As the two fell into darkness, Lin Yi's eardrums ruptured with a sharp pain.

That was the sound of time fragments tearing apart.

He could clearly feel the blood flowing erratically in his body—one second it was like molten lava surging, the next it was like glaciers freezing, his heartbeat was sometimes so fast it felt like it was going to shatter his ribs, and sometimes so slow it felt like a thousand years had passed.

Long Wu's hand was still gripping his wrist, but the texture of the dragon scales was sometimes hard and sometimes soft, as if it were jumping back and forth between reality and illusion.

"Ah Yi?" Long Wu's voice echoed distortedly, "Why are your hands...so hot and cold?"

Before he finished speaking, a faint blue light appeared deep within Lin Yi's sea of ​​consciousness.

Chu Yao's remaining consciousness reassembled like shattered stars, her voice carrying electrical noise: "Master, your existence is being reconstructed."

The rule of the abyss of time is 'nothingness'—no direction, no cause and effect, no constancy.

Your body, memories, and even your soul are being rearranged in this space according to the 'most rational' logic.

"Anchor point." Lin Yi gritted his teeth and squeezed out the two words.

He had read similar accounts in extradimensional literature: in disordered space, only an absolutely firm "proof of existence" can resist the erosion of rules.

The Anchor of Time trembled violently in his dantian, as if responding to his thoughts. A warm current flowed through his limbs and bones—it was the imprint of the beliefs of the members of the Time Legion, the distress signal of the survivors of the Reality Alliance, and the oath of loyalty of the warriors of the Other Dimension Resistance Army. At this moment, it all turned into golden chains of light, firmly binding his consciousness to the "present".

Long Wu suddenly groaned and staggered.

Silver-white blood beads seeped from the apocalyptic dragon pattern on his back, each drop exploding into tiny time vortexes in the void as it fell. "This wretched place even corrodes dragon scales?" He wiped his mouth, only to find the blood on his palm wasn't red, but a silvery-white shimmering with starlight. "Damn, am I bleeding fragments of time?"

Before they finished speaking, the void beneath their feet suddenly twisted.

The battle cries came in first—the crisp clang of metal clashing, the mournful neighing of warhorses, the piercing whistle of arrows piercing the air, like a bucket of ice water being poured over one's head.

When their vision cleared, they were standing in the middle of a scorched battlefield.

In the distance, black flags fluttered; nearby, broken spears lay scattered. The wind carried a heavy smell of rust, mixed with the stench of rotting flesh.

The armored soldiers at the front row suddenly turned their heads.

Their faceplates were cracked with spiderweb-like fine lines, and their breastplates were engraved with patterns that were exactly the same as the "time runes" that Lin Yi had seen in another dimension.

Twenty spears were pointed at the two men simultaneously, their tips glowing with a ghostly green light, the same silvery-white light that had just corroded the dragon scales.

"Perfect timing!" Long Wu's dragon tail swept away the rubble with a "whoosh," and the world-destroying dragon pattern spread from his back to his arms. A giant axe materialized in his palm. "I was just looking for someone to vent my anger on!"

The shockwave from the first wave of attack caused Lin Yi's clothes to flutter loudly.

Long Wu's axe unleashed a semi-circular golden-red blade of light, cleaving three soldiers into pieces—but those pieces did not disappear; instead, they reformed upon landing, transforming into six soldiers, their spears gleaming even brighter with the dark green light.

"Damn it!" Long Wu spun around and swept his tail, dragon flames wrapped in lightning arcs swept across the battlefield, the soldiers hit turned into ashes, but then condensed in batches ten steps away, "The more you kill, the more there are."

What kind of trial is this?

Lin Yi didn't speak.

He stared at the soldiers' movements: the angle of their spear swings, the rhythm of their steps, even the pupils that were faintly visible beneath their visors—exactly the same as the "past self" he had just encountered in the illusion space.

They repeat a certain fixed pattern, yet each time they are defeated, they "evolve" into more lethal attack methods.

"It's not actual combat," Lin Yi suddenly spoke, his voice drowning out the noise of the battlefield. "It's a test of will." He raised his hand and pressed it on Long Wu's shoulder, the heat of his palm burning through the dragon scales, startling the other man. "These soldiers are manifestations of the Abyss of Time based on our 'combat memories'."

The more ruthlessly you kill, the more they will look for weaknesses in your fighting habits.

Long Wu's axe paused.

He looked at the newly appeared soldiers and noticed that the angle at which some of them thrust their spears was exactly the wrong movement he had corrected when teaching new recruits in the extradimensional mother nest three days ago; and the stride of two others was exactly the same as the gap he had deliberately created last month when he rescued the surrounded medic.

