As the morning light climbed onto the charred ruins, Lin Yi's military boots crushed a patch of congealed blood.
He looked up at the spiderweb-like rift in the sky. The Anchor of Time trembled deep within his sea of consciousness. Golden-red light surged along his meridians to his fingertips, condensing into a semi-transparent spacetime compass in his palm—the pointer was spinning wildly, yet always pointing to the deepest part of the rift.
"Master..." Chu Yao's projection suddenly flickered beside him, the data link like stardust scattered by the wind. "There's... a hint of 'time paradox' in there." Her voice was softer than usual, and the star map on the screen was splattered with tiny, static-like dots, as if struggling to maintain the connection. "It's like... like the warning before the backlash of the rules when you used 'time reversal' to save Su Qing."
Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed.
Three days ago, when Su Qing disappeared, the Anchor of Time was also burning hot, scalding his palms with a string of blisters.
He touched the unhealed burn mark on the back of his neck, but the pulling sensation deep within the crack became even stronger—not danger, but... nostalgia?
It sounded like someone was calling his name, in Su Qing's usual tone, with a hint of sleepiness and languor.
"Boss!" Long Wu's footsteps shook the ruins, causing dust to fall.
This dragon orphan wasn't wearing armor today; his bronze back was bare, the dark gold dragon pattern on his back rising and falling with his breath, and tiny arcs of lightning seeped from the gaps in his scales. "You want to squeeze through that crevice?" He reached out and grabbed Lin Yi's tactical vest, his fingertips brushing against the hilt of the Anchor of Time. "I'll go with you."
The dragon pattern suddenly grew three feet, condensing into a sky-covering dragon shadow above the two people's heads.
Where the dragon's breath swept, the scorched earth instantly melted into magma. The medic who had just run over was thrown off balance by the shockwave, and he grumbled as he clutched his first-aid kit.
But Long Wu's eyes were calm, like amber that had been submerged in a deep pool for a thousand years: "Last time you ventured into the abyss, I was locked in reality; the month before last, you fought the Mother Nest, and I lost half a dragon horn." He pressed his thumb firmly against Lin Yi's chest, "If you don't take me this time, I'll dismantle the spatial lock on the rift—with dragon flames."
"Long Wu." The voice from the shadowy figure was like an icicle piercing the eardrum.
An enforcer of the advanced civilization stood twenty meters away, chains of rules weaving a silver net at his feet. "That rift connects to the 'Corridor of Time'," he said, his pupils gleaming with a cold, mechanical light. "Those who enter will either be torn to shreds by their past selves or pulverized into mincemeat by the karma of their future." The chains suddenly taut, leaving a half-meter-wide scorch mark between them. "Are you sure you want to gamble?"
Lin Yi didn't speak.
He stared at the bulging veins on Long Wu's hand—burns left from shielding him from the world-destroying cannon—and then at the intermittently appearing star map in Chu Yao's projection—safe coordinates she had marked for him with her last data.
The Anchor of Time suddenly emitted a clear chime, and the compass needle stopped with a "click," pointing directly at the dark blue halo at the center of the rift.
"A bet." He gripped Long Wu's wrist, the warmth of his palm seeping through the calloused skin. "But it's a deal: if we run into my past self, you'll have to beat that kid awake—he almost burned himself to ashes trying to save his teammates."
Long Wu grinned, revealing two sharp teeth: "I'm an expert at this."
The shadowy figure's chains suddenly vanished.
The enforcer turned and walked toward the core area, his cloak billowing and whipping Lin Yi's hair into a gust of wind: "The lunar eclipse three days from now will be the most unstable time for the rift." He waved his hand without turning back, "If you can survive..." His voice was torn apart by the wind and the smoke of battle.
Chu Yao's projection suddenly lunged forward, its data link wrapping around Lin Yi's wrist.
The static on her screen grew denser, almost obscuring her face: "Master, if you see Su Qing..." Her voice suddenly choked up, "Don't touch her."
The paradox will devour you all.
Lin Yi lowered his head and kissed her projection—the data link immediately flushed pink, like a shy human girl. "I know," he said, "but at least...let me see her eyes."
Long Wu's dragon markings suddenly contracted, transforming into a scale that adhered to the back of Lin Yi's neck. "Go." He pulled Lin Yi and rushed towards the rift, dragon flames exploding beneath their feet, lifting the two into two streaks of crimson-gold light.
