Chapter 1100

"Not good!" His face changed drastically. The awakening of this ruin seemed to simultaneously rouse some terrifying existence deep underground! Without hesitation, he leapt and rushed toward the depths of the hall. Passing through the collapsed pillars, on the main hall's altar, he saw a floating, fist-sized crystal fragment.

That fragment was completely transparent inside, yet it seemed to seal a miniature starry sky, with countless nebulae slowly rotating within. Merely making eye contact, Han Wuxian's internal Star Evolution Secret spontaneously ran wild, every cell in his body screaming with desire!

This is... a Star Core Fragment?

Just as he reached out, the entire hall suddenly shook violently! The ground cracked open countless fissures, and viscous black gas surged out like a spring. A will, terrifying a thousand times more than the Lake of Falling Stars in the Abyss, was awakening from the depths!

"Ant... how dare you touch the essence of the stars..." a low, hoarse voice trembled deep in his soul, Han Wuxian's seven orifices simultaneously bled. Even more terrifying, that thread of evil thought within him suddenly turned into a black line, like a fuse, clearly exposing his position to that terrifying existence that was awakening!

In a life-or-death instant, Han Wuxian made a crazy decision. He grabbed the Star Core Fragment and, without hesitation, pressed it against his glabella!

"Star Evolution True Explanation·Fusing Stars into the Aperture!"

The moment the fragment touched his skin, it turned into liquid starlight that surged into his sea of consciousness. An indescribable pain swept through his body, as if every atom were being reorganized. His body began to turn translucent, beneath his skin a brilliant star river appeared, and the light Dao marks evolved into more complex star-orbit patterns.

From underground came an angry roar; a giant hand condensed from pure filth burst from the earth, grabbing toward the transforming Han Wuxian. At the critical moment, the residual star power of the ruin suddenly gathered entirely, forming a starlight barrier that temporarily blocked the giant hand.

"Go!" The last strength of the phantom wrapped around Han Wuxian, hurling him toward the suddenly appearing starlight vortex at the top of the cavern, "Head to Starfall Valley... find... the grave keeper..."

As the giant hand tore apart the starlight barrier, Han Wuxian's figure had already vanished within the vortex. Underground came an earth-shaking roar; the entire Falling Star Abyss ruin collapsed completely under the terrifying energy impact...

When Han Wuxian regained consciousness, he found himself suspended beneath a strange starry sky. Beneath his feet lay a crystalline lake of star power, reflecting the heavens above. The Star Core Fragment floated quietly at the center of his sea of consciousness, mysteriously resonating with the Star Evolution True Explanation. The evil thought within him had been temporarily purified, but the feeling of being marked by that terrifying existence clung to him like a shadow.

In the distance, a strangely shaped bronze star sundial stood by the lake, its gnomon pointing north. Engraved on its base were three ancient, weathered seal characters:

"Starfall Valley".

Han Wuxian clenched his fists, feeling the new power flowing within him. The transformation brought by the Star Core Fragment was not yet complete, but he clearly sensed that he had formed some deep connection with the stars of this heaven and earth. Raising his head to gaze at the starry sky, those stars were no longer out of reach, but like points waiting to be lit.

The direction of Starfall Valley was etched like a brand deep in his sea of consciousness. Han Wuxian tread upon the jagged rocks of the desolate mountains, his silhouette dragging a faint afterimage beneath the starlight. The transformation from merging with the Star Core Fragment was far from over; each breath seemed to inhale and exhale the stars, the nascent micro-star domain within him slowly rotating, filtering and purifying the mixed spiritual qi from the outside, turning it into pure star essence that flowed through his reforged meridians. His power grew steadily, but the icy chill implanted in his soul by the Lord of the Nine Netherworlds clung like a bone-deep maggot, impossible to shake, reminding him of the lurking gaze in the darkness.

Several days later, at the edge of a strange basin carved out by a massive meteorite crater. The night was as dark as ink, the stars extraordinarily bright, as if within reach. Han Wuxian sat cross-legged on a relatively flat weathered boulder, silently cultivating the Star Evolution True Explanation, comprehending the vast star chart brought by the Star Core Fragment and the profound orbital trajectories of the heavenly stars' movement. His mind sank into his internal star domain, attempting to outline with thought a few of the brightest stars, simulating the flow of star power.

Just as his mind was at its most empty and tranquil.

Buzz!

