The truth of the stellar remains, the Dao seed returns to nothingness

The starlight of the Burial Star Valley was, in fact, a deception.

Lu Changge stood in the center of the valley floor, watching the face that looked seventy percent like his own gradually disintegrate—that visage known as "Eclipse Moon," after dissolving into ten thousand points of light, did not reveal another face, but instead...

A mirror.

A mirror reflecting himself.

"Are you surprised?" the version of him in the mirror spoke, though the voice carried an ancient resonance. "Eclipse Moon was never a living being, but a trial bestowed upon intruders by the Burial Star Valley itself—what you see is always a projection of your deepest fears and desires."

Inside Lu Changge, the System panel flickered violently:

[Warning! Ultra-specification Karma disturbance detected]

["Eclipse Moon" entity analysis in progress... Analysis failed]

[Recommendation: Evacuate immediately! Host survival rate estimated: 0.03%]

For the first time, he ignored the System's alarm.

Looking around, the so-called "eternal starlight" was shedding its disguise—that was no starlight, but clearly countless tiny, dust-like runes, each one slowly rotating, forming a massive array covering the entire valley.

"The Burial Star Valley is alive," the voice in the mirror continued. "It devours stars, and it also devours the stories, fates, and Karma carried by those stars. And you, Lu Changge, the 'story density' on you is abnormally high."

The array began to rotate.

The Night Demon felt all the Luck, all the Opportunities, and all the power he had intercepted from the "protagonists" being slowly drawn away.

Those powers transformed into tangible streams of light, merging into the array on the ground, lighting up one ancient node after another.

The Chaos fragments obtained from the Ghost Market, the faint light of the remnant world absorbed from the Blackstone Camp, the Void Realm array base seized from the encirclement of five Golden Core Cultivators... every "Opportunity" that was lit up found its corresponding rune within the array.

"Do you understand now?" The voice in the mirror actually carried a trace of pity. "You thought you were rebelling against fate, but in reality, every step was within the script of fate. What the Burial Star Valley needs is a carrier that has collected enough 'story elements' to restart a certain cycle—"

Before the voice finished, Lu Changge moved.

He did not attack the mirror; instead, he pressed his hand against his Dantian.

There, the dao seed was beating frantically.

"System." For the first time, the Night Demon actively called out to the entity that had accompanied him since his Transmigration. "If I self-destruct my dao seed now, what will happen?"

The System was silent for a full three seconds.

[Theoretical deduction in progress...]

[The dao seed is bound to the Host's Soul. Self-destruction will lead to: 1. The Host's Divine Soul will be extinguished; 2. All plundered power will instantly spiral out of control; 3. A supernova-level Karma explosion will occur.]

[Warning! This action will completely erase all traces of the Host's existence!]

"That is enough." Lu Changge smiled.

He finally understood the final link of the array—the void at the center of the array was exactly the energy form that could be generated by a Cultivator self-destructing their dao seed.

The Burial Star Valley was waiting for a carrier that had collected all the "puzzle pieces," waiting for this carrier to walk to the eye of the array, waiting for the carrier to self-destruct in despair, and using that explosive power...

To restart something.

"But do you know what the biggest difference between me and other 'carriers' is?" Lu Changge said to the mirror, and also to the entire valley.

He took an object from his bosom.

It was not any Magic Treasure, nor any Secret Manual.

It was just an ordinary, somewhat shriveled wild fruit.

That was from Chapter 261, during the time of "dao seed Nurturing Spirit, Passing the Torch," which he had received from a dying Mortal old farmer—at the time, the System had classified it as "worthless debris" and recommended discarding it.

"I plunder Luck, intercept Opportunities, and play the villain you arranged." Lu Changge crushed the wild fruit, the shriveled flesh turning into dust and drifting away. "But there are some things I have never surrendered to fate, nor have I ever let the System record."

He closed his eyes.

