Chapter 1064: Fusion

He suddenly activated the secret technique, spitting a mouthful of vital blood onto the dark light shield that was about to collapse; the shield instantly turned into a viscous dark barrier, briefly blocking the residual force of the Sword Surge. At the same time, his hand seals changed, and the black vortex's suction surged to the extreme, abruptly pulling him, the two other Star Hub Guards, and the sealed jade box into it!

"Don't run!" Han Wuxian's eyes about to split, he could clearly "see" Xiao Ran's faintest possible aura within the jade box! He stepped forward, the void beneath his feet seemed borne by the earth, emitting a deep rumble, his form becoming a crimson‑gold meteor that tore through the sea, bearing murderous intent straight at the rapidly contracting black vortex! He raised the "Earth Corpse" heavy sword again, a more terrifying Sword Surge brewing!

Yet the vortex's contraction speed was unbelievably fast, as if leading to another dimension. At the instant when Han Wuxian's Sword Surge was about to strike again.

Whoosh!

The vortex vanished completely, leaving only a brief vacuum where seawater had been forcefully displaced, and a lingering cold, dark breath in the air.

Han Wuxian's raging sword slashed into empty space, the terrifying Sword Surge tearing the already massive earth‑fire fissure below for dozens of zhang, triggering a violent seabed tremor and a surge of magma!

"Ah!!!" Han Wuxian roared skyward, a howl full of anger and resentment, crimson‑gold light flickering wildly around him like a volcano about to erupt. He stared fixedly at where the vortex had vanished, as if trying to imprint that void onto his retinas.

Xiao Ran… was taken away!

Life or death unknown! Fallen into the hands of those cold, ruthless Star Hub Guards!

At that moment, the Stellar Vein within his body that resulted from the fusion of the Star Hub fragments, together with the Earth Vein Heart he had just fully mastered, both emitted an extremely faint yet unmistakably clear throb!

This throb did not come from the direction where the Star Hub Guards had vanished above, but… pointed straight downward!

Pointing to the depths of that huge fissure he had just torn again with his Sword Surge, now wildly spewing earth‑fire and Chaos energy!

An extremely faint, deeply familiar Star Radiance fluctuation bearing the essence of Xiao Ran's soul—like fireflies sinking into an abyss—persistently, intermittently pulsed out from the heart of the raging lava flood of earth‑fire!

Though weak, it carried a newly born, unyielding resilience!

Han Wuxian's crimson‑gold pupils snapped shut, the boiling murderous intent instantly replaced by massive astonishment and a trace of incredulous hope!

"That is… Xiao Ran's… aura? Below? Within the earth‑fire?!"

A mad thought exploded in his mind

Could the earlier jade‑and‑stone‑incinerating explosion not have been the end?

That final sliver of weak silver light that shot into the deep fissure… was Xiao Ran's lingering true spirit, perhaps even… the core essence point of the Star Hub fragment?!

It survived… deep within the Earth Vein…?!

"If it truly got taken, we'd lose a like‑minded fellow cultivator," Han Wuxian exhaled.

The "Earth Corpse" heavy sword hung low, its tip pointing at the boiling abyss. Han Wuxian's surrounding torrent of Earth Vein Power ceased its wild outward surge, instead contracting inward, coalescing into a thick light cocoon threaded with dark‑gold and crimson Dao sigils, enveloping his whole body. On the cocoon's surface, vague silhouettes of mountains and rivers floated, and tiny flickering starlight specks appeared—manifestations of the most primal source of his newly born power.

Divine Gold forms his bones to bear the earth; the Stellar Vein connects the cosmos!

Boom!

He no longer hovered; like a falling meteor or a returning Earth Vein flow, he plunged headfirst toward the massive fissure spewing destructive energy!

In an instant, terrifying heat, pressure enough to crush refined steel, and the raging chaotic Earth Vein fire‑demon energy struck the light cocoon like billions of scorching giant hammers! The cocoon quivered violently, emitting a deep, drum‑like boom, its surface Dao sigils swirling madly, continuously absorbing, transmuting, and shedding the destructive impact.

"Give me… stability!" Han Wuxian roared inside, the Earth Vein Heart Will merged in his Sea of Knowledge spurring at full force. He wasn't battling this earth‑fire abyss; he was trying… to merge with it, comprehend it, guide it! Just as he had previously quelled the furnace turbulence.

The effect was evident. Though the pressure remained terrifying, the temperature still enough to melt ordinary treasures, the most violent, most destructive impact turbulence, upon touching his light cocoon, seemed to meet a kindred existence and was indeed guided by an unseen will to split sideways, as if subjects yielding to a sovereign! His descent speed suddenly accelerated!

The deeper he went, the more extreme the environment. The dark‑red magma ceased bubbling and became a viscous, crimson‑gold river‑like lava flood! The blinding glare nearly blinded, the sulfur and destruction scent so intense it could suffocate any life. Were it not for his reinforced body of Divine Gold bone, the protection of the Earth Vein Heart Will, and the Stellar Vein's adaptability to extreme energy, he would have turned to ash long ago.

Yet the thread of Xiao Ran's guiding aura grew clearer at the core of this destructive abyss! Though still as weak as a candle flickering in the wind, it possessed a strange tenacity, as if rooted within this raging Earth Vein fire source.

"Just ahead!" Han Wuxian's spirit surged, his crimson‑gold eyes piercing the churning lava, locking onto the source of the aura.

It lay at the edge of an even more turbulent lava flood that cascaded like a waterfall into the deeper darkness below, atop a massive black strange stone half‑submerged in the lava.

Above the stone, a barely perceptible silver‑white glimmer stubbornly flickered.

That glimmer… was the very source of Xiao Ran's aura! It was not a solid form, but rather a ball of pure soul imprint and some primordial Stellar energy condensed into… Spiritual Fire!

Beneath that faint Spiritual Fire, the surface of the massive black stone was oddly coated with a thin layer of ice crystals swirling with strange Star Radiance! Under the lava's scorching, the ice did not melt; instead it exhaled threads of Mysterious Yin Cold Air, stubbornly resisting the earth‑fire's erosion, even briefly solidifying the contacting lava into a black basalt shell! It was this peculiar Star Radiance Cold Ice that gave the fragile Spiritual Fire above a minuscule yet crucial shelter.

"Mysterious Yin Cold Poison? No… it's the mutated ice power after merging with the core force of the Star Hub fragment!" Han Wuxian instantly understood. Xiao Ran's final jade‑and‑stone‑incinerating detonation not only destroyed the fragment body coveted by the enemy, but at the moment of destruction forced his lingering true spirit, the core essence point of the fragment, and the Mysterious Yin Cold Poison that had entangled him for so long to fuse together in an inconceivable way!

This amalgam, under the destructive impact, was blasted into the earth‑fire abyss and, by chance, landed on this Strange Black Stone capable of withstanding the fire's scorching.

That mutated ice power had become the sole shield protecting this newly born fragile Spiritual Fire against the earth‑fire's erosion!

At this moment, this strand of Spiritual Fire, fused with Xiao Ran's true spirit, the fragment's core essence, and the mutated cold poison, rests in an extremely delicate balance.