191: The entrance to the sea eye, a colossal bronze gate.
Irresistible!
Before that devouring power, as vast as a sea of stars and as majestic as the annihilation of the Universe, individual strength was as insignificant as dust.
The "star chaser" flying boat, like a withered leaf in a storm, was swept up by that invisible, terrifying tide, plummeting toward the endless darkness in the deepest part of the Shattered Star Belt at a speed dozens of times beyond its own limits!
"Steady! Output power at full capacity, reinforce the shields!" Iron Battle roared hoarsely, veins bulging on his forehead, his hands pressing tightly onto the control Formation Plate, attempting to find a shred of control in this desperate situation.
However, under the chaotic spatial tearing force and devouring power, the flying boat's shields twisted violently like soap bubbles, flickering and uncertain, liable to shatter completely at any moment.
Alarms shrieked inside the cabin, and the needles of various instruments swung wildly, even sparking. The crew members were knocked about; those with weaker cultivation were even paler, blood spilling from their mouths and noses, their internal organs injured by the omnipresent pressure.
An atmosphere of despair permeated the air. Everyone understood that once the flying boat disintegrated in this absolute dead zone, they would be torn to shreds in an instant, their Divine Souls extinguished.
Ye Chen's figure was as steady as a rock, rooted on the deck. His Chaos Domain had expanded to its limit, with gray airflow shrouding him and the core area of the flying boat, forcibly smoothing out the most violent energy turbulence surrounding them.
However, facing this devouring tide originating from the Gui Xu Sea Eye itself, his Domain was like a candle flame in a gale, flickering unsteadily, barely able to protect the flying boat from immediate disintegration.
His gaze pierced through the bizarre, fragmented scenes flashing past the porthole, staring intently at the approaching darkness. That was not ordinary darkness, but an absolute Void Realm where even Divine Sense, upon probing, would be like a clay ox entering the sea, completely devoured and annihilated.
The chaos ancestral talisman in his Qi Sea vibrated at an unprecedented frequency, carrying both a longing to return to the Origin and a stern warning as if facing a natural predator.
"Stop controlling it, go with the tide!" Ye Chen shouted in a deep voice, his words clearly reaching the ears of every desperate crew member. "Protect yourselves, leave the flying boat to me!"
His voice seemed to carry a strange, calming power. Hearing this, Iron Battle gritted his teeth and abruptly cut off most of the power output, maintaining only the most basic shield energy. The flying boat completely gave up resistance, and its speed soared again, but the vibration of the hull strangely weakened.
Ye Chen took a deep breath, the guixu sword suspended before him, its blade humming. He formed seals with both hands, his heart of chaos beating with unprecedented intensity, and the surging Chaos True Essence, like a bursting river, poured wildly into the chaos ancestral talisman.
"Chaos as the guide, stabilize all directions!"
He let out a low shout, and the chaos ancestral talisman shone brightly. A beam of Chaos light, condensed to the extreme and seemingly containing the order from the beginning of the creation of the world, shot up from his body, ignoring the flying boat's shields, and collided directly with the chaotic devouring tide outside!
"Boom!" A silent roar exploded on the level of the Soul!
The Chaos light beam did not choose to clash head-on with that devouring power, but instead, like a master helmsman, searched for the relatively stable "current" amidst the monstrous waves. The light beam guided the flying boat, carving an extremely thrilling yet incredibly precise trajectory through the chaotic force field, avoiding those most lethal spatial fracture zones and energy vortices hidden in the darkness!
This was a high-level application of the power of Chaos; it was no longer just a confrontation of strength, but also contained an understanding of and compliance with the rules. Ye Chen's face turned pale at a speed visible to the naked eye, the consumption of his Divine Sense and strength being immense.
Who knows how much time had passed—it seemed like only an instant, yet also like ten million years. The terrifying sensation of falling suddenly vanished!
The flying boat jolted violently, as if it had fallen from a raging waterfall into a bottomless, secluded pool. Although it was still being pulled by an invisible force, it was no longer accelerating in that uncontrolled, frenzied manner.
The surroundings plunged into extreme dead silence and darkness. The fragmented stars and twisted light that could be seen before had all vanished. This place seemed to be the end of all matter, the graveyard of energy. Only the faint light emitted by the flying boat itself, along with the Chaos radiance flowing around Ye Chen, could illuminate the limited area around them.
They had entered the interior of the Gui Xu Sea Eye! Or rather, some strange space at the entrance of the Sea Eye.
