The cold darkness, like viscous crude oil, pressed in from all sides, heavy and suffocating. Wen Shifei felt like she was falling into a bottomless abyss. There was no sound, no light, only the final, thunderous gunshot that lingered in the depths of her consciousness, echoing hollowly and tearing at her soul.

Shen En…those cold, inhuman eyes…

A desperate scream was stuck in his throat, but no sound came out. Falling, falling endlessly.

Just when her consciousness was about to be completely swallowed by pure nothingness, a weak but extremely persistent warm current, like a firefly quietly lit in the darkness, gently touched the edge of her cold consciousness.

Not a sound, not an image, but a pure feeling.

A feeling of being held carefully in the palm of your hand.

Warm. Dry. With a rough, wasteland-dust feel, yet incredibly firm.

It felt like a strong, silken thread, tying her sinking consciousness. The feeling of falling vanished, replaced by a strange sense of floating suspended in the cold darkness. The warmth continued to flow, with a familiar, reassuring rhythm—steady, powerful, like the drumbeat of some life.

It was a heartbeat. It wasn't her own.

Shen En's heartbeat.

This realization was like a weak electric current, instantly activating her stagnant mind. It was him... He was still alive... He was still holding her...

Enormous sorrow and a faint hope of survival intertwined, stirring a subtle ripple in the cold darkness. She struggled to open her eyes, to respond to the constant warmth, but her heavy eyelids seemed welded shut, and her consciousness, like a frozen bird, flapped in vain against its invisible cage.

Shen Entropy...

Lu Chensheng suddenly opened his eyes.

The excruciating pain felt like countless red-hot steel needles, instantly piercing his skull! Every heartbeat felt like a heavy hammer striking his fragile eardrum, and his vision was a blur of double images and swirling darkness. He couldn't help but let out a suppressed groan, his body convulsing slightly from the intense pain.

His consciousness seemed to be forcibly torn apart and then roughly stitched together. The chaotic fragments of memory were like sharp glass shards, stirring wildly in his mind: the roar of cold orders, the muzzle of a gun aimed at Shi Fei's heart, the azure torrent that destroyed the world, and... the last thing he saw when he fell, Shi Fei's pale and desperate face...

"Shi Fei!" He struggled violently to sit up, but the movement caused all the bones in his body to groan.

A cold, strong hand pressed down on his shoulder. The force was not strong, but it carried an undeniable calmness.

"Don't move." A voice without any emotion sounded in his ears, like the friction of metal. "Your synapses have just experienced high-intensity forced coverage and are in a state of stress disorder. Forced movement may cause permanent damage."

Lu Chencheng endured the dizziness and severe pain, blinked hard, and focused his vision with difficulty.

Yun Zhan's face, unchanging for millennia, as cold and hard as stone, appeared above his vision. He half-knelt beside Lu Chensheng, one hand on his shoulder, the other pulling an empty syringe from the side of Lu Chensheng's neck. A trace of light blue liquid remained in the syringe.

"Yun... Zhan?" Lu Chen's voice was as hoarse as sandpaper, filled with disbelief. How could he be here? Where was this place? His last memory was of the hellish spiral staircase of the "lighthouse," where he had fallen...

He suddenly turned his head and looked into his arms!

Wen Shifei lay quietly in his arms, her eyes tightly closed, her face almost transparently pale. She was covered in Lu Cheneng's thick protective coat, her long eyelashes casting fragile shadows beneath her eyelids. Her breathing was so weak that it was barely perceptible.

The constant warmth and heartbeat came from his arms tightly holding her and her body pressed against his chest.

She's still alive! But her condition... is extremely bad!

The overwhelming feeling of relief and fear washed over him like ice water, instantly overwhelming the excruciating pain in his body. He subconsciously tightened his arms, as if wanting to rub her into his bones and blood, to confirm her existence.

"How is she...?" Lu Chenshang's voice was trembling, which he himself did not notice, and his eyes were fixed on Wen Shifei's bloodless face.

"The vital signs are weak, but stable. The conscious activity is... abnormal." Yun Zhan said succinctly, putting away the empty syringe and glancing around. "It's easier to deal with than you. Your problem is more serious."

Lu Cheneng then forced himself to look away from Wen Shifei's face and looked around with difficulty.

They were in a strangely eerie "room." It was small, irregularly circular in shape. The walls, floor, and curved "ceiling" were all composed of a translucent material that emitted a faint, bluish glow. This material resembled both solidified liquid and some kind of biological tissue. On its surface, minute, pale golden lines, like nerves, could be seen slowly flowing and flickering. The light was soft, yet its source was impossible to discern, as if the entire space itself were luminous.

There were no doors, no windows, no obvious entrances or exits. There was only the relatively flat area beneath him and Wen Shifei, and scattered around... their backpacks, weapons, and that all-important portable terminal.

This is definitely not the bottom of the "Lighthouse"! It's not a wasteland!

"Where is this...?" Lu Chen's voice was filled with confusion and alarm. He tried to regain his senses, but it immediately gave way to a more intense headache, as if countless tiny electric drills were stirring inside his skull. He groaned, and cold sweat oozed from his forehead.

"The core of the 'Lighthouse.' Or rather... its 'stomach.'" Yun Zhan stood up and walked to a dark blue wall. He extended his finger and cautiously touched the flowing veins. Where his fingertips touched, a faint ripple of dark blue light spread. "We were 'swallowed' in. The moment you fell."

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