The Seal Is Lifted

The full name of this blade was the Despair Iron Co-Severance Saber. Li Xinghai retrieved a bracelet, fastened it to his right wrist, and twisted the dial on its surface. "Captain, maybe... maybe we should forget it? We don't even know what's inside. There's really no need to... go this far," Xiao Liu spoke up, unable to stop himself as he watched. Wielding the Despair Iron Co-Severance Saber demanded a price. Whenever it cleaved through an object, it simultaneously severed a random part of the wielder's body. If the blade randomly chose the neck, it was game over. Li Xinghai shook his head, his expression grim. "Don't forget our mission. We ventured out carrying the hopes of countless people. Our goal is to seek the truth, to seek hope. What if both truth and hope lie within?" "What if they don't?" the man beside Xiao Liu asked with a frown. Li Xinghai replied in a heavy voice, "As long as there is a sliver of hope, we must try. After all, that is our mission!" With that, he gripped the hilt of the despair iron saber with his bracelet-bearing hand. A weapon so heavy it required several men just to lift was raised effortlessly with only one arm. Lifting his hand, he fixed his gaze on the chains, bellowed at the top of his lungs, and slashed down with all his might. These chains were not a Transcendence-grade creation, merely components used to anchor one. Under the strike of the blade, they were finally severed. At that exact instant, Li Xinghai's right foot snapped off as well. Grunting from the agony, he collapsed to his right, though Xiao Liu scrambled forward in time to catch him. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Li Xinghai pressed a hand against the spatial barrier, only to find it remained completely impassable. "It seems there are more of these chains. Drill away the despair matter surrounding this spatial barrier," Li Xinghai ordered through clenched teeth. The young man who had spoken out before frowned once more. "Captain, I'm not questioning your authority, but does this really make any sense? What if there's nothing of value to investigate at all?" "If that happens, I will bear the consequences alone!" Li Xinghai looked back at him and replied. The young man fell silent. Li Xinghai was the captain and he was merely a crewman; once Li Xinghai made up his mind, there was nothing to do but obey. Aboard this vessel, Li Xinghai's word was absolute law. Against anyone who defied orders, he possessed the authority to execute first and report later. From then on, the Survival Pioneer 3 used the spatial barrier as a point of reference, excavating along the path of the chains. It proved an agonizingly protracted ordeal, dragging on for several centuries. Aside from Li Xinghai, whose cultivation realm was high enough that his aging was negligible, leaving him practically unchanged, the remaining young crewmen had withered into decrepit, white-haired elders. Xiao Liu had grown so frail he could no longer move on his own, confined to a wheelchair and pushed along by others. Cultivating aboard a starship made complete concentration nearly impossible, leaving most of them stagnating in place. Even Li Xinghai's progress had slowed to a crawl, let alone the rest. One day, an old man who was still relatively spry caught sight of the belt left behind by Quan Juehua... Minutes later, every surviving crew member of the Survival Pioneer 3 assembled on the deck. Li Xinghai stepped forward with trembling legs, staring at the belt bound by chains. He had an overwhelming intuition: this was it. The key they had spent centuries bitterly searching for—the object capable of undoing the seal—was this belt! "Captain, did we succeed?" Xiao Liu asked weakly from his wheelchair, his voice drained of strength. Li Xinghai drew a deep breath, strode forward, and ripped the belt away in a single wrenching pull. Then he slowly extended his hand toward the invisible spatial barrier. The instant his fingers pierced straight through, tears flooded his eyes. "We... we succeeded," Li Xinghai stammered, looking back over his shoulder at the crew. Everyone stood in a daze, overwhelmed by feelings beyond words. Over the long years, they had harbored doubts, suspicions, fury, perseverance, trust, and numbness. Most had long assumed they would never live to see the world's seal undone. Yet now... the seal was broken. Before anyone could cheer or celebrate, the space ahead rippled and bulged. A man robed in white walked out, followed immediately by another, then another, stepping through in continuous procession. Every single one looked entirely identical, yet each bore an ethereal, elusive air, like fleeting illusions or drifting bubbles. "..." Li Xinghai and his companions stared in shock at the men emerging from the rift. Some even drew their weapons, warily keeping their guard up, ready to strike back decisively if attacked. "Who... who are you? What is it like on the inside, and the changes outside..." Li Xinghai took a deep breath, staring at the man as he asked. Just then, a faint gleam lit the eyes of one of the men. "No need to be tense," he said. "You may ask whatever questions you wish. Consider it a reward for your eight hundred and sixty-nine years of perseverance." "Who... who are you?" someone blurted out immediately. The man smiled. "I am Yu Xian. Though... you may also call me Yu Xian No. 1154612." With a light flick of his sleeve, the vitality of youth rushed back through everyone present. Even the ancient, withered Xiao Liu reverted to his youthful vigor. Li Xinghai and the crew felt the miraculous changes in their bodies with sheer astonishment. Once the shock passed, their gazes toward Yu Xian turned deeply reverent. "May I ask, what lies inside?" Li Xinghai asked hurriedly. Yu Xian replied, "Inside lies the Zhen Realm, a place overflowing with opportunity. It is also the hope you seek—your only hope." "..." Hearing those words, Li Xinghai fell to his knees, weeping uncontrollably. All these years, he had endured the crew's doubts and grievances in silence. Even he had often woken in the middle of the night, questioning whether his persistence had any meaning, terrified that he might be mistaken. Now, receiving Yu Xian's answer, he knew that centuries of endurance had finally borne fruit. He had not been wrong! "Um... excuse me, what on earth happened to this world? What happened to the worlds that disappeared?" Even in his joy, Xiao Liu asked the question burning deepest in his heart. Yu Xian replied, "This world has plunged into a terminal dead end, destined for absolute destruction. Those vanished worlds have already been annihilated." The crew exchanged uneasy glances. Something suddenly dawned on Li Xinghai, and his face paled. "Then what about the ships that set out in other directions?" "The outer expanse is a death zone. Naturally, the farther they travel, the closer to death they draw. Still, their deaths shouldn't be too painful," Yu Xian answered truthfully. Li Xinghai immediately drew a communication device from his robe, infused several strands of thought into it, and hit transmit. This was the Nine Sons Concentric Instrument, holding within it the bound soul of one among a set of nonuplets. Because the nine souls could perceive one another's thoughts across any distance, it served as a means of communication unrestricted by space. Yet because they were living souls, every transmission subjected them to unimaginable agony, drawing them one step closer to complete dissipation with each activation. The moment Li Xinghai sent the transmission, the device vanished from his hands and reappeared in Yu Xian's grasp. Li Xinghai had not even noticed the transfer take place. Yet what happened next left him utterly rooted to the spot.