The decision was made, and the execution had to be flawless. With the Astral Jade secured and the Infant Chronos Dragon, Siku, resting precariously against Lin Feng's Void Sovereign Nexus, the group initiated the high-speed extraction from the collapsing Silent Star Crevice. This was no longer a stealth mission, but a grueling test of sustained speed, focus, and elemental synergy.
"Yin Xiu, we rely on your speed and perception. The smallest error in the Shadow Stream will throw us into a spatial void," Lin Feng stated, his gaze meeting hers, a look of complete tactical trust passing between the two Void masters.
Yin Xiu nodded, her expression grim with the concentration required for such a sustained effort. Her skill, Shadow Veil Displacement, was usually utilized for short, instantaneous jumps. Chaining them into a continuous Shadow Stream over a mile of unstable spacetime was pushing her Origin Core to its absolute breaking point.
"Hold my pace," Yin Xiu warned, her voice tight. She transformed instantly, becoming a ribbon of undulating shadow that flowed along the warped floor of the Crevice. The Shadow Stream began, an impossible cascade of near-instantaneous movements.
Lin Feng and the others became shadows to Yin Xiu's substance. Lin Feng, though burdened by the Astral Jade and Siku, used his Void Domain to slightly adjust the geometry of his own steps, minimizing friction and matching her inhuman velocity. He was the anchor, his powerful Void Law keeping the entire group's relative position stable, preventing them from being left behind or temporally scattered.
The initial moments of the escape were an overwhelming assault on their senses. As the Shadow Stream accelerated, the spatial folds of the Crevice became a dizzying, terrifying blur. They were constantly displacing past sudden Dimensional Shears that hissed and snapped, leaving behind air that felt electrically charged and utterly dead.
Xia Qingwu worked furiously, not running, but actively manipulating the environment behind them. She launched a continuous barrage of small, non-explosive seals: Phoenix Smoke Runes.
"Phoenix Seal: Temporal Obscuration!"
The runes, fueled by her pure Phoenix Fire Qi, ignited into billowing clouds of non-toxic, spiritually dense smoke. These clouds served two vital purposes: physically obscuring their trail from any immediate pursuit, and, more importantly, acting as a chronological shield. The dense elemental energy absorbed and blurred the temporal residue their passage left behind, ensuring that any tracking spell—especially Luo Han's Imperial Seal tracker—would hit a wall of chronological noise instead of their actual time signature. This slow, tedious act of covering their tracks was essential for their long-term security.
Meanwhile, Wanying, walking backward with the serene intensity of an Empress, maintained the single, critical defensive measure: the Ice Empress: Temporal Rejection bubble. She focused the entirety of her Primordial Ice Law onto Siku and the Astral Jade, using the ultimate purity of her element to shield them.
"I am the stasis! I am the order!" Wanying chanted, her breath clouding into icy mist.
The weight of the unrefined Astral Jade was immense, both physically and spiritually. The pure, chaotic celestial Qi constantly tried to break through Wanying's shield, but she held firm, her absolute mastery over the Law of Stasis proving the perfect defense against chaotic motion.
Lin Feng spared a moment to check on his companion. "Wanying, push your Primordial Ice Law to its limit. If we falter, we will lose Siku and the Jade."
Wanying responded, not with a command, but with shared focus. "I will not falter, Feng. My clan's destiny depends on this Jade. We move as one pulse."
They reached the halfway point—the point where the density of the spatial folding reached its natural peak. The Shadow Stream faltered.
Yin Xiu, pushed to her absolute limit, staggered slightly. The strain on her Origin Core caused a temporary break in her continuous displacement.
In that millisecond of instability, the entire geometry of the tunnel violently reconfigured itself. A section of the ceiling, previously thirty feet up, was instantly shunted to the floor, creating a wall of impossibly compressed rock directly in their path.
"Spatial Wall! Immediate stop!" Yin Xiu gasped, her body vibrating violently as she fought to prevent the dimensional jump from becoming a spatial smear.
Lin Feng reacted with the primal fury of a King protecting his core resources. He needed to destroy the wall instantly, without disrupting the fragile spatial order around Siku. He channeled his most powerful, destructive, yet controlled technique.
"Void Sovereign: Annihilation Blast!"
He channeled a focused beam of pure, annihilating Void-Fire and Void-Metal at the compressed rock wall. The Metal Law provided the penetrating force, and the Fire Law provided the absolute, high-yield destruction. The blast struck the wall, vaporizing the compressed rock into nothingness—not with an explosion, but with a silent, blinding flash of atomic dissolution.
The path was clear, but the price was heavy. Lin Feng's Origin Core flared, burning through a massive reserve of Qi.
"Go! Yin Xiu! Now!"
Yin Xiu, energized by the swift clearance, immediately reinitiated the Shadow Stream. Lin Feng, supporting Siku, Wanying, and the massive Astral Jade, strained every fiber of his being, channeling the Void Sovereign Nexus to maintain the integrity of their impossible speed. They were pushing their Origin King abilities past the breaking point, relying entirely on mutual trust and shared elemental mastery.
They were free. The shimmering light of the outside world, the familiar, stable Qi of the Mortal Star Field, appeared before them.
The harrowing, multi-chapter escape is complete, but the cost was immense.