Chapter 98: The Convergence of the Heavens (Part 2)
The golden flame floated silently before Han Feng.
Small.
Calm.
Almost insignificant compared with the forces tearing the heavens apart.
Yet the space surrounding it had become unnaturally stable. Dimensional distortions vanished within several paces, and the fractured air slowly returned to its original shape.
Han Feng watched without moving.
His heart pounded against his ribs.
The flame did not belong to the Gu World.
That much was becoming increasingly clear.
It was not ordinary primordial essence, nor was it the unfamiliar energy pouring through the fissures. Even the chaotic fluctuations radiating from the other side seemed fundamentally different from the flame.
It felt closer to a law than a technique.
Not power that had been cultivated.
Not energy that had been refined.
Something that simply existed—and imposed its existence upon everything around it.
The Celestial Diagram continued to vibrate inside Han Feng's consciousness.
Golden lines covered more than half of its structure, but they remained uneven and unstable. Some flickered like distant stars, while others shone with a brightness that made his spiritual sense ache.
At the center, the fissure had changed.
It no longer widened and contracted randomly.
It had become stable.
A small opening.
A portal into somewhere Han Feng could neither see clearly nor understand.
He sensed another sky beyond it, along with mountains that did not obey the familiar patterns of the Gu World. The energy there followed different principles, and even the faintest impression of it made his meridians feel strangely unfamiliar.
Han Feng immediately withdrew his attention.
He had already learned what happened when he allowed his consciousness to follow the Diagram too deeply.
Curiosity could wait.
Survival could not.
Behind him, Shen Lian struggled to remain standing.
"Han Feng..."
Her voice was weak.
He turned.
"Sit down."
"But the sky—"
"Will still be there when you recover."
She stared at him as though she wanted to argue.
Then another tremor passed through the ground.
Shen Lian lowered herself beside a broken stone pillar.
Han Feng glanced at the golden flame.
It had not moved.
Yet he could no longer shake the feeling that its appearance had changed something.
Not in the world.
In the relationship between the world and the Diagram.
He had no proof.
Only a growing suspicion.
And suspicion, without evidence, was a dangerous foundation for any decision.
Then the flame moved.
It drifted toward him.
Han Feng instinctively raised his hand, but stopped before touching it.
The flame paused above his palm.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then it descended.
The instant it touched his skin—
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Han Feng's consciousness exploded into golden light.
His surroundings vanished.
His body remained somewhere in the ruins, but his awareness was dragged through the opening inside the Celestial Diagram.
This time, he did not enter the void gently.
He was pulled through it.
The void between worlds was no longer silent.
It trembled.
Vast cracks stretched through the darkness, connecting distant fragments of dead stars and broken worlds. Some fragments drifted without direction. Others appeared suspended within invisible currents, their movements governed by laws Han Feng could not comprehend.
The space between the two presences had changed.
They were closer.
Much closer.
The silent figure stood among the dead stars, his simple robes moving in a wind that did not exist.
His expression remained calm, but the loneliness surrounding him seemed more profound than before.
Across the void, the second presence waited.
Han Feng still could not discern its true shape.
Darkness concealed its form, and the pressure it released distorted everything around it. The void seemed to bend toward that presence, as though reality itself were reluctant to oppose its will.
The two had not crossed the distance between them.
Yet the space separating them had narrowed.
Han Feng felt the truth settle into his consciousness.
The universes were drawing them closer.
Perhaps the convergence was pulling their worlds together. Perhaps their own existence was intensifying the process. Or perhaps the two phenomena were inseparable.
He could not tell.
But the consequences were visible.
The cracks around them widened whenever their auras approached one another.
The dead stars trembled.
The invisible currents of energy twisted into chaotic spirals.
Even the void seemed unable to withstand their proximity.
Then the silent figure moved.
One step.
Only one.
The entire void froze.
The currents of energy stopped flowing. The cracks ceased expanding, and the fragments of distant stars became motionless.
Han Feng felt a pressure settle over his consciousness.
Not oppressive.
Not hostile.
Simply absolute.
For one heartbeat, everything appeared to obey the silent figure.
Then the second presence responded.
Darkness spread outward.
Countless black fractures appeared around it, each one filled with a faint, shifting light. The pressure was neither a technique nor a visible attack.
It was an assertion of will.
A refusal to be restrained.
The two auras collided.
There was no explosion at first.
No technique.
No weapon.
Only presence meeting presence.
Then—
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The void ruptured.
Han Feng's consciousness shook violently. He felt as though every memory inside him were being pulled in a different direction.
His first life.
His reincarnation.
The Celestial Diagram.
The unknown roads he had walked since arriving in the Gu World.
For an instant, he could no longer distinguish the order of those memories.
He gritted his teeth and tried to hold on to himself.
The golden flame remained near his consciousness, its light forming a thin boundary between him and the surrounding chaos.
It was not protecting him completely.
But without it, Han Feng suspected that he might already have lost the ability to recognize his own thoughts.
