The central stone path of the Abyssal Vault lay silent, completely cleared of the three four-meter-tall Trench Overseers whose shattered power armor continued to hiss, venting streams of gray synthetic lubricants into the volcanic sand. The high-voltage plasma cage that had choked the chamber for hours had entirely collapsed, leaving only a faint, sweet smell of ozonous heat lingering in the damp air.
Lin Feng walked calmly up the obsidian steps of the central altar, his sneakers making absolute, soundless contact with the prehistoric stone.
His hands were casually buried inside the pockets of his gray utility jacket, his pulse completely flat at sixty beats per minute. Beneath his porcelain-smooth skin, his
Qi Circulation ChannelingâStage 2
foundation was running at total, flawless equilibrium, his fully scoured
Ren
and
Du
channels creating an absolute internal energetic loop that rendered him completely invisible to the satellite tracking grids above the ocean.
Behind him, Han Xue and Bai Qingxi climbed at a calculated distance, their boots clicking softly against the jade trim. Neither of the legacy heiresses spoke. The absolute structural density that had dissolved the overseers' synchronized trident strike with a mere shift of his bare knuckles had thoroughly redrawn the parameters of their strategy, leaving their networks in a state of quiet, frozen awe.
"The absolute solstice zero-point has just calibrated, Lin Feng," Bai Qingxi reported softly, her crisp, aristocratic baritone carrying a precise rhythm as her updated wrist pad populated with scrolling rows of crimson diagnostic files. "The surface sensors just logged a total energetic blackout across all corporate grid sectors inside the capital metropolis. The continental fault lines aren't just shiftingâthe primary maritime rifts are opening their inner chambers right beneath our heels."
"The rifts are simply executing their natural programming, Director Bai," Lin Feng replied smoothly, not even turning his head as he stopped precisely three paces from the stone pedestal.
Floating three feet above the altar was a massive, perfectly spherical orb of liquid golden geocentric marrowâthe
Core Sovereign Font of the Deep Sea
. The liquid matrix vibrated with an immense, prehistoric density, sending long, shimmering ribbons of pure gold light loop drifting through the atmosphere. The energy was so concentrated that ordinary Flesh Refinement practitioners standing within this radius would have experienced an instant cellular collapse, their unrefined bone structure calcifying into dead clay under the atmospheric torque.
Han Xueâs knuckles turned a bloodless white inside her black silk trench coat sleeves, her internal pathways violently straining as she watched him extend his bare right hand toward the golden sphere. "Lin Feng! The Sovereign Font is currently completely unshielded from the planetary bedrock anchors! If your dual-loop synchronization fluctuates by even half a hertz during the absorption phase, the energetic back-draft will permanently turn your container into flat iron scrap!"
Lin Feng didn't answer her with a traditional martial defense or an academic calculation. His porcelain-smooth fingers simply closed around the floating golden orb without a single trace of hesitation.
HUMMMM.
The three-meter perimeter surrounding the altar instantly experienced a total, unconditional spatial vacuum baseline. The sphere of liquid golden marrow didn't reject his skin; the moment the prehistoric matrix identified the absolute, immaculate density of his
Stage 2 Meridian Loop
, its internal energetic cohesion unconditionally surrendered.
The golden current poured cleanly from the air, drilling straight through the open pores of his palm and channeling directly into his scoured skeletal framework, welding its layout directly into his
Dao Blueprint
.
[ ABYSSAL CLEARANCE: SOVEREIGN CORE SECURED]
[DATASTREAM INTEGRATION: 100% SUCCESSFUL]
[Power Baseline Update: Meridian Loop Stage 2 â Absolute Core Cohesion achieved]
The sensation of the Sovereign Font filtering through his marrow was an unmitigated surge of pure geocentric weight, as if the roots of the entire continental shelf were being ruthlessly injected into his spine. Yet, Lin Fengâs face remained a perfect mask of student-like simplicity, his breathing flat and rhythmic, completely absorbing and grounding the massive kinetic backlash into the white jade foundation beneath his sneakers.
High above their heads, the primeval violet sky of the vault violently shattered, the thick ash clouds completely dissolving to reveal the first clean, unpolluted azure horizon the deep-sea rifts had held in three centuries.
Lin Feng slowly let his hand drop back into his jacket pocket, a cold, undefeated smile curling the absolute corners of his lips as he turned his vacant, golden-flecked eyes back toward the two legacy heiresses.
The corporate vanguards were broken, the hidden ancestral sanctuaries were thoroughly scoured within his palm, and the institutional chessboard of the global directory had been completely erased according to his explicit commands. The maritime stage of the deep-sea trenches was thoroughly finalized, and the undefeated regressor of modern Huaxia was officially looking toward the absolute summit of the coming era.
[VOLUME 5: THE DEEP-SEA TRENCH SOVEREIGNS â END]