Chapter 288

It was a profound sense of weightlessness, as if the soul had been momentarily ripped from the body.

It wasn't the previously known Stellar Wilderness Body; instead, a tiny black dot appeared on the platform where Wen Jing had just been standing.

This black spot was less than the size of an infant's fist, yet it was so black that it devoured all the light around it, even absorbing the rune light on the awakening platform.

What's even more frightening is that this absorption process was clearly captured by everyone.

Because the rune light, which should have shone straight out in all directions, was forcibly bent as it approached the black dot, forming a perfect circle.

The inside of the ring was absolute darkness, while the outside was a burning halo of light, with no transition between the two, as if space itself had been torn open.

The Military Department marshal suddenly stood up, the halo reflected in his pupils, his mouth slightly open, but no sound came out.

The Council of Elders's fingers dug deeply into the armrests of his chair, his knuckles turning white.

The Prime Minister's face, too, lost its usual composure; her lips trembled slightly. "That is..."

Not only the three giants present lost control of their expressions, but even knowing that there was a powerful field around the platform and that Weiluo would not attack them, everyone present instinctively retreated at this moment, their instincts reacting faster than their reason.

Because everyone recognized what that halo was—the event horizon of a black hole.

"Her Wilderness Body... underwent another transformation, evolving from a star into a black hole..."

"No wonder he was exceptionally selected for the Icon Selection..."

These thoughts flashed through the minds of the empire's top nobles who had prior knowledge of the information, and their initial shock at the news transformed into sudden understanding.

The next moment, the halo began to shrink.

The light slowly converged towards the center, becoming brighter and thinner until it finally turned into a tiny point of light, no bigger than a pinhead.

The black spots have also disappeared.

On the platform, Wen Jing's figure reappeared, as if nothing had happened.

"Drop..."

Three seconds later, the runes around the platform lit up, indicating that the detector had restarted after being overloaded.

"Trial complete, Weiluo Seran, fully awakened, Wilderness Body Level... A."

Is this really still a Grade A?

Hearing the noticeably delayed notification sound from inside the temple, some people present couldn't help but think to themselves.

Normally, after this step is completed, the next step is to grant the Awakened a title that matches their level. A-level title would make them a Tianheng Lord who would permanently possess a territory and resources for their entire life and would not have to pay any taxes.

In the Federation, high-level Awakened have to sign contracts with conglomerates, while in the Empire, the granting of territory is directly granted by the government. After all, there aren't many high-level Awakened, and the mortality rate among Awakened is not low, so there is no issue of insufficient territory to allocate.

However, the titles and territories are no longer relevant to the individuals on the platform.

At that very moment, a shadow suddenly fell over the temple.

Everyone looked up and saw a huge building slowly emerging from the void.

It was a semi-transparent white palace, suspended a hundred meters in the air without any support. Intricate golden patterns flowed across its surface, and each shimmer of the patterns was accompanied by a slight distortion of space.

"That's... the Icon Council!"

Others on the capital planet also witnessed this, and the news spread Extreme Speed like a virus, reaching not only the capital planet but also the other three habitable planets.

"With the arrival of the council, are we about to have a new icon?"

"I never imagined I'd live to witness this!"

The magnificent spectacle of the Icon Council's descent was something no one in this generation of the Empire had ever witnessed.

In the perception of ordinary people in the empire, the council is detached from worldly affairs, usually hidden within the empire's territory, suppressing foreign enemies and protecting civilization.

In the eyes of the three giants, this was the true highest authority of the empire.

The temple sank slowly and steadily under the watchful eyes of the entire empire. It seemed to exist between reality and illusion. During the descent, the base of the temple overlapped with the Awakening Temple, but there was no collision.

After reaching a certain distance, a golden void staircase extended down from the main entrance, all the way to Wen Jing on the platform below.

"Weiluo Thrann is permitted to enter the Council to conduct the Icon Selection."

A grand and ethereal voice resounded, echoing through the heavens.

"As expected, they have unified force field technology."

Moreover, their skills are far superior to those of ordinary Alaya Race.

Under the light surrounding Wen Jing, spatial jumps were blocked, energy utilization was suppressed within his body, the maximum damage he could cause to the environment was limited, flight was prohibited, and even the height of his jumps was restricted; he could only ascend by climbing steps.

The only thing that is not limited is the ability to travel through the Ancient Wilderness.

But among those Awakened are unaware of the truth, who would have imagined that they would be traversing into the Ancient Wilderness to greet this moment of glory?

