A purplish-black energy storm spun wildly within the core of the mother nest, causing Long Wu's Xuan Tie battle blade to hum and whistle. Pale golden blood beads seeped from the dragon scale patterns on the blade—these were the dragon scales that had been cut by the spatial turbulence when he used the power of a true dragon to withstand the storm.
Su Qing!
The data barrier can't hold up! Chu Yao's fingertips flew across the holographic terminal, her bangs were whipped around her forehead by the storm, and the defense value on the screen was dropping below 30% at a visible speed.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Su Qing biting her lip, her fingertips pressed against her temples, and the ends of her hair shimmering with a faint blue data stream—a sign of neural overload caused by her forcibly accessing the mother nest database.
"Hold on!" Su Qing's voice crackled with static. "After the core self-destruct program was overwritten by time reversal, the mother nest's energy circuit experienced a 0.7-second window of vulnerability..." Before she could finish speaking, a purple flame suddenly pierced through the defensive barrier, scorching a black hole in her left shoulder.
She staggered a couple of steps, but still stared intently at the torrent of data that only she could see.
The owl, hovering in mid-air at the eye of the storm, reflected the struggling crowd below in its right eye, while its left eye, black with excitement, surged with a dark red: "Foolish ants, thinking you can win by delaying the self-destruction process with time reversal?" It stretched out its bony fingers, and the storm suddenly intensified. Long Wu's battle sword clattered to the ground, being swept to the top of the cabin and sparking; Chu Yao's terminal sparked and fell with a "thud" at Lin Yi's feet.
Lin Yi was forced to kneel on one knee by the storm, the spacetime emblem on his palm burning his skin.
He could hear Long Wu's heavy breathing, Su Qing's suppressed gasps, and Chu Yao's muttered curses as she picked up the terminal—these sounds buzzed in his ears like slow-motion footage.
"Is this the end of the world?" He stared at the back of his hand, which was flushed red, with blood-red lines climbing from his wrist to his elbow. "The last time I felt this powerless... was when the newbie village was besieged by mutated beasts?" At that time, he did not know that he was the master of time and space, and could only hide in a dilapidated warehouse with an injured stray cat in his arms.
But things are different now. He has Long Wu's dragon scale armor, Su Qing's database, Chu Yao's advanced technology, and...
\"bite--\"
A faint notification sound pierced through the storm.
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly—it was the resonance of the Time-Space Emblem, a sound only he could hear.
He suddenly remembered what the shadowy figure had said: "The true power of a mythical class begins when the host is willing to burn themselves for others."
"Long Wu!" Lin Yi suddenly looked up, his voice filled with a desperate, resolute force, "Use dragon breath to protect Su Qing and Chu Yao!"
Long Wu paused for half a second, then raised his head and let out a dragon's roar.
The dragon scales on his neck burst open, and golden dragon breath surged out as if it were real, forming a semi-circular barrier around the three of them.
The purple flame storm crashed against the barrier, sending up blinding sparks.
"Su Qing!" Lin Yi called out again, "Send me the specific coordinates of the mother nest's energy downtime!"
Su Qing gritted her teeth and nodded. Suddenly, the data stream on her forehead surged, and the dark blue light almost engulfed her face.
A few breaths later, a string of golden numbers appeared on Lin Yi's retina.
"Chu Yao!" Lin Yi bent down to pick up her terminal, his fingertips rapidly tapping on the shattered screen, "Activate Faith Link!"
I need the power of all those who change jobs!
Chu Yao's eyes widened: "Now? Your mental strength can only withstand a maximum of 30%!"
"But this is our only chance!" Blood-red lines had already crept up Lin Yi's collarbone. He could feel another consciousness awakening deep within him, like a sleeping beast startled by thunder. "Night Owl thought we would surrender, but he forgot..." He looked up at the hovering Night Owl, a blood-stained smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "The awakening of a mythical-level profession is never about being trapped in a desperate situation."
The notification sound of the faith link being activated rang in everyone's ears.
In the real world, at the time-space legion base, in the ancient ruins of the game, and at the temporary camp of the interdimensional resistance army, all the job changers who had a bond with Lin Yi simultaneously clutched their chests.
The spacetime emblems around their necks glowed faintly, and power flowed along invisible lines towards the core of the mother hive.
Lin Yi's pupils turned pure blood red. He could clearly sense the temperature of every power: Long Wu's scorching heat, Su Qing's coolness, Chu Yao's sharpness, and even further, the warmth of the old village chief in the beginner village, the trust of his teammates when they first teamed up... These powers intertwined within him, pushing the power of spacetime to its critical point.
"Time and spacetime shattered."
He uttered those four words softly.
The sound of shattering glass filled the air.
Night Owl's smile froze on his face—he saw spiderweb-like cracks appearing in his energy storm, radiating outwards from Lin Yi as the center.
The purple flames were torn to pieces, the black hole was ripped into thin threads, and even his proud divine body began to crack, like porcelain being crushed by an invisible hand.
"You...it's impossible!" Night Owl's voice trembled with terror. He tried to recall the energy, but the torn purple flames surged back and condensed into a blood-red light blade at Lin Yi's fingertips.
