The destructive light was not fiery, but a cold, pure white that stripped away all concepts of existence.
A barrage of cannon fire silenced the starry sea.
It wasn't a torrent of energy, but more like a "formatting" command targeting existence itself. Wherever it passed, the Space Laws were rewritten, material information was erased, and everything was returning to the most primitive and purest nothingness.
The shriek of the Bone Demon Gulsa was instantly swallowed by the absolute silence. His prized "Skeleton King" vanished in swathes the moment it came into contact with the data torrent, its crimson energy shield disappearing like deleted code.
Escape? Where can we escape to? This star field has been designated as a "purification zone," there's nowhere to hide.
Xiao Han's pupils reflected the pure white that erased everything, the shadow of death thicker than ever before. Yet, in this desperate situation, a crazy thought flashed through his mind like lightning.
Instead of retreating, he grabbed the swaying Lin Qingxia beside him and began to operate the "A Step to the Ends of the Earth" technique within his body with unprecedented frenzy.
"Old devil, I'll borrow your body to take the fall!"
His figure transformed into an almost imperceptible dotted line, not fleeing, but sprinting at the limit in a trajectory that defied common sense, his target— the Skeleton King "!
Just before the torrent of energy from the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion completely engulfed everything, he clung to the outside of the massive blood-red skull shield like an insignificant shadow.
He actually used this arrogant Martial Emperor as his shield!
Boom--!
A conceptual erasure force has descended.
The crimson skull shield emitted a mournful wail, lasting less than half a breath before being overwhelmed, disintegrated, and evaporated by the cold data stream. Immediately afterward, the starship, forged from the bones of countless colossal beasts, began to disintegrate and dissipate inch by inch from its bow, turning into dust as if erased by an eraser.
"No--!"
Gul'sar let out a terrified roar, pouring all his power into his body in an attempt to resist. However, most of the data stream was absorbed by his demonic body and the wreckage of his starship. With a crisp cracking sound, a protective bone amulet on his chest exploded into dust, and he was sent flying, his mangled body barely managing to preserve a wisp of his soul.
Xiao Han made the right bet.
But he was only half right.
The leaked data streams, like an all-pervasive virus, instantly flooded into his body. They weren't there to cause physical harm, but rather to coldly analyze and dissect his existence, attempting to completely erase him, this "abnormal entity" not in the database.
[WARNING! Unknown high-dimensional logic intrusion detected!]
[Executing formatting instructions...]
At that very moment, deep within Xiao Han's soul, the [True Demon Origin Imprint] that he had been suppressing relentlessly suddenly bristled, like a wildcat whose tail had been stepped on!
A chaotic, evil, and disorderly will erupted!
If the data flow of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion is an absolute, cold, and unquestionable "Order," then this True Demon Will is the "chaos" that tempts all to fall and overturns all rules!
Order must erase the abnormal, chaos must pollute everything!
Two diametrically opposed supreme concepts clashed violently within Xiao Han's body.
[Warning! Warning! The host is under attack by a 'logic paradox'! Its existence is being torn apart!]
[System core is about to crash!]
The system's frantic alarms nearly tore his mind apart.
His body became an unimaginable energy singularity. On his left side, pitch-black demonic energy surged, the power of the [True Demon Origin Imprint]; on his right side, the holy light of the Chaos Green Lotus intertwined with the majestic power of the Eternal Night Sovereign, attempting to maintain balance. And running through his entire body was a cold, pure white stream of Order data.
Holiness, authority, chaos, Order...
Four completely different forces, like four wild horses, were frantically pulling at his body and soul.
"Ahhh--!"
Xiao Han let out a roar of extreme pain. On the surface of his body, sometimes holy lotus patterns appeared, sometimes chaotic demon god totems were imprinted, and sometimes cold rune codes flickered.
This terrifying energy conflict finally exceeded the limits that this space could withstand.
Sizzle!
Centered on his body, space was torn open like fragile glass, leaving a dark rift. It wasn't a spatial portal, but an extremely unstable temporary wormhole, filled with violent and chaotic spacetime turbulence.
A way out! The only way out!
With the last vestige of clarity crushed by pain, Xiao Han tightly gripped the unconscious Lin Qingxia in his arms. He glanced at the horrified, severely wounded remnant soul of the Bone Demon in the distance, and without hesitation, plunged headlong into the darkness that represented the unknown.
Almost at the same time they disappeared, the emotionless synthesized voice rang out again aboard the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's flagship.
"Alert: Undefined logic conflict detected."
"The target data features exhibit a contradictory fusion of 'Primordial Chaos' and 'High-Dimensional True Demons'."
"Threat level... upgraded to 'Apocalyptic level'."
"Activate the 'Heavenly Retribution' level tracking protocol."
At the bow of the main ship, a tracking probe composed of billions of runes silently condensed. It did not chase, but seemed to merge into the underlying logic of spacetime, silently disappearing into the void and locking onto the other end of the wormhole that had just closed.
The world spun around me; it felt like my soul had been thrown into a meat grinder.
After an unknown amount of time, Xiao Han and Lin Qingxia stumbled out of the torn space, crashing heavily onto a cold piece of metal debris.
The violent impact jolted him awake from his daze. He coughed up a mouthful of blood mixed with golden and black specks of light and looked around.
As far as the eye could see, there was an endless, desolate garbage dump.
Countless shattered starship wrecks floated silently in the void like mountain ranges. The skeletons of colossal beasts, larger than stars themselves, were entangled in massive, long-broken cables. Further away, fragments of collapsed stars drifted slowly like cosmic dust.
Everything here exudes an aura of antiquity, decay, and death.
One of the three forbidden areas of the Shattered Star Sea - Star Sea Graveyard.
Before Xiao Han could even catch his breath, a large, crimson electronic eye, covered in dark red rust and the size of a house, slowly lit up without warning on the wreckage of a nearby, dilapidated warship that looked as if it had been gnawed on.
"Zzz--"
A cold, scanning beam swept across the area like a searchlight, finally locking onto the two of them.
Excruciating pain surged through my torn nerves in waves.
Xiao Han struggled to sit up from the cold metal deck, each breath feeling like his internal organs were being torn apart. He ignored himself and immediately looked at Lin Qingxia beside him. Her pretty face was as pale as paper, her breath was weak, and her long eyelashes were covered with a layer of fine ice crystals, clearly caused by overusing her source power.