Bai Cheng imrsed her spiritual power into it, and fragnted images and noisy shards of thoughts ca surging in:
Beneath the endless starry sky, a spiral tower constructed of flowing starlight and solidified dark matter stood; its spire pierced into the void, and its base subrged into the sea of stars;
A Tower Guardian with a blurred face, dressed in star robes, held a star-track compass and chanted an ancient, lost language;
And finally, a whisper that spanned countless eras of civilization, a resonance captured by Atum before his soul disintegrated.
"...Those who seek the truth of the collection must use the 'Gate' as the guide and 'Faith' as the key..."
Bai Cheng withdrew her spiritual power, her silver eyes narrowing slightly.
The "Gate" likely referred to her space-ti bloodline, but "Faith"... was it the Power of Faith, or so kind of "token"?
She opened her palm, and a warm, thin stream of conviction originating from the desert statue quietly erged, coiling around her fingertips like fireflies. Though this power was weak, it was pure and resilient; perhaps it truly could serve as part of the "key."
But who was the Tower Guardian of the Archive? Had the Enforcent Officers already taken control of them? Everything remained a fog.
Ti passed in silence.
Eight hours and forty-seven minutes later, the train entered the Star-Shatter Corridor.
Outside the porthole, the scene changed abruptly: it was no longer the vast sea and sky, but countless broken planetary remains, solidified teorite belts, and distorted spatial folds.
It looked as if a war that tore through the galaxy had taken place here; everything was shattered, and even light was pulled into eerie arcs.
"The energy node is about to appear," Leng Ningxue's voice rang through the communication array, calm as ever. "Ten-second countdown."
Everyone's nerves tightened.
Bai Cheng stood at the main control station, her hands pressing lightly on the console as silver space-ti power poured in like a tide.
Blue Bird and Zi Yuan stood on either side of the portholes, their lightning and blade intent ready to strike; Lu Duo and Yu Nian stood firm in the ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) rear cabins, as life barriers and vine shields unfolded layer by layer.
"Five, four, three..."
The cursor on the star map suddenly flickered violently!
Three thousand kiloters ahead, in the void of the cosmic background, a speck of silver-blue light suddenly ignited, then rapidly expanded, turning into a rotating nebula vortex.
In the center of the vortex, the phantom of that spiral tower was faintly visible—ancient and silent, as if it had stood there for tens of millions of years.
"Node opened! Warp locked!" Bai Cheng shouted lowly.
All the runes on the train's hull ignited with silver flas simultaneously, and the entire vessel turned into a beam of light, crashing toward the vortex!
Just a mont before the bow subrged into the vortex, a sudden change occurred—
At the edge of the vortex, four dark-gold pillars of light tore through space without warning, piercing through in a locking formation!
Within the pillars of light, four tal giants clad in star-patterned heavy armor and bearing the insignia of Enforcent Officers appeared majestically. They held massive blades, and the cold fire of judgnt burned in their eye sockets.
"The highest sequence of Enforcent Officers, the Starry Sky Guards." Leng Ningxue's icy eyes turned cold instantly. "They really were guarding this place!"
The leading gold-armored giant raised its massive blade, pointing the edge directly at the train, as a chanical and magnificent thought crushed down: "Forbidden knowledge, inquiry prohibited. Intruders shall be erased."
No warning, no negotiation.
The four giants swung their blades simultaneously, and the dark-gold light of judgnt turned into a cross-slash that tore through the starry sky, sealing off all directions for the train to dodge!
"Charge through!" A sharp light burst from Bai Cheng's silver eyes, and her space-ti power erupted with full force, forcibly propping up a refraction barrier in front of the train.
Blue Bird and Zi Yuan struck at the sa ti.
The Thunder Spear roared like a dragon, crashing into the two slashes on the left;
The purple electric blade arc was like a crescent moon, slashing toward the light blade on the right. The two forces exploded into a brilliant burst of light in the void, the shockwave grinding the surrounding teorite remains into dust.
But the power of the Starry Sky Guards far exceeded expectations. Although the light of judgnt was temporarily blocked, it did not dissipate; instead, it coiled up like a living thing, attempting to corrode the train's protective layer.
"Their power... carries the suppression of Laws!" Lu Duo exclaid; the life barrier she had propped up was being rapidly weakened.
At the critical mont, that thin stream of faith in Bai Cheng's palm suddenly floated out of its own accord, gently touching the refraction barrier.
A marvelous change occurred.
The stream of faith did not increase the strength of the barrier, but instead caused the space-ti structure on the barrier's surface to produce a certain resonance.
When the light of judgnt touched the barrier, it was as if it had struck the surface of water; the power was dispersed and refracted, and a portion was even quietly channeled into the cracks of space-ti!
The movents of the Starry Sky Guards simultaneously stiffened.
They seed to have never encountered a thod that could neutralize the power of judgnt in such a way.
It was this montary gap!
The silver flas of the train exploded, its speed increasing by another thirty percent as it resolutely broke through the light-blade blockade and plunged headlong into the center of the nebula vortex!
The world spun.
All scenes blurred, stretched, and reorganized in an instant.
When their vision cleared again, the train was suspended within a hall of absolute silence in the starry sky.
Beneath their feet was a projection of the flowing sea of stars, and above their heads was an inverted relief of the Milky Way.
The hall was boundless, with countless bookshelves, scrolls, crystal monunts, and light screens slowly drifting along invisible tracks, each collection emitting ancient and vast fluctuations of knowledge.
This was the Star Archive.
And in the very center of the hall, the physical entity of the spiral tower stood majestically.
At the base of the tower, a figure clad in star robes with their face hidden under a hood stood quietly, holding a slowly rotating star-track compass.
He raised his head, and two points of starlight-like gaze from under the hood fell upon the silver train that had just intruded.
A calm, ancient, yet undeniable thought washed over the entire hall like a tide:
"With the bloodline of the Gate as the guide, and pure conviction as the key... You indeed have the qualification to step into this archive."
"But knowledge has its own price."
"The answer you seek is at the top of the tower, in the 'Final Chapter of the Era.' Only by stepping across the three thousand heart-questioning steps and passing through the nine-fold trial realms can it be seen."
"If you fail, your souls shall remain here, forever part of the collection."
The thought dissipated.
Bai Cheng and her companions looked at each other, all seeing the gravity in each other's eyes.
The Tower Guardian of the Archive did not stop them, but set an even more perilous test.
And outside the hall, those four Starry Sky Guards did not chase them in, but they had blocked the exit—this ant they had no way back.
The only way was up.
Bai Cheng took a deep breath, her silver eyes looking toward the spiral tower whose top was out of sight.
"Get off the train."
She was the first to push open the cabin door and step onto the flowing starlight floor.
Behind her, Blue Bird, Zi Yuan, Leng Ningxue, Lu Duo, and Yu Nian followed one by one.
In the starlight hall, only the silver train remained suspended quietly, along with the Tower Guardian's starlight eyes, as calm as an ancient well.
The tower steps had already unfolded beneath their feet, each step cast from solidified starlight, the surfaces manifesting flowing ancient text and illusions—
They were silhouettes of the rise and fall of countless civilizations, the imprints of the clash between truth and fallacy, and the weight of the accumulation of vast space-ti.
The first step was taken.
The entire Star Archive fell into a quiet hush.
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