The turbulent flow within the rift ceased abruptly the moment the altar was stepped into.

Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly. When his gaze swept over the suspended bronze bell, a cool sensation ran down the back of his neck—the bloodstain oozing purplish-black liquid was merging with the translucent cocoon at a visible speed, like two snakes mating.

"Core energy fluctuations detected in the mother nest." Chu Yao's voice rang in everyone's ears. The chip implanted behind Lin Yi's ear felt slightly warm. "The target is absorbing the remaining faith power within the ruins at a rate of 0.7% per second. It will take 17 minutes and 32 seconds to fully materialize." Her synthesized voice unusually carried an air of urgency. "We must interrupt the construction before it completes its materialization!"

Lin Yi pressed his thumb heavily on the bronze bell.

Li Mu's last fragments of memory surged in his mind: the young man who always liked to chew on a blade of grass and say, "Faith only works if it burns brightly enough," was now resonating faintly through the bell—not with fear, but with resolve.

He suddenly understood why Li Mu's mark appeared when the mother nest hatched—it wasn't a coincidence, but because that mad faith priest had used his own life to drive a nail into the "eggshell" of the mother nest.

"Long Wu." Lin Yi turned his head, the reflection of the crimson-gold spear dancing in his eyes. "You hold the line." He then looked at Ivan, whose hand, gripping the ice spike, trembled slightly. "Your ice spirit power can slow down energy aggregation; find an opportunity to freeze those light particles." Finally, his gaze fell on Xuan Mingzi, the old man folding nine boundary-suppressing talismans into a triangle. "You keep an eye on the bronze bell—the Mother Nest's energy transmission depends entirely on it."

Before he finished speaking, Long Wu's roar made the altar vibrate.

The crimson flames surrounding him suddenly surged, condensing into a semi-transparent dragon head phantom behind him. The lightning flowing on his scales shattered three particles of light that tried to approach. "Behold Grandpa's Dragon Fist!" he roared, slamming his right leg against the altar. He shot out like a cannonball, his fist wrapped in dragon flames strong enough to melt gold, aiming straight for the writhing black shadow of the Mother Nest.

The unexpected happened just as the fist was about to touch the shadow.

The originally chaotic black energy suddenly "opened" a pair of scarlet vertical pupils, the pupils without whites swirling with a scene of reversed galaxies.

Long Wu's attack was like a stone thrown into a deep pool; ripples spread across the surface of the shadowy figure, which absorbed all the dragon flames and fist energy. "Interesting," the shadowy figure's voice whirred like rusty gears grinding together. "You ants, you think you can interrupt the birth of a god?"

Long Wu was thrown backward by the rebounding impact, his back slamming heavily against the light particle wall at the edge of the altar.

He coughed up a mouthful of black blood, only to realize with horror that the droplet was instantly swallowed by particles of light upon hitting the ground, leaving not even a trace of its scent. "This damn thing..." he murmured, wiping his mouth. Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on his dragon scale armor. "Taking my attacks is like drinking water!"

Lin Yi's Time-Space Key spun rapidly above his head, with the tips of all seven keys pointing simultaneously at the shadowy figure.

He could feel the power of spacetime boiling within him—this was the instinctive reaction of a [Master of Spacetime] when facing dimensional erosion. "It's assimilating our attack attributes," his voice was as calm as an ice pick. "Long Wu's fire, Ivan's ice, even my power of spacetime..." He suddenly stopped, his gaze locking onto the faintly visible silver threads in the shadows. "Look at those silver threads!"

It was Li Mu's faith that made him powerful!

The mother nest is rejecting it!

Ivan looked up abruptly, the icicle condensing into an ice spear in his palm.

He recalled the scene he'd seen three days ago in the memories of the former members of the Mother Nest: all life assimilated by the Mother Nest would eventually become a black, slimy mass devoid of self, while Li Mu's soul, like a red-hot charcoal, sizzled within the slime. "I'll go!" he roared, his ice spear, carrying a chilling aura of sub-zero degrees Celsius, piercing the shadowy figure. "Let me show you what it's like to be rejected!"

