The power of that single lash instantly stunned everyone.
[Scanning… Detecting… Confirmed: the opponent is not a Domain Sovereign.]
[Preliminary analysis: The half-divinity within Lin Xiaohe possesses a unique nature, causing her combat power to be inconsistent with her psionic level.]
Lin Xiaohe stared expressionlessly at the polyhedral crystal spaceship.
This spaceship was peculiar. Even though she had damaged it, the breach was as smooth as a mirror—it was impossible to see the ship’s internal structure.
Was it originally like this, or did it have an extremely powerful repair capability?
Lin Xiaohe leaned toward the latter.
After swinging one lash, she did not press the advantage and swing a second.
Because she couldn’t muster a second lash.
After possessing the half-divinity, Lin Xiaohe could not only effortlessly crush the system inside her body into fragments, but also grasp a tiny bit of the Origin of Life and the [Unspeakable Existence].
Before this, despite possessing these two devastating weapons, she couldn’t control them. The Origin of Life had always been in the Sanctuary, as if it and her true self were two separate people.
As for the [Unspeakable Existence], it was equivalent to a nuclear weapon—but Lin Xiaohe had no button to launch it.
Just now, she had layered all the controllable power of the Origin of Life and a trace of the [Unspeakable Existence] onto the insect whip, which was what produced such astonishing results.
The power exceeded her imagination and was enough to strike fear into the Aura people.
Lin Xiaohe sensed a gaze from a higher dimension. After scanning her inside and out, she saw two-thirds of the polyhedral spaceship split into countless tiny cubes, spinning madly in a certain formation, twisting the surrounding star domain along with them.
The crystal Aura people and the arc-shaped flying vessels formed beams of light, returning into the tiny cubes.
Lin Xiaohe gripped the long whip tightly in her hand, standing like a towering mountain before the Ark, her aura pressing and intimidating.
Under her wary gaze, the fragment-like tiny cubes flowed like a river of stars, drawing an strange shape in the cosmos.
Seeing this shape, Lin Xiaohe immediately associated it with runes. She committed the shape to memory, planning to figure out its meaning when she had the chance.
The tiny cubes glowed on their own, and combined with the illumination from the Fuyao Star, the brilliant radiance was like a river of stars wandering through the night sky.
Their light grew brighter and brighter, until at its peak, both the naked eye and detectors failed.
Even Lin Xiaohe experienced 0.01 seconds of blindness. When her vision recovered, the polyhedral spaceship and the crystal Aura people had all vanished.
Lin Xiaohe did not let down her guard. She used her consciousness to carefully search the Fourth Dimension. Chang Qing had long since left, and there was no trace of the Aura people nearby.
The chess pieces in the Sanctuary had been halved. Some Stardust Humans had descended, while others had died in battle.
Lin Xiaohe’s heart ached as if it were being twisted by a knife.
The Stardust Humans were all her loyal followers, each capable of fighting a hundred! Losing so many at once was undoubtedly a massive blow to Lin Xiaohe’s overall strength.
Enduring her grief, she returned to the Third Dimension.
The insectoid shell of the Myriad Phenomena Ark was pitted and dented, repairing at an extremely slow rate. There was no need to guess—Xiao Hei had already overdrafted the insect swarm’s energy.
As for the connection points, bright red blood oozed out, crystallizing into crimson ice crystals in space.
The surface of the Taiyin Star had been bombed into a pockmarked face, covered in craters everywhere.
With a flash, Lin Xiaohe entered the interior of the Ark.
Inside the Ark, blood flowed like rivers, and corpses lay everywhere.
Lin Xiaohe picked up the earphones at her feet. They were looping Hadi’s declaration:
[When I was at my most lost, I once asked the Sovereign: Why must humans be so humble?]
Lin Xiaohe closed her eyes, blocking the tide of emotions surging within her.
The Ark’s inner walls had many large holes, revealing the innermost vessel-like pipes. Around the pipes were the corpses of insectoids responsible for maintenance.
