The Suixing emissaries were utterly terrified—this was too horrifying!
“We haven’t collected enough life-source yet. We can’t break through the Saint Gate, and we can’t force our way back to the Outer Domain. What should we do?”
“Should we tell Jörmungandr and Anidam?”
“Or should we head back to the Dark Domain?”
The entire star sector was divided among four major powers: Anidam, Jörmungandr, the native Divine Tree, and Lin Xiaohe.
Which one should they pledge allegiance to? Or should they split up and go their separate ways?
The Third Elder, the strongest among them, made a decisive call: “Once the natural frequencies of most of the pulse nodes change, we’ll lose our ability to navigate through the universe and will be stuck here waiting to die. So right now, whichever path is still clear—that’s where we go!”
The most familiar and unobstructed route was, of course, the one they came from.
“Back to the Dark Domain!”
They still had a sliver of conscience left, and they broadcast an open, unencrypted message to the entire universe:
[The doomsday crisis is accelerating!]
As for who would pick up this message or decipher it—they couldn’t care less.
——–
Lin Xiaohe didn’t return the crystal to Gaia. After making her promise to Gaia, she continued flying toward the Tigre Star.
During her flight, she encountered no interrogation whatsoever—because she didn’t see a single human spacecraft.
The entire First Star Ring was desolate, eerily quiet.
As she drew near the Tigre Star, Anidam’s three faces turned toward her in unison.
“Xiaohe, long time no see. Do you still remember our family?”
Li Qing’s expression was caught between a smile and a sob.
Her face was covered in tree-like tumors, stripped of the divinity she once had, and instead looked deeply unsettling.
Her husband wore a pained expression, his brow tightly furrowed, eyes shut firmly.
The child beside him had lost all facial features, his three-dimensional face reduced to a shifting, movable brand.
If the humans of the Federation saw this sight, they would never worship Anidam as a god.
Lin Xiaohe, seeing familiar faces again, felt a whirlwind of emotions: “What should I call you? Anidam? Chu Huaizhi? Or Li Qing?”
“Any of them works. They’re all me.” Anidam’s voice was a high-frequency wave, detectable only by specialized instruments—but Lin Xiaohe didn’t need any.
Lin Xiaohe gripped her spear tightly, on guard: “The humans in the First Star Ring—are they all dead?”
“No, they’ve merely entered the blissful realm of eternal life.”
Lin Xiaohe couldn’t hold back and snapped: “After playing the divine charlatan for so long, have you actually started believing your own lies? What do you want from humanity? Is it life-source?”
Anidam’s core pulsed rhythmically, as if breathing.
He said nothing more, instead sending Chu Huaizhi forward.
Chu Huaizhi piloted a spacecraft carrying Shaman Awakeners, Ocean Awakeners, Cultivation Awakeners, and others…
The Shaman Awakeners, upon seeing Lin Xiaohe, offered a friendly smile.
That’s the mischievous yet well-behaved Little Wood, all grown up now.
Chu Huaizhi’s gaze swept over the spear in Lin Xiaohe’s hand, his tone warm and gentle.
“We can cooperate. As you can see, I’ve already used up two of my subsidiary race slots—one for the prehistoric civilization and one for Nüwa. The last slot, I’m willing to reserve for your Stardust Humans.”
Chu Huaizhi tempted her: “The Saint Stele will grant a dimension-crossing vessel to the destined one of the Seventh Era. All you need to do is pay a small price, and you’ll have your ticket.”
“I’ve already connected with the Saint Stele and officially become the destined one. The entire star sector will cooperate with me to break out of this cage. Let’s join forces—kill Jörmungandr and the native Divine Tree. I only want the life-source of the Empire’s humans; everything else is yours.”
[Nüwa] didn’t want to be enemies with Lin Xiaohe, and also urged: “Lin Xiaohe, if we work together, our chances of survival will be greatest.”
Lin Xiaohe gazed deeply at Chu Huaizhi, puzzled: “You’re all so desperate to escape this place—so why did you come here in the first place?”
From the Divine Venerable’s descriptions, it was clear that these extraterrestrial civilizations had entered willingly, and at great cost.
Chu Huaizhi’s face instantly turned sour, and Anidam’s main body writhed in fury.
“We were tricked into coming here! Damn liars!”
He ranted in a strange tongue for a long while before finally calming down.
Lin Xiaohe silently memorized that unintelligible tirade, deciding to have the scientists on Kyushu Star study it later—maybe there was useful intel hidden in it.
“Your emotions are really unstable, which makes me seriously doubt this cooperation. Besides, you mentioned a dimension-crossing vessel—at least let me see it so I can tell if you’re telling the truth.”
After only a second’s hesitation, Chu Huaizhi opened his palm, revealing a meteorite-like spacecraft hovering above it, small as a model.
From afar or up close, it looked like nothing more than an unremarkable meteorite.
Lin Xiaohe raised an eyebrow skeptically: “For real? That’s the dimension-crossing vessel?”
Chu Huaizhi’s lips curled slightly, his expression open and frank: “Of course. I can show it to you.”
He tossed the vessel toward Lin Xiaohe.
Almost there!
Chu Huaizhi’s heart nearly leaped into his throat, and even his breathing unconsciously softened.
He knew that his relationship with Lin Xiaohe was terrible—he’d screwed her over time and again, conditioning her psychologically to expect a trap.
Chu Huaizhi was untrustworthy—there had to be a catch!
So Lin Xiaohe would definitely want to verify whether the dimension-crossing vessel was real.
Go on, look closely.
All he needed was a little time—the net he’d secretly woven would capture Lin Xiaohe alive, force her to hand over the [Source Body] and the [Indescribable Existence] , and then calmly execute her.
For a chess piece, stepping off the board meant only one thing: destruction!
[Nüwa] remained utterly silent.
She had assessed Lin Xiaohe’s threat level as extremely high, terrified that even the slightest shift in her demeanor would tip Lin Xiaohe off, ruining the trap she and Chu Huaizhi had laid.
Under the influence of consciousness, time itself seemed to slow down.
As the dimension-crossing vessel reached the midpoint between them, both sides moved at the same instant.
Chu Huaizhi rapidly closed the distance—so that Lin Xiaohe wouldn’t dare unleash the [Indescribable Existence] .
Because the void expanded at terrifying speed; if she used it, she risked getting swallowed up herself.
Lin Xiaohe charged forward as well, her spear swiftly morphing into a long whip—aimed straight at the dimension-crossing vessel.
She had never intended to cooperate at all. All that talk was just to snatch the vessel!
Though Kyushu Star already had an Ark, the Vientiane Nirvana Universe Ark was still just blueprints—not yet built.
The dimension-crossing vessel was their backup plan!
She had already observed it from the fourth dimension. That tiny meteorite-shaped craft was colossal in the 4th dimension—larger than the Holy Domain itself.
In fact, Lin Xiaohe couldn’t even make out its full form.
It was possible that its true body reached into the 5th dimension.
The entire scientific community of humanity had no way of understanding the operating principles of a dimension-crossing vessel, nor could they even imagine what it looked like.
But none of that mattered.
As long as she could get her hands on it and learn to use it—that was enough!
Lin Xiaohe’s gaze was resolute—she was determined to seize that dimension-crossing vessel!
