A scorching heatwave, carrying the smell of rust, rushed towards him. Burnt fragments of a flag swirled and grazed Lin Yi's cheek. In the distance, drops of blood from a broken halberd dripped down its blade, creating tiny blood pits on the scorched earth.
As soon as he stepped through the stone gate, the dark golden dragon shadow vanished into a shower of sparks, replaced by an aged yet steady voice that pierced through the battle cries and exploded in his mind: "This is the Dragon Soul Trial Grounds, young friend."
Whitebeard's voice was hoarser than he remembered, like a stone slab worn smooth by time: "Three hundred years ago, the World-Suppressing Dragon Lord and I fought a fierce battle against the vanguard of another dimension here, and ultimately perished together. This Dragon Soul Key contains our obsession—if you want to inherit true power, you must first defeat your past self."
Before the words were finished, eight figures rushed out from the flames.
Lin Yi's pupils shrank sharply—those people wore dark red dragon-patterned armor, and their faces overlapped with those enemies in his memory who had driven him to the brink of despair: there was the armored axeman who cut off his left arm in the newbie village, the dark witch priest who used poisonous fog to corrupt him in the Starfall Land, and even the extradimensional warlord he had personally killed last month. At this moment, there was no resentment in their eyes when they died, only a mechanical killing instinct.
"bite--"
The battle axe grazed his ear and struck the scorched earth, sending up shards of stone that cut his cheek.
Lin Yi rolled to the side to avoid the Dark Witch's poison darts, and the Dragon Soul Key in his palm suddenly became hot, burning his palm red.
This was not a simple battle—when he was corroded by the poisonous fog in the Land of Fallen Stars, he was indeed terrified and wanted to retreat; when facing the interdimensional overlord, he also had a moment of confusion, fearing that he could not protect his comrades behind him.
These shadows that he had suppressed in his heart have now transformed into the enemy's blade.
"call--"
Lin Yi suddenly sheathed his sword, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
The sounds of battle around him gradually faded, replaced by the faint yet firm heartbeats of millions of other job changers who were bound to him through a bond of faith.
The hemostatic herb Xia gave him in the beginner village, the fatal blow Long Wu blocked for him with his dragon scales, the Hogyoku research notes that Aizen handed him late at night—all these warm images surged in his mind.
When he opened his eyes, the galaxy shimmered in his pupils, and behind him appeared thousands of translucent phantoms, his companions who had shared life and death with him.
That's enough.
Lin Yi raised his hand, and countless chains of light extended from the phantom, precisely binding the wrists of the eight mirror warriors.
The armored axeman's battle axe clattered to the ground, the dark sorcerer's poison sac exploded in his hand, and the extradimensional warlord's weapon was shredded into pieces by the chains of light.
He walked step by step toward the nearest mirror warrior, his fingertips touching the other's brow: "I admit, I was afraid. But at the end of that fear was the courage they gave me."
The Mirror Warrior's face suddenly twisted and vanished into countless points of light.
At the same time, several black cracks suddenly appeared in the void outside the stone gate.
Night Owl's consciousness burst forth, enveloped in garbled data. Half of his face was still crackling with electricity, clearly indicating that he had been seriously injured by the fragments of the Anchor of Time. But now, the madness in his eyes was even more intense: "Lin Yi! You think you can multitask? I'd like to see if you can protect the key or your team!"
Before the words were finished, on the open ground outside the instance, the extradimensional minions that had been suppressed by the Time and Space Legion suddenly sprang up, their weapons glowing with a ghostly blue light. They were being forcibly controlled by Night Owl's consciousness and pounced on Long Wu, Xiao Li, and the others like puppets.
Just as Long Wu's dragon claws knocked away three henchmen, a dark blade pierced his back; just as Xiao Li's phoenix flames burned through the black mist, three poisoned daggers fell from above her head.
In the more concealed shadows, three figures shrouded in black mist were sliding along the edge of the stone gate.
The fragment of the Hogyoku at the leader's fingertips gleamed with an eerie purple light—it was Aizen's newly trained "Cero" task force. Their target was not Lin Yi, but the Dragon Soul Key still burning hot in his palm.
Lin Yi's temples throbbed, and the core of cause and effect roared within his body.
