Chapter 1257: Conclusion

This is a more fundamental, more basic 'Conclusion' law!

Han Wuxian stopped at a distance of a hundred zhang from the black crystal; that was already his limit. Any closer, he felt his very 'Existence' might be directly shattered and assimilated by that invisible apocalyptic force. He didn't even dare to casually use his divine sense to probe, fearing that even a thread of external disturbance would become the final straw that broke the camel's back, triggering the core's total collapse.

He could only rely on the Heart Mirror, and on his own understanding of the Way of Conclusion, to sense and resonate.

He sat cross-legged, cast aside all distracting thoughts, and adjusted his faint yet pure intention of Return to the Ruins into the most balanced and peaceful state, no longer bearing any imprint of 'self', merely purely simulating a natural state of 'tending toward stillness', 'tending toward nothingness', like a water droplet trying to merge into the sea.

Time lost its meaning here.

No one knew how long had passed—perhaps an instant, perhaps a millennium. Han Wuxian's mind was completely immersed in the intent of that dead, star-filled expanse.

He 'saw' the internal nuclear fusion reactions of the star gradually cease, and gravity lose its balance.

He 'felt' the transformation of matter under extreme pressure, proton decay, and energy dissipating.

He 'understood' that the final 'black crystal' state was not an absolute end, but a 'midpoint' where matter exists in another extreme form—a gateway to the unknown 'singularity', inside which might lie the seed of a future 'explosion', or it might forever sink into absolute 'stillness'.

'Conclusion……is not annihilation, but the extreme transformation of form……' An unprecedented realization burst in his mind like heaven and earth being split apart! 'Return to the Ruins……the Return to the Ruins I seek, should it not be thus? Not reducing all things to absolute 'nothing', but guiding them to complete their transformation of form, returning to some more fundamental state that can be drawn upon for 'rebirth'……the origin state?'

This idea vaguely aligned with the earlier sense of 'reincarnation' he had touched, but it was more concrete, closer to the essence of the law! It transcended the opposition of 'life' and 'death', turning its gaze toward the deeper layer of matter and energy conservation and transformation that underlies the cycle of life and death.

At the very moment he gained this insight,

Hum!

The surface of that long‑dormant black star core, a fine crack, suddenly flickered faintly! It seemed to be a barely perceptible resonance produced in response to his thread of thought that matched the star's essence of extinction.

Immediately after, a torrent of pure information‑flow fragments, containing the total law imprint of that star from birth to extinction, surged out of the crack like a breached river—not an attack, but an unconscious, natural outpouring, rushing straight toward the Han Wuxian who had resonated with it.

This information stream was unimaginably vast, pure beyond comprehension! The law pressure it contained could in an instant shatter the seas of awareness of any cultivator below the Unity‑Dao stage.

Han Wuxian's face changed drastically; he simply could not withstand such a massive information impact!

At the critical moment, the Heavenly Dao Forbidden Seal on his brow seemed stimulated by this external force of equal or even higher rank, and it flickered weakly, as if trying to fulfill its protective duty to block the incoming 'abnormal' information, but its power was severely suppressed here, unable to form an effective defense.

Yet that barely noticeable, instinctive flicker of the seal acted like a key, unexpectedly activating Han Wuxian's Heart Mirror—a condensation of ten years of his cognitions crystallized in his sea of awareness.

The Heart Mirror spun up at an unprecedented speed; it did not try to bluntly resist the information flood, but acted like an exquisitely precise splitter and filter, wildly classifying, sorting, and compressing that immense flow according to its attributes and levels.

Concerning the overly vast and profound aspects of the star's structure and energy levels that were incomprehensible, the Heart Mirror directly guided them, bypassing Han Wuxian's core consciousness, scattering them into the void of his sea of awareness for temporary storage.

Meanwhile, the fragments concerning 'matter collapse', 'energy stillness', 'form transformation'—those closely tied to 'Conclusion' and within Han Wuxian's current grasp—were precisely captured and extracted by the Heart Mirror, turned into relatively gentle, comprehensible lights of law, like sweet rain, merging into the foundation of his Grand Dao.

"Ugh!"

Even so, the still‑massive law information after filtering caused Han Wuxian to let out a painful howl, pale‑gold blood trickling from his seven apertures, his body shaking violently as if he might shatter any moment—but his eyes shone terrifyingly bright.

He felt that his Return to the Ruins Grand Dao, sealed tight by the Heavenly Dao Forbidden Seal, was being enriched, widened, and deepened at an unbelievable speed! The most primordial Conclusion laws from the star's extinction core, like the highest‑grade nourishment, fed his desiccated Dao Foundation, even beginning to scour and soften the shackles forged by Heavenly Dao order.

This was not a boost in power, but a leap in cognition! A qualitative change in his understanding of the essence of Conclusion.

He saw that Return to the Ruins held far broader and deeper possibilities! It was no longer merely a tool of destruction, but an indispensable part of the cosmic cycle, a necessary precondition for 'rebirth' to occur.

Yet, misfortune lurks beneath fortune.

Because of this information outpouring, the crack on the star's core surface visibly widened a fraction, and the instability emanating from the whole crystal surged! The distorted spacetime around it began to shake violently, and the eerie tranquil field showed visible ripples to the naked eye.

This star's extinction core seemed……on the verge of giving way!

Once it completely collapses, the released energy and law storm will annihilate everything in this region!

Meanwhile, the strange entity outside, heavily wounded yet still prowling, seemed to sense the core's abnormality, emitting a sharp cry mixed with fear and greed, and began to recklessly assault the edge of that tranquil zone.

Ahead looms the catastrophe of the core's imminent collapse; behind, the frenzied backlash of the strange entity!

Han Wuxian was jerked violently from his law‑comprehension back to reality, his face grave beyond anything before.