It's likely that even this technologically created unified force field will only be mistaken for the power suppression of S-class Awakened within the council.

Wen Jing took a step and climbed the semi-transparent stairs.

Through her Information Perception, she knew that this hall was not the real Sacred Core, but merely a temporary interface.

The moment she stepped through the gate without hesitation, a subtle disturbance occurred in space— the Sacred Core of the Alaya Race descended instantly, only to shift away in the next instant.

All the onlookers could see Wen Jing's figure disappear inside the door.

Three seconds after the gate closed, the entire building rose and faded, finally disappearing completely into the void.

The Awakening Temple remained quiet for a while before voices returned.

Some people's gazes turned to Xu Yuan, who was shrouded in white robes. Fortunately, the bloodline nobles did not participate in politics; otherwise, having a councilor as a partner would have unimaginable power.

"However, from now on we'll be from two different worlds..." someone else said.

It refers to Wen Jing and the other imperial people, as well as to her and her deeply affectionate partner.

*

The moment Wen Jing stepped into the Sacred Core, all his previous assumptions about this place were overturned.

This is a strange and unique space without boundaries.

There is no up or down, no left or right, no light, no darkness... no matter, only an endless flow of information.

Countless data fragments surged like a tide, each fragment representing a member of the Alaya Race's research findings, a memory, or a thought process. These information flows exchanged at speeds exceeding the speed of light, forming a network that covered the entire space.

This is the Sacred Core.

The core of the Alaya Race, a collection of wisdom accumulated over 130,000 years.

From the moment she entered this place, Wen Jing's body ceased to exist in a physical sense. Not only was she unable to travel through the Ancient Wilderness, but every single cell in her body, and even her more conceptualized past experiences and memories, were presented in the form of information.

Only consciousness and spirituality themselves represent her 'existence'.

Even her current understanding and feedback about this place will become new information, and be separated from it.

Before she could explore any further details, an unstoppable torrent surged towards her from all directions.

"Boom!"

A sharp, explosive sound resounded within the mind of the current personality node.

Countless pieces of redundant information, trillions of fragments of thought... flooded into her consciousness like a tsunami.

This is not condensed knowledge, but rather a chaotic collection of collective memories, emotions, thoughts, and desires. This collective memory is not limited to the Alaya Race race, but also includes humanity and the various intelligent races they created in their experiments.

Information in this space is 'matter', capable of causing irresistible and real harm to independent consciousness.

Essentially, it's a form of forced memorization.

This can be compared to an ancient monster in a cultivation novel who has lived for tens of thousands of years transferring his entire life's memories into a teenager. When the person finally opens his eyes, will his personality, behavior, and self-identity still be the same?

His short life experience of just over ten years will inevitably be replaced by that of the former.

At this moment, Wen Jing is facing a volume of information that is equivalent to millions of years per second.

This would normally be enough to dilute any individual's sense of self in an instant, then wash it away completely, turning it into shattered information dust... This is also the source of the Alaya Race's confidence in connecting generations of S-level Awakened into the Sacred Core.

But Wen Jing is not an 'individual'.

Gestalt Consciousness is activated, like a stubborn reef beneath the waves, firmly anchoring the ego at the personality node within the Sacred Core.

While Wen Jing was being bombarded by the information deluge, the six enormous consciousnesses that existed within the Sacred Core and controlled all of this space were communicating at an alarming rate.

They experienced the most intense emotional fluctuation they had felt since the Mastermind had taken away half of their human ownership.

The reason for the fluctuations was not that they discovered Wen Jing's consciousness had not been dispersed by the information wave.

Instead, when they first looked through her information, they were plunged into a state of confusion they had never experienced before.

Cellular memory, life experience memory, Wilderness Body abilities...

All the information carried by this Awakened was presented to them directly, but they could not find an anchor point to use for understanding.

They have no structure, no logic, and are constantly changing; one moment they capture a fragment, and that fragment is twisted into something completely unrelated the moment the observation takes place.

They do not follow cause and effect, nor space, nor any of the cognitive laws they have summarized over the past 130,000 years.

Why is this happening?

After the prophets ascended into the Sacred Core, for the first time, they experienced the 'confusion' emotion that they had long forgotten. Just like Wen Jing had been in front of the world core of the evil god's ruins, the more they tried to understand, the less they understood.

"Try again."

Six people worked together to analyze the problem, but the result was still the same.

No matter which angle they approach it from, all they get is a bunch of meaningless gibberish. No, it's not even gibberish; gibberish is at least a recognizable error format, but what they get is 'unrecognizable' itself.