57: Chapter 57 The Long Night

There is no sunrise in the morning of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist.

Thick, grayish-white fog surges in from all directions, wrapping the outpost into a translucent cocoon.

The law-imbued lights create blurry halos in the mist; the footsteps of the patrol team travel from far to near, then from near to far, swallowed completely by the fog.

Shen Ye stands on the outpost wall, facing a row of storage lockers reinforced with meteorite iron.

He carefully places the half-section of bone blade he obtained from Second Lieutenant Meng Yan last night into the locker, secures it with a binding spell, and attaches a sealing talisman to the locker door.

The residual aura of the Ash King on the bone blade is extremely faint, but Tie Chui said that as long as there is a single intact sample of the law pattern, he can reverse-engineer the base structure of the Devouring Abyss power.

Shen Ye does not intend to take this bone blade deep into the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist—in case he encounters any accidents inside, at least the bone blade can remain at the outpost for Qin Shu to retrieve.

After finishing, he checks his gear.

Five bottles of fine-grade spiritual liquid concentrate, twenty foundation establishment pills, twelve sword intent stones—he used two extra last night to cut a small piece off the bone blade for law pattern rubbing—one hundred faith crystals, some spiritual plant rations, and a flask of concentrated spirit spring liquid.

Gu Yan's broken sword, wrapped in spiritual silk, is tied to the side of his backpack; the cracks on the sword blade emit a very faint, dark golden light in the morning mist.

He zips up his backpack and walks down the wall.

The cafeteria is already open; Second Lieutenant Meng Yan is standing behind the counter, wiping the stove with a rag.

His movements are the same as always—the bowl is on the plate, and the chopsticks are placed horizontally on the far right.

When Shen Ye walks in, he looks up, his gaze lingering on Shen Ye's backpack for a moment.

"Heading into the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist today?"

"Yes. Qin Shu is leading the team to find the abnormal energy fluctuation coordinate marked by Gu Qinghan."

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan puts down the rag, pulls out a palm-sized metal box from under the counter, and pushes it toward Shen Ye.

The surface of the box is engraved with miniature sealing patterns, which Shen Ye recognizes—this is the standard law resonator for independent pioneers, capable of detecting specific law fluctuations within a certain range.

Qin Shu's unit was turned in upon retirement; this one is Second Lieutenant Meng Yan's own.

"My serial number is 0059. This resonator contains a sample of the Ash King's law fluctuations recorded during the 'Long Night' operation. If the abnormal coordinate you are looking for is truly related to the war ruins between the Twilight Civilization and the Void Race from back then, the resonator will react before any detector."

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan opens the box, revealing a fingernail-sized dark golden chip with a tiny, slowly flickering red light in the center. "Take it. I've kept it since I retired, originally planning to return it to Qin Shu when he came back. Now, it's for you."

"Why not wait for him to come and get it himself?"

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan is silent for a moment.

"He will never return to the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist. His kin died here, and he nearly died here himself. By leaving that projection device to you, he has already given you everything he had left. You return this resonator for him."

Shen Ye takes the box, removes the chip, and carefully inserts it into the card slot of his military-grade law detector.

The detector's screen lights up, and the dark golden chip begins to automatically adapt to the detector's original law sensing module. A line of small text pops up on the screen: "Unknown law sample detected, matching... Matching complete. Ash King · Echo."

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan watches the text on the screen, his mouth twitching—not a smile, but something deeper, as if something that had been pressed under a stone for many years finally loosened for a moment.

"Go," he says. "Qin Shu should be waiting for you at the city gate."

Shen Ye hangs the detector back on his waist, puts on his backpack, and stops at the entrance of the cafeteria.

"Uncle Meng, how long has it been since you last touched a bone blade after transferring to logistics?"

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan looks down at his hands that are wiping the stove—hands that once held bone blades, slashed through the divine kingdom cores of Void Race kings, and fought back-to-back with Gu Yan in the Ash King's domain.

