Chapter 78: The Seed of the Void
The cave trembled.
It wasn't an ordinary mountain tremor, nor was it the result of a natural collapse caused by battle.
The entire chamber seemed to contract and expand, as though the world itself were breathing irregularly.
Han Feng stood motionless, staring at the purple-black crystal in his palm.
Its surface was smooth, yet no light reflected from it correctly. The faint glow of his spiritual lamp bent away from the crystal, leaving a narrow ring of darkness around its edges.
A pulse passed through it.
Once.
Then again.
Han Feng felt the vibration in his fingers, but the sensation did not stop there. It traveled through his arm and reached the depths of his spiritual sense.
The crystal was cold.
Not the ordinary cold of stone or ice.
It was a cold that seemed to bypass his flesh and touch something deeper.
His soul.
For the first time in a long while, Han Feng felt genuine fear.
Not the fear of dying.
He had accepted the possibility of death long ago.
What frightened him was the possibility of losing control over something he did not understand.
The energy inside the crystal did not resemble Qi, Gu essence, or the strange resonance he had encountered in the ancient formations.
It was something else.
Something that seemed to have been torn from a distant reality and forced into the laws of the Gu World.
Han Feng slowly closed his fingers around it.
"Whatever you are, you're not coming any closer to my spiritual sea."
He placed the crystal inside his storage ring and immediately activated his Abyssal Shield.
Dark light spread across his body, forming a thin layer of spectral armor.
The next tremor nearly threw him off his feet.
Cracks raced across the ceiling.
A massive slab of stone broke free and crashed down where he had been standing moments earlier.
Han Feng moved.
He sprinted through the narrow corridor as the cave began to collapse around him.
More rocks fell.
Dust filled the air.
The spiritual energy fluctuated violently, rising and disappearing in irregular waves.
For an instant, the corridor stretched ahead of him.
Then it shortened.
Han Feng nearly collided with the wall.
His expression changed.
"Spatial distortion?"
He had seen similar effects before, but never on this scale.
The passage was no longer obeying ordinary distance.
He activated his Shadow Concealment, then used the limited burst of movement granted by his Shadow Displacement Gu.
His figure blurred.
He pushed forward.
Behind him, the ceiling collapsed with a deafening roar.
The shock wave struck his back.
His Abyssal Shield cracked, and pain shot through his shoulder.
Han Feng gritted his teeth and kept running.
He could repair the damage later.
If there was a later.
The final section of the passage twisted before him.
For one terrible instant, he saw two exits occupying the same space.
One led toward the cave entrance.
The other opened onto a landscape of black mountains beneath a red sky.
Han Feng didn't hesitate.
He chose the path that matched the physical markings he had memorized on his way in.
The other image vanished.
He threw himself through the entrance just as the mountain behind him collapsed.
BOOM!
The ground shook.
A wave of black dust swept across the valley.
Han Feng rolled down the slope and struck the ground among dead leaves and broken branches.
For several breaths, he could do nothing but breathe.
His back hurt.
His shoulder throbbed.
His spiritual sense felt as though someone had scraped it with a blade.
But he was alive.
He slowly pushed himself upright.
Then he looked around.
The valley had changed.
The purple mist was now blue.
The surrounding trees stood perfectly still. Not a single leaf moved, despite the wind rushing down from the mountains.
A falling stone hung in the air several meters away.
Han Feng stared at it.
A moment later, it dropped.
The wind resumed.
The valley seemed to awaken.
Then the sky cracked.
It was not a metaphor.
A thin line appeared across the firmament, so narrow that Han Feng might have mistaken it for a distant streak of lightning.
Golden light leaked through the opening.
The crack widened for less than a breath.
The surrounding mountains were illuminated as though a second sun had risen behind the heavens.
Han Feng's heart tightened.
The spiritual energy vanished.
All at once.
His perception became nearly blind.
The defensive formations around the valley went silent.
Even the faint spiritual fluctuations of the plants disappeared.
For three breaths, the world was empty.
Then the energy returned.
It came back in a violent surge.
Stones glowed beneath his feet. The remaining mist compressed into spiraling currents, and a nearby tree split apart under the pressure.
Han Feng stumbled backward.
"This is impossible..."
He had seen spiritual storms.
He had encountered ancient formations that could suppress or amplify Qi.
But this was different.
The energy had not merely weakened.
