Only seven days remained until the agreed day of decisive battle. The Council Hall of the Central Spiritual Vein was brightly lit. Shen Hao sat upright in the seat of honor, four-colored Dao rhythms flowing quietly around him. His gaze swept across the alliance's core members gathered in the hall—Lan Ze, Xing Heng, Yan Bing, Elder Ku Mu, Elder Shi Jian, and the patriarchs of every race. Solemnity and resolve filled every face.
On the star map at the center of the hall, the Dark Energy core region in the southern reaches of the Star Sea had been marked with exceptional clarity. The energy fluctuation paths of the Lord of the Dark Core, the expansion rate of the spatial rifts, and the distribution patterns of the Dark Energy runes had all been precisely charted by disciples of the Star Spirit Race. Xing Heng raised a hand and injected a stream of Star Core Power into the map. Three striking halos emerged around the Dark Energy core. "Alliance Leader Shen, after repeated investigations, we discovered that the Lord of the Dark Core's defensive system has three layers. The outer layer is a Dark Energy barrier and rune formations. The middle layer is a defensive net made of countless Dark Energy tentacles. The inner layer is a Dark Energy vortex surrounding the spatial rifts. Its core consciousness is hidden deep within that vortex."
Lan Ze stepped forward and pointed to the middle layer on the map. "Our main starships can deploy along the perimeter and use subsidiary formations of the Star Sea Guardian Array to contain the outer barrier, opening a passage for the Origin Fusion Guards. But the Dark Energy tentacles in the middle layer possess extremely powerful regenerative abilities. An elite squad must be assigned specifically to clear them out,