The vibrations in the passageway nearly shook everyone's bones apart.
Lin Yi's palm was gripped so tightly by Su Qing that it hurt. Her hand was as cold as ice, yet it was trembling uncontrollably—it was Su Qing who was holding on tightly and refusing to let go.
He glanced down and saw the girl's pale lips pressed into a line, with undried bloodstains still clinging to her eyelashes—scars from the spatial turbulence she had just suffered.
"The stability of the mainframe core area has fallen below the critical threshold!" Chu Yao's electronic voice trembled unusually. "The channel structure is undergoing quantum disintegration and is expected to completely collapse into a black hole in 30 seconds—"
"30 seconds?" Long Wu's dragon scales clanged like metal in the turbulent water. He held the shattered dragon blade in one hand, his other gripping the stone wall of the passage tightly. "Enough for me to make three more cuts?"
"Not enough." Aizen's Hogyoku suddenly erupted with a ghostly blue light. He flicked his finger, and the light transformed into chains that wrapped around Whitebeard's waist. "But it's enough for us to take a gamble."
Whitebeard grunted, and the entire passageway shook the moment his greatsword plunged into the ground.
The old man's calloused hands rested on the sword hilt, and a sudden glint of light flashed in his cloudy eyes: "Young friend, you previously said that the ruler of time and space could 'alter the rules,' shouldn't we give it a try now?"
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He could sense that the Night Owl's black mist was condensing at a visible speed, and within that black mist were countless distorted human faces—the remnants of the souls of the job changers who had been devoured by the other dimension.
What made him even more uneasy was Xuan Mingzi's aura.
The mysterious figure who always sat cross-legged, fanning himself with a feather fan, was now suspended at the top of the passage, surrounded by emerald-colored data streams. However, those data streams were breaking apart in pieces, like silk being shredded by scissors.
"Xuanmingzi!" Lin Yi suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs.
The suspended figure paused, and the feather fan snapped shut.
"You said the underlying code of 'Infinite' is 'balance'." Lin Yi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the spacetime ring spinning rapidly on his wrist, the light from the three spacetime anchor points almost blinding. "Now my spacetime power can distort space, and your mainframe's permissions can rewrite data—if we merge..."
"Crazy?" An exclamation mark formed by data streams flashed in Xuan Mingzi's pupils. "The laws of spacetime and the laws of data are two dimensions of power; forcibly fusing them will trigger..."
"What will this cause?" Lin Yi interrupted him, pressing his fingers to his heart, where a warm light was flickering—the "Origin of Time and Space" planted when he awakened his mythical profession. "Will it cause him to explode and die, or completely lose control?"
But if we don't gamble now, we won't even last 30 seconds!
Suddenly, rubble fell from the walls of the passage.
A rock the size of a millstone flew past Lin Yi's temple, leaving a bloody gash on his face.
Su Qing suddenly coughed lightly, and the blood that seeped from between her fingers dripped onto the ground, instantly turning into a fine mist of blood by the turbulent current.
Xuanmingzi's feather fan unfolded with a "whoosh".
The star map on the fan suddenly came to life, and every star was trembling violently.
He gazed at the flame burning in Lin Yi's eyes, then glanced at Su Qing, who was huddled behind Lin Yi—the girl's life force was visibly fading away, like a candle flickering in the wind.
"Come here," he suddenly said, the electronic tone in his voice completely disappearing, sounding like a real human speaking.
Lin Yi did not hesitate.
He grabbed Su Qing's hand and practically lunged at Xuan Mingzi in the turbulent waters.
Ryuu's dragon claws caught him by the back of his collar in time, Aizen's chains wrapped around his ankles, and Whitebeard's greatsword burst forth with golden energy, tearing a narrow slit in the turbulent current.
The passageway fell silent the moment their fingertips touched.
It was an eerie silence.
The howling of the spacetime turbulence, the owl's sinister laugh, and everyone's panting were all muted.
Lin Yi saw his own reflection in Xuan Mingzi's pupils, while his own pupils were brimming with light as brilliant as the Milky Way.
"Remember, I'm only helping you stabilize the 'framework' of the fusion," Xuan Mingzi's voice seemed to come from a great distance. "The rest... depends on your own 'path'."
Lin Yi nodded.
He closed his eyes and completely released the essence of space and time.
The warm light instantly spread, forming a transparent cocoon around the two of them.
At the same time, Xuan Mingzi's jade data stream also surged in. The two forces were like two intertwined snakes, first tentatively touching, then beginning to bite and strangle—Lin Yi's temples throbbed, as if a hammer was hitting his head; cold sweat seeped from Xuan Mingzi's forehead, and cracks began to appear on the star map on the fan.