A sound extremely faint yet piercing straight to his soul rang out without warning! This vibration did not come from the outside; it seemed to come from something in his bosom, resonating peculiarly with this starry sky.

Han Wuxian's eyes snapped open; starlight flashed in the depths of his pupils. He instinctively reached into his bosom; besides the warm star jade slip, his fingertips touched something cold and hard.

It was it!

What he took out was exactly that inconspicuous bronze fragment he had casually picked up beside the bones in the ancient cultivator's cave, aside from the jade slip! At this moment, the fragment, originally dim and covered in verdigris, actually emitted an extremely faint yet unusually warm dark cyan glow under the starlight! The blurry, twisted lines on its surface seemed to faintly flow within the light.

Even more shocking to Han Wuxian's mind and spirit, the Star Core Fragment floating in his sea of consciousness also trembled slightly with the bronze fragment's buzz, emitting a thought-wave almost like "longing"! It was as if an old friend long separated had reunited, or like a broken key meeting its matching lock.

"This fragment..." Han Wuxian sprang to his feet, gripping the bronze fragment tightly in his palm. The fragment remained cold, but its faint buzz grew ever clearer, like some kind of guidance.

He attempted to slowly infuse a thread of pure star essence into the fragment.

Buzz!

The fragment shuddered violently! Its dark cyan light instantly surged several times brighter, no longer a warm glow but forming a concentrated beam, like a guiding star, shooting straight toward a certain direction deep in the basin! Where the beam pointed, several originally ordinary stars in the night sky seemed to shift minutely, faintly forming a missing dipper-shaped pattern!

"Guidance of the Northern Dipper?!" Han Wuxian's heart stirred; the chapter on stellar positioning in the Star Evolution True Explanation instantly surfaced in his mind. This bronze fragment could actually draw upon the heavenly star power and manifest direction!

Without the slightest hesitation, he shifted his form, turning into a stream of light that blended into the night, shooting toward the direction indicated by the bronze light beam. The deeper he went into the basin, the richer and purer the star power in the air became; scattered beneath his feet were meteoric irons of various sizes and shapes, some still emitting a faint heat, obviously having fallen not long ago.

The bronze light beam steadily pointed toward a direction; as he approached, Han Wuxian could even feel the fragment in his palm warming slightly, its buzz frequency rising like an accelerating heartbeat.

Finally, after rounding a peak that had been sheared in half by a meteorite, the view ahead opened up. In the center of a relatively flat valley, the sight caused Han Wuxian to abruptly halt his steps, his pupils contracting slightly from shock.

There, a door stood...

Or rather, it was a colossal door, now reduced to a shattered remnant.

The door frame was cast from a strange bronze that was neither metal nor jade, flashing with deep starlight, of the same material as the fragment in Han Wuxian's hand, only far older and vaster. The frame stood over a hundred zhang tall and dozens of zhang wide; its surface ought to have been engraved with intricate, profound star Dao patterns containing the truths of the universe. Yet now most of those patterns had been violently erased by some unimaginable force, leaving only broken, dim lines and countless intersecting huge cracks, as if cleaved by a god's giant axe.

The door frame itself was also not intact. It leaned, deeply embedded in the earth; a huge crack ran through its main body, the edges covered in spiderweb-like fissures, many places even rupturing into massive gaps, revealing an interior similarly laden with cracked star-light structures.

Most awe-inspiring was the central area of the door frame. There was not emptiness, but a slowly rotating, about ten zhang in diameter... Star Disk! Profound and dim, it seemed composed of countless shattered star dust and solidified space fragments; at its center lay an absolute darkness that would freeze the soul. The Star Disk turned silently, emitting chaotic, violent spatial fluctuations tinged with an ancient desolation. It was not a stable passage, but more like a massive wound—a space scar torn open by force and unable to heal.

Around the door frame lay more giant bronze fragments, some as large as houses, others the size of millstones. Like the fragment in Han Wuxian's hand, they were dim and lifeless, dead cold, as if bereft of all spirituality. The whole area exuded an air of deathly stillness, brokenness, and abandonment by time, a sorrowful atmosphere.

"All Heavens... Star Gate..." an ancient and shocking term, accompanied by a faint throb from the Star Core Fragment and some vague passages from the Star Evolution True Explanation, rose in Han Wuxian's mind. This was supposedly the supreme gate capable of communicating with all heavens and all realms and performing stellar leaps! But what lay before him was only utter devastation and silence.