I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

It's not resonance; it's active, as if it was triggered by something.

He lowered his head and took the jade pendant out from under his collar.

On the surface of the jade pendant, characters appear to emerge.

It was superordinate language, but not the line he had seen before: "The gates of destiny can only be opened by fate."

This is a brand new line, the characters are more hurried, as if someone is writing the words at a very fast speed.

Li Wu focused his perception of the laws on the line of text, deciphering each character.

Then his mind went blank for a moment.

He looked up at Hua Zitong, then looked down again to double-check the words, making sure he hadn't misunderstood.

Hua Zitong noticed his movement, walked over, looked at the jade pendant, and asked, "What?"

Li Wu translated that line of superordinate language:

"The gravedigger has awakened, coordinates have been sent, awaiting assistance."

Hua Zitong was stunned for a moment.

"Who is the gravedigger?" Zhui Feng asked, leaning closer.

Li Wu did not answer Zhui Feng. He was comparing this sentence with the half-sentence the prisoner had said earlier, as well as with all the information left behind by Erlin.

The Sleeper, the Gravekeeper, Erlin's pawn planted in the Council of Unity for millennia.

He's awake now.

"Where are the coordinates?" Hua Zitong asked.

Li Wu probed the jade pendant deeper into its laws of perception, and the coordinates quickly appeared.

It is a three-dimensional coordinate system, which he maps onto a known star map in his mind.

Then he discovered a problem.

That coordinate is in the core territory of the Unifiers.

He mentioned this situation, and the platform immediately went silent.

Then a sharp golden flash emanated from the pillar of law, lasting for about two seconds before stopping.

Li Wu walked over and placed his hand on the surface of the stone pillar to sense it; the trace left by the flash of light was still there.

It is a law signal, with the same frequency as the first coordinate information, both sent by the tomb keeper.

This is the second message.

He finished reading, his expression unchanged, but when he read it aloud, he lowered his voice:

"The gravedigger said that the Ones have realized his betrayal and are sending forces to hunt him down."

"That pursuing force is not an ordinary user of the laws; it is a direct projection of the One's true form, a law definer."

"When will you arrive?" Gu Yuan asked directly.

"Arrival on Earth in twelve hours."

No one speaks.

Twelve hours—this number hangs over the platform, weighing on everyone.

Zhui Feng was the first to speak, and his voice was much lower than usual:

"In twelve hours, we have to meet the tomb keeper, deal with the ruins on the outer edge of the Earth's core, handle that projection, and... Sister Hua, how are you feeling..."

"No problem," Hua Zitong said.

"Your right arm..."

I said no problem.

Zhui Feng shut up.

Li Wu glanced at everyone and then made a decision.

"Split up. Gu Yuan, you lead the team to meet the tomb keeper."

"The gravedigger has sent out the coordinates, which means he has the ability to get people in. He must have some way of getting the support team to that location. Contact him and confirm the entry route."

Gu Yuan nodded: "Understood."

"Hua Zitong, you are responsible for information transmission between the two lines, and be ready to provide support at any time. Do not take the initiative to attack; conserve your energy."

Hua Zitong glanced at him. "Where are you going?"

"The fault line in the earth's crust, to retrieve the last fragment of destiny."

"You just said that you already..."

"That's not all. The amount we got from the deep sea and the observatory, plus what we recovered in this battle, is only a little over 30%, which isn't enough."

"The crustal fracture zone is the only place left where you can quickly obtain a large number of Fate Fragments."

Hua Zitong looked at him, her eyes holding something, but she didn't say those words aloud.

When Li Wu turned around, he paused and glanced back at her.

"I promised you I wouldn't let you die in there. I'll do the same this time, going with those words in mind, and returning with those words in mind."

Hua Zitong's gaze lingered for a moment.

Then she said, "Get out."

Li Wu turned around, opened a law-based passage leading to the crustal fracture zone, and stepped inside.

Crustal fault lines are a place that gives most users of the laws a headache.

The geological strata here are extremely active, and the stress accumulated in the Earth's crust over the past few million years is periodically concentrated and released under some mechanism.

Magma spewed from dozens of fissures, and the ground was constantly tearing and rebuilding, with no stable footholds at all.

For ordinary users of the laws, simply maintaining movement here would consume a considerable amount of law power, and they would also have to deal with the possibility of magma columns erupting at any time and flying lava projectiles.

When Li Wu walked in, his first impression was of heat, the kind of heat that seemed to thin the air, and every breath he took carried the smell of sulfur.

He used the Law Seal to isolate the temperature and toxic gases, and then began to walk towards the coordinates of the ruins.

When the ground became unstable, he floated up and walked, following the patterns of hot air currents and magma eruptions to find his way in the air.

The fault zone here is more active than he expected, with magma eruptions occurring almost twice as frequently as the data provided by Gu Yuan.

This indicates that recent geological activity has intensified, possibly related to the extensive use of the power of laws during the Battle of the Starbreakers, which altered the stress distribution in certain strata.

