Free Web NovelBai Cheng watched the nine lurking shadows at the edge of Sector δ12 in the mirror.
"The truth is more profound when they see it for themselves. But we cannot allow the parasitic seeds to grow."
She turned to face the training area. "Blue Bird, Zi Yuan, initiate the Root Purification Protocol. Scan the underlying rules of Sector δ12 in minimum intervention mode. Mark all heterogeneous signals, but do not remove them yet."
"Do not remove them?"
"Leave them for the primordial rule entity to identify on its own."
Bai Cheng's fingertips lightly touched the ice mirror reflecting the heart tree. "Civilization has learned to identify false fires in dreams; the stars must also learn to identify impurities in their bloodlines.
This is an immune process it must undergo to become a true life form."
Just then, a ripple came from Lu Duo's Emerald Network.
"Within the Faith Nebula, the Civilization Dreamscapes of three civilizations are simultaneously showing the same anomaly: where cherry blossoms fall, nine blood snakes emerge from the ground, entwining the newborn saplings.
An elderly priest whispered in a dream that this is a'sign of the return of the nemesis'."
Yu Nian's pure heart vine swayed gently: "Similar legends indeed exist in the histories of these civilizations.
The shadow of Kurozumi once shrouded their ancestors, and now it reappears in the Star Abyss."
Bai Cheng's gaze darkened slightly.
The Chain Council was not only parasitizing the stars but also using cross-civilizational historical fears to weave a larger web.
If different civilizations were allowed to project their respective 'Kurozumi memories' into the Star Abyss, panic might spread through the resonance network.
She walked toward the book of commonality, the light of the oath of starlight spreading across the pages:
Shadow of the Nemesis
The path of watching lies in holding the Mirror Heart, in observing the subtle, in believing that the long wind will cross the deep gorge, and in knowing that when old shadows return, one should use new light as a sword.
The moment the ink solidified, a resonant vibration from the initiation of the purification protocol came from the training area.
The powers of Blue Bird and Zi Yuan seeped into the underlying rules of Sector δ12 like fine roots, gently marking nine parasitic nodes.
The nodes were hidden deep within the folds of the rules, their surfaces covered with a camouflage layer nearly identical to the sector's own frequency, but their cores exuded the unique confining chill of the Chain Council.
One of the nodes suddenly pulsed slightly, like a disturbed venomous insect.
It released a blurred memory fragment, flashing silhouettes of Wano Country's castle, execution racks wrapped in chains, and images of Kozuki Clan warriors falling in the flames.
At the end of the fragment, a raspy voice whispered: 'The hatred of Kurozumi, the Star Abyss never rests.'
This fragment did not flow to the Archives but merged directly into the memory echoes of Sector δ12's primordial rule entity.
The sector's rule pulsations suddenly became disordered. The newly formed narrative chapters were forcibly inserted with bloody alien memories, and the frequency ripples of the inquiry structure were stained with dark red impurities, as if a waking infant were suddenly force-fed a nightmare.
Bai Cheng looked up abruptly. "The Chain Council is reverse-polluting.
They want to implant their own history into the memory genes of the stars."
Yu Nian's pure heart vine instantly expanded, the halo of purification surging toward Sector δ12, attempting to envelop that memory fragment.
But the fragment was already intertwined with the echo structure of the primordial rule entity; forcibly stripping it might damage its embryonic consciousness.
Just then, a steady resonance came from the direction of the Faith Nebula.
On the branches of the heart tree, the patterns representing the 'Shared Life Vine' in the long scroll relief slowly lit up.
The collective consciousness of twenty-five civilizations simultaneously constructed the same image in their dreams: countless root systems entwining blood snakes, transforming toxins into nutrients for new branches.
"They are teaching the stars how to digest malice." Lu Duo's voice was filled with emotion. "Not expulsion, but transformation."
The rule pulsations of Sector δ12 gradually calmed down.
The primordial rule entity did not reject that dark memory but instead enveloped it in a transparent rule membrane, like a pearl enveloping a grain of sand.
The memory fragment remained, but it could no longer pollute other echoes, instead becoming a 'warning monument' within the consciousness structure.
Within the Canying Star Cluster, a fine crack suddenly appeared in the Cherry Blossom Crest in Galro's hand.
He looked down at the throne where blood snakes slithered, a look of gravity crossing his eyes for the first time. "Using poison as nourishment... Starfire Archives, you are harder to deal with than the Kozuki Clan."
He slowly rose, and the phantoms of the nine Cursed Apostles knelt simultaneously.
"Initiate the final stage of Project Falling Sakura. Let the Nine Shadows awaken on the surface of Sector δ12, in the name of the Nine Samurai of Wano."
"Council, that will completely expose the parasitic nodes."
"So what if they are exposed?" Galro curled his lips, revealing snow-white teeth. "When nine blades strike a single heart simultaneously, where should the person blocking them protect first?"
The silence of the Star Abyss was broken.
At the edge of Sector δ12, nine parasitic nodes simultaneously burst with dark red light, condensing into nine giant phantoms: a samurai bound in chains, a ghost face with curved horns, a Karasu Tengu with blood-sakura wings...
Each phantom exuded a completely different sense of rule oppression, yet all bore the characteristics of those villains from Wano Country legends.
They did not attack the sector's core but instead scattered and lunged at different hubs of the rule threads network, like nine daggers stabbing into the star's meridians.
The main screens of the World Government fleet simultaneously lit up with the highest alert. The Supreme Commander looked at the nine red dots suddenly erupting on the star chart, battle intent finally igniting in his cold eyes.
"Finally, the fish have all come out of the water.
