I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

The seventh region on the far side of the moon was deathly silent.

Before the swirling grayish-white dust had completely settled, the hundreds-of-kilometers-long, deathly gray broken chain lay heavily across the crater. At the smooth cut of the broken chain, a viscous, dark golden liquid was seeping out.

The liquid dripped onto the lunar surface without leaving a trace. The surrounding hundreds of square kilometers of lunar soil, upon contact with this aura, began an extremely incongruous "growth".

The once deathly gray sand and gravel surface rose silently from the ground, transforming into a transparent crystal forest. These crystals exhibited a structure that completely defied three-dimensional geometry—their tendrils penetrated each other in space without producing any physical collisions; despite being transparent, they refracted countless overlapping, dizzying rays of light in the vacuum of night.

On the outskirts of District Seven, a fully armed engineering company is urgently laying a blockade line along the edge of the crystallization, piloting psionic golems.

"The No. 3 relay tower is completely destroyed." Veteran Sun Dapao reported over the communication channel, his voice tinged with exhaustion. He skillfully controlled the puppets to drive down the array defense stakes one by one.

"Master, this crystal tree looks brittle, and there seems to be light moving inside." A young apprentice next to him was operating a detection drone, trying to complete close-up mapping at the edge of the safety line.

"Don't cross the line," Sun Dapao warned in a deep voice.

But it was too late. The drone had just crossed the invisible boundary of the array stakes when the screen on the apprentice's control panel instantly flickered with static, and then the apprentice froze.

Under the intense light of the detector, the apprentice's shadow projected onto the metal panel of the control panel crystallized even before his body. The black shadow seemed to transcend the realm of optics, turning into shattered black glass fragments scattered on the ground.

Immediately afterwards, the highest-level amulet hanging on the apprentice's chest began to heat up. The cinnabar array on the amulet twisted and recombine, and in the blink of an eye, a lifelike dark red eye pattern appeared, staring intently at the apprentice's chin.

The apprentice gaped, his breath caught in his throat, and he found his sense of time stretched out infinitely, with everything around him slowing down dramatically.

"Close your eyes and back off!"

Zhou Lan's cold, sharp voice came through the communication channel, devoid of any emotional fluctuation, yet carrying an absolute sense of execution.

A powerful traction array suddenly exerted its force from behind, forcibly pulling the engineering puppet and the apprentices inside back five kilometers away.

The moment he left that area, the amulet on the apprentice's chest turned to ashes with a "bang." He slumped onto the control panel, dry heaved a few times, and his face turned deathly pale.

"All field units, immediately cut off all detection methods approaching Sector Seven." Zhou Lan stood in the main control cabin, his gaze fixed on the distant crystal forest, and calmly issued the order, "Abandon laying down the close-range physical isolation barrier, and withdraw the defensive line one hundred kilometers. Sector Seven is hereby declared a restricted area. No one, no engineering puppet, is allowed to approach it."

……

Inside the Guanghan base, there were no cheers after the all-clear signal, only a stifling busyness.

The air circulation system was filled with the smells of ozone, blood, and pungent medicine. The sound of ambulances scraping against the deck echoed throughout the corridors.

A young field nurse, having just administered a sedative to a heavily contaminated wounded soldier, leaned against the wall and let out a long sigh of relief.

She suddenly felt something in her mouth and instinctively spat it out, only to find that it was half a lump of dough that had become as cold and hard as a rock. She had been unconsciously chewing this dry, cold bun for a full ten minutes during the crisis.

She stared at the cold steamed bun in her hand for a moment, then calmly tossed it into the medical waste bin. She wiped her forehead with her blood-stained sleeve and turned to walk towards the next isolation ward.

Inside the intensive care unit, Chen Xu lay on his back on a cold metal bed.

The horrific wound on his right shoulder, torn apart by the void monster, finally stopped worsening. The deathly gray threads that had been writhing within his flesh began to slowly wither and dry up as the broken chain on the moon's back fell, like parasites deprived of their source.

With his only remaining left hand, he struggled to pick up a tube of cold, high-energy nutritional paste, trying to squeeze it into his mouth. But his hand trembled so badly that he couldn't squeeze it out after several attempts.

He simply put down the nutritional paste and stared at the opaque metal ceiling of the cabin, his gaze seemingly piercing through the entire base and landing on Sector Seven.

"Captain Chen, your heart rate is still unstable. Should we give you an extra dose of sedative?" The medic walked over and asked, looking at the waveform on the instrument.

"No need." Chen Xu's voice was hoarse. He looked at the healer, his tone extremely firm. "That broken chain isn't inanimate."

The healer stopped what he was doing: "That's a remnant of higher-dimensional rules. Commander Zhou has already ordered a complete lockdown."

"It's more than just a remnant." Chen Xu's fingers gently caressed the bed sheet. "My shoulder came into direct contact with that scent... It's not a piece of broken chain. It's like a nerve. A nerve that isn't completely dead, still oozing blood."

Chen Xu took a deep breath to catch his breath: "I can feel it echoing. Inside it... is the sound from behind the door."

……

This brief oral report, imbued with strong sensory overtones, was transmitted to the Kyoto Joint Control Room three minutes later, along with optical scan data from the periphery of Zone 7.

Wang Mingyuan's eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the geometrically indeterminate crystal forest structure diagram on the screen.

"Chen Xu's intuition is correct."

