The stone chamber should have been as tranquil as ever.

  Above, the stars turned in slow, eternal arcs.

  Dusts of the Milky Way drifted down like quiet silver rain.

  The air carried the faint scent of herbs and old books.

  Pardy slept soundly on the bed, tiny fingers curled around the corner of his blanket, breathing soft and even.

  Ye Lingyun meditated in the corner, the Azure?Cloud Sword resting across his knees.

  Starlight glimmered along the blade, flowing over it in a faint wash of moon?white.

  Lin Che was in the infirmary, carefully packing newly mixed medicines into leather pouches, every motion precise and focused.

  Sunri stood before the stone dais, fingertips brushing the ancient book as he confirmed their next destination—

  “007: The City of Steam and Gears.”

  Everything was orderly.

  Peaceful.

  As if time itself had paused here.

  Until—

  The ancient book shuddered violently.

  Not the gentle tremor of a page turning, but a harsh, spasmodic convulsion that made the entire stone dais hum.

  The pages flipped open on their own, and the light that burst forth was not the familiar gold or silver, but—

  Blood?red.

  Thick. Blinding. Pulsing with an ominous heartbeat.

  In an instant, half the chamber was drowned in crimson.

  Starlight warped.

  The carved patterns on the stone walls blackened as if scorched.

  Mo?Dou, who had been dozing at Pardy’s feet, exploded upright—fur bristling, back arched, tail stiff as iron.

  His golden pupils narrowed to razor slits.

  A low, feral hiss rolled from his throat—

  not a cat’s cry, but a warning, a threat, a primal alarm.

  Sunri jolted awake. Before he could fully react, Mo?Dou blurred into a streak of shadow and struck his hand—

  not hard, but sharp enough to snap him into full awareness.

  “What—”

  Ye Lingyun was already moving. His eyes opened, sword sliding three inches from its sheath, blue light spilling out.

  He looked toward the dais—

  and his face changed.

  “The book… is bleeding?”

  The red glow intensified.

  New text crawled across the pages, twisting like worms in agony:

  【Warning: Spatial Anchor Has Been Void?Marked】

  【Jump Path Contaminated】

  【Intruder Must Be Purged Before Departure】

  【Entity Identified: Moon?Shard Aberrant】

  “...The Void found us?” Sunri’s voice tightened.

  The sun?mark on his palm burned—not with guiding warmth, but with searing alarm.

  Lin Che rushed out of the infirmary, a test tube still in hand.

  One look at the red light and his pupils contracted.

  “Energy readings are unstable… This isn’t biological. It’s some kind of… spatial contamination.”

  Ye Lingyun stepped forward, sword raised, shielding Sunri and Lin Che.

  “Whatever it is—it's here.”

  The words had barely left his mouth when—

  The starry sky above the chamber split open.

  No sound.

  No wind.

  Not even the usual distortion of space tearing.

  Just a pure, absolute black, slicing through the heavens like a blade through silk.

  Purple?black arcs crackled along the edges of the rift, like a festering wound.

  From within, something descended.

  It had no fixed shape—

  a mass of thick, writhing shadow, its surface shimmering with oily, rainbow?sheened reflections.

  Four long tendrils extended from its core.

  Not flesh—

  but translucent energy, edges blurred, as if they might dissolve into the air at any moment.

  Where the tendrils drifted, starlight died.

  The stone walls sizzled with corrosive black scars.

  It had no eyes, no mouth, no face—

  yet everyone felt it.

  It was looking at them.

  With a malice beyond sight, locking onto every living thing in the chamber.

  “That’s not a lifeform,” Lin Che whispered, voice trembling but mind racing.

  “No cells, no metabolism… It’s pure energy, but with a directed attack pattern—like a neural reflex made of hatred.”

  The next instant—

  Four tendrils lashed out like lightning.

  Two toward Sunri.

  Two toward Ye Lingyun.

  So fast they left afterimages.

  Ye Lingyun roared, Azure?Cloud Sword blazing.

