In the northern ice plains, eternal stillness is the dominant theme.
Unlike the forced tranquility of the Eversong Forest, the deathly stillness here is timeless, a characteristic of the forbidden zone of life itself.
The gale whipped up ice shards, like countless sharp files, endlessly grinding against the frozen earth.
The aurora borealis twisted against the dark sky, casting ever-changing halos of eerie green and ghastly purple light, illuminating the vast, deep glaciers below that seemed to devour all light and heat.
Linde hovered at the edge of this forbidden land. The seven-colored magical radiance around him seemed somewhat dim in this extreme environment, as if suppressed by an invisible chill.
Even he could sense the ancient and wildness emanating from this land, originating from the dawn of the world.
[Deconstructing the Halo] was launched with full force, but the feedback was unusually difficult to understand.
The spatial structure here is more stable than imagined, with an extremely low energy background, like a block of ice frozen for hundreds of millions of years, impossible to penetrate.
The "dust of reality" that shrouds the continent is almost imperceptible here. It's not that it doesn't exist, but rather that it seems to have completely blended into the environment, becoming part of the background.
“Well hidden.” Lind’s gaze was icy. He could sense that the Silent Weaver’s remaining “nest” was deep within this icy plain, but its exact location was concealed by an extremely sophisticated camouflage force that blended seamlessly with the environment.
He tried to follow the faint connection he had previously captured in the Eversong Forest, but the clue disappeared without a trace once it entered the Ice Plains, like a drop of water flowing into the ocean.
Clearly, the Silent Weavers have been operating here for countless years, and their lair is far more concealed than the temporary outposts in Eversong Forest.
Linde remained patient. Like a most patient hunter, he began a thorough scan, centering on himself. His mental energy, like mercury, seeped into the ancient ice beneath his feet, sensing every possible abnormal energy structure or residual information within each inch of the ice.
This was an extremely mentally taxing process. The vastness of the ice field and the harshness of the environment greatly limited the efficiency of the scanning. Time slipped away quietly amidst the howling winds and the ever-changing aurora borealis.
One day, two days...
Just as Linde was almost finished scanning the outer area and preparing to advance into the more dangerous interior, the [Deconstruction Halo] finally detected a very subtle spatial fold that shared the same origin as the Silent Weaver!
These folds were not formed naturally; they were cleverly hidden deep within a massive ice fissure, blending seamlessly with the surrounding turbulent ice elemental fluctuations. Had Lind not been extremely familiar with the nature of the Silent Weaver's power, it would have been almost impossible for him to discover them.
"Found it."
Linde's figure flashed, instantly appearing at the edge of the bottomless ice crevice. A chilling wind howled from the depths of the crevice, carrying a coldness capable of freezing the soul. Without any hesitation, he leaped into it.
He plummeted to an unknown depth, surrounded by absolute darkness and deathly silence; even the howling wind had vanished. Only the three-dimensional images fed back by the [Deconstruction Halo] sketched out the surrounding scenery in his consciousness—smooth, mirror-like, dark blue ice walls on either side of the crevice, frozen for countless millennia.
Finally, he "touched" the bottom. It wasn't solid ice, but a relatively flat surface made of some kind of black rock. And on one side of the rock wall, the hidden spatial fold rippled gently like water.
Linde stretched out his hand, his fingertips gathering highly compressed [Power of Harmony of All Things], and gently touched the center of the spatial fold.
"Buzz..."
A deep, ancient resonance resounded. The folds of space spread out like water after a pebble has been thrown in, revealing a faint white light emanating from an entrance just wide enough for one person to pass through.
A power of "tranquility" and "forgetfulness" that is a hundred times purer and richer than the outside world, mixed with an even more ancient and inhuman aura, wafts out from the entrance!
Linde stepped in.
The scene before my eyes suddenly changed.
He felt as if he had stepped into a strange world made of ice crystals and memories. There was no sky, no earth, only countless enormous, angular, transparent ice crystals, each containing blurry images of light and shadow, standing haphazardly like a forest. These ice crystals emitted a soft white light, forming the only source of light.
A cold energy flowed through the air, but this energy was not lifeless; rather, it seemed to possess life, silently "narrating" forgotten history, shattered dreams, and the thoughts of living beings before their death.
This is the archive of the "Silent Weaver," and also its source of power—a demiplane composed of countless "silent" messages that it has devoured and processed.
Linde walked through this icy crystal forest, his [Deconstruction Aura] scanning the sealed images. He saw the roars of ancient behemoths, the glory and fall of lost civilizations, the prayers of elven ancestors, and also... starry skies not belonging to the continent of Tyre, filled with distorted geometry and incomprehensible colors—fragments of information carried in the whispers of extraterrestrial evil gods!
Sure enough, the source of pollution remained here!
He walked towards the direction where the energy fluctuations were most concentrated and the coldest. The deeper he went, the larger the ice crystals became, and the more fragmented the images sealed inside became, the closer they were to the original rules and information. Some flowing silver runes composed of pure "tranquility" laws even began to appear.
Finally, he arrived at the core of this demiplane.
There were no ice crystals there, only a huge dark silver vortex, about ten meters in diameter, suspended in mid-air. The vortex rotated slowly, its center as deep as an eye, emanating the familiar, primal aura of the Silent Weavers, but more concentrated, and more... unstable.
Beneath the vortex, there lurked a clump of indescribable "thing".
It is like a constantly writhing and changing shadow, or a chaotic flow of information that has coalesced into a tangible form.
