Stone Ridge Immortal City's cross-realm signal tower continued to flash with an eerie blue glow, like a pulse beating within the Chaos Sea. As the previously reverse-locked coordinates emerged clearly upon the star chart, Chu Qing's gaze remained calm as he looked toward the shattered domain known as the Star-Rending Void. It was an abandoned realm long sealed off by the Watchers, its resources already exhausted—a place among the myriad realms of All Heavens that was the poorest, most oppressed fringe territory.
"The Watchers left this shattered domain behind only to use it as a cage for the local cultivators, constantly siphoning away the remnants of its Dao resonance." Standing before the star-chart array, Chu Qing lightly brushed his slender fingers across those distorted coordinates. "Since we are going to break the deadlock, we will begin from the darkest corner."
This time, he did not choose to deploy the entire fleet. Instead, he ordered the formation of an expeditionary detachment composed of elite Ancient Immortals and the first batch of Stone Ridge Sacred Guards. Since the expedition began, this was the first time the Shiji Dao Field had proactively extended its reach into an external realm, and its significance ran deep.
On the eve of the expeditionary detachment's departure, the atmosphere within the Immortal City's main hall was solemn. Chu Qing personally handed an "Alliance Invitation," engraved with the Stone Ridge insignia, to the detachment commander. It was more than an invitation—it was a contract capable of reshaping the rules of that realm.
As the expeditionary detachment ventured deeper into the Star-Rending Void, preparations for battle within Stone Ridge Immortal City grew increasingly stringent.
Yet, at the very instant the expeditionary force was about to disappear into the rift of space-time, the Watchers' headquarters at the farthest reaches of All