The Gravity-Pressure Zone, composed of countless black clouds, ceased its operation and stopped generating gravity and pressure... all because of Suweng's arrival and Princess Mora's message.
Upon seeing the report of Andrew Han's tragic death, Suweng hurried over.
At the same time—
Suweng remotely suspended the Gravity-Pressure Zone, his anxious figure descending through the void!
But in the next moment, he discovered Andrew Han was not dead—in fact, Andrew had reached Fourth-Order Cosmic Light, his cultivation realm advancing further. Suweng nodded secretly, somewhat satisfied... though not entirely, as Princess Mora's reply made him frown.
The scene was exceptionally awkward.
Princess Mora was on the verge of tears: "I meant well!"
Facing Suweng's calm gaze, Mora felt utterly embarrassed. Though she forced a smile, it was clearly stiff and unnatural.
"Lord Suweng."
Mora blinked twice, trying to bluff her way through.
However—
Suweng, his upper body marked with red patterns, was always stern and unsmiling. "Given that Mora spread alarm and disrupted Chenriver Palace's operations, a penalty of three hundred points will be imposed—a minor punishment and a major warning!"
"What? That's way too much!" Mora couldn't help but cry out.
Her round face was trembling; Chenriver Palace points were extremely precious and hard to obtain!
There were only a handful of ways to earn points... passing the palace entrance test, sparring challenges, breaking records, or making it onto the Chenriver Palace outer wall.
Suweng said coolly, "If you think that's too little, I can make it four hundred."
Princess Mora: "..."
Who would ever think the penalty was too little? It's obviously a lot! After all, first place in the palace entrance test only gets two hundred starting points.
However—
Faced with Lord Suweng's gaze, Princess Mora forced a sincere smile. "Mora accepts the penalty. Mora accepts the penalty."
"Mm." Suweng nodded, then turned to Andrew Han, showing a rare approving smile. "Andrew, you are quite impressive. Remember to distinguish priorities in your cultivation and never slacken."
Andrew Han bowed slightly. "Yes, thank you for your guidance, Lord Suweng."
"No need for excessive courtesy. Chenriver Palace doesn't require such formalities. Stabilize your realm first—when you have time, come find me at the highest floor of Chenriver Tower. I'll tell you the secrets of Power Traits." Suweng, unusually, gave a few words of advice before quietly departing.
Without a sound, Suweng returned to Chenriver Tower.
He stood inside the ninety-ninth floor of the giant tower, a hint of anticipation flashing in his eyes. His calm face showed traces of age—lost in thought about something unknown.
...
Black clouds floated in the air; the nearby region was empty and quiet, with only the occasional strand of nebula drifting by.
Three people stood within the nebula's interior space, separated by about a kilometer. Nebular strands floated around them, creating a strangely tense atmosphere.
"Andrew Han."
Mora looked at Andrew Han, a bit embarrassed. "I'm really sorry—I didn't expect you to last so long. I thought you had died..."
Andrew Han had no reply. "It's fine."
Dying wasn't the issue—the real point was how long he had endured... Clearly, the cosmic starry sky was worlds apart from blue Earth. There weren't as many double-meaning cosmic idioms here.
"Mm-hmm."
Mora breathed a sigh of relief; she really didn't want to provoke Andrew Han.
Although she was the empire's Third Princess, with the imperial throne soon to change hands, Mora's status was like a sunset—her position now little different from an ordinary cultivation genius, with only a nominal title.
"By the way," Mora spoke first, "Andrew, you may not know this yet—your name is now inscribed on the eighty-ninth floor of Chenriver Tower. You automatically receive five hundred points every star-year."
Andrew Han smiled. "Yes, I know."
Mora continued searching for topics: "Points are really valuable. Every entry into the Gravity-Pressure Zone costs ten points, and the Environmental Simulation Zone costs fifty! Likewise, spending fifty points lets you attend a lecture by a Stellar Palace powerhouse in Chenriver Tower. Surely you didn't know all that?"
Andrew Han kept smiling. "Yes, I know all that too."
Princess Mora: "..."
Mora's round face looked a bit awkward, like a worn-out machine struggling to operate.
"Thank you for the reminder." Andrew Han cupped his hands in farewell, kindly easing Mora's embarrassment as he headed to his next destination—the Environmental Simulation Zone!
All the information Princess Mora shared was clearly recorded in the 'Chenriver Palace Entry Handbook.'
Andrew Han had long been fascinated by the Environmental Simulation Zone.
The cosmic starry sky was so vast, but massive celestial bodies like stars possessed terrifying power. Ordinary Starlight-tier beings who approached would face certain death!
The danger at a star's edge was not its heat, but its dreadful gravity.
"Even I wouldn't dare try it lightly."