The moment the light blade flashed, Night Owl's purple flame right eye went out, and his black hole left eye was filled with red patterns.
His divine body began to disintegrate into black mist, and his consciousness surged wildly into Lin Yi's mind: "Mother Nest Core... Self-Destruct Program..."
"It has been covered by time reversal." Chu Yao's voice came from below.
She held up the restarted terminal, the screen displaying the green words "Program terminated." "You think we're just stalling for time to self-destruct?"
No, what we're waiting for is...
"It's an absolute resonance between a mythical profession and its host," Xuan Mingzi's voice suddenly rang out.
The avatar of the game's mastermind appeared at the hatch at some point. Gazing at the blood-red markings on Lin Yi's body, a complex emotion flashed in his eyes. "Divine manifestation, finally activated."
Lin Yi staggered and grabbed the wall for support, sweat dripping from his forehead onto the ground.
The power consumption just now far exceeded his expectations. What made him even more uneasy was that another fragment of the soul hidden in those blood-red patterns was now trembling slightly, like a sleeping person turning over.
"Lin Yi!" Su Qing rushed over to support him, but froze when her fingertips touched the spacetime emblem on his neck.
She gazed into his eyes, searching through fragments of memory, but found no information about the blood-red pattern—yet she could feel the power within it, the same temperature as when Lin Yi protected her from the mutated beast.
The roar of the Mother Nest core restarting echoed from deep within the tunnel.
Lin Yi gazed at his pale pink palms and suddenly recalled the shadowy figure's words: "The selection mechanism is never a simple battle." Unbeknownst to him, in a higher dimension, on a stone tablet inscribed with runes, the smaller characters below the words "Master of Time and Space" were glowing: "Candidate Lin Yi, has passed the third stage of the Civilization Trial."
Deep within his consciousness, the sleeping soul finally opened its eyes.
Suddenly, a powerful light erupted from Lin Yi's body.
When the purple-gold light burst forth from Lin Yi's body, even the metal walls of the core chamber of the mother nest trembled.
Su Qing's fingertips had just touched his back when she was burned by the scorching energy and pulled back, her eyelashes trembling rapidly in the bright light: "Lin Yi!"
"Your body temperature is soaring!" She watched as the blood-red lines on his neck moved like living things, and his once clear pupils were now stained with blood, like two clusters of crimson flames burning through the night.
Long Wu's dragon breath barrier expanded three times in size by the light. He looked up at the light, a hint of awe in his dragon roar—this power was even purer than the spacetime rift he had encountered in the beginner village. "This is the kind of commotion a mythical-level being should make!" He gripped his Xuan Tie battle blade tightly, the dragon scale patterns on the blade gleaming with golden light, ready to finish off Night Owl if he was injured.
Chu Yao's terminal screen suddenly burst out with a blinding green light. She glanced at the data and slammed her finger heavily on the "Energy Tracking" button: "Night Owl's divine body stability has plummeted to 17%!"
His energy core is in... Before he could finish speaking, the light suddenly receded, as if an invisible hand had seized the source.
Lin Yi staggered and knelt on one knee, his forehead resting on Su Qing's shoulder.
He could hear his own heart pounding violently, each beat making his chest ache—just a moment ago, he felt as if he had touched the "skeleton" of spacetime, the lines called dimensions were terrifyingly clear in his consciousness.
But the price was also obvious: the slumbering presence deep within his soul was reminding him with a sharp, piercing touch that this mortal body simply could not withstand the full release of mythical power.
"Cough..." He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked up at the owl in mid-air.
The monster looked even more terrifying than before.
The purple flame in the right eye went out completely, and the dark red that surged in the black hole's left eye was no longer turbid gray, but murky gray—like a punctured balloon that was rapidly deflating.
His divine body, which was originally covered with dense scales, now had spiderweb-like cracks, from which seeped ink-like black mist—a sign of his divine nature collapsing.
"Impossible..." Night Owl's voice was like rusty gears grinding together. His raised hand trembled, and the tips of his bony fingers still held traces of lingering purple flame. "I fused with the core of the Mother Nest... I am..."
"It's a defective product rejected by advanced civilizations," the shadowy voice suddenly came from the top of the cabin.
The law enforcement officer, who was always shrouded in shadow, took off his hood at some point, revealing a pale face without any expression. "The energy circuit of the mother nest has been altered seven times by time reversal. You think you are absorbing power?"
They were merely gnawing on rotting remains.
The owl's pupils contracted sharply.
He suddenly let out a scream, and a drop of blood squeezed out from the gray mist in the left eye of the black hole—it was his last essence of divinity.
The moment the blood droplet fell, the alarms in the entire core of the mother hive suddenly swelled, and the core, which was about to restart, suddenly reversed. The energy flow formed a reverse vortex, frantically pulling the night owl's black mist into the core.
"He's going to take us all down with him!" Chu Yao's terminal screen began flashing red. "Core overload countdown: 10, 9, 8..."
Lin Yi suddenly looked up, and blood-red lines had already crept up to the corners of his eyes.