"Are we... still alive?" a crew member asked in a trembling voice, as if unable to believe it.
Iron Battle slumped in his chair, gasping for air, his body soaked in cold sweat. He looked at the back that was still standing upright in front, his eyes filled with the relief of surviving a disaster and an even deeper sense of awe. If not for Ye Chen's supreme methods of guidance just now, the flying boat would have completely disintegrated before entering this place.
Ye Chen paid no attention to the commotion behind him; his entire focus was drawn by the scene ahead.
Directly in front of the flying boat, in the endless dark Void Realm, something was suspended. It was a gate. A bronze giant gate so huge it was indescribable!
The giant gate was incomparably ancient and simple, engraved with countless complex and archaic patterns and lines. Those lines were not static but were flowing slowly, enacting the cyclical scenes of stars being born, all things growing, the world perishing, and returning to nothingness.
A desolate, vast, and majestic aura, as if it had traversed all time and space from the past to the present, permeated from the giant gate, suppressing this dead, silent Void Realm.
The bronze giant gate was tightly closed, with no gap at the seams, as if it had never been opened since ancient times. In the center of the lintel were two huge, twisted, primordial divine characters that seemed to have been condensed directly from the rules of Dao—Gui Xu!
Just by gazing at these two characters, everyone felt that their Divine Souls were about to be sucked in, falling into eternal sinking and annihilation. Iron Battle and the others hurriedly lowered their heads, not daring to look again.
"Gui Xu... is this the true entrance to the Sea Eye?" Iron Battle's voice was dry.
Ye Chen stared burningly at the bronze giant gate, especially those two divine characters. He could feel that the source of the chaos ancestral talisman's vibration was behind this gate! Behind the gate was the true core of the Gui Xu Sea Eye, the source of all endings and Chaos!
At the same time, he also noticed that on the "ground" of that Void Realm below the bronze giant gate, it was not empty. Some things were scattered there sporadically.
There was a broken half of a jade ruyi that still emitted a lustrous treasure light; an ancient mirror covered in cracks that seemed capable of reflecting past and present lives; a golden skeleton sitting cross-legged, draped in tattered kasaya, its Physical Body withered yet surrounded by a faint Buddha light; and further away, there seemed to be a dilapidated, ancient-style small black boat...
These objects, as well as that golden skeleton, all exuded extremely ancient and powerful auras, but without exception, they had lost all vitality, as if washed over billions of times by time and the power of annihilation, leaving only empty shells, quietly displayed here, as if recounting the failure and end of the Senior experts who had attempted to break into this place over countless years.
This place was a graveyard for experts!
Ye Chen's mind was tensed to the extreme. He could feel that this Void Realm appeared calm, but it actually hid murderous intent. The omnipresent devouring power had not disappeared; it had only become more restrained and profound, constantly eroding the vitality and energy of all intruders. The flying boat's shield energy was draining away at a slow but steady speed.
He had to find a way to enter the bronze giant gate as soon as possible, or leave this place, otherwise, they would sooner or later be drained to death here.
He drove the flying boat, cautiously approaching the bronze giant gate, while his Divine Sense, like the most precise tentacles, carefully scanned every detail of the giant gate and the surrounding Void Realm.
Just when the flying boat was still a hundred miles away from the bronze giant gate (in this space, the sense of distance was already blurred), a strange change occurred again!
On that bronze giant gate that seemed eternally silent, the ancient patterns flowing on the gate panels, specifically the part representing "star annihilation," suddenly accelerated their movement!
"Hum—!" A grayish, lusterless ripple that seemed capable of devouring all light and heat rippled out from the gate panels, sweeping silently across the Void Realm!
Wherever the ripple passed, even the Void Realm itself seemed to become more "hollow"!
Ye Chen's pupils contracted sharply, a strong sense of crisis making his hair stand on end!
"Defend with all your might!" he roared, his Chaos Domain shrinking and condensing in front of the flying boat. The guixu sword erupted with unprecedented radiance, that wisp of black light of "severing" becoming unprecedentedly active, the sword tip pointing directly at the incoming grayish ripple!
He knew that this was by no means an ordinary attack, but the power of annihilation containing the Origin of Gui Xu! Once swept, he feared that he and the flying boat alike would, like those ancient remains, be stripped of all vitality and energy, turning into another exhibit at this entrance!
The test of the Gui Xu Sea Eye had arrived!