The moment the stone gate slammed into the ground, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the entire Forgotten City's surface.

Lin Yi tightened his grip on Su Qing's arm, feeling the temperature of the person in his arms rising abnormally—not a fever, but more like some kind of energy boiling within her.

"The spatial tearing speed at coordinates (112,345,78) is accelerating!" Chu Yao's projection flashed red on Lin Yi's retina. "Dimensional anchoring is expected to be completed in 57 seconds. Number of enemies... at least twelve, all with SS-level or higher combat power!"

Before the words were finished, a piercing shriek came from the vortex of mist.

Twelve dark figures emerged from the mist, each resembling a crumpled human form with purplish-black light surging beneath their skin. Transparent crystals grew from their fingertips, leaving distorted spatial ripples with each stroke of their fingers.

"Long Wu! Left flank!" Lin Yi shouted.

The young man in the black leather jacket, who was picking up a bronze cauldron that was half a person's height from the corner of the wall, suddenly threw it away upon hearing this.

The bronze cauldron crashed into the foremost black figure with a whooshing sound, but suddenly stopped the moment it touched the figure's body—the black figure's fingertips touched the void, and the bronze cauldron, which had been infused with dragon power by Long Wu, was stuck in the mud and could not move an inch.

"A spatial lock?" Long Wu's pupils contracted, and he suddenly looked up and let out a low growl.

Dark golden scales appeared on his neck, the dragon pattern on his forehead suddenly lit up, his short black hair stood on end and turned into dragon mane, and his whole body swelled to ten meters tall in three breaths. Two pairs of dragon wings spread out on his back, and the scale-covered dragon claws directly crushed the bluestone slabs under his feet.

"Awooo—!"

In his true dragon form, Long Wu swung his tail at the black shadow that locked the space.

The shockwave from the attack dispersed the surrounding mist. The dark figure hurriedly dodged, but was struck in the waist by the dragon's tail—the translucent body instantly cracked, revealing writhing purple tentacles inside.

"These things aren't physical entities!" Chu Yao's voice suddenly rose. "They are manifestations of extradimensional consciousness, with their core in a purple orb in their chest! Only by attacking the orb can you inflict effective damage!"

Lin Yi gently placed Su Qing in the safe zone behind Long Wu, and the phantom of a time-space hourglass condensed at his fingertips.

He could clearly sense the changes in the flow of time around him—three dark figures on the left were trying to pierce Long Wu's dragon wings with their crystal fingertips, while the two on the right were eyeing the white-bearded old man hiding behind the broken wall.

"Space-time splitting".

Lin Yi snapped his fingers.

The flow of time on the left side instantly decreased tenfold, and the movements of the shadowy figures became like a slow-motion movie; time on the right side was accelerated, and just as the crystalline fingertips of the two shadowy figures were about to pierce out, they were pierced through the light orb in the chest by the white-bearded old man's bronze sword—the old man's swordsmanship suddenly became exceptionally sharp, obviously because Lin Yi had adjusted the local time.

"Good move!" Long Wu's dragon claw grabbed a dark shadow and tore it in two.

The moment the purple orb was exposed, it spewed out crimson-gold dragon breath from its mouth. The orb emitted a piercing shriek in the high temperature. "So these bastards are afraid of fire! Chu Yao, are all orbs afraid of high temperatures?"

"According to real-time analysis, 92% of the light clusters are sensitive to high-temperature energy!" Chu Yao's projection switched to a tactical map. "The fourth dark figure on the right rear is condensing a space bomb. It needs to be interrupted within three seconds!"

Lin Yi's figure suddenly disappeared.

This was the effect of [Time-Space Teleportation]. He appeared behind the dark figure, his palm pressed against the other's back.

The power of spacetime poured in like molten steel, and the shadowy body instantly froze—this was not freezing, but rather the timeline being forcibly nailed shut. It didn't even have time to complete the thought of condensing a space bomb before it was burned to ashes by the dragon breath that Dragon Five added.

The battlefield is gradually becoming clear.

Seven of the twelve black shadows have been eliminated, and the remaining five have begun a frantic counterattack.

One of the dark figures suddenly rushed toward the dragon's back where Su Qing was, its crystal fingertips glowing with a ghostly blue light—it was meant to directly destroy Su Qing's sea of ​​consciousness.

"Su Qing!" Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply.

But things changed even faster.

Su Qing, who had been lying limp with her eyes closed, suddenly opened them, her eyes churning with a dark mist.

She raised her hand and waved it lightly, and the shadowy figure suddenly stopped moving—not because it was affected by time manipulation, but because the space around it was folded by some force, squeezing it into fragments.

"Help me!" Su Qing's voice was hoarse. "They planted observation anchors inside my body, and now... now those anchors are guiding an attack!"

She lifted her sleeve, revealing seven dark purple runes on the inside of her arm, each oozing black blood.

