Chapter 1 The Soul Binding Mark

When the dazzling light faded, Lily curiously raised her hand, looking at the light green leaf mark on the back of her left hand: "...Is this the soul binding mark? With this, we can revive in the Dark Domain?"

"Yes, but remember, only once," Hao Ren said seriously – even though he had reminded her several times before, he couldn't help but emphasize it again at this moment, "The Dark Domain is a world isolated from the Dream Plane. According to Raven 12345's calculations, that place is very likely located in the gap between the world barrier and the void, and the World Tree system controls the inside of the world, so its power cannot fully enter the Dark Domain – it can only function in this way as a mark. In the absence of subsequent power supplements, these marks are one-time use."

"...Don't become dependent on it," Izhaks frowned, looking at the mark on the back of his hand, "In fact, in my opinion, this thing is even harmful: one extra chance to revive can lead to complacency and paralysis. The worst case is inadvertently using up this revival opportunity and then suffering a second fatal blow before your mentality has adjusted."

Vivian said lightly, "But when exploring a completely unfamiliar and twisted world, this thing outweighs the disadvantages."

Izhaks nodded: "I agree with that."

"Speaking of which, after we use up this mark, can we still get out of the Dark Domain?" Lily asked a little worriedly, "Didn't you say that in the end, we have to rely on the power of the World Tree to pull us out? What if the mark is gone, wouldn't the World Tree not be able to find us?"

Hao Ren: "You don't have to worry about that, because the World Tree doesn't need the mark when pulling people out. This step requires very little energy, and the small amount of power that the World Tree penetrates into the Dark Domain is enough to complete it. So, if we really encounter a fatal crisis in the Dark Domain and still have time to react, don't hesitate, just one-click return to the city – quitting the dungeon is better than wasting a life."

"Woof..." Lily's ears twitched, showing that there were many thoughts running through her mind. Sure enough, she soon had another question popping up, "Speaking of which, where is our revival point? From what you said, it seems like we don't return to this hall to revive, but directly revive in the Dark Domain?"

"Of course, after all, if we could return here to revive, there would be no 'one-time' restriction," Hao Ren explained patiently, "Due to the special attributes of the Dark Domain, the danger of performing 'cross-border revival' is very high, and it is very likely to lead to the soul being directly exposed to the void outside the world and annihilated. Therefore, after revival, we will also be in the Dark Domain. The default revival point is near me –"

As he spoke, he raised his left hand, showing the somewhat special World Tree mark: a circle of vine-like patterns could be seen on the edge of the light green leaves, and the small leaves on the patterns corresponded exactly to the number of people, including Lily and Vivian.

Lily thought carefully and asked very straightforwardly: "What if you, the landlord, die first?"

Hao Ren thought that this girl's words were really not euphemistic, but this aspect of the explanation was very necessary, so he said calmly: "If I die first, then the default will be to revive near Vivian. If the two of us die at the same time, then we will revive near one of you at random..."

At this time, Elizabeth, who had been listening quietly for a long time, suddenly jumped in front of Hao Ren: "Uncle Ren, Uncle Ren, what if all of us are killed at the same time?"

Hao Ren knocked the little girl on the head with a hand knife: "If our whole group is wiped out in one wave, then what's the point of playing! Of course, we will randomly revive on the map and then directly return to the city to call for reinforcements!"

Then he shook his hand: "This part of the function is automatic. It is pre-set that if all of us die in a short period of time, then after revival, we will be automatically teleported back to this hall – and the Behemoth will forcibly warp out of the Dark Domain no matter what mission it is performing. Of course, we may also encounter the worst-case scenario, which is that the ship is directly discovered and violently attacked after entering the Dark Domain, and we don't have time to leave the ship, so we explode together with the ship. In this case, the World Tree will activate the ultimate solution: forcibly inject its power into the Dark Domain before we are destroyed, but this is the situation I least want to see, because even if we can survive safely, the Dark Domain itself will be banished into the void afterward – without the protection of the world barrier, it will hardly have any fragments left. At that time, we will never be able to find that broken Divine Kingdom again."

Hao Ren said the worst possible situation in one breath, and the expressions on everyone's faces became particularly serious. Obviously, this was also a situation they did not want to see.

In the end, Vivian was the first to speak: "Any action has the possibility of failure. Don't be intimidated by these assumptions. We have been to many dangerous and strange places before, and at that time, everyone did not have this kind of unreasonable cheat of returning to the city to revive, so have some confidence. Hao Ren, you too, why are you making things so serious? We haven't even set off yet, and the morale is already gone."

Hao Ren could only smile awkwardly and didn't say much.

"But it's good to ask more questions in advance, after all, this thing is also being used for the first time," Izhaks said, shaking his left hand with the mark, "If there are any more questions, you can ask them now, while we haven't set off yet – it will be too late to read the manual after we get there."

This time no one spoke.

It wasn't because they were embarrassed or had any concerns, but because the questions that everyone was concerned about had already been asked by Lily and Elizabeth. The rest was only to adapt to the situation after starting to act.

"Then let's prepare to set off," Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at Saluman, "I will have the drone legion ready. How are you and your guardian legion?"

