Chapter 1072: Core

Han Wuxian's crimson-gold eyes turned with difficulty, scanning this dead, shattered starry sky. There was no sign of Xiao Ran, only cold celestial bodies and distant slowly rotating nebulae. Just now in the spatial turbulence, that violent force had forcibly torn them apart! A huge surge of panic and helplessness seized him.

At that moment

Buzz!!!

A familiar, icy, gloomy pressure with a strong sense of spatial tearing, like an invisible miasma, instantly enveloped this shattered star field!

Han Wuxian's heart suddenly clenched!

He jerked his head up and saw, not far away, the still-unsettled spatial distortion region, like turbid water ripples, three figures wrapped in faint blue starlight forced out like tearing canvas! They were exactly those three relentless Stellar Pivot Guards!

Their starlight armor also bore clear signs of damage, their auras somewhat disordered, obviously paying a price for forcibly crossing the spatial turbulence. But the greed and killing intent in the leader's eyes burned even fiercer than before!

「Scan spatial residue! Prioritize lock on 'Anomaly'! 」 The leader Stellar Pivot Guard's icy voice, via some secret method, directly rang in Han Wuxian's near-suffocating sea of consciousness, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.

Buzz!

An invisible scan wave of faint blue, carrying a strong plundering will, spread out like mercury spilled on the ground, sweeping over every floating fragment of celestial body!

Han Wuxian's heart sank to the bottom of the valley! He was now like fish on a chopping board, unable to move a finger! If the scan wave swept over him, he would be instantly detected!

What to do?!

Just as the scan wave was about to reach the huge fragment where he hid, Han Wuxian's gaze fell on the shattered yet still tightly gripped 「Earthbone」 heavy sword in his hand! An extremely daring thought flashed through!

He did not try to dodge, nor could he gather power, which he was utterly unable to do!

What he did was to imprint his remaining, last faint trace of divine sense, heedless of all, like a brand, fiercely into the nearly shattered core of the 「Earthbone」 heavy sword!

That was not an attack, but… a self-destruct command! Detonate the last remnant of earth-vein source power and stellar embers within the sword body!

「Earthbone… old buddy… sorry…」 Han Wuxian murmured in his heart, filled with farewell and resolve.

Buzz! Buzz!

The 「Earthbone」 heavy sword seemed to sense its master's will to perish together, the blade trembling violently, unstable dark-gold crimson light seeping from the cracks!

Just as the scan wave was about to sweep over the fragment where Han Wuxian hid

Boom!!!

A terrifying energy impact that erupted silently in the vacuum exploded violently from the other side of Han Wuxian's hiding spot, behind a slightly smaller celestial fragment! Violent earth-vein source power mixed with the aftermath of stellar destruction, like an uncontrolled stellar storm, instantly swept across that area! The shattered rock was directly vaporized and annihilated!

The blast's shockwave slammed hard into the huge fragment where Han Wuxian hid, making him spit another mouthful of golden blood, yet it also succeeded in pinning his body firmly against the sunken rock; more importantly, that violent, chaotic energy impact and the kicked-up dust fragments instantly disrupted the scan wave's lock!

「An abnormal energy burst detected! Likely the target's death struggle! 」 One Stellar Pivot Guard was instantly drawn by the explosion, its azure gaze locking onto the blast's center.

「Idiot! It's a decoy! He's on the other side! 」 the leader Stellar Pivot Guard barked coldly, his icy gaze like a hawk's, instantly piercing the explosion's dust and precisely sweeping toward the huge fragment where Han Wuxian hid! His perception was not completely fooled by the blast!

Han Wuxian felt ice-cold all over! It's over!

However, at this critical moment

Hiss!

An extremely faint yet icy energy flow, bearing Xiao Ran's unique blend of stellar and cold poison aura, flitted like a ghost silently from the shadow of another distant huge fragment! Though weak, it was pure beyond compare, like a firefly in the night, instantly drawing the leader Stellar Pivot Guard's full attention!

「It's the 'Anomaly'! He hasn't fled far! Chase! Don't let him run again! 」 The leader Stellar Pivot Guard's eyes blazed with wild joy and greed, no longer bothering with Han Wuxian's this "debris", he roared loudly, the three dark silhouettes instantly turning into streams of light, racing toward the direction where the aura vanished! So fast that only three twisted trails of starlight were left behind.

On the huge fragment platform, dead silence fell again, only the deep cold of the universe silently seeping through.

Han Wuxian lay limp as if drained on the cold rock, gulping ragged breaths despite inhaling only deadly vacuum. Watching the direction the Stellar Pivot Guards vanished, his crimson-gold eyes filled with the palpitations of having survived a catastrophe, anger at his own helplessness, and… a deep shock and worry over Xiao Ran's resolute act of luring pursuers away even in dire straits!

「Xiao Ran… you…」 he struggled to raise his body, but intense pain and weakness knocked him down again.

He lowered his gaze to the hand-held 「Earthbone」 heavy sword, now completely dim, its blade covered in cracks, its spirituality nearly dissipated, a flicker of pain crossing his eyes.

Just then, the nearly exhausted core within him, a fusion of Earth Vein Heart Will and Stellar Vein, suddenly transmitted an extremely faint yet exceedingly clear throb! This throb did not come from the direction of the Stellar Pivot Guards, nor from where Xiao Ran's aura vanished, but… from deep within the huge dark-red celestial fragment beneath him!

An extremely ancient, extremely faint will, carrying an all-encompassing, stellar-bearing vastness, like a slumber for a hundred million years just awakened a thread by the recent explosion and chaos, gently, like the beat of the earth's pulse, flowed into his near-collapsing sea of consciousness.

This will… actually resonated faintly with his Earth Vein Heart?!

That thread of ancient, vast throb coming from the dark-red celestial fragment below, like a spark cast into the icy depths of cosmic cold, instantly ignited Han Wuxian's nearly extinguished will to survive!

「Earth Vein Heart… resonance?! 」 This thought exploded like thunder in his near-collapsing sea of consciousness. He ignored the pain, his crimson-gold eyes locked fixedly on the rough, icy dark-red rock beneath him, his remaining divine sense unhesitatingly reaching downward to sense!

That throb was extremely faint, like the murky dream of a sleeping beast, yet it carried an indescribable weight of inclusiveness and bearing all things, faintly responding to the Earth Vein Heart Will fused within him! More importantly, the direction this throb conveyed… was not toward the fragment's surface, but… deep within!

「The core… the core of the fragment! 」 Han Wuxian instantly realized. This huge celestial fragment was not ordinary cosmic debris; its interior likely contained an ancient earth-vein source core! It was precisely the existence of this core that allowed the fragment to retain relative integrity amidst the violent spatial turbulence, even able to evoke resonance with his Earth Vein Heart!

This… is the only chance of survival!