Free Web NovelOutside the shields of the Faith Nebula, the Silver Fleet of the World Government floated silently like a metallic glacier.
Their observation arrays operated continuously, recording every logical energy fluctuation and ripple of laws within the nebula, yet they remained unable to penetrate that warm and flexible veil of light to glimpse the true pulsation beneath.
Inside the Starfire Archives, Bai Cheng withdrew her gaze from the Mirror Corridor.
The book of commonality felt slightly warm in her palm, the ink of the stardust-glimmering chapters on its pages not yet dry, while the abnormal pulse marker in that sector of the star chart was like a fine thorn, quietly embedded on the edge.
"Pulse characteristic analysis is sixty-two percent complete." Leng Ningxue's icy blue data stream condensed into a clear report at a corner of the main console,
"The remaining portion cannot be restored due to insufficient information.
However, the analyzed structure shows that the pulse contains multi-layered nested rule encodings, with a complexity far exceeding the products of conventional technological civilizations, closer to some... natural expression of a primordial rule entity or a mixed characteristic of artificial modulation."
"primordial rule entity." Bai Cheng softly repeated the term, starlight flowing in the depths of her silver eyes,
"Within the Star Abyss, there indeed exist phenomena of rule aggregation independent of civilization, or even born before civilization itself.
But most of them are silent or exist only as background radiation. Actively releasing a pulse..."
"It could be an accidental disturbance, or perhaps a kind of periodic breathing."
A contemplative ripple came from Lu Duo's Emerald Network, "Just as a nebula gives birth to stars, certain rule-dense areas might also give birth to a hazy self-awareness.
However, such existences are usually extremely insensitive to low-dimensional interference and cannot even be observed by conventional means." freewebnσvel.cѳm
Yu Nian's pure heart vine swayed gently: "If it truly is a primordial rule entity, then this pulse might be an unconscious turn in its sleep.
We shouldn't approach it actively, but we can try to send a very gentle presence confirmation signal in that direction using the most basic resonance frequency.
Carrying no information, just like a feather falling onto the water's surface, to see if it can stir an echo."
Bai Cheng pondered for a moment and nodded.
"We can try. But the signal strength must be controlled within the range of the natural Aspiration overflow fluctuations of the Faith Nebula, and it must be sent scattered through the relay nodes of the Cradle of Dust or the Whispering Deep Canyon to avoid direct tracing."
The command was issued. A moment later, a resonance ripple so faint it was nearly non-existent quietly skimmed past the Cradle of Dust and the Whispering Deep Canyon along the invisible network extending from the Archives, carried by civilization's Aspiration, and diffused toward the sector.
After the signal was sent, the entire Archives fell into a brief silence. Everyone waited, even though they knew the probability of a response was slim.
Time passed. Just as that wisp of a ripple was about to completely dissipate into the deep space background radiation, a tremor... suddenly fed back from the direction of the sector.
It wasn't a pulse of rules, nor a fluctuation of energy, but more like an extremely long, dimension-spanning sigh.
There was no joy or sorrow in that sigh, only an ancient, almost eternal fatigue and indifference, as if a being that had slept for too long had unconsciously responded to a distant call from the edge of its dreams.
The Resonance Network instantly captured this tremor and converted it into a blurred perceptual image, projecting it onto a corner of the Mirror Corridor.
In the mirror, what appeared was not a concrete scene, but a constantly shifting sea of chaos composed of pure geometric rules and color gradients.
Deep within that chaos, a vast, indescribable silhouette was faintly visible, rising and rotating at an extremely slow speed; each rise pulled countless surrounding threads of rules, expanding and contracting like breathing.
"The pulsation of the Star Abyss..." Bai Cheng stared at the image beyond cognition in the mirror and whispered softly, "What we have touched might be the dream of this star region itself."
The tremor lasted only a few seconds before quietly dissipating, and the image in the mirror faded away as if it had never existed. However, this brief contact was permanently etched onto the Archives's Resonance Recorder. freewebnσvel.cѳm
The book of commonality automatically flipped to a new page.
Bai Cheng picked up the pen formed from the oath of starlight, and the ink flowed across the paper:
"Deep space has breath, long like the first vibration of an ancient string. Rules become a sea, chaos breeds a hazy slumber.
Today, with a touch of glimmering light, I have heard a pulse of the Star Abyss. It cannot be described in words, nor depicted in form; I only know that beneath the undercurrents, there lies another torrent."
She stopped writing and looked up at everyone.
Qingniao scratched her head, lightning jumping at the tips of her hair: "So... we just said hello to this starry sky itself?"
"You could understand it that way." The mechanical prosthetic eye of Zi Yuan flickered with a faint light,
"But it might also just be an unconscious murmur in its dream.
The scale of existence of a primordial rule entity is too different from ours; any form of communication requires extreme caution."
Bai Cheng closed the book of commonality and placed it gently on the main console.
"Whether it was a murmur or a response, this reminds us that the depth of the Star Abyss is far beyond imagination.
What the World Government observes might only be the surface ripples, while the true undercurrents are hidden at the junction of rules and nothingness."
She turned, her gaze sweeping across the warm and steady halo of the Faith Nebula in the Mirror Corridor, over the glimmering light of the three distant echoes growing quietly, and finally settling on the darkness of the sector that had returned to silence.
"Our watch must also deepen accordingly. Not only must we guard ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) against external enemies, but we must also learn to listen to the voice of the Star Abyss itself. As the river of light flows, it is both illuminating outward and exploring inward."
As her voice fell, the Archives's Resonance Network quietly adjusted.
In addition to continuing to extend tentacles toward those lonely echoes, a very fine, almost meditative perceptual frequency was separated, resting lightly on the background rule field of the Star Abyss like a spider's silk, not seeking a response, but quietly listening to the slow and ancient pulsation of this boundless void.
Outside the window, the Star Abyss remained silent. But in the depths of that eternal darkness, the lights of the Starfire Archives were no longer just a solitary point of light in the dark.
It had become a gentle probe, a quiet stethoscope, beginning to try to touch and understand the vast, silent heartbeat of this starry sky itself.
And the next pulsation to be heard might be hidden in the next fold of rules, waiting for the ripples of the river of light to brush past gently.
The journey continues, and the watch continues to deepen.
The starfire burns eternally, and the river of light never stops.