"If you get caught by a star's gravity and dragged inside, even Stellar Palace-tier beings may face annihilation."
Andrew Han mused as he flew toward the Environmental Simulation Zone.
Chenriver Palace's simulation zone could reach sixty percent realism—without any fatal danger.
"That's right, it's just up ahead."
Andrew Han continued forward, deep within the endless nebula.
Chenriver Palace was essentially a miniature nebula, its core region roughly the combined volume of several hundred blue Earths.
The ninety-nine-story crystalline giant tower stood at the top, overshadowing everything below.
Below, centered around the Color-Cloud Palaces, various zones were scattered nearby.
Facilities like the Gravity-Pressure Zone and Environmental Simulation Zone surrounded the Color-Cloud Palaces... each zone was unique, some blazing with fire or ice, others shining with endless light, making the area vibrant and colorful.
Whoosh!
A flash of cyan light streaked by as Andrew Han passed, swirling the nebular strands in his wake.
Though all these zones clustered around the Color-Cloud Palaces, they weren't densely packed—rather, they were quite spread out. The Gravity-Pressure Zone was relatively close; the most distant, the Environmental Simulation Zone, was nearly a million kilometers away!
Cyan light gleamed as Andrew Han pressed onward.
His black-and-white eyes occasionally flashed with brilliance as he pondered in silence.
"It's really far."
The nebula's density was high; even when channeling stellar power, his speed was slower than in a vacuum—nowhere near a hundred thousand meters per second.
Just a round trip at Andrew Han's speed would take about half a day.
If it were an ordinary Starlight-tier cultivator, a round trip would take half a month! But the cultivation geniuses inside Chenriver Palace were at least Third-Order Constant Light, so it wouldn't take that long.
Only now, at this very moment—
Maintaining his extreme speed and gazing into the distance, Andrew Han finally understood the concept of cosmic time.
"It's truly enormous."
"No wonder cosmic time units are so long—either star-years or epochs."
Without a warp engine, relying only on one's own speed—no matter how fast—one was just a tiny, slow speck compared to the vast cosmos.
Space was immense, and time stretched long to match.
Because the journey was so far, advanced technologies like warp travel and subspace travel were widely used.
"Hm?"
Andrew Han lifted his gaze. Ahead floated a massive cluster of nebular strands, milky white and rather dense... Nebular matter was considered a fragile type of celestial structure.
But whether something was fragile depended on what you compared it to.
Compared to stars and planets, it was fragile. But in reality, these milky-white filaments were as tough as diamond on blue Earth.
"But for me, it's still fragile."
Clad in his cyan robe, Andrew Han pierced straight through the cluster of nebular strands.
Time seemed to slow; sound quietly exploded as a cyan halo trailed a dazzling, mysterious path, mixing energy waves and lingering momentum, piercing the milky strands as if boring through the void itself.
Pop.
The cluster of nebular matter didn't explode—there was just a tiny pitch-black hole in its center.
"Hmm..." Andrew Han glanced back and observed, "A square shape, probably tens of kilometers in length, width, and height."
Of course, this measurement wasn't very accurate—Andrew Han wasn't a professional surveyor.
Andrew Han continued onward.
About five minutes later—
A dazzling region came into view, where countless spheres spanning tens of thousands of kilometers floated. Each sphere was tightly wrapped in black-and-white light bands like shackles—it was clearly the Sparring Challenge Zone.
If you looked closely, the spheres trembled slightly, and the black-and-white light bands occasionally rippled.
"Hmm."
"Someone's sparring?" Andrew Han glanced casually, intending to move on.
Suddenly, the starry sky seemed to shake.
A blue starlight shone from the left front, a wave of icy energy rushing forth. A powerful voice, brimming with vast energy, echoed through the cosmos.
"Andrew Han? You've finished your meditation? I'm Fu Jixue of the Pink-Human Clan! Sen instructed us not to target you, but regular challenges aren't forbidden... Since you're new here, if you lose, I won't take your points! But if you beat me, all my thousand-plus points are yours!"
"Well then."
The blue starlight flared, and from within it stepped a young man in blue, dignified and imposing. His fierce aura swept through the surrounding nebula as he fixed his gaze on Andrew Han: "Andrew Han, do you dare face me in battle?"
Andrew Han! Do you dare fight me?
Vast energy mixed with the voice, as if waves surged through the starry sky, expanding outward like a tsunami or storm, pushing aside all nebular strands.
It was like a cloudless sky, clear and bright!
Fu Jixue took three steps forward, looking down on Andrew Han with an overbearing attitude.
At the same time—
The energy waves kept spreading, producing an echo that lingered around the nebula—Battle? Will you fight? Will you fight?
Faced with this question, Andrew Han gave a faint, indifferent smile.
Actually—
He just wanted to quietly cultivate...