Chapter 233 Pentagonal Barrier

"I'm in."

"Ye"'s voice broke the deadlock. There was no expression on his face made of energy, but there was a hint of self-mockery in his tone.

Everyone's eyes were on him.

Su Wanqing didn't have time to analyze the truthfulness of his words. The system interface in her mind changed the moment "Ye" agreed.

The Guardian AI's voice sounded directly, without any emotion: "'Retrograde' returns to its position, the Ultimate Barrier Protocol is unlocked. Begin deploying the pentagonal barrier array."

A light blue holographic projection unfolded in front of Su Wanqing's eyes, which no one else could see.

It was a complex structural diagram based on the wreckage of an overpass. Five spots of light flickered at different locations on the bridge surface, connected by energy lines to form a standard pentagram.

“The array needs to be deployed at five specific nodes of the viaduct to form a perfect five-pointed star structure.”

Su Wanqing quickly relayed the system information to everyone, "The five of us correspond to one node each."

As she finished her words, the energy sphere formed by the fusion of three cores suspended in the center of the formation began to vibrate, and then split into five core fragments of different sizes and colors, floating towards the five people respectively.

A golden piece went to Su Wanqing, a blue piece flew towards Lin Che, an emerald green piece hung in front of Lu Zhao, a purple piece stopped at Xiao Ling's hand, and the most unstable dark red piece, alternating between light and dark, floated in front of "Night".

"Each of you take the fragments and go to the designated location immediately." Su Wanqing pointed in different directions in the air, "Time is running out."

No one said another word. After each of them grasped their own core fragment, they immediately moved in different directions.

The journey to the destination was several times more difficult than expected. The time collapse in the viaduct area was intensifying, and the bridge deck was like a broken biscuit, covered with bottomless cracks, and the black void was rolling under the cracks.

What is even more bizarre is the abnormal flow of time. On the left, a car suspended in mid-air is still in the moment of explosion and disintegration, with every part frozen in place; on the right, the guardrail dozens of meters away is rusting, weathering, and eventually turning into powder at a speed visible to the naked eye. The whole process took only a few seconds.

Lin Che was walking in the front. He encountered a completely still space. The solidified dust in the air formed an invisible wall.

He didn't take a detour, but directly raised his half-crystallized right arm.

The blue Orion sequence pattern lit up, and he pressed his palm into the still area, as if pressing into water.

The blue light spread out, and a safe passage that was only wide enough for one person to pass through was forcibly constructed.

"Hurry up!" he urged.

Lu Zhaoze continued to operate the terminal on his wrist, with a waterfall of data flowing across the screen.

"I found a frequency," he said without looking up, "that can temporarily disrupt the Weaver's space stabilization device, which can buy us a few precious seconds."

Before he finished speaking, he pressed hard, and the suffocating feeling of oppression in the surrounding space was instantly relieved a little.

The most unexpected thing was "Ye". He pointed to a seemingly flat road and said in a flat tone: "Don't go there, the residual core energy will detonate the time trap there. Go this way." He himself nimbly jumped across a constantly opening and closing space crack, and his movements revealed an instinctive familiarity with the core energy.

When the team was halfway through its journey, Xiaoling, who was responsible for heading to the west, suddenly stopped.

Lu Zhao was the first to notice something was wrong: "Xiao Ling? What's wrong?"

Xiao Ling lowered her head, tightly holding the purple core fragment in her hand, without saying a word.

Her body began to stiffen slightly, and the pupils in her eyes disappeared, completely turning into two pieces of pure amethyst.

Her lips moved slightly, uttering a series of completely unfamiliar syllables. The sound did not belong to a child. It was like hundreds of people whispering in unison: "...[untranslatable syllables]..."

After a moment, her body trembled and returned to normal, but the childishness on her face had completely disappeared, replaced by a maturity and calmness that was inconsistent with her age.

"I see," she said softly, but her voice was clearly heard by everyone, "The Weavers are not a single civilization, but a collection of countless races that chose to upload their consciousness when their universe ended.

They are not trying to hurt us, but to 'save' us in the only way they understand."

"How do you know all this?" Lu Zhao asked. He thought of something but was not sure.

Xiao Ling held up the purple fragment in her hand, her eyes were somewhat complicated: "Because in a previous reincarnation... I was once partially 'collected'. That memory was stored in this core."

Lu Zhao gasped. So that's how it was. This was why she could predict the future and understand the language of the Weaver.

Xiao Ling nodded, a trace of sadness flashed across her face: "Yes, but it is also because of this... I am no longer completely human. This is also why the Weaver is particularly 'interested' in me.

Because I am the only known sample that has retained independent consciousness after being partially collected."

At this moment, a huge pressure descended from the sky.

The Weaver Vanguard finally stopped watching. Its silver body suddenly expanded, becoming extremely intimidating, and a cold mechanical voice resounded throughout the area: "Your resistance will only accelerate the complete collapse of time!"

Before he finished his words, several dazzling silver energy beams shot out from it, accurately aiming at the core fragments held tightly in everyone's hands.

The danger came too fast and there was no way to avoid it.

Su Wanqing reacted almost instinctively. She poured all her remaining life energy into the jade bracelet on her left wrist.

A golden translucent light curtain instantly unfolded, just blocking the path of the energy beam.

“Sizzle——”

The silver light collided with the golden screen, making a teeth-grinding sound. The light screen shook violently, but it finally blocked the first wave of attacks.

Su Wanqing's body shook violently, and her face turned pale. In her mind, the system's warning sounded sharp and piercing, and the red warning box flashed wildly: "Warning! Life energy is less than 20%! Maintaining the shield will cause permanent damage to the body!"

“Hold on!” Lin Che saw her expression and shouted anxiously, “Just hold on for one more minute! One minute is enough!”

Everyone no longer held back and rushed towards their respective targets with all their might.

The Weaver Pioneer's attacks became more fierce, with energy beams bombarding the golden shield one after another.

The entire viaduct began to tremble violently under the endless attacks, and huge cracks spread from the piers to the bridge deck, and it could collapse completely at any time.