The pressure disappeared almost as quickly as it had come.
William remained beneath the night sky, his eyes fixed on the distant darkness.
He had expected another attempt.
A disturbance.
A new connection.
Something.
But nothing happened.
The silence returned.
Mira stood beside him.
"Was that it?"
William shook his head.
"No."
"What was it, then?"
"A response."
"To what?"
William looked at his hand.
"To me."
Mira was silent.
William had spent enough time studying connections to understand that the difference mattered.
The outsiders had previously searched for points of entry.
They had touched existing connections.
They had created artificial anchors.
But this time, something had happened differently.
William had directly rejected a connection.
And something on the other side had answered.
That meant the distance between them was no longer completely passive.
There was awareness now.
Adrian arrived shortly afterward.
"Any change?"
William turned toward him.
"Yes."
Adrian immediately became serious.
"What?"
"They know I'm interfering."
Leon frowned.
"How can you be certain?"
"Because I rejected one of their connections."
"And they responded?"
"Yes."
Elias looked toward the sky.
"Then what are they going to do?"
William's answer was calm.
"Change their method."
The next morning, William returned to the isolated region.
This time, he didn't enter.
He stood outside the invisible boundary and observed it.
Nothing appeared unusual.
But William knew better.
The artificial connections had multiplied.
He could see them now.
They ran through the region like a hidden web.
Some connected people.
Others connected buildings.
Others connected places where nobody lived.
And all of them eventually led toward the same point.
The seventh.
Mira stood behind him.
"How many?"
"Thousands."
"Can we cut them?"
"Not individually."
"Then what?"
William stared at the network.
"We need to find the first connection."
"The first?"
"The one that started all of this."
Mira looked at him.
"If we cut that one..."
"The rest may collapse."
"May?"
William nodded.
"They could have already become independent."
William extended his perception.
The artificial network became clearer.
He followed it backward.
One connection.
Then another.
Then another.
Each led to a previous connection.
The deeper he went, the older the traces became.
Until finally—
he reached the beginning.
There was no person.
No city.
No object.
Only a tiny point of darkness.
William stopped.
"This is it."
Mira stepped closer.
"What is it?"
"The first anchor."
William didn't touch it.
He studied it.
Something was wrong.
It wasn't connected to the outsiders directly.
It was connected to something inside the universe.
Something familiar.
William's expression changed.
"This isn't theirs."
Mira looked at him.
"Then whose is it?"
William followed the connection.
His eyes narrowed.
"One of the powers."
He immediately withdrew.
Adrian was waiting when William returned.
"You found the source?"
"Yes."
"One of the ancient powers."
Adrian frowned.
"Which one?"
"I don't know yet."
"Then how do we find out?"
William looked at him.
"We investigate."
For the first time in several days, William deliberately entered the information network again.
Not through the symbol.
Not through the organizations.
He searched for something more basic.
Unusual movements among the ancient powers.
Changes in territory.
Sudden withdrawals.
Hidden expeditions.
Abnormal energy fluctuations.
The information began accumulating.
One name appeared repeatedly.
A very old power.
One that had remained unusually quiet since the beginning of the disturbances.
William stared at the name.
"Interesting."
Mira looked over his shoulder.
"Who are they?"
"One of the oldest powers in this region."
"Do you think they're working with the outsiders?"
William shook his head.
"Not necessarily."
"Then why are they connected?"
"That's what we're going to find out."
William traveled there alone.
He didn't announce his arrival.
He didn't send a message.
He simply appeared outside their territory.
A massive formation surrounded the area.
Several powerful cultivators immediately sensed him.
One appeared before him.
"State your purpose."
William looked at him.
"I want to speak with your leader."
The cultivator frowned.
"You can't simply—"
William interrupted.
"I know."
The cultivator stared at him.
"Then why are you here?"
"Because I believe your faction has information I need."
The cultivator hesitated.
"About what?"
"The boundary."
The man's expression changed.
William noticed.
That was enough.
"You know something."
The man immediately became guarded.
"You should leave."
William didn't move.
"Why?"
"Because this matter doesn't concern you."
William smiled faintly.
"It concerns me now."
The atmosphere became tense.
Several cultivators appeared behind the first.
William didn't attack.
He didn't even prepare himself.
He simply waited.
