The entrance to the Abyssal Maw lay hidden in the rifts of the Rifted Star‑trail Plain. Chen Yuan pressed his mechanical arm against the cracked earth, feeling the throb of primal chaos beneath—its heartbeat mingled with the faint call of his father's remnant soul. Selene's Star‑Shard Mask now drifted in three shards before him, its astral‑trail light pointing toward a vortex of black mist deep in the fissure.
"You sure this isn't some Cthulhu‑themed endoscopy?" Chen Yuan quipped, his gears creaking in the chill wind. "Old Patriarch, you really had unique taste hiding the core down here." The pendant trembled slightly, as if embarrassed to discuss it.
Lilith's silver eyes gleamed in the dark mist, her fingertips forging blades of shadow‑energy.
"The Astral Prophecy warns each level of the Maw corresponds to one's deepest fear. Chen Yuan—what do you fear most?"
"That the system will suddenly tell me my XP was all a lie." He gave the Astral Core at his waist a wry tug; it and the pendant now fused, pulsing jade light. "But there is no system now. Fear won't help—let's see what treasures the Maw's throat hides."
The moment they stepped into the black mist, gravity inverted. Chen Yuan felt himself falling downward even as he saw Selene and Lilith floating above. The mist flickered with fragmented memories— the rotwood hut, Iron Fortress's gears, his father's smile as the Blood Pool collapsed. He realized at once: this was the Maw's "Memory Guillotine," exposing his tenderest moments as a weakness.
"Selene—fix the astral‑trail with star fragments!" he shouted, overloading his mechanical arms. Bone‑wings sprouted in storm‑runes, violently shredding the mist.
"Lilith—shield Selene with shadow‑energy! Time flows erratically here, don't be fooled by memories!"
They burst through the mist into an inverted, flesh‑walled chamber. The "floor" pulsed with living membrane; the "ceiling" rained luminescent eyeballs. Tubes of blood‑vessels snaked everywhere, scrawled with Cthulhu glyphs. Bone‑Vein Resonance flared—Chen Yuan "saw" down the corridors hundreds of magic‑path skeletons, each branded with Abyssal runes.
"These… were Azure Bone's disciples?" Lilith murmured, slashing the membrane as her shadow‑blade was drained of energy.
"Their jade‑slip fragments… cast into the Maw's core."
"System—no, pendant," he corrected himself, pressing the pendant's light to the rune‑plated skeletons. It flared, drawing the fragments into its space.
"If you'd absorbed them sooner, I wouldn't have wrestled gears in Iron Fortress."
Selene's fragments formed an arrow in midair, pointing to the seventh eyeball cluster.
"The Prince of Tentacles Barû lies behind that eye—he guards the 'Adam's Apple' of the Maw. That is where your father's remnant soul resides."
"Barû?" Chen Yuan recalled the Abyssal cult notes from Iron Fortress. "Perfect—my fists didn't smash enough of his tentacles on the Plains. This time, I'll claim both principal and interest."
The seventh eye's pupil split open as a blood‑flesh portal. Chen Yuan pressed the Astral Core to its center; storm‑runes and star‑trail glowed together as the pupil contracted, revealing a metallic palace within. At its apex hung twelve incomplete jade tokens, and the floor etched the same star‑map as the Blood Pool altar.
Barû emerged from shadow. His twelve tentacles had evolved into independent creatures, each bearing a different monster's head:
"Key‑bearer from afar, your father's soul weeps at the Maw's deepest core. Shall I read you his final words?"
Chen Yuan's Astral‑Trail Perception cut out. He yanked Selene aside, mechanical arms wheeling bone‑cannons:
"You think luring me with my father's soul would break my spirit?" He unleashed astral canisters into the tentacle swarm—each explosion fed back into stronger chaos‑energy.
"Beware! These tendrils absorb all energy!" Lilith warned, her silver blade ensnared. "You must fight physically—no Primal arts here!"
"Physical? Then let's get old Patriarch's cogs spinning!" Chen Yuan ripped a gear‑core from his arm, infusing it with Blood‑Death Qi until it swelled into a three‑meter bone wheel studded with storm‑runes capable of slicing chaos‑energies.
Barû's tendrils faltered. Seizing the moment, Chen Yuan drove the bone wheel through the palace. The Astral Core simultaneously purified absorbed chaos‑qi.
"Every jade‑slip is a save‑point?" he realized, striking a doll for a token. The pendant hummed, as if delighted by the delayed compliment.
Selene's fragments reformed into another arrow, pointing to the deepest jade token—cracked and blackened, its center holding his father's flickering remnant.
