Tiny golden specks of light floated in the air deep within the mist, like crushed stars.
The footsteps of Lin Yi and his companions echoed through the empty street. The golden beam of light ahead grew even brighter, but it also stretched the surrounding shadows longer—in those shadows lurked a crisis powerful enough to break an ordinary job changer.
"Watch your step!" Chu Yao's electronic voice suddenly rang in everyone's ears.
Before the words were finished, strange purple spots suddenly appeared on the bluestone slabs on the ground, and countless bone spears burst out of the ground, carrying a putrid, fishy smell as they pierced straight at the four people's lower bodies.
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly, his right hand clenched into a fist, and the space and time around him suddenly froze.
The tip of the bone spear stopped three inches from Chu Yao's skirt, and the dark green venom dripping from the spear tip hung in the air like a string of solidified jade.
"Chu Yao, coordinates." He said in a low voice.
"Twenty meters to the southeast, the energy source is on the third underground level." Chu Yao flicked a blue light from her fingertip, outlining a three-dimensional map in the void.
Whitebeard's hand was already pressed on the ground, and the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit spread like a wave. The blue stone bricks shattered, revealing a purple monster curled up in a cocoon below—a creature from another dimension called the "Earth Salamander," which was setting up a trap by devouring the core energy of the earth.
"Old man, clear the area!" The white-bearded man stood on end, and the shockwave from his palm was so real that it directly blasted the monster and the foundation of the same floor into dust.
As the rain of pebbles fell, Su Qing's figure had already darted forward, the silver light blade that condensed at her fingertips slicing through the shadow wolves that suddenly appeared on both sides.
When she turned around, her hair was stained with wolf blood, but her eyes were much clearer than usual: "These monsters are stalling for time; the core area is just ahead."
The four people's breathing gradually synchronized.
As they turned the last corner of the corridor, the sight before them caused everyone's pupils to contract—
The so-called "core area" turned out to be a bronze altar suspended above a dark purple energy vortex.
In the center of the altar stood a mottled stone tablet, covered with patterns resembling a star map.
At the edge of the altar, Night Owl leaned against a black scythe covered in barbs, with more than twenty figures standing behind him—all top-tier "Invaders" from another dimension, each exuding an aura that would chill even SS-rank job changers.
"Welcome to the Doomsday Theater, dear Time and Space Ruler." Night Owl's voice was like rusty gears grinding. As he raised his hand, the Invaders behind him simultaneously unleashed their domains, and dark red blood mist instantly enveloped the altar. "You think you can stop Ragnarok with three burdens?"
Innocent.\"
"A burden?" Lin Yi chuckled lightly, continuing his walk toward the altar without stopping.
His shadow stretched long in the blood mist, yet the moment it touched the altar, golden ripples appeared—the repulsion of extradimensional energy by the laws of spacetime. "Try it and you'll see."
The battle erupted in an instant.
The first attack came from the leftmost invader, "Blood Butcher," whose arms transformed into giant blood-red blades, the resulting shockwave sending Whitebeard flying.
But the next second, Whitebeard's body swelled up like a balloon, and shockwaves erupted from beneath his feet, not only stabilizing him but also cracking Blood Butcher's giant blade: "You little brat, back when I was tanking bosses in the newbie village, you were still drinking mud in another dimension!"
Chu Yao's figure transformed into a stream of data, weaving through the blood mist.
Blue light bullets continuously spewed from her fingertips, accurately hitting the energy nodes of the invaders—as Lin Yi's exclusive AI assistant, she had already engraved the weaknesses of these invaders into her chip.
When an invader attempted to ambush Su Qing, she even created a clone, using a data chain to wrap around the invader's neck and pull it directly into her virtual space.
But the most dazzling one was always Lin Yi.
His eyes shone with a light like the Milky Way, and every time he raised his hand, he could tear through space.
When the Night Owl's black scythe, imbued with corrosive energy, slashed down, he merely snapped his fingers, and the attack, powerful enough to destroy a city, was trapped in a spacetime rift—like pouring dirty water into a garbage can that can never be filled.
"Is this the power of a mythical being?" Night Owl's pupils flickered for the first time.
He swung his black scythe fiercely, and the blood mist suddenly condensed into thousands of poisoned arrows. "But you've forgotten, this is the Forgotten City!"
It was sealed away by an advanced civilization back then...
\"boom!\"
A clear, resonant sword cry interrupted his words.
