Chapter 30

The moment his fingertips touched the ball of dark blue star marrow, it was cold and pure, as if it contained the power of the entire universe's origin, like a galactic torrent bursting through a dam, rushing madly along Lin Yao's fingertips.

The long-dormant core of power in his body began to hum greedily, like a riverbed that had been dry for billions of years suddenly flooding back.

Every cell was trembling and cheering. The soul barrier that was full of cracks due to energy depletion was repaired and reinforced at a speed visible to the naked eye under the impact of this vast power.

not enough.

Lin Yao clearly sensed that this ball of Void Star Marrow, which was enough to transform an ordinary S-level mutant, was just a drop in the bucket for the former top of the Old World.

It filled the huge deficit and repaired the most serious damage, but it was still a long way from the "GOD" state that was enough to crush all conspiracies and truly overlook this world.

He needs more, more high-level materials, and more powerful original energy.

At the same time, Qin Feng's face, a mixture of worry, fear, and a hint of anger on the verge of losing control, clearly emerged in his mind.

He'd been away for too long. What unpredictable actions would that emotionally manipulated protector, panicked by the loss of his treasure, do? It would attract unnecessary attention and even ruin his subsequent plans... Tsk, trouble.

Lin Yao crushed the completely absorbed, dim blue star core debris into powder without hesitation, letting it dissipate in the cold metallic air.

He turned and stepped out of the forcibly torn open secret room. The ripples of space behind him silently closed, as if the room that hid his childhood nightmare had never existed.

…

The darkness of the corridor embraced him again, like the most loyal guard.

Lin Yao followed the shortcut that had been planned by the spiritual thread long ago, avoiding all large-scale polluted beast nests, and flew silently and swiftly to the last location of the B city team.

His speed increased to the extreme, and his figure left a series of blurry afterimages between the twisted pipes and the slippery cavity walls. The darkness actively made way for him, and the folds of space were gently smoothed out under his feet.

Just as he was about to reach a fork in the road where the energy was relatively calm, a nauseatingly strong smell of blood, mixed with the burnt smell of some residual violent energy, suddenly surged from the passage ahead like a tangible wave.

Lin Yao did not pause at all, as if he did not sense anything unusual, and turned straight through the fork in the road.

The scene before me was a Shura field.

A huge gap was completely blown open in the channel, and the edge of the pipe wall looked like it had been gnawed by a giant beast, flowing with a sticky molten substance that emitted high temperature and strong acid.

The ground was in a mess, with shattered energy armor, broken weapons, and... a large amount of dark red flesh and blood fragments sprayed out in a jet-like manner.

The air was hot and sticky, filled with the stench of death and energy overload.

A body... or rather, a pool of barely recognizable human remains, nailed firmly to the wall opposite the gap by some terrifying force.

He was an S-class mutant. Lin Yao remembered him, the captain of the C City Exploration Team, a light-type expert famous for his manipulation of high-energy particle beams.

At this moment, only charred fragments remained of his iconic crimson combat suit, and his body from the waist up had almost completely disappeared, leaving only his charred and broken lower half and an arm torn off by a huge force, hanging limply at the base of the wall.

On the wall, a huge charred hole with unstable electric sparks still flickering on the edge silently told the story of the final horrific attack he had endured, which was enough to annihilate everything.

ambush.

Precise, ruthless, and without warning.

The people who took action were at least ten or more S-class, or... an existence beyond the regular S-class.

The dark maze that devours everything is a natural slaughterhouse.

Lin Yao's gaze swept calmly across the bloody mess, without a single ripple in the depths of his blue eyes, as if he was watching a shoddy stage play that had nothing to do with him.

In the carefully planned siege before he crossed over, more than a dozen powerful people at the top of the leaderboard, fearing his power and coveting his huge points, jointly set up a death trap... The resolute self-destruction at the moment of death was nothing more than a madness that dragged a few people down with him.

The tragic scene of the S-level city in C before him, overlapping with the figures of the attackers torn apart by the space storm in his memory, only made him feel a cold and numb familiarity.

Tools biting each other, that's all.

He didn't even stop to check if there was any usable loot left.

In an ambush of this magnitude, the victor would leave nothing of value behind.

He lightly bypassed the pool of filth that smelled of burnt and blood, as if bypassing a stubborn rock on the roadside, and continued to rush towards his destination.

Just as his figure was about to disappear at the other end of the passage, a faint, familiar wave, almost completely obscured by the strong breath of death, briefly passed by the edge of his perception.

Lu Cheng.

Lin Yao's footsteps did not stop, but his mind clearly outlined the current appearance of the son of the Lord of City D: desperate, destroyed, like ashes that were about to burn out.

In a place like this, with his extremely unstable mental state...how long can he survive?

It doesn't matter.

An old tool that had lost its usefulness and might even cause trouble was not worth his attention. He had no interest in exploring the specific circumstances of the other party's current situation.

…

Ahead of the passage, a powerful pulse of energy emanated from the spiritual threads. It wasn't the chaotic, violent aura of a polluting beast, but an extremely pure energy source, brimming with vitality and the pulsing energy of the earth.

It was the heart of the earth veins that he perceived could effectively repair some of his hidden injuries and replenish the source of life.

The location is very close!

