The order was issued, and the Archives's power began to operate with precision.

Qingniao and Zi Yuan joined forces, their lightning and blade intent weaving into layers of invisible yet efficient whirling structures, like a gentle breeze blowing through the Star Abyss, specifically targeting those dark red ripples to disperse and dilute them.

Huang Yu steadily controlled the shield's energy network, guiding the faint but pure purifying prayer power sent from the Civilization Dreamscape to the most heavily contaminated rule nodes, like a precise injection of an antidote.

The Oni Mask phantom immediately sensed the change in the environment.

The plague rules it released were rapidly neutralized, no longer able to effectively erode the foundations of the sector.

It let out an annoyed low growl, its crimson gaze turning toward the Starfire Archives, clearly viewing this "lighthouse" as the primary obstacle.

"Uproot that flame first!" Galro's will seethed within the phantom.

The attack patterns of the Nine Shadows suddenly shifted.

No longer engaging in scattered harassment, five of the phantoms—including the Chain Samurai, the Karasu Tengu, and three Demonic Warriors of varying forms—

simultaneously lunged toward the connection zone between the Faith Nebula shield and Sector δ12, which was the critical channel for the delivery of prayer power from the Civilization Dreamscape.

Their goal was clear: to sever the support link between the Starfire Archives and Sector δ12, isolating the two stars.

The other four phantoms, including the Oni Mask itself, transformed into four streaks of dark red light, charging straight toward the Starfire Archives itself along treacherous trajectories!

They were not physical entities, but aggregates of highly condensed malicious rules and historical echoes, sufficient to cause a severe impact on the Archives's physical structure and rule field.

Within the flagship of the silver fleet that had been silently observing, the supreme commander's smirk deepened.

Watching the suddenly white-hot battle on the star chart and the Starfire Archives being attacked from two sides, he issued a new command: "All units, continue to maintain the blockade. Charge the energy cannons to seventy percent.

Target: The outer space of Sector δ12. Wait for the moment when the collision between the Nine Shadows and the Archives's defense system is most intense."

He wanted to see the Starfire Archives exhaust its hidden reserves, and even more so, he wanted to see the limits of the Nine Shadows. Whichever side revealed a fatal flaw would become the perfect target for his thunderous strike.

Inside the Archives, Chi Yan's holographic image flared with fire. "The enemy has split their forces; their intent is clear.

The outer defense array has engaged the enemy!"

In the observation lens of the control room, the five phantoms lunging at the prayer channel collided with the mobile defense line constructed by the fleet and defense platforms under Chi Yan's direct command.

Energy beams and rule chains exploded as they crossed in the air, lighting up vast areas of darkness. The defense line was resilient, but under the combined assault of the five shadows, it began to bend slightly backward.

Meanwhile, the four phantoms rushing toward the Archives itself had approached close enough for their hideous details to be visible.

Led by the Oni Mask phantom, it swung its giant claw, sending a torrent of dark red rules mixed with curses and imprisonment—like a bursting river of blood—surging toward the Archives's main control tower.

Before the torrent even arrived, the malice that froze the mind and solidified rules had already permeated the air.

Zi Yuan took a step forward, her long blade finally fully unsheathed.

There was no world-shaking commotion, only an extremely condensed azure arc slicing through the void. Wherever the arc passed, the dark red torrent was silently cut open and annihilated, as if a hot blade were slicing through butter.

But before her blade's momentum ended, the other three phantoms attacked from different angles: one released countless wailing soul-chains, another showered down a rain of cherry blossoms that carried corrosive rules, and the last transformed into an invisible mental whisper, attempting to burrow into the Archives's resonance field.

Qingniao's figure suddenly appeared before the soul-chains. She held her hands out as if grasping something, and brilliant lightning exploded in her palms, turning into a massive electric net that caught all the soul-chains. As the lightning jumped, those wails quickly turned into green smoke.

Yu Nian's pure heart vines cascaded down like a waterfall, a warm halo enveloping the entire Archives, blocking the corrosive cherry blossom rain. As soon as the blossoms touched the halo, they melted like snow.

As for the invisible mental whisper, it slammed into the cold logic firewall that Leng Ningxue had already set up, being filtered and analyzed layer by layer until it finally turned into a segment of meaningless noise data.

The four shadows' surprise attack was instantly neutralized, but they seemed unsurprised. Their offensive retreated slightly before aggregating again, the Oni Mask phantom's crimson gaze locking onto Bai Cheng.

"Are you the heart of this lamp? Slay you, and the light shall extinguish itself."

Bai Cheng looked at them calmly, not making a move.

Her attention seemed to linger more on the other side—the five phantoms attacking the prayer channel, and further away, the faint glint of the World Government fleet's cannons.

At the very moment the Oni Mask phantom was condensing an even stronger blow, a sudden change occurred in the direction of Sector δ12!

That stellar consciousness, which had been passively enduring and slowly digesting memory fragments, had finally undergone a decisive change in its rule pulsations. Nourished by the continuous supply of purifying prayer power from the Civilization Dreamscape and witnessing the arrogant invasion of the Nine Shadows against its own bloodline and allies, it acted.

