"3, 2, 1, launch!"

With a "plop," the submersible plunged into the sea. Through the high-strength acrylic glass porthole, Han Feng saw sunlight shimmering in the water like golden threads, but as the depth increased, these rays were quickly swallowed by the darkness.

When the depth gauge showed 500 meters, the first anomaly appeared. The sonar screen suddenly flickered like snowflakes, and then a red warning popped up: [Sonic interference detected]. Almost simultaneously, Han Feng felt an unusual energy fluctuation coming from the depths—cold, viscous, like the tentacles of some living creature gently brushing against the hull of the submersible.

"It's not energy from Earth..." he muttered to himself, tapping the control panel to activate the bio-scanner. However, the screen showed nothing but a large amount of noise.

1500 meters. The external pressure had reached 150 atmospheres, and the submersible began to emit a slight metallic groan. Han Feng pulled up the external camera footage; occasionally, a few eerie blue lights flashed in the dark seawater, like the bioluminescence of deep-sea fish, but their movement was too predictable.

When the depth exceeded 2000 meters, all communication devices simultaneously emitted a piercing static noise, then fell completely silent. Only the most basic mechanical instruments on the control panel remained operational; the electronic screens all displayed static. Han Feng attempted to stabilize the system using the power of the stars, but discovered that the energy was rapidly absorbed by some force as soon as it left his body.

"Interesting..." He smirked and switched to manual control. The submersible's searchlights activated, two beams of light piercing the darkness of the deep sea, but the sight they revealed made Han Feng gasp—

Countless translucent blue crystals, each the size of a fist, floated in the surrounding seawater, arranged in a complex three-dimensional network. These crystals were not static, but rather pulsed slowly as if alive, sometimes shrinking into points and sometimes expanding into surfaces, forming a vast energy matrix.

The pulsating frequency of the blue crystals suddenly increased, as if sensing the presence of the intruder. Han Feng held his breath, concentrated his stellar power at his fingertips, and gently touched the inside of the porthole. A miraculous scene unfolded—the nearest crystals suddenly retreated, forcibly squeezing a passage through the dense matrix.

"What's going on? Are these things afraid of the power of the stars?" Han Feng raised an eyebrow and tried to release more star power into the seawater. This time the effect was even more obvious: all the crystals within a ten-meter radius retreated, like seaweed being parted by an invisible hand.

Suddenly, the control panel crackled, and some of the instruments resumed operation. The depth gauge showed a current depth of 2150 meters and a temperature of 3.2 degrees Celsius, but the biodetector remained eerily silent—the area was eerily clean, devoid of fish, plankton, and even the most basic signals of marine microorganisms.

It was as if something had... cleared the area out.

Han Feng maneuvered the submersible along the path cleared by the crystals. Under the beam of the searchlight, fine lines were faintly visible inside the crystals, like frozen lightning or the strokes of some unknown script. When he attempted to obtain a sample with the laser sampler, all the crystals suddenly flashed simultaneously, and the sampling arm froze just five centimeters from the nearest crystal.

"Electromagnetic pulse?" Han Feng inspected the damaged equipment, only to find that the situation was even worse—a layer of blue ice crystals had condensed at the metal joints of the sampling arm, and it was these substances that blocked the mechanical movement.

He switched to manual mode and forcibly retracted the sampling arm. The instant the robotic arm left the crystal area, the blue ice crystals seemed to "climb" onto the submersible's hull as if they were alive. Through the external camera, Han Feng saw the ice crystals rapidly spread across the metal surface, forming a strange spiderweb-like pattern.

"This is not good..."

The submersible began to vibrate violently, and the depth gauge needle swung wildly. Han Feng acted decisively, enveloping the entire cabin in his stellar energy. The moment the ice crystals touched the energy field, they emitted a high-frequency shriek that nearly pierced eardrums, then exploded into fine blue powder, which was dispersed by the water flow.

After a brief period of chaos, Han Feng discovered a circular cavity about twenty meters in diameter in the center of the crystal matrix. When he shone a searchlight on it, the light seemed to be swallowed up and could not be reflected—it was a bottomless vertical rift, with jagged rocks on the edges densely covered with blue crystals, like the sharp teeth of some kind of monster.

"Zero, can you detect that rift?" Han Feng asked in his mind.

“No, something is blocking the way. It seems like this is a teleportation array, but it's different from what I know,” Zero replied.

Undeterred, Han Feng condensed his stellar power into probe threads that extended towards the rift. However, the energy threads lost contact the moment they touched the edge of the rift, as if bitten off by something... Worse still, this action seemed to enrage the crystal matrix; all the blue crystals simultaneously turned towards the submersible, their internal patterns blazing with blinding light.

"Alright, that's enough for today." Han Feng decisively pulled up the landing stick. The submersible's thrusters spewed out high-pressure water jets, but it just spun in place—four blue light cables had somehow wrapped around the hull, slowly dragging it towards the rift valley!

Warning lights flashed, and a piercing alarm blared inside the cabin. Han Feng's eyes blazed with starlight as he placed his hands on the control panel: "Nine Forms of Starfall - Severing the Void!"

A dazzling silver light burst forth from every seam of the submersible, and the light cables snapped as if struck by lightning. Freed from its restraints, the submersible shot towards the surface like an arrow. Through the downward-facing camera, Han Feng saw the entire crystal matrix boil over, countless blue crystals combining to form a gigantic tentacle-like structure, reaching upwards towards the submersible.

1500 meters...1000 meters...500 meters...

As the depth decreased, the pursuing crystalline tentacles gradually slowed down, eventually retreating reluctantly into the darkness at a depth of 300 meters. When the submersible broke the surface, the rising sun was just leaping over the sea, bathing the entire cockpit in gold.

Han Feng leaned back in his seat, panting, only then realizing that his back was soaked with sweat. He opened the cabin door, and the salty sea breeze rushed in, diluting the strong smell of overheated metal inside the cabin.

"Quite a haul..." he muttered to himself, scraping off a bit of the remaining blue powder from the bulkhead. The substance shimmered like crushed diamonds in the sunlight, but vaporized and vanished the moment it touched his skin, leaving only a stinging sensation.

The blue powder writhed and dissipated as if it were alive. Han Feng swiftly activated his Star Power, and a wisp of silver light emerged from his fingertip, enveloping the powder that was about to vaporize. The blue substance, shrouded in starlight, immediately quieted down and slowly floated in the energy field, like a trapped firefly.