He could clearly sense the external crisis—Long Wu's dragon blood was draining away at a visible rate, Xiao Li's phoenix tail feathers were corroded by the poisoned knife, leaving charred gaps, and what was even more troublesome were the three approaching black shadows, whose auras were exactly the same as Aizen's Hogyoku.
"Faith Array, activate!"
He let out a low shout, and the phantom behind him suddenly coalesced into a pale golden light shield, enveloping the entire battlefield.
The attacks of the mirror warriors landed on the light shield and were actually deflected back; while the minions outside the instance, as soon as they touched the edge of the light shield, let out a shrill scream and were burned to ashes by the power of faith.
The black mist of the Cero Task Force crashed into the light shield and melted instantly, like snow being baked by fire.
"This is impossible..." Night Owl's consciousness trembled violently. "You were clearly dealing with the trial, how could this be—"
"Because they have never been a burden to me." Lin Yi gripped the Dragon Soul Key, the starlight on the key's surface merging with the light shield. "They are my source of confidence."
The burning battlefield suddenly rippled.
The dark golden dragon shadow soared into the sky once more, the sorrow in its eyes fading, replaced by relief.
A white-bearded phantom emerged from behind the dragon's head, his figure clearer than before, holding half a jade pendant gleaming with a bluish light: "You have passed the first test, next—"
The words came to an abrupt halt.
The dragon's shadow and the white-bearded phantom simultaneously transformed into streams of light and disappeared into Lin Yi's brow.
The battle cries suddenly subsided, and the distant rumble of metal scraping against metal could be heard—the stone gate was reopening.
The embers on the scorched earth suddenly trembled violently, and dark golden light surged out from between Lin Yi's eyebrows, condensing into a phantom of a white beard in front of him.
The old man's armor was no longer stained with blood, but the smoke of battle from three hundred years ago still lingered in his eyes and brows: "You have passed the first test. What follows is your own battle."
Before he finished speaking, the entire space suddenly erupted with a roar like a dragon's cry.
Lin Yi looked up, his pupils shrinking sharply—a dragon-shaped streak of light cracked open in the sky, its dark gold scales reflecting a crimson glow like molten lava. When the dragon's head was lowered, even the air was compressed into spiderweb-like cracks.
This was not the dragon shadow that had vanished before, but the true dragon soul. Every scale was etched with the scars of war, and the raging fury in its eyes almost burned through space. It was none other than the World-Suppressing Dragon Lord who perished with Whitebeard three hundred years ago.
"It's venting its obsession." The white-bearded voice sighed. "Back then, the Dragon Lord died with resentment because he couldn't protect the human world. This remnant soul has been trapped in the cracks of time and space for three hundred years. When it saw you holding the Dragon Soul Key, it regarded you as the 'loser' it couldn't save back then."
The dragon's breath spewed down like molten lava!
Instead of retreating, Lin Yi advanced, his toes barely touching the ground as he leaped into the air.
With the core of cause and effect operating within his body, he could clearly see the threads of time leaving translucent afterimages along the trajectory of the dragon's breath—this was the "premonition" ability brought about by reversing local time.
The last time he used it, he could only barely catch a 0.3-second gap, but now he can extend this "premonition" to three seconds.
"Drink!" He flicked his finger, and the spacetime rift that burst from his fingertip precisely sliced through the heat of the dragon's breath.
The molten lava was torn in two before it even touched his clothes, turning into two fireballs that crashed into the mountain walls on either side, blasting up a shower of rocks.
The dragon's head roared angrily, and its claws pressed down like a giant mountain.
Lin Yi looked up at the claw-like shadows that covered the sky, a cold smile curving his lips.
He could see the frequency of each scale trembling as the dragon claw fell, and the direction in which each gust of air was compressed—the core of cause and effect transformed this data into the most precise action guide.
"Fifteen degrees to the left, rise two meters." He shouted in a low voice, and his figure suddenly twisted. Just as the dragon claw was about to crush him, he used the space-time rift to complete a "space jump".
The dragon claw grazed his back and slammed into the scorched earth, shaking the entire instance.
"Such a strong fighting instinct." The white-bearded phantom nodded slightly. "Back then, I fought the Dragon Lord for three days and only managed to figure out 70% of his attack patterns."
Lin Yi landed on the dragon's neck, pressing his palm onto the scales.