“Party Leader.”
Wesley and the others stumbled in after her, blood flowing on the ground and leaving them nowhere to step.
Wesley’s eyes were bloodshot, his fingers curling and uncurling spasmodically. Guilt and self-blame nearly crushed him: “I’m sorry. We failed to protect Jiuzhou Star.”
Lin Xiaohe wanted to say it wasn’t their fault, but when she saw the ordinary people plugging the breaches with their own bodies, she couldn’t say anything at all.
With great power comes great responsibility.
This saying wasn’t moral coercion—it was fact. Stardust Humans enjoyed better treatment and even status than ordinary humans.
Both sides tacitly agreed: ordinary humans would provide support to Stardust Humans to the best of their ability, and Stardust Humans would provide protection.
“As the leader, I bear an inescapable responsibility.” Lin Xiaohe clenched the earphones tightly in her palm and said rationally, “We can reflect on ourselves later. Right now, saving people is what matters most. Wesley, Melina, you’re in charge of rescue inside the Ark. Leave some people outside the Ark on guard duty.”
“Yes!”
Lin Xiaohe looked at Jiuzhou Star, now like a dead star, her heart burning with anxiety: “Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, Mom, come with me to Jiuzhou Star. Big Brother, Second Sister, you two stay on the Ark.”
Her eldest brother Lin Chiyang wanted to object, but Lin Jingqiu held him back: “Be good. Let’s follow Little Sister’s arrangements. Don’t cause trouble.”
Grandpa and Grandma were powerful fighters and could help handle unexpected situations.
Dad had an incredibly strong sense for rocks and underground areas, so he could help search for survivors beneath the ground.
Mom needed no explanation—the ocean was her home.
She and her big brother would stay on the Ark to treat the wounded. This was the best arrangement.
After assigning the tasks, Lin Xiaohe went to the core area to check on Xiao Hei.
Xiao Hei stayed within the small giant tomb. The giant tomb was connected to countless pipes that spread throughout the entire Ark, constantly drawing energy from the giant tomb.
Lin Xiaohe’s pupils dilated. She touched the half-dead Xiao Hei, opened her mouth, but thousands of words condensed into just one sentence: “Xiao Hei, thank you for your hard work.”
According to the Ark’s design blueprint, Xiao Hei shouldn’t be connected to so many pipes. It was probably because the situation had been too critical at the time that Xiao Hei voluntarily took on responsibilities that weren’t originally its own.
Xiao Hei was too weak to speak. Its two long antennae twitched slightly, which counted as a response to Lin Xiaohe.
Lin Xiaohe hesitated for a moment, then placed the small crystal particle she had obtained from Gaia into the giant tomb: “The crystal’s energy is very pure. Absorb it slowly.”
It wasn’t that she was reluctant to part with the crystal—she was worried that if Xiao Hei absorbed it too quickly, it would overload.
The small giant tomb eagerly extended three fleshy tubes, sticking them onto the crystal. In just one minute, Xiao Hei’s condition visibly improved.
Lin Xiaohe let out a long sigh of relief, gave a few more instructions, and then left the Ark.
Actually, Lin Xiaohe shouldn’t have given the crystal to Xiao Hei. She had a premonition that the crystal not only contained abundant energy, but perhaps also the core of the Gaia civilization—possibly similar to the Rock Tribe’s [Source Body].
But she did it anyway.
Xiao Hei’s condition was very poor. It had to absorb energy to survive.
The Black Domain, the Sixth Star Ring, the Fifth Star Ring—where was there enough energy?
Given the current state of Jiuzhou Star and the Ark, Lin Xiaohe couldn’t possibly abandon them and take Xiao Hei alone to other Star Rings or the Empire.
Everything involves trade-offs.
Lin Xiaohe couldn’t ignore Xiao Hei, nor could she leave everyone—defenseless as they were—behind in the Black Domain.
“Sigh, my values are still too upright.”