For a moment, the world had behaved as though its natural source of spiritual power had ceased to exist.
Then that source had returned with overwhelming force.
Han Feng looked at the sky.
Two realities were beginning to interfere with one another.
He could not yet prove that they were merging, but the possibility had become impossible to ignore.
The Blue Star Flame Gu emerged from his spiritual sea.
Its blue fire trembled violently.
The tiny points of light inside its body aligned into a strange pattern.
Han Feng recognized the arrangement.
Six points.
And a seventh that remained dark.
His expression grew cold.
"You're reacting to the same thing."
The crystal inside his storage ring pulsed.
The Blue Star Flame Gu flared.
Then a voice entered his mind.
"Who dares to touch the Seed of the Void?"
Han Feng froze.
The voice was cold and distant.
It carried no anger.
No curiosity.
Only the detached certainty of something accustomed to being obeyed.
Han Feng did not answer.
His spiritual defenses tightened instinctively.
The voice had not traveled through the air. It had appeared directly within his consciousness.
It did not feel like a Gu Master communicating through a spiritual technique.
Nor did it resemble a remnant soul.
It felt as though something on the other side of the crack had noticed the crystal.
The golden fissure widened.
For an instant, a figure appeared within it.
A man—or something resembling one.
His body was wrapped in layers of dark light. Behind him stretched a landscape that did not belong to the Gu World.
Floating mountains drifted beneath a blood-red sky.
Enormous stars shone above black rivers.
Silver light flowed across the horizon like liquid metal.
Han Feng felt his blood run cold.
He had seen fragments of this landscape before.
In the vision of the crystal cocoon.
In the memories revealed by the Entangled Memory Gu.
But this time, the image was not a memory.
It was present.
The figure raised one hand.
Space trembled.
Han Feng immediately activated his Abyssal Shield.
Spectral armor formed around his body, consuming a substantial portion of his remaining Gu essence.
He prepared for an attack.
None came.
The figure merely observed him.
Then its attention shifted toward the place where Han Feng had stored the crystal.
The voice returned.
"The seed has awakened."
The figure's outline distorted.
"But the vessel is not ready."
Han Feng's pupils contracted.
Before he could ask anything, the crack began to close.
The golden light narrowed.
The foreign landscape disappeared.
For one final instant, the figure looked directly at him.
Then the sky sealed itself.
The world returned to normal.
The spiritual energy stabilized.
The wind began to move through the trees again.
Han Feng remained motionless for several minutes.
He had no idea who the figure was.
He did not know whether the words referred to the crystal, the Celestial Diagram, or something buried even deeper within the ancient network.
But one thing was clear.
The crystal was not an ordinary treasure.
And whatever had spoken could perceive its presence across the boundary.
Han Feng slowly lowered his hand.
"So you felt it too..."
He looked toward the sealed sky.
"Then I need to find out what I brought out of that cave."
He did not intend to experiment with the crystal again until he understood the risks.
For now, survival came first.
He repaired what he could of his defensive Gu, concealed his aura, and left the valley.
He had to disappear.
Immediately.
Because if one being from beyond the boundary could sense the crystal, others might be capable of doing the same.
And not all of them would choose to observe.
Yinzhao City
Two days later, Han Feng arrived at Yinzhao City.
It was a small settlement built around a network of merchant roads, but its reputation extended far beyond its walls.
Wandering cultivators came here to exchange resources.
Minor clans used its markets to purchase information.
Smugglers sold forbidden Gu beneath the streets.
And desperate people came to sell secrets they barely understood.
Yinzhao was dirty, crowded, and dangerous.
Han Feng found it useful immediately.
He entered through the eastern gate under a false identity.
The Soul Chameleon Gu altered the finer details of his appearance. His purple eyes became brown, his white hair darkened beneath a grayish tint, and his spiritual signature lost the distinct irregularities that might have connected him to previous encounters.
The disguise was not perfect.
A powerful cultivator using specialized detection methods could still discover inconsistencies.
But ordinary observers would see nothing unusual.
Han Feng joined the crowd.
He listened.
Two merchants argued about the price of medicinal roots.
A pair of wandering cultivators discussed a formation that had failed in the northern mountains.
Near a street stall, three men were whispering about strange lights in the sky.
"Did you see it?"
"I saw something. Couldn't tell you what."
"My brother nearly died cultivating yesterday. The spiritual energy disappeared right in the middle of his circulation."
