Chapter 179

Heaven-Inspecting Token's anomaly suddenly arose!

The silver-white light was not simply resisting the blue vortex's suction; instead, it transformed into countless thin yet extremely condensed light threads, like living tentacles, actively reaching toward the chaotic blue light. At the moment the light threads touched the blue light, there was no violent collision; rather, like a drop of water merging into sand, they silently seeped in.

Shi Ran felt as if her divine sense was forcibly extended and stretched by the Heaven-Inspecting Token, following those silver-white light threads, she directly "touched" the light-blue crystal core riddled with cracks and on the verge of collapse!

Boom—!

A massive, chaotic surge of information, filled with spacetime disarray and endless resentment, rushed along the connection of her divine sense and violently flooded her sea of consciousness!

She "saw"—not through her eyes, but directly imprinted deep in her soul—the following scene:

That was an endless starry sky, a star emitting a soft cyan glow pulsating regularly, like the heart of a sleeping giant. Around it wove fine spatial folds—its naturally formed domain, protecting the weak yet pure spacetime essence gestating within.

Suddenly, a gigantic claw cloaked in black scales and entwined with ominous purple flames tore through the starry sky, forcefully probing into those spatial folds! The cyan star shuddered violently, trying to resist, releasing layer upon layer of spacetime ripples, but the claw's power level was too high, bearing absolute will of destruction and plunder, it forcibly crushed the star's defense!

The star let out a mournful cry; its blue surface light instantly dimmed by half. The claw did not destroy it outright, but in a brutal manner, it wrenched from the star's core a small half of shimmering cyan light, containing pure spacetime energy! Afterwards, the claw, bearing the plundered energy, shrank back into the void rift and vanished.

The star, having its core essence forcibly extracted, lost its stable foundation and began to rapidly collapse and crumble. Its internal spacetime energy lost balance, becoming violent and chaotic. It fell from the starry sky, carrying residual energy and the towering resentment born from the forced plunder and destruction, smashing into this world and forming this vast circular depression.

That light-blue crystal is precisely the core fragment left after the "spacetime star" shattered! It bears the star's final consciousness fragment—an endless resentment toward the plunderer, unwillingness to accept its own destruction, and an almost instinctive frenzy to devour all external energy in a mad attempt to repair itself, even dragging everything down with it in destruction!

At this moment, the core fragment sensed the pure spiritual and soul power on Shi Ran and her companions, and like a dying beast spotting fresh flesh, it launched an attack without hesitation!

"So... that's how it is..." Shi Ran, under the impact of the information surge, her soul shuddered violently and her face instantly paled, yet she clung to a sliver of clarity in her spirit platform, understanding the nature of this core fragment and the reason for its madness.

At the same time, she clearly sensed that the silver-white light threads released by the Heaven-Inspecting Token were, in a way she could not fully comprehend, sorting and stripping away the "resentment" and "chaos" attributes from the disordered spacetime energy! Like using the finest sieve to filter out filthy sediment, leaving only the purest, most primal spacetime essence.

This process was slow and arduous; the silver-white light threads flickered constantly within the chaotic blue energy, and the Heaven-Inspecting Token itself trembled slightly, obviously under immense strain. Yet the effect was significant: strand by strand of supremely pure, crystal-clear sky-blue energy was being drawn by the silver-white threads from the chaotic vortex, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, slowly flowing into the token's core.

Inside the Heaven-Inspecting Token, the originally dim rune area began to light up with extremely faint new specks; although compared to the whole vastness it was still a drop in the bucket, the state of an "energy core (extremely depleted)" seemed to have a barely perceptible improvement.

"It is... purifying and absorbing that energy!" Shi Ran immediately shared what she sensed with Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue: "But the core fragment's resentment runs too deep; the Heaven-Inspecting Token's purification is struggling, we need to hold firm and not let it be interrupted!"

Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue, hearing this, instantly grasped the crux of the situation. Gu Yusheng let out a low shout, his Bright Moon Sword Intent bursting forth without reservation; the pure, clear radiance was no longer merely defensive but condensed into streaks of moonlight sword aura, not attacking the blue‑light vortex but encircling the silvery‑white light threads like guards, slashing at the chaotic energy streams and resentful impacts trying to erode and disturb the threads.

Mei Ruoxue then tapped with her jade fingers; the extreme cold no longer sought to freeze the entire vortex but precisely condensed at the nodes where the silvery‑white light threads intertwined with the chaotic blue light, forming tiny patches of absolute‑zero domain that temporarily "froze" the local energy flow, creating a more stable environment for the Heaven‑Patrol Token's purification and easing its burden.