At Chen Yuan's touch, the palace lurched as though alive. He plunged through into an even deeper void, where time itself was frozen. There, his father's remnant hovered at the edge of the chaos‑core.
"Yuán… don't come closer…" his father's voice crackled like glass in liquid. "My soul… is already fused to the Maw…"
"Enough." Chen Yuan intoned the Codex's reverse‑entropy glyphs, swirling astral and Blood‑Death Qi into a vortex in his palm. "Matilda said chaos‑primal is warped magic‑path spirit— and I… am the key to un‑warp it."
Barû's tendrils blasted through the tear in space. Chen Yuan's memory flickered to Lilith using shadows to sever the chaos‑absorption, and Selene stabilizing the time‑flow with the Astral Core. He realized the Maw's true horror was not death, but utter solitude—bearing the burden of saving a world alone.
"System—no, pendant." He communed directly with the artifact mid‑battle: "Grant me the power of every jade‑slip fragment! If we fail, I'll drag you into the Maw's depths to watch these tentacles dance!"
In response, thirteen storm‑runes on the pendant flared—never before had they all ignited. Chen Yuan's mech‑arm and bone‑scales fully fused, and behind him rose a tricolor avatar of gears, star‑trail, and tendrils—perfect balance of chaos, order, and magic‑path.
At the avatar's strike, the chaos‑core shattered. His father's remnant surged into the pendant's space even as the Maw's "Adam's Apple"—a tainted golden alchemical core crawled with runes—collapsed.
Barû's monstrous cry echoed as tendrils dissolved. Chen Yuan seized the remnant soul, reuniting with Lilith and Selene. They tumbled out of the Maw's depths; the Rifted Plain's ground knitted itself whole, and Mist‑Hidden City's shadows lifted to reveal a pristine blue sky—the first pure dawn in ages.
"Did we… succeed?" Lilith asked, flexing her restored arm. In her silver eyes gleamed Chen Yuan's remnant soul on his shoulder.
"For now." He pressed the pendant. Its storm‑runes glowed warmly. "Chaos‑primal won't vanish—balance between astral and magic‑path must be maintained."
He turned to Selene, now marked with a new storm‑rune on her brow. "Next, to the Grey‑Robes Council to ignite the final three tokens."
Selene pointed off in the distance—the sky above a newly‑sprouted meadow rang with Old Mo's caravan bells; this time the grass beneath its wheels grew green instead of wilting.
"He brings the last legacy of Azure Bone," Selene said, her voice echoing with astral resonance.
"Old Mo, what do you want now?" Chen Yuan asked as the wanderer unloaded heavy chests of magic‑path jade slips and fallen‑star fragments. "My blood? Token shards?"
"Neither," Old Mo replied, removing his brimmed hat to reveal a storm‑rune brand on his temple. "I want to ride with you into the Maw—after all, I was once Azure Bone's mechanist apprentice too. I watched my master's legacy tainted by Cthulhu's corruption."
Chen Yuan raised an eyebrow, recalling the core‑keeper he'd glimpsed in Iron Fortress's power furnace:
"So you were that untainted apprentice! No wonder you move so freely in the blood‑mist."
He accepted a complete Codex of Myriad‑Bone Refinement from Old Mo.
"Alright—just know I will not coddle you like a master. When it's time to shred tentacles, I won't hold back."
They rested on the fresh green grass under a newly‑clearing sky. Chen Yuan watched his father's remnant sleep inside the pendant's space and laughed—a sound of relief and resolve.
"Back when I first transmigrated, I complained about having no tutorial. Now I see—the best tutorial is one's own life. Every refinement, every battle, every death‑defying moment forced me to grow."
The pendant trembled in warmth, affirming his revelation. He gazed upward at the now‑visible star‑trail entwined with storm‑runes in the sky.
"Truly, the greatest finger of fate was never a system. It was my Earth‑born soul—questioning the rules, fighting to survive, and carrying forward my father's unfinished legacy."
As the first pure sunbeam pierced Mist‑Hidden City, Chen Yuan held the pendant aloft—nine of its thirteen storm‑runes blazing. He knew what waited next in the Abyssal Maw: his father's soul, Azure Bone's lingering regret, and the world's primal secret. But now he was no longer a passive transgressor of some system—he was an active cultivator of magic‑path rebellion, wielding Earth's ingenuity, magic's resilience, and astral clarity to carve his own path in a world of chaos.
And in the Maw's deepest vault, the shattered chaos‑core dripped its first drop of purified magic‑path spirit—quietly seeding the beginning of this world's rebirth.