Bai Cheng took a deep breath. Deep within her soul, the Stardust Imprint transmitted a searing throb.

Those faint connections with Broken Shell Island's belief network were now transmitting the most instinctive and intense prayers for survival from the islanders facing an existential catastrophe.

Fear ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ and despair were present, yet deep down, there was still a flicker of light that refused to yield.

This glimmer resonated with the residual silver glow mark at the base of the Old Priest statue on the island, like a candle in the wind that stubbornly refused to go out.

“Zi Yuan, buy me three breaths of time,” Bai Cheng whispered, her silver eyes slowly closing.

“Alright.” Zi Yuan didn't hesitate for a moment. Her long blade was held horizontally before her, purple lightning condensing like never before. Her entire aura seemed to transform into a sharp blade about to be unsheathed to sever everything.

She knew Bai Cheng was about to tap into the deeper power of the Star Rail Gate, which would inevitably come with immense risk and exhaustion.

But she believed in her.

Bai Cheng's consciousness sank deep into her soul.

There, the phantom of the Star Rail Gate stood silently. Behind the gate flowed the vast beliefs gifted by the Stardust Remnants, as well as the glimmering prayers belonging to thousands of islands she had collected along the way.

Using her will as a guide, she gently pushed that gate.

It wasn't a full opening; at her current level and state, forcibly opening the Star Rail Gate completely would be no different from suicide—instead, she allowed the doorway to open a tiny, infinitesimal crack.

*Buzz—*

Invisible ripples spread out with Bai Cheng as the center.

This time, it was no longer a domain-based interference of order, but a more direct and essential resonance of belief and pull of laws.

On Broken Shell Island, the silver glow mark at the base of the Old Priest statue suddenly flared up!

Following that, in the village, inside the stone houses, within the tunnels of the coral labyrinth... in the hearts of all the islanders, that Filament of Faith connected to Bai Cheng, originating from the Doorway Bloodline, was simultaneously ignited and activated!

It wasn't a forced indoctrination. Instead, using the Star Rail Gate as a medium, the islanders' own most intense prayers for survival and their belief in protecting their home were briefly linked, resonated, and amplified with Bai Cheng's embryonic law!

“With your prayers as fuel, ignite my star track glimmer.”

Bai Cheng murmured with her eyes closed, the imprint on her forehead radiating brilliant light.

Across the entire Broken Shell Island, more than two thousand points of belief of varying intensity lit up with a pale golden radiance simultaneously, like stars answering a call!

This radiance soared into the sky, ignoring the deathly suppression of the Light of Slumber and piercing through the starlight blockade of the Star Guard Battle Group. Like a reverse river of stars, it converged into the phantom of the slightly open Star Rail Gate behind Bai Cheng.

The silver glow flowing within the gate was suddenly tinged with a warm and resilient golden edge.

In the next instant, Bai Cheng opened her eyes, star tracks and golden flames intertwining within her silver pupils.

She pointed her fingers like a sword toward the main node of the purifying world net to the east.

“Star Rail: Ignite.”

There was no world-shaking explosion of energy, only a golden-silver line of light, as thin as a hair yet condensed to the extreme, shot from her fingertip.

The beam ignored spatial distance. The moment it appeared, it struck the three Mind-Eroding Demon Generals outside the main node who were performing a defensive ritual.

The moment the beam touched them, it didn't explode.

Instead, like the most precise scalpel, it silently cut into and spread along the meridians of law that were most unstable in the three demon generals' energy structures and most closely linked to the purifying world net.

Then, it ignited.

Using the survival beliefs gathered from over two thousand islanders of Broken Shell Island as tinder and the order definition of the Star Rail Gate as a fuse, it ignited the cold and deathly law structures belonging to the purifying world net within their bodies!

“Roar—!!!”

The three Mind-Eroding Demon Generals simultaneously let out shrill, soul-piercing wails. Golden-silver flames burst from within their massive bodies as they twisted and struggled frantically, yet they could not extinguish the fire of belief burning from the inside out.

Their connection to the purifying world net, under the searing of these flames, snapped and disintegrated rapidly like molten chains.

A massive disruption and gap immediately appeared in the main node's energy supply and synchronization frequency!

In the sky, the grayish-white curtain of the Light of Slumber that covered the world suddenly stalled. It then shook violently like a damaged backdrop, with large areas beginning to flicker, dim, and even partially collapse!

“Now! Blue Bird, gather the Thunder Dragons and strike the main node's coordinates!” Leng Ningxue's voice rang out at the same time.

Blue Bird, who had been waiting for the moment, let out a long cry. The nine Thunder Dragons abandoned their harassment of the curtain's edge and merged into one.

They transformed into a blazing white pillar of light over ten meters in diameter, composed purely of destructive lightning. Following the thin path opened by Bai Cheng's ignition beam and exposed by the node's disruption,

it slammed violently into the main node of the purifying world net!

*Boom—!!!*

This time, it was a real, deafening explosion!

The dark red net was torn open with a massive gap. The main node completely collapsed under the dual strike of lightning and the fire of belief, and large sections of the surrounding net structure disintegrated and dissipated along with it.

The Light of Slumber, like water that had lost its source, quickly dimmed and receded. The sky once again revealed the mottled yet vibrant base color of the Emerald Sea.

The crisis of Broken Shell Island was temporarily averted.

However, the threat of the Star Guard Battle Group still remained.

Furthermore, after witnessing Bai Cheng actually being able to mobilize the island's beliefs and break the purifying world net, the killing intent in the eyes of the Lion Star Guard had condensed into something tangible.

“Stealing belief, desecrating the star track... This child must not be allowed to live!”

He growled low, the starlight on the Star Rail Spear in his hand surging. The aura of the Twelve Star Guard Battle Array linked once more, and a far more terrifying and grander force of astral suppression began to envelop Bai Cheng and Zi Yuan.

Clearly, they were going to use some trump card at any cost.

Bai Cheng's face was pale, her aura withered.

Forcibly opening the crack in the Star Rail Gate and mobilizing and burning the island's beliefs had placed an immense burden on her. Even the embryonic emperors imprint in her soul had dimmed quite a bit.

Yet the light in her silver eyes was brighter and more determined than before.

She looked down at the village below.

There, the islanders who had survived the disaster were supporting each other as they emerged from their hiding places, their eyes filled with unbelievable gratitude and even deeper trust as they looked toward her.

The silver glow mark at the base of the Old Priest statue had now completely merged with the island's belief network, emitting a stable and warm halo that was even brighter than before.

The belief of Broken Shell Island had been truly ignited and was now more cohesive.

A faint but clear, more refined feedback of belief flowed into Bai Cheng's soul through the Stardust Imprint,

providing a tiny bit of replenishment to her exhausted strength and slightly stabilizing the embryonic emperors imprint.

Though insignificant, it was real and tangible.

Was this... the feeling of gathering faith and stabilizing the path of the emperor?

Bai Cheng felt a moment of enlightenment.

However, the crisis was not over.