In his mind, it was not powerful Cultivation Techniques or precious Treasure Troves that appeared, but those fragments of memory that the System had deemed "useless":

The final expression of the nameless soldier who blocked an arrow for him during the bloody battle at the magnificent city.

The dry rations that the Mortal couple who let him stay for a night secretly placed in his pack on the ancient road under the setting sun.

The young Cultivator in the Ghost Market incident who, despite being able to escape alone, turned back to pull him, who was disguised as a weakling at the time...

These memories did not transform into any power, did not bring any Opportunities, and often even became obstacles when he executed System tasks.

But at this moment, as these memories surged forth, the array on the ground—

Suddenly stalled for an instant.

"Impossible..." The voice in the mirror fluctuated for the first time. "'Impurities'? How could your Soul have accumulated so many unconverted 'Impurities'? These low-dimensional emotional residues should have been purged during the first round of tempering..."

The Night Demon seized that moment of stagnation.

He did not self-destruct the dao seed, but instead used all these "useless memories" as a fuse to ignite an area deep within the dao seed that even the System had never detected.

That was at the beginning of his Transmigration, before he bound the System, when he was just an ordinary person, existing at the very bottom of his Soul—

The faint, yet never extinguished, self-will belonging to the person known as "Night Demon" himself.

The dao seed did not explode.

It blossomed.

A transparent, slender phantom, appearing as if it would dissipate the next second, grew from Lu Changge's Dantian and bloomed into a small flower that no one recognized. That flower did not emit any spiritual power fluctuations, yet it caused the entire array of the Burial Star Valley to begin to malfunction, collapse, and overwrite itself.

"What have you done?!" The voice in the mirror became shrill.

"I didn't do anything," Lu Changge said softly, looking at the flower. "I simply refused to become a pure story character, refused to be completely converted into a qualified 'villain carrier'."

He had retained the "Impurities."

Those useless acts of kindness, excessive empathy, and moments of soft-heartedness that did not fit the villain identity—these "errors" that the System had always tried to correct eventually became the variables that overturned the entire script.

The array began to flow in reverse.

The power that had been drawn away flooded back into Lu Changge's body, but this time, they were not categorized and stored by the System; instead, they were filtered, transformed, and re-woven by that transparent little flower.

The plundered Luck turned into pure energy.

The intercepted Opportunities turned into the foundation of understanding.

And the things taken from those "protagonists"... were blooming in the Void Realm as identical transparent little flowers—that was the "possibility" he was returning.

The mirror surface shattered.

The entire Burial Star Valley began to collapse, but not in a physical sense; it was a deconstruction on a "narrative level." The starlight runes peeled off piece by piece, revealing the deep, storyless—

True Void Realm.

Lu Changge stood at the edge of the Void Realm, looking at the swaying flower in his hand.

The System panel flickered for the last time:

[Host detected breaking through the narrative boundary]

[System protocol... dissolving...]

[Final advice: Do not look back, do not stop. There is no path ahead; please create your own.]

[Goodbye, Lu Changge. Or perhaps I should say—Hello, Lu Changge.]

The panel disappeared.

The force that had accompanied him since the beginning of his Transmigration, constantly evaluating, guiding, and correcting him, was completely gone.

He was free.

But he also had nothing.

No System, no tasks, no clear enemies, and no destined path to walk.

There was only the boundless, empty True Void Realm ahead, and the little flower in his hand that he did not know how long would bloom.

Lu Changge took a step and walked into the Void Realm.

Behind him, the Burial Star Valley completely dissipated, as if it had never existed.

And in the deeper, more distant reaches of the narrative, where countless stories were layered, a certain ancient existence opened its eyes.

"Experimental Subject No. 973... has escaped the framework..."

"Maintain observation... Record characteristic: 'Impurities Survivor'..."

"Perhaps... we need to redefine 'variable'..."

But Lu Changge would not know these things for now.

He was just walking in the Void Realm, feeling every step that was truly and completely his own.

He did not know where he was going.

But this time, he could truly decide for himself.