The light of the Emerald Network was like the finest root hairs, the gentleness of the pure heart vine was like the lightest breath, and the resonance of the oath of starlight was like the toughest silk thread.
The three intertwined, slowly probing into that void that swallowed everything.
Time seemed to be stretched. Inside the bridge, it was so quiet that only the low hum of the engines and the subtle tremors of the resonance network could be heard.
Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes...
Just as fine beads of sweat broke out on Lu Duo's forehead and the light of Yu Nian's vine grew slightly dim.
From the other end of the resonance network came a trembling, almost imperceptible touch.
Like a grain of dust falling onto ice that had been silent for ten thousand years.
"Found it..." Lu Duo opened her eyes, the light of the Emerald Network fluctuating violently. "It's tiny... as small as a thought... but it truly exists within this non-existence."
Bai Cheng's silver eyes suddenly lit up: "Establish a stable link and fish it out."
The resonance network began to slowly contract, like a fishing net pulling up a pearl from the deepest sea.
The hollow seemed to sense something and began to generate repulsive waves; invisible resistance surged from the void, trying to swallow that exception once more.
"It's resisting..." Yu Nian gritted her teeth and held on. "It's not resisting us, it's resisting being taken away... It's afraid that after leaving this void, it will lose even its identity as an 'exception'."
Bai Cheng boosted the resonance of the oath of starlight to its limit, her voice transmitting directly to that trembling "exception" through the network:
"You are not an error, nor are you an exception.
"You simply exist.
"And existence needs no definition, needs no permission.
"In the Starfire Archives, there are countless existences just like you.
"They were once forgotten, denied, and silenced, but now, in their resonance with each other, they have found their own names."
"Come, grasp this light. This is not a rescue, it is simply... an invitation."
At the other end of the resonance network, that grain of dust trembled slightly, and then—
It extended an almost invisible tentacle, gently touching the light of the oath of starlight.
The next second, the resonance contraction was complete.
Inside the bridge, an extremely faint point of light emerged, hovering before the three of them.
It had no fixed form, just a blurry, constantly shifting mass of possibility, emitting a faint warmth that seemed as if it could dissipate at any moment.
"Welcome," Bai Cheng said °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° softly, and the book of commonality automatically flipped to a new page, recording this existence born from absolute void.
The point of light flickered slightly, as if in response.
And at that moment, the ship's sensors suddenly blared an alarm:
"High-energy reaction detected approaching! Source—deep within the hollow!"
On the main screen, that previously dead void region was now twisting violently, with countless pale streams of light surging out like a disturbed swarm of bees, sweeping toward dawn!
"It's the hollow's self-purification mechanism," Lu Duo said urgently. "It won't allow any exception to escape!"
Bai Cheng's gaze sharpened: "Activate defense arrays, prepare to disengage! Yu Nian, protect the little one!"
The light of the pure heart vine gently enveloped the point of light, the Emerald Network expanded a barrier around the ship's hull, and dawn's main engines ran at full power, beginning to retreat.
But the speed of those pale light streams was astonishing; in the blink of an eye, they had reached the ship's stern and touched the edge of the Emerald Network—
Zzt zzt zzt!
The light of the Emerald Network flickered violently. Lu Duo let out a muffled groan, her face turning pale. Those light streams carried the attribute of "existence negation," eroding her resonance structure.
"We can't take it head-on," Bai Cheng judged calmly. "Leng Ningxue, long-range mirror refraction support!"
Almost simultaneously, in front of Leng Ningxue far away in the Starfire Archives, an ice-blue mirror lit up. She tapped her finger, and the mirror reflected the coordinates of dawn. The next second—
Dozens of mirror refraction beams descended across the star systems, weaving into an ice-blue light curtain behind dawn, colliding with the pale light streams!
After a brief stalemate, cracks appeared in the mirror light curtain, but it bought crucial time for dawn to escape.
"Engine overload in three, two, one—jump!"
The hull of dawn shuddered and turned into a streak of light, leaping into the preset short-range jump corridor.
After losing their target, the pale light streams circled in place for a moment before slowly retracting into the hollow, as if nothing had happened.
Only that star region remained so void it made one's heart palpitate.
Jump exit, safe zone.
dawn slowly stabilized its hull, and the alarms inside the bridge were deactivated. Lu Duo returned to normal after a brief moment of breath adjustment, and Yu Nian carefully placed the point of light into a specialized resonance container.
"We've been targeted." Bai Cheng looked at the marker for the "hollow" region on the main screen, her silver eyes deep. "That wasn't a natural mechanism, but a conscious cleanup program. In the Silent Quadrant, there are still automated sentries left by the Old Observers."
Yu Nian asked softly: "Will they follow us?"
"Not for now," Bai Cheng shook her head. "Their range of activity seems limited to specific areas. But this also shows that the silence of the Silent Quadrant isn't entirely passive. Some places are still carrying out orders."
She pulled up the star chart and marked the hollow region with a crimson warning symbol.
"Record: Discovered an Active Silence Zone with a self-purification mechanism. Recommend subsequent exploration teams avoid it or prepare for a forced breakthrough."
The book of commonality automatically updated the record, and in the corner of that page, the point of light just rescued from the void flickered slightly, as if adapting to this new world that could be perceived.
Bai Cheng looked out the porthole at the distant starry sky. There, the dawn, where Zi Yuan and Blue Bird were, was clashing with rule disturbances in another direction;
The Archives guarded by Chi Yan and the others were growing steadily in the rear; Leng Ningxue's Thousand Mirror Eye was watching every corner of the Star Abyss.
The sparks have scattered, the river of light shines eternal.
And a new chapter is being quietly written in every resonance, every clash, and every rescue.
dawn's engines hummed as they stabilized, and the light in the bridge returned to a soft glow.
The point of light rescued from the hollow flowed slowly within the specialized container, like a heart that had just begun to beat, each flicker carrying a newborn's timidity and curiosity.
Yu Nian's pure heart vine gently wrapped around the container, resonating with it at the gentlest frequency.
"It's very tired," she said softly. "Maintaining existence itself in absolute void consumed too much of its power.
"But it's learning... learning how to be perceived."
Lu Duo's Emerald Network still had slight fluctuations. Although the erosion of the pale light streams had been blocked by the mirror refraction, that attribute of existence negation still left a cold resonance in her structure.
She adjusted her breathing for a moment and opened her eyes: "That hollow's self-purification mechanism.
"Its reaction speed was too fast. It didn't seem like a preset program; it felt more like some kind of... instinct."