It no longer merely enveloped those dark memory fragments; it actively "gripped" them!

At the sector's core, the deep blue light suddenly contracted inward, then expanded outward like a supernova! A rule storm—pure, primitive, yet carrying a clear will to identify and reject—exploded outward with Sector Fan as its center.

The storm did not attack blindly; it precisely swept over the marked parasitic nodes, the area near the prayer channel where the battle raged, and around the Starfire Archives.

Wherever the storm reached, the Nine Shadows shook violently at the same time! Under the impact of this decisive rejection will from the host itself, their hidden parasitic links with the underlying rules of Sector δ12 became extremely unstable and even began to backlash against the phantoms themselves.

The Oni Mask phantom let out a roar mixed with pain and disbelief, its form suddenly blurring.

"Now," Bai Cheng's voice remained calm, yet it carried the tone of an ending.

Almost as her words fell, all the ice mirrors within the Starfire Archives's Mirror Corridor lit up simultaneously.

They were not reflecting the starlight from outside; instead, they burst forth from within with a long-accumulated, brilliant silver radiance belonging to the Archives itself.

This silver radiance was entirely different from the warm white light of the Faith Nebula or the deep blue storm from Sector δ12; it was clear, cold, and piercing, like an absolute mirror light capable of reflecting the essence of all things.

The silver radiance was not offensive energy; it flowed like liquid silver, silently washing over the battlefield and the nine phantoms.

Under the illumination of this mirror light, the essential nature of the Nine Shadows—barely maintained by historical echoes, malicious rules, and parasitic links—was "reflected" with utmost clarity, exposed before the "eyes" of all Observers in the Star Abyss.

They were no longer indescribable, terrifying shadows, but revealed their truth: twisted, fragile, and dependent on parasitism to survive.

This "reflection" itself was the most powerful form of disintegration.

The movements of the five phantoms attacking the prayer channel instantly froze, and the backlash from their links with Sector δ12 intensified.

Meanwhile, the four phantoms attacking the Archives, including the Oni Mask, began to fluctuate and dissipate uncontrollably under the mirror light, like lingering snow exposed to a blazing sun.

Within the Canying Star Cluster, Galro suddenly spat out a mouthful of dark red energy blood, and the chains around his throne snapped inch by inch. He had sensed the terror of that mirror light through his Apostles.

"It's not destruction... it's the deconstruction of existence... Starfire Archives, you..."

Before he could finish, seizing the perfect opportunity while the Nine Shadows were being reflected by the mirror light and their links were unstable, the rejection storm from Sector δ12 intensified again, like a total offensive from the star's own immune system.

At the same time, the purifying prayer power from the Faith Nebula, the mirror light field maintained by the Starfire Archives—the three generated a wondrous resonance and vibration at this moment.

There was no deafening explosion.

Under the gaze of the silver fleet's supreme commander, whose pupils had constricted, those nine dark red phantoms that had once been so arrogant and overbearing faded, dissipated, and finally returned to nothingness within the pure resonant radiance, like stains being erased by an eraser.

Only the withered, dull remains of nine completely deactivated parasitic nodes at the edge of Sector δ12 remained to prove they had once existed.

The Star Abyss briefly returned to silence; only the rule pulsations of Sector δ12, after rejecting the foreign bodies, became more powerful and steady, faintly gaining a touch of resilience after enduring hardships.

The fusion light band between it and the Sector Fan also appeared purer and brighter in its deep blue glow.

Inside the World Government flagship, the supreme commander slowly leaned back into his seat, his fingers unconsciously tapping the armrest.

The mutual destruction he had anticipated did not occur. The cooperation between the Starfire Archives and the newly awakened star was perfect; they hadn't even revealed their true offensive trump cards before neutralizing the Nine Shadows' surprise attack, which the Chain Council had meticulously prepared, through this method of reflection and resonance.

What the Archives demonstrated was a higher-level "neutralization" capability based on rule understanding and resonance coordination, rather than mere "destructive" power.

This was even more troublesome than he had expected.

In the Starfire Archives's control room, the silver radiance within the Mirror Corridor slowly receded.

Bai Cheng looked toward Sector δ12 and the nine withered nodes, murmuring to herself as if making a proclamation: "The shadow of Kurozumi can be projected onto history, but it cannot cover the growing future.

The chains of Wano Country were broken by fire and the hearts of the people; the shackles of the Star Abyss shall also be shattered by the light of awakening."

She turned around, her gaze seemingly piercing through the Archives's walls to look toward the Canying Star Cluster, as well as the silver fleet watching like a tiger eyeing its prey.

The new contradictions had not disappeared; instead, they were quietly escalating in the shadows.

The Chain Council had lost a round, but its foundation remained intact. The World Government had witnessed everything, its patience being worn away by curiosity and wariness.

And the star of Sector δ12, after experiencing this battle of immunity, would surely sail its process of consciousness awakening toward a more unknown and profound course.

Morning light continued to soak the Star Abyss, but within this light, more restless silhouettes were now clearly reflected.

The road of watchfulness still extends.