Chapter 278 Time Gate Crisis
Su Wanqing was awakened by a stinging sensation. The back of her head hit the metal floor, causing a loud buzzing sound.
She squinted her eyes and looked up. There was a huge ring-shaped structure hanging above her head. Blue light was circling inside the ring like a living thing, forming a vortex.
Xiao Ran lay beside her, his tactical vest was torn and the exposed skin was covered with blood.
"Awake?" Xiao Ran turned over and picked up the tactical knife. The scabbard was cracked, and the blade was stained with charred material. "The jade bracelet's light cocoon is shattered, and most of the equipment has been blown to pieces."
He shook the empty magazine, "Only three bullets left."
Su Wanqing touched her wrist. The jade bracelet was still warm, but softer than usual, like a piece of jade that had been held tightly for too long.
She propped herself up and sat up, then she could see her surroundings clearly - there was a control console at the edge of the platform, people in white coats were running back and forth, and the monitoring screen was full of jumping codes.
Gray stood in front of the center console, his back to them, his shoulders moving as if he were smiling.
"Jade bearer." Gray turned his head, his glasses reflecting blue light. "Your system's teleportation function is stronger than we expected."
He raised his hand and tapped the console, "But it's okay. It saves us from having to catch you again."
Su Wanqing pressed her aching temples: "Time Gate?"
"Smart." Gray pointed to the ring above his head, "We were forced to leave Earth three million years ago, and now we have to go home."
He pressed a button, and the ring structure turned faster. "Countdown to fifteen minutes, the returnee will be here soon."
The alarm suddenly sounded. From the east entrance came the sound of metal colliding, mixed with the mutant's low growl.
Su Wanqing looked at the surveillance screen - Lin Che stood in the front, his eyes shining blue, followed by seven or eight mutants, some of whom still had scales on their faces, and were using their arms to push away the guards.
"Stop them!" Gray yelled at his men, knocking over his coffee cup as he turned, causing the brown liquid to spread across the console. "What can a bunch of crazy mutants overturn?"
Xiao Ran tugged at Su Wanqing's sleeve. "Opportunity." He crouched and ran to the nearest control console, stabbing the tactical knife into the circuit board. "Disrupt their energy transmission."
Su Wanqing followed and moved towards the main control area, her heels hitting the metal plate, making a "tapping" sound.
Lin Che's side was commotion even louder. A mutant was struck by a stun gun and staggered, falling.
Xiaoling came out from the crowd and stabbed the syringe into its neck.
The blue scales began to fade, and the mutant uttered a muffled "family" in his throat.
Su Wanqing saw Xiaoling look up and shout something at her, her mouth forming the word "backup system".
She looked in the direction of Xiaoling's finger and saw a secondary control console under the ring structure with a flashing red light.
Just as Su Wanqing was about to run over, Gray pressed the emergency button. A blue light barrier rose with a buzzing sound, covering the main control area.
Gray said into the communicator, "Activate the Weaver Master Protocol."
Outside the barrier, Lin Che's mutants were still charging forward. Xiao Ran's knife was stuck in the console. He looked up and shouted, "Wanqing!"
Su Wanqing touched the jade bracelet, and this time it didn't feel warm, but hot.
The surface of the jade bracelet has lines that are exactly the same as the brick patterns on the wall.
"Here it comes." Xiao Ran said suddenly.
Su Wanqing followed his gaze. Something moved in the shadows beneath the ring structure.
It's not a human, but a translucent blue. You can see the blue light of blood vessels on its skin, and its head is pointed like a streamlined arrow.
It stood in the shadows, its voice like metallic friction: "Your resistance is very interesting."
"Lord Zhi." Lin Che's voice came from beyond the barrier. He stood at the front, his forehead oozing with blue fluid. "I can feel you talking in my head."
The Master Zhi ignored Lin Che and stared at Su Wanqing: "Is the jade artifact the Observer's?"
It raised its finger and pointed at the jade bracelet, "They shouldn't interfere."
Su Wanqing took a step back, her back colliding with the console. The jade bracelet suddenly felt painfully hot. She looked down and saw a line of small words on the surface: "Guardian blood detected during system startup. Confirm authorization."
"What?" she blurted out.
Zhizhu's pupils shrank into a line: "You?"
There was a sound of shattering glass from outside the barrier. Xiao Ling rushed in holding a silver device. It was Lu Zhao's modified decoder.
Lin Che covered his head, blue liquid dripping down through his fingers: "It's suppressing me and I can't control the mutant anymore."
Su Wanqing's jade bracelet began to heat up. She felt a thread running out of her brain and connecting to the jade bracelet.
A scene flashed before her eyes: the old woman stood in the laboratory, clutching a jade bracelet identical to hers, and said, "Wanqing, remember, you are the guardian."
"Grandma?" she whispered.
The Lord of Weaving suddenly moved. It raised its hand and swung it, throwing Xiao Ran against the wall with a muffled groan.
Xiaoling's decoder flew out and crashed into the barrier. Lin Che knelt on one knee. The mutants began to roar and claw at the ground.
The words on the jade bracelet turned into a large stream of data, floating in front of Su Wanqing's eyes.
She heard a voice, as if coming from far away: "I am the Watcher, the Seventh Branch of the Time Observatory.
Your bloodline confirms authorization to activate the ultimate defense protocol."
"What agreement?" Su Wanqing shouted.
The Lord of Weaving's attack came again. Su Wanqing instinctively raised her hand, and the jade bracelet lit up with a green light, blocking the blue light.
She saw the Time Observer standing in the corner, a dark shadow shrouded in mist, and said, "The agreement was based on balance, and you broke it."
The Lord of Weaving turned to the Time Observers: "You cannot interfere!"
"I can," Su Wanqing said. She felt the threads in her head grow thicker and thicker, the jade bracelet's cocoon of light enveloping her, Xiao Ran, Lin Che, and Xiao Ling.
The countdown on the monitor jumped to ten minutes, and the blue light of the ring structure became brighter. "Tell me, where is the time gate going to?"
Zhizhu's expression changed, a look of human-like pain appearing on his translucent face. "Earth is our home. Three million years ago, the Observers chose your ancestors, and we were forced to leave. Now, we must return home."
Su Wanqing's jade bracelet suddenly vibrated. A line of words popped up in the data stream: "Time gate parameters are abnormal. Forced activation detected."
She looked up at the ring structure, faintly visible stars amidst the swirling blue light, "It's not my current home, but yours?"
"Yes," said the Lord Weaver, "but the Watchers won't let us. They say humanity isn't ready yet."
The shadow of the Time Observer moved. "Your return plan involves assimilation and transformation, which violates the principle of coexistence."
Lin Che suddenly stood up, blue liquid dripping down his chin onto the ground, leaving a small dent. "I can sense a lot of people waiting over there."
He looked at Su Wanqing, "They don't want to kill us, they want to teach us."
Xiao Ling picked up the decoder and flipped the switch: "Lu Zhao said this can disrupt the coordinate calculation."
She looked at Su Wanqing and asked, "Do you want to try it?"
Xiao Ran got up from the ground and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth: "Wanqing, what do you say we should do?"
Su Wanqing's jade bracelet was still hot, and various options were surging in the data stream.
She heard the watcher's voice: "The final choice is yours." The blue light of the ring structure made her unable to open her eyes, and the countdown jumped to five minutes.
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