Chapter 3642: The Runweld Barren World
Chapter 3642: The Runweld Barren World
Seeing the broken planet Daoist Chu nodded.
"This matches the description."
Lin Mu allowed himself a small breath.
They had found it.
After weeks of travel.
After days of searching.
Hidden within the darkness.
Concealed by the vastness of space.
The remnants of a broken world.
The Runweld Barren World.
The destination they had sought.
And now they were here.
But the discovery of the Runweld Barren World did not bring relief.
It brought caution.
Lin Mu stood at the helm as the ship began its gradual deceleration. The vast cluster of fragmented landmasses drifted ahead, their motion slow yet unpredictable, each piece exerting its own pull while being influenced by the others.
"This will not be simple," Daoist Chu said quietly.
Lin Mu agreed.
A whole planet had a unified gravitational field. It was stable, predictable, something one could descend into with relative ease. But this... this was chaos.
The Runweld Barren World was broken. Its gravity was fractured just like its body. Each fragment carried its own pull, and the larger ones distorted the space around them in uneven ways.
Lin Mu adjusted the arrays.
"Reduce speed further," he said.
The ship responded, its forward motion easing as it entered the outer boundary of the fragmented cluster.
Immediately, the instability became apparent.
TREMBLE
The vessel shifted slightly.
Not from external force alone, but from the overlapping gravitational influences of the fragments. The pull was uneven, fluctuating subtly as they moved.
Lin Mu tightened his control.
"Compensate for drift," he instructed.
Daoist Chu assisted, adjusting the auxiliary arrays to maintain balance and thrust.
The two largest fragments loomed ahead.
Their surfaces jagged, torn apart in ways that spoke of unimaginable destruction. Their gravitational fields were the strongest in the region, and as the ship approached them, their influence became more pronounced.
The descent became difficult.
The ship tilted slightly as one fragment’s pull increased, then corrected as another countered it.
"Careful," Cattaleya spoke. "I don’t want to bench press half a planet... yet."
Lin Mu’s focus sharpened.
He guided the ship through the shifting currents, making constant adjustments, ensuring they did not drift too close to any single mass.
Hours passed and slowly they descended. They got closer and closer, until the fragments no longer felt distant. They surrounded them. Towering masses of rock, some as large as mountain ranges, drifted in silent motion around the ship.
"Hold position," Lin Mu said.
The ship stabilized within a relatively safe zone, its arrays compensating continuously for the gravitational interference.
They had arrived.
But their task had only begun.
Lin Mu looked out across the fractured terrain.
"The base is hidden within one of these," he said.
Meng Bai followed his gaze, his expression tightening.
"All of this?"
Lin Mu nodded.
The Rune Dwarves had been clear.
The base was hidden within a fragment.
Which fragment...
They did not know as the pieces moved over time. Positions shifted. No single fragment could be marked as the permanent location. Even if they had given one it was likely it would have already moved.
Thus they would have to search manually.
They began with the ship.
Moving slowly, scanning the surfaces of the nearby fragments, searching for any sign of structure, any indication of artificial formation.
At first, the process seemed manageable. But as they moved deeper the complexity became apparent.
Crevasses.
Gaps.
Deep fissures that cut through the fragments, leading into shadowed interiors that could not be fully scanned from a distance.
"We’ll have to check those manually," Lin Mu said.
There was no alternative. The ship could not enter such narrow spaces. They would have to leave it. One by one, they began their descent into the fragmented world. Lin Mu moved first, his body surrounded by protective energy as he flew into a narrow crevasse between two massive chunks.
Cattaleya followed.
Elyon as well.
Meng Bai though stayed back.
He looked at the gap, then at the massive fragments shifting slowly around it.
"I’ll... stay on the ship," he said.
No one argued as it was the sensible choice. Even Lin Mu understood the environment was dangerous. The fragments moved. Not quickly, but enough.
Enough to crush anything caught between them.
Lin Mu entered the crevasse.
The darkness swallowed him almost immediately.
The walls were uneven, jagged, the rock surface rough and fractured. Small particles drifted around, remnants of past collisions.
He scanned carefully.
Every surface.
Every shadow.
There was nothing.
They moved deeper.
Then...
A shift.
Lin Mu’s instincts flared.
The walls around him moved.
Slowly.
But unmistakably.
Two fragments were closing in!
"Move!" Lin Mu said sharply.
He surged forward, his speed increasing instantly. Behind him, Cattaleya and Elyon reacted just as quickly.
The gap narrowed.
The pressure increased.
Lin Mu felt it.
The force of two massive bodies drawing closer.
And for a moment he was caught!
The space tightened around him, the pressure immense, enough to crush even powerful cultivators.
Lin Mu’s eyes narrowed.
He unleashed his strength.
"AHHHHHHHH!"
Immortal Essennce energy surged.
His body shifted.
Forced its way through the narrowing gap.
Then... He broke free.
The fragments collided behind him with a silent yet terrifying force. If not for the lack of air, the collision would have been demeaning.
Lin Mu exhaled slowly.
"That was close."
Cattaleya landed beside him.
"You almost got crushed," she said.
Lin Mu nodded.
"It will not happen again."
But he knew this place allowed no mistakes.
They continued.
Crevasse after crevasse.
Gap after gap.
Each one a risk.
Each one a potential dead end.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
The search stretched on.
The scale of it became overwhelming.
"This is an entire world..." Meng Bai said one day, his voice filled with disbelief.
Lin Mu did not disagree.
Even broken, it was vast.
Finding a hidden entrance within it...
Was like searching for a single grain of sand in an endless desert. But this was even worse than that.
Still...
They continued.
Twenty six days passed.
Then, finally... A clue appeared.