He could feel the Time-Space Emblem burning in his palm; it was another consciousness urging him—"Use Time Reversal." But he knew that the Time-Space Shattering he had just experienced had exhausted 80% of his mental energy, and forcibly using Reversal would cause his soul to collapse directly.
"Long Wu!" he roared in a hoarse voice, "Use the dragon scale armor to protect Su Qing and Chu Yao!"
Long Wu's response was a deafening dragon roar.
His dragon scales all stood up like barbs, completely enveloping the two girls beneath him.
Taking advantage of the moment, Su Qing grabbed Lin Yi's wrist, and the data flowed into his body through their touching skin—it was the mental energy she had forcibly transferred to him by overdrawing her life force through neural links.
"That's enough." Lin Yi took her hand in his, the warmth of his palm making her eyes sting. "If you keep this up, you'll be spending three months in the medical pod tomorrow."
The owl's laughter suddenly turned sharp: "Three months?"
"You won't even last three minutes!" His divine body began to expand wildly, and the outline of the core of the mother nest could be vaguely seen in the black mist—it turned out that he had already integrated the core into his own divine essence!
"Space-Time..." Lin Yi gritted his teeth, the crimson blade of light at his fingertips reforming, "Shattering Slash!"
The moment the light blade flashed, the entire space seemed to be cleaved like glass by a giant axe.
The owl's swollen divine body was forcibly torn open, and the overflowing black mist, along with the core fragments, fell down in a flurry.
But his black hole left eye suddenly burst out with a blinding white light, and the drop of divine blood precisely pierced into the core debris 0.1 seconds before the light blade struck.
\"boom--\"
The dome of the core module of the mother nest collapsed with a roar.
Lin Yi was thrown by the blast wave, crashed into the bulkhead, and fell heavily to the ground.
His vision blurred; he could only hear Su Qing's screams, Long Wu's roars, and Night Owl's increasingly clear murmur: "...As long as a trace of the core remains...it can be reborn..."
When he managed to sit up, the sight before him made his blood freeze—although the Night Owl's divine body was almost completely destroyed, the drop of divine blood was slowly reassembling itself in the ruins, encasing the core fragments.
His black hole left eye turned dark red again, while his purple flame right eye cracked open, revealing an even smaller, eerie blue eye inside.
"This is..." Xuanmingzi's voice was filled with rare shock, "The ultimate defense mechanism of the Mother Nest?"
He transformed himself and the core into a symbiotic entity!
Lin Yi wiped the blood from his face and gazed at the gradually clearer outline of the Night Owl.
This reorganization was slower than before, indicating that the power of the Divine Blood Bead was nearing depletion, but... he noticed that Night Owl's fingertip was quietly pointing to a dark corner of the core remains—there was a crystal the size of a fingernail there, shimmering faintly with his movement.
"Chu Yao!" Lin Yi suddenly pointed to that dark corner, "That's the energy core of the mother nest!"
The owl needs it to replenish its strength!
Chu Yao's terminal had restarted, and she quickly locked onto the target: "Distance 23 meters, penetrating laser requires 3 seconds to recharge..."
"It's too late!" Long Wu's battle sword suddenly flew out of his hand.
The Xuan Tie Blade, imbued with dragon breath, pierced the air and precisely struck the metal plate above the crystal core. The blade trembled and emitted a buzzing sound—a unique sonic attack of the dragon race, which distorted the space around the crystal core and temporarily blocked the energy transmission.
The owl's finger froze in mid-air.
He looked up at Lin Yi, a hint of fear finally appearing in the dark red of his black left eye: "What...what kind of monster are you...?"
"I'm here to end this farce of yours." Lin Yi stood up, the blood-red lines already spreading to his temples.
He could feel the dormant consciousness laughing deep within his soul, as if saying, "That's right."
He gripped the light blade tightly and walked step by step toward Night Owl, each step leaving a deep crater in the broken metal floor. "Now, it's my turn."
But just as the light blade was about to strike, the Night Owl's black hole left eye suddenly burst out with a dazzling purple light.
Although his divine body had not yet been fully reconstructed, a frenzied power surged from somewhere, forcefully erecting a purple barrier that kept the light blade half an inch away.
"Ha...ha..." Night Owl's laughter was filled with madness, and his purple flames reignited in his right eye. "You think you can win by shattering my divine body?"
The will of the Mother Nest...will never perish...
Lin Yi's light blade sparked against the barrier.
He stared at the madness surging in the eyes of the owl and suddenly realized—this monster didn't care about winning or losing; he wanted to drag everyone down with him.
At this moment, the alarm in the core compartment had turned into a piercing wail, and the countdown numbers were jumping wildly: 3, 2, 1...
"Watch out!" Su Qing's scream mingled with the rumbling of metal twisting.
The next second, the ground of the entire Mother Nest core suddenly collapsed, and countless purplish-black tentacles emerged from the cracks in the ground, wrapping around everyone's ankles like living creatures.
The owl's laughter pierced the chaos, exploding in Lin Yi's ears: "This is the Mother Nest's ultimate trap... You will all die!"
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