"Many years. Logistics soldiers don't need to touch bone blades."

"When my kin develop a pill that can purify the power of the Devouring Abyss, you won't have to do logistics anymore."

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan does not answer.

He picks up the rag and continues to wipe the stove that he has already wiped countless times.

Shen Ye pushes the door open and walks into the mist.

Qin Shu is standing at the outpost gate with a military-grade law detector at his feet, one size larger than Shen Ye's.

Beside him are Gu Changfeng and Qin Sese. Gu Changfeng is carrying his wind-thunder twin spears on his back—they were re-refined after the Provincial Tournament, the spear shafts are shorter than before, but the lightning glow is denser. Qin Sese is carrying a savage stone spear on her shoulder, the tip still stained with fragments of Void Race bone armor from yesterday's battle.

"Everyone is here."

Qin Shu unfolds a military-grade waterproof map, on which four points are marked with a red pen—the outpost is on the far east, the abnormal energy fluctuation coordinate marked by Gu Qinghan is on the far west, and the two points in the middle are backup observation stations.

The red coordinate is located at the edge of the core area of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist, adjacent to a dark gray area marked on the map as a "Law Disorder Zone."

On the edge of the map, there is a handwritten note from Qin Shu, the writing very scribbled: "During the Long Night operation, Gu Yan once recorded similar fluctuations near this area."

Shen Ye recalls what Second Lieutenant Meng Yan said last night—Gu Yan went missing while continuing to penetrate deep into the Void Race occupied area after the Long Night operation.

If this abnormal coordinate is related to the Ash King from back then, then it is likely the key clue to unraveling everything.

He cross-references the four coordinates on the map with the sensing signal just activated by the dark golden chip in his detector; the locations match.

"Let's go."

Qin Shu puts away the map and is the first to step into the mist.

The four-person team moves along the ancient stone road outside the outpost, heading deep into the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist.

On both sides of the stone road are abandoned border fortifications—the wreckage of stone watchtowers, rusted spiritual power turrets, and law array bases covered in vines.

The deeper they go, the thicker the mist becomes, and the divine sense is compressed tighter and tighter; Shen Ye can only detect less than half of the normal distance when he expands his divine sense.

Qin Shu walks at the front, the law detector constantly emitting low-frequency humming sounds to indicate the safe path.

Gu Changfeng brings up the rear, the tips of his wind-thunder twin spears occasionally flashing with cyan-white lightning, forcing back scattered Void Tribe Scouts attempting to approach from the rear.

After walking for about two hours, the four reach the first backup observation station—a half-collapsed stone watchtower, the tower covered in border-specific alert vines.

The vines perceive the spiritual power fluctuations of the human Awakened and turn from grayish-brown to light green, indicating safety.

Qin Shu lets everyone rest here briefly.

Shen Ye leans against the ruined wall of the watchtower, his consciousness sinking into the Divine Kingdom.

In the alchemy room, Tie Chui is repeatedly comparing the spiral mineral crystal powder purified by Daoist Quan with the Void Tribe Scout bone armor sample cut earlier, searching for the base structure of the Devouring Abyss law patterns; Mu Sheng is soaking the latest batch of perception vine seeds into the liquid of the spiral foundation establishment pill for toughness enhancement; Yan Shan and Hou Tu, father and son, are bent over deep in the mineral vein, adjusting blast points while referencing the complex Devouring Abyss law patterns on the bone armor—Hou Tu places his palms against the rock wall to sense the texture, while Yan Shan uses his Rock Pattern arm to mark key nodes.

Shen Ye's consciousness flows over them; he knows this is the task he personally assigned before leaving.

He does not disturb anyone.

"Continue."

Qin Shu stands up and turns the gain of the detector up by one notch.

The closer they get to the abnormal coordinate, the more severe the law disorder becomes, and the detector's low-frequency humming begins to be mixed with intermittent static.

The stone road under their feet has long been swallowed by the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist for years; now, under their feet are gravel and dead vines never seen before.

