Half a year was as brief as an instant in a cultivator's life, yet it was enough for a person to remember everything worth remembering.
Lin Chen remembered the glow of the spirit herbs on Enchanting Song Star's purple plains, the twelve radiant figures around the long table, the warmth of Qian Renxue's fingertips as she straightened his collar before he left, Xiao Wu's reddened eyes as she hugged his arm and said, "Come back as soon as the war is over," and the words Xidi had whispered while leaning against his chest at dawn: "I'll wait for you."
That was enough.
Half a year of peace was finally torn apart by a thunderous roar from the far end of the Sea of Stars.
Lin Chen stood atop the dome of the Creator God Temple, the first person in the entire universe to sense the change in the Rift.
The gray fissure stopped expanding the instant it reached its critical point, then slowly opened like a tightly shut, enormous eye.
The Rift spread outward from its center, revealing a chaotic world beyond, seething with gray mist. That was the Void Ruin Land.
The Rift had opened wide.
The sky across the entire star domain changed color. Gray light poured from the Rift, spreading like a thin veil of shadow over every star domain in the Federation.
Even mortals could look up and see the gash stretching across the heavens, as though someone had cut a wound in the sky that would never heal.
As the Rift opened, an oppressive presence spread from the fissure.
That presence was heavy and icy, carrying a hunger to devour all things, like a primeval beast awakening after ten thousand years of sleep and opening a maw large enough to swallow the whole world.
It