Chapter 234 The Price of Life

The golden shield flickered under the bombardment of the Weaver Pioneer. Su Wanqing's body shook and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.

Taking advantage of this brief respite, the five people finally rushed to their respective designated nodes.

The viaduct was in a state of disarray, with rubble from the explosion frozen in midair like bizarre sculptures.

Not far away, dust was rolling back into a broken pipe mouth, defying the laws of physics.

The buildings further away flickered between reality and nothingness, like a holographic projection with poor signal.

Su Wanqing stood at the center of the top of the pentagram. In her mind, the system interface that no one else could see projected the complete startup program.

She panted and quickly relayed the information: “The activation of the Pentagonal Barrier is divided into three stages.

First, each core fragment must establish complete resonance with us.

Second, the energy of the five corners must be linked in sync. Finally, we act as anchors, directing this energy to form a permanent barrier structure.”

She paused, without a trace of hesitation in her voice: "I must warn everyone, this process will drain a lot of our life energy and may bring irreversible changes."

"We are ready." Lin Che's voice came from the other end, simple and powerful.

Lu Zhao, Xiao Ling, and even "Ye" expressed their confirmation with silence or slight nods.

No one has any way out.

"Phase one, resonance, begin!" Su Wanqing gave the order.

The five of them moved at the same time, pressing their own core fragment against their chest.

As soon as the golden fragments touched Su Wanqing's skin, they melted into it like mercury.

The next moment, the blood vessels beneath her skin began to flow with a faint golden light. The light spread upward along the blood vessels, and her long black hair was dyed pure gold inch by inch starting from the roots.

Lin Che pressed the blue fragment against his chest, and the Orion Sequence in his body immediately responded, making a buzzing sound.

The blue lines quickly spread from his right arm, covering most of his body.

The pupil of his right eye completely disappeared, turning into a pure blue crystal that sparkled with an inhuman luster.

The emerald green fragment in Lu Zhao's hand was like a living thing. After touching the skin, it turned into a layer of liquid substance, quickly spreading throughout the body, and then solidified into a layer of green armor that adhered to the skin and had a lifelike texture, completely wrapping him.

Xiao Ling gently placed the purple fragment on her forehead.

Instead of causing any dramatic sound and light effects, the fragment slowly sank into the center of her brow, eventually leaving a closed, amethyst-like third eye mark there.

The most unexpected thing was "night". When the dark red fragment of uncertain brightness touched his body, his whole body seemed to be on fire.

The blue Orion sequence that originally belonged to Morris under his skin was forcibly twisted into a violent red.

That mask-like cold face made of energy gradually melted in this red "burning". A trace of pain, a trace of struggle, a trace of relief, and all kinds of emotions closer to humans appeared on his face for the first time.

"Phase two, connection!" Su Wanqing's voice was distorted by pain.

Five rays of light of different colors shot out from the chests of the five people, intersecting and connecting precisely in mid-air, and a standard five-pointed star pattern instantly took shape above the viaduct.

The huge consumption began.

Su Wanqing was the first one who couldn't bear it anymore and fell to one knee, but her arms were still firmly supporting the ground, maintaining the stability of the central hub.

The golden energy was being drawn out of her body frantically.

Lin Che's body was shaking violently. He could feel two forces tearing at his body violently.

The energy in the core and his own Orion Sequence repelled and conflicted with each other. The severe pain almost made him scream out, and his teeth bit his lips until they bled.

The green armor on Lu Zhao was corroding his body in turn. The edge of the armor was blurred and merged with his flesh and blood, making it difficult to tell which was the external object and which was himself.

Xiaoling's body kept shaking, and tear-like purple energy droplets flowed out of the tightly closed purple third eye on her forehead.

On the contrary, "Ye" became the most stable one among the five.

But his expression kept changing, becoming less and less like that cold "Night" and more like the real Dr. Morris.

The energy in the core seemed to be reshaping his broken personality.

At this moment, the Weaver Vanguard's attack became more fierce.

It seemed to sense the threat, and thick silver energy waves continuously hit the newly formed pentagonal array.

Every collision caused the five-colored light in the air to shake violently, and also caused the bodies of the five people on the ground to shake.

When all this reached a critical point, the giant clock phenomenon above the entire city finally got completely out of control.

The second hand began to spin frantically. Below, large tracts of the city disappeared in the spin, only to reappear in ruins the next second.

The time collapse has arrived.

"It's the last moment..." Su Wanqing forced herself to stand up, and the Guardian's reminder turned into the most dazzling blood red in her mind: "Warning: Phase 3, Anchor Guidance. It is expected to consume 99% of the vitality and cause permanent changes in the host's form."

She nodded in confirmation without any hesitation.

"bring it on!"

In an instant, an even more dazzling golden light burst out from every pore of her body.

She stretched out her hands toward the center where the five-colored energies converged in mid-air, and five rays of energy flowed into her palms like guided streams.

Unspeakable pain instantly pierced through her. She opened her mouth and let out a scream, but the sound was swallowed up by the distorted time and space around her, and could not be heard at all.

At this most critical moment, the Weaver Vanguard broke through the interference of the energy array. Its huge silver body turned into a stream of light and rushed straight to the center of the array. The halo above its head flashed an unprecedentedly dazzling light.

“Wanqing!” Lin Che’s eyes were bloodshot, and he forcibly broke free from his position and rushed towards Su Wanqing desperately.

Almost at the same moment, Night also moved. He abandoned his position and moved at the same rapid speed, aiming at the center of the array.

The three of them, in the center where the core energy converged, accidentally formed a triangular structure that shouldn't have existed.

On Su Wanqing's system interface, alarms were ringing in unison: "Warning! Program mutation! Energy flow is being reorganized! Warning! Warning!"

It was during this critical moment of chaos that the halo on the Weaver Vanguard's head began to spin violently, and dozens of energy tentacles extended from its silver body.

Most of the tentacles attacked the center of the array, but one of the thickest tentacles changed direction and headed straight for Xiaoling's location.

A cold mechanical voice sounded: "The special sample has been confirmed. It has the highest priority and must be preserved."

Faced with the rapidly approaching silver tentacle, Xiao Ling was surprisingly calm, with only the purple third eye on her forehead emitting a faint light.

Seeing this, Lu Zhao reacted immediately. He roared, ignoring the system's warning that leaving the node without permission would cause the array to collapse, and rushed to Xiao Ling, turning his green armor into a thick shield.

The silver energy tentacles heavily bombarded the green armor, and the two canceled each other out, causing a violent energy fluctuation.

Lu Zhao groaned, and a large number of cracks appeared on the armor on his body at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Just when the armor was about to collapse completely, the purple third eye on Xiaoling's forehead suddenly shot out a beam of light, miraculously freezing the silver tentacle temporarily in mid-air.

She whispered to Lu Zhao who was standing in front of her: "Don't worry, they won't hurt me... They just recognized what I am..."

Lu Zhao was full of confusion, but there was no time to ask further questions.

Because the energy explosion in the central position has swept over, in an instant, the bright light that is impossible to look directly at engulfed everything on the viaduct.