The first week in the Void Abyss felt like a lifetime. Time here didn't flow linearly; it stretched and compressed based on the trio's mental state. While Yu Chen and Ye Lingling were stabilizing the "Eternal Heart" anchor, Dugu Yan was struggling.
The "Guardian's Shield" she had developed was being eaten by the Abyss. Her Jade-Phosphor Serpent hissed in her mind, its scales itching and burning. In the world above, her poison was a king; here, it was just food for the shadows.
"It's not enough," Dugu Yan gasped, her vertical pupils vibrating. She looked at Yu Chen, who was floating in a meditative state, his silver-black aura expanding to protect them. "Chen, the serpent... it wants to hide. It's afraid of the emptiness."
Yu Chen opened one eye, the silver light within it piercing the gloom. "It's afraid because it's trying to stay a snake, Yan'er. A snake crawls on the ground. But in the Void, there is no ground. You have to stop crawling. You have to fly."
He reached out, not with his hand, but with a thread of Void-Dragon energy. He didn't give it to her; he used it to provoke her martial soul. The serpent flared, its green scales turning a dark, bruised purple.
"Don't fight the pressure," Yu Chen commanded. "Let it crush the parts of you that are weak. If you don't molt now, you'll never leave this platform."
As Dugu Yan screamed, her spirit undergoing a violent reconstruction, the scene shifted to the 500-mile Poison Dead-Zone outside the Starfall Peaks.
The mountain was gone. To any normal eye, the Starfall Peaks had been replaced by a wall of swirling, emerald-black mist.
Dugu Bo stood on a jagged rock at the very edge of the zone. His long hair whipped in the wind, and his eyes were fixed on a group of white-and-gold dots on the horizon. Spirit Hall had sent their first serious probe: a Contraction Squad led by a Spirit Saint (Rank 75).
"Bishop Volos," a junior deacon said, his voice trembling. "The scouts... they disappeared the moment they touched the mist. No signal, no screams. Just... silence."
Bishop Volos, a man with a hawk-like face and a martial soul of a 'Golden Vulture,' narrowed his eyes. "The Supreme Pontiff's 'Gaze' doesn't lie. There is a pocket of divine-tier energy here. If the mist eats our scouts, then we burn the mist."
Volos released his seven spirit rings: Two Yellow, Two Purple, Three Black. He soared into the air, his Golden Vulture wings spreading wide, radiating a searing solar light. "Seventh Spirit Skill: Vulture Avatar!"
He dived into the emerald mist, a streak of gold intended to pierce the gloom.
But Dugu Bo didn't move. He didn't even manifest his spirit rings yet. He simply tapped his staff on the ground. Since Yu Chen had "purified" his bloodline, Dugu Bo's poison was no longer just biological; it was Conceptual.
"You think you're a sun?" Dugu Bo's voice hissed through the mist, amplified by the mountain's natural acoustics. "In this zone, the sun doesn't rise. It only sets."
Suddenly, the emerald mist didn't just block the light—it bit it. The golden aura of the Spirit Saint began to corrode, turning a sickly gray. Volos gasped, feeling his very spirit power being "digested" by the air itself.
Dugu Bo emerged from the fog, standing in the air as if on solid ground. His green eyes were glowing with a new, dark intensity. "The Sovereign told me to make this a place where even the crows are afraid to fly. You, Bishop, are just a very loud crow."
Back in the Abyss, Dugu Yan's transformation reached its peak. Her serpent spirit exploded, the green scales shattering like glass. Out of the shards, a new form emerged: longer, more elegant, with four powerful claws and—most importantly—wide, translucent wings made of solidified void-energy.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: Evolution Complete.]
[Companion: Dugu Yan (Rank 38).]
[Spirit Evolution: Jade-Void Dragon (Divine-Grade - Juvenile).]
[New Passive: 'Spatial Flight' - Ignores 50% of gravitational or restrictive pressure.]
Dugu Yan slumped forward, caught by Yu Chen. She was exhausted, but her presence was now ten times heavier. The "Trinity" was finally balanced.
"I... I can feel the stars," she whispered.
Yu Chen looked up at the ceiling of the Abyss, his gaze passing through the stone and the mist, locking onto the fading golden light of the Spirit Saint outside.
"One Bishop down," Yu Chen murmured. "They'll send a Douluo next. Grandmother was right. We aren't running out of time—we're out of it."