  “Azure?Edge Style, Fourth Form—Moon?Rending Slash!”

  Steel met shadow with a sharp metallic ring.

  A tendril was severed—

  black fluid splattering onto the floor, hissing as it ate into the stone.

  But within half a breath, darkness surged—

  the tendril regrew, thicker and longer than before.

  Sunri rolled aside, firing three shots into the creature’s core.

  The bullets vanished into the shadow without a ripple.

  “Physical attacks… useless,” Lin Che muttered.

  “No vital point. Extreme regeneration. Structure like a jellyfish or cnidarian… which means—

  it might fear temperature shock.”

  The creature shrieked without sound, tendrils snapping back—

  then launching again, all four at once, sealing every escape route around Ye Lingyun.

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  He cut two.

  The third grazed his shoulder—cloth burned away, skin seared.

  The fourth drove straight for his heart—

  He twisted, blocking with the hilt, but the impact sent him staggering.

  His old wound throbbed, metallic taste rising in his throat.

  Deep inside him, the dormant sword?embryo trembled—

  a faint pulse of moon?white light rippling across the blade.

  “Lingyun!” Sunri tried to rush to him, but another tendril split off, barring his path.

  And then—

  Mo?Dou leapt onto the stone dais.

  He didn’t hiss.

  Didn’t bristle.

  He simply sat beside the ancient book, golden eyes narrowing to slits.

  Then he lifted one paw—

  and pressed it gently onto the page.

  The air collapsed.

  Not killing intent.

  Not inner force.

  Not any known energy.

  A higher order of pressure—

  a law, descending.

  As if the space itself commanded:

  Do. Not. Move.

  The creature froze.

  Tendrils halted mid?strike.

  Its writhing core convulsed, reflections flickering in disarray.

  Lin Che’s eyes widened—

  he saw it.

  The ancient patterns carved into the floor lit up, silver currents flowing like veins toward the dais.

  The black cat was borrowing the chamber’s power.

  “Now!” Lin Che shouted, sprinting toward the kitchen alcove.

  His mind flashed through medical experiments—

  soft tissues denature under heat, proteins collapsing.

  Even an energy construct, if mimicking biological structure, might fear extreme thermal shock.

  The stove flared to life, blue flames turning white?hot.

  Lin Che grabbed the pan he knew best—

  heavy, even?heated, reliable—

  and set it over the fire.

  The metal glowed red, then orange, then blinding white.

  Heat warped the air.

  Even the handle burned through the cloth.

  He gritted his teeth, wrapped it tighter, and ran.

  “Sunri! Draw its attention!”

  Sunri fired again, bullets useless but distracting.

  Two tendrils whipped toward him.

  Lin Che burst from the side, raised the pan with both hands, and slammed it into the creature’s core.

  “Thermal expansion—AND CONTRACTION!”

  Sssssssssss—

  The creature screamed.

  Not a roar—

  but the shrill, crystalline shriek of a structure collapsing, like glass shattering under sudden frost.

  The struck area boiled, shadow bubbling like tar.

  Tendrils twisted, shriveling, blistering like melting plastic.

  Regeneration halted.

  The wound spread.

  Sunri saw it—

  a faint red point deep within the creature, flickering with its pain.

  A core.

  Or a wound.

  He didn’t hesitate.

  He aimed.

  Fired.

  Crack.

  Like a bubble popping.

  The creature imploded.

  Tendrils crumbled into smoke.

  The remaining shadow recoiled into the rift—

  and the rift sealed shut, leaving only silence.

  The chamber stilled.

  Only scorched marks, the tang of ozone, and their ragged breathing remained.

  The blood?red glow faded from the book.

  New text appeared:

  【Intruder Eliminated】

  【Spatial Anchor Purified】

  【Preparing for Jump】

  The chamber trembled softly.

  Star?clusters streaked like falling meteors—

  then settled, gentle as before.

  Lin Che sagged, dropping the warped pan with a clang.

  He stumbled, caught by Ye Lingyun.