"So what do we do?" Long Wu gripped the axe handle tightly, his knuckles turning white.

Lin Yi closed his eyes.

The tremors of the Anchor of Time have turned into a rhythmic hum, like singing an ancient ballad.

He could feel the flow of time right before his eyes—not a linear progression from past to future, but countless interwoven lines, each line containing a different version of himself: the panic of his first awakening in the beginner village, the determination when forming the Time Legion, the despair upon learning that Su Qing was trapped in another dimension...

"The essence of time is not its flow," his voice was as soft as a sigh, yet it pierced clearly through the clamor of the battlefield. "It is choice."

When he opened his eyes again, his pupils shimmered with a starlight-like light.

The soldiers rushing towards him suddenly stopped, their spears halting three inches from his throat, their eyes beneath their visors filled with confusion—their attack patterns were those of "the Lin Yi of the past"—they would fear, dodge, and retaliate.

But Lin Yi at this moment is no longer any version of himself from the past.

"Step back." He raised his hand and waved it lightly.

The soldiers' armor suddenly disintegrated into fragments of time, like snow blown away by the wind.

The clamor of the battlefield came to an abrupt halt.

"Not bad." Xuanmingzi's voice came from above.

Lin Yi looked up and saw the old man in the Taoist robe standing with his hands behind his back in the void, his feet not on solid ground, but on a flowing river of time. "You have passed the first trial."

Before the words were finished, the battlefield illusion shattered like a mirror.

When the two regained their footing, they found themselves in the center of a giant egg-shaped space.

All around were countless floating, transparent cocoons of light, each containing a luminous memory—a baby's first cry, a warrior's last charge, or a flower's entire life cycle from bloom to wither.

And in the very center, a pulsating energy core floats.

Its color changes with each pulse: red like molten gold, blue like a cold pool, and purple like a cosmic abyss. Each pulse makes the entire space of light cocoon tremble, as if echoing some ancient rhythm.

"The core of cause and effect." Chu Yao's voice rang out again, this time much clearer, "The origin that records the causal laws of all timelines... Master, it is calling you."

Lin Yi's steps moved forward uncontrollably.

The tremors of the Anchor of Time almost pierced through his dantian, and Su Qing's voice came from the depths of his core, clearer than before, calling his name with a sob in her voice.

He could see Su Qing's figure, Long Wu's dragon flames, the battle flag of the Air Force Regiment, and even himself standing in front of the origin of another dimension in the light and shadow flowing inside the core.

"Ayi!" Long Wu suddenly grabbed him by the back of his collar.

Lin Yi was then surprised to realize that his fingertips had touched an invisible barrier.

The barrier rippled like water, but the moment he touched it, it burst forth with a blinding white light, sending him flying backward.

Xuan Mingzi's cold laugh, accompanied by a burst of white light, rang out: "Want it?"

(End of this chapter)

As Xuanmingzi spoke, the void cracked open with spiderweb-like silver patterns, and three bolts of lightning poured down from the cracks.

The first lightning bolt was translucent, wrapped in tiny specks of light, like a crumpled old film.

Just as Lin Yi saw its appearance clearly, a sharp pain suddenly exploded between his brows—it was the middle of the night in his university dormitory, when he was huddled behind the moldy curtains scrolling through the announcement of the launch of "Infinite," the sound of his keyboard startling cockroaches out of their instant noodle bowls; it was his mother's hesitant sigh on the phone, saying that the house back home was leaking, but she wouldn't let him take leave to go back; it was the warmth of Su Qing's hair brushing against the back of his hand when she first handed him the game helmet, hotter and more painful than thunder.

"This is the judgment of the 'past'." Xuanmingzi's voice was like being immersed in ice, "You think you have already severed your obsession?"

Look at these fragments you've deliberately forgotten—

The lightning bolt crashed down.

Lin Yi staggered and knelt down, his fingernails digging deep into the ground. The blood seeping from between his fingers reflected his seventeen-year-old self: when he cut his arm on a steel bar while carrying bricks at a construction site, he smiled and sent a message to his mother saying, "The cafeteria is adding chicken legs today."

A metallic taste rose in his throat, not from the injury, but from the grievances in his memories finally breaking through ten years of pretense.

"Ah Yi!" Long Wu's dragon tail wrapped around his waist, trying to pull him behind him, but was precisely intercepted by the second bolt of lightning.