"That wasn't the worst of it. A Gu in our clan's treasury went berserk. It attacked its own keeper."
Han Feng continued walking.
The stories differed in their details, but the underlying pattern was the same.
Spiritual energy was becoming unpredictable.
Gu were reacting to unknown stimuli.
And people across the region were beginning to notice.
He entered a tavern near the western market.
The air smelled of cheap liquor, old meat, and damp wood.
Cultivators crowded the tables. Some gambled with spirit stones, while others exchanged rumors in low voices.
Han Feng selected a seat in the darkest corner.
He ordered tea.
Then he listened.
For nearly an hour, he heard nothing worth pursuing.
Until a group of travelers entered.
One of them carried a bandage around his head. His clothes were torn, and his eyes moved constantly toward the door.
He sat down with two companions.
The conversation began quietly.
"Tell me again what you saw."
The injured man swallowed.
"A ruin."
"Everyone has seen a ruin."
"Not like this one."
He leaned closer.
"It appeared north of the Lake of Ashes. There was nothing there before. No mountain, no formation, no entrance. Then the sky turned red, and the ground split open."
One companion scoffed.
"An illusion."
"I thought so too."
The injured man lowered his voice.
"Until we entered."
The table fell silent.
"What was inside?"
"Buildings. Streets. A tower made from some kind of pale metal. The inscriptions weren't from any language I've ever seen."
"Ancient?"
"I don't think so."
The injured man looked around before continuing.
"The structures were too strange. The doors opened without formations. Some of the walls glowed when we approached. And we found footprints that didn't belong to any spiritual beast."
Han Feng set down his teacup.
"What kind of footprints?" one companion asked.
The injured man shook his head.
"I don't know. They were shaped like ours, but the ground around them was burned."
A chill passed through Han Feng.
The man continued.
"There were people inside."
"People?"
"At least, I think they were people."
He rubbed his forehead.
"They wore strange clothes. Some carried objects that looked like weapons, but I couldn't sense any Gu aura from them."
Han Feng's expression remained neutral.
The traveler stared at the table.
"Then the sky inside the ruin broke open."
His voice began to shake.
"I saw another city beyond it. Floating mountains. A red sun. And something looking back at us."
His companions said nothing.
"What happened to the others?" one finally asked.
The injured man closed his eyes.
"I ran."
He opened them again.
"I was the only one who made it out."
Silence settled over the table.
Han Feng drank his tea.
A ruin appearing out of nowhere.
Unfamiliar architecture.
Objects that did not emit recognizable Gu fluctuations.
A view into another landscape.
The details resembled the disturbances he had witnessed.
But resemblance was not proof.
The structure might have been an ancient formation.
The travelers might have misunderstood what they saw.
Or the ruin might be something genuinely foreign.
Han Feng needed more information.
He stood and approached their table.
"Excuse me."
The three men immediately became cautious.
Han Feng kept his tone casual.
"I couldn't help overhearing. How far north of the Lake of Ashes?"
The injured man studied him.
"Why do you want to know?"
"I'm a wandering cultivator. I investigate unusual ruins."
"Then find another ruin."
The man lowered his voice.
"Whatever is there, it isn't worth dying for."
Han Feng nodded.
"That may be true. But I prefer to decide that for myself."
The injured man hesitated.
Then he gave Han Feng a rough description of the route.
Han Feng memorized it.
Before leaving, he asked one final question.
"Did you see anyone else approaching the ruin?"
The injured man's face changed.
"Yes."
"Who?"
"People wearing black robes. Bone masks. They arrived shortly after we escaped."
Han Feng's expression did not change.
But inside, his thoughts sharpened.
The Celestial Corpse Sect.
They were investigating the same phenomenon.
And if the rumors were accurate, they might already know more than he did.
Han Feng returned to his seat and finished his tea.
He now had a destination.
The northern ruin.
The Lake of Ashes.
And a reason to reach it before the Celestial Corpse Sect.
Not because he wanted another treasure.
Because if the ruin really contained something from beyond the boundary, it might reveal what the purple-black crystal was—and why something on the other side had called it the Seed of the Void.
The Bone-Masked Hunters
Han Feng left the tavern shortly before dusk.
He had barely entered the western street when he sensed an unfamiliar fluctuation behind him.
Someone was following him.
He did not turn immediately.