At the center of the rune, tiny threads of light connect to the sky—directly towards the vortex of mist.

Lin Yi's spatial and temporal perception instantly covered Su Qing's entire body.

He saw those runes taking root in her meridians like parasites, each filament of light transmitting their location, combat power, and even the fluctuation frequency of the Dragon Five True Dragon bloodline to another dimension.

"Chu Yao, can you pinpoint the source of these anchor points?"

"Analyzing... The anchor point uses quantum entanglement technology from an advanced civilization, and the source should be..." Chu Yao's voice suddenly stopped, "Detected an independent consciousness within Su Qing's brain! Her spatial folding ability just now does not belong to any existing professional system on Earth!"

At the same time, Long Wu's dragon wing was slashed open by the crystalline fingertip of a dark figure, and blood splattered on Su Qing's face.

She seemed oblivious to the pain, reaching out to press down on Lin Yi's wrist: "Use your spacetime power to help me detach these anchor points! I can't hold on any longer..."

Her fingertips were icy cold, but the moment they touched Lin Yi, his [space-time perception] detected a slight incongruity—Su Qing's heartbeat was lying.

Her pulse was as steady as a precision instrument, not at all like someone enduring excruciating pain.

"Watch out!" The white-bearded old man's bronze sword suddenly pierced towards Su Qing's back.

Just as the blade was about to touch her, Su Qing turned her head to dodge, the black mist in her eyes dissipating to reveal her originally clear pupils: "Senior, I meant no harm!"

“What you just used was ‘Spatial Cage’,” the old man’s hands trembled. “Thirty years ago, I saw this technique on an interdimensional battlefield. The caster was…” He suddenly stopped, cold sweat seeping from the tip of his bronze sword. “Young friend, there is something in this girl’s body that does not belong to this era.”

The battlefield suddenly fell silent.

The remaining five black figures, as if receiving a command, retreated simultaneously into the vortex of mist.

The orbs of light on their chests flickered violently, and the spatial ripples reached their peak.

"They're retreating?" Long Wu transformed back into human form, clutching his bleeding wings. "Impossible, we almost wiped them all out."

"No, it's been replaced by something even stronger." Lin Yi looked up at the center of the vortex.

The swirling mist suddenly solidified, and a dark shadow emerged from the depths of the vortex.

The dark figure had no specific outline, yet it made everyone hold their breath—Long Wu's dragon blood was boiling, the white-bearded old man's bronze sword was humming, and even Chu Yao's projection experienced a 0.3-second screen flicker.

“That is…” Chu Yao’s voice trembled for the first time, “Dimensional anchoring completion 100%. Target energy level detected…exceeding the current civilization’s observable limit.”

The dark figure slowly approached, and wherever it passed, the bluestone slabs on the ground automatically cracked into star-shaped patterns.

It made no sound, yet it caused a piercing buzzing in everyone's mind—the pain of a direct assault on consciousness.

Su Qing suddenly grabbed Lin Yi's hand, her pulse finally racing: "Go! It's an interdimensional 'observer,' specifically designed to eliminate anything that might threaten their civilization! Your mythical-level profession has already been targeted!"

Lin Yi did not move.

He watched as the anchor runes on Su Qing's arm disappeared at a visible speed, saw the spacetime fragments floating beneath the shadowy figures with patterns that perfectly matched the broken porcelain shards he had picked up in the stone chamber, and noticed that the twelve retreat routes marked by Chu Yao on the tactical map formed an arrow pointing directly at them.

"Chu Yao, activate the 'Space-Time Barrier'." His voice was as steady as a bell. "Long Wu, prepare for the Dragon Blood Outburst. Senior, protect Su Qing—if she attacks again, break her left hand."

Su Qing's face turned pale instantly.

The dark figure had already crossed the edge of the misty vortex.

With each step it took forward, the sense of oppression in the air grew stronger.

Long Wu's dragon blood surged beneath his skin, almost bursting his blood vessels; the white-bearded old man's bronze sword groaned, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared on its blade; even Lin Yi's illusory hourglass of time began to show subtle distortions.

"Is this the real test?" Lin Yi said softly, as the power of spacetime at his fingertips began to condense into a tangible blade of light. "Then let me show you that Earth's civilization... can never be easily wiped out."

The dark figure stopped ten paces away.

It has no facial features, yet it makes one clearly feel the weight of "gaze".

The moment it raised its "hand," time in the entire Forgotten City suddenly stood still—except for Lin Yi.

He could see the blood droplet of Long Wu frozen in mid-air, the trembling of Su Qing's eyelashes, and the last line of text jumping on Chu Yao's projection: "Observer target: Mythical-level professional Lin Yi, elimination priority: civilization threat level."

"Time travel".

Lin Yi gave a low shout.

Time begins to flow backward.