THE KING OF STARS

Chapter 66: THE QUESTION BENEATH HEAVEN

"Will you open the gate willingly?"

The words did not echo.

They sank.

Through flesh. Through bone. Through soul.

Yun felt the question settle somewhere deep inside him like a brand pressed directly against existence itself.

The chamber became unnaturally still.

Even the black tide ceased advancing for one impossible moment, as though the entire abyss awaited his answer.

The hunters remained kneeling.

Hundreds of faceless entities bowed before him in absolute silence, their fractured bodies flickering between material form and emptiness. They resembled creatures only halfway born into reality.

And every single one radiated enough pressure to exterminate sect elders.

Xie Ren slowly shifted closer to Yun's side.

A subtle movement.

Protective.

His broken blade still hung in his hand despite being reduced to half its original length. Blood dripped steadily from the cuts across his arm where fragments of void-corrosion had grazed him earlier.

Yet his stance never wavered.

Shen Yu stood opposite them, golden law-scripts rotating heavily around his body now. Unlike before, the Restriction Brand was no longer merely glowing beneath his skin.

It had surfaced.

Golden chains stretched visibly across his neck, collarbone, and jaw like a prison trying to drag him back into itself.

The pressure leaking from him was becoming unstable.

Yun noticed immediately.

So did the hunters.

Several of them tilted their heads simultaneously toward Shen Yu.

Observing.

Calculating.

One stepped forward half a pace.

The air distorted around it.

"Bound Law-Carrier," it whispered.

Another hunter answered from deeper within the tide.

"Damaged prison construct."

Shen Yu's expression darkened instantly.

"I am going to kill something very soon."

Xie Ren snorted once.

"Good. I was worried I'd have to do all the work myself."

The tension should have broken slightly.

It didn't.

Because beneath the chamber—

Something breathed.

The sound was impossibly deep.

Ancient beyond comprehension.

The chained branch towering through the center of the chamber trembled violently as another black chain cracked apart with a deafening metallic scream.

BOOM.

The shockwave flattened entire sections of the chamber wall.

Silver roots burst from the floor instinctively, wrapping around Yun and the others protectively as debris rained downward.

The Root itself was reacting in fear.

Fear.

Yun froze at the realization.

The Root feared whatever was below.

The hunter at the front slowly rose to its feet.

Unlike the others, its form was more stable.

More complete.

Black armor shaped itself gradually across its body while fractures of silver light pulsed beneath the darkness covering it.

Not corruption.

Fusion.

Yun's synchronization perception flared painfully the moment he looked directly at it.

Threads surrounded the creature.

Millions of them.

Broken. Cut. Reattached incorrectly.

And at the center—

One thread connected directly downward into the abyss beneath the ruin.

The hunter spoke again.

"The Root chooses once more."

Its faceless gaze remained fixed on Yun.

"Why?"

Yun swallowed hard.

"I don't even know what the Root is."

The hunter became silent.

Then—

For the first time—

Emotion appeared in its voice.

"Neither did the first heirs."

The chamber darkened further.

Yun felt the silver marks beneath his skin pulse violently.

Images flashed through his mind.

Not visions.

Memories.

A sky burning black.

Cultivators screaming beneath collapsing stars.

Silver trees spreading across worlds.

And towering above everything—

A colossal gate.

Half organic. Half divine.

Covered in chains.

Yun staggered backward sharply.

Xie Ren caught him immediately.

"What happened?"

Yun grabbed his own head as the memory fragments intensified.

"I can hear them…"

The words came out strained.

"So many voices…"

The Root was speaking now.

Not clearly.

Not in language.

Fragments. Warnings. Regret.

The silver branch in the chamber suddenly pulsed with blinding light.

Every hunter turned instantly toward it.

Then the branch split open.

A human figure emerged slowly from within the silver light.

Xie Ren's hand tightened around his weapon immediately.

Shen Yu's golden scripts surged defensively.

Even the Custodian straightened.

Because the figure walking from the branch was alive.

Or something close enough to life.

A woman.

Tall. Barefoot. Wrapped in flowing silver robes formed from living roots.

Her hair drifted weightlessly around her despite the absence of wind, and her eyes—

Her eyes contained stars.

Not metaphorically.

Actual constellations turned slowly within her gaze.

The hunters immediately bowed lower.

Not to Yun.

To her.

The Custodian whispered softly beside them.

"A First Heir…"

The woman looked around the chamber silently.

Her gaze passed over the hunters without interest.

Passed over Shen Yu.

Passed over Xie Ren.

Then stopped completely on Yun.

The entire ruin shook.

The silver marks beneath Yun's skin ignited painfully.

Recognition surged through him so intensely it nearly stopped his heart.

He knew her.

Impossible.

But true.

Not personally.

Instinctively.

Like remembering something buried before birth.

The woman spoke quietly.

"You survived synchronization."

Her voice carried no force.

Yet the chamber itself bent around the words.

Yun stared at her.

"You know me?"

"No."

A pause.

"But the Root does."

The hunters began shifting uneasily behind her.

The black tide churned violently.

The woman turned slightly toward the abyss beneath the chamber.

For the first time, tension entered her expression.

"It is waking faster than predicted."

Shen Yu stepped forward immediately.

"What exactly is 'it'?"

The woman became silent.

Then she answered.

"The wound left behind after heaven killed God."

Silence.

Absolute silence.

Even the black tide seemed to pause again.

Yun felt cold spread through his entire body.

No one spoke.

Because the statement itself felt impossible.

The heavens… killed… God?

Xie Ren finally broke the silence first.

"That explanation somehow created more questions than answers."

The woman ignored him.

Her gaze remained fixed on Yun.

"The Root chose you because you touched the unanswered path."

Yun frowned.

"I don't understand any of this."

"You were never supposed to."

Another violent tremor shook the chamber.

This time the chained branch cracked visibly down its center.

The abyss below roared.

Not sound.

Will.

Hatred so immense it distorted reality.

Several hunters immediately collapsed to one knee as if responding to a command.

The faceless hunter from before looked toward Yun again.

"The Devourer grows impatient."

The woman's expression hardened instantly.

"You should not have awakened fully yet."

The hunter answered calmly.

"The heir accelerated the convergence."

Every eye turned toward Yun.

His stomach dropped.

"What?"

The woman looked at him carefully.

"When you synchronized with the Root, it recognized possibility."

Yun already hated where this was going.

"The Root has been dormant for ages because it could not find a compatible heir capable of surviving full convergence."

Another chain shattered.

The roar from below intensified.

"And now?" Yun asked quietly.

The woman's star-filled eyes reflected the black abyss beneath them.

"Now both sides have begun moving again."

The hunters slowly began rising behind her.

One by one.

Hundreds of distorted figures standing in silence while the darkness behind them twisted like an endless sea.

Xie Ren moved subtly closer to Yun.

"So what exactly happens if he opens this gate?"

The chamber became still again.

The woman answered without hesitation.

"Heaven falls."