Chapter 234

The moment he leapt into the space rift, Li Qingxuan felt as if he had been thrown into a frantic centrifuge.

The world spun, the senses scrambled, time and space lost all meaning. Only the violent space turbulence, like billions of invisible scrapers, frenziedly tore at their bodies and spirits. Protective energy was draining at breakneck speed; if not for the Weird Divine Realm barely sustaining a small relatively stable zone, and the Life Imprint continuously emanating gentle life force to repair the damage, they would likely have been disintegrated into the most basic particles the moment they entered.

Even so, the pain reached its extreme. The wound on his shoulder left by the ancient god's offspring, under the scouring of spatial force, transmitted a soul‑rending agony, and the annihilation energy, like bone‑eating maggots, seized the chance to launch a frenzied counterattack.

"Hold steady! Grab each other!" Li Qingxuan roared in the Spiritual Link, his arm gripped tightly by Huang Rong and Xingren, while Huang Rong and Xingren's other hands each grabbed Yan Xin and Xingyuzhe, and the surviving team members, like grasshoppers strung together, relied on will and their mutual connection to barely maintain cohesion in this destructive torrent.

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

In the endless chaos and ribbons ahead, a tiny, flickering point of light suddenly appeared!

That point of light emitted an energy fluctuation that clashed with the surrounding violent space, yet was relatively stable.

"Over there! Charge!" the Star Speaker Elder exhausted his last Spiritual Power, pointing at that light point. It was the sole possible Anchor Point he had managed to capture in the dimensional crevice.

There was no second choice. Li Qingxuan concentrated his last strength, controlling the Weird Divine Realm as if steering a leaf struggling in a stormy sea, and painfully drifted toward that point of light.

Boom!

Another violent impact and a feeling of weightlessness came.

The all‑pervasive tearing force around his body vanished abruptly, replaced by an icy, void‑like silence.

They… had they broken out?

Li Qingxuan painfully opened his eyes; first he felt a bone‑chilling cold and a pervasive faint radiation. He found himself drifting in an absolute void, all around deep darkness devoid of any starlight. In the distance, only some distorted, background‑radiation‑like faint specks outlined the universe's most primordial desolation.

They had escaped the space turbulence, but it seemed… they were lost in an unknown, dead‑still region of void.

"Cough…" Huang Rong coughed, a trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth; just now, to protect Li Qingxuan and maintain the team's link, she had borne considerable pressure. Xingren's armor was covered in fine cracks, his breath somewhat disordered. Yan Xin and Xingyuzhe were nearly spent, being supported by two Star Dust Guards in slightly better condition.

A headcount showed the expedition force, originally over fifty, now reduced to fewer than thirty, all wounded and in terrible condition. Their mount, the Fortress of Hope, and all supplies had vanished with the self‑destruction of the Blood and Flesh Furnace.

The atmosphere of despair, like the surrounding darkness, spread silently.

"Where… where are we?" an elf ranger asked, looking at the absolute void all around, his voice trembling. In this place, there are no coordinates, no reference points, no supplies; all that awaits them is a slow death.

Li Qingxuan endured dual fatigue of body and spirit, and the waves of bone‑deep pain from his shoulder wound, trying to sense direction. But here, even his Life Imprint grew dim and indistinct, the faint link to the Light‑Stone Alliance and the Tree of Life seemingly severed completely by this endless void.

The Weird Divine Realm here also suffered severe suppression, its range shrinking to barely cover a few meters around him, and perception could not extend outward.

A true desperate situation.

"Conserve stamina, stay as still as possible, reduce energy consumption." Li Qingxuan hoarsely ordered. In the void, any unnecessary action only speeds up death.

The group fell silent, hovering in the darkness on faint protective energy, like dust in the universe. Time lost meaning here; only eternal cold and silence remained, along with despair welling up from deep within, gradually devouring their will.

Li Qingxuan closed his eyes, sank his Spiritual Power into his body, and fully activated his Life Imprint and his own energy to combat the tenacious annihilation energy in his shoulder wound. He knew that if he could not purge this injury, he would not only be unable to lead everyone to a way out, he himself would fall first.

Yet the annihilation energy left by the ancient god's offspring was extremely hard to shake off; it seemed to have a life of its own, continually eroding his vitality and engaging in a tug‑of‑war with the power of his Life Imprint. Each attempt to dispel it was accompanied by bone‑scraping, heart‑rending pain.

As he focused his spirit on fighting the internal injury, an extremely faint, barely perceptible fluctuation suddenly pierced the void's barrier and was captured by the crystal of his Life Imprint on his chest.

That fluctuation… was incredibly distant, extremely faint, carrying a… familiar, warm feeling?

Li Qingxuan snapped his eyes open and concentrated. That was not the direction of the Light‑Stone Alliance, nor the madness of the Exile Land, but rather… a… summons that seemed to come from something older and more primal—Life itself?

"What's wrong?" Huang Rong sensed his anomaly and asked weakly.

"I… I think I sensed something." Li Qingxuan said uncertainly, trying to lock onto that fluctuation, but it was too weak, like a candle in the wind—flickering on and off.

"Is it an exit?" Xingren's eyes sparked with a hint of hope.

"Unclear… but that direction seems to harbor some… existence related to Life." Li Qingxuan pointed toward a certain direction in the void, which was completely different from the path they had come and from the Exile Land.

In such a desperate situation, any anomaly could be a lifeline.

"Let's go that way!" Li Qingxuan struggled, trying to mobilize strength to move in that direction. But his injury was too severe; the slightest motion tugged at the wound, and his face instantly turned ashen.

"You can't exert any more strength!" Huang Rong hurriedly pressed him down, saying, "We'll carry you!"

The surviving members rallied. Though the future was uncertain, at least they now had a direction. Those in slightly better condition took turns carrying the more seriously wounded, like tiny insects migrating in the dark, and began a slow, arduous drift through the void toward the faint fluctuation Li Qingxuan had sensed.

It was an agonizing journey. With no reference points to gauge distance, they could only adjust their course by Li Qingxuan's intermittent faint sense. Energy kept draining, wounds worsened, and despair clung to them like a shadow that follows every step.

No one knew how long they had drifted, when everyone was about to reach their limit, and even Li Qingxuan's sense was about to vanish completely—

In the eternal darkness ahead, suddenly appeared a… tiny point of light!

It was neither a star nor a nebula, but a… halo emitting a gentle, stable, life‑filled fluctuation!

As they drew nearer, the halo gradually became clear. It was not a natural celestial body, but a… floating island in the void, woven from emerald vines and crystalline branches, resembling a miniature… airborne ecological community!?

At the core of that ecological community stood a plant emitting a soft glow, like a miniature version of the Tree of Life, standing still.

And the source that triggered Li Qingxuan's Life Imprint to sense came precisely from that peculiar plant!

In this void deep‑place that represents death and emptiness, there actually exists an isolated, life‑brimming "Oasis"!?

All the survivors widened their eyes, unable to believe the sight that defied common sense.

Hope, in this absolute land of despair, flared up again like a faint glimmer.

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