The triumphant news of the Destroyer Fleet's vanguard being wiped out spread through every corner of the Annihilation Star Sea like wildfire. Yet before the cheers of victory had faded, the terrible cost, like the icy waters of a galactic river, extinguished that brief frenzy. The Rock Defense Line star region, once an iron rampart guarded by thirty-six Iron Wall fortress planets, had now become a vast graveyard among the stars. Shattered stellar wreckage drifted silently, twisted fragments of ship hulls rolled like clouds, and energy currents not yet fully extinguished wailed like vengeful souls, tearing brilliant yet lethal rifts through the void. The air was thick with the acrid stench of burning, while escaping spiritual power and a faint scent of blood together formed an incomparably tragic elegy behind the victory.
The enormous docking platform of the Sky Patrol Immortal Boat was packed with people, yet strangely silent. Teams of battered cultivators limped down from returning starships. Many had bloodstained robes and deathly pale faces, needing the support of their fellow disciples. Medicine Master Valley disciples in plain white robes moved among them, pouring life-filled nectar from jade bottles. Soft halos of light enveloped the wounded, healing injuries both visible and unseen. Farther away, jade coffins draped in the blazing battle banners of the Star Sea Alliance stood in neat rows, solemn and desolate. Low sobs and suppressed sighs had replaced the music of triumph, weighing heavily upon every heart.
Amid the air of grief and exhaustion, an even more resilient strength quietly took root like an undercurrent beneath the ice. The survivors leaned on one another and shared their remaining spiritual pills. When they looked toward the towering Cardinal Hall at the end of the port, their eyes burned with the relief of survival and a trust tempered