98: Chapter 98 Before the Long Night

A brief period of peace lasted for some time.

The thick fog of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist had completely dissipated, and within the coverage of the Twilight Light Network, all the land that had been stained deep red by the scorch marks of the Law of Ashes was slowly returning to its grey-white color.

General Lin Yuan's frontline camp had pushed forward by a significant distance. Outside the outpost walls, Tie Chui had built the first self-circulating Mobile Pill Room complex—six Mobile Pill Rooms connected end-to-end, sharing a single twilight beacon power supply System, with the daily production of Purification Pills increasing several times over compared to a single pill room.

Little One squatted in front of the recording desk in the center of the pill room complex every day, holding the spiritual power logbook and transcribing data. Her two braided pigtails were dusty from the furnace fire, but she no longer had to chase after flying ships.

Shen Ye stayed at the frontline camp for a few days, helped General Lin Yuan calibrate the resonance frequency of the final batch of twilight beacons, and then boarded Qin Shu's flying ship to return to Wanxiang University.

The four-tower light beams rotated slowly above Lake Heart Island, and the lake surface reflected the flowing dark golden light network.

When he walked into the Law analysis laboratory, Lin Tianyin was marking the last set of Law fluctuation curves on the hologram.

The reverse analysis data of the Crown Prince's imitation crystal had been cross-referenced with the fragments of the Mirror Fire from the Abyss of First Birth, and all data had been categorized into the database according to energy frequency, Law density, and decay cycle.

She encrypted the organized database and sent it to Su Wanqing, while also copying it to the quartermaster departments of the various frontline camps.

"The final few parameters needed for Tie Chui to improve the Purification Pills have already been sent. With this data, the efficacy of the next batch of Purification Pills will be boosted even further."

She pushed up her glasses and handed another document to Shen Ye. "Jiang Yue asked me to pass this on to you. There is new progress in deciphering the backup archives of the Core Heritage Hall—she discovered a second layer of ciphertext in the encrypted notes at the end of the archives. The Crown Prince left behind another ancient ruin deep in the core area of the Abyssal Empire. The Seal structure at the entrance of the ruins is identical to the pedestal of the Twilight Palace altar, but larger in scale."

Shen Ye took the document.

Jiang Yue's handwriting was as dense as ever, with every deciphered inference accompanied by the original text for comparison and logical deduction. The last line was circled in red pen: "This ruin is highly likely the location of the final data backup for the Perfect Abyss-Devouring Body project left by the Crown Prince. Furthermore, there are even older inscriptions deep within the Seal, and the content of these inscriptions is homologous to the twilight script on the altar of the Abyss of First Birth."

"Combined with the existing discoveries in the Abyss of First Birth, it is very likely that this is the location of another Mirror Fire left behind by the Twilight ancestors when the Primal Abyss was first twisted into Abyssal Energy."

The root of the Abyssal Empire's birth might not just be the ambition of a single monarch, but rather this deeper source of distortion continuously radiating Abyssal Energy Laws over the long passage of time.

Shen Ye tucked the document into the inner compartment of his backpack, placing it alongside the Crown Prince's imitation crystal and the fragment of Mirror Fire brought back from the Abyss of First Birth.

Two Mirror Fires: one in the Abyss of First Birth, and one deep in the core area of the Abyssal Empire.

If Jiang Yue's deduction was correct, then the Crown Prince's Perfect Abyss-Devouring Body project had been centered around these two Mirror Fires from beginning to end—first using experiments in the Northern Mining District to collect data, then stealing the original Law fluctuation frequencies from the Abyss of First Birth, with the ultimate goal of completing the final Fusion in the ruins of the core area.

He had fallen short at the Abyss of First Birth, but another mass of Mirror Fire was still slumbering deep within the Seal of the core area ruins.

That fire was both the root of the Abyssal Empire's birth and the key to his Breakthrough to a Main God.

Returning to his cadet dormitory, he opened the spiritual power logbook.

After his Breakthrough to a Level 3 God, the area of his Cultivation Divine Kingdom had stabilized at several million square kilometers, and the total number of his kin was steadily growing towards ten million.

Jin Lin led the Sword Cultivator hundred-man squad to repeatedly refine that combined sword formation. Based on the post-battle review data, they performed another round of optimization, calibrating the resonance frequency of the Twilight Sword Qi at every node in the sword formation to be perfectly synchronized with the fluctuation cycle of the four-tower light beams.

Mu Sheng's perception vines had been updated to the fourth generation. The white flowers at the tips of the third-generation vines could simultaneously perceive vibrations, Law fluctuations, and Divine Sense fluctuations, while the fourth generation further integrated ancient Seal energy samples brought back from the Abyss of First Birth—after several attempts, Mu Sheng and Daoist Quan combined the penetrating power of the Spiral Water Flow with the perception vines' own detection characteristics, allowing the new vines to trace Abyssal Energy pollution marks back to their source.

Daoist Quan sat cross-legged by the spirit spring. The triple-spiral Cavitation Cloud tactic had completed a new round of deduction after his Breakthrough to a Level 3 God. He had significantly improved the stability of the cavitation bubbles produced by fusing the Spiral Water Flow with twilight energy and was currently writing new insights on his Cultivation Technique in the Scripture Pavilion.

Deep in the Body Refining Cave, a faint, dark golden luster had appeared on the surface of the new Rock Pattern on Yan Shan's right arm—that was the residue of the ancient Law that Hou Tu had perceived from the Seal nodes in the Abyss of First Birth, which Yan Shan was absorbing bit by bit into the Rock Pattern through a crude method for re-tempering.

Hou Tu squatted in the corner of the Body Refining Cave, converting the relevant detection data of the core area ruins' Seal structure into node coordinates for underground Spiritual Qi flow, preparing for his father's next round of tempering.

The daily production of Twilight Apostles had stabilized at several hundred per day. Chen and Ye continued to infuse Holy Light and Abyssal faith on both sides of the Twilight Altar, and the stability calibration of the Fusion Law had met all requirements.

He closed the logbook and gently pressed the amulet on his chest through his clothes.

Three days before departure, he received a message sent by Bai Ye from Shenyu University.

The deep analysis of the Bai family's ancient star map and the wreckage of the Crown Prince's Time Law fragments had been completed. He had encrypted and sent the data marking the anomalies in the Time Law regarding the core area ruins' Seal within the star map, attaching a short message: "The flow of time deep within the ruins' Seal may not be consistent with the outside world. This miniature Time Law beacon can help you lock onto the anomalous area; it is from the same array as the one in the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist."

Two days before departure, Qin Youyou completed the final round of tempering for the ancient war spear, entered the tempering data into the frontline shared database, and returned to Wanxiang University.

At the spaceport, she refilled the barbaric wine flask and shoved it into Shen Ye's hands.

"The wine we agreed to offer to Yan Shan last time—don't let me drink it all first this time."

The day before departure, all flight route data, Seal deciphering progress, and Law parameters were fully compiled.

Shen Ye wrapped Gu Yan's broken sword in spiritual silk again, then one by one tucked the Crown Prince's imitation crystal, the two fragments of Mirror Fire, Bai Ye's Time Law beacon, and Qin Youyou's wine flask into the inner compartment of his backpack.

He zipped up his backpack and walked out of the dormitory.

The sensor lights in the corridor lit up one after another, and his footsteps echoed between the stone walls, exactly the same as when he walked through the corridor of Nanjiang No. 7 High School on the day of his Awakening.

The twilight was thick over the lake, and the four-tower light beams rotated slowly in the night sky.

The Long Night had not yet arrived, but he was already on his way.