The dragon scales suddenly rolled up, revealing dark red wounds underneath—marks left by an interdimensional weapon from three hundred years ago.
A silver light shimmered at his fingertips, and the power of the Core of Cause and Effect seeped into the dragon soul through the wound: "I know you are unwilling. But in the human world now, there are people worth protecting."
The dragon's soul suddenly trembled violently. The anger in its eyes subsided somewhat, replaced by confusion.
"Look." Lin Yi raised his hand, and the images in the faith link flooded into the Dragon Soul's sea of consciousness—the determination of Long Wu when he used his dragon scales to shield his teammates from a knife, the warmth of Xiao Li's phoenix flames lifting up a child on the ruins, and the focus behind Aizen's glasses when he was adjusting the Hogyoku late at night.
These vivid, down-to-earth scenes are more powerful than any words.
The dragon's roar suddenly changed tone, no longer an angry howl, but a low groan tinged with sobs.
Its massive body began to dissipate, each scale transforming into starlight and disappearing into the Dragon Soul Key in Lin Yi's hand.
As the last trace of the dragon's shadow dissipated, a key imbued with dragon's breath slowly descended from mid-air.
The key has golden patterns on its surface, making it the second of the "Seven Keys of Creation".
Lin Yi reached out and caught it, feeling a burning heat emanating from his palm, as if an ancient will was whispering in his mind: "Protecting is more important than fighting."
"It has acknowledged you." The white-bearded phantom smiled with satisfaction. "Go on, the road ahead is still long."
Before the words were finished, the phantom vanished like morning mist.
Just then, a piercing electrical crackling sound suddenly rang out from the core of the instance.
Night Owl's consciousness, enveloped in a jumble of dark purple data, crashed in. Half of his "body" had already disintegrated into fragments, yet he still grinned maniacally: "Lin Yi! You think you've won just because you got the key? This damn instance is connected to an annihilation bomb from another dimension, and I'm detonating it right now—"
"You think I'd give you a chance?" The silver patterns on Lin Yi's fingertips surged, and the power of the Core of Cause and Effect surged out as if it were a tangible substance, condensing into a transparent cocoon of sealing light around Night Owl.
The night owl's laughter abruptly stopped. He frantically rammed into the cocoon of light, but only managed to create tiny cracks on the surface: "You can't... I've fused my consciousness into the core of the instance!"
"So you should thank me." Lin Yi's voice was as cold as ice. "The causal seal can lock down all causal lines related to you. Even if you split your consciousness into trillions of parts, I can still find you by following the poison you left in Long Wu's wound and the corrosive agent on Xiao Liyu's tip."
The cocoon of light suddenly contracted, and the owl's consciousness emitted a piercing shriek, compressed into a black dot the size of a thumb.
Lin Yi flicked his finger, and the black dot hit the stone gate, exploding into a jumble of data before completely disappearing.
The battlefield returned to silence.
Lin Yi looked down at the two keys in his palm. The first key, the "Star Key," was obtained from the Land of Starfall. It was currently resonating with the second key, the "Dragon Soul Key," and emitting a pale golden halo.
"This is just the beginning," he muttered to himself, his fingertips tracing the patterns on the key. "Behind the Night Owl, there is something far more powerful, the secret of the Seven Keys of Creation, the truth behind the interdimensional invasion..."
A distant humming sound came from the opening of a spacetime rift.
Lin Yi looked up and saw a dark blue portal forming in the void outside the stone gate—it was his connection to the real world.
He took a deep breath and put the two keys into his spatial ring.
As he turned to walk towards the portal, Long Wu's voice suddenly came through the faith link: "Boss, the interdimensional radar on the real side detected abnormal fluctuations, it seems like there's something..."
"Hold the base first," Lin Yi interrupted him, pausing slightly. "I'll be right back."
The moment the blue light of the portal enveloped his entire body, he heard the key in the ring emit a clear, melodious chime.
The voice contained expectation, warning, and something else entirely—an ancient call that he had not yet fully comprehended.
Meanwhile, in an underground base somewhere in the real world, Aizen was staring at the "spacetime resonance index" that had suddenly surged in the holographic projection.
He pushed up his glasses, his gaze behind the lenses becoming deep and unfathomable: "The second key... It seems the real trial has only just begun."
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