Instead, he continued walking, passed a crowded market stall, and entered a narrow alley between two abandoned buildings.
The footsteps followed.
Han Feng stopped.
"You're persistent."
A man stood at the other end of the alley.
He wore a black robe and a pale bone mask. A dark emblem had been embroidered across his chest.
The symbol of the Celestial Corpse Sect.
Han Feng's gaze moved across the surrounding rooftops.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then he sensed another presence behind him.
Five more figures emerged from the shadows.
Six cultivators in total.
A deliberate encirclement.
Han Feng sighed.
"I was hoping to leave this region without another conversation."
The masked leader stepped forward.
"Han Feng."
The use of his real name confirmed what he had suspected.
The Soul Chameleon Gu had concealed his appearance, but the sect had found another way to identify him.
Perhaps through a surviving spiritual trace.
Perhaps through information gathered from the previous encounter.
Or perhaps the crystal had left a resonance he had not yet detected.
He could not afford to assume the disguise had failed for only one reason.
The leader continued.
"You killed a young master of our sect. You interfered with our investigations. And now you have been seen near another spatial disturbance."
Han Feng raised an eyebrow.
"You make it sound as though I'm responsible for the weather."
"Come with us."
"And if I refuse?"
The leader's voice became colder.
"Then we will take you by force."
Han Feng looked at the six cultivators.
He was not afraid of fighting.
He was afraid of fighting without understanding the consequences.
His injuries from the cave had mostly healed, but his spiritual sense was still recovering. His Abyssal Shield had been damaged, and the crystal remained an unknown variable.
A prolonged battle would be dangerous.
He needed to end the confrontation quickly—or escape.
The six cultivators released their refined corpses.
Pale figures emerged from their storage devices.
Their bodies were covered in black markings, and their fingers ended in hardened claws. Funeral runes glowed across their chests.
The corpses moved toward Han Feng.
He immediately recognized the formation.
The two outermost corpses were not intended to attack first.
They were positioning themselves to block his escape.
The others would force him toward the center.
A capture formation.
Han Feng's eyes narrowed.
"They want me alive."
That was useful information.
It also meant they might have prepared methods to suppress his Gu.
He could not afford to reveal everything he possessed.
The first corpse lunged.
Han Feng stepped aside and struck its shoulder with a controlled burst of Gu essence.
The impact knocked it off balance.
He did not waste energy trying to destroy it.
Instead, he used the opening to move between two enemies.
A shadow chain shot from his sleeve.
It wrapped around one corpse's legs and pulled it sideways.
The creature crashed into its companion.
Two more advanced.
Han Feng activated the Blue Star Flame Gu.
Blue fire surged around his hand.
He sent a narrow arc of flame across the ground.
The fire struck the corpses' black markings.
Several runes flared.
The creatures recoiled.
Han Feng's eyes sharpened.
The flames were not burning the corpses themselves.
They were interfering with the formations controlling them.
That was promising.
But it was not enough.
The fire consumed Gu essence rapidly, and the corpses were already adapting.
One broke through the flames and struck Han Feng's Abyssal Shield.
The shield cracked.
Han Feng retreated, allowing the attack to slide past his shoulder.
The second corpse followed.
He ducked and struck its knee.
A sharp crack echoed through the alley.
The creature stumbled.
Han Feng pushed forward, using its body to obstruct the others.
For a moment, he had an opening.
Then the masked leader moved.
His hand formed a seal.
A red Gu emerged from his mouth.
It resembled a small, pulsating heart.
Han Feng immediately felt the danger.
The Gu released a thin wave of blood-red light.
It did not attack his body.
It passed through the air around him, seeking his spiritual signature.
A tracking seal.
Han Feng tried to suppress his aura.
Too late.
The red light touched the outer layer of his spiritual sense.
A faint mark began forming.
The leader's voice turned triumphant.
"Now you can run as far as you like."
Han Feng's expression darkened.
"So that's your real objective."
The six cultivators had not been sent merely to capture him.
They had brought a method of marking him.
Even if he escaped, the sect would be able to pursue him across the region.
Han Feng glanced toward the crystal in his storage ring.
He did not know what its energy could do.
Using it might destroy the tracking mark.
It might also expose him to the presence that had spoken through the crack in the sky.
Neither option was safe.
But leaving the seal intact would make every future movement more dangerous.
The leader raised his hand.
"Restrain him."
The corpses advanced.
