The birth of the "Primordial Origin" Light stirred no visible ripples in the "Yuan" Realm. Its power was too abstruse and lofty, like tectonic shifts deep beneath the ocean—only a handful of supreme beings could faintly sense that soul-stirring pulse surging upward from the very foundation of the world.
Lin Mu remained reclusive, spending most of his days with the slowly rotating "Primordial Origin" Light. He familiarized himself with it, guided it, as one would carve a rough stone holding all cosmic possibilities. Every wisp of divine sense he infused, every subtle adjustment of the laws, expanded the bounds of the "Primordial Origin" and deepened his own bond with this new power. His form grew increasingly indeterminate—sometimes as clear as ever, sometimes merging with the surrounding fabric of laws, becoming an eternal, silent inscription on the firmament of the "Yuan" Realm.
The "Abyssal Deep Dive Epoch" continued. The Fundamental Laws Research Institute achieved one breakthrough after another, advancing its analysis of the "Yuan" Realm's underlying principles to a more microscopic and essential level, beginning to touch upon certain "pre-set parameters" left by Lin Mu when he forged the world—parameters even he had never scrutinized in detail. The Advanced Weapons Development Division delivered good news: the first full-power simulation test of the "Law Fission Cannon" successfully created a fleeting "law vacuum" in the void, where all matter and energy that entered disintegrated instantly for lack of lawful support. The "Information Black Hole" device also passed its theoretical verification.
The "Mirror Lake" System completed its upgrade, with new nodes acting as sharper nerve endings, extending the "Yuan" Realm's perception into the farther void. Tracking and analysis of that "interrogative" fluctuation never ceased; though its exact origin remained unlocalized, "Mirror Lake" could now simulate its general detection logic and preference ranges.
Everything was making silent, solid preparations for a potential higher-tier contact.
Then came the day.
Without warning, the core array of "Mirror Lake" blazed with an unprecedented, blood-red glaring light! The alarm did not trigger from a peripheral node, but directly activated the deepest core protocol!
Lin Mu's eyes snapped open mid-meditation.
This was not the familiar "interrogative" fluctuation.
It was something far more direct, more tangible… a precursor to "Descent"!
"Ultra-high-intensity space warpage detected! Coordinates: Sector AX-7 (adjacent to a known 'Graveyard of Laws' with extreme chaotic laws)!"
"Energy readings unanalyzable! Law turbulence level… exceeds the upper limit of the existing database!"
"Something… is forcibly 'forcing its way' into our reality!"
Sector AX-7 was a perilous zone beyond the "Yuan" Realm's territory, rarely patrolled even by the Sky Survey Pavilion. Its laws were like shattered mirrors, with an extremely fragile spatial structure.
Right then, that "mirror" was being slowly torn open from the outside by an invisible giant hand!
There was no earth-shaking commotion, but through "Mirror Lake"'s observation, Lin Mu "saw" the lawful structure of the sector twisting unnaturally—collapsing inward and bulging outward in turns. It was as if a flat canvas had been prodded into a sharp protrusion from the back, on the verge of piercing through the painting!
This was no space jump, no conventional teleportation.
This was… a being of transcendent power forcibly intervening "physically" into the reality layer housing the "Yuan" Realm, from a "higher plane" or another dimension!
The system behind the "Observer" was no longer content with remote "interrogation" and dispatching armed units.
Something of a higher order was about to take the stage in person!
"All Sky Survey Pavilion personnel, maximum combat readiness! Target Sector AX-7!" Lin Mu's order spread to all high-ranking figures in an instant. "All non-essential units, enter the 'Dormancy Shelters'!"
Piercing alarms blared across every corner of the "Yuan" Realm. The society, running orderly moments before, ground to a halt. Civilians entered reinforced underground shelters quickly and in formation, following drills repeated countless times. Energy cores of forges were lowered to minimum sustainment levels, and the glow of cities dimmed rapidly.
Grak led all combat-ready Void Vessel fleets into the sky from every port like an enraged swarm, assembling urgently on the "Ruins of Return Channel" before streaking toward Sector AX-7 as gray streams of light. Newly equipped "Law Jammers" and experimental "Information Camouflage Layers" activated at full power across the hulls.
Mo Shi took command of the "Mirror Lake" hub, pushing all nodes to maximum output to analyze every detail of the Descent precursor, striving to provide support for the fleet.
Lin Mu's form stepped out from the top floor of the Administrative Center and appeared directly at the edge of the "Yuan" Realm's Purification Field, facing Sector AX-7. He summoned no fleet to his side, merely hovering silently in the void, his blue robe fluttering slightly in the invisible surging law turbulence.
