84: Chapter 84 Cleaning

The Ash Residue Zone is located on the south side of the core area of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist, a piece of scorched earth repeatedly burned by the law scars of the Ash King.

Dark red remnants of laws leak from cracks in the ground, and the air is filled with a faint burnt smell—not the smell of burning vegetation, but the ancient aftertaste left in the soil after laws collided.

After the four tower light pillars were activated, the Twilight Light Network descended from the sky, dispersing most of the thick fog on the edge of this residue zone, but the core area is still shrouded in the residual energy of the Ash laws, compressing the spiritual sense detection range to less than one-third of the normal distance.

Shen Ye stood on the wreckage of a half-collapsed meteoric iron sentry tower on the edge of the residue zone, using a detector to scan the terrain ahead.

Second Lieutenant Meng Yan's rift data marked three secret passages leading deep into the residue zone. Both sides of each passage were covered with burn marks from the Ash laws—those marks were identical to the vitrified scorch marks in the center of the ruins of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist, only denser and more irregular, as if torn repeatedly by a giant claw.

He chose the westernmost one.

The entrance to the passage was hidden beneath a patch of withered warning vines. The surface of the vines still had faint traces of twilight energy, left behind when the light network covered this area during the last beacon activation.

"Leave the western perimeter to me."

Qin Youyou raised her ancient war spear, the tip drawing a shallow arc on the scorched earth, pointing toward the direction of several Nomadic Royal Court outpost caves on the edge of the light network. "My grandfather's hand-drawn map marked six hidden entrances. Three have been abandoned since the light network covered them, and the remaining three still hide scattered Void Tribe Scouts. I will lead a squad to press in from the outermost cave and seal off the scouts' movement routes at the edge of the light network. You wait for me at the largest outpost cave deep in the residue zone—the terrain in that area is not much different from the Ash Domain my grandfather fought in back then."

Shen Ye nodded.

Qin Youyou carried her war spear and turned, disappearing into the heat waves rising from the scorched earth. Her dark gray, almost black combat suit quickly blended into the dark red background of the Ash Residue Zone.

He entered the secret passage alone.

The inside of the passage was extremely narrow, only allowing one person to pass sideways. The rock walls on both sides were covered with twisted patterns left by the burning of the Ash laws.

The further he went, the stronger the burnt smell became. The Abyssal Energy fluctuation curve on the detector screen began to show rhythmic undulations.

He stopped in the middle of the passage, crouched down, and used a sword intent stone to touch a deep burn mark on the rock wall.

The soil at the edge of the burn mark had been melted into a glass-like state by high heat, with a small depression in the center—exactly the same as the Ash King's law burn mark in the center of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist ruins, only denser.

"The burn marks here are not single lines; they are layers upon layers. The Ash King released large-scale law attacks in this area more than once, as if repeatedly burning the same spot."

"It was looking for something."

Shen Ye stood up and continued walking forward.

When the Ash King invaded the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist back then, its target was likely the Twilight Shelter itself.

But it didn't have twilight energy and couldn't get in, so it could only repeatedly burn the perimeter, trying to melt through the shelter's law barrier with brute force.

These dense burn marks were the imprints of its rage left after countless failures.

At the end of the passage was a half-collapsed underground cave. The center of the cave was piled with bone armor fragments shed by Void Tribe Scouts.

The edges of the fragments had scorch marks from being burned by the Ash laws; some had even carbonized into powder.

Shen Ye crouched down and picked up a relatively intact fragment, flipping it over—the inside of the bone armor was carved with the Abyssal mark unique to the Nomadic Royal Court, but below the mark was a deep sword scar, left by a standard bone blade used by human Pioneers.

"A battle happened here. The scouts of the Nomadic Royal Court were driven into this cave by some force and then burned indiscriminately from the outside by the Ash laws—along with the human Pioneers hiding in the cave."

He stood up and looked around the entire cave.

In the deepest corner of the cave, something was emitting a faint metallic luster in the dark red scorched earth.

He walked over and brushed away the loose soil; it was an old-fashioned law resonator, the same model as the one Second Lieutenant Meng Yan had.

The resonator was completely broken. The casing was covered with crisscrossing bone blade cuts and burn marks from the Ash laws. The internal chip was shattered, with only half a microchip that had long since expired remaining in the slot—standard equipment for independent Pioneers.

Shen Ye carefully put the resonator into the interlayer of his backpack.

Qin Shu and the teammates of Second Lieutenant Meng Yan from the same batch had followed Gu Yan deep into the Ash King's core area after the Long Night operation, scouting all the way to the depths of this most dangerous residue zone.