The two presences continued to face one another.
Then the silent figure spoke.
"Your path destroys heavens."
The words traveled through the void.
They were not an accusation.
They sounded like a judgment reached after observing an outcome that had occurred countless times before.
The second presence remained silent for several breaths.
Then it answered.
"And his carries the weight of countless dead."
The void cracked again.
Han Feng froze.
His?
The silent figure did not respond.
Neither presence looked away.
The exchange had revealed almost nothing, yet it left Han Feng with a terrible impression.
The two were not merely measuring one another's strength.
They understood something about each other's nature.
Perhaps they knew the consequences of their respective paths. Perhaps they recognized a history hidden from him. Or perhaps their words referred to something entirely different.
Han Feng could not determine the truth.
Then both presences moved their eyes.
Simultaneously.
They looked at him.
His heart nearly stopped.
The golden flame flickered.
The pressure surrounding Han Feng changed, and for an instant he felt exposed in a way that even the golden eye in the Gu World's sky had not managed.
The silent figure regarded him without visible emotion.
The second presence seemed to examine him from within the darkness.
Han Feng understood that they had noticed the same thing.
The connection between his Celestial Diagram and the convergence was no longer entirely hidden.
Whether they understood its full nature was another matter.
He had to hold on to that distinction.
Being noticed did not mean being understood.
And being understood did not necessarily mean being important.
But the next moment destroyed much of his remaining confidence.
The Celestial Diagram began spinning violently.
The golden fissure expanded.
A fragment of light pierced through its center and appeared within Han Feng's consciousness.
It was a rune.
Small.
Golden.
Ancient.
Its structure consisted of several intersecting lines surrounding an empty center. The pattern was incomplete, with one section missing as though something had been deliberately removed.
The instant the rune appeared, the nearby chaos began to subside.
The black fractures surrounding Han Feng stopped spreading.
The currents of energy slowed.
Even the void seemed to regain a measure of stability.
Han Feng stared at the rune.
He had never seen it before.
Yet some part of his consciousness reacted as though it had been waiting for it.
The golden flame hovered beside the symbol.
For a brief moment, the two resonated.
Then the flame dimmed.
Han Feng felt an unfamiliar sensation pass through his mind.
Not knowledge.
Not an instruction.
A warning that had no words.
The silent figure spoke.
"Protect your mind."
Han Feng tried to answer.
"From what?"
The figure's gaze shifted toward the second presence.
Before it could respond, the darkness seemed to smile.
Han Feng could not see a face.
He could not even be certain that the presence possessed one.
But the intent was unmistakable.
"Interesting..."
The voice was quiet.
Almost amused.
"So it was you."
Han Feng's blood ran cold.
Me?
The rune flashed.
For an instant, Han Feng felt something reaching toward it from beyond the darkness.
Not a hand.
Not a thread of energy.
An attempt to establish a connection.
The golden flame flickered between the rune and the approaching pressure.
The void collapsed.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Han Feng's consciousness was thrown out of the space between worlds.
He returned to the Gu World with a violent gasp.
His knees struck the broken road.
Blood ran down his arms, and his entire body trembled as his spiritual sense struggled to recover.
Shen Lian caught his shoulder.
"Han Feng! Look at me!"
He forced his eyes toward her.
For several seconds, her face seemed unfamiliar.
Then his vision cleared.
"I'm here," he whispered.
The words were meant to reassure her.
He was not certain they were true in every sense.
Inside his consciousness, the Celestial Diagram had changed.
The golden lines covered more than half its surface. The central fissure remained open, and the unknown rune had settled near it.
But the rune was not fully integrated into the Diagram.
It floated just beyond the fissure, separated from the golden lines by a narrow gap.
Han Feng attempted to examine it.
A sharp pain pierced his spiritual sense.
He immediately stopped.
The warning returned to his mind.
Protect your mind.
He had no intention of ignoring it.
Whatever the rune was, it had appeared without his consent. He had not refined it, absorbed it, or gained control over it.
For now, it was simply there.
A new mystery inside an already dangerous one.
He opened his eyes.
The sky above the Gu World was in chaos.
Fissures stretched across the firmament, some thin as threads and others wide enough to reveal landscapes from the other side. The gigantic black hand had crossed farther into their world, its wrist now visible beyond the boundary.
The Gu Immortals were retreating from the immediate vicinity.
Some had withdrawn to reinforce the surviving formations. Others were evacuating nearby settlements. A few remained in the sky, apparently determined to hold their positions despite the destruction around them.
Their attacks had become less frequent.
Not because the threat had diminished.
Because they were beginning to understand that brute force would not solve it.
Then Han Feng felt the pressure of the golden eye.
It had moved again.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Its gaze swept across the broken formations and the advancing hand.
For the first time, Han Feng sensed something that resembled a decision.
The Celestial Diagram stopped spinning.
Every golden line became motionless.
The new rune glowed.
A profound sense of danger passed through Han Feng's body.
