210: New World

After traveling for a time, upon entering a Star Domain, Xiang Yan suddenly felt subtle changes in the surrounding rules.

He could not help but slow his speed and began to perceive them in detail.

The surrounding Void Realm was not empty. An invisible "field," or perhaps a "domain," was diffusing from a distant direction like water ripples, covering this space in an extremely slow yet unwavering manner.

This was not a fluctuation of energy, nor a diffusion of matter.

It was... the Law itself.

It was as if the inherent physical Laws and spatial Laws of this Universe were being covered and rewritten here by an external, more powerful "definition."

It was like someone using an invisible pen to draw their own pattern stroke by stroke on a blank sheet of paper, incorporating the original emptiness into a new order.

Xiang Yan hung silently.

His body made no unnecessary movements, and even the minute undulations of his form had ceased.

All of his "perception" spread out silently like the most precise spiderweb, probing into this sea of "polluted" Laws.

It was analyzing.

It was comparing.

It was tracing.

These external Laws carried a peculiar "directionality." They were not chaotic or unordered; rather, they followed a certain internal logic, pointing to a common source.

The closer one got to the core area of that fluctuation, the higher the concentration of these "external Laws," and the more obvious the coverage and suppression of the native Universe Laws became.

Conversely, in the marginal areas, this coverage appeared thin and faint, like damp marks left behind after the tide recedes.

Layer upon layer, with clear boundaries.

This feeling...

A concept slowly emerged from the core of Xiang Yan's consciousness, which had been silent for who knows how long.

A... broadcast tower?

Or perhaps, a base that constantly expands and radiates its own "signal"?

A world that, with itself as the center, forcibly twists and assimilates the surrounding Universe Laws, incorporating them into its own system?

This preliminary judgment took shape in the consciousness of his Clone.

A world that was actively expanding and eroding other areas of the Universe.

This was completely different from the natural evolution of most worlds he knew, or the patterns of those passively drawn into conflicts.

Within this, there was a kind of... active will.

Something that could perhaps be called "ambition."

Xiang Yan could not help but mutter to himself, "Interesting. A world with this kind of advancement method is rare."

"This kind of... advancement method, using itself as the 'source' to forcibly radiate and assimilate Laws outward..."

Within his consciousness core, the deduction did not stop.

"Logically, such a world should have countless sub-bases in addition to the main world base. So, what method would it choose to create these sub-bases?"

"What form would those sub-bases... or rather, 'nodes'... take?"

"Let me wait and see."

As these thoughts flowed, Xiang Yan also began to adjust himself.

Black mist, like tentacles with a life of their own, quietly reached out, making contact with the surrounding invisible "field" that had been tainted by external Laws.

It was "listening."

It was "analyzing."

It was... "imitating."

Xiang Yan's aura began to become... consistent with this "polluted" Star Domain.

Like a drop of ink, it quietly merged into a vast ink pool.

The next moment.

Xiang Yan concealed his figure and moved again, sneaking toward the direction where the concentration of Laws continued to increase, toward that unknown "source."

Time, too, lost its reference in this Star Domain shrouded by strange Laws.

It was unknown how much time had passed.

Perhaps it was the flickering cycle of several stars, or perhaps just a fleeting moment.

The Clone of Xiang Yan, who was sneaking silently, paused... again.

Far ahead in the distance.

Two distinct, violent energy fluctuations, like two out-of-control stars, were fiercely... colliding!

The intense spatial distortion, like ripples on water, transmitted layer upon layer, even interfering with the relatively "stable" Law field in this area.

The light of energy, even across an unimaginable distance, still pierced the darkness of the Void Realm like a needle tip.

Something... was fighting.

Xiang Yan, like the most patient hunter, hung silently.

He did not rashly approach; he simply extended his "perception" to the limit, like an invisible spiderweb, toward the source where the conflict erupted.

The image in his consciousness slowly became clear.

It was a broken meteorite belt.

The giant rocks, originally dead and floating, were now like sampans in a raging storm, easily torn apart, shattered, and turned into dust by the aftermath of the combatants.

Beams of energy, twisted force fields, and even pure physical impacts intertwined and exploded in this airspace, staging a feast of destruction.

The two sides fighting were two... humanoid creatures.

The reason they were called "humanoid" was that they retained roughly the structure of a torso and head, though their heads were also extremely twisted and strange.

But apart from that, they were far from what is generally understood as human-shaped.

On their bodies, there were not just two arms.

From their shoulder blades, from under their ribs, and even from their spines, grew additional, varying numbers of... limbs. (Imagine a person with their limbs removed, covered in countless tentacles; it was similar to that.)

And the most peculiar thing, the one that caught the attention of Xiang Yan's Clone the most, was the... weapon they held in their hands... or rather, held at the ends of all their limbs.

One of the creatures looked slightly bloated, as if formed by the stacking of countless twisted flesh, and every one of his limbs gripped a giant axe with an identical design, covered in serrations and barbs.

The axe blades flashed with a dark red light, and every swing brought a dull roar that caused space to be severed.

His opponent, with a relatively "slender" figure, was like a bizarre combination of a multi-segmented insect and a humanoid, with his body covered in a dark blue, oily carapace.

He also possessed multiple limbs, and these limbs, without exception, all gripped a long, curved... scythe that looked like a crescent moon.

The scythe blades were as thin as cicada wings but exuded a sharp aura capable of cutting through everything, leaving a long-lasting, pitch-black trajectory in the Void Realm every time they swept across.

One had countless identical giant axes.

One had countless identical curved scythes.

The weapon types they used were completely different, but for each of them, the weapons held by all their limbs had reached a strange, absolute uniformity!

It was as if... those weapons were not tools they had chosen.

But rather... a part of their bodies?

Or perhaps... an external manifestation of some kind of Law?

In the core of Xiang Yan's consciousness, deep within the darkness that was like an ancient well, a hint of even deeper... interest arose.

This strange fighting style, this eerie uniformity of weapons...

Perhaps, it had some kind of... profound connection to the "sub-bases" he had guessed earlier.