Finally, an older man appeared.
The others immediately stepped aside.
William recognized his aura.
Ancient.
Heavy.
But controlled.
The old man looked at William.
"You shouldn't have come."
"Everyone keeps saying that."
The old man frowned.
"You don't understand what you're approaching."
"Then explain it."
"You won't believe me."
"Try."
The old man studied him.
After a long silence, he spoke.
"The connection you found wasn't ours."
William's expression didn't change.
"But it came from your territory."
"Yes."
"Then what is it?"
The old man looked toward the sky.
"An accident."
William narrowed his eyes.
"Explain."
"One of our ancestors attempted to study the boundary."
"When?"
"Long ago."
"How long?"
"Before your current era."
William remained silent.
The old man continued.
"They discovered that the boundary wasn't simply a wall."
"What did they discover?"
"It reacts."
William's eyes narrowed.
"To what?"
"Connections."
The same word again.
The old man continued.
"They attempted to establish a controlled connection."
"With the outside?"
"Yes."
William's expression hardened.
"And?"
"They failed."
"Completely?"
The old man shook his head.
"No."
William understood.
"That's the first anchor."
"Yes."
William stared at him.
"How many people know?"
"Very few."
"Why?"
"Because our ancestors sealed the records."
"And yet you knew."
"I am one of the few entrusted with them."
William looked toward the territory.
"Then why didn't you destroy the connection?"
"We tried."
"And?"
"It couldn't be destroyed."
William's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
"Because by the time we understood what it was doing, it was no longer completely ours."
Silence.
William thought about the artificial network.
The first anchor.
The outsiders.
Everything fit.
But something still bothered him.
"Why did you keep it?"
The old man's expression became complicated.
"We didn't."
William waited.
"It disappeared."
"Where?"
"We don't know."
William's eyes narrowed.
"Then how did it end up in the isolated region?"
The old man didn't answer.
William took a step forward.
"You knew."
"No."
"You suspected."
"Yes."
"Then why didn't you warn anyone?"
The old man's expression hardened.
"Because we were afraid."
William stared at him.
"Of the outsiders?"
"Not only them."
"Then what?"
The old man looked directly at him.
"Of what would happen if the other ancient powers discovered that we had once established contact with them."
William understood.
This wasn't simply about the outsiders.
It was about the balance between the ancient powers.
If one faction admitted that it had experimented with the boundary, others might assume they had gained some advantage.
War could begin.
The old man continued:
"We buried the knowledge because we believed silence would prevent another attempt."
William looked at him.
"It didn't."
"No."
William turned away.
"One more question."
The old man waited.
"Why did the connection react to me?"
The old man's expression changed.
"We don't know."
William looked back.
"Think carefully."
The old man remained silent.
Then he answered:
"Perhaps because you possess something our ancestors didn't."
"My ability?"
"Maybe."
William stared at him.
The old man continued:
"Or perhaps the boundary recognizes something about you."
William didn't like that answer.
But he didn't dismiss it.
"Then I'll find out."
The old man shook his head.
"That's exactly what you shouldn't do."
William smiled.
"That's exactly why I will."
William left the territory.
But he didn't return immediately.
He stopped in a nearby region and began examining the connections again.
This time, he wasn't looking for the outsiders.
He was looking for the first anchor.
The ancient man's words had changed his understanding.
If the original connection had been created by people inside the universe, then the outsiders weren't responsible for the entire network.
They had simply found an existing weakness.
That meant the problem was older than anyone realized.
And possibly—
far more complicated.
William followed the remaining traces.
They led through several ancient locations.
Each one had been abandoned.
Each contained faint remnants of the same experiment.
The farther William traveled, the clearer the pattern became.
Someone had tried to understand the boundary long ago.
Different civilizations.
Different powers.
Different eras.
But all had eventually reached the same conclusion.
The boundary responded to connections.
And all of them had stopped.
Except one.
William finally found a hidden ruin.
It was almost completely buried.
There were no guards.
No formations.
No visible signs of life.
But William sensed something beneath it.
A connection.
Very weak.
Very old.
He entered.
The ruin descended deep underground.
At the bottom, he found a circular chamber.
In the center stood a broken formation.
William stared at it.
The design was unfamiliar.
But the principle wasn't.
Connections.
