Chapter 667: Radiant Starfire

The night was as dark as ink, only the wind remained on the Observation Platform.

Chen Wen sat quietly on the stone platform, his consciousness sank and condensed.

【Shi Yong】 quietly unfolded, his vision pierced reality, touching the context beneath the world's surface.

In the east, the golden canopy formed by the Chen Dynasty's fortune stood firm like a mountain range.

He slowly turned his perception westward.

The barrier of the light curtain appeared in his 'eye', its ripples and minute cracks having spread further than three days prior.

His mind passed the barrier, and the momentum of the script world came rushing at him.

Chaos, agitation, like a boiling cauldron.

The black fortune representing the Yuan Court still hovered over Zhongyuan, but its appearance had greatly changed from what Chen Wen had observed a month earlier.

Back then, though this dark aura showed signs of decline, its structure was still largely intact.

Now, however, it churned violently and scattered, as if violently stirred by an invisible hand, hastening toward its demise.

"Too fast..."

Chen Wen muttered to himself.

He recalled how, through the Script Reading ability, he had glimpsed fragments of cause and effect on some Yuan army officers.

The dynastic collapse trajectory foretold in those fragments should have stretched like a stream for decades, with rises and falls, with reversals.

But what he actually perceived now was like a boulder pushed off a cliff, plummeting straight to the point of destruction at a speed that defied reason.

The crimson blaze of the peasant uprisings did not spark here and there, but erupted in vast swaths.

From Hebei to Shandong, from Zhongyuan to Jianghuai, countless fire points blazed almost simultaneously, responding to one another and joining into a scorching blanket of fire.

This was not a natural evolution.

It was the result of deliberate catalysis.

Iron Crow Army.

Only those who intend to twist history and maintain a certain set course would use this brutal method to accelerate a dynasty's decline, so as to quickly advance to their preset next act.

Chen Wen's perception continued to extend, sweeping over the areas heavily covered by the dark red dark-energy network.

The flow of dark energy also became unusually active, continually converging on several key nodes—Dadu, Liaodong, and... Huai Xi?

His attention suddenly focused on the Huai Xi region.

There, it was not the traditional hub of the dark-energy network, but at this moment a weak yet exceptionally unique 'momentum' was beginning to sprout.

It was neither crimson nor the dark red of dark energy.

But rather a pure, brilliant silver-white that seemed to condense unknown possibilities and order.

It had just risen, its light just beginning to shine, yet already it displayed a rhythm utterly different from all the surrounding fortunes.

It was rigorous, rational, bearing a kind of 'newness' that transcended the era.

Chen Wen had never seen such a 'momentum' before.

Even historical figures like Yue Fei and Lin Chong, whose fortunes were notable, had their qualities deeply rooted in the soil of this age.

Yet this silver-white starlight seemed like an exotic species fallen from beyond the heavens, utterly out of place among everything around it.

"Anomaly..."

Chen Wen opened his eyes; a faint light flickered in his pupils and vanished.

He tried to capture that starlight more clearly, but distance and the barrier's obstruction blurred the details.

All he could determine was that its source lay in the Huai Xi Haozhou area, and it was in the early stage of rapid growth.

Almost as soon as he locked onto that starlight—

Deep within the dark-energy network, several cold, overbearing strands of consciousness suddenly awoke.

They were like probes in the dark night, precisely sweeping toward Huai Xi, and instantly they caught that silver-white.

Immediately afterward, Chen Wen 'saw' that the steady dark-red dark-energy flow heading toward Liaodong showed a barely perceptible shift.

A tiny strand, extremely minute, split off and silently seeped toward the Huai Xi direction.

The reaction was astonishingly swift.

This anomaly, not yet fully revealed, as soon as it appeared drew the Iron Crow Army's watchful gaze like a thorn in the back.

Chen Wen rose, his sleeves stirring slightly in the night wind.

The Iron Crow Army hastens the Yuan Dynasty's collapse in order to more quickly install a new puppet.

Their current vigilance toward the Huai Xi anomaly shows that this anomaly is not under their control, and may even be an unexpected variable.

A variable capable of breaking their accelerated script.

He descended the Observation Platform, his steps quickening.

He needed to find out immediately who it was.

The Privy Council's side hall was brightly lit.

The five ministers gathered together, with Yue Fei, Lin Chong, and Wu Yong attending as listeners.

Chen Wen wasted no words, directly informing everyone of what he had observed that night.

"Huai Xi Haozhou has given birth to an unprecedented anomaly." He pointed to the corresponding spot on the map: "Its momentum is just sprouting, its nature utterly unlike anything seen before. More importantly, the Iron Crow Army, which seeks to uphold the distorted history, has already sensed its presence and taken action."

The atmosphere in the hall grew solemn.

"Your Majesty," Qian Gui replied first, "the Peace and Security Bureau does have agents in Huai Xi, but previously our focus was on monitoring the Yuan army and large-scale peasant uprisings. If this anomaly is a rising star, intelligence may be delayed. I will immediately dispatch additional personnel to focus on investigating all newly risen leaders of forces near Haozhou."

"Within five days, I need to know who this person is, what abilities they have, and who gathers around them." Chen Wen set the deadline.

"As you command!"

"Zhao Lao Nian."

"Your servant is here."

"High-load Star Pattern Order progress?"

"Six hundred have been completed; four hundred remain, to be finished within three days."

"After completion, immediately select three concealed points along the light curtain's edge and set up temporary resonance bases." Chen Wen's eyes were sharp: "If this anomaly could serve as aid, we need a way to establish contact with it."

"Understood!"

"Orders were issued clearly, one after another."

"Zhang Cheng coordinated resources, Shi Dun dispatched elite scouts from Bei Jing to support infiltration, and Wang Ru strengthened internal surveillance to guard against the unexpected."

"Finally, Chen Wen looked at Yue Fei and the three others."

"General Yue, the lecture hall drill will incorporate the variable of an 'emerging unknown force.' Consider how to cooperate if it is a friend, and how to check and balance if it is a hidden threat."

"Yue Fei clasped his fists: 'I will obey orders.'"

"Everyone went their separate ways after receiving orders, hurrying."

"The side hall fell silent again, only the occasional soft crackle of lamp flames."

"Chen Wen stood alone before the large map, gazing at that point in Huai Xi."

"Haozhou."

"Where the Yuan court's rule collapsed, refugees and starving soldiers filled the land, a place where heroes and warlords rose together."

"Who could this suddenly ignited starfire be?"

"Is it merely another ambitious figure pushed to the forefront by the chaotic age's torrent?"

"Or... could it be some kind of true power capable of changing the game?"

"The Iron Crow Army accelerates its script, seeking to drive history faster toward the ending they desire."

"And this unexpectedly appearing starfire might be a variable, or perhaps... an opportunity to break the stalemate."

"We must see it clearly as soon as possible."

"Outside the window, the night faded, and a first thread of grayish white appeared on the horizon."

"Beyond the light curtain, dawn in Huai Xi is imminent."

"Someone who had just opened their eyes in a dilapidated tent began to scrutinize this unfamiliar era's figure, unaware that their faint light had already been reflected in the eyes of the two 'Stargazers' watching from across the curtain."

"The trajectory of fate trembled slightly at this moment."