"The key... is the true core of the Entropy Balance!" Lu Li's voice was tinged with blood. He used up his last bit of strength to inject the code into the light gate. "Lin Yue, catch it!"
The moment the key passed through the portal of light, Lin Yue instinctively reached out. The moment the key touched her palm, all the fragments of the artifact, the remnants of the guardians, and the essence of time within her body resonated. The cracks in the seventeen-colored gems miraculously healed, and the threads of time transformed into a shimmering cloak. The Star Scepter and the Dragon Codex reorganized behind her into wings, each feather gleaming with the faint light of the universe's birth. She soared into the air, the key in her hand a spear of light, its tip pointed directly at the expanding cocoon.
"This is... the ultimate power of the guardian." Lin Yue's voice blended with the echoes of countless souls, and she suddenly thrust the spear of light into the cocoon.
The dark green cocoon shattered like glass, the black liquid dissolving into wisps of green smoke beneath the spear of light. The giant eye image trapped within it let out a mournful wail before being completely purified by the spear's power. The metal structure of the entropy balance center ceased its peristalsis, and the counter-rotating gears clicked softly as they returned to their original positions. But just as order was restored, the remnant of the energy wave from deep within the rift finally reached it. A dark purple tentacle pierced through the void and struck Lin Yue fiercely on the back.
She fell like a kite with its string cut. The spear of light disintegrated into a key and dissipated into the air. The seventeen-colored light quickly faded from her. Lu Li struggled to throw himself over and hug her. He saw a dark purple mark on her back, like a burn. Tiny tentacles were spreading from the edge of the mark at a visible speed. The calico cat pressed its paw against the mark, trying to channel the last of its energy, but it only made the tentacles tremble more violently.
“Don’t touch it…” Lin Yue coughed up a mouthful of starlight blood and pointed at the crack in the Entropy Core. “It ran away… but it left a mark.”
Lu Li followed her finger and saw a new drop of chaotic black liquid slowly condensing deep within the crack. Instead of a strange smile, it formed a dark purple spiral mark. At the same time, countless similar marks quietly emerged from the void in every corner of the multiverse, like seeds planted, waiting to awaken.
A distant rift in spacetime trembled slightly, its prying eye slowly closing. Dark purple nebulae surged, seemingly brewing the next storm. In the ruins of the Entropy Center, Lin Yue leaned against Lu Li's chest, the thread of time weakly wrapped around her wrist. She gazed at the newly emerged spiral marks and whispered, "It seems we've... opened Pandora's box."
The calico cat licked the blood from the back of Lin Yue's hand, and the broken gears made a final, soft click beneath its claws. Lu Li clenched the remaining fragment of the golden code in his hand and looked up into the deep chasm. There was no fear in his eyes, only a steely determination. "Then close the box again. No matter who it is or where it comes from."
Wind blew through the cracks in the center of the Entropy Balance, carrying with it the intertwined echoes of chaos and order. The end of Chapter 89 wasn't the end, but the beginning of another, more dangerous game. That drop of black liquid, bearing the spiral mark, hung like an icy comma over the fate of the multiverse.
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