"No."
His voice wasn't loud, but it drowned out all the sirens blaring.
"From this moment on, we are hunters."
He stretched out his newly formed [Astral Law Arm], shimmering with the light of stars and laws, and pointed it towards the cold "Hive" prison.
"Tianshu, turn this prison into a warship!"
"The instructions... are beyond our comprehension. The prison cannot..."
"Implement!"
Xiao Han's will was like a red-hot branding iron, fiercely imprinted on the core logic of Tianshu.
"Yes, sir."
Tianshu AI no longer questioned anything. The next second, an earth-shattering change began!
"Boom--Rumble--!"
The entire "Bee-01" prison, this steel cage that imprisoned countless heinous criminals, began to deconstruct and reorganize. Hundreds of millions of cell units folded and flipped like Rubik's Cubes, transforming into a ferocious array of propulsion engines that spewed out eerie blue flames that distorted spacetime. The enormous data center extended outwards in layers, its cold metal shell covered with billions of mysterious runes, forming an indestructible dark armor. The former execution grounds and torture chambers were melted down and transformed into giant main cannons whose muzzles gleamed with the cold light of destruction.
Amidst a distorted temporal storm, a mobile fortress, imposing yet wildly beautiful, was officially born.
"Based on your will core, the name has been generated -- [Paradox Fortress]."
Amidst the roar of the fortress's reconstruction, Xiao Han's figure quietly appeared in the independent space inside.
Lin Qingxia, her life force as faint as a candle flickering in the wind. Xiao Han remained silent, simply placing the [Astral Law Arm], imbued with the supreme laws of Order, gently on her forehead.
A boundless and pure life force, mixed with an undeniable "Order Divinity," silently permeated Lin Qingxia's limbs and bones like spring rain. Her injuries healed at a visible speed. More importantly, her icy blue Martial Soul essence, as if meticulously sculpted by an unparalleled master craftsman, began to exude a stable, eternal, and indestructible aura.
Her eyelashes fluttered, and Lin Qingxia slowly opened her eyes. Her eyes remained clear and cold, but now held a wisdom that seemed to understand the principles of all things. She didn't ask what had happened, but simply looked at Xiao Han and nodded. No words were needed; new power was already flowing through her body, and she could feel it.
Then, Xiao Han went to the huge purple cocoon of light.
"Master," Mei'er's voice echoed in her mind, tinged with solemnity, "Although her soul has been reshaped, its foundation is still unstable. Pure Order will make her rigid, and pure chaos will make her lose control."
Xiao Han nodded; he already understood.
He extended his other hand, his left hand, still wreathed in dark demonic energy, symbolizing eternal night and chaos. Carefully, he drew a wisp of the purest, most primordial dark power from his [Primordial Eternal Night Overlord] Martial Soul and gently infused it into the cocoon of light.
"Buzz--!"
The cocoon of light trembled violently. A deep, dark color instantly spread across the originally pure purple radiance. Immediately afterward, the power of Order in Xiao Han's right arm responded, and a wisp of starlight-like white light merged into it.
The black and white divine light intertwined and chased each other on the surface of the light cocoon, eventually transforming into a perfect Taiji Diagram slowly rotated. The entire light cocoon seemed to come alive, pulsating powerfully with a mysterious and ancient rhythm, each beat seemingly giving birth to a brand new universe.
"Tianshu Report: Target life form detected leaping into unknown territory. Data model crashed... Redefining... Defined as [Chaos-Order Phoenix Egg]. Its potential after rebirth... is immeasurable. But... it seems a special opportunity is needed to complete the final hatching."
Everything is ready.
Xiao Han stood once again on the bridge of the Paradox Fortress, with Lin Qingxia standing quietly beside him, her gaze also fixed on the endless deep space.
"Tianshu, pinpoint the location where the Ferryman disappeared and track his route."
"Command executed... Flight path tracking in progress... Warning! Anomaly detected!" Tianshu's voice became urgent again, "Based on the spread path of the 'Free Will' virus implanted in you within the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion network, and the reverse analysis of the 'Star Shepherd' activation signal source... the Ferryman's escape route, the Overlord's ultimate goal... all three... all three point to the same destination!"
"This is no coincidence," Tianshu's synthesized voice revealed a hint of horror, "This is a pre-planned trap!"
In an instant, on the holographic star map, three routes representing chaos, Order, and destiny, respectively, spanned billions of light-years and finally converged at one point.
It was a massive spacetime vortex, from which even light could not escape, composed of countless shattered laws and the corpses of fallen gods. It hovered silently at the edge of the universe, like a hideous scar, or perhaps the end of everything.
Beside the vortex, Tianshu was marked with three large, blood-red, shocking characters.
[Gods' Graveyard]
"That is the end of the universe, and also the beginning of everything." Lin Qingxia looked at the darkness, her voice low and clear. "It is recorded in the Emperor Xia's inherited memories. The Ferryman wanted to use your power and that of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion Overlord to complete the Godslaying ritual he himself could not complete in that forbidden land where the gods fell."
However, a smile that was almost arrogant curled at the corner of Xiao Han's mouth. He looked at the deep darkness that swallowed everything, as if he saw not a trap, but prey that he was determined to get.
"I know."
He slowly raised his left and right hands, one wreathed in demonic flames, the other shimmering with starlight, as if he held the two poles of the universe in his grasp.
"The 'Star Shepherd' is chasing me, the Ferryman is waiting for me," his gaze pierced through time and space, landing in the center of that Gods' Graveyard, "And my other half, my 'heart,' is there too."
He withdrew his gaze, his voice booming like thunder, echoing throughout every corner of the fortress.
"Tianshu!"
"Set flight path, destination— Gods' Graveyard!"
Full speed ahead!
"Boom--!"
The thousands of engines of the [Paradox Fortress] roared deafeningly, and the armor at the front of the fortress suddenly tore open, forming a gigantic wormhole generator. Without the slightest hesitation, this war fortress, rebuilt from a prison, rushed into the dimensional portal leading to unknown dangers like an arrow shot at destiny.
A storm about to sweep across the entire universe awaits its protagonist.
This time, the eye of the storm will officially begin from the tombs of the gods.
The [Paradox Fortress] sped through the dimensional portal like a silent, steel behemoth. Wherever it passed, a storm was brewing in the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's network. The "Free Will" virus planted by Xiao Han, like an unquenchable logical plague, was spreading wildly through the underlying code of countless star sectors, causing defense systems to collapse, energy allocation to become disordered, and even the AIs of several secondary prisons to collectively declare independence, singing clumsy revolutionary songs.