Olive branch of escape
The battle was exceptionally fierce. The Aberration Queen mobilized the power of the entire corrupted instance, with endless waves of aberration fairies and decaying plants surging forth. Even more troublesome was the spatial rift, which not only continuously emitted pollution but also constantly distorted the surrounding rules, frequently deflecting or weakening Jiang Yu's attacks.
Jiang Yu pushed his envoy authority to its limit, each swing of his cleaver carrying the power of purification and severing, dispelling the filth wherever it passed. However, he could sense that this high-intensity purification was extremely taxing on him, and it only addressed the symptoms, not the root cause. The key lay in that crack.
He noticed that although the Aberration Queen was powerful, her movements seemed to be restricted by the ancient tree and the rift, preventing her from straying too far from the throne. Her core was inextricably linked to that rift.
"We must sever the connection between them and seal the crack in one strike!" Jiang Yu decided. He deliberately created an opening, withstood several attacks, sustaining several wounds and becoming tainted by corrosive energy, but he successfully reached the ancient tree, only inches away from the pulsating dark purple crack.
"Now!"
He channeled most of his power into his cleaver, its blade radiating an unprecedented brilliance. He aimed it at the core where the rift connected to the ancient tree, and at the monstrous queen seated on her throne, unleashing a devastating strike. This strike embodied his deepest understanding of "severing the rules."
"No—!" the Aberration Queen roared in despair, trying to mobilize all her power to stop it.
But it was too late!
The blade flashed like a hot knife through butter, precisely severing all energy connections between the rift and the source of the instance (the Ancient Tree) and the Aberration Queen. Simultaneously, the blade's momentum didn't wane, slashing fiercely into the dark purple spatial rift itself.
"Snap—!"
It sounded like shattering glass! The dark purple crack twisted and contracted violently, emitting a piercing shriek, before finally collapsing into a single point and disappearing! Deprived of the support of the source of contamination, the Aberration Queen's enormous body began to rapidly disintegrate and turn to ashes.
The spread of pollution throughout the Fairy Garden came to an abrupt halt. The rain of dark purple spores in the sky ceased, and the lower-level aberrations collapsed to the ground as if they had lost all power. The remaining light fairies let out a faint cheer of relief at surviving the catastrophe.
Jiang Yu leaned on her knife, breathing heavily. The cost of purifying this area far exceeded expectations. On the list, the status of "Fairy Botanical Garden" began to change from "deep red" to "gray" (already processed).
However, right where the crack disappeared, a tiny, almost imperceptible trace of dark purple energy remained, as if it had a life of its own, trying to silently seep into the spatial rift and escape.
Jiang Yu's eyes flashed with fierceness. He took a deep breath and swung his sword.
The remaining energy was struck by the blade's light, emitting a sharp, inhuman scream before being completely annihilated. But in the instant before its annihilation, Jiang Yu caught a fleeting yet exceptionally clear fluctuation of intent—a pure, cold, tracking intent, its target directly at himself.
This is not ordinary polluting energy; it is a marker, a tracking beacon left by a "hunting dog."
Jiang Yu's heart sank. He understood. The pollution outbreak at the "Fairy Botanical Garden" was not just a test or sabotage, but a trap!
The goal is to lure him out and, through a battle and purification process, allow the hidden "hounds" to successfully plant a tracking mark on him!
Zero's warning still echoed in our ears: "Beware of the hounds."
At that moment, the hunting dog had already caught his scent.
The list issued another alert, this time not for the instance, but directly for Jiang Yu's own status:
"warn!
Unknown high-priority tracking marker detected! Marker source: 'Hound' (the hound) under the command of 'Annihilation Core'.
Recommendation: Immediately perform a spatial jump to escape the current coordinates and find a way to remove the marker!
The real danger has only just begun.
The alert from the checklist was shrill and piercing. Jiang Yun could clearly feel a cold, viscous will traversing the void and locking onto her coordinates. She had to leave immediately!
He suppressed his weakness and injuries from purifying the instance, and without even having time to carefully check the aftermath of the "Fairy Botanical Garden," he immediately rushed towards an extremely unstable emergency spatial node in the corridor, a node that would never normally be used, following the instructions on the list. This was a fast passage left by the Main God System for dealing with extreme situations, but its use was extremely risky.