All ships advance, blockade the periphery of Sector δ12, and wait for them to exhaust each other."
Inside the Starfire Archives, Blue Bird and Zi Yuan already stood in the center of the control room, lightning and blade intent interweaving into latitude and longitude.
Bai Cheng looked at the nine rampaging phantoms in the mirror, her voice like an icy stream deep in the Star Abyss: "The Chain Council wants to replicate the tragedy of Wano Country, but there is no Shogun's Palace here, nor are there citizens who can be imprisoned."
She raised her hand and pressed it against the book of commonality; the pages turned without wind, opening to a blank chapter.
The light of the oath of starlight condensed into the shape of a longsword at her fingertips, pointing directly at the Nine Shadows in the mirror.
"All members of the Starfire Archives, enter the Dawn Defense Line."
Outside the window, the shield halo of the Faith Nebula stretched outward for the first time, like a waking giant tree spreading its branches.
In the long scroll relief on the branches of the heart tree, the lives in the Civilization Dreamscapes simultaneously raised their glowing arms; their power of will crossed the void, turning into shimmering white roots entwining the star's meridians.
The moment the nine dark red phantoms collided with the shimmering white roots, the collision of rules was silent, yet it caused the darkness of the entire Sector δ12 to tremble violently.
The overture of the star opening its eyes finally met the shadows of the past on the same battlefield.
The river of light shines perpetually; the new chapter begins here. freeweɓnovel.cøm
Before the dawn had fully spread, the nine dark red phantoms that had broken out of their cocoons from the parasitic nodes at the edge of Sector δ12 tore through the brief tranquility of the Star Abyss.
The phantom of the samurai bound in chains was the first to swing a long chain condensed from rules, whipping it toward a core resonance thread connecting Sector Fan. Wherever the chain passed, scorched black cracks were left in the void, like skin burned by a branding iron.
Almost at the same moment, the Dawn Defense Line of the Starfire Archives fully deployed.
The shield halo of the Faith Nebula stretched outward, turning into countless shimmering white and flexible roots. These roots, condensed from the collective will of twenty-five civilizations, were not hard barriers but entwined, guided, and diverted like living things.
The samurai phantom's chain strike hit the root network, its violent power passed on and dissipated layer by layer, eventually turning into a breeze that swept across the Star Abyss, only causing nearly imperceptible ripples on the distant ice mirrors.
Bai Cheng stood in the center of the control room, her gaze piercing through the Mirror Corridor and falling on the most prominent of the nine phantoms—a giant shadow with curved horns and a face hidden behind a ghost mask.
It did not rush to attack but instead spread its arms, dark red rule ripples undulating outward from it. Wherever the ripples reached, the originally orderly rule pulsations of Sector δ12 began to show lag and disorder, as if injected with viscous venom.
"They are imitating the 'Plague Infliction' of the Beasts Pirates." Lightning in Blue Bird's eyes condensed like needle points, instantly seeing through the essence. "It's not direct destruction, but polluting the environment, making the star itself'sick' to weaken its resistance."
Zi Yuan's mechanical prosthetic eye had already locked onto the nine targets, her longsword slightly unsheathed, the faint blue blade light cutting a cold trajectory in the control room. "The targets' actions are highly coordinated; there is a central command. That ghost-masked phantom is the core."
While the Archives was analyzing countermeasures, deep within the Canying Star Cluster, Galro poured his will into the ghost-masked phantom through the link of the Cursed Apostles.
The phantom's eyes suddenly lit up with crimson light, and a raspy, grand voice, through rule vibrations, resounded directly at the 'consciousness' level of Sector δ12 and echoed in the resonance field of the Archives:
"We are the Nine Shadows of Kurozumi! Carrying the unfinished business of Wano Country and bearing the eternal will of the Chain! This newly awakened star is the territory of the New Wano Country! Those who comply may obtain a corner to survive; those who resist, the rules will become your cage!"
This declaration was domineering and ancient, deliberately awakening the fear of absolute rule and chain tyranny deep within the genes of certain civilizations.
Within the Faith Nebula, several civilizations that had similar traumas in their history immediately experienced uneasy ripples in their dream networks.
Bai Cheng was not disturbed by the words; she lightly tapped her fingertip, and the ice mirror representing the Civilization Dreamscape in the Mirror Corridor quickly enlarged.
She did not go to soothe the fear but instead cast the real-time images of the Nine Shadows' invasion and the rule ripple spectrum of the ghost-masked phantom's Plague Infliction into the flowing 'Long Scroll of Shared Fate' relief without reservation.
In the scroll, the beings looking up at the starry sky simultaneously saw the nine evil shadows baring their fangs and claws in the darkness, as well as the dark red ripples trying to pollute the starlight.
After a brief shock, different civilizations reacted in their own unique ways:
In some civilization dreams, elders began to chant ancient songs to dispel miasma;
In some civilizations, craftsmen began to forge purifying symbols in their consciousness;
In even more civilizations, phantoms of warriors gathered, throwing light spears toward the direction of that ghost face.
Although these reactions originated from dreams, they were transformed through the heart tree network into wisps of concrete, purifying resonance targeted at the 'rule plague', flowing like trickles toward Sector δ12.
Bai Cheng's voice was clear and steady, resounding throughout the Archives: "They don't need us to replace their fear; they need to face the reality of fear together.
Blue Bird, Zi Yuan, construct the Clear Breeze Corridor against the Plague Infliction ripples.
Huang Yu, guide the purifying resonance generated by the Civilization Dreamscapes to directionally neutralize the pollution. We won't attack the phantoms directly; we'll first dismantle the 'diseased land' they've created."