The air is filled with a very faint burnt smell—not the smell of burning grass and wood, but the residual energy left in the soil after laws collided, which has not completely dissipated even after a long period of time.

They have arrived at the abnormal energy fluctuation coordinate marked by Gu Qinghan.

It is a ruin covered by both thick grayish-white fog and chaotic laws.

Shen Ye stands at the edge of the ruins, the sensing signal of the dark golden chip on the detector's screen and the energy fluctuation of the abnormal coordinate are automatically connecting, and a line of green text pops up on the screen: "Law fluctuation match successful. Source: Unknown mixture of Holy Light and Abyssal residual. Confidence: High."

He squats down and pushes aside the gravel at his feet, revealing a piece of dark golden metal fragment half-buried in the soil, the edges of the fragment as smooth as if melted instantly by some extremely high temperature, the surface engraved with dense text—not human common language, not Void Race sacrificial text, but Twilight script.

It is exactly the same font as the one on the black stele that Jiang Yue deciphered.

He brings his palm close to the fragment, secretly channeling the Twilight energy from the Land of Gods and Demons to resonate with it, and the extremely faint engravings on the fragment suddenly light up imperceptibly.

It is not Holy Light, not the Abyss, but Twilight.

"What did you find?"

Qin Shu's voice comes from behind.

"Fragments of ancient ruins."

Shen Ye does not hide it; this coordinate was marked by Gu Qinghan in the first place, so finding fragments of ancient ruins is expected. "The text on it is neither human nor Void Race; it needs to be taken back for professional deciphering."

He carefully puts the fragment into a spiritual silk bag and continues walking forward.

The ruins are not large and are soon searched by the four.

Apart from a few metal fragments with Twilight script and some carbonized spiritual plant fibers, there are no further discoveries.

But Shen Ye notices a very deep scorch mark on the ground in the center of the ruins—not from fire, but left by law impact.

The soil at the edge of the scorch mark has been melted into a glass-like state by high heat, and there is a small depression in the center.

He squats down and touches the bottom of the depression with a sword intent stone; the law fluctuation curve on the detector's screen suddenly jumps for a moment.

"Ash King."

Qin Shu stands behind him. "Gu Yan described this kind of scorch mark in the operation records he left behind. The core temperature of the Ash King's domain is extremely high, and after high-temperature impact, it leaves this kind of vitrified law scorch mark on the contact surface."

He pauses. "This is not its core area. It's just an outpost, very small in scale. The real main battlefield is deeper inside."

Shen Ye stands up and carefully puts the soil sample from the depression into the spiritual silk bag.

Tie Chui needs this—the high-temperature law residue of the Ash King might help him reverse-engineer the thermal barrier problem that needs to be overcome for the purification pill.

Qin Shu checks the time on the detector.

"Time to return. It's getting dark, and the law disorder in the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist will intensify at night."

The four return along the original path.

When retreating to the edge of the ruins, Shen Ye's Twilight perception suddenly captures a trace of extremely subtle fluctuation—not Holy Light, not the Abyss, but the extremely faint lingering charm of Twilight left after the two energies briefly converged in a natural state.

He stops, his Twilight perception extending along the mist toward the northeast of the ruins; the fluctuation gets weaker and weaker, like an ancient ballad fading away in the law-disordered Sea of Thousand Realms Mist.

He does not make a sound, only secretly keeping this direction in mind.

This fluctuation is almost identical in frequency to the reaction produced when the Twilight fragments resonated earlier—if there is any difference, it is that it is purer, closer to the primordial Twilight produced when Chen and Ye fused in the Twilight Spirit Spring.

It is not a fragment, not a residue, but some source of Twilight that is still weakly operating.

When they return to the outpost, it is already completely dark.

Qin Shu goes to submit the record of today's border observation, letting everyone rest for the night.

Shen Ye does not return to the dormitory; he walks into the cafeteria with the metal fragments engraved with Twilight script.

