Chapter 1116

Accompanied by the roar from deep within Han Wuxian's soul, the shattered-star sword-hilt gem in his hand, that gemstone covered in cracks, suddenly burst forth with an unprecedented wail and light! The gem could not withstand this forbidden power, instantly turning to powder! Yet the last trace of primordial star power contained within it, together with Han Wuxian's burning of his primordial spirit and life igniting the star-ash fire, condensed into an extremely refined thought, which he fiercely poured into the star-map fragment on his back!

Boom!!!

The coordinate markings on the star-map fragment flared with light! A brilliant light pillar, several zhang in diameter and formed from countless rotating star runes, shot up into the sky with Han Wuxian at its center! The pillar ignored the dense canopy, pierced the wilderness's heavens, like lighting a lighthouse in the dead silence of the universe!

At the instant the light pillar appeared, time seemed to be forcibly twisted!

The corrupt giant bear's paw slamming toward Han Wuxian's head, at a point less than three Chinese feet above his head, seemed to sink into an invisible mire, its speed suddenly dropping! All the surrounding monsters lunging forward became extraordinarily sluggish; the frenzied light in their eyes was replaced by shock, as if they felt a fear originating from the source of life itself!

The light pillar not only drew power from the star-map fragment, but also summoned the residual, thin stellar force lingering in this heaven and earth! Han Wuxian's body became the core of the light pillar, becoming a temporary conduit linking the star-map coordinates to the myriad heavens' stars!

"Give me… guidance!" Han Wuxian bled from his seven orifices, his burning primordial spirit letting out a silent roar within the light pillar, pouring his last lingering will into it!

Hum!

At the top of the light pillar, the brilliant star runes violently spun and reorganized! A huge, clear phantom of the star map unfolded at the pillar's summit! The core of the star map was precisely the coordinates leading to another heavenly star gate! A path paved with starlight, an illusory route crossing space, extended from the pillar's top, pointing toward a certain direction deep in the forest!

At the path's end, space violently fluctuated; a barely single-person-wide, extremely unstable starlight vortex was struggling to form!

A path of life! Forged by burning life and primordial spirit as the price, forcibly drawing upon the star-map coordinates, this was the escape route carved out!

"Roar!" The corrupt giant bear seemed to break free of part of its restraints, its palm bringing even more violent power, accelerating its strike! The surrounding sluggish monsters also let out angry shrieks, lunging again!

A flash of icy resolve crossed Han Wuxian's eyes. He exerted his last strength, violently slamming the powdered shattered-star sword hilt in his hand hard against the ground!

"Shattered Star·Eternal Silence!"

Hum!

A mote of light, condensing the remnant soul of the sword implement and the power of star-ash, exploded from the powder! Not an attack, but it formed a faint yet tenacious ring of star-power barrier imbued with a sorrowful sword intent, temporarily blocking the monsters' assault!

Taking advantage of this momentary obstruction, Han Wuxian hesitated no more! He burned his last spark of life, like a moth flying into flame, and leapt toward the starlight vortex at the pillar's top that pointed to the path of life!

His body passed through the solidified star-force light pillar, as if crossing an icy river of stars. In the moment he leapt into that violently twisting starlight vortex emanating terrifying spatial tearing force, Han Wuxian finally glanced down at the barbaric wilderness forest:

The corrupt giant bear's palm fiercely smashed that ring of sorrowful star-power barrier, blasting a deep pit into the ground.

Countless monsters, like a black tide, instantly submerged the spot where Han Wuxian had just stood.

In the distance, from the direction of the tribe, came the faint, despairing wail of the old priest.

And at the instant he entered the vortex, a cold, indifferent will of the Nine Netherworlds, as if spanning endless space, like an invisible giant net, faintly swept over this area, ultimately locking onto the fading starlight path and vortex above…

Dark, icy, and violent spatial tearing force instantly engulfed Han Wuxian! This time, without star armor protection, without any power to resist, his heavily wounded, near-death body was frantically torn apart like rag in the torrent! The burning primordial spirit fire quickly dimmed; the lingering consciousness, like a candle in a gale, sank into utter darkness amidst boundless pain and void…

Absolute darkness and dead silence. Consciousness was like sinking into a frozen, eternal ocean, even the flow of time losing meaning. Only intense pain remained, the sole anchor for sensing existence.

The pain of the primordial spirit being torn apart thread by thread, the pain of the flesh being repeatedly ground in the spatial torrent. The star-map stone-carved fragment on his back was the sole icy sensation in the darkness; the coordinate's pull was as faint as a spider's silk, yet stubbornly maintained the last vestige of the concept of 'direction'.

No one knew how long had passed—perhaps an instant, perhaps eternity.

A distinctly different sensation came from below. No longer the tearing of void, but a hard, icy substance with a gritty granular feel. His body seemed to have stopped rolling, lodged in some crevice in a severely twisted posture. The air drawn into his nostrils was not the chaos of the spatial torrent, but a pungent, nose-stinging odor mixing metallic rust, star dust, and the decay of some ancient grease.

"Cough… cough… cough…" Han Wuxian choked into a coughing fit; each cough jolted his wounds, bringing piercing pain, yet it also let him fully escape the mire of his sinking consciousness. He struggled to open his eyes.

His vision was filled with a hazy dust emitting a faint bluish glow. He was wedged in a crack of a massive metal structure; the crack's edges were twisted and broken, covered in strange star-pattern bronze alloy. Raising his head, above him loomed a topless dome made of similar material, its surface studded with countless extinguished giant crystals like dead eyes. The faint light source came from afar

At the broken ends of some ruined, twisted pipes resembling giant tree roots, thick liquid energy oozed, emitting a faint blue fluorescence, like the blood of a dying beast.

The air was heavy, under great pressure; each breath felt like swallowing lead. Worse still, spatial distortions were everywhere! In every direction, light was not straight but showed bizarre twisting and splitting, sometimes forming temporary halos or dark spots in certain areas. Gravity fluctuated—sometimes strong, sometimes weak, veering left then right—making his wounded body feel as if tossed in a violent tide.

Here, is this the ruin of the star gate indicated by the coordinates? No, it more closely resembles the interior of the wreckage of a colossal star ship or fortress!

Han Wuxian tried to shift his body, but all he felt were the faint cracks of misaligned bones and the searing pain of torn muscles. Inside, the situation was worse than expected. Within his dantian star field, the stellar primordial spirit had dimmed to near-extinguished embers; its cracks, far from healing, had become finer and deeper under the torment of the spatial torrent, verging on total collapse. The star core fragments, star heart fragments, and star key sigils lay as if under thick dust, sensing no stir at all. Although the star-map stone-carved fragment on his back remained icy, the pull of its coordinates had grown extremely faint, as if severely disturbed by this place's chaotic spatial field.

He was like a total wreck, discarded as scrap in a junkyard.

Yet, in this despairing silence, a faint but clear 'humming' sound, like a distant heartbeat, transmitted through the icy metal structure beneath him to his body.

Hum… hum… hum…

This hum carried a peculiar rhythm, low and steady, as if emanating from the deepest part of this massive wreck. Each time the hum arrived, the surrounding chaotic spatial fluctuations seemed to be subtly tugged by an imperceptible pull, becoming slightly 'ordered' for an instant. At the same time, the star dust diffusing in the air, as if drawn, drifted ever so slowly toward the direction from which the hum came.

"Core?" Han Wuxian's heart stirred. This regular humming was exactly like the pulse of some colossal energy core maintaining minimal operation! It might be the sole stable energy source in the ruins, or perhaps the key to leaving this place!