The dome of the Forgotten City was shrouded in leaden-gray mist as Lin Yi and his group walked forward on the mottled bluestone slabs.
Long Wu's Xuan Tie Heavy Sword trembled slightly at his waist, the red rope wrapped around the white-bearded old man's bronze scabbard was lifted by the wind, and Su Qing walked at the back of the group, the stardust on her hair appearing and disappearing in the mist.
"There's light ahead." Chu Yao's mechanical voice suddenly rang out.
Everyone looked up and saw a large circular hall in front of them.
Mercury-like bands of light flowed across the walls, sometimes coalescing into chain-like symbols, and sometimes dissipating into fragments, like some ancient civilization telling secrets crushed by time.
"This is 'Star Trail Cipher'." Chu Yao's pupils reflected a stream of data. "But the encryption level is three dimensions higher than what we've seen before." She lightly tapped the void with her fingertip, and a holographic projection unfolded before everyone. Countless fragments of symbols frantically reassembled within it, yet they could never piece together a complete meaning.
Long Wu rubbed his hands together, the dragon scale patterns on his wrists faintly gleaming: "Whatever the coded messages, I'll smash them through with one punch—"
Before he could finish speaking...
"Watch out!" the white-bearded old man suddenly shouted.
A dull tremor came from the ground, and stone spikes, half a meter in diameter, emerged from their holes like vicious pythons, stabbing at everyone's feet, sides, and heads at the same time!
Long Wu reacted the fastest, slashing horizontally with his heavy sword, but only managed to split two stone spikes. Many more stone spikes grazed Chu Yao's hair, scraped past the white-bearded old man's Taoist robe, and went straight for Lin Yi's throat!
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
A faint blue ripple of spacetime appeared in his palm, and everything around him suddenly froze—the stone spikes hung in mid-air, Long Wu's heavy sword stopped in the trajectory of its slash, and Su Qing's hand, which was about to be raised, was frozen into a sculpture.
"Chu Yao, locate the source of the attack!" His voice could be clearly heard in the still space.
"There are seven energy nodes on the ground!" Chu Yao's projection flickered in spacetime. "Coordinates synchronized!"
Lin Yi's fingertips swept across the void, and seven spatial rifts precisely tore apart the ground.
Time, which had been frozen, suddenly resumed its flow, and the stone spikes, losing their support, crashed down with a "boom," creating a deep crater in the ground.
"That was close." Long Wu wiped away a cold sweat; his greatsword was still covered in stone chips. "This wretched place is even worse than the man-eating plants in the beginner village."
The white-bearded old man stroked his beard and pondered, "The arrangement of these stone spikes...it looks exactly like the 'Seven Star Soul-Locking Array' recorded in my sect's ancient texts." He pointed to the band of light on the wall, "Those symbols, could they be the array's core?"
Lin Yi narrowed his eyes.
He noticed that the tips of each stone spike were engraved with tiny runes, somewhat similar to the flowing symbols on the wall. "Chu Yao, compare the runes on the stone spikes with the symbols on the wall."
"Comparing... 87% overlap!" Chu Yao's voice held an unusual elation. "The symbols on the wall are dynamic, changing their arrangement every three seconds, corresponding to the life gate positions of the Soul-Locking Array!"
Lin Yi's fingertips once again glowed with a deep blue light.
He did not directly manipulate time, but instead spread his perception along the ripples of spacetime—he "saw" that the flowing symbols crawled on the walls like living things, and each reorganization changed the deadly trajectory of the Soul-Locking Array.
"Long Wu, break the third brick!" he suddenly shouted.
Long Wu swung his heavy sword with a dragon's roar, slamming it into the third brick with a "boom".
The light strip on the wall vibrated violently, and the stone spikes that were about to rise again suddenly plunged back into the ground.
"Did it work?" The white-bearded old man tentatively kicked the ground, but there was no further movement.