Han Feng made his decision.
He did not release the crystal's full energy.
Instead, he drew upon the faint resonance that clung to its surface.
A thin purple-black ripple spread from his storage ring.
The blood-red seal trembled.
For a brief instant, the tracking Gu lost its connection to Han Feng's spiritual signature.
The leader's expression changed.
"What—?"
Han Feng used the opening.
He activated Shadow Concealment and slipped behind the nearest corpse.
His Phantom Blade flashed.
The first strike severed the control line connecting the corpse to its master's Gu.
The creature collapsed.
Han Feng turned and struck the second control line before the cultivator could react.
Another corpse fell.
The remaining enemies hesitated.
That hesitation cost them.
Han Feng threw a shadow chain around the leader's wrist and pulled him forward.
The masked man stumbled.
Han Feng struck him in the chest with a concentrated burst of Gu essence.
The leader crashed against the wall.
His bone mask cracked.
Han Feng placed the Phantom Blade against his throat.
"Call them off."
The leader coughed.
"You don't understand what you're carrying."
Han Feng's eyes narrowed.
"Then explain it."
The man smiled through the blood at the corner of his mouth.
"You think the crystal is a treasure?"
He looked toward Han Feng's storage ring.
"It's a signal."
Han Feng's expression changed.
Before he could ask another question, the leader bit down on something hidden inside his mouth.
A sharp spiritual fluctuation erupted.
Han Feng immediately retreated.
The leader's body convulsed.
Black lines spread beneath his skin.
A self-destructive seal.
Han Feng threw himself behind a fallen stone just as the man exploded in a burst of dark energy.
The shock wave swept through the alley.
When the dust cleared, the leader was dead.
The remaining cultivators panicked.
Two tried to retrieve their fallen corpses.
The others fled through the alley's exits.
Han Feng could have pursued them.
He chose not to.
His spiritual sense was strained, his shield was damaged, and the crystal's resonance had already drawn too much attention.
He had no reason to turn a dangerous encounter into a prolonged battle.
He examined the remains of the tracking Gu.
The seal had not been completely destroyed.
Instead, its connection had been disrupted and redirected toward the fading purple-black resonance.
It might have bought him hours.
Perhaps less.
The method was temporary.
And using the crystal again could make the situation worse.
Han Feng closed his storage ring.
"The crystal is a signal..."
He looked toward the darkening sky.
"Then I need to know who—or what—is listening."
He left the alley before the city's guards arrived.
Behind him, the Celestial Corpse Sect's remaining hunters disappeared into the streets.
They would report what had happened.
The sect would know that Han Feng had found a way to interfere with their tracking seal.
And sooner or later, they would try again.
The Red Star and the Purple Star
Night had fallen by the time Han Feng reached the outer road.
He stopped on a ridge overlooking Yinzhao City.
The streets below were still crowded, but the surrounding mountains were quiet.
He checked his spiritual sense one final time.
The tracking mark was no longer clearly connected to him.
That did not mean he was safe.
He had merely made himself harder to follow.
Han Feng looked toward the sky.
The red star had grown brighter.
Beside it, the purple star shone with an unnatural depth.
He could not tell whether they were actual celestial bodies, reflections of something beyond the world, or temporary manifestations of the same spatial disturbances he had encountered in the cave.
The Blue Star Flame Gu flickered within his spiritual sea.
The purple-black crystal pulsed once inside his storage ring.
Then both fell silent.
Han Feng's expression became cold.
The ancient ruin.
The Seed of the Void.
The Celestial Corpse Sect's tracking seal.
The strange figure beyond the crack.
Each was another piece of a puzzle that remained far too large for him to understand.
He tightened his cloak.
"Lake of Ashes."
His destination was clear.
He would travel north, but he would not rush blindly into the newly appeared ruin.
First, he would gather information.
He would find out who else was heading there.
He would learn whether the Celestial Corpse Sect had already established a foothold.
And he would investigate the crystal without allowing it to consume his judgment.
The sky had changed.
The rules might be changing with it.
But Han Feng had no intention of surrendering his own judgment to the unknown.
He turned away from the city.
The Art of the Celestial Veil swallowed his presence as he disappeared into the night.
Above the mountains, the red star pulsed.
The purple star answered.
And somewhere beyond the boundary, a distant voice spoke again.
"The seed has been found."
A pause followed.
"Now we must discover who carries it."