A hint of satisfaction flashed across Lin Yao's eyes, and his speed increased again.

However, when he was only tens of meters away from the hidden stone cave emitting an attractive ochre light, a completely different mental fluctuation, like a huge rock thrown into still water, suddenly crashed into his perception network.

Powerful! Magnificent! With a sense of oppression as heavy as a mountain, deliberately restrained yet unable to be completely concealed.

This spiritual fluctuation erupted and subsided in an instant, as fast as lightning. It was obvious that it sensed the heart of the earth veins in the stone acupoint. Because it was too surprised, it accidentally revealed a clue.

It was very brief, and if it weren't for Lin Yao, no one else would have noticed it.

The strength of this power... surpassed Qin Feng, surpassed the S-level of City C who was ambushed just now, and even vaguely touched the level of the middle of the chaotic scoreboard in the old world.

Furthermore, its energy characteristics do not belong to any known S-class captain in the Four Cities.

A lone wolf who hid his strength and infiltrated the dungeon? Or... a hunter hiding in the Four Cities' ranks with ulterior motives?

Lin Yao's blue eyes suddenly became as sharp as ice cones. The other party only revealed it for a moment, but this was enough for him, who once topped the list of the old world with soul control, and who still possessed terrifying analytical abilities even though his mental strength had not fully recovered.

The invisible spiritual thread captured, analyzed, and located the fluctuation within one second!

Intercept?

A hint of cold anger ignited in his frozen eyes. He would not allow others to touch what he needed.

The figure instantly transformed into a silver-gray stream of light that was difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, tearing through the sticky darkness and rushing towards the entrance of the stone cave.

With his full force, he reached the distance of dozens of meters in a flash. He could even see the crystal stone deep in the abyss, suspended in mid-air, emitting a warm and thick earthy yellow halo, pulsating like a heart - the heart of the earth vein.

At your fingertips!

But just as his fingertips were about to reach the shadow of the stone cave entrance...

Buzz!

A faint, chaotic, and violently trembling spiritual wave, like the last wail of a dying person, came extremely abruptly but extremely clearly from an extremely narrow crack below the entrance of the stone cave, which was completely covered with sticky moss.

This wave... was extremely weak, filled with pain, despair and a hysterical unwillingness.

Like a candle in the wind, it may be completely extinguished at any time.

Lin Yao's high-speed advancing figure was suddenly grabbed by an invisible giant hand and stopped abruptly only half a step away from the entrance of the stone cave.

The folds of space under his feet let out a slight groan as he was overwhelmed.

He froze in place.

It wasn't because of the power contained in the vibration itself. It was too weak, as weak as the dying gasp of an ant.

But it was because... he recognized this spiritual fluctuation.

The son of the mayor of City D - Lu Cheng.

The lover who was implanted with false memories by him, whose favorability was set to the maximum, and who he imagined an unforgettable love with in his mind.

That person used his identity as the son of the Lord of City D to provide countless conveniences for him, an illegal immigrant, avoiding countless troubles and even allowing him to enter the E-level copy to obtain early materials... a convenient tool.

Back in City D, Lu Cheng was indeed a very useful tool. Identity, status, authority, unconditional trust... he used it with ease.

But when his eyes turned to the truth of the dome, when he needed to leave City D and go to City B, the value of this tool disappeared.

A tool that has lost its usefulness has nothing to do with him no matter what happens to it.

In this A-level copy, whether it is the ferocious polluting beasts or the assassins from other cities who are waiting for an opportunity to eliminate potential threats, they are enough to easily crush this S-level mutant whose mental state has long been collapsed.

Lin Yao's cold gaze swept across the crack that was emitting a faint wave of despair.

Lu Cheng was inside, and his condition was even worse than he had previously sensed, and he looked like he was dying.

The aura of a strange and powerful being that surpassed the S-level had already entered the core of the stone acupoint and was very close to the heart of the earth vein.

The choice is laid bare before you.

Rush into the stone cave, kill or force back the strange strong man with thundering means, and seize the heart of the earth vein.

The price is that Lu Cheng, who is breathing faintly in the crack, will most likely be torn to pieces by a lurking contaminated beast in the next second, or die from severe injuries.

Or he could turn around and go to the crack to fish out the dying old tool. The price he paid was that the Heart of the Earth would fall into the hands of that mysterious and powerful being, and he would lose this crucial recovery material.

Reason roared in his mind: Save Lu Cheng? Absurd! A broken old tool is worth far less than a piece of high-grade material that can actually increase strength.

The optimal solution at this moment was to obtain the Earth Vein Heart and restore more strength. As for Lu Cheng's life or death... it was simply the normal process of tool wear and tear.

However, his body seemed to be nailed to the spot. His fingertips were only a millimeter away from the shadow of the stone cave entrance, but he could not move forward even a little bit.

Time seemed to freeze in the sticky darkness.

Deep within the stone cave, that powerful and unfamiliar spiritual fluctuation suddenly became solid and greedy, apparently locking onto the heart of the earth vein that was within reach.

Below the crack, Lu Cheng's faint mental fluctuations came again, carrying the last, unconscious, spasmodic struggle of a drowning person, and then quickly slid into a deeper silence, like a wick that was about to burn out, with only the last faint spark left.