The incandescent light in the laboratory cast dappled light on Lin Yi's forehead, and his hand supporting the experimental table trembled slightly—the price of forcibly sealing the remnant of the Mother Nest in the consciousness space was beginning to show, and the power of spacetime surged like a turbulent current in his meridians.

But he quickly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and tapped the control panel with his knuckles: "Chu Yao, is the conference terminal ready?"

"The brainwave frequencies of all core members have been synchronized." Chu Yao's projection reassembled beside him; the sparks of code at the tips of her hair had completely dissipated, only the data stream in her eyes was faster than usual. "The deputy commander of the Time-Space Legion, the head of the Reality Alliance's Research Department, the liaison officer of the Interdimensional Resistance Army... all seventeen people are online."

As Lin Yi turned to walk towards the conference room, the sound of Long Wu's combat boots echoed softly not far behind him.

This man, who always talked about "protecting Mr. Lin," was now breathing very softly, as if afraid of startling something.

The moment the conference room door was opened, seventeen pairs of eyes swept over at the same time.

"I need to share the data from the Mother Nest Core with everyone." Lin Yi sat down in the main seat, his palm resting on the star trail emblem in the center of the conference table.

Pale golden light spread along the patterns, and a holographic screen unfolded above everyone's heads. Images of the Mother Nest's lingering remnant being sealed and keywords such as "harvesting the faith of advanced civilizations" flashing in the core code surged in the void.

Chu Yao's fingertips swept across the holographic screen, and the waterfall of code suddenly condensed into several strings of blood-red characters: "The key point is here." Her voice trembled for the first time, "Hidden within the core of the Mother Nest is a layer of encrypted code, which I cracked using three time-space rewinds—it's a consciousness virus that attaches to the power of faith and spreads."

"The source?" The interdimensional resistance liaison officer sitting on the left gripped the energy gun in his hand.

"Blue Star's homeland." Chu Yao pulled up a satellite map, and the red dot was precisely located in the northwestern Gobi Desert. "Coordinates x-7, formerly the military's 'Dawn Project' experimental base."

Three years after the 'meteorite crash,' the base was classified as top secret, and the memories of all personnel involved were erased.

A collective gasp filled the conference room.

Xuan Mingzi paused, stroking his long, gray beard. His usually smiling eyes tightened into a thin line: "No matter how powerful the Mother Nest is, it couldn't possibly infiltrate Blue Star's top-secret projects." As he looked up, a dark gold glint flashed deep within his pupils—the surging computing power of the game's mainframe. "Behind this lies an existence even more ancient than the Mother Nest."

Lin Yi pressed his knuckles against his temples, the star trail imprint burning hot on his palms.

He recalled the shriek of the remnant of the Mother Nest when it touched those warm memories in the spacetime realm within the consciousness space, and suddenly understood why the other party was suppressed by the power of faith—it turned out that it had long been eroded by the consciousness virus and had become a tool for harvesting faith.

"Mr. Lin!" Long Wu's low shout suddenly burst from the communicator.

The man, who always kept his sword gleaming, was now breathing heavily, like the beating of a drum. "The camp's outer perimeter alarm has been triggered. I've spotted six dark figures in the third defense zone."

They were dressed in black combat uniforms, and their movements... were unlike those of ordinary people.

"A supernatural energy fluctuation?" Lin Yi suddenly stood up, the chair scraping against the ground with a screeching sound.

"More than superpowers..." Long Wu's voice suddenly cut off, followed by the crisp sound of metal clashing, "The weapons they use!"

The blade was wreathed in pale golden light patterns, similar to those seen when the Mother Nest absorbed faith last time...

A muffled groan came from the communicator.

Lin Yi's star trail mark suddenly lit up, and his spacetime domain unfolded around him—he could clearly sense Long Wu's location: behind the third poplar tree on the east wall of the camp, six figures were approaching in an encircling formation.

"Everyone, follow me!" Lin Yi grabbed the time-travel wristwatch from the table and turned around, knocking over the chair in the process.

Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe fluttered behind him as the Minister of Scientific Research quickly imported the consciousness virus data into the tactical tablet, and the resistance liaison officer's energy gun was fully charged.

Chu Yao's projection suddenly blocked the doorway, and her fingertips brought up a live monitoring screen: the masks of six dark figures were knocked off by Long Wu's battle sword, and the faces revealed... were exactly the same as the photos in the files of the experimenters who disappeared three years ago in the "Dawn Project".

"Their pupils." Chu Yao's voice was as cold as an icicle. "There was no highlight."

Lin Yi stopped at the door.

He stared at the mechanically rotating necks on the monitor and suddenly recalled the last line of the Mother Nest's core code: "When faith becomes nourishment, the living are the best vessel."

The wind outside swirled in purple mist, carrying with it a faint hymn—like countless people chanting a name simultaneously, or like some ancient being across dimensions, licking at the impending battle.

The moment the purple mist carrying the hymn poured into the conference room, Lin Yi's star trail imprint burned pale gold lines into his palm.

He could clearly sense the spacetime fluctuations in the direction of Long Wu—the poplar trees in the third defense zone were trembling, and the sound of metal clashing was mixed with a crisp sound like bones cracking.

"Chu Yao, locate Long Wu's real-time coordinates." He pulled off his tactical belt and fastened it to his waist, his knuckles white from gripping it so tightly. "Xuan Mingzi, you guard the communicator, be ready to use the game's mainframe privileges to block the spatial nodes in this area at any time." Turning around, he noticed the research director's hand trembling as he gripped the tactical tablet, and added, "Professor Wang, you stay behind me. These guys might be related to the consciousness virus."

Before the words were even finished, the bulletproof glass of the conference room suddenly shattered.

