Chapter 335: Artifact Within Sight, the Journey Awaits

The Gate of the Abyss, as its name suggests, is like a huge mouth leading to endless darkness, spanning across the starry sky.

It is not a solid door, but a massive, rotating energy vortex, its deep violet interlaced with raging crimson lightning, as if to devour any being that dares approach.

The spacecraft shuddered violently, pulled by an invisible colossal force, sliding toward the terrifying vortex.

"Damn it!" Xingji Xiake slammed the control panel, roaring, "The suction is too strong! We're being pulled in!"

"Ma Ke! Main engine, full power output! All auxiliary engines, max as well!" Zhang Cheng barked, simultaneously pulling Guangming Shizhe behind him, "Hold on to me!"

Guangming Shizhe clutched Zhang Cheng's arm tightly, face pale, yet forced a steady nod.

The ship's engines roared deafeningly, spitting dazzling blue exhaust, yet still could not fully resist the dreadful suction.

"Can't! The hull structure is deforming!" A li shouted in terror, beads of sweat sliding down his forehead.

"Hold on!" Xingji Xiake gritted his teeth, both hands gripping the control stick, veins bulging like coiling dragons on his arms.

Ma Ke's expression was equally grim, fully cooperating with Xingji Xiake's maneuvers.

The ship moaned under the strain, the sound of metal twisting making teeth ache.

The crew clutched nearby fixtures, their faces turning unusually grim.

At that moment, Xingling xue zhe shouted, "Port side! Thirty-degree angle! The suction is relatively weaker there!"

Xingji Xiake and Ma Ke exchanged a glance, without hesitation, immediately adjusting the ship's heading.

The spacecraft traced a daring arc through space, barely avoiding the vortex's most violent core.

The engine's roar peaked, and under everyone's hope, the ship gradually broke free of the dreadful suction.

The moment they left the vortex, everyone collapsed, gasping heavily.

"We…we survived…" Ka Er's voice trembled, filled with post‑disaster relief.

Zhang Cheng rose slowly, his gaze still fixed on the slowly rotating Gate of the Abyss, his face solemn.

"It's not over yet…" he whispered, "This is only the beginning…" Xingyun Zhizhe walked toward the Xingling xue zhe, a mysterious light flashing in his eyes.

The Gate of the Abyss's swirling energy turbulence gradually subsided, leaving an eerie calm.

The Xingling xue zhe closed his eyes, hands tracing in the air, muttering incomprehensible incantations.

A faint blue light emanated from him, intertwining with the purple radiance emitted by Xingyun Zhizhe.

Suddenly, the Xingling xue zhe snapped his eyes open, pointing at a void on the right side of the Gate of the Abyss, exclaiming, "There! There's a hidden passage!"

"Passage?" Zhang Cheng hurried forward, looking along the direction the Xingling xue zhe indicated, but saw nothing.

"There's nothing there?"

Xingyun Zhizhe stroked his beard, a spark of insight flashing in his wise eyes.

"No, it's right there. Just concealed by a special energy field." With that, he pulled a crystal emitting strange light from his coat and tossed it toward the void.

The crystal traced a perfect arc in the air, then with a "bang" it shattered, turning into countless light specks that scattered into the void.

As the specks dispersed, the previously empty void began to warp, a silver‑glowing passage slowly materializing, like a staircase to heaven.

"The artifact is inside!" the Xingling xue zhe shouted excitedly.

The crew's spirits surged, unable to suppress their excitement.

As they prepared to enter, a swarm of massive mechanical puppets surged from the passage entrance.

The puppets were entirely black metal, glinting with a cold sheen, each wielding massive energy weapons, emitting unsettling energy ripples.

"Bad! They're guardians of the artifact!" Xingji Xiake's face darkened, drawing his twin blades, shouting, "Brothers, forward!"

Xingji Xiake and Ma Ke led the charge, rushing toward the puppet army.

The two moved like lightning, blade flashes weaving through the puppets with ease.

However, the puppets' defenses were unusually strong; Xingji Xiake and Ma Ke's attacks only left shallow scratches.

Dense energy beams shot from the puppets' weapons, forcing Xingji Xiake and Ma Ke to retreat step by step.

"These puppets' defenses are too strong!" Ma Ke swung his sword to deflect an energy beam, shouting.

