In the temporary command center of the abandoned building in the third district, the blue light from the tactical screens illuminated the mottled walls.
Lin Yi kicked aside a half-piece of cement, his combat boots crushing the empty energy drink cans scattered on the ground—Long Wu had indeed carried twenty boxes, which were now piled up like a temporary fortification. The top can of iced cola still had water droplets on it, with a note attached: "Old Zhou said this can hasn't been touched by sweaty hands."
"Boss!" Long Wu climbed in through the broken second-floor window, twirling his tactical knife in his palm. The scabbard was still smeared with the green slime of the mechanical beasts from the outer perimeter of the Mother Nest. "The Shadow Blade team planted explosives in the ventilation ducts. Old Seven insisted on drawing smiley faces on the bombs, saying it would look festive when they blew up the mechanical bugs." He ripped off his tactical helmet, which had been burned through, revealing a fresh scab on his forehead. "All the job changers are here. The swordsmen from the Reality Alliance have set up a barrier on the top floor, and the translator from the Interdimensional Resistance is shouting slogans in their language—the tune sounds like a funeral wail, but the guys down below say it's quite inspiring."
Lin Yi reached out and caught the cola that Long Wu threw to him; the icy sensation pierced his palm through his tactical glove.
He stared at the hexagon in the center of the command center, circled with fluorescent tape—it was the "field of faith resonance" that he had drawn seventeen times in his sea of consciousness at three in the morning using a spacetime rift.
The sensation of the little girl he rescued three days ago clutching his glove suddenly surged back, as did the memory of an old man drained of energy from another dimension whispering in his arms, "I want to see my grandson grow up," and a pregnant woman saying in the ruins, "My baby should be born in the Year of the Dragon"... These fragments churned in his sea of consciousness, like a star map blown by the wind.
"Chu Yao." He turned to look at the data displayed on the tactical screen.
The girl's hair was no longer a jumble of static electricity; it now shimmered with a pearly white glow, and even the lace trim on her skirt was clearly visible—this was the effect of the initial resonance of the power of faith.
She traced a line of her fingertips across the void, and a dense stream of data appeared in the holographic projection: "Field stability 98.7%, the mental fluctuation frequency of all job changers is approaching yours."
Su Qing had already connected to the imprisoned consciousness's mental network. They were now... "She suddenly paused, a string of pink code flashing in her pupils, "They were singing, in twenty-three languages, and the lyrics were all 'thank you.'"
Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed.
He removed his tactical glove, the spacetime emblem on his palm emitting a warm glow—it was a heart the little girl had drawn on his glove with her blood three days ago, indelible and branded into his skin. "Activate Resonance." His voice was low, yet it resonated like a bronze bell, humming throughout the command center.
The first to react were the job seekers downstairs.
Long Wu poked his head out, and the tactical goggles automatically adjusted their focus. He saw the figures who had been sitting or leaning against something stand up one after another. Some took off the scarves covering their faces, and some wiped the bloodstains from the corners of their mouths. Their eyes all turned toward the command center, like sunflowers turning toward the sun.
"It's starting." Lin Yi closed his eyes.
In his sea of consciousness, the nebula composed of countless points of light suddenly began to rotate, each point of light connected to a silver thread, the other end of which was tied to his heart.
He could clearly sense the temperature of each silver thread: the swordsman's thread carried the metallic scent of blood, the tech-savvy class's thread crackled with electricity, and the interdimensional resistance's thread was wrapped in the wind of their home planet—salty and damp, with the sweet, fishy smell of coral.
"Follow me," he whispered in the mental network, "Recall the moments you most wanted to protect, the unwavering principles you held, the fierce determination you had to tear apart the darkness."
The first thing to light up was an old man wearing a coarse cloth outfit.
He is a martial arts inheritor in the Reality Alliance. Three days ago, Lin Yi saw him kneeling in the ruins, holding half a wooden plaque with the word "medicine" engraved on it and crying.
At this moment, a dark golden mist rose around him, and a wooden plaque floated out from his bosom, reflecting countless overlapping images in the mist: as a boy, he was getting medicine from a pharmacy; as a young man, he was carrying a medicine box over snow-capped mountains; and as an old man, he was giving acupuncture to the wounded in a shelter—each image as bright as a star.
Next up was a girl in a mecha suit.
Her luminous mist was a deep blue, within which floated a fountain pen missing half a feather.