The formation had been designed to create one.
William approached.
A faint line appeared.
Then another.
The broken formation began repairing itself.
William immediately stepped backward.
"No."
The formation stopped.
William looked at it.
It wasn't responding to his power.
It was responding to his presence.
He understood.
This was the same type of formation used by the ancient power.
And something had remained inside it.
A fragment.
William extended his perception carefully.
A message appeared.
Not words.
A memory.
A group of ancient cultivators stood around the formation.
They were discussing something William couldn't hear.
Then the formation activated.
A connection appeared.
Everyone stepped backward.
One of them spoke.
The connection answered.
Not with words.
With a presence.
The ancient cultivators became terrified.
The memory ended.
William opened his eyes.
His expression was serious.
"They knew."
He looked at the broken formation.
"They had already spoken to something."
A second memory appeared.
This time, only one person remained.
He stood before the formation.
His face was old.
His body was injured.
He looked exhausted.
He spoke to the connection.
William couldn't hear the words.
Then the connection touched him.
The man immediately severed it.
He collapsed.
Before the memory ended, William heard a single sentence.
"Never allow it to become complete."
The memory disappeared.
William remained motionless.
Now he understood.
The ancient powers weren't merely afraid of the outsiders because they were strong.
They were afraid because they had already experienced contact.
And they had learned something.
A complete connection was not simply a communication channel.
It was an entrance.
William left the ruin.
The sun was beginning to rise.
He looked toward the horizon.
The outsiders had not yet established a complete connection.
But they were getting closer.
And now William understood the real objective.
They didn't need to destroy the universe.
They didn't need to conquer its civilizations.
They needed only one thing.
A complete connection.
Once they had it—
the boundary would no longer matter.
William returned to the valley.
Mira was waiting.
"You found something."
"Yes."
"Bad?"
"Very."
She sighed.
"How bad?"
William looked at her.
"The ancient powers knew about them long before us."
Mira's expression changed.
"And?"
"They once established contact."
"With the outsiders?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
William looked toward the sky.
"They learned that a complete connection becomes an entrance."
Mira went silent.
Adrian arrived.
"What do we do?"
William looked at the map.
"We stop them before they complete one."
"How?"
William pointed toward the affected regions.
"We destroy the anchors."
Adrian frowned.
"You said destroying them could hurt the people connected to them."
"I know."
"Then?"
William looked at him.
"We'll have to find another way."
For the first time, William began designing a plan.
Not an attack.
Not a defensive formation.
A hunt.
He would locate every artificial anchor.
He would trace each one to its origin.
Then he would sever the connection without harming the people being used as anchors.
It would require precision.
It would require time.
And most importantly—
it would require him to understand connections on a level he had never attempted before.
Mira looked at him.
"Are you certain you can do it?"
William stared at the network.
"No."
She smiled faintly.
"At least you're honest."
William smiled back.
"But I'm going to try."
Far beyond the visible universe, another thread moved.
It found a connection.
It touched it.
The connection trembled.
This time, it didn't disappear.
It remained.
A second connection appeared beside it.
Then a third.
The outsiders were learning.
They were adapting.
And somewhere in the darkness beyond the boundary, something observed the universe with growing interest.
A meaning crossed the distance.
The connection is becoming stable.
Another answered.
Then continue.
The first presence paused.
The one inside is interfering.
A response came.
Then find him.
William suddenly stopped.
His head turned toward the sky.
He felt something.
Not a connection.
Not an attack.
A search.
Something was looking for him.
William slowly smiled.
"So you finally decided to look for me."
The search passed over the universe.
It moved through countless connections.
Cities.
Worlds.
People.
Powers.
Then—
it reached the valley.
William closed his eyes.
The search touched the edge of his perception.
For a moment, he could sense the presence beyond it.
He didn't attack.
He didn't sever it.
Instead, he allowed it to see one thing.
Him.
Then William opened his eyes.
"Found me."
The search disappeared.
Mira stared at him.
"What did you do?"
William's smile faded.
"I gave them what they wanted."
Adrian's expression changed.
"Why?"
William looked toward the distant darkness.
"Because now they have a reason to come to me instead of searching through everyone else."
Silence.
William clenched his fist.
"And when they come..."
His eyes hardened.
"...I'll be waiting."