Wei Qing's figure slipped into the dim daylight and landed soundlessly on Qilan Star's surface.
The moment his boots touched the ground, an indescribable heaviness wrapped around him—sticky, sluggish, like wading through invisible mud.
This was Nihility.
As far as the eye could see, Qilan Star—once famous for its ever-shifting emotional-spectrum cityscapes—had become a place of chilling serenity.
Buildings still had soft, elegant lines, yet their colors looked like they'd been carefully mixed to never provoke any feeling—pale, safe, faded, like an old photograph.
Occasionally, a Luminant passed by, a faint aura around their body: mostly calm light-blue or lazy warm-yellow. But the glow was blurry at the edges, weak, like a lamp running on dying power.
No laughter. No arguments. Not even footsteps loud enough to matter.
The entire society felt like a precision machine that had run too long without maintenance, continuing only because it hadn't yet stopped.
This… was what a world looked like after being soaked in Nihility.
Wei Qing frowned slightly.
He could tell the Nihility here was far worse than he'd expected. In this environment, even staying awake as a person—keeping intent, drive, judgment—was already a brutal challenge.
For Granholm to endure a month down here… his willpower was no joke.
"Mm?"
"…Something's off."
Wei Qing suddenly sensed it more clearly.
He closed his eyes and let his own Nihility extend outward.
To him, the level of Nihility in this area wasn't just "severe"—it was borderline absurd. As someone who had stepped onto that Path himself, he could read its texture far more sharply than ordinary beings.
Before he even descended, he'd felt a faint anomaly: this region was the most saturated point on the planet—so concentrated it even carried a trace of Destruction residue.
Maybe this was where the Stellaron—and Nihility's contamination—had first erupted.
And now he confirmed it:
The planet's Nihility wasn't evenly distributed.
It was being drawn—pulled by something unseen—streaming continuously in one direction like rivers converging into a single sink.
Right into the former capital—Prism City.
"Someone is actively absorbing this planet's Nihility?" A bizarre thought surfaced.
Could it be Granholm? Or some Chaos Doctor?
Chaos Doctors were possible—but honestly, the probability felt low.
Which meant…
Was the Astral Express navigator absorbing Nihility?
Was he that insane?
Nihility didn't "grant" power the way other Paths did—it dissolved meaning. Actively embracing Nihility usually meant sliding toward becoming a Self-Annihilator.
And this scale—this deliberate, conscious gathering—was practically unheard of.
If Granholm really was doing this, didn't he fear turning into one of them?
…Or did he simply decide his remaining years were worth trading for the survival of an entire planet?
If so, that was a level of resolve Wei Qing had to admit—respect.
His interest sharpened.
What a pity, though.
If he'd arrived a month earlier…
Then he remembered the system's requirement.
Join the Astral Express and complete one complete Trailblaze.
A complete one.
At first he'd hoped Granholm wasn't far along, and he could squeeze in, contribute, and still count.
But now?
Granholm looked like he was about to clear the whole stage.
Meaning Wei Qing couldn't "mooch the completion achievement" even if he helped at the end.
Honestly… a little disappointing.
Following the flow of converging Nihility, Wei Qing moved through Prism City.
The closer he got to the center, the stranger the world became.
There were fewer and fewer Luminants. The ones he did see had almost no aura left at all.
They were gray silhouettes—standing still, hollow-eyed, performing tasks like they were running a script. They didn't react to Wei Qing's presence whatsoever.
They'd already started to "tilt" into Nihility.
If he had to describe it…
It was basically depression—only weaponized at a planetary scale.
Wei Qing didn't waste time. He kept moving until he reached a deserted zone, and stopped before the ruins of a grand structure.
This used to be Prism City's pride: the Emotional Resonance Tower, where Luminants converted their purest feelings into auroras that painted the sky.
Now it was half-collapsed. The broken tower body was covered in a gray, dead material—an ugly scar across history.
And all the Nihility on Qilan Star… was flooding into the tower's foundation like a hundred rivers feeding one abyss.
Wei Qing could feel it:
A powerful consciousness sat down there, drawing it in like a whirlpool.
"Granholm…?"
Wei Qing didn't call out.
Because he also sensed something else—Stellaron leakage.
A residue of Destruction and Harmony, tangled with Nihility, yet coexisting in a way that felt deeply wrong.
"The Stellaron's seal isn't complete… or rather, Nihility changed its nature."
He understood.
Granholm likely sealed most of the Stellaron's activity.
But on land saturated with Nihility, Destruction's force had mutated—no longer loud and explosive, but hidden, stubborn, like a venomous snake waiting to strike.
Wei Qing didn't hesitate.
His body became a near-invisible streak as he slipped down into the depths beneath the tower, following the strongest source.
The underground space was far larger than expected—like the entire city's core had been hollowed out into a massive cavern.