That was a letter she wrote to her sister before the nest raid: "When I come back, let's go see the cherry blossoms. Didn't you say you'd put the petals in your composition book?"
Aizen suddenly let out a muffled groan.
He was originally sitting cross-legged at the edge of the field, his dark purple spiritual pressure clashing with the Hogyoku in his chest—that chaotic energy always went out of control when he erupted, and last time it almost tore three teammates apart.
He opened his eyes, and the purple light in his pupils was now mixed with golden threads. The cracks on the surface of the Hogyoku were healing at a visible speed. "This power..." He grabbed the tactical knife beside him, and the force of the blade pierced through half a wall. "It's stable!"
"Completely stable!" He stood up abruptly, clasped his hands in a fist salute towards Lin Yi, the silver ornaments in his hair jingling with the movement. "Lin boy, now even if the Mother Nest Core fires an energy cannon at me, I can blast it back!"
Chu Yao's data stream suddenly started jumping wildly.
She floated to Lin Yi's side, the light mist at the tips of her hair almost solidifying into a physical form: "Combat Power Monitoring!"
"Ordinary job changers see an average increase of 287%, elites 412%, and superhumans..." Her voice tinged with laughter, "...that superhuman cook who always claimed to be just a logistics person can now crush the shell of a mechanical bug with her bare hands."
"Su Qing." Lin Yi opened his eyes, his gaze passing through the broken window of the command center and landing on the crimson core deep within the nest.
He knew that at this moment, around that core, the imprisoned consciousnesses were rising from the darkness, like dandelions scattered by the wind.
Su Qing's projection appeared to his right. This time, it wasn't a semi-transparent phantom. She could even lift a corner of Lin Yi's tactical cloak, and the touch felt as real as a living person: "They say they can finally see each other's faces clearly."
An elderly couple said they'd take their wedding photos later when they got home; a programmer said he wanted to create a fairytale game for his daughter that would never crash… She sniffed, then laughed. “They asked me to tell you that their faith has never been in God.”
"It's light," Lin Yi said for her.
He reached out and pressed his hand against the Time Emblem on his chest, where the temperature was almost scalding.
The sound of orderly footsteps came from downstairs. Long Wu poked his head in, tapping his tactical knife rhythmically in his palm: "Boss, everyone's waiting for your command."
"Wait for Chu Yao's final data." Lin Yi looked at the data-generating girl.
Chu Yao's fingertips traced the final light trail in the void, and a scarlet "100%" popped up on the holographic screen.
"Resonance complete." As she turned around, a cherry blossom drifted out from the mist of light stirred up by her skirt—it was a scene from the mecha girl's consciousness.
"Then—" Lin Yi grabbed the Boundary-Breaking Blade, and the spatial rift on its blade suddenly expanded, turning the entire abandoned building into a flowing star map. "Let them see what it means to..."
\"boom!\"
The tactical screen suddenly exploded with static.
Chu Yao's pupils instantly turned blood red, and data turbulence climbed back up her hair: "Mother Nest Core Frequency Anomaly!"
"A new energy cluster is gathering, three times the size of the previous defensive force's..." She paused, her voice tightening, "...three times larger."
Lin Yi narrowed his eyes.
He could sense that deep within the nest, a pair of cold eyes were piercing through layers of defense, fixing their gaze on the sudden burst of faith.
"Night Owl," he murmured, uttering the name he had heard from the interdimensional resistance three days earlier.
The Boundary-Breaking Blade hummed in his palm, and golden light from the spatial rift crawled along the blade's spine towards his wrist. "Perfect timing."
Long Wu slammed his tactical knife into the ground, the metal scraping against the cement producing a piercing sound: "Boss, the Shadow Blade squad's explosives have been waiting for ages."
The seventh brother said that if the bomb didn't explode this time, he would draw a smiley face on himself and stick it on the bomb.
Aizen cracked his knuckles, the golden patterns formed by the fusion of spiritual pressure and the Hōgyoku tracing the surface of his skin: "I'm going to dismantle another layer of the defensive matrix surrounding the Mother Nest, and while I'm at it, I'll meet this Night Owl—his spiritual pressure should be enough to give me a good workout."
Lin Yi gazed at the churning dark clouds in the direction of the mother nest.
The radiance of faith surged out from the abandoned building, like a sharp blade slicing through the night.
He knew that Night Owl had noticed the unusual fluctuations and was mobilizing his last remaining forces.
But so what?
