Free Web NovelThe first half of the voyage was eerily calm.
Outside the window were sparse stardust and slowly rotating dark matter clouds; occasionally, broken asteroid belts passed by, which the dawn nimbly avoided.
This sector of space seemed to have been forgotten for too ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) long; even the cosmic background radiation felt thin and ancient.
Blue Bird idly toyed with a wisp of lightning. "It's so quiet it's actually creepy."
Zi Yuan glanced at her. "Quiet is good."
Bai Cheng's gaze remained fixed on the navigation screen.
When a third of the journey to the target remained, the path on the star chart began to show subtle distortions.
They weren't physical obstacles but ripples at the level of laws, like ripples silently spreading across a calm water surface.
"We've reached the edge of the space-time turbulence zone," she reminded them softly.
Almost simultaneously, an ice-blue gate of light silently unfolded in the void ahead.
The scene inside the gate was blurred, as if seen through a layer of flowing water mirror. It was a mirror refraction channel constructed by Leng Ningxue, briefly smoothing out the sharp edges of the turbulence.
The dawn slid in soundlessly.
The scenery inside the channel was strange and distorted. Stars in their vision were stretched into multicolored ribbons, the flow of time seemed to fluctuate, and a faint tremor came from the hull, as if they were traveling through the veins of some giant lifeform.
Bai Cheng adjusted the resonance frequency of the oath of starlight to synchronize with the channel, while the pages of the book of commonality automatically recorded the changes in laws along the way.
Zi Yuan's mechanical prosthetic eye scanned for potential lurking threats with the highest precision, while Blue Bird's lightning wove a dense induction net over the ship's hull.
The forty-seven-minute journey passed in tense silence.
When the dawn slid out from the other end of the channel, the sight before them made all three people on the bridge freeze slightly.
It wasn't some grand building or complex mechanical structure.
It was a "planet."
A slowly rotating dark gray sphere interwoven from countless chains of laws. The chains were as thick as mountain ranges, their surfaces inscribed with Observer runes even more ancient and complex than those in the Silent Quadrant.
The light of the runes was dim, yet they still flickered regularly, like the breathing of someone in deep sleep.
There were no lands or oceans on the sphere's surface, only occasional gaps between the chains. Deep within those gaps, flowing data light was faintly visible, cold and orderly.
"The Validation Field..." Blue Bird lowered her voice. "This thing looks sturdier than a prison."
Zi Yuan's mechanical eye locked onto a relatively smooth fissure on the sphere's surface.
"The entrance is there. The intersection nodes of the chains have regular energy troughs. The trough period lasts about three minutes and can be utilized."
Bai Cheng nodded; the book of commonality had already synchronized the scanning results.
"The path provided by the Memory Patroller points to that fissure. Prepare to infiltrate. Remember, the target is only the core database; avoid triggering any validation protocols."
Like a deep-sea fish, the dawn quietly approached, hugging the shadows of the chains. The moment the energy trough arrived, the ship's hull slid sideways, accurately piercing through the fissure.
The view inside suddenly opened up.
It wasn't the expected mechanical hall or data abyss, but a vast, abstract space constructed of light and shadow.
Countless pale blue light bands crisscrossed in the air, forming a complex three-dimensional network.
Prisms of varying sizes floated at the network nodes, with various scene fragments flashing rapidly within them: the rise and fall of civilizations, individual joys and sorrows, the birth and collapse of laws... those were validated echo records.
In the center of the space, a pure white tower stood silently. The tower had no doors or windows, and its surface was covered in waterfall-like silver data streams. That was the core of the Validation Field, where the Old Observers stored raw data.
But the area around the tower was not empty.
Twelve silver-white Constructs floated in mid-air. They were simple in form, like armored humanoids with smooth mirror faces reflecting the flowing light bands around them.
They made no movement, yet they exuded a quiet deterrence, like sleeping guards.
"Automated guards," Zi Yuan's mechanical eye quickly analyzed.
"Their energy signatures are similar to the Adjudicators of the Judgment Legion, but their structure is more ancient and their law compatibility is higher. Once activated, they might invoke the law authority of the entire Validation Field for suppression."
Blue Bird licked her lips. "Should we force our way through?"
Bai Cheng stared at the Constructs, the light of the oath of starlight slightly condensing in her palm.
"No. The rules of the Validation Field are for testing, not destruction. Perhaps we can... apply for a validation."
She stepped forward and adjusted her resonance frequency to an open, candid inquiry wave, transmitting it toward the tower:
"Starfire Archives, applying to access the law adaptability data left by the Old Observers. Purpose: to protect newborn faith and resist unnatural stripping."
The moment the wave rippled out, the mirror faces of the twelve Constructs lit up simultaneously.
Cold scanning beams fell, enveloping the dawn and the three people on the bridge.
There was no hostility in the beams, only a nearly cruel objective scrutiny, as if it wanted to completely analyze their existence from the inside out.
Time passed for a full ten seconds in silence.
Then, one of the Constructs slowly spoke, its voice a smooth electronic synthesis devoid of emotion: ƒreewebɳovel.com
"Application accepted. Validation protocol initiated. Test content: Proof of echo resilience's survival under law oppression.
Pass, and access to designated data blocks will be granted; fail, and the applicants will be incorporated into the validation sample library for long-term observation."
Blue Bird's lightning suddenly flared. "What does that mean? If we don't pass, we'll be locked up for experiments?!"
Zi Yuan's long blade was already unsheathed by half an inch.
Bai Cheng, however, raised her hand to stop them. Her silver eyes were calm as she looked at the Construct.
"We accept the test."
Ripples appeared on the Construct's mirror face.
The next moment, the surrounding abstract space began to change drastically.
The light bands converged, the prisms faded, and in their place was a vast expanse of pure white void.
In the void, invisible law pressure surged from all directions like a tide. It wasn't aimed at their physical bodies but acted directly on the essence of their existence, attempting to squeeze, distort, or even negate their resonance link with the Starfire Archives.
Within the pressure, illusions began to emerge.
They were memory fragments from their journey, replaying in the sharpest way: Lu Duo's Emerald Network breaking inch by inch in the pale light stream;
Yu Nian's pure heart vine withering from absorbing too much pain;
Chi Yan's fleet turning into light dust under the World Government's fire; Zi Yuan and Blue Bird being crushed by law chains; the Archive's keystone cracking, and the river of light stopping its flow...
Every image was incredibly real, accompanied by profound powerlessness and despair.
This was the validation—testing whether they could still hold onto that spark in their hearts in the deepest darkness.
Blue Bird let out a muffled groan, her lightning flickering under the law pressure.
The veins on Zi Yuan's hand holding the blade were slightly visible as her blade intent clashed fiercely with the pressure.
Bai Cheng closed her eyes.
She didn't fight those illusions, nor did she forcibly stabilize the resonance.
She simply sank her consciousness into the deepest part of the oath of starlight, into every moment recorded by the book of commonality.
