The wind whipped up metal shards that stung his face. Lin Yi gripped the burning hot rune fragments, his knuckles turning white from the force.
He could clearly hear his own heartbeat overlapping with the rumbling thunder in the clouds—three days ago, deep within the spacetime rift, this fragment "fell" out of a translucent energy cocoon. At the time, Chu Yao scanned it and only said it "contains unknown civilization codes," but now it has suddenly spontaneously issued a warning, which is obviously related to the mutation of the mother nest.
"Boss." Chu Yao's voice came from the communicator, and at the same time, her projection condensed in front of everyone.
The AI lifeform's pupils were reflecting a fine stream of data, and its fingertips flew across the virtual keyboard so fast that they were just afterimages. "Connected to the residual data link between global observation satellites and the game