Linde no longer had time to collect detailed star maps of the nearby star regions. The chilling sense of threat emanating from the "Arbitrator of Order" hung over his heart like the Sword of Damocles, giving him an unprecedented sense of urgency.
He needed to acquire information more quickly, understand the structure of this star system, and assess the level of danger that the continent of Tyre might face.
After quickly adjusting his own state and confirming that he had not left any energy imprints that could be tracked, he took out the second "Star Scale Boat" without hesitation.
The coordinates corresponding to this star scale are vaguely marked in the ancient records of the dragon race as "Forbidden Zone of Life? Abnormal Energy Turbulence," which is quite far from this place.
Without much hesitation, Linde infused it with pure magic.
The star scales were activated once more, and the miniature galaxy inside them shone brightly, its powerful pull locking onto a new and more distant shore.
Space twisted and folded violently once more, and Linde's figure transformed into a streak of light, entering the faster-than-light interstellar travel portal, leaving the star field that concealed the silver civilization far behind.
...
When the bizarre dimensional landscape around him stabilized again and the tearing sensation of traversing gradually subsided, Lind found himself in an... extremely unusual star field.
There are no dazzling galaxies here, nor the familiar glow of stars.
Before me stretched a vast, slowly rotating nebula composed of dark red and murky purple hues. Within the nebula, a storm seemed to be brewing, with pale white lightning flashing silently every now and then, tearing through the thick clouds to reveal even darker fissures in its depths.
A vast, chaotic energy field, imbued with a strong sense of mental oppression, permeated the entire space, causing Linde's soul to feel a sense of stagnation and discomfort.
The spatial structure here is extremely unstable. Visible spatial folds undulate like waves, and occasionally small spatial fragments peel off and disappear, emitting a silent lament.
“A forbidden zone for life… truly deserving of its name.” Linde hovered at the edge of the nebula, his cold purple eyes scrutinizing this ominous airspace.
The dragon's mark was correct; the environment here was extremely harsh, making it almost impossible for ordinary life to survive. Even he needed to constantly maintain protective energy to resist the pervasive mental pressure and spatial tearing effects.
[Deconstructing the Halo] Unfolds silently, attempting to scan this nebula.
The feedback was extremely chaotic, filled with violent energy noise and distorted spatial data. The nebula itself seemed to possess some kind of interference property, greatly limiting the range and accuracy of perception.
(High concentration of chaotic energy gathering... fragile spatial structure with numerous natural wormholes and fissures, extremely unstable... strong residual negative emotions detected, suspected to be the site of a large-scale mass extinction... energy turbulence direction pointing towards the nebula core...)
"Mass extinction..." Linde caught this key phrase. Could this place have been part of an ancient battlefield?
He cautiously flew deeper into the nebula, avoiding several obvious spatial rifts and energy turbulences. The deeper he went, the stronger the mental pressure became, as if countless ghosts were howling and crying in his ears, filled with despair and resentment.
After flying for an unknown amount of time, and passing through a particularly dense dark red cloud, the sight before him made Linde's pupils shrink slightly.
The interior of a nebula is not entirely empty.
Countless enormous, twisted, and indescribable debris floated in the nebula like carelessly discarded trash.
These remains vary in style. Some are clearly fragments of technological creations, gleaming with a cold metallic luster, but their structures defy the laws of mechanics, filled with bizarre angles and writhing tubes. Others resemble the remains of some enormous creature, their skeletons exhibiting non-Euclidean geometry, long since petrified, yet still retaining chilling energy fluctuations on their surfaces. Still others are products of the fusion of the two, as if biological tissue and mechanical creations were forcibly mixed together and then brutally destroyed.
This place... is a huge "graveyard"!
A final resting place for those “disordered” beings that have been purified by the “arbitrators of order” or destroyed in other conflicts!
Linde stopped before an exceptionally large wreck, resembling a hybrid of some kind of arthropod and starship. The wreck was almost the size of an asteroid, its fractured surface smooth as a mirror, as if it had been instantly severed by some unimaginable blade.
【Deconstructing the Halo】Focusing on the cut surface to analyze its residual energy.
(...high-dimensional cutting marks...energy attribute analysis...originating from the same source as the 'Arbiter of Order' power, confirmed.)
Sure enough, this was also the work of those silver civilizations. This nebula might be their place for disposing of "garbage" and "failures," or perhaps it was the main battlefield of some large-scale purification operation.
Linde continued to delve deeper, hoping to find more valuable clues, such as the technological remnants of the purified, or more information about the "Order Arbiters'" modus operandi.
Just as he approached the core region of the nebula, the [Deconstruction Halo] suddenly detected an extremely faint, yet exceptionally tenacious...life signal?!
In this desolate graveyard where even souls would be crushed, how could life still exist?
Linde immediately flew towards the source of the signal.
Finally, he stopped in front of a huge, dark red mass of flesh that pulsated slowly like a heart (or rather, the remnant of some kind of biological tissue). The faint life signal was emanating from within this mass of flesh.
The surface of this lump of flesh was covered with twisted holes and constantly opening and closing eyeball-like structures, emitting a nauseating stench of decay, but at its core, a faint spark of consciousness stubbornly clung to it.
Seemingly sensing Lind's approach, the eyes on the surface of the fleshy mass turned towards him in unison, and a chaotic, painful, and faintly pleading mental fluctuation was transmitted intermittently:
"[Pain... bondage... liberation... knowledge... exchange...]"
Another one trying to make a deal? Linde's eyes were cold and unmoved. This creature from the chaotic side, its words were full of traps.
He directly activated the [Deconstruction Aura], forcibly scanning the internal structure and core consciousness of the flesh.
(...severely distorted biomass...deeply integrated with unknown technological creations...the core of consciousness is imprisoned by some kind of order force and is in a state of slow decay...its knowledge and memory are severely fragmented, involving multiple unknown star field coordinates, biological evolution paths, and...extreme fear and hatred towards the 'Purifier' (order arbitrator)...)
Just as Linde was trying to extract information about the "Arbitrator of Order" from those fragmented memories, a sudden change occurred!
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