crystal cluster behind him! He swung his blade back, decapitating the attacker!

The battle erupted in the viscous temporal mire, bloody and brutal. The assault team's weapons were greatly reduced in power in the temporal field, while the corrupted seemed largely unaffected. Team members constantly fell, torn apart by the crazed mutated creatures. Lin Feng and Lei Lie were like two reefs, battling fiercely in the foul tide, pushing painstakingly towards the end of the passage.

"Captain! End of the passage! That door!" Lei Lie smashed the head of a corrupted creature with his rifle butt, pointing forward.

It was a massive alloy door, covered in complex energy circuits. On the door, a huge emblem, composed of pure, ethereal blue energy, slowly rotated—it was the spiral pattern etched into Lin Feng’s left hand!

And below the emblem, on a crystal control panel, a palm-sized, ethereal blue crystal, constantly shifting with nebula patterns, quietly floated—the energy fluctuations it emitted resonated strongly with the Ark itself, and even with the key mark within Lin Feng’s body!

“Control core!” Su Jin’s voice was filled with ecstasy and a hint of imperceptible fear. “That’s the source maintaining the ‘Time-Space Amber’!”

“Get it! Then we can…” Lei Lie’s words abruptly stopped.

Because, in front of that door, amidst the solidified remains of Pioneers scattered across the floor, stood a unique figure. It had not mutated, maintaining the complete, elegant, and solemn form of a Pioneer, with faint golden light flowing over its silver-gray carapace. In its “hand,” it held a crystal cube emitting a soft white glow. Its “head” was slightly bowed, as if guarding, yet also as if in slumber. No trace of life could be felt from its body, yet it exuded a… will of eternal watch.

“The last… guardian?” Lin Feng stopped, his Particle Vibration Blade held horizontally in front of him, vigilantly staring at this silent guardian. He could feel an immense energy contained within this guardian, dormant but like a sleeping volcano.

“No hostile intent…” Su Jin’s scanner hummed softly. “Its energy field… is very peculiar, it seems to be… recording?”

Lin Feng’s gaze passed over the silent guardian and landed on the floating core crystal, shifting with nebulae. That was the Ark’s key, the crucial element to unlock the Time-Space Amber, gain control of this colossal vessel, and perhaps… awaken this guardian.

Time, like viscous air, slipped away second by second. Behind them, the sounds of his team’s battle with the remaining corrupted entities grew closer, mixed with screams and roars. Above, Deep Blue’s ultimate confrontation with the Star Eater continued, each tremor of the ship clearly transmitted, reminding them of the fierce war of attrition outside, which concerned the survival of humanity.

Lin Feng took a deep breath, the air seemingly carrying the cold dust of solidified time. He walked, step by step, towards the silent golden guardian, towards the floating nebula crystal.

Just as his fingertips were about to touch the crystal—

Buzz!!!

An indescribable, vast, star-sea-like torrent of consciousness, without warning, violently surged into his mind!

Not sound, not images, but pure fragments of information, emotion, and memory! It was the final cries of countless Pioneer individuals in desperate flight! It was the extreme fear of witnessing their homeland devoured by the Star Eater’s dark tentacles! It was the tragic heroism of traversing endless star seas in search of last hope! It was the resolute decision to activate the Time-Space Amber, freezing themselves and their enemies together! It was… a deep-seated, cross-species, soul-piercing… hatred for the pure destructive will of the outer source!

“Ugh ah—!” Lin Feng reeled as if struck by a heavy blow, clutching his head and falling to his knees! His Fusion Core Armor hummed with overload! The Particle Vibration Blade flew from his hand, embedding itself in the cold ground, buzzing. His eyes were instantly filled with countless shattered starlight, twisted nebulae, burning planets, and the writhing darkness that devoured everything! Immense pain and sorrow almost tore his consciousness apart!

“Captain!” Lei Lie cried out in horror, trying to step forward, but was violently pushed back by an invisible force field!

“Don’t come over!” Su Jin shrieked, staring intently at the off-the-charts psychic energy readings on her scanner. “It’s a memory bank! The entire Ark… the entire Pioneer civilization’s refugees’… final memory inheritance! It… it’s forcibly injecting it into him!”