The moment the ice spear pierced the shadow, the entire altar emitted a piercing scream.

A purplish-black liquid spurted from the wound, within which were several strands of golden light—the remnants of Li Mu's faith.

The shadowy figure's crimson pupils suddenly contracted, emitting a shrill cry like that of a baby: "Lowly sacrifice!"

"Who gave you permission to resist?" It stretched out an arm formed from black mist, its nails slicing through the void, freezing Ivan's ice spear and half of his arm into crystals.

"Ivan!" Lin Yi teleported to Ivan's side, and the light blade of the Key of Time and Space severed the black mist arm.

He could feel Ivan's ice elemental power rapidly depleting, and the blood vessels under his skin were covered in frost. "Chu Yao, analyze the shadow's weaknesses!" he roared, simultaneously channeling his own spacetime power into Ivan's body to help melt the ice crystals on his arm.

"Locating..." Chu Yao's voice suddenly paused for 0.3 seconds, "Detected that there is an energy clash between the bloodstains on the bronze bell and the core of the black shadow!"

Li Mu's faith power is actively consuming the Mother Nest's essence!

Lin Yi's gaze abruptly shifted to the suspended bronze bell.

At this moment, the purplish-black liquid on Ling's body was surging wildly, forming two opposing energy flows with the bloodstains, like two snakes vying for control of Ling's body.

He suddenly understood Li Mu's final plan—this madman who always said "faith must burn brightly" had burned his own soul into a fuse, just so that during the weakest incubation period of the mother nest, he could use the power of faith as a dagger to stab into its heart.

"Senior Xuanmingzi!" Lin Yi grabbed Ivan and threw him to Long Wu, who immediately wrapped Ivan's frozen body in dragon flames. "Control the bronze bell!"

The mother nest's energy transmission depends entirely on it!

Xuanmingzi's white hair moved without wind, and the nine boundary-suppressing talismans he had been holding suddenly transformed into golden streams of light, wrapping around the bronze bell.

Blood seeped from the old man's fingertips as he drew ancient array patterns in the air: "This is the Dimensional Soul-Locking Array from the Mainframe era!" His voice trembled from exhaustion. "It can temporarily sever the connection between the Mother Nest and the Bell... but it can only last three minutes!"

The shadowy figure seemed to sense the danger, and the black mist around it suddenly expanded wildly, enveloping the entire altar into a giant black cocoon.

Lin Yi's Key of Time and Space simultaneously lit up with a dazzling light, and he could feel the mythical energy within his body boiling—it was time to use that move.

He raised his right hand, and a phantom image of a spacetime rift appeared in his palm. "Chu Yao, calculate the coordinates!"

"The core of the mother nest has been locked!" Chu Yao's voice regained its composure. "Your spacetime power is needed to perform dimensional cutting!"

Amidst the shrieking of the shadowy figure, Lin Yi's figure suddenly vanished from the spot.

When he reappeared, he was standing directly above the shadow, with seven keys of time and space forming a star map behind him.

His pupils held the stardust of the universe's birth, yet his voice was as soft as a sigh: "Li Mu, your faith should teach this damned thing a lesson."

Suddenly, all the light particles within the altar turned, like waves of wheat swaying in the wind, pointing directly at the dark figure.

Xuanmingzi's boundary-suppressing talisman emitted a dazzling golden light, weaving a golden cage around the bronze bell.

Long Wu bit the Dragon Blood Pill in his mouth, and the shattered dragon scale armor reformed, with even stronger dragon flames leaping on the crimson-gold spear.

Ivan's ice shield cracked with spiderweb-like patterns, yet he still stood up unsteadily, the last trace of spiritual power gathering on the ice spikes.

For the first time, panic appeared in the shadowy figure's crimson pupils.

It tried to shrink the black mist, but found that its connection with the bronze bell was locked by the boundary-suppressing talisman; it wanted to devour Long Wu's dragon flames, but was burned by Li Mu's faith power and sizzled; it wanted to freeze Lin Yi's spacetime power, but saw that the fingertips of that mythical professional were gathering light that could tear dimensions apart.