The three's cooperation at this moment reached an astonishing level of tacit understanding.

Gu Yusheng's moonlight sword intent, supremely pure and clear, naturally restrains and slashes resentful and chaotic energy; Mei Ruoxue's Profound Ice chill can impede energy flow, creating opportunities; while Shi Ran serves as the bridge linking the Heaven‑Patrol Token and the core fragment, using her otherworldly soul as a guide to lead this dangerous "purification" and "plunder".

Time trickled by in the stalemate.

Within the circular depression, blue and silvery‑white light interwove and entwined, the chaotic suction and pure purifying force locking against each other to form an eerie balance; the surrounding space faintly warped, emitting a strained hum.

Shi Ran beaded with fine sweat on her forehead, maintaining this high‑intensity divine‑sense link and opposition placed a huge burden on her; Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue were no better off, their strength continually draining as they resisted the core fragment's death‑struggle‑like ever‑stronger backlash.

But the scales of victory were ever so slowly tipping in their favor.

As more and more pure spacetime energy was absorbed by the Heaven‑Patrol Token, the blue‑light vortex's intensity began to show a faint weakening; likewise, the cracks on that core fragment seemed to widen a fraction, and the resentful roar emanating from within carried a hint of despair.

Finally, after nearly an hour of deadlock, that pale‑blue crystal core erupted in a final burst of intense blue light, whereupon the radiance sputtered out like a burnt‑out candle.

"Crack—"

A faint yet clear shattering sound rang out; the core, riddled with cracks, utterly crumbled to dust and dissipated in the air.

The frenzied blue‑light vortex that devoured everything vanished instantly.

The depression returned to dead silence, save for a few broken stone pillars and the denser cracks at the pool bottom, bearing witness to what had just transpired.

The silvery‑white light on the Heaven‑Patrol Token gradually retracted, returning to a warm, lustrous white, yet Shi Ran could clearly sense that the energy stored inside the token had increased manifold compared with before; although still far from "adequate," it had at least escaped the state of "extreme depletion."

At the same time, the pale‑blue dot marking this place on the fuzzy map in her sea of consciousness also vanished; the map itself seemed to have solidified a bit, with the mist at its edges thinning slightly.

"Success…" Shi Ran drew a long breath, her body swayed, and she nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

Gu Yusheng, quick‑eyed and quick‑handed, caught her in one move, passing a strand of pure, tranquil true qi: "Are you alright?"

Mei Ruoxue also retracted her chill, stepped forward, first glanced at Gu Yusheng's hand, then averted her gaze, her clear, cold eyes turning to Shi Ran with a hint of doubt.

"It's fine, just excessive divine‑sense consumption." Shi Ran steadied herself, shook her head, her face betraying uncontainable joy: "The Heaven‑Patrol Token has absorbed a good amount of pure spacetime energy; its condition is much improved!"

She carefully sensed the token's changes; besides the increased energy reserve, the line reading "Cross‑Spacetime Beacon Positioning Function (requires sufficient energy and specific conditions) – awaiting activation" still showed as pending, but the annotation now seemed to have added a small note: "Energy threshold preliminarily met; still needs a key medium or specific spacetime coordinates to trigger."

"Key medium? Specific spacetime coordinates?" Shi Ran murmured inwardly; this was clearly what she needed to seek next.

At the same time she also realized that, following this successful "purification‑absorption" which supplied a large amount of energy, her bond with the Heaven‑Patrol Token had grown much tighter. Previously she could only passively receive information and perform simple sensing; now she seemed able to actively issue more complex commands to the token, such as finely scanning a certain range for special energy fluctuations, or mobilizing a small amount of token energy to aid herself (e. g., briefly boosting divine‑sense perception or executing a faint spatial disturbance).

This was undoubtedly a great advancement.

Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue, hearing that the Heaven‑Patrol Token's condition had improved, also felt happy for her. Gu Yusheng said: "It seems this path is viable. I just never imagined that this so‑called 'energy source' would be so perilous."

Mei Ruoxue gazed at the dried‑up pool bottom, her tone icy: "Plundering the stellar origin… that demonic claw you sensed earlier—its master is likely an unimaginably terrifying entity. This realm's demonic calamity may be related to it."