The eerie blue light emanating from the crevice suddenly surged, like a deep pool tossed with pebbles.
The two had just touched the edge of the halo when they were pulled in by a tremendous force.
Lin Yi's vision went black, and when he opened his eyes again, the world had become a kaleidoscope—
On the left is a picture of him being bitten through the shoulder by a level 3 zombie in the starting village, with blood beads hanging in mid-air. He grins at Cheng Ye: "It's okay, this wound will heal in three days."
On the right is a scene from last month's interdimensional battlefield, where Su Qing stands opposite him, her hair stained with the invaders' green blood, yet still stuffing energy candies into his mouth: "If you don't eat them, I'll hide the Time Anchor in the Time Fold."
Is the future overhead?
He saw himself kneeling in a blindingly white space, the Anchor of Time broken in two, clutching half a bloody dragon scale in his hand, and letting out a beast-like roar from his throat.
"Damn it." Long Wu's voice was filled with shock. His dragon mark was fighting with his past self—another Long Wu was holding the World-Destroying Dragon Spear, the tip of which was pressed against the throat of the current Long Wu. "That little bastard actually dared to ambush me back then!" He swung his fist at the past image, but his fist passed right through it, bringing with it a string of time fragments.
Lin Yi's breathing suddenly became rapid.
He saw Su Qing just five steps ahead, wearing the white dress she wore on their first date, with a blue rose he had bought in real life pinned in her hair.
She was tilting her head and smiling, twirling the end of her hair with her fingers: "Ah Yi, what are you daydreaming about?"
The anchor of time exploded in the sea of consciousness.
Lin Yi suddenly stopped in his tracks, his nails digging deep into his palms.
He could see the lace trim on Su Qing's skirt fluttering, smell the sweet fragrance of blue roses, and hear the sound of her heartbeat—exactly the same as when they first met three years ago at the milk tea shop.
"Su Qing..." he said in a hoarse voice, his voice torn to pieces by the turbulent flow of time and space.
Su Qing's smile suddenly froze.
Her figure began to become transparent, and a vision of the future appeared behind her: she stood at the core of the hive, the light blades at her fingertips piercing her own chest, mouthing the words "Go quickly" to him.
"Don't come any closer." Lin Yi took two steps back, and the golden-red light of the Anchor of Time surged, erecting a wall of light between them. "I can't..."
"Snap."
A soft sound came from all directions at the same time.
Lin Yi and Long Wu looked up at the same time.
In this distorted corridor of time and space, all the scenes suddenly froze.
The zombie from the past hangs in mid-air, while her future self remains in a roaring posture, and Su Qing's blue rose petals stop mid-fall.
Then, an aged yet clear voice, like an ancient bell tolling in the clouds, seeped out from the void in all directions:
"Welcome to..."
(The whispers deep within the rift suddenly ceased, and the turbulent currents of time and space surged once more.)
Lin Yi watched Su Qing's figure gradually disappear, the hilt of the Anchor of Time burning an imprint on his palm—he heard the second half of the voice, mixed in with the turbulent currents, like a fine needle piercing his sea of consciousness: "Time Corridor."
The turbulent currents of time and space howled like blades in his ears, and Lin Yi's pupils were still fixed on the last trace of white from Su Qing's skirt before she disappeared.
Just then, that ancient, clear voice suddenly pierced through all the noise, like a silver needle piercing through the cocoon of chaos—
"Welcome to the 'Corridor of Time,' a place where all possibilities intersect."
Lin Yi's neck stiffened instantly.
As he turned, a gust of wind rose, and the hilt of the Time Anchor pressed a red mark into his palm—not far away in the void, Xuan Mingzi was leaning against a half-flowing fragment of time, the star patterns on his Daoist robe strangely overlapping with the blue light of the spatial rift, as if he himself was a part of this distorted spacetime.
"Why are you here?" Lin Yi's voice was as deep as a rock.
Three days ago at the Reality Alliance headquarters, Xuan Mingzi used his main brain authority to shield him from the advanced civilization's retrospective pursuit. His appearance in this Time Corridor, which even the shadows are reluctant to discuss, is no coincidence.
Xuan Mingzi pointed to Lin Yi's chest—the light of the Anchor of Time flickered with his heartbeat. "Because I know what you're looking for." A faint smile flickered in his eyes, as if he had seen through Lin Yi's actions the previous night in the command room, repeatedly caressing the hair tie Su Qing had left behind. "True power lies hidden within the 'Core of Cause and Effect.'"