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan is stacking trays into the disinfection cabinet; seeing him walk in, he closes the cabinet door, wipes his hands on his apron, and his gaze lands on the spiritual silk bags in his hand.

"Did you find it?"

"I found it."

Shen Ye places the metal fragments on the dining table one by one, then takes out Gu Yan's broken sword from the side pocket of his backpack and places it next to the fragments.

He connects the detector above the fragments, and the sensing data of the dark golden chip on the screen slowly scrolls.

"The ruins seen today are just an outpost, not the main battlefield. After seeing the scorch marks, Qin Shu judged that this came from the Ash King's law scorch marks."

His finger points to the residual Twilight energy data still jumping on the detector screen. "But I detected a mixed fluctuation of Holy Light and the Abyss in these fragments, which is different from the frequency of the Ash King's Devouring Abyss power."

He pauses. "Qin Shu speculates that the formation of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist is the residual law of both sides after the Twilight Civilization and the Void Race fought a major battle back then. But after I tested it with Twilight energy, the lingering energy inside these fragments is not 'collision', but more like the dim echo left after a failed transformation. The Ash King's invasion here back then might not have been to destroy the Twilight Civilization—what he wanted was very likely the secret of Twilight fusing Holy Light and the Abyss."

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan is silent for a long time, walks to the dusty storage locker, opens it with a key, and pulls out a crumpled kraft paper envelope from the bottom layer.

On the envelope is a very scribbled map—drawn with a charcoal pencil, the lines are rough, and the edges are frayed from being repeatedly rubbed.

In the center of the map is a star mark, and next to it is Gu Yan's scribbled left-handed handwriting: Long Night.

"This is what Gu Yan left me before his last operation back then. He said if he didn't come back, I should give this map and a section of bone blade to Qin Shu."

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan places the envelope on the table and pushes it toward Shen Ye. "Qin Shu hasn't returned to the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist since he retired. I've waited long enough. Now it's for you."

Shen Ye takes the map.

The scribbled charcoal lines unfold before his eyes—the star mark is located in the area with the most severe law disorder in the core area of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist, almost in the same direction as the trace of extremely faint primordial Twilight lingering charm he perceived today.

Gu Yan didn't go to the outpost back then; he went straight to the main battlefield.

He likely discovered the true purpose of the Ash King's invasion of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist—and that purpose is still operating on its own deep in the core area of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist.

"He will come back."

Shen Ye puts away the map and re-wraps Gu Yan's broken sword, putting it back into the side pocket of his backpack. "Not now. But one day, I will go and bring him back."

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan does not speak.

He sits back behind the counter, carefully pressing the kraft paper envelope under the glass plate of the counter, smoothing out the wrinkles on the edges with his palm.

Shen Ye packs up the fragments and the detector on the table, puts on his backpack, and pushes open the door of the cafeteria.

The night wind of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist blows against his face.

He does not go directly back to the dormitory, but first goes to the communication room of the outpost, encrypts the rubbing data of the Twilight fragments collected today, and sends them to Jiang Yue and Tie Chui separately—this is the division of labor decided before departure; Jiang Yue deciphers the text, Tie Chui analyzes the law patterns, and both sides advance simultaneously.

After sending the messages, he walks slowly back to the dormitory along the outpost wall.

The mist surges slowly at the foot of the wall, and his consciousness sinks into both Divine Kingdoms simultaneously.

In the Cultivation Divine Kingdom, the furnace fires of Tie Chui, Yan Shan, and Daoist Quan, as well as the Rock Pattern and water flow, never cease day or night; in the Land of Gods and Demons, Chen and Ye stand on both sides of the Twilight Spirit Spring, and the Angel Legion and Succubus Legion are making the final faith infusion for the soon-to-be-born Twilight Altar.

The Twilight glow surges from the depths of the spring, dyeing the sky of the entire Land of Gods and Demons in an extremely beautiful hue between gold and purple.

He pushes open the dormitory door, puts his backpack at the foot of the bed, and sits down cross-legged.

The Long Night is not over, but the path has been found.