He raised a hand and grasped at the space before him. The laws of the Way of Space extended outward, taking a small sample from Jupiter's surface. Wrapped in spatial power, the sample flew back into his palm.
It was a gray-black fragment.
Its texture was brittle, crumbling into powder with a gentle pinch. The powder drifted from his fingertips, without a trace of energy remaining.
It had been eaten clean.
Not just the surface—even the core had been gnawed away, leaving nothing behind.
Chen Hao shook off the powder and turned to look farther out.
Beyond Jupiter's orbit lay Io, Europa, and Ganymede.
Those moons were still there.
But like Jupiter, they had become dead worlds.
Chen Hao spared them no further attention. He raised a hand and tore another rift in the void.
This time, his destination was the Oort Cloud.
The outermost boundary of the Solar System.
The spatial passage extended once more.
This journey was far longer than the last. Even with spatial jumps, traveling from Jupiter's orbit to the Oort Cloud would take several minutes.
The spatial turbulence inside the passage grew denser.
Gray-white currents churned around him like a blizzard, lashing against his body.
A pale cyan spatial barrier appeared over his skin, keeping the turbulence at bay.
The exit ahead gradually took shape.
But this time, the light was not orange.
It was black.
Pure, thick black.
Chen Hao stepped out of the passage, then froze in the void.
The Oort Cloud was gone.
The sparse cloud belt that should have consisted of countless small, frozen celestial bodies now held nothing at all.
In its place was a black substance, something between smoke and liquid, surging in from every direction and sealing the entire outer Solar System tight.
Black Miasma.
The term surfaced