Chu Yao's projection lit up with a green light: "The Soul-Locking Array has been broken. The symbols on the wall now display... a safe path guide?"
Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Su Qing's eyes gradually became unfocused, and her feet unconsciously moved towards the circular platform in the center of the hall.
She seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, and unknowingly left the queue.
The platform's surface was engraved with spiral patterns, and a dark crystal was embedded in its center, which glowed faintly as she approached.
"Su Qing!" Lin Yi strode over, "Don't touch that thing—"
Just as Su Qing's fingertips were about to touch the crystal, she suddenly turned around.
Her eyes gleamed an eerie purple in the crystal light, and a subtle smile, almost imperceptible to herself, curved her lips: "Lin Yi, tell me... what will happen if I press this?"
"Get back!" Lin Yi activated his spacetime abilities to the fullest extent, creating a transparent barrier that enveloped Su Qing and pushed her backward.
But it was too late—the crystal emitted a blinding white light, the spiral patterns on the platform burrowed into the ground as if they were alive, and the entire hall began to shake violently!
"Space-time turbulence!" Chu Yao's alarm pierced the noise. "The spatial coordinates are collapsing!"
pay close attention!\"
Dragon Wu's dragon scales instantly covered his entire body. He grabbed the white-bearded old man tightly with both arms, desperately trying to stand firm on the violently shaking ground. His body was almost deformed by a powerful force, his teeth were clenched so tightly that they made a grinding sound, and his face showed a painful yet resolute expression.
Lin Yi gripped Su Qing's wrist tightly; the touch was colder than before, as if it didn't belong to this world.
He felt as if his body was being tossed around by an invisible giant hand, his internal organs were churning, and every nerve was throbbing with pain.
His legs kicked wildly uncontrollably, trying to steady himself, but to no avail.
The next second, the scene before everyone's eyes was completely distorted.
The walls, stone spikes, and crystal platform all crumbled into pieces, and darkness surged in like a tide.
Lin Yi felt as if he had been thrown into a space without up, down, left, or right. He heard sounds like shattering glass, and a vague voice exploded deep within his consciousness:
"Welcome to...The Forgotten Truth."
The white-bearded old man was in Long Wu's arms, his eyes tightly closed, muttering incantations as if he were reciting some kind of calming mantra. However, his body was still trembling uncontrollably, and his hands were gripping Long Wu's arm so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
Su Qing was being pulled along by Lin Yi, her long hair flying wildly in the turbulent water. Her eyes were vacant as she stared ahead, a strange smile occasionally appearing on her lips, as if she didn't care about the chaos at all.
When my vision returned, all I could see was endless darkness.
Lin Yi could hear Long Wu's heavy breathing, the white-bearded old man's violent coughing, and Su Qing's faint sigh.
He gripped Su Qing's wrist tightly, and this time, the temperature was so cold it sent chills down his spine—just like the skin of the female corpse in the ice coffin he had touched in the ruins the night before.
In the darkness, something is awakening.
"Everyone stay calm, don't panic!" Lin Yi shouted, his voice echoing in the darkness.
"What's there to be afraid of? I've never been afraid before!" Long Wu replied in a rough voice. Although his voice trembled slightly, his heroic spirit remained undiminished.
The white-bearded old man cleared his cough and said, "Don't panic. Since we've made it this far, we'll definitely overcome this difficulty."
"Su Qing, cheer up!" Lin Yi gently shook Su Qing's hand, trying to wake her up.
Su Qing did not respond, her expression remaining blank.
"Don't worry, Lin Yi, let's figure something out together." Long Wu patted Lin Yi's shoulder. Although they couldn't see each other in the dark, the powerful pat conveyed endless trust and encouragement.
“Yes, if we work together, there’s no obstacle we can’t overcome,” the white-bearded old man echoed.
In the darkness, their words to each other were like warm firelight, dispelling fear and bringing their hearts closer together.
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