He had no idea what would happen next.
But he knew he needed to move away from Shen Lian and the unstable road before the next wave of pressure arrived.
He reached for her arm.
"We're leaving."
She looked at the sky.
"Where can we go?"
"Somewhere the formations aren't collapsing beneath our feet."
"Does such a place exist?"
Han Feng glanced at the golden eye.
"Let's find out."
He helped her stand.
They had taken only a few steps when the sky opened.
Not another narrow fissure.
Not a fracture spreading across the clouds.
A colossal opening formed above the Central Region, spanning an area so vast that the surrounding mountains seemed insignificant beneath it.
Its edges were lined with golden light.
The light did not resemble the golden eye's radiance.
It was cleaner.
More structured.
The runes along the opening's perimeter appeared in precise sequences, one after another, as though an ancient formation were being assembled on a scale beyond anything the Gu World had ever witnessed.
The Immortals stopped retreating.
One of them turned toward the opening.
His face went pale.
"No..."
Another Immortal stared in disbelief.
"That formation..."
He could not finish the sentence.
The golden eye remained open.
The colossal hand stopped advancing.
For several seconds, the entire world seemed to wait.
Then something emerged from the opening.
A gigantic golden door.
It descended slowly, its surface covered in countless ancient patterns. Some resembled formation diagrams. Others looked like fragments of writing from civilizations that had disappeared before the oldest sects were founded.
The door did not appear damaged.
It did not look like an ordinary object being transported through space.
It seemed to carry its own boundary with it.
As it descended, the surrounding distortions weakened. The cracks closest to its surface stopped expanding, and several smaller fissures closed.
Han Feng's eyes widened.
The door was stabilizing space.
But the effect was different from that of the golden flame.
The flame had created a small region where distortions could not easily propagate.
The door appeared to impose a larger, more organized structure upon the surrounding space.
The difference was enormous.
One was a local phenomenon.
The other seemed capable of affecting the boundary itself.
Yet Han Feng could not tell whether the door was repairing the convergence or preparing something far more dangerous.
The golden rune inside his consciousness pulsed.
Once.
The golden door answered.
A faint vibration passed through the heavens.
Han Feng stopped breathing.
The door had not opened.
No voice had emerged from it.
But its surface had responded to the rune.
The connection lasted less than a heartbeat before disappearing.
Still, Han Feng had felt it.
The Celestial Diagram was connected to the door.
Or the rune was.
Or both were responding to some common principle.
He could not distinguish the possibilities.
Above the Central Region, the seven Immortals stared at the descending structure.
None dared approach.
The golden eye remained motionless.
The black hand waited beyond the fissure.
And the golden door continued its slow descent, surrounded by a radiance that neither belonged to the ordinary Gu World nor resembled the chaotic energy from the other side.
Han Feng tightened his grip on Shen Lian's arm.
For the first time since the convergence began, he felt that the world was not simply being destroyed.
Something was intervening.
But intervention did not mean salvation.
The door might be a seal.
It might be a barrier.
It might even be another entrance.
Until he understood its purpose, he could not afford to trust it.
The golden rune pulsed again.
A faint crack appeared across its center.
Han Feng's expression changed.
The rune was incomplete.
And whatever connection it shared with the door, that connection was not stable.
The door halted in the sky.
Its enormous surface remained closed.
Then, from somewhere beyond the opening, three slow metallic knocks echoed across the Central Region.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
The colossal black hand withdrew by a fraction.
The golden eye turned toward the door.
For the first time, the eye's attention no longer seemed indifferent.
Han Feng felt the golden seal beneath his skin grow cold.
Shen Lian whispered, "What is that thing?"
Han Feng stared at the door.
"I don't know."
He had learned to distrust answers that arrived too easily.
The door had stabilized part of the boundary.
It had responded to the rune.
And something beyond it had knocked.
Those were facts.
Everything else remained a guess.
The sky trembled once more.
The golden door remained shut.
But across its surface, a single line of ancient symbols began to illuminate.
One after another.
As though something on the other side had finally recognized the presence standing before it.
Han Feng felt the Celestial Diagram stir.
The rune glowed in response.
Then the symbols on the door stopped.
A final mark appeared at its center.
A broken hexagon.
Han Feng's blood ran cold.
He knew that shape.
It was not identical to the Celestial Diagram.
But it was close enough that he could no longer dismiss the resemblance as coincidence.
The door had not opened.
The convergence had not ended.
And whatever lay beyond that golden surface had begun to respond to the same pattern that had haunted Han Feng since the beginning of his journey.
He looked at the mark.
Then at the golden eye.
Then at the black hand still suspended beyond the breach.
Three mysteries.
One unstable world.
And a rune he could not control.
Han Feng slowly exhaled.
Whatever happened next, he would need to survive long enough to understand it.
Because the door had not appeared to answer the Gu World's prayers.
It had appeared because something had called it.
And Han Feng was beginning to fear that the call had come from inside him.