Countdown begins
Zero's sudden appearance instantly put the "Dawn" squad into combat mode, with all their weapons pointed at him.
“Don’t be nervous, friends.” Zero raised his hands, his smile harmless. “I’m acquaintances with this rent collector. Besides, I’m here to help.” He looked at Jiang Yu. “The smell of your ‘dog tag’ is too strong; I can smell it even from several instances away.”
Jiang Yu waved his hand, signaling Pan Shi and the others to relax. "What's your plan?"
Zero jumped off the box, walked up to Jiang Yu, carefully sensed him, and clicked his tongue twice: "A standard 'Hunter' mark, and a high-grade one at that. Looks like 'Annihilation' values you a lot, bro. Conventional methods are basically useless; this thing is like chewing gum, it will follow your soul fluctuations."
"Get to the point." Jiang Yu frowned.
“The key is that you need to pull off a clever escape.” Zero snapped his fingers. “This mark mainly targets your ‘existence characteristics’ and ‘authority fluctuations.’ I can help you temporarily create a powerful, convincing ‘signal source’ to lure the ‘hounds’ away. But the prerequisite is that you need to completely conceal all your aura, including the authority fluctuations of your precious machete, and hide like a real ‘stone’.”
"How to forge it?" Jiang Yu asked. He didn't believe that Zero could completely simulate the fluctuations in the authority of the Chief God's messenger.
Zero revealed a sly smile: "Remember that old swindler from the 'Void Market'? I casually scooped up a tiny bit of... hmm, the 'Thousand-Faced Merchant's' original aura from the spatial ripples he escaped from. That old guy is high-level enough, and his aura is strange enough, making him perfect as bait. The 'Hound' will definitely be interested."
This was indeed a bold and ingenious plan. Using the scent of another dangerous presence to lure away the pursuers.
"What's the price?" Jiang Yu didn't believe that Ling would help for free.
"The price is that you owe me a favor. From now on, if I need your help, as long as it doesn't violate your principles, you can't refuse." Zero blinked. "Of course, the fee for helping you fake the signal source and distract the hounds this time will have to be calculated separately. But I can give you a discount; how about I borrow the compass you stole from that old swindler for three days to study it?"
This guy, he really doesn't do anything without a profit. But right now, this is the most feasible solution.
“Okay.” Jiang Yu agreed decisively. He could owe him a favor, and it wouldn’t hurt to lend him the compass to study it. The key was to get out of the immediate deadly crisis.
"Great!" Zero immediately took action. He quickly formed hand seals, and an energy completely different from the current technology or magic system, filled with data flow and spatial folds, gathered in his hands. He carefully drew out a wisp of the unpredictable aura belonging to the "Thousand-Faced Merchant" from a crystal bottle, mixed it with the energy, and finally shaped it into a virtual signal source that was almost identical to Jiang Yu's current state, but with a completely different core.
"Alright, the 'hound's' 'ears' are about to be pried open." Zero activated the virtual signal source, which immediately simulated the energy fluctuations of Jiang Yu's previous battle injuries and hasty escape, and sped off towards a more chaotic and dangerous unexplored void, opposite to Jiang Yu's planned hiding place.
"Quick, conceal all your presence! Enter that stasis field!" Zero shouted to Jiang Yu, pointing to a device resembling a hibernation pod inside the safe house.
Without hesitation, Jiang Yu immediately lay down inside, fully activating the breath-concealing technique taught by the main god, almost ceasing all thought. He also placed the machete and list into a specific isolation container.
Almost the instant the static field closed, an insurmountable, chilling sense swept across the entire abandoned mine instance like an invisible tide!
This power was filled with a pure will to "track" and "destroy," causing the members of the "Dawn" squad hiding nearby to feel as if they had fallen into an ice cellar, their blood almost freezing.
That's the perception of a "hunting dog"!
The perception lingered briefly within the instance, seemingly wondering why the target signal had become so weak and scattered. But soon, it was drawn to the strong and clear "decoy signal" that Zero had faked. Like a shark smelling blood, it instantly locked onto the direction and pursued it at a terrifying speed.
The cold, oppressive feeling gradually faded away.
Inside the safe house, a deathly silence reigned. After a long while, the stasis field slowly dissipated. Jiang Yu sat up, his face still pale, but his eyes had regained their sharpness. He could feel that the piercing sense of being tracked had temporarily vanished.
Zero wiped away imaginary sweat and breathed a sigh of relief: "Done! That idiot dog chased after the fake. But this bait won't last long, at most it can buy you... well, about two or three real-world days. You'd better hurry."
Jiang Yu looked at Ling and nodded: "Thanks." He remembered this favor.
He then looked at the still-shaken "Dawn" team: "Thank you for your assistance as well."
Rock took a deep breath and said solemnly, “'Rent Collector', this shows that we share a common enemy. 'Dawn' is willing to share with you all the intelligence we have on the 'Annihilation Core' and the anomalous copy, and provide support to the best of our ability.”
A temporary alliance, comprised of mysterious messengers, intelligence brokers, and elite players, is being formed to fight against the "Null of Annihilation."
