The Truth at the Bottom of the Pit

"Imperial Decree— Timewheel Heavenly Pheasant Wisdom King!"

Just as Jingxing was racking his brains trying to stop, Yaoguang's voice, like a needle, suddenly pierced in from the outside world.

He "saw" the white ripples being torn apart by a beam of cyan-gold light, and a peacock spirit composed of layers of talismans descending from the sky.

Its tail feathers resembled a row of rotating bronze wheels, and the shadows beneath its wings fell like the markings on a sundial. The moment it landed, the radiant light spread along the horizon, colliding fiercely with the white ripples.

The next second, Jingxing noticed that the ripples suddenly became dull. Although they hadn't stopped yet, it was as if they had been pressed to the spot.

His consciousness was jolted back to reality by that blunt force.

Jingxing suddenly opened his eyes and found himself kneeling on the cabin floor, drenched in sweat. He stumbled as he tried to get up, and instinctively reached out to steady Yaoguang beside him.

Warning lights flashed on the screens in the cockpit—the inexplicable lockdown hadn't been lifted yet.

At this moment, Yaoguang held up the talisman, which was already half burned, in one hand, his face frighteningly pale.

All the instruments on the bulkhead were frantically flashing numbers, alarms were blaring one after another, and blue and red warning lights were circling inside the cabin, casting her shadow long and short.

"You almost destroyed the Priva II," she complained after catching her breath.

"Didn't I believe you could Constraint them in check?" Jingxing wiped his sweat and handed Yaoguang another clean towel. "So what's the situation now?"

"I've Constraint the energy you were emitting," Yaoguang straightened up, "But only temporarily."

"That was just now..." Jingxing didn't have any thoughts on the "temporary" boundary yet. He was more interested in the peacock that Yaoguang had summoned.

"It was the divine spirit bestowed upon me by the Reignbow Arbiter, the Timewheel Heavenly Pheasant Wisdom King, symbolizing the 'Eye of the Hunt.'" Yaoguang tucked the half-burnt talisman into his sleeve. "But even if I summon it, I can only temporarily control your energy."

This was the second time Yaoguang had emphasized "temporary." Jingxing finally realized the problem.

"Temporary" means?

"The talisman light won't last long," Yaoguang shook his head. "Besides, I just tried to contact them, locate them, and calculate the escape route, but it still didn't work."

"Can't leave?"

"We can't leave," Yaoguang said. "The thing in that crater is tied to this planet. Unless we deal with it, we'll be trapped here, waiting for your power to reduce the entire planet to nothingness."

"Does that include you and me?" Jingxing asked.

"Probably not including you," Yaoguang said, pursing his lips, "But I'm pretty much there."

"That won't do." Jingxing looked at her. "We need to find out what's in the pit. We can't just die with that thing."

"Indeed," Yaoguang pushed open the hatch, "Let's go, let's see what is so closely tied to the fate of this planet."

Upon returning to the camp of the Borisin, a strong, pungent odor assaulted their senses—a mixture of earthy, rotten, and an indescribably sweet aroma that made their chests feel heavy.

They walked forward on the smoothed ground, and the closer they got to the pit, the more "empty" the ground became, as if they were walking on a piece of canvas that could collapse at any moment.

Jingxing felt a pang of sympathy and looked back, only to find that the forest that had once filled him with interest upon landing had been largely erased.

"Now I have nothing to sketch." He sighed.

Upon reaching the edge of the pit, the two discovered it was deeper than they had anticipated.

Jingxing leaned against the edge of the pit and looked down. He thought the first thing he would see was the overturned remains of Borisin, but there was no monster or biological weapon at the bottom of the pit as he had imagined.

A tree branch lay quietly at the bottom of the pit.

A huge, translucent tree branch emerged from the rock strata beneath the ground, its gnarled trunk gleaming with a faint, eerie green light. Its "bark" was covered with feather-like patterns, layer upon layer, resembling countless pairs of wings.

The broken ends of the branches still gleamed with a blood-like light, which continued to climb upwards along the veins.

Jingxing couldn't count how many layers of those feather-like patterns there were—each layer unfolding extremely slowly, like a flower bud about to bloom.

"This is..." It was the first time he had ever seen such magnificent, yet strange, branches.

"This is... a branch of Qiong Sang." Recognizing the faint Yaoguang, his face looked particularly grim in the green light.

Jingxing noticed her expression and realized that "Qiong Sang" might not be a good person.

Yaoguang stared at the branch for a long time before explaining in a low voice, "Qiong Sang is the homeworld of the Wingweavers —you should have heard of the Wingweavers, right? They are an unforgivable branch among the Abominations of Abundance. Their homeworld was destroyed by the Antimatter Legion. But they have never given up on rebuilding Qiong Sang. After all, Qiong Sang can continuously extract imaginary energy from the starry sky and convert it into the power of the Plagues Author."

She pointed to the branch at the bottom of the pit. "As far as I know, the Wingweavers' Antimatter Legion is searching for Stellaron in the Lost Soul Sector in an attempt to revive Qiong Sang. I think they probably don't know about this branch that originated from Qiong Sang."

"What if this branch falls into the hands of the Wingweavers— " Jingxing couldn't help but start imagining.

"The Wingweavers have lost their home planet are nothing but rootless duckweed," Yaoguang said. "If Qiong Sang rises again, the Xianzhou will pay any price to bring it down once more."

"So now that we've encountered it first, we must destroy it," Jingxing continued.

"That's right." Yaoguang nodded, his expression grave. "No wonder it's connected to the fate of this planet... This is the power of the Plagues Author. Even a mere branch can parasitize a planet and use it to its advantage."

But as soon as they finished speaking, they both realized something else.

To destroy this branch of the Qiong Sang, the external energy must be allowed to continue.

However, if this energy continues, Jingxing's power will inevitably sweep over everyone present. He himself might be able to withstand it, but Yaoguang is different.

"No." Realizing this, Jingxing shook his head. "We need to find another way."

"No need." Yaoguang patted him on the shoulder. "I want to make something clear to you."

She raised her hand and took out a finely carved jade pendant from her inner lining. It was like a drop of solidified water, with a few thin, invisible golden lines entwined inside.

"This is the Heavenly Wisdom Jade Knot," Yaoguang explained. "More than twenty years ago, I used the Ten-Direction Light-Reflecting Dharma Realm of the Yuque Palace to try and divine the war at Fanghu. However, due to a moment of arrogance, I ignored the divine mandate and attempted to use the power of the Hunt to alter cause and effect."

She paused, then continued, "The price of going against destiny is that I am endlessly entangled with the Ten-Direction Light-Reflecting Dharma Realm, which the sorcerers of the Xianzhou call 'Synchronic Displacement'."