Six dark shadows pierced through the shattered glass like sharp arrows, the pale gold patterns on the blades gleaming with a bloody stench under the moonlight—it was the weapon mentioned in Long Wu's communications.

The leader's neck twisted at an eerie angle, revealing a face identical to the one in the experimenter's file, but his pupils were like glass beads coated with ink, devoid of any light of life.

"Watch out for their blades!" Chu Yao's projection distorted in the shockwave of the explosion. "Energy detection shows that the blades are coated with... corrupted faith power!"

The leader of the black figures had already slashed at Lin Yi's face with his knife.

He spun to the side to dodge, and the Star Orbit Domain suddenly unfolded, slowing the flow of time around him.

The moment the blade grazed his earlobe, he saw the trajectory of the blade's pattern—those golden streams of light were mimicking the brainwave frequency of a human praying, except that each ripple was wrapped with black, festering threads.

"The power of faith has been eroded by the consciousness virus." Lin Yi gritted his teeth and hissed, drawing the Space-Time Blade from his waist.

The moment this weapon, forged by a mythical-level profession, was drawn, it resonated with the golden patterns on the enemy's blade, causing his hand to go numb.

He suddenly recalled the shriek when the lingering remnants of the Mother Nest were sealed away—it turned out that those remnants weren't fear, but jealousy, jealousy that humanity's pure faith could suppress the virus.

"Mr. Lin!" Long Wu's sword slashed from the right, striking another dark figure in the shoulder.

With a dull thud from the collision of metal and bone, the shadowy figure's wound did not bleed; instead, wisps of black mist seeped out, creeping up Long Wu's arm along his sword.

Long Wu's pupils contracted sharply, his arm wielding the knife suddenly trembled uncontrollably, and a suppressed groan escaped his throat: "This thing... is corroding my bloodline!"

"Step back!" Xuan Mingzi's Taoist robe fluttered as he slapped out three dark-patterned talismans from his palm.

The talisman ignited with a ghostly blue flame the moment it touched the black mist; it was the "Purifying Fire" that the game's mastermind specifically used to suppress negative energy.

The shadowy figure emitted a high-pitched scream as it was burned by the flames, a sound that closely resembled the wailing of the core of the mother nest when it was crushed by the power of spacetime.

The battle reached a stalemate.

Although the six shadowy figures moved mechanically, they were always able to predict the direction of the group's attacks.

Within Lin Yi's spatial domain, their movement trajectories began to overlap—they were actually sharing battlefield information using some kind of collective consciousness.

Cold sweat dripped down his chin, the golden light of the star trail mark dimmed, and the aftereffects of forcibly using the domain began to kick in; his temples throbbed.

"Their attack intervals are regular!" A hoarse male voice suddenly came from the edge of the battlefield.

Ivan, wrapped in a black trench coat, charged into the battle, a strange purple spot appearing in his left eye's pupil—the residual sensory ability of the core host of the Mother Nest.

He raised his hand and flung out three energy projectiles, which precisely struck the shadowy figures in the knees: "Every seventeen seconds, their consciousness link will be severed for 0.3 seconds!"

Lin Yi seized this opening instantly.

His spacetime blade sliced ​​through the void, tearing a half-meter-long rift in front of the leading black figure.

The flow of time within the area changed again, and the shadowy figure's movements became as slow as a snail under the influence of the rift.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Long Wu swung his knife and severed his right arm. Xuan Mingzi's Purifying Fire followed closely behind, burning the severed limb to ashes.

The remaining five shadowy figures suddenly stopped attacking, letting out a series of uniform whimpers.

The patterns on their blades began to rage, and golden streams of light shot towards the group like living things.

Chu Yao's projection flashed amidst the chaos, her fingertips triggering a red alert: "Energy Overload!"

They're going to self-destruct!

"Time Reversal!" Lin Yi bit his tongue, activating a mythical-level skill with his blood.

A pale golden light surged back like a tide, pulling the self-destructing energy of the five dark figures back into their bodies before it could reach them.

But black blood spilled from the corner of his mouth—the forced reversal of time and space within five meters had caused irreversible damage to his meridians.

The last figure collapsed to the ground in the aftershocks of the explosion, a fragment of Ivan's energy blast embedded in his chest.

Long Wu's sword was pressed against the throat, but it did not fall for a long time—the face of this body was too vivid, as if it was just sleeping, rather than a puppet controlled by the virus.

Chu Yao's projection was crouched beside the dark figure, the blue light from the tactical tablet making the data stream in her eyes appear even more turbulent.

She lightly touched the shadowy figure's brow with her fingertip, and a translucent, diamond-shaped crystal rose from beneath the skin: "A consciousness symbiote, 97% similar in structure to the virus in the core of the Mother Nest." Her voice trembled, "But more...primitive."

Lin Yi knelt on one knee, panting as he supported himself with the Blade of Time and Space.

He stared at the crystal, recalling the files from "Project Dawn" three years ago—when the military attempted to strengthen human consciousness using the power of faith, only to have it terminated due to a "meteorite accident."

In retrospect, the so-called accident was nothing more than the theft of research results by certain entities.

"Someone is replicating the technology of the Mother Nest." He tore off a piece of his clothing to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes like icy blades. "They might even have grasped the essence of the power of faith." He looked up at the crowd. Long Wu was applying medicine to his wounds, the purple spot on Ivan's left eye had faded somewhat, and Xuan Mingzi's talisman was still dancing at his fingertips. "The Mother Nest is just an appetizer; the real hunters are about to appear."

Night was falling.

The purple mist had dissipated at some point, and the outlines of the distant suburbs were faintly visible under the moonlight.

There was an abandoned research institute there, its outer walls covered with ivy, yet not a single leaf had fallen—as if a pair of eyes were peering through the mottled windows, quietly waiting for someone to arrive.