Xingji Xiake wiped sweat from his face, saying gravely, "We can't keep going like this; we must find their weakness!"

Suddenly, Li li, the spirit‑energy practitioner, pointed at a puppet's chest, exclaiming, "Look! There…"

Li li's slender finger indicated a puppet's chest, where beneath the heavy metal armor a faint azure glow seeped.

"There! That's their energy core!" she asserted.

Alien scientist Ka Er adjusted his glasses, a flash across the lenses, "Exactly! If we destroy their energy cores, we can annihilate these puppets!"

Li li no longer hesitated, rapidly forming seals over her chest, muttering incantations.

Streams of pale‑purple spirit energy radiated from her, like an invisible massive net enveloping the mechanical puppets.

The puppets' movements noticeably slowed, their azure glow flickering.

"Now!" Ka Er shouted, a strangely shaped energy gun suddenly appearing in his hand.

He aimed at the nearest puppet's chest and pulled the trigger.

"Bang!" A dazzling white flash struck the puppet's energy core.

The puppet emitted a sharp screech, its blinking blue light abruptly extinguished, its massive body crashing to the ground.

With a breakthrough, the crew's morale surged.

Li li continuously emitted spirit‑energy interference, while Ka Er precisely shot at the puppets' energy cores; one after another the puppets fell, and the passage gradually opened.

Xingji Xiake and Ma Ke seized the chance, swinging their weapons to utterly destroy the disrupted puppets.

At the passage's end, a sphere radiating golden light floated in the air, emitting a heart‑pounding energy ripple.

Artifact!

The crew surged forward excitedly, but just as they were about to touch the artifact, a massive energy barrier erupted before them, like an insurmountable chasm separating them from the artifact.

The barrier blazed with white light, its powerful energy waves leaving everyone breathless.

Xingji Xiake and Ma Ke tried to strike the barrier with their weapons, but it was like a mud ox entering the sea—no effect at all.

Li li's psychic attack could not shake the barrier in the slightest.

Karl observed the barrier carefully, his brow tightly furrowed. "This is an extremely advanced energy barrier. With our current technology, there's simply no way to break through it..."

Despair began to spread through everyone's hearts.

Just then, the mechanic A li's anxious voice came through the ship's communication system: "Zhang Cheng! I... I think I've found something..."

A li's rapid voice came through the communicator, broken and intermittent, yet carrying a trace of barely suppressible excitement: "I... I found it! In the ship's... storage room! A... ancient device... it seems... it can resonate with this barrier!"

The spark of hope reignited in everyone's hearts.

Zhang Cheng immediately ordered: "A li, activate the device at once! We'll cover you!" Xingji Xiake, Mark, and the others immediately stepped forward, forming a defensive line to fend off any danger that might appear around them.

Aboard the ship, A li was drenched in sweat, carefully operating the ancient device.

The surface of the device was inscribed with strange runes, emitting a faint golden glow.

As A li operated it, the device's glow grew ever brighter, emitting a peculiar humming sound that gradually synchronized with the energy barrier's fluctuation frequency.

"Now!" Karl shouted.

The humming reached its peak, and the device fired a golden beam that struck the energy barrier dead center.

The barrier trembled violently, letting out a piercing screech, and cracked open a fissure like shattering glass.

"Charge!" At Zhang Cheng's command, everyone rushed toward the fissure without hesitation.

Zhang Cheng took the lead, being the first to charge before the divine artifact.

He reached out and grabbed the golden-glowing divine artifact.

The instant the divine artifact was in his grasp, a powerful surge of energy flooded into his body, flowing through every part of him.

He felt more powerful than ever before, as if he possessed the power to control everything.

The others also came to the divine artifact's side, bathing in its radiance.

They felt the same power, and cheers resounded throughout the entire space.

"We... we did it!" Guangming Shizhe excitedly grabbed Zhang Cheng's hand, tears shimmering in his eyes.

However, just as everyone was cheering and rejoicing, the divine artifact suddenly let out a sharp cry, and the entire space began to shake.

"What's going on?" Xingji Xiake looked around warily.

In the distance, a powerful energy fluctuation was rapidly approaching, carrying an aura of destruction.

Zhang Cheng's expression changed, and he said in a low voice: "It's not over yet..." He gripped the divine artifact in his hand tightly, gazing with firm resolve toward the direction from which the energy fluctuation came.

"Prepare for battle!"