They had fought here, hacking to pieces who knows how many Void Tribe Scouts with bone blades, only to be forced to the end of this cave by the repeated burning of the Ash laws.

He stood up and continued to advance into the depths of the residue zone.

The second cave was much larger than the first. There were obvious signs of manual excavation on the cave walls, and supplies from the Nomadic Royal Court outpost were piled in the corner.

Shen Ye found a half-damaged law communicator in the pile of supplies, a faint red light still flickering on the screen.

He tried to receive signals with his detector. A line of intermittent messages jumped onto the screen—it was a call for help sent by the fleeing troops of the Nomadic Royal Court to a deeper stronghold: "The twilight has arrived, the ash will be extinguished, retreat quickly."

"The Nomadic Royal Court is retreating."

He put away the detector and forwarded the message to Qin Youyou and General Lin Yuan at the camp. "All scouts within the coverage of the light network are being driven away, and the remnants are retreating to the outpost cave in the deepest part of the residue zone. Prepare to surround the last batch of fleeing troops there."

A very brief reply came from the communicator from Qin Youyou: "Received."

The third cave was the largest outpost cave of the Nomadic Royal Court.

The entrance to the cave was wrapped in layers of Ash law burn marks, and the concentration of Abyssal Energy was several times higher than in the perimeter.

Deep in the cave, dozens of Void Tribe Scouts were huddled together. Their bone armor was tattered, and the bone blades on their spines were half-broken for many of them.

Around them were several crates of hastily abandoned supplies and an Abyssal Totem that had been mostly smashed, the Abyssal patterns on the stone surface still flickering faintly.

Shen Ye did not act immediately.

He laid a circle of twilight beacons at the cave entrance—a mini version, temporarily made by Tie Chui with spiral mineral crystal powder, with the exact same resonant frequency as the one at the camp outpost.

After the beacons were activated, a very thin but very stable twilight light pillar rose from the center of the cave, shrouding the entire outpost cave in the Twilight Light Network.

The Void Tribe Scouts in the cave let out sharp hisses simultaneously. The Abyssal power within them began to spontaneously revert within the Twilight Light Network; their bone armor faded from dark purple to gray-white, and the bone blades on their spines shattered inch by inch.

Shen Ye manifested the twilight longsword and walked into the cave.

A moment later, Qin Youyou charged in from another passage, carrying her ancient war spear, fresh bone blade fragments still remaining on the spear tip.

The two attacked from front and back, and the cave soon quieted down.

Under the continuous coverage of the Twilight Light Network, the Ash law burn marks in the residue zone began to fade slowly—not by being erased, but by being pulled back from a chaotic state bit by bit by the ancient law resonance remaining in the Heart of Twilight.

The dark red law remnants on the scorched earth began to fade inch by inch from the edges to the center, exactly the same as the Abyssal remnants fading from the wounds of the injured soldiers at the medical station.

After the battle ended, Qin Youyou planted her war spear on the ground, the tail of the spear leaving a shallow indentation in the scorched earth.

She looked around the outpost cave that had finally quieted down, bent down, and picked up a half-damaged Nomadic Royal Court bone blade fragment from the pile of abandoned supplies, a very fine twilight sword scar on the blade edge.

"That sword strike of yours just now didn't just break the Nomadic Royal Court's bone blade."

She put the fragment into her backpack. "When my grandfather was young, he fought the Ash King in the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist. After the war, his old wounds festered repeatedly for several years; he was eroded by the Abyssal Energy on weapons like these. Now that this twilight sword scar has been branded on, the Abyssal activity on the fragment has disappeared—it's more thorough than any antidote."

Shen Ye retracted the twilight longsword back into the Land of Gods and Demons.

He knew the words Qin Youyou didn't say: If there had been a twilight longsword back then, her grandfather might have been able to keep fighting for many more years.

The Ash Residue Zone continued to fade under the influence of the Twilight Light Network. The last of the Nomadic Royal Court's fleeing troops were wiped out, and the entire passage from the core area of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist to the Twilight Shelter was cleared.

He walked out of the cave. Sunlight was spilling down through the gaps in the dispersed fog layer, shining on the scorched earth that had faded from dark red and was slowly returning to gray-white.

Gu Qinghan's voice came through the communicator—the flight path map had been updated, the degree of law chaos in the core area of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist had dropped to a historic low, the entrance to the shelter had fully appeared, and the coordinates were locked.

Shen Ye looked up at the twilight light pillar rising into the sky deep in the core area.

The four keys were gathered, the divine kingdom was broken through, and the Ash Residue Zone had been completely cleared.

There was only one thing left to do—enter the shelter and bring Gu Yan back.