Linde's mental power, like invisible tentacles, rapidly traversed the vast and boundless magic network.
The Magic Network, originally a network of ordered energy created by the God of Magic, has now become his hunting ground for hunting down that god's "lost creation."
He sifted through the vast torrent of information, searching for any unusual fluctuations related to "silence," "denial of existence," or "energy vacuum."
This is akin to finding a needle in a haystack, but Linde possesses the ultimate information processing capabilities granted by the [Deconstruction Halo], as well as a near-intuitive filtering algorithm based on an understanding of the essence of Esmeralda's power.
Hard work pays off.
After several days of searching, several extremely faint but distinctive "signals" were detected.
They are scattered across the continent, like footprints left by ghosts:
Deep within the northern ice plains: In an ancient glacial valley that should be teeming with the restless energy of ice elements, a small, absolutely calm, dead zone has appeared, where even the slightest elemental fluctuations are silent.
According to local snow folklore, a few days ago a "walking pale nothingness" swept across the sky. Wherever it passed, the blizzard subsided, but it also took away all "life," even turning the most cold-resistant ice moss into ashes.
Lost Ancient City in the Western Desert: An ancient city ruin half-buried in the yellow sand. The core area of the city originally had powerful ancient protective magic barrier fluctuations, but they suddenly disappeared completely.
It wasn't that the energy was exhausted, but rather that the stone itself, along with the base of the barrier, had lost all traces of magic and the sense of historical accumulation, becoming even "blank" than a newly polished stone.
Southeast Coastal Fishing Village: A sudden thick fog enveloped the small fishing village. After the fog dissipated, the villagers found that a rocky area on the beach had become unusually "smooth". All the barnacles, seaweed and even the traces of years of erosion that were attached to it had disappeared, as if it had been completely "polished" by some force.
Fishermen claim to have seen a blurry, unsettling white figure standing on the sea surface through the fog.
These locations were scattered and seemingly random, but Lind quickly sketched out her trajectory—a aimless path that constantly erased certain “special” or “ancient” traces of the world.
She seemed to be wandering, or perhaps she was carrying out some kind of instinct to cleanse herself of "impurities" that no one could understand.
After identifying several areas where she might have recently appeared or had not yet left, Lind took action.
Instead of directly using the "Starry Sky Apostle" or his own body, he remotely controlled several specially modified high-speed reconnaissance units equipped with high-precision observation equipment and energy projection devices to head to the target airspace.
The first test site chosen was the northern ice field.
The reconnaissance unit hovered above the clouds, locking onto the desolate glacial valley. Lind's mental power descended from afar, coldly issuing commands.
"Experiment 1: Arcane Disintegration Ray, maximum power."
A blazing arcane spear, powerful enough to instantly vaporize steel and tear apart legendary shields, shot precisely from high above towards the center of the desolate area.
However, just as the light spear was about to touch that "nothingness," its immense energy structure seemed to encounter an absolute zero heat flow, and the light did not burst forth, but instead... went out.
It wasn't that it was canceled out or absorbed; rather, the very "existence" that constitutes energy was negated, utterly reduced to nothingness, without even a ripple.
Data transmitted back by the high-altitude reconnaissance unit showed that after the rays entered a specific range, the energy readings did not decay, but instead dropped abruptly to zero, as if they had never existed.
"Experiment 2: Resonance Disintegrates Force Field".
The second plan is activated. The reconnaissance unit releases a special wave field designed to induce resonance in the underlying material structure of the target area, causing it to disintegrate.
Invalid. The wave field cannot generate any "waves" within the "quiet" region; its "existence" is directly ignored.
"Experiment 3: Physical Kinetic Energy Impact - Ultra-high-speed Crystalline Penetrating Projectile".
A projectile composed of highly condensed crystalline material, traveling at speeds exceeding ten times the speed of sound, is launched towards its target using pure physical kinetic energy.
The result remained the same.
The moment the projectile enters the "silent" zone, its high-speed motion "state" and its hard "material properties" are instantly negated.
It didn't crash, it didn't shatter, but rather it was as if it had been directly deleted from the world's archives, completely disappearing.
Linde even tried a more extreme method—guiding a small-scale icefield magic storm, attempting to use a chaotic and violent ocean of energy to disrupt that "silence".
However, once the edge of the storm touches that area, the turbulent energy flow is like hitting an absolutely smooth, insurmountable invisible wall, forced to divert and detour, unable to penetrate even a little.
That desolate region, like the eye of a storm, maintained a despairing calm.
Similar experiments were repeated at several other locations, employing a variety of attack methods, including mental shock, spatial distortion, and elemental annihilation.
All the results were exactly the same.
Regardless of the form of energy or matter, once it enters the core area influenced by Esmeralda's power, its very basis for "existence" is instantly stripped away, and it vanishes into nothingness.
She doesn't even need to make any movements; she simply exists quietly, and her inherent "rule negation" force field is an absolute defense.
During one test, a reconnaissance unit got too close to a newly formed "silent" area (where Esmeralda had just left), and Lind clearly "saw" the blurry white figure in the center of the area through the transmitted images.
She seemed to sense that she was being watched and slowly raised her head.
The face without facial features was "facing" the direction of the reconnaissance unit.
It was an indescribable "gaze," devoid of any emotion, only pure, cold "nothingness."
The next moment, all the sensor readings of the reconnaissance unit instantly spiked to zero and then dropped to zero. The connection was completely severed, as if its very existence had been remotely erased.
Linde decisively abandoned that unit and cut off all contact.
The experiment failed, but the light in Linde's purple eyes grew even sharper and more certain.
All attacks, whether energy or physical, whether orderly or chaotic, cannot break through the absolute characteristic of "denying existence" as long as they "exist" within the rules of this world.
This cold, hard result confirmed his conjecture with unparalleled accuracy.
Conventional methods are meaningless.
The only thing that can defy the rule is another kind of rule.
Perhaps the only one capable of denying "existence" is the Shadow Abyss, which yearns to devour all "existence."
"Data collection complete. All common attack patterns have been verified as invalid."
Linde's voice echoed calmly in the main control room of Steel Sky.
"Conclusion: The priority of implementing the 'Shadow Abyss Response Plan' is raised to the absolute highest level."
"Resources are being poured into the Howling Abyss Research Institute without limit."
"Initiate the first phase of the 'Shadow Abyss Singularity' project experiment."
His gaze fell upon the projection of the abyssal rift, where dark energy roared silently like a hungry beast.
The next step in hunting down the gods' creations is to borrow power from the abyss.
This path, though fraught with peril, may be the only way to surpass the legendary.
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