Lin Feng’s body trembled violently, the golden mark beneath his skin glowing uncontrollably, reflecting the shimmering light on the golden guardian’s carapace and the glow of the nebula crystal! His consciousness floated in the myriad memory fragments of the Pioneers, like a lone boat in a raging sea. He saw a beautiful planet covered by blue oceans disintegrate under dark tentacles; saw countless giant Arks embark in despair; saw companion Arks swallowed one after another by darkness on the star sea route; saw them finally arrive in this desolate starfield, activating their last resort, freezing themselves along with the pursuing corrupted entities…

And in the deepest part of that memory torrent, in the final obsession converged from countless Pioneer consciousnesses before they dissipated, a cold and clear realization, like a brand, was etched into Lin Feng’s soul:

["Stargazer"… is not a project name…]

[It is… the codename for the "Tinder"…]

[(It is our… unfulfilled… civilization’s legacy…]

[Find… the Origin Land…]

[Stop… the outer source…]

[Otherwise… the cycle… will be eternal…]

“Ugh… ah…” Lin Feng let out a suppressed roar from his throat, struggling to pull a sliver of clarity from the memory torrent that was drowning his soul. His bloodshot eyes, through his blurry vision, stared intently at the still-silent golden guardian, at the crystal cube in its hand emitting a soft white glow.

That was not an ornament. That was… a keyhole! An interface… perfectly matching the shape of the mark on his left hand!

The last legacy of the Pioneer civilization, the unfulfilled “Stargazer” Tinder inheritance, the key to the ultimate truth of the outer source… was right before him!

However, just as Lin Feng struggled to lift his head, which was throbbing with pain, preparing to press his left hand onto the crystal cube—

“Captain! Emergency situation!” Chen Hai’s desperate voice exploded through the barely maintained communication channel, filled with unprecedented fear. “The Star Eater… it… it changed its target! It abandoned Deep Blue! It… it’s… ‘devouring’ the Ark’s hull!”

On the main screen, a terrifying image from Deep Blue’s perspective was simultaneously transmitted!

The dark projection of the Star Eater, writhing in the void, its gaping “mouthparts” did not spray destructive beams again, but instead… generated an irresistible, terrifying suction, like a giant whale drawing in water! The Ark’s enormous hull, forged from unknown Pioneer alloy, was visibly “dissolving” and disappearing at a speed visible to the naked eye, like metal dropped into strong acid, silently. The process was more bizarre than annihilation, more like being “digested” by some entity…!

“It’s… eating the Ark?!” Lei Lie’s voice trembled with incomprehension.

“No!” Su Jin watched the frantically fluctuating data on her scanner, her face ashen. “It’s absorbing! It’s absorbing the Time-Space Amber energy contained within the Ark’s hull! It’s analyzing this power! It’s… evolving!”

On the screen, as the area of the Ark’s hull being “devoured” expanded, the Star Eater’s dark projection seemed to become more… solidified? As it writhed, more complex, energy-circuit-like dark patterns subtly emerged on its surface! That cold, indifferent will of destruction became heavier, more… “purposeful”!

“Warning! Star Eater energy readings are skyrocketing! Spatial stability index is collapsing! Estimated… estimated that after it completely devours the Ark’s hull, its main body will be able to… temporarily manifest in reality!” Old Zhao’s voice was laced with despair.

Time! The last of time! Like burning hot iron sand, it poured frantically through their fingers!

Lin Feng knelt on the cold Ark deck, the mark on his left hand burning with a searing pain, his consciousness filled with the lament of the Pioneer civilization’s destruction and the ultimate warning from the outer source. He looked up, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the silent golden guardian, on the crystal cube in the guardian’s hand, emitting a soft white light and perfectly matching the shape of his mark, and then at the Ark’s colossal hull, being “digested” bit by bit by the Star Eater on the screen behind him.

Deep Blue’s future, the survival of human civilization, the world-ending seed dormant within his brother Lin Yue, and the last legacy of the Pioneers carried by this Ark… all hope, despair, mysteries, and destruction were compressed into this small space, compressed within the Ark’s final tomb, frozen by the Time-Space Amber!

His left hand, stained with blood and ice crystals, bearing the heavy burden of the Pioneer’s memories, carrying humanity’s last desperate gamble, and imbued with chilling resolve, slowly and firmly reached out towards the crystal cube emitting a soft white glow.

His fingertip was only a hair’s breadth away from that pure light.