In his palm, the "Primordial Origin" Light halted its slow rotation, its radiance converging like the core of a star ready to erupt.
His gaze rested calmly on the zone where the law distortion grew more violent by the second.
He could feel that the being attempting to "force its way in" was of a power tier far beyond the Purifiers—perhaps even surpassing the unknown entity that had sent the "interrogative" fluctuation. It carried a pure, icy will of "execution", precise as a scalpel and unstoppable as a meteorite.
At last… it had come.
No extra words, no proclamation.
At the critical point where the laws were torn to their limit, a "rift" silently bloomed at the center of Sector AX-7.
No light shone forth from it—only an absolute, suffocating sense of "Order" surged outward like a cold wave. Wherever it passed, even the chaotic "Graveyard of Laws" seemed frozen and smoothed, taking on a dead, unyielding "tidiness" that brooked no anomalies.
Then, a "being" slowly "flowed" out from the rift.
It had no fixed form, shifting sometimes between intricate geometric structures and sometimes like distorted light and shadow. Its entire body was a "pure white" devoid of warmth—not a color, but a negation of all "variegated hues" inherent to its existence. At its core, a constantly calculating core woven from countless cold runes faintly glinted—this seemed to be its "essence", or rather, its "instruction set".
It hovered motionless, several times larger than the greatest Void Vessel yet weightless. It did not "look" at the battle-ready "Yuan" Realm fleet, nor at Lin Mu in the distance.
It simply "existed".
Then, a flat, emotionless "voice" resounded across the region on the level of fundamental laws:
"Unauthorized civilization 'Yuan' detected. Confirmed as 'Civilization-Class Pathogen - High Variation Type'."
"In accordance with Chapter 7, Clause 3 of the Pan-Dimensional Ecological Maintenance Code, the 'Physical Isolation and Sample Collection' procedure is now enacted."
"Resistance will result in procedure escalation to 'Total Inactivation'."
As the words fell, dozens of identical pure white, tentacle-like structures extended from the surface of the pure white being. These tentacles made no move to attack, instead piercing directly into the surrounding space!
It was… "sampling"!
It was collecting samples of the "Yuan" Realm's laws, energy, and spatial structure in the area—efficient and cold, as if conducting a routine on-site investigation!
Grak's fleet reacted first.
"Open fire! Halt it!"
Countless cannon blasts, infused with primordial energy, chaotic attributes, and law-jamming effects, poured down like a torrential rain toward the pure white being!
Yet all attacks vanished without a sound after entering a certain range around it. They were not blocked or deflected—they were "naturalized"! Forcibly assimilated and decomposed into harmless fundamental energy particles by the absolute "Order" field, even absorbed to sustain the being's existence!
Even the experimental strike of the "Law Fission Cannon" only rippled the pure white field slightly before fading away completely!
Absolute defense! Or rather, a fundamental crushing of power tiers!
The pure white being paid the attacks no heed, continuing its "sampling". One tentacle even stretched toward a nearby Void Vessel that failed to dodge, easily piercing its strongest shield and stabbing into the hull like a probe!
"Aah—!" Screams erupted from within the vessel, as the very existence of its crew was being "analyzed" and "recorded" by the pure white tentacle!
"Retreat! All units retreat!" Grak's eyes bloodshot, he had no choice but to issue the order. This was no contest of equal footing!
The instant the pure white tentacle was about to seize all information within the stricken Void Vessel—
Lin Mu, who had watched quietly until now, moved.
He did not charge the pure white being; he merely took a single step forward.
In that one step, he crossed the entire fleet, appearing between the pure white being and the besieged Void Vessel.
He raised his hand, and the "Primordial Origin" Light in his palm blazed for the first time in actual combat.
It was not a harsh glare, but a gentle radiance that seemed to embrace all things.
He flicked his hand lightly against the pure white tentacle.
No energy collision, no clashing of laws.
The moment the pure white tentacle touched the "Primordial Origin" radiance, its absolute "Order" sheen suddenly turned… murky for an instant. Like a drop of iridescent oil dripping into clear water.
Immediately after, the tentacle's movements faltered briefly… and descended into chaos. The information flow it had extracted from the Void Vessel seemed to be disrupted and muddled by an alien, incomprehensible force, fragmenting into pieces.
The constantly calculating core of the pure white being paused for the first detectable time.
Its invisible "attention" finally, truly, focused on Lin Mu.
"Unanalyzable law disturbance source detected." The flat voice spoke again, this time with a trace of an extremely subtle… "puzzlement"?
"Variables… reassessing."
Lin Mu met its "gaze" calmly.
He knew that the true contest had only just begun.