  “You… alright?” Ye Lingyun rasped.

  “I’m fine.” Lin Che pushed up his glasses, breath shaky but smiling.

  “Though… we might need a more heat?resistant pan next time.”

  Sunri knelt by the scorch marks, frowning.

  “Was it after us? Or after the chamber?”

  “The book said the space was marked,” Lin Che murmured.

  “The more worlds we cross, the more traces we leave…

  Like lighting a fire in a dark forest. Something will always come.”

  Ye Lingyun sheathed his sword, gaze lifting to the stars.

  “Meaning this won’t be the last attack.”

  Silence settled.

  Sunri turned toward the dais.

  Mo?Dou was gone.

  He had returned to Pardy’s side, curled beside the sleeping child, tail draped over the boy’s ankle as if nothing had happened.

  Pardy slept peacefully, a faint smile on his lips.

  Sunri approached, brushing a hand through the child’s hair, then glanced at Mo?Dou.

  The black cat opened one eye, gave him a dismissive look, and closed it again.

  “...Thank you,” Sunri whispered—

  to the cat, or to the chamber itself.

  Only starlight answered.

  The ancient book opened once more.

  Light rippled across its pages, updating quietly:

  【Name】Lin Che

  【Archetype】Doctor → Healer

  【Level】2 (+1)

  【Attributes】Analysis / Medicine / Logic

  【Skills】First Aid / Pulse Diagnosis / Pharmacology / Cooking → Field Cooking / +Crisis Response / +Fear Suppression (Awakening)

  【Revelation】Obscured

  【Name】Mo?Dou

  【Archetype】???

  【Level】???

  【Attributes】???

  【Skills】Shadow Step(?) / Silent Leap(?) / +Spatial Resonance(?) / +Law Suppression(?)

  【Revelation】Unavailable

  【True Page】

  【Name】Sunri

  【Archetype】Hunter

  【Level】4 (+2)

  【Attributes】Perception / Empathy / Instinct

  Firearm Mastery

  Accuracy: Initiate

  Auto?Correction: Initiate

  Weak?Point Targeting: Unawakened → Initiate

  Sixth Sense

  Weak?Point Detection: Unawakened → Initiate

  Tracking

  Scent Analysis: Initiate

  Footprint Logic: Unawakened

  Silent Step

  Weight Distribution: Initiate

  Protective Instinct

  Threat Priority: Initiate

  【Revelation】???

  A flash of silver—

  the True Page closed.

  Then a red page snapped open, letters bleeding across it:

  【Enemy】Moon?Shard Aberrant

  【Type】Void Construct / Energy Aggregate

  【Threat Level】III

  【Behavior】Spatial Marking / Environmental Corrosion / Regenerating Tendrils

  【Weakness】Extreme Temperature Shift (Confirmed)

  【Note】

  This entity is a “vanguard unit” of the Void.

  If the spatial anchor is marked three times, a higher?tier hunter will arrive.

  The red page sealed shut.

  Night deepened.

  The chamber was calm again, though a faint tension lingered in the air.

  Ye Lingyun resumed meditation, posture sharper, sword always within reach.

  Lin Che returned to the infirmary, adjusting medicines and setting the warped pan aside.

  “Keep it. Might be useful next time.”

  Sunri sat beside the dais, fingers brushing the book’s cover, lost in thought.

  Mo?Dou slept beside Pardy, tail flicking occasionally—

  but his ears never stopped turning, listening to something beyond the stars.

  The next jump was near.

  Ahead lay the world of steam and gears.

  Somewhere within it, another shard of Yueqiao awaited.

  And the shadow of the Void… had never truly left.

  But they were still here.

  A wounded swordsman.

  A healer.

  A hunter.

  A child.

  A cat.

  A small, broken?but?enduring crew, sailing between stars, walking into the unknown.

  The sky above flowed in silent constellations.

  The stone chamber below kept its quiet vigil.

  The journey was far from over.

  And they were ready to begin again.