At the very last moment before the space began to distort and tear at the starting point, he inexplicably tossed a jade talisman—which had automatically detached from the edge of the list and emitted a faint white light (it seemed to be a byproduct of the list absorbing enough energy)—towards the surviving light fairies in the botanical garden. Perhaps the talisman could temporarily protect them, or perhaps… it could leave behind a good connection.
...
After a violent spatial turbulence, Jiang Yu was thrown into a completely unfamiliar instanced space. It seemed to be an abandoned interstellar mining base, with rusted metal pipes and stagnant machinery everywhere, and the air filled with the smell of dust and machine oil. As soon as he landed, he couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of dark purple blood—the backlash from forcibly suppressing the "Hound" mark and traversing the unstable spatial passage.
He immediately found a relatively secluded corner to hide, sat cross-legged, and tried to use his internal energy to force out the tracking energy that clung to him like a leech, but with little effect. This mark had an extremely high priority and was deeply entangled with his very existence, making it difficult to remove using conventional methods.
Just as he was fighting off the mark within his body, an extremely faint, almost perfect stealth footstep came from the other end of the abandoned pipe. It wasn't "Hounds," the aura was closer to... human players? But they were extremely elite, their coordination was impeccable, and they spread out in tactical formation, subtly surrounding him.
Jiang Yu gripped the machete tightly, her eyes sharp. Friend or foe?
"Excuse me, are you 'Rent Collector' sir?" a deliberately lowered male voice, tinged with caution and a hint of respect, rang out. It was "Rock's" voice!
Jiang Yu remained vigilant, but also refrained from attacking immediately. He maintained his stealth and coldly replied, "Who?"
At the corner of the pipe, "Rock" slowly emerged with his hands raised, indicating that he meant no harm. Behind him, "Fox" and "Doctor" also appeared, both wearing combat uniforms adapted to the ruins, their faces showing tension and curiosity.
"Please don't misunderstand!" Pan Shi quickly explained, "We are the advance team of the 'Dawn' organization. Our observers detected violent energy fluctuations and rule purification phenomena in the 'Fairy Garden' instance, and then detected a powerful, malicious tracking signal moving in this direction. We speculate that you may be in trouble, so we risked coming here to see if we can provide assistance."
The fox adjusted his glasses and added, “We analyzed your previous behavior patterns and believe that you are not a disruptor of order, but rather a kind of… maintainer. The purpose of ‘Dawn’ is to seek the truth and respond to change. We believe that establishing contact with you would be beneficial to both of us.”
The female doctor added in a low voice, "You...you seem to be injured? We brought advanced purification agents and medical supplies..."
Jiang Yu scrutinized the three men. Their eyes were sincere, and there was no malice in their aura. It seemed that the "Dawn" organization was indeed, as Zero had said, a force worth trying to contact. He was currently in poor condition and being tracked by "Hounds," so he definitely needed information and a temporary respite.
“I was indeed being tracked,” Jiang said succinctly. “Something called ‘Hounds,’ from the ‘Nuclear Core of Annihilation.’”
Upon hearing the name "Nullification Core," the three of them changed their expressions, clearly having come into contact with this terrifying name through their own channels.
“We have a temporary, specially shielded safe house deep within this instance,” Rock immediately suggested. “While it may not completely evade that entity’s tracking, it will at least buy some time. You need treatment and intelligence; we need to know the truth. How about we cooperate this once?”
Jiang Yu hesitated for a moment, then nodded. At present, this seemed to be the best option.
Led by the "Dawn" team, Jiang Yu arrived at their safe house deep within the abandoned mine. The house was equipped with a combination of high-tech and occult-based shielding devices. After settling in temporarily, the doctor immediately began treating Jiang Yu's injuries and suppressing the contamination, while Fox nervously analyzed the faint signal characteristics captured from the "Hound" mark.
Jiang Yu watched the three busy figures and thought to herself: Sure enough, among the players, those capable of touching the truth are beginning to emerge. This might be… an indispensable variable in the future confrontation with the "Core of Annihilation."
However, just as he took the medicine and was preparing to expel the last trace of blood, a familiar voice, tinged with mockery, rang out from the shadows in the corner of the safe house:
"Oh, you've only been gone a few days and you're already in such a sorry state? It seems the 'hound's' nose is even more sensitive than I thought."
Zero, unbeknownst to him, was already leisurely sitting on an abandoned ore box, swinging his legs and looking at him with a smile.
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