The lightning bolt was blazing gold, carrying a scorching heat. When it struck Long Wu's shoulder, it exploded into a blinding orb—it was the bonfire on the founding day of the Time Legion, where Long Wu ran around holding a charred rabbit; it was at the Reality Alliance meeting, where he patted his chest and said, "My dragon flames can burn through any defense line"; it was three days ago on the interdimensional battlefield, where he took the brunt of the invaders' particle cannon to save the medic who was swept away by the energy storm, his dragon scales shattering into stardust.

"The cause and effect of this moment." Xuan Mingzi's Daoist robe was lifted by the thunder and wind. "You think you are carrying the burden of glory?"

Look at these 'shoulds' that you take for granted—

Long Wu grunted and released his tail, the World-Destroying Dragon Mark on his chest fading by a third.

Veins bulged on his forehead, but he grinned at Lin Yi: "You little brat... don't you dare shed a tear in front of me."

When the third bolt of lightning struck, even the space itself seemed to groan in agony.

It was as black as a crushed night, wrapped in countless unfinished scenes: the battle flag of the Time Legion was broken in an interdimensional storm, Su Qing's cries, trapped in the core of cause and effect, echoed through eternity, Long Wu's dragon scales completely disintegrated into ashes, and he himself stood before the origin of the invaders, the anchor of time shattered into dust.

"The future karmic fire." Xuanmingzi's voice suddenly trembled. "You think you can rewrite everything?"

Look at what's bound to happen... no, wait—

His words were cut off by Long Wu's angry roar.

"Fuck your future!" Long Wu's dragon scales were cracking all over his body, but he still managed to smash Lin Yi aside with his flesh and blood.

The lightning bolt, powerful enough to crush even a mythical-level expert, pierced through his right shoulder, burning a charred hole in his back. Silver fragments of time, mixed with dragon blood, fell in a flurry.

He knelt on the ground, but gripped Lin Yi's wrist tightly with his only remaining left hand: "Yi, you have to live... Go bring Xiao Qing back, go protect the kids of the Time Air Force, to hell with this trial—"

"Why didn't you tell me the price?!" Lin Yi's voice trembled, and the light chains of the Anchor of Time surged out wildly, trying to repair Long Wu's wounds, but were shattered time and time again by the residual power of the lightning punishment.

He could clearly sense Long Wu's life force slipping away, like sand slipping through his fingers. "You knew perfectly well that this lightning could kill you!"

Long Wu's pupils began to dilate, but he was still smiling.

His bloodied fingers brushed against Lin Yi's eye: "Because...we're brothers." As the last word faded, his dragon tail gently curled up, protecting Lin Yi's still trembling hand.

Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe fluttered even without wind.

He looked at Long Wu lying in a pool of blood, then at Lin Yi whose eyes were red, and his Adam's apple bobbed.

For a fleeting moment, Lin Yi saw an emotion in his eyes that he had never seen before—a mixture of relief and sorrow.

"Power is not for conquering." Xuanmingzi raised his hand, and the embers of the three lightning punishments suddenly condensed into a thin stream, flowing into the core of cause and effect. "It is for protecting."

You... finally understand.

The light of the core of cause and effect suddenly shone brightly.

The suspended cocoons of memory shattered simultaneously, and the cries of infants, the charge of warriors, the withering of flowers—fragments of all timelines surged toward Lin Yi.

His fingertips touched the barrier again, but this time there was no resistance; instead, it felt like being embraced by a mother.

A surge of heat bursts from the fingertips, coursing through the blood vessels to every part of the body.

He saw Su Qing smiling at him from within the core, saw the soldiers of the Time and Space Legion saluting him with their battle flags, and saw Long Wu's dragon pattern glowing faintly again deep within his sea of ​​consciousness.

The passage of time was clearly visible in his eyes: past regrets were being gently enveloped, present responsibilities were being transformed into scorching fire, and the shadows of the future were being solidified into a sword in his palm.

"I finally...mastered it," Lin Yi murmured.

His pupils shimmered with starlight, the tremors of the Anchor of Time transformed into a stirring battle hymn, and even the blood from Long Wu's wounds began to flow backward in time—not to be healed, but to be rewoven by an even more powerful force.

As Xuanmingzi turned around, a gust of wind rose from his robes.

His whisper, carried on the wind, seemed to come from a very far place: "Remember, time will not forgive betrayers."

Before he finished speaking, his figure had already merged into the light and mist of the core of cause and effect.

Within Lin Yi's body, the spacetime power he had just absorbed was surging uncontrollably.

He could hear the soft cracking of his bones, see the flowing silver-blue patterns beneath his skin, and sense the rules of the entire Abyss of Time bowing down to him—

This power has only just begun to awaken.