Before he could finish speaking...
"Watch out!" Long Wu's roar shook the space, causing ripples to spread.
His bronze back suddenly arched, and dark gold dragon patterns on his back leaped up his arms like living creatures. Arcs of lightning crackled and exploded from the gaps in the scales—more than a dozen figures composed of silver-white fragments were piercing through the time barrier from all directions. Their faces, moves, and even breathing frequencies were exactly the same as Lin Yi and Long Wu, who had killed the Mother Nest Commander in the interdimensional battlefield three days ago.
"Mirror Warrior?" Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
One of the "self" was holding the illusory image of the Anchor of Time, the golden-red light flowing on the sword's edge perfectly matching the energy fluctuations in his palm at that moment; the other "Dragon Five" was holding the World-Destroying Dragon Spear, the dragon flames condensed at the spear tip were three times more intense than in actual combat.
"These are our past battle records!" Long Wu shattered the lunging "himself" with a single punch. Dragon patterns condensed into dark gold scales on his fist, and the shattered fragments seemed to come alive as they reformed. "The way you killed the zombie horde in the newbie village ruins last month, the way you rescued the medical team in the snow mountain the month before last... Damn, even the angle at which I spat blood when I blocked your doomsday cannon is perfect!"
Lin Yi suddenly closed his eyes.
The tremors of the Anchor of Time in his sea of consciousness transformed into streams of information. He could clearly sense the essence of these mirror warriors—the “causal reflections” formed by the Time Corridor extracting and materializing their past battle trajectories.
They lack independent consciousness, yet they repeat past attack patterns until they "defeat" the current entity, thus creating a predetermined fact of "failure" on the causal line.
"Ah Yi!" Long Wu's muffled groan pierced the eardrums.
When Lin Yi opened his eyes, he saw "the past Long Wu" wrapping his dragon tail around the neck of the present Long Wu. The dark gold dragon scales corroded and emitted blue smoke the moment they touched—it was an old wound left three years ago when Long Wu braved the corrosive acid mist to save him, and now it had become the breakthrough point for the mirror warrior's attack.
"I am not part of your memories!" Lin Yi's fingertips glowed with a dazzling golden-red.
He suddenly opened his arms, letting more than a dozen "his own" sword blades pierce his shoulders, thighs, and ribs—these wounds overlapped perfectly with the wounds from past battles, yet no blood flowed out, only fragments of time were shaken and fell in a rustling sound.
He raised his head, and the power of faith surged forth from the depths of his consciousness—the light of belief from all the members of the Time Legion who trusted him, the survivors of the Reality Alliance, and even the resistance fighters from other dimensions. "True cause and effect belongs only to me in this moment!"
The shockwave from the palm strike tore the entire illusionary space to pieces.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Long Wu grabbed the dragon horn of "his past self," and dragon flames spewed from his throat, burning the phantom into countless stardust.
As the last fragment of time dissipated, a pitch-black door suddenly opened in the void before the two, and the wind that rushed out from inside carried a bone-chilling cold, as if it wanted to freeze one's soul.
"Welcome to the true Abyss of Time." Xuan Mingzi's voice drifted from within the doorway, a corner of his Daoist robe fluttering in the eerie wind. "Here, time has no direction, cause and effect have no beginning or end..." His figure gradually merged into the darkness, but his last words clearly struck Lin Yi's ears: "But the answer you seek lies in the deepest depths."
Long Wu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth—it was from a scratch inflicted by the Mirror Warrior, yet it gleamed with a strange silvery-white sheen. "This wretched place is even more sinister than the Interdimensional Mother Nest." He tugged at Lin Yi's tactical vest; the dragon pattern on his back reformed into a dragon shadow, the arcs of lightning on his scales brighter than ever. "Let's go. I want to see what this Abyss of Time can do to us."
Lin Yi stared at the churning darkness inside the door.
He could hear Su Qing's voice faintly in the depths, like a thin string plucking at his heart; he could also feel a hint of urgency in the tremors of the Anchor of Time, as if urging him forward.
He grasped Long Wu's wrist, the warmth of his palm seeping through the gaps in the dragon scales. "Let's go."
The moment the two stepped into the portal, the darkness of the abyss of time suddenly enveloped them.
There is no up, down, left, right, past, or future here, only endless void and a faint, ethereal blue light in the distance—just like the color of the blue rose in Su Qing's hair.
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