Saluman bowed slightly: "Please rest assured, the guardians were already in a state of combat readiness when they received the news."

Hao Ren glanced at the legion commander and then turned to look at the World Tree's operating interface, his tone quite regretful: "Alas, to be honest, if this thing didn't have restrictions, it would be great if we could directly bind a revival to every soldier. When fighting, there wouldn't be so many concerns. We could just directly charge forward in a death charge, and then revive in place and charge again. We would directly smash through anything."

"Everything in the world has its balance. If the universe wants to be stable, it will not allow this situation to occur," Saluman was very open-minded, "It is enough for you to carry this mark – the most dangerous are always the scouts who go deep into dangerous places alone. You are taking the greatest risk, so you must ensure your safety."

Hao Ren waved his hand, indicating that he knew this, and then took the lead in walking towards the exit of the hall.

The Behemoth was already docked in a large spaceport in near-Earth orbit of Nexus Star, ready to depart.

She floated quietly in front of the slipway, her body filled with the brilliance of shields, and the light particles emitted by the warp drive formed a stardust-like glow at the rear of the ship, looking elegant and calm.

Behind this ship were the two legions that had already assembled neatly: the drone swarm, like a silver-white beehive, and the steady and heavy guardian legion.

These two legions would wait here, and if the Behemoth began broadcasting the Dark Domain's navigation coordinates, then they would immediately rush to the battlefield.

Hao Ren stood on the bridge of the Behemoth, looking at Saluman on the communicator: "After we go over, we will first confirm the local situation and establish an anchor point on the premise of safety. If we need fleet support, we will broadcast a beacon signal – but there may be other situations. Maybe the things we encounter cannot be solved by the fleet. At that time, you just need to wait patiently. In short, as long as the World Tree doesn't sound the alarm, our mission has not failed."

Saluman's holographic image nodded: "Whether you broadcast a beacon or not, we will be on standby here until we need to fight or you return."

Then he lowered his head: "Safe journey."

The communication ended, and Hao Ren turned his gaze back to the bridge.

"Nolan, prepare to connect to the beacon."

A part of the console panel unfolded, revealing a recessed slot with a faint blue light flickering from below the panel. Hao Ren took out the "Divine Kingdom Beacon" formed by three small crystals from his dimensional pocket and carefully placed it in the slot.

As the control panel closed again, Nolan's crisp voice rang out on the bridge: "External navigation signal read... Navigation signal analysis completed, calculation completed... Data injected into the navigation system, warp engine enters void mode, void engine activated, jump imminent... Five, four..."

The space in front of the Behemoth's bow began to collapse, and circles of ripple-like patterns rippled open, forming a vortex more than twice the diameter of the ship, and within that vortex, there was an absolute chaos.

That was a scene that absolutely did not belong to any corner of the Dream Plane. It was the bizarre spectacle presented in this world after the distant Dark Domain was refracted through the lens effect of infinite time and space.

"Two, one, warp activated."

In the next second, the Behemoth transformed into a hazy silver light as a whole, flowing into the constantly rotating vortex like water.

It disappeared in this universe.

"We are passing through a very unstable area!" On the bridge of the Behemoth, Nolan announced the current situation of the ship in a loud voice, "There may be some vibrations. Everyone, do not leave your seats and do not open your seatbelts! Those with tails, put your tails away to prevent touching things you shouldn't touch!"

The picture transmitted from the external monitor was already a mess. The bizarre and grotesque scenes were mixed with the starlight in the background of the universe, crushed, twisted, and enveloped in all directions. The ship seemed to be passing through an uneven lens tunnel. The entire universe was compressed and condensed in the lens, and in this frenzied landscape, the Behemoth was the only orderly and stable object.

The ship began to shake violently – even the inertial stabilizers inside the ship could not suppress this shaking.

"Spatial structure disappearing, temporal structure disappearing, event temporality collapsing –" As Nolan reported the situation one by one, the light and shadow outside the ship were constantly collapsing and disappearing. This was a sign that the ship was moving away from the orderly universe and approaching the void area, "Estimated to arrive at the beacon endpoint in ten seconds, nine, eight..."

A strange howling sound echoed in everyone's mind. This was not a howling in the real world, but a hallucination caused by the massive amount of information washing over the soul when entering the edge of the world.

"Hurry up and get there, hurry up and get there..." Nangong Wuyue wrapped her entire seat with her tail, tightening her tail while muttering, "If it keeps shaking like this, I'm going to throw up..."

"Three, two, one... Arrived at the endpoint!"

The violent shaking stopped abruptly, and the howling disappeared without a trace. Everything ended in an instant, as if the thrilling journey just now was all an illusion.

Only the violently fluctuating data on the control panel showed how frightening a voyage the ship had just experienced.

"Check the stealth device!" Hao Ren's first order after stabilizing was to confirm the ship's stealth status.

"Stealth status normal. This ship is still in stealth."

"Phew..." Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief, "Maintain stealth. Now restart the external monitors. Let's find a spatial reference point that we can see first."

"Boss... the situation may be a little different from what we thought," Nolan's tone sounded a little strange, "We... seem to be located in an atmosphere. The external environment... is very comfortable."