He flew in the air for about twenty minutes, the coordinates of the ruins getting closer and closer, and then he saw them.

It was neither a stone palace nor a circular building, but a black obelisk, about four stories high, suspended in the very center of a sea of ​​lava.

The bottom is less than a meter from the magma surface, surrounded by churning orange-red liquid, with heat waves hitting from all sides.

The obelisk is made of the same material as the stone temple in the deep-sea ruins; it is not ordinary stone, and its surface is covered with runes.

But the runes here are three-dimensional, with varying shades, and appear to move under the distortion of the heat.

Li Wufei stopped in front of the obelisk and probed inside with his senses.

The core of the ruins is inside, where the concentration of destiny energy is extremely high, several times higher than that of the deep-sea stone palace, and it is not stored but continuously emerging.

The obelisk has no entrance, but its surface has a sensor area.

When Li Wu's power of law touched that area, the structure inside the monument changed.

A gap opened in the middle, just big enough for one person to pass through.

There are no corridors or levels inside; it is a closed space, about the same size as the monument.

A golden sphere, less than a meter in diameter, floated in the center, but the concentration of destiny energy there was the highest he had ever sensed.

There was nothing around the sphere except the sphere itself, glowing and waiting for people.

Then a system notification appeared.

It's not like a game system; it's a piece of information presented in a way he can understand, representing the operational logic of the ruins themselves.

"Trial of Fate: Choice"

Just these few words.

Then the first option appeared.

It's not an option, it's a scenario.

His perception was drawn into an image, an image with real details, texture, and emotion, unlike something fictional.

The scenario is as follows:

A battlefield where both sides fought using the power of laws, resulting in heavy casualties.

He stood in the center, his bow fully drawn, facing the following options:

Sacrificing the squad with the heaviest casualties to create an opportunity for the main force to break through.

That squad will perish, but the main force can survive.

Li Wu stood there for a few seconds in that scene.

He chose another path:

Instead of directly sacrificing that squad, the main force's breakthrough route was adjusted, taking a detour and wasting more time, but giving that squad a chance to retreat.

The scene vanished.

The second scene appears.

This time it's more complicated.

The choice he faced was:

You can acquire an item that triples your combat power, but at the cost of destroying another healing device that can save hundreds of people.

Li Wu's answer was that she didn't want that prop.

The third, fourth, and fifth scenes appear in succession, each about choices, and each at its core examining his attitude towards fate.

Is it about forcibly defining the outcome, or finding the path with the lowest cost within the possible range?

He never chose the one that was forcibly defined.

When the sixth scene appeared, he sensed something unusual.

This scene was more realistic than the previous five, so realistic that his sense of destiny allowed him to feel genuine emotional fluctuations within it.

The scenario involves a person trapped in a certain space, unable to leave, waiting to be rescued, but rescuing this person requires him to temporarily abandon a larger-scale strategic objective.

The trapped person did not have a specific face, but the feeling of waiting made it difficult for him to remain completely objective.

He stayed in this scene longer than in any of the previous scenes.

Ultimately, he chose to address the strategic objective first, and then focus all his efforts on rescuing that person.

It's not about giving up, it's about prioritizing.

The scene dissipates.

The sphere of destiny energy began to shatter, not in a destructive way, but like a seed cracking open, spreading outwards layer by layer from the inside.

Golden fragments of destiny surged forth in large quantities, more than he had in the deep-sea ruins and the observatory combined, rushing towards him. The seal on the jade pendant loosened considerably under this wave of impact.

Li Wu stood in that golden light, feeling the seal crack open layer by layer from the outside. The Soul of Destiny was operating at full power, absorbing all the surging energy of destiny.

The seal on the jade pendant jumped from over 30% to 57%.

He glanced down at the obelisk, memorized the number, and then walked out of the obelisk.

The sea of ​​lava is still churning, and the heatwave continues.

He hovered outside the obelisk, the laws resonating, receiving signals from two directions.

A message came from Gu Yuan's side:

The rendezvous route has been confirmed remotely by the tomb keeper Cangming, and the team is already moving. They are expected to meet up with Cangming within two hours.

There was no new information from Hua Zitong; she was on standby.

Li Wu confirmed the progress of the two lines and then mentally calculated the time.

The twelve-hour countdown is decreasing; there are now about nine and a half hours left.

He also needs the Fragment of Fate from the outer ruins of the Earth's core, which is the last one and also emergent. Theoretically, if he can go in and stay for enough time, the seal on the jade pendant can be completely broken.

But no one has ever returned from there.

He reconfirmed the coordinates, opened a law-based passage leading to the outer perimeter of the Earth's core, and before stepping inside, sent a law-based fluctuation towards Hua Zitong:

"I'm going to the outer perimeter of the Earth's core. I'll get back to you in two hours."

The response came, a mere three-word fluctuation of the law, its meaning clear: "Be careful."

He stepped into the passageway.