The Shattered Vortex

Chapter 30 The Absolute Void

The dark, glass-like fragment of the Primordial Core-Shard did not pierce Lu Chen’s flesh like a knife; it melted straight into his skin upon contact. The moment the ancient entity's remnant passed through his sternum, the freezing chamber inside the iron lotus was instantly swallowed by a blinding, catastrophic flare of pure, negative light. BOOM! The internal soul space of Lu Chen’s mind didn't just fracture—it collapsed into an absolute, timeless oblivion. The multi-layered Golden-Crimson Cosmic Vortex inside his belly completely stopped spinning for a terrifying millisecond. Then, it reversed. Driven by the raw, unholy resonance of the primordial shard, the crystalline prism at the center of his soul violently shattered into ten thousand microscopic needles of pure gravity. "What... what madness is this?!" Grand Master Corvus’s smooth voice violently cracked into a screech of pure, primal panic [1.1]. The massive, solid blade of pitch-black darkness he had swung at Lu Chen’s throat didn't hit flesh. The moment the shadow-crows entered the ten-inch perimeter around Lu Chen’s body, their structure was forcefully warped, elongated, and violently dragged straight into the yawning, black gravity well opening within the youth’s chest. The space inside the iron lotus was bending so severely that the six-inch-thick black iron walls began to cave inward, the heavy rivets popping out like grapeshot. "You spent nineteen years farming my lineage, Corvus," Lu Chen’s voice resonated from the depths of the void. It wasn't a human voice anymore. It carried the layered, terrifying harmony of a dying star crushing reality into dust [1.1]. "But you forgot that the soil eventually buries the farmer." The Devouring Maw didn't just open—it became the absolute law of the cavern. Lu Chen’s pitch-black pupils expanded until his eyes were twin pools of spinning, cosmic void, sparking with arcs of raw, golden-crimson lightning. He took a single, heavy step forward. The bone altar beneath his feet instantly turned to fine white powder. Grand Master Corvus frantically tried to sever his spiritual connection to the shadow-blade, but the vacuum from the Shattered Mirror Technique was an unbreakable trap. The absolute, crushing gravity of the newly evolved core was violently yanking his peak Core Formation Realm lifeforce straight out of his meridians. Visible streams of thick, liquid golden soul-energy were being forcefully pulled from Corvus's eyes, nose, and fingertips, rushing down the dark channel straight into Lu Chen's chest. "Stop! Release it! The shard will consume your sanity!" Corvus shrieked, his elegant scholar’s robes ripping to shreds as his flesh rapidly began to age, deep wrinkles folding across his forehead as his centuries of hard-earned cultivation were systematically ground to pieces. "My sanity was broken the day you killed my family," Lu Chen whispered, his face inches from the grand master's trembling mask. With a final, catastrophic surge of willpower, Lu Chen completely emptied the Grand Master's core. He reached out with his bare right hand, his fingers hardened into a flawless, marble-like metallic sheen, and drove his fist straight into Corvus’s chest. CRUNCH. The punch didn't just penetrate the ribs—the peak-tier, cosmic-grade jagged Qi exploded internally, completely liquefying the Grand Master's internal organs and shattering his peak Core into glittering dust. Grand Master Corvus’s eyes went completely dark, his hollowed-out husk collapsing into a pile of gray ash that was instantly s*ck*d down into the boiling river whirlpool below. SCREECH—! With the death of the Grand Master, the hundreds of massive iron chains holding the iron lotus violently snapped under the extreme gravitational load. The colossal metal structure gave a final, deafening groan and plunged straight down, falling forty feet into the boiling, toxic crimson vortex of the drainage channel. BOOM! The impact exploded the river into a massive, three-hundred-foot wave of scalding steam and molten stone. The Iron Sovereign, parked against the gantry, rocked violently, its iron hull groaning against the stone walls. From the center of the boiling explosion, a lone figure stepped out onto the water. Lu Chen walked across the surface of the boiling crimson river as if it were solid granite, the toxic steam completely dissolving the moment it touched the dense, gravity-defying aura radiating from his skin. The multi-sided crystalline prism inside his belly had reassembled into a flawless, spinning Golden-Crimson Cosmic Core. He had bypassed the limits of the mortal realms entirely. He had locked his anchor firmly at the Peak of the Core Formation Realm, his presence so immense that the entire subterranean vault was subtly vibrating in unison with his heartbeat. He stepped onto the smoking deck of the flagship, where Lin Xue and Elder Song were kneeling on the timber, their faces filled with an absolute, terrified reverence. They knew that the underbelly of the empire was no longer ruled by the shadow. It belonged to the void. Lu Chen looked up at the fractured stone ceiling, where the natural sunlight of the imperial capital city was beginning to filter through the cracks. The first debt was paid in full. The Hall of the Five Crows was gone. He pulled his burlap hood back over his dark eyes, his emerald needle humming with a terrifying, planetary resonance within his chest. "The shadows are dead, Lin Xue," Lu Chen said, his voice a smooth, icy promise of absolute continental conquest. "Set the coordinates for the high palaces above. It's time to go turn their sun off." ------------------------------