422: Chapter 422 The Hidden History Lesson

This feeling was very unfamiliar. On Blue Star, all attributes were locked to fixed values by a stable set of underlying rules, with any increase or decrease following a traceable path. But now, those rules had vanished, replaced by a primal, chaotic energy field.

His body was exposed to an environment without the safety net of rules.

Lin Yu did not stop. Following behind Qin Zhan, he stepped into the space on the other side of the portal.

The sensation underfoot changed. It was no longer an alloy runway, but a coarse stone floor covered in a layer of dry ash. The ash was very fine, making no sound when stepped on, only leaving faint imprints under the soles of his boots.

This was not a battlefield.

At least, not the kind of battlefield Lin Yu had envisioned.

Before them was a giant grotto. The dome was incredibly high, estimated to be over three hundred meters, with thousands of glowing ores embedded in the top, emitting a dim bluish-white light. The light was not bright, but it was enough to see the outline of the entire space.

The grotto lay across a massive spatial rift. The rift stretched from the ground all the way to the dome, over fifty meters wide, with thick dark purple currents churning inside. Those currents constantly spilled outward, only to be suppressed by an array of inscriptions on both sides of the grotto, forming a visible tug-of-war line.

The rift was breathing.

Every seven to eight seconds, the dark purple currents would expand outward, and the inscription array would light up in response, pushing them back. The cycle repeated over and over.

But Lin Yu noticed that the brightness of the inscription array was fading. After each activation, the light was slightly dimmer than the last.

Zhong Huai noticed it too. His footsteps faltered for a moment, his gaze lingering on the inscription array for two seconds before he continued walking, saying nothing.

There was no need to speak. Everyone present understood—this barrier would not hold for much longer.

The four walls of the grotto were covered in bas-reliefs.

They were not decorative, but narrative, stretching from the entrance deep into the grotto for several kilometers. The carvings were rugged, with deep and powerful lines; in some places, one could even see stone chips from the carving process still embedded in the crevices, uncleaned for centuries.

Lin Yu slowed his pace as he passed the first set of reliefs.

The scene depicted a city. Skyscrapers, bridges, dense crowds—and then, the sky split open.

A rift tore open right in the center of the image, and the things pouring out were carved as twisted, shapeless black masses. Those black masses fell upon the city; buildings shattered, and people scattered.

The next set of reliefs. The city no longer existed. Only ruins and corpses remained on the ground. The corpses were carved realistically—severed limbs, mangled bodies, crawling postures—the craftsmen had not used any beautification.

The next set. Some people stood up amidst the ruins. Their bodies were surrounded by certain patterns—Class patterns. The relief carved a square box above these people's heads, containing blurry symbols.

System panels.

The moment the Class Change System descended.

Wen Yan had walked up beside Lin Yu at some unknown point. His steps were light, and when he stopped, his gaze fell upon that set of reliefs.

"The first descent of the Abyss Domain was 1,637 years ago."

His statement was flat, devoid of any unnecessary emotional coloring, simply stating a fact.

"At that time, Blue Star had no means of responding. The first wave of impact directly wiped out a third of the population, and a civilizational gap lasted for nearly forty years."

Lin Yu did not respond. His gaze continued to move forward along the reliefs.

The fourth set. The fifth set. The sixth set.

The scenes transitioned from destruction to reconstruction. Those who had awakened their Classes began to organize, using the power bestowed by the System to fight the monsters pouring out of the rifts. The battle scenes were carved with extreme brutality—for every monster killed, three or four human corpses lay nearby.

The exchange ratio was one to three. Or even higher.

Wen Yan's finger pointed to a mural. It depicted a group of people in primitive protective suits surrounding a miniature spatial rift, with various instruments and equipment laid out nearby.

"The turning point. The first generation of researchers discovered that the energy bestowed by the System could be combined with scientific methods to interfere with the stability of spatial rifts."

His finger moved down, pointing to a line of small text at the bottom of the image. The handwriting was blurred but still recognizable.

"'With blood as the anchor, with life as the nail, sew the rift in the heavens.'—This was the oath of the first team of Pioneers."

Lin Yu's footsteps stopped in the center of the grotto.

Twelve statues.

Life-sized, made of some dark gray stone. The surfaces were polished smooth, but the joints and facial details had been slightly blurred by time. Twelve people, six men and six women, in various poses. Some held swords, some held staves, some had empty hands, and some stood with their backs to the viewer.

The foremost statue was a middle-aged man, his left hand pressed against his chest and his right hand extended forward, palm up. His face did not show heroic grandeur, only a weary, almost resigned calm.

An inscription was carved on the base of the statue.

Lin Yu crouched down to take a look.

The inscription was divided into two parts. The first part was the names and years of birth and death. Twelve people; the longest-lived reached 391 years, while the shortest lived only 23.

These were twelve heroes who fought through eight eras to win Blue Star a chance to resist, but the schism also originated from here.

The content of the second part made him pause even longer.

"...The council was undecided. The Guardians said: 'Blue Star is the root, and the root cannot be abandoned; we must build an everlasting wall to keep the enemy out.' The Pioneers said: 'Walls have an end, but enemies are infinite; we must enter the Abyss Domain and sever the source.'... The two factions split, parting ways from then on."

Qin Zhan's boot stepped onto the stone slab in front of the inscription, making a dull thud.

He did not look back, but he spoke.

"Blue Star divided the Abyss Domain into seven Stability Zones."

His phrasing was cold, each word carrying something that had been suppressed for a long time.

"Stability Zones." He repeated those words. "The First Stability Zone, the Second Stability Zone... all the way to the Seventh. Sounds very peaceful, doesn't it?"

Zhong Huai did not respond. Neither did Wen Yan. Yan Pojun leaned against the base of a statue, eyes closed, but his ears were pricked.

"The names on the front lines of the Abyss Domain are different." Qin Zhan did not stop walking, continuing deeper into the grotto. "First War Zone to Ninth War Zone. The word 'Stability' is nowhere to be found. Because it has never been stable there."

His right hand rested on the hilt of his sword, his thumb rubbing the wrapped sealing strips.

"The so-called stability is a buffer zone that the Pioneer faction filled with lives, generation after generation. The people on Blue Star live behind that buffer zone, and after living there for so long, they think that safety is a matter of course."

Lin Yu followed behind, saying nothing.

He was digesting this information. Six hundred thirty-seven years of history, the split of two factions, and a deliberately downplayed truth—the Abyss Domain was never some "controllable area," but a battlefield that required a constant sacrifice of human lives to maintain.

The Blue Star government had hidden all of this.

Intentionally hidden.