Its form constantly shifts between shadows, slime, and broken symbols, exuding an aura that is completely different from the "tranquility" of the Silent Weaver, filled with greed, thirst, and a frenzied devouring desire!
The "noise" left behind by extraterrestrial evil gods! It is this that has corrupted the Weaver of Silence!
This "noise" seemed to sense Lind's arrival as well. It suddenly "boiled" and emitted a silent shriek. A dark purple beam of light, which combined the properties of mental pollution and information annihilation, shot towards Lind like a venomous snake!
The essence of this attack is exactly the same as that of the evil god's minions that Linde encountered in the sea of stars, but it is purer and closer to its chaotic origin!
Linde's eyes narrowed; this time, he didn't use the [Power of Universal Harmony]. Against such pure, highly concentrated evil god corruption, the harmonizing efficiency was too low.
He directly used one of the most primordial powers—[The End of Annihilation]!
A profound, seemingly all-consuming power of shadow surged from his palm, transforming into a silent black torrent that met the dark purple beam of light.
There was no explosion, no flash.
Two forces of diametrically opposed nature, yet both representing ultimate destruction, met in mid-air. The instant they made contact, the space in that area seemed to collapse, and light, sound, and even concepts were sucked into it, turning into absolute "nothingness".
Shadow Abyss's "Termination" property has an innate ability to counter the "Chaos" and "Devour" of evil gods!
The dark purple beam of light, as if encountering its nemesis, was swiftly eroded, dissolved, and reduced to nothingness by the black torrent. The black torrent, undeterred, crashed directly into the ever-changing "noise"!
"[No—! Eternal hunger—return to…one…]"
The "noise" emitted a final wave of resentment and madness before being completely enveloped and compressed by the power of [End of Annihilation].
Like a popped soap bubble, that "noise" that contained the essence of countless evil gods' wills was completely wiped out from the level of existence by absolute power, leaving not even a trace behind!
As the core source of pollution disappeared, the dark silver vortex in mid-air suddenly stopped, its rotation speed abruptly slowed down, and the chaotic and frenzied thoughts emanating from it also dissipated, leaving only the purest primordial laws belonging to "tranquility" and "forgetting," which, although still cold, no longer carried that nauseating sense of distortion.
The lair of the Silent Weavers has been completely purified.
Linde watched the slowly calming dark silver vortex, his eyes flickering slightly. This pure source of law was the result of the Silent Weaver's collection and sorting over billions of years. Although its consciousness had been corrupted and destroyed, this power itself was neither good nor evil.
Destroy it? That would be a shame.
Take it away? This power is of a special nature and is not completely compatible with his own light and darkness origins. Forcibly fusing with it may produce unknown risks.
After a moment's thought, Lind made his decision. He pressed his hands together, and the power of order from the light veins and the power of nothingness from the shadow abyss intertwined once more. But this time, instead of colliding, they formed a more complex composite rune with sealing and isolation effects.
Countless runes shimmering with silver-gray luster flew out like chains, wrapping around the dark silver vortex, layer upon layer, and finally compressing it into a fist-sized silver crystal with a tranquil radiance flowing across its surface.
[Eternal Stasis Seal]!
This crystal will be taken back to Starfire Base and placed under the strictest guard. Perhaps in the future, when our understanding of the laws of consciousness and dreams is deep enough, this power will have other uses.
Having done all this, Linde once again surveyed the gradually collapsing ice crystal demiplane. With the disappearance of the core and the sealing of the origin, this space, maintained by the power of the Silent Weaver, had come to an end.
Without lingering, he flashed out of the entrance and returned to the bottom of the cold crevice, then flew upwards without stopping.
As he was once again bathed in the dim light of the northern ice plains, a dull, thunderous sound, as if a glacier had broken apart, came from the depths of the massive ice fissure behind him, before it slowly closed, leaving no trace.
The "Dust of Reality" enveloping the continent of Til has lost its core support and is rapidly dissipating. The "Activated Nodes" lurking throughout the continent are also falling silent like puppets without commands, turning back into ordinary items or constructs.
A potential crisis that could sweep across the continent seems to have been nipped in the bud.
But Linde showed no joy. He hovered above the ice field, gazing at the boundless starry sky.
The Weaver of Silence was corrupted by a malevolent "noise" from the cosmos. Was this "noise" a chance occurrence, or... a deliberate projection?
Is the silver sphere tracker of the arbiter of order still lurking in some corner?
The threat from the Star Sea has never been far away. The continent of Tiel, like a small boat whose leaks have just been repaired in a storm, continues to sail on a dark ocean fraught with danger.
His return resolved an internal crisis, but greater challenges may lie ahead.
"We must speed things up..." Lind muttered to himself.
He needs to transform the gains from his journey to the stars into tangible strength as soon as possible.
Iris's knowledge, the Crystal People's experience, and a deeper understanding of the Arbiters of Order and the Outer Gods all require time to digest and integrate.
Blackrock Territory, Starfire Base, and indeed the entire continent of Tiel, need to become stronger to cope with the unknown, potentially monstrous waves from the depths of the starry sea.
He took one last look at the ancient ice field, then his figure transformed into a streak of light, speeding back towards the Starfire Base.
This time, he brought back not only news of victory, but also a heavy responsibility and a sense of urgency for the future.
Driven by him, the wheels of time will surely turn faster, rolling towards that bright yet thorny path to the future.
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