Wang Mingyuan turned around and placed a preliminary analysis report on the holographic sand table. "Optical inversion proves that the crystallization in the seventh region is not a disordered, regular contamination. The liquid that seeped out from the broken chains etched extremely complex reverse array patterns on the lunar soil."

Old Li stepped forward, his one eye fixed on the sand table: "Reverse trajectory? What does that mean?"

"The original purpose of that chain was to extend from the outside of the door and nail the edge of the crack to physically expand it," Wang Mingyuan explained in a deep voice, his tone carrying the rigor and solemnity unique to researchers. "Since it was used to 'nail the door,' its internal structure must have followed the path of descent from higher to lower dimensions."

"It is not just a wreckage, but a path. A physical passage that retains the 'reverse patterns' of the higher-dimensional rules behind the door."

The air in the control room paused slightly.

……

At the summit of Kunlun, the wind and snow continue.

Gu Qing stood quietly at the edge of the Heavenly Palace, her gaze traversing 380,000 kilometers of emptiness, landing on the eerie crystalline forest on the far side of the moon.

[WARNING: High-dimensional debris detected. This residue contains deadly conceptual contamination and is unresolved. Reverse contact will cause uncontrolled contamination of the lower-dimensional universe. The host is advised to immediately seal it away or connect to the highest divinity to counteract it with pure rules.]

Deep within his consciousness, a brief system notification popped up.

Gu Qing did not respond, nor did he even cause a ripple in his mind. He simply used his powerful divine soul to suppress the incessant prompt into the depths of darkness without leaving a trace.

Through the secondary celestial network, he sensed the subtle movements in various parts of the earth.

In the new Chang'an heavy industrial zone, an old worker looked at the victory report, expressionless, wrapped his scalded hand with a rag, and patted the dazed apprentice next to him, saying in a low voice, "Keep working."

A nurse in the hospital, spitting out a cold steamed bun, is skillfully bandaging the next soldier.

This is life. There aren't many dramatic highs and lows, only the survival instincts that are painstakingly carved out in dire circumstances.

Gu Qing withdrew his senses and gently tapped the void with his fingertip.

The next second, holographic images of Zhou Lan and Wang Mingyuan simultaneously appeared on the summit of Kunlun Mountain.

"Master Dao." The two bowed in unison.

Gu Qing nodded slightly, without exchanging pleasantries or offering any discussion or explanation, and directly issued the decree.

"The entire Guanghan base is to be withdrawn. The Academy of Sciences is to cease all physical sampling and array detection plans targeting the broken link. No one, no detector, may cross the line."

Wang Mingyuan's expression changed. As a top scientist, he knew the terrifying strategic value contained in that broken chain and couldn't help but speak up: "Dao Lord, that's an extremely rare high-dimensional rule entity. If we can establish an observation model as soon as possible..."

"You can't analyze it."

Gu Qing interrupted him calmly and mercilessly, stating a cold, hard fact.

"That conceptual pollution targets all life. The physical bodies and souls of living people, and even the faint intelligence attached to engineered puppets, will be assimilated and distorted as soon as they get close. Your current scientific and cultivation systems are not even qualified to touch it."

Wang Mingyuan's breath hitched, a hint of resentment flashing in his eyes, but he knew the Dao Master's words were true, so he could only lower his head deeply: "Yes."

Zhou Lan calmly inquired, "Lord Dao, if the Seventh District is left unchecked, the crystallization contamination will inevitably continue to spread outwards. Should the Guanghan Base...?"

"Don't waste your energy."

Gu Qing's gaze pierced through the vast sea of ​​clouds, looking down into the deep earth, his tone indifferent and composed.

"I have my own plans."

Gu Qing did not offer any further explanation to the two of them.

He left behind that broken chain, naturally intending to use it to pry open the door to higher dimensions. But the less mortals know about such a reckless game that touches the very core of the universe, the safer they are.

With a flick of his sleeve, he severed the holographic communication.

Then, a brief and pure decree passed directly through the barrier of the underworld and fell into the depths of the netherworld.

……

Deep in the netherworld, on the banks of the River of Oblivion.

On the towering walls of Fengdu, eerie green soul flames burned silently.

Zhao Feng, dressed in a dark black Yama's Crown and wearing a twelve-tassel Netherworld Emperor's Crown, stood on the command platform.

When Zhao Feng received Gu Qing's decree, his face remained completely calm. He simply raised his hand and placed it on the Yin Si Emperor Seal at his waist.

Having guarded the town for a century, he had long been accustomed to these orders that teetered on the edge of life and death.

Dead lands, forbidden to the living, are trodden flat by the souls of the dead. Deadly poisons, untouchable by the living, are swallowed by the underworld. This is one of the reasons why the underworld exists between the realms of Yin and Yang.

"Lord Judge." A judge stepped forward and waited for instructions in a low voice.

"Open the main gate of Fengdu. The gates of hell, aim at the moon."

Zhao Feng's steady and powerful voice echoed across the desolate Yellow Springs Plain.

"boom--"

As the heavy city gates opened, a million ghostly soldiers, clad in tattered black armor and wielding spears, silently arrayed themselves in the black mist along the banks of the River of Oblivion.

A dense aura of death, enough to freeze all life, instantly encased the surrounding water.

Zhao Feng raised his head and looked up at the deep starry sky.

"All troops, prepare. Go to the far side of the moon and pave a road to the underworld."