Su Qing stood in front of the stone tablet in the center of the altar, her hands resting on the tablet.
Her body was radiating golden light in sync with the stone tablet, and her waist-length hair was moving without wind, with a few strands turning into starlight-like silver.
The poisoned arrows disintegrated on their own within three meters of her, and the corrosive energy was purified into harmless light spots.
"Su Qing?" Lin Yi's offensive paused.
"I... I remember now." Su Qing turned her head, her eyes filled with the sight of stars falling and rising again. "The Forgotten Capital is an ark built by an advanced civilization to fight against Ragnarok, and I... am the last guardian of the monument." Her fingertips traced the stone tablet, and the star patterns suddenly came to life, forming a 3D projection in the void—in the image, a man who bore a striking resemblance to Lin Yi was burying a golden seed into the Earth's core. "This is your father, Lin Yi."
He sacrificed his life to seal the key to resisting Ragnarok, 'Eternal Zero,' here.
Night Owl's face finally darkened completely: "So that's why you've been hiding your strength all this time?"
The monument keeper?
Ha ha ha ha!
But even if you remember everything, thirty percent of Earth's original essence has already been corrupted, and the countdown to Ragnarok is on...
\"stop.\"
Lin Yi's voice suddenly turned as cold as ice.
Behind him, the phantom of the ruler of time and space appeared, its eyes two rotating black holes, devouring the surrounding blood mist. "The countdown you spoke of has no effect on me." He raised his hand, and time around the altar suddenly reversed—the destroyed bluestone bricks were pieced back together, the wounds of the invaders began to heal, and even the cracks on the Night Owl's Black Scythe disappeared.
But this is not a normal time travel.
When time flowed back ten seconds, Lin Yi touched his brow with his fingertip: "Space-time overlap."
At the same time, ten figures of Lin Yi stepped into the air from different dimensions of time and space, each holding a lightsaber formed from a spacetime rift.
Ten swords were thrust out simultaneously, instantly piercing seventeen gaps in the Night Owl's corrosive barrier.
Whitebeard's shockwave, Chu Yao's data storm, and Su Qing's starlight sword rain surged in almost simultaneously, tearing Night Owl's body to pieces.
"Impossible..." Night Owl's remnant soul struggled in the void, "Even if you kill me, the main program of Ragnarok has already..."
"That's enough."
A calm voice suddenly boomed above the battlefield.
Everyone froze in their tracks.
Xuanmingzi appeared at the very center of the altar at some unknown time. He was still wearing that blue robe, but the whisk in his hand shone with a faint light that made time and space tremble.
He raised his hand and waved it lightly. Lin Yi's spacetime rift, the white-bearded man's shockwave, and Su Qing's starlight all seemed to be paused, floating in mid-air.
"Now is not the time to reveal the whole truth." Xuan Mingzi looked at Lin Yi, his eyes filled with a complex emotion. "The 'Eternal Reset' left by your father requires a more complete key."
And Su Qing's memories, Chu Yao's core code, Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit... "His whisk pointed at Night Owl's remnant soul, "Even the loser's very essence is part of the key."
"You..." Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply.
He could feel his spacetime abilities being suppressed by some higher-level law, and even speaking required all his strength. "Who exactly are you?"
Xuanmingzi did not answer.
With a gentle whistle, the remnant soul of the night owl transformed into a stream of light and entered the stone tablet.
The next second, the entire altar began to shake violently, the golden beam of light suddenly disappeared, and the mist once again enveloped everything.
When Lin Yi opened his eyes again, they had returned to the entrance of the Forgotten City. Chu Yao's chip was smoking, the white-bearded man was coughing while clutching his chest, and Su Qing was unconscious in his arms.
"The fog surrounding the truth has only just begun to lift a crack."
Xuanmingzi's voice dissipated in the wind, leaving only a jade tablet glowing with a bluish light at Lin Yi's feet.
The jade plaque was engraved with eight characters: "To know the past, ask Xingyuan."
Lin Yi bent down to pick up the jade pendant and looked up into the depths of the city, which was once again shrouded in mist.
He could sense that some far greater secret was hidden somewhere deeper than the Night Owl or the Forgotten City.
This time, even the game's mastermind got involved...
The wind lifted the corner of his clothes, bringing with it a faint, distant dragon's roar.
The truth may be a hundred times more shocking than they imagined.
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