Lex's clone stood before the Oracle Drive.
The once-glorious artifact now drifted inert in the void, its fractured surface battered by passing space rocks. Deep cracks marred its form, and its once-brilliant glow had faded to a mere flicker.
The maw had erased the Vereti Empire and severely damaged the Drive, leaving it barely functional. Only three rings remained, orbiting slowly like wounded birds.
Lex's clone scanned the Oracle Drive multiple times, slowly and thoroughly, searching for any lingering traces of Quintessa.
He could feel the Drive's connection to her, but it was fractured and weakened beyond recognition.
What he didn't sense, however, was the hidden shard of Merita's consciousness. Buried deep within the innermost core of the Drive, it lay dormant and masked so perfectly that it had eluded even his perception.
Unbeknownst to him, Merita had also cloaked the faint bond between the Drive and Quintessa, eliminating any possibility of detection. To Lex, the weapon seemed dormant and disconnected. But, in truth, it was quietly occupied.
He turned the Drive in his hand, examining it from every angle. "It's dormant, fortunately, it is not destroyed," he murmured.
Inside the core, Merita watched in silence.
Her consciousness, now reduced to a shard, hidden deep within the core of the drive.
"This shard will hide and watch," she thought coldly. "And when I find where your true body is, you'll know horror beyond death."
With one final breath of thought, she severed the shard from her main self. Far across space and time, her eyes opened within Quintessa's soulsea, burning with cold vengeance.
The plans flowed between them; swift, silent and deadly.
"How sure are you that he won't discover your shard?" Quintessa asked, her voice obvious with concern.
"Don't worry. Anyone below Dao Master won't even sense my stealth technique," Merita replied with confidence.
"And even if he does, I have a backup buried within a backup. We will retrieve the Oracle Drive. And when we do, we shall avenge our home."
Quintessa fell silent.
Then, in a voice heavy with memory, she mumbled "Home… it's been a long time since I heard that word." She looked out toward the horizon, though her gaze saw far beyond it.
"We will get the Drive. And when we do, all hell shall break loose in this sickening Universe," she continued.
She then narrowed her eyes. Her resentment was suppressed deeply within her heart as she said, "Where is it now?"
Merita paused, studying her. Then she spoke calmly, "Its location is vague, for now. But every second my shard stays inside that weapon, I gather more traces. Even his subtlest ripple in the Voidsea can't stay hidden forever."
••••
Back at the site of the Vereti Empire, Lex's clone stood motionless, observing the damaged Oracle Drive. Only three rings remained rotating, although barely.
Unaware, of Merita's consciousness, hidden deep within the core, the clone stored the drive into his pocket dimension and vanished just as the oppressive presence of the cosmic will descended.
A colossal eye manifested in the sky, and it swept its gaze across the region, scanning the ruined void. After several sweeps, finding nothing, the eye blinked out of existence.
••••
Back in Lex's universe.
He materialized above the Origin Ocean, then retrieved the Oracle Drive from his pocket dimension. Without hesitation, he cast it into the ocean's depths.
"It'll repair itself faster down there," he murmured, then returned to his garden.
He settled back into his recliner beneath a tree. He raised his hand, and several concentrated drops of Origin Energy floated before him.
With a wave of his finger, the drops fused and shaped themselves into a book, not an ordinary one.
Its cover was harder than primordial bone; its weight rivaled stars. It floated before him, radiating a rigid, oppressive aura.
"Let's see if this thing can hold the fragment of a Dao King technique," he muttered.
Glowing purple runes danced along his fingers as he channeled the technique into the book, inscribing it with his understanding of the powerful cultivation technique.
In the distance, Luna's spirit form hovered into the garden, her body no larger than Lex's humanoid palm.
She saw Lex with the floating tome and remained quiet.
She narrowed her eyes as she whispered, "So… he realized," she stood still and watched in silence.
"Could a tome made of Origin Energy really contain a technique like that?" she wondered out loud.
The moment the words left her mouth, the book turned to ash and vanished.
"I figured as much," Lex mumbled.
"Master, no material from this universe can contain this truth. As you guessed, the technique contains Dao—not just a few, but dozens," Luna said, coming to hover above his shoulder.
"I know. I was just testing." Lex replied.
"Anyway I've got plenty of materials for a proper vessel to store the cultivation technique before it fades away from memory." He continued.
"If you were a Dao Initiate already, it would've remained intact," Luna said gently. "But since you're still a Boundling master, the technique will fade."
Lex rose and let out a slow sigh. "I've never needed a breakthrough more than I do now. Watching a powerful technique slip away…and being powerless to hold onto it…"
He clenched his fists. "It's unbearable, but thankfully I have materials that can store it." he said as he and Luna teleported.
••••
In the divine realm, the giant golden sun blazed with unmatched brilliance, its heat scorching even the fabric of space around it.
Across its surface, golden crows birds soared effortlessly, their feathers glowing with sunfire as they danced through the inferno.
Lex and Luna appeared high above the blazing star. "Master," Luna said, shading her eyes, "Are you planning to use this sun to forge the book?
"Yes," Lex said without a flicker of doubt.
"But… its flames aren't hot enough to melt Dao-level materials," Luna said, puzzled.
"That's only because the laws here limit its true potential. I can ignore those limitations and make the sunfire burn hot enough to melt even Dao weapons."
"Right," Luna muttered. "I keep forgetting that you're a walking anomaly."
Lex chuckled as he said, "I'm not an anomaly. I'm just improbable in the grand scheme."
Still smiling, Lex looked down.
Ten golden crows glided over the searing solar sea, wings spread wide, trailing arcs of sunfire.
His eyes swept the horizon until he saw a golden palace, suspended above the sun like a divine mirage.
Within it, seated on a throne forged of pure solar essence, was a primordial.
His form was humanoid and radiated divine authority.
His golden hair flowed down like molten light; his crown shimmered with primordial runes, and his robe flickered like the surface of the sun—he was the embodiment of Sun Law.
"Di Jun," Lex said calmly. His voice, carried by the laws themselves, echoed across the sun.
Inside the palace, Di Jun's eyes snapped open, each iris layered with dual pupils, each gaze burning like twin stars.
His divine aura erupted around him like a solar flare.
"Who dares disturb my comprehension?" he growled, his tone steeped in irritation.
But almost immediately, he inhaled slowly and reined in his aura.
"Calm... I must not lose my balance," he whispered to himself, mindful of the volatile Sun Law he was cultivating.
He stood and vanished in a flash of golden light, reappearing above the sun's burning surface.
He scanned the horizon, but found nothing. He then scanned the entire sun with his consciousness, but still found nothing.
"Am I hallucinating?" he muttered. "No... someone called my name."
He scanned again, but still found nothing.
"Back here," came a calm voice from behind him.
He turned around instantly and withdrew a sword from his pocket dimension, taking a few steps back as instinct took over.
"An ambush?"
But what he saw made him hesitate.
A slight, unassuming man stood there, far too relaxed.
Even more puzzling was the faint figure hovering over his shoulder: a spirit girl with a soft glow and an aura that hummed with vitality.
He narrowed his eyes.
"How did a mortal get here?" he wondered.
But as he looked closer, confusion turned to unease.
"This one, he's not of the sun lineage. Not a primordial. And not one of my worshipers."
He gripped his sword tightly, but did not attack.
"Who are you?" he asked warily, voice taut with restrained power