"Let's go." He raised the Boundary-Breaking Blade, its blade pointing towards the core of the Mother Nest. "Go and reclaim their consciousness—and while we're at it," he smirked, "teach some advanced civilizations what it means to..."
"Human faith."
Outside the ruins, the insignia of the Time Legion shimmered like a galaxy on the tactical helmets.
The Reality Alliance's fighter jets swept overhead, their engines roaring but unable to drown out the shouts of the job-changers; sword cultivators from ancient martial arts families soared through the air, their sword cries carrying the aura of a thousand-year-old tradition; the interdimensional resistance's warships adjusted their cannons, their translators finally learning humanity's slogan: "For the Light!"
A storm is coming. And this time, at the eye of the storm is faith.
The moment the tactical screen exploded with static, Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly—he could clearly sense the tingling sensation spreading along the faith link, like rusty steel needles drilling into his sea of consciousness.
"Soul Vibrator." Su Qing's voice suddenly came from the mental network. Fragments of blue light shimmered at the edges of her data projection, and her fingertips rapidly traced a data stream visible only to her. "Frequency 47.3 Hz, the same origin as the mental interference device used by the interdimensional civilization to suppress the rioting alien inhabitants." She looked up, the light mist at the ends of her hair gleaming silvery-white from the rapid calculations. "They are severing our connection with our imprisoned consciousness."
Long Wu's tactical knife clattered to the ground.
He ripped off his tactical goggles, the scab on his forehead being pulled so hard that blood seeped out: "Damn it!"
Just now I saw Old Zhou waving a spatula and shouting, "Blow up the mother nest to add more food for the brothers!" Now what...?" He clenched his fist and slammed it against the concrete wall, his knuckles turning white as rubble flew. "His aura has dimmed!"
Aizen suddenly pressed his temple.
A spiritual pressure interwoven with dark purple and gold patterns seeped from his pores, condensing into a semi-transparent barrier around him: "The spiritual pressure resonance has been interfered with." He closed his eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing, "Those imprisoned consciousnesses... are disappearing from my perception."
Chu Yao's hair was once again covered in turbulent data.
Her suspended body suddenly trembled violently, and the lace hem of her dress, which had solidified into a solid form, scattered into electric current: "Field stability plummeted to 63%!"
The shockwave is spreading from the core of the hive, increasing its radius by 500 meters per minute—"She suddenly coughed, a string of gibberish spilling from her mouth, "Shadowblade Squad reports, their mental link has been severed. Old Seven says the smiling faces on the bombs now look like they're crying."
Lin Yi pressed his thumb heavily on the Time-Space Emblem.
The mark left by the little girl's blood-drawn heart was now burning intensely, reminding him of the little girl who, three days ago, clutched his glove in the ruins and said, "Big brother is light."
He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, his eyes gleaming with a starlight-like golden light: "Su Qing, how long will it take?"
"17 seconds." Su Qing's projection suddenly split into three, each connected to a different data stream port.
Her fingertips traced afterimages in the void, and fragments of imprisoned consciousnesses drifted from the misty light above her head: the laughter of an elderly couple taking wedding photos again, the keyboard clicks of a programmer writing fairy tales for his daughter, "Shadow, adjust your phase jammer frequency to 22.1. I need you to use the encryption protocol of an advanced civilization as cover."
"Received." The shadowy voice came through the static on the tactical screen, carrying a hoarse, mechanical tone.
His figure remained hidden in the shadows, but at this moment, a ball of dark blue energy condensed from his outstretched fingertips. "Synchronized."
The oscillator's defense matrix... is being cracked.
12 seconds.
Long Wu suddenly grabbed an electromagnetic pulse gun from the corner, the crisp sound of the safety being pulled echoing through the command center: "Boss, I'm taking two teams to take down that damn machine!" His tactical boots crunched over the shards of glass on the floor. "That kid's smiley face bomb can't go to waste!"
"No." Lin Yi raised his hand to stop him.
A spatial rift swirled in his palm, temporarily freezing Long Wu's figure in place. "The oscillator is definitely in the core defense layer of the Mother Nest. If you rush over now..." His voice softened, "you'll become a sitting duck."
9 seconds.
Aizen suddenly opened his eyes.