Shi Ran nodded solemnly: "In the residual memory of that core fragment, there is only that demonic claw and the scene of destruction; no further information remains. But I can be certain it does not belong to this world." She paused, looking toward the northwest: "On the Heaven‑Patrol Token's map there are still other light‑point markers; though distant, they at least give us a direction. Moreover, as the token's energy recovers and my command over it strengthens, perhaps we can unlock more information, even activate new functions."

The three briefly adjusted their breath, recovered some of their expenditure, and then decided to leave this lifeless depression.

This experience, which was perilous but safe, not only gave the Heaven-Patrol Token the urgently needed energy, but also gave the three a deeper understanding of each other's strength and trust. Especially Shi Ran, at the critical moment, with the help of the Heaven-Patrol Token, resolved the crisis, demonstrating an irreplaceable role; Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue simultaneously recalled when Shi Ran first entered the sect.

After leaving the circular depression, they did not rush to continue searching for other distant points on the map. On one hand, Shi Ran needed time to digest this gain and further familiarize herself with the strengthened divine sense and the new functions of the Heaven-Patrol Token; on the other hand, Gu Yusheng and Mei Ruoxue also felt that, having experienced the demonic calamity and the recent crisis, their own cultivation seemed to have reached a certain bottleneck, requiring precipitation and the search for an opportunity to break through.

Several days later, they opened a temporary cave dwelling in a relatively concealed valley with adequate spiritual energy and decided to temporarily rest and recuperate.

Inside the cave dwelling, Shi Ran sat cross-legged, her mind sank into the sea of consciousness, and she reconnected with the Heaven-Patrol Token.

The energy-filled Heaven-Patrol Token fed back information that was noticeably clearer and richer. She began to systematically browse the "fragmented information archive."

Besides the fragmentary phrases she had seen before about the mission of the Heaven-Patrol Pavilion, she also discovered some fragmented content concerning "observation nodes," "spacetime turbulence records," and "lost coordinate recovery protocol." Although these information fragments remain incomplete, piecing them together gave her a more concrete concept of how the Heaven-Patrol Pavilion operates—it seems to be a transcendent organization active among many worlds, responsible for monitoring, recording, and to some extent maintaining a certain "order."

The Heaven-Patrol Token, meanwhile, is the identity credential and tool of the organization's members (or specific personnel), possessing functions such as communicating across myriad worlds, locating coordinates, drawing specific energy, and, when authorization is sufficient, invoking organizational resources.

"Guiding lost souls..." Shi Ran repeatedly pondered these words, her heart fluttering, "Do these 'lost souls' include someone like me, a soul that accidentally wandered into another world? Heaven-Patrol Pavilion... is it an institution specialized in handling such cases?"

This speculation made her heart race. If that were true, then her hope of returning to Earth would rest entirely on this Heaven-Patrol Token and the organization behind it.

At the same time, she also tried to mobilize the Heaven-Patrol Token's energy to aid her cultivation. She discovered that by guiding a strand of that pure spacetime energy into her own divine sense, her divine sense could acquire some spacetime traits, making her perception sharper and even allowing her to faintly detect the minutest fluctuations in the surrounding space. This is greatly beneficial for forewarning and investigating hidden objects.

She also took a moment to summon Fantian and Bai Xiaohong. The condition of these two contracted partners had improved considerably compared to before; although still weak, they could now absorb external spiritual energy to slowly recover. Sensing Shi Ran's powerful divine sense and the mysterious aura emanating from the Heaven-Patrol Token, Fantian found it somewhat hard to accept, while Bai Xiaohong appeared unusually obedient and dependent.

Fantian exhaled a draconic breath, "It's been a few days, I never expected you, this lass, to..." He flicked his dragon tail: "You said you'd help me find the little fairy, hum~ just busy with your own cultivation!"

Shi Ran felt a bit embarrassed; she had forgotten about this matter, drifting off to the clouds, but it's not her fault—she had just untangled the red silk from this strange gu poison, and all along she'd been anxious and frightened, really unable to attend to anything else.

Bai Xiaohong, meanwhile, repeatedly adored, "Master, I want to follow you always, may I?"

Seeing Bai Xiaohong, Shi Ran thought of Lingxiao; Bai Xiaohong is like Lingxiao's aunt? She calls Lingxiao's mother "older sister," and she herself is Lingxiao's disciple and dual cultivation partner (a bit embarrassing!); then Bai Xiaohong calls herself master.

Shi Ran held her forehead, this relationship, truly enough to drive one crazy!