The voyage was exceptionally smooth.

The closer they got to the core, the sparser the surrounding starlight became, as if even the cosmic microwave background radiation was being absorbed.

It was so quiet here that one could hear the sound of their own resonance network flowing.

"Arrived at the edge," Leng Ningxue reported. On the main screen, those three dark spots were already clearly visible. They weren't physical planets, but three slowly rotating dark vortices; occasionally, a tiny streak of colored light flickered in their centers, like an incidental dream in a deep sleep.

Lu Duo's Emerald Network touched the edge lightly. "No aggression... but no response either. Like three sleeping hearts."

Yu Nian's pure heart vine extended toward them. "The sadness is thick. But it's not a sadness of despair... it's more like a long wait."

Bai Cheng stared at the vortices. "Waiting for what?"

She adjusted the resonance of the oath of starlight to the gentlest frequency, like a wisp of breeze, and reached toward one of the vortices. The moment the resonance touched its surface, it met no resistance; instead, it was softly accepted.

Immediately after, a scene flooded into her consciousness.

It was a twilight. A massive star was slowly sinking below the horizon, dyeing the sky in gold, red, and deep purple.

The silhouette of a city stood in the distance; light and shadow flowed through the streets, yet there was not a single person. Only the wind whistled through the gaps between buildings, letting out a long sigh.

The scene was frozen at this moment. The twilight never continued to sink, nor did it welcome the night. It was forever solidified at the gentlest second before sunset.

Bai Cheng withdrew her resonance and looked at the other two vortices. She reached her resonance into them one by one.

Inside the second vortex was a vast, boundless ocean. The surface was as calm as a mirror, reflecting the starry sky. A white sailboat rested in the center, its sails still and the water waveless.

The stars did not move, hanging there eternally.

In the third vortex was a towering giant tree. A circle of blurry figures sat around its base, seemingly in conversation; their postures were vivid, yet their faces and voices were indiscernible.

The shadows of the tree swayed, yet there was no wind and no falling leaves.

Three scenes, three frozen moments.

"It's not a prison, nor is it a lesion," Bai Cheng said softly.

"This is... a Repository. The Old Observers intercepted moments from the flow of time that they couldn't understand but deemed beautiful, and sealed them here."

Zi Yuan frowned. "So this sadness is because they were stripped away from their original lives?"

"More than that." Yu Nian closed her eyes, her pure heart vine trembling slightly.

"In these moments... there was originally life.

In the city, there should have been the footsteps of residents returning home; on the ocean, there should have been the sound of ships breaking the waves; under the tree, there should have been laughter and chatter.

But life was extracted, leaving only the scenes. They are waiting for life to return, but life will never return."

A silence fell over the bridge. More silent than silence itself was the hollowed-out abundance.

"What can we do?" Blue Bird's voice dropped low. "Break the scenes? That doesn't seem right either."

Bai Cheng walked to the porthole, gazing at the three vortices. "We won't break them. We will... complete them."

She turned toward the book of commonality.

"The Starfire Archives collects stories, and it also collects moments.

But the moments in the Archives are moments with life.

We can connect these three scenes to the Archives's resonance network.

Let the breath of the river of light flow into them, allowing the life of other echoes to resonate with them.

They cannot find their original lives again, but in the new resonance, they can achieve a kind of completion."

Lu Duo looked up. "Like adding the final stroke to an unfinished painting?"

"It's like hanging that painting in a warm home." Bai Cheng nodded.

"Yu Nian, use Pure Heart resonance to soothe that waiting sadness.

Lu Duo, use the Emerald Network to build a connection channel—make it as gentle as possible. Leng Ningxue, stabilize the spatial interface. Everyone else, protect us."

The resonance expanded once more. This time, it wasn't a probe, but an invitation.

The Emerald Network transformed into three slender bridges of light, slowly reaching into the three vortices.

The light of the pure heart vine spread like a warm mist, enveloping the outer edges of the vortices. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The frequency of the oath of starlight resonated with the Archives's keystone, passing traces of the breath of life through the light bridges.

At first, there was no change.

The solidified twilight, the still ocean, the silent tree shadows.

But gradually, in the twilight sky, clouds began to drift slowly.

Although the sunset remained, the movement of the clouds brought a sense of motion.

On the mirror-like surface of the ocean, a tiny ripple spread, as if a fish were breathing softly beneath the water.

The branches and leaves of the giant tree swayed once, extremely slowly.

Meanwhile, within the Starfire Archives, many echoes seemed to sense something.

The lingering resonance of a bell chimed softly, the geometric patterns of mathematical beauty rotated spontaneously, and several newly settled consciousnesses transmitted waves of curiosity.

These subtle traces of life flowed backward through the river of light network into the three scenes.

In the twilight city, a light turned on behind a window.

Though it was still empty inside, that single point of light gave the street a sense of expectation.

On the white sail of the ocean, the wind blew a nearly imperceptible curve.

The figures under the tree, though silent, saw one of them raise a hand and point toward the sky.

They were still incomplete.

But they ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) were no longer abandoned specimens.

The resonance lasted for a full three hours.

When the connection was stably established and the three scenes were gently anchored in an outer space of the Archives, the vortices slowly stopped rotating.

The dark colors faded, and they turned into three soft spheres of light; the internal scenes remained the same, yet they possessed a new, tranquil vitality.

The sadness hadn't completely vanished, but it had settled into a kind of peaceful nostalgia.

The book of commonality automatically flipped to a new page. Bai Cheng took up her pen and wrote a new title:

The Destination of Star Abyss

She finished the last stroke and looked out the porthole. The Triangular Core had been lit, and the lock in the deepest part of the Silent Quadrant had quietly opened.

The dawn turned its course and began the return journey.

Behind them, the three spheres of light twinkled gently, like the newly opened eyes of the Starfire Archives in the deep space.

The road ahead was still long. But with every moment brought back and every darkness lit, the starlight grew a bit brighter.

The river of light shines forever, the journey continues.