"Rule Planting?" Shen Yi noticed Alvin's unusual choice of words and grew curious.
"..."
Alvin's thoughts carried a trace of complicated emotion. He seemed reluctant to say more.
"My circumstances... aren't easy to explain in depth."
"But you'll soon understand what I mean. Good luck."
With that, the spatial coordinates and traces of power that had sustained their teleportation quietly vanished, as though they had never existed. The three were left at the edge of the desolate, eerie asteroid belt.
Shen Yi did not press him.
His gaze swept over the 128 planetary remnants ahead. They looked scattered at random, yet seemed to follow some indescribable pattern. His divine sense reached forward like invisible feelers, probing cautiously.
But the deeper he looked into the region, the clearer and stronger the eerie feeling—and the sense of being watched—became.
"Let's go to the center."
Shen Yi spoke to Winnie and Xilos in a calm voice.
He flew ahead, though he maintained a steady pace instead of using rapid spatial jumps.
That made their approach look more like a visit and gave him time to observe their surroundings.
Winnie followed close behind. Wrapped in the Flame of Continued Combustion, she was unusually quiet, her golden eyes constantly scanning the lifeless planets around them.
Xilos trailed half a step behind. Since absorbing the Flame of Continued Combustion, the fire around her had taken on a markedly different hue under its influence.
No longer the fierce crimson it had once been, her flames now tended toward a pure, almost transparent white. They were more condensed and restrained, yet the heat and pressure of rules within them had grown immeasurably stronger.
In just a few short hours, Xilos had undergone a transformation that bordered on the unimaginable.
Such was the astonishing power of the Flame of