At its center was a simple platform.
And on that platform sat an old man.
White hair and beard, gaunt face, Astral Express uniform.
It was him.
Granholm—the Express's current navigator, and until Wei Qing arrived, its last passenger.
Granholm sat cross-legged, eyes shut, brow tightly furrowed.
A terrifying suction radiated from him like a black hole.
The planet's Nihility poured into his body in torrents.
And in front of him floated a fist-sized sphere.
A Stellaron—except it wasn't the usual ominous dark-gold anymore.
It was an eerie, ashy gray.
Thin threads of Destruction seeped out of it, only to be forcibly suppressed by Granholm's even stronger Nihility field.
Wei Qing's arrival didn't immediately disturb him.
Granholm's mind was fully committed to guiding and containing that ocean of Nihility. Any distraction could ruin everything—or get him swallowed whole.
Wei Qing remained silent.
He stood at the cavern's edge, watching.
Granholm's body had become a battlefield:
On one side, Nihility—carrying the planet's accumulated negative "meaninglessness."
On the other, a mutated, tenacious Destruction residue.
And Granholm's already-limited life force was being ground down between them.
"To use yourself as the container… to swallow a planet's disease… That's insane."
"…But also worthy of respect."
Wei Qing's gaze hardened.
This method was basically suicide, but it was the most direct way to save Qilan Star.
If Granholm could absorb all the Nihility into himself and leave…
The planet might really be reborn.
He was burning his last life to buy a future.
A warrior's ending shouldn't be this lonely.
Wei Qing exhaled softly.
Nihility… he couldn't solve that cleanly right now.
But Destruction?
That was home turf.
He stepped forward.
He didn't interfere with Granholm's Nihility absorption—touching that balance recklessly would get people killed.
Instead, he locked onto the gray Stellaron.
Sure, Stellanrons were "Harmony's product" by origin…
…but right now, this thing was living under Destruction's jurisdiction.
And as a Destruction successor candidate, a Stellaron was basically a toy in his hands.
The problem was: prolonged Nihility exposure had warped Destruction's core, making it stealthier, more entrenched—an "attachment" rather than an eruption.
Granholm was trying to refine both Nihility and this warped Destruction simultaneously.
That was nearly impossible.
The likely outcome was simple:
Granholm's body collapses first, then the Destruction backlash detonates inside a Nihility-soaked environment, producing something even uglier.
Wei Qing raised a finger.
A thread of extremely pure Destruction authority condensed—small, but absolute.
The Stellaron shuddered violently. Its surface sheen froze.
Granholm twitched—his eyelids fluttered hard.
He felt the intrusion.
But he couldn't spare even a fraction of focus. He could only endure whatever this unknown force intended.
Wei Qing's eyes narrowed.
"Be quiet."
He didn't speak it aloud.
He declared it.
Destruction's authority descended like a monarch's will—cold, irresistible.
Vmm—
The Stellaron began to quake.
That gray outer shell—Nihility's corrosion—met a deeper, more original Destruction and melted like ash in rain.
Cracks spread across the sphere, not from impact—
but from submission.
And as the shell peeled away, a different kind of Destruction revealed itself beneath:
not explosive,
not chaotic,
but… compressed.
Like a blade folded a thousand times.
Wei Qing's eyes sharpened.
So that was it.
Nihility hadn't "suppressed" Destruction.
It had refined it into something worse—something that didn't scream.
Something that waited.
Wei Qing's finger shifted, and that single strand of Destruction authority became a precise scalpel.
He wasn't going to smash it.
He was going to separate it.
Strip the warped Destruction core out of the Stellaron, isolate it, and leave Granholm with only the Nihility burden—one impossible problem instead of two.
Because if Granholm died, Qilan Star died with him.
And if Wei Qing arrived only to miss the "complete trailblaze" achievement…
then at the very least—
he wasn't going to miss the chance to save the damn protagonist of this stage.
The Stellaron's surface split wider.
A pulse of gray-black light surged outward—
and for the first time, Granholm's suction faltered, just a hair.
Wei Qing's expression hardened.
"Good."
"Now we can actually talk about finishing this… without you dying on me."
And deep in the cavern, behind the layered currents of Nihility—
a presence stirred.
Not Granholm's.
Not the Stellaron's.
Something watching.
Something that carried a weight Wei Qing had only felt once before—
a Nihility Emanator.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 155)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter200)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter110)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter230)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 200
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 180
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 230
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 220
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 120
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 135
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 110
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 100
My Harem Is Indescribable 90
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 95
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 80
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 70
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 75
Checking In in Demon Slayer 80
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 85
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 70
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 65
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 70
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 70
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 65
Why did they assign me to Uma 65
MYGO Beauties 65
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 55
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 65
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 45
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 45
The Uma Musume Who Became 40
I'm Definitely Not the King of 45
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
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