Jiang Yu knew the crisis was only temporarily averted. He had to use these precious two or three days to completely remove the mark from his body, decipher the compass's secret, and find the next key fragment. The fact that "Hound" had been deceived also meant that "The Core of Annihilation" would pay even closer attention to him as an "unexpected factor," and the next attack would undoubtedly be even more ferocious.
He took out the rusty compass, his gaze resolute.
Time is running out.
The threat of the "hound" was temporarily diverted by Zero's ingenious plan, but the atmosphere inside the safe house didn't ease much. A huge countdown hung over everyone's heads like the Sword of Damocles: two to three days. This was not only the time for Jiang Yu to clear the markings and restore his status, but also his only window to crack the compass and find the whereabouts of the key fragments.
The "Dawn" team demonstrated exceptional professionalism. Rock and another team member deployed more concealed surveillance devices on the perimeter; the doctor used the organization's most advanced equipment and mystical medicine to fully assist Jiang Yu in purifying the remaining contamination in her body and stabilizing her injuries; Fox connected to a portable analysis terminal, attempting to help Jiang Yu analyze the rusty compass—despite its technological principles being far beyond current understanding.
Jiang Yu sat cross-legged beside the static force field, adjusting his state to its optimal level before once again probing the compass with his mental energy. This time, with Zero's reminder and the technical support of "Dawn," he was more cautious and more targeted.
Zero, with a lollipop in his mouth, watched with great interest, occasionally offering a few words of advice, which were often incisive: "Don't try to force your way through the seal. That thing is at the level of 'conceptual weaving.' You have to follow its 'texture'... Yes, like untangling a knotted ball of yarn and finding the thread."
With Zero's prompts and his own precise control over his permissions, Jiang Yu's progress was much faster than before. His consciousness seemed to sink into a vast network of starlight and threads. This time, he no longer tried to see the whole picture, but instead focused all his thoughts on locking onto the distant point of light that he had sensed earlier, the one that resonated with the "key."
As mental energy continued to flow, the blurry point of light gradually became clearer. It seemed to be located inside... a constantly shifting, anomalous spatial structure? Like a colossal ship lost in the void, or perhaps a drifting fragment of a world?
At the same time, a clearer, yet still incomplete, set of coordinate information, accompanied by a strong sense of spatial fluctuation, flooded into Jiang Yu's mind. The coordinates were still incomplete, but several key parameters had been added: a relatively stationary reference frame, a psionic tidal phase, and an ancient spatial beacon symbol.
"We've got a clue!" Fox exclaimed excitedly, staring at the blurry data received simultaneously on the terminal and processed by Jiang Yu's thoughts. "This spatial beacon symbol... I think I've seen it on a fragment of an ancient star map that our organization deciphered! It points to an unexplored void known as the 'Land of Exile' or the 'Forgotten Starfield'! Legend has it that it was the battlefield of the ancient war of the gods, with an extremely unstable spatial structure, filled with deadly traps and spacetime turbulence!"
The Land of Exile… the Forgotten Starfield… Jiang Yu murmured these names. These indeed matched the characteristics of a possible location where the fragment of the “key” might be hidden—dangerous, secretive, and forgotten by the mainstream world.
“But how to get there is a big problem.” Rock frowned. “According to the existing data, even using our organization’s most advanced hyperspace engine, it would require several extremely dangerous jumps, and without an accurate star map, it would be tantamount to suicide.”
Zero, who had been silent until now, stroked his chin, revealing a thoughtful expression: "'Exile'... 'Eternal Exile'... Interesting."
Everyone looked at him.
Ling smiled and said to Jiang Yu, "Brother, if I'm not mistaken, the target your compass is pointing to might not be a static fragment, but a ship—a super ark that was banished in ancient times and is said to have been lost in the turbulent flow of time and space, the 'Eternal Exile'."
"Legend has it that the ship carried the legacy of a lost civilization, and might even have... fragments of the 'World Engine'. If the 'key' fragments were on it, then it makes sense. The ship itself was a massive, mobile treasure trove and a tomb."
The Eternal Exile! This name carries a heavy sense of epic history and tragedy.
"Do you know how to find it?" Jiang Yu asked.
He shrugged. "I don't know the exact coordinates. That ship is alive; it's constantly changing position, evading the search of many beings, including the 'Nullification Core.' But..." He changed the subject, looking at the compass in Jiang Yu's hand, "Since your compass can sense it, perhaps... we can hitch a ride?"
The explanation of zero clarifies the goal, but the difficulty increases exponentially. Searching for a legendary, ever-moving ghost ship?
Just then, Rock, who was in charge of perimeter security, suddenly changed his expression and said in a low voice, "Something's wrong! The psionic sensors we set up in area three have been triggered! It's not a living organism, it's some kind of... spatial disturbance! It's very weak, but it's approaching rapidly!"
Everyone tensed instantly. Had the "hunting hound" returned? Or were there other uninvited guests?
Jiang Yu gripped the compass and machete tightly. Was the enemy even unwilling to give him these two days?
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