The golden patterns in his pupils completely overwhelmed the dark purple, and the Hogyoku in his chest emitted a clear, resonant sound: "I can cover it up." He raised his hand and placed it on Chu Yao's shoulder, his spiritual pressure surging into the data body like a hot spring. "Use spiritual pressure as a carrier to anchor the frequency of the faith link to my spiritual pressure fluctuations—their oscillators cannot interfere with the consciousness of living beings."
Chu Yao's trembling suddenly stopped.
The turbulent flow in her hair was smoothed into orderly bands of light by the golden spiritual pressure, and her pupils regained their pearly white luster: "The vessel is stable!"
Field stability has recovered to 89%......92%......\"
6 seconds.
Su Qing's three projections disappeared simultaneously, then coalesced into a complete human form beside Lin Yi.
Her fingertips still clung to the blue glow of the virtual world, yet a faint smile played on her lips: "Cracked." She reached out and touched Lin Yi's hand; the touch was as real as a living person's. "The shadowy figures used a self-destruct program from an advanced civilization as a disguise. I embedded an 'echo' in the frequency of the oscillator—now, every time they interfere, they reveal a fraction of their coordinates."
The tactical screen suddenly burst into a blinding white light.
The shadowy figure's voice, mixed with electrical static, said: "The oscillator has been backfired by its own energy!"
"A gap has appeared in the defensive matrix surrounding the mother nest, radius..." He chuckled softly, and half a silver chip flicked from his fingertip in the shadows. "Three kilometers."
Long Wu's tactical knife was sheathed with a "whoosh".
He pulled off the tactical scarf around his neck, revealing the newly tattooed Time Legion emblem on his collarbone: "Boss, the gap position has been passed to Shadow Blade!"
The seventh brother said this time he wanted the smiley faces on the bombs to bloom in the core of the Broodmother's Nest.
Aizen cracked his knuckles, the golden lines of his spiritual pressure merging with the Hogyoku already creeping up his brow: "I'm going to dismantle the remaining defensive towers." He turned and walked towards the broken window, the wind whipped up by his robes carrying away scraps of paper scattered on the floor—the wishes of the imprisoned consciousnesses. "And while I'm at it, I'll meet this Night Owl, see if his spiritual pressure is enough to clear a path for my brothers."
Just then, Xuan Mingzi's voice suddenly rang out from the deepest part of the mental network, carrying a mechanical, electronic tone, yet unable to conceal a hint of anxiety: "Anomaly detected in the central consciousness entity." His projection appeared on the tactical screen, his usually gentle brows now tightly furrowed, "It is absorbing all the imprisoned consciousness seeds, evolution progress... 37%."
The air in the command center froze instantly.
Lin Yi's fingertips slowly tightened, and the hilt of the Breaking Boundary Blade pressed a red mark into his palm.
He could sense that the originally chaotic darkness deep within the mother nest was becoming clearer, like an ancient ferocious beast awakened, opening its mouth full of sharp teeth.
"Evolution?" he repeated softly, his gaze passing through the broken window to the churning dark clouds in the direction of the mother nest.
The radiance of faith continued to spread outward, tearing the night into shreds. "Let it see how terrifying it will be when these consciousnesses, which it considers 'seeds,' truly unite..." A cold, hard smile curved his lips.
Su Qing's projection gently touched his wrist.
Her fingertips carried the coolness unique to data, but it reminded Lin Yi of the ordinary people in reality who, in the shelter, pulled him aside and said, "Let's watch the sunrise together after the war": "Their faith is not in God." She looked up, her eyes reflecting the light of the faith link, "It is light."
But light is never swallowed by darkness.
"Let's go." Lin Yi raised the Boundary-Breaking Blade, and the spacetime rift on the blade expanded, turning the entire abandoned building into a flowing star map.
He looked at Long Wu, then at Aizen, and finally at Chu Yao and Su Qing. "Go and reclaim their consciousness—and by the way," his voice was as deep as thunder, "teach some advanced civilizations a lesson..."
"What is human faith?"
As everyone rushed out of the command center, Lin Yi suddenly stopped.
He closed his eyes, and the nebula of faith in his sea of consciousness was spinning with unprecedented clarity.
Those connections, which were originally just warm silver threads, now revealed subtle energy patterns, like a net of light covering the mother nest, with the vibration of each thread telling the story of the mother nest's internal structure—
The core location, the trajectory of energy flow, and even...
"The heartbeat of an owl." He chuckled softly, and when he opened his eyes, the golden light in them shone even brighter. "So that's how it is."
The storm is coming.
This time, the light in the eye of the storm is brighter than ever before.
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