"Pain is to be expected," Xuan Mingzi grinned through gritted teeth. "The rules don't accept outsiders... but we'll be the chisel!"
The origin of spacetime suddenly erupted with blinding white light.
This time, it wasn't chaotic light, but light with a certain rhythm—like a heartbeat, like breathing, like the initial tremors of the Big Bang.
The emerald green of the data stream gradually turned silvery white as the two forces began to merge, first as a trickle, then as a torrent, and finally as an overwhelming tsunami.
"It's done!" Chu Yao's scream pierced the silence. "The spacetime stability has recovered to 20%!"
30%!
50%!
The cracks in the walls of the passage began to heal.
The falling rocks were suspended in mid-air, as if the pause button had been pressed.
The owl's black mist suddenly let out a sharp shriek, and the black mist containing the remnants of souls began to dissipate in patches, as if it had been directly erased by some higher power.
Xuan Mingzi's body swayed, and the feather fan clattered to the ground—his data stream had turned completely silver-white, perfectly merging with Lin Yi's spacetime power.
"Let's go!" Lin Yi opened his eyes.
His pupils seemed to hold a galaxy, and with every gesture he made, even the turbulent currents of time and space seemed to separate automatically.
He grabbed Su Qing with one hand and Xuan Mingzi's wrist with the other, "Whitebeard senior, cover the rear! Long Wu, clear the way! Aizen, protect the flanks!"
Whitebeard's heavy sword unleashed a crescent-shaped burst of energy, cleaving the turbulent currents in two.
Dragon Five's scales shimmered with a crimson-gold light, and its roar echoed throughout the passage, shattering the black mist that was trying to retaliate.
Aizen's Hogyoku suddenly became whole again—all the cracks disappeared, and a dark blue light formed a barrier, protecting everyone in the center.
The bronze door was getting closer.
The heartbeat coming from behind the door was already clearly audible, one beat, two beats, like some ancient behemoth awakening.
Just as everyone's fingertips were about to touch the door knocker, an unexpected event occurred—
A surge of energy suddenly emanated from inside the door.
That wasn't ordinary power, but rather a kind of oppressive force carrying a certain "will".
It felt like standing on a mountaintop and having the clouds cleaved by a giant axe, or like diving into the deep sea and being stared at by a giant whale. Everyone instinctively felt a chill, and even Lin Yi's spacetime power trembled uncontrollably.
"This is..." Xuanmingzi's voice trembled.
He stared at the bronze door, the star map on its surface suddenly going completely dark. "Impossible... How could such a thing exist in the core area?"
The owl's black mist suddenly reformed.
This time, the remnant soul in the black mist no longer twisted, but instead revealed a relieved smile.
The voice of the other-dimensional leader, mixed with the heartbeats inside the door, sounded like a chorus from hell: "Now you know fear?"
The first moment that thing awoke was with you...
"Shut up." Lin Yi's spacetime ring suddenly shattered into pieces.
The fragments transformed into countless silver-white blades of light, piercing directly through the core of the Night Owl's black mist.
He stared at the bronze door, his starry eyes filled not with fear, but with a burning fighting spirit. "No matter what lies behind that door—"
He tightened his grip on Su Qing's hand, feeling the warmth of the girl's palm gradually returning; he then glanced at the greatsword that the white-bearded man gripped tightly again, the dragon scales that had broken and grown back, and the ghostly flames dancing in Aizen's eyes.
Finally, his gaze fell on Xuan Mingzi—the avatar of the game's mastermind, who was bending down to pick up the feather fan. The star map on the fan surface lit up again, but the color of the star map had changed to the same silver-white as Lin Yi's.
"We've come here to flip its coffin lid."
Before he could finish speaking, the bronze door burst open with a "boom".
Within the white light emanating from the door, countless chains could be vaguely seen entwined around some enormous figure.
The figure's outline resembled a human, yet it had eight arms and six heads; it resembled a beast, yet it was clad in armor forged from starlight.
Its eyes were not yet open, but merely the release of its aura caused everyone's weapons to tremble spontaneously, as if they were worshipping some supreme being.
Lin Yi's spacetime power suddenly surged.
He felt his very essence burning, as if responding to the presence inside the door.
Su Qing's fingers suddenly dug into his palm, the girl's voice weak but clear: "Careful...that's..."
"Shh." Lin Yi looked down at her and smiled, "Watch me flip it over."
He was the first to step through the bronze gate.
Behind him, the sound of footsteps echoed in unison.
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