"You..." the shadowy figure's voice began to distort, "You have no idea what you're fighting against..."

"I know." Lin Yi's fingertips pressed against the core of the black shadow, and the phantom of the spacetime rift instantly enveloped it. "I know you have devoured hundreds of civilizations, and I know you have turned countless lives into black slime."

But today—"A cold smile curled at the corner of his lips, "you've met someone you shouldn't have messed with."

Outside the altar, Xuanmingzi drew the final array pattern in the void with his fingers.

The golden light of the boundary-suppressing talisman suddenly surged, turning the entire black cocoon golden.

Blood trickled from the old man's lips, yet he remained fixed on the bronze bell—he knew that the next three minutes would be crucial in this battle of faith.

What he had to do was use the techniques left behind by the mainframe to buy Lin Yi that most precious... one second.

The protective talisman on the bronze bell suddenly burst forth with dazzling golden light, but the moment it touched the black cocoon, it was as if it had encountered a sharp blade.

Xuanmingzi's fingers were still in the arc of drawing the array in the void when the golden barrier seemed to be gripped by an invisible giant hand, and with a "crack," it tore into a spider web.

He staggered back three steps, a metallic taste rising in his throat, and beads of sweat the size of soybeans seeped from his forehead beneath his white hair—a sign that the magic of the main brain era was being forcibly backfired.

"It's stronger than I imagined," Lin Yi's voice was as deep and resonant as iron.

He gazed at the swirling purplish-black mist on the surface of the black cocoon, the Key of Time and Space burning hot in his palm.

The barrier that was supposed to seal the energy chain between the mother nest and the bronze bell was instead devoured by it, which also consumed 30% of Xuanmingzi's strength.

"Let me try..."

A hoarse male voice came from beside me.

Ivan had released the ice pick at some point; his left hand was pressed against his chest, and a pale purple liquid seeped from between his fingers—the corrosive liquid left over from the mother nest.

A dark mist churned in his pupils, yet it was forcefully suppressed by an intense light. "Perhaps I can interfere with it in my own way."

Lin Yi's gaze suddenly tightened.

Three days ago, in the memories of the old members of the Mother Nest, he saw what Ivan looked like when he was parasitized: his pupils were completely transformed into purple-black vortexes, and he was emitting inhuman moans from his throat.

The struggle in the young man's eyes was so clear at that moment, as if he were wrestling with some kind of curse etched into his soul.

"You know the risks." Lin Yi's thumb pressed against the chip interface on the back of Ivan's neck, the consciousness firewall that Chu Yao had urgently implanted. "The Mother Nest might use this to devour your consciousness."

"It's better than being crushed by it." Ivan forced a bitter smile, eerie purple spots already appearing on the tips of his ears beneath his icy blue hair. "I've been its host before, I know its resonance frequency..." He suddenly gripped Lin Yi's wrist, his palm chillingly cold. "Believe me, this is the only chance to interrupt its energy aggregation."

Lin Yi's temples throbbed.

He could sense that the energy level of the mother nest core was soaring at a rate of 1.2% per second—Chu Yao's warning was still vibrating in the chip, and the countdown of 17 minutes and 32 seconds had only five minutes left.

Looking at the swirling black mist and glimmer of humanity in Ivan's eyes, he suddenly recalled how, three days ago in the ruins, this man, who had been controlled by the Mother Nest, had pierced his own left arm with an ice pick just to stop the parasite from spreading.

"Chu Yao, activate the highest level of the consciousness firewall." Lin Yi finished speaking quickly, his gaze turning to Ivan like a sharpened blade. "If you can't hold on, knock out the chip."

Ivan nodded emphatically.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and a buzzing sound came from his throat.

A purplish-black liquid seeped from his pores, gathering into tiny swirls at his feet, and a faint, sweet, fishy smell rose in the air—the unique scent of the Mother Nest consciousness.

The crimson vertical pupils inside the black cocoon suddenly contracted, and the originally regular energy fluctuations became disordered sawtooth waves.

"Link established successfully!" Chu Yao's voice held a rare hint of surprise. "The aggregation rate of the mother nest core has dropped to 0.3%!"

Lin Yi's fingers tapped heavily on the bronze bell.

The resonance of Li Mu's remnant soul surged like a tide, and those burning fragments of faith suddenly condensed into a physical form in his sea of ​​consciousness—it was the young man with the grass stem in his mouth, making a "lighting" gesture at him.

"Now!" Lin Yi's pupils suddenly transformed into a scene of reversed galaxies, and the power of spacetime surged throughout his body like a volcanic eruption.

His right hand rested on the bronze bell, while his left hand clenched into a fist. "Dragon Five, ignite the dragon flames!"

Senior Xuanmingzi, reinforce the boundary-suppressing talisman!

Everyone, pour your will into it!

Long Wu's crimson-gold spear suddenly erupted with dragon flames three times stronger than before.

He crushed the last Dragon Blood Pill, and the phantom of the dragon head solidified completely. The lightning on the scales shot toward the bronze bell as if it were alive. Xuan Mingzi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and the nine boundary-suppressing talismans lit up again, weaving golden chains around the bell. Ivan's ice-blue hair moved without wind, and the purplish-black liquid evaporated into mist, forming a piercing resonance with the resonance waves of the mother nest.

The bronze bell suddenly emitted a clear and melodious long sound.

Li Mu's faith, Long Wu's battle spirit, Xuan Mingzi's protection, Ivan's resistance, and even the "hope" pulsating in Chu Yao's data torrent—all these wills flowed into the bell like rivers flowing into the sea.

Golden light gushed out from the bell's mouth, transforming into a tangible shockwave that precisely pierced the core purplish-black spot of the black cocoon.

"Aww—!"

The shriek of the mother hive made the entire altar vibrate.

Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the black cocoon, and purplish-black liquid splattered like a punctured balloon, containing countless translucent vengeful spirits—the remnants of civilization devoured by it.

Lin Yi saw that at the core of the black shadow, the silver faith line was frantically tearing at the purplish-black energy, like a red-hot knife cutting flesh.

"It's going to shatter!" Long Wu wiped the blood from his face, dragon flames dancing in his fist. "Give it another push—"

The change happened in an instant.

The black cocoon, which was on the verge of collapse, suddenly burst out with a dazzling purple light. The light was so bright that everyone had to close their eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, the black cocoon had swelled to three times its original size, the cracks on its surface had mysteriously healed, and the scarlet vertical pupils were churning with an even stronger malice than before.

"This is just the beginning..." The Mother Nest's voice was no longer hoarse, but instead carried a seductive sweetness, "I will be reborn in the person you trust most..."

Before the words were even finished, the entire ruins emitted a teeth-grinding cracking sound.

The dome overhead began to collapse, and large chunks of rubble fell like a torrential rain; the altar beneath our feet cracked open with spiderweb-like fissures, from which dark red magma gushed forth.

Lin Yi's Time-Space Key suddenly trembled violently. He could sense that the spatial structure of the entire ruins was collapsing—the Mother Nest was destroying its core, intending to bury everyone alive.

"Retreat!" Lin Yi scooped up Ivan, and a spacetime rift opened up beneath their feet.

Long Wu grabbed Xuan Mingzi, and crimson-gold dragon flames formed a protective shield around him; Chu Yao's projection flashed between everyone's brows, "There's an escape route thirty meters to the southeast!"

The laughter of the mother hive still echoed amidst the muffled thuds of rubble hitting the dragonfire shield.

The voice, mingled with the roar of lava, pierced everyone's eardrums like a fine needle: "Remember... next time, I will make the most beautiful flower bloom from your hearts..."

(Outside the ruins, a torrential downpour was in effect.)

Covered in blood, the group collapsed behind the broken wall, gazing at the crumbling ruins behind them.

Lin Yi's gaze swept over the unconscious Ivan, the coughing blood Xuan Mingzi, and the shattered armor of Long Wu, finally landing on the bronze bell still burning hot in his palm.

The bloodstains on the bell had faded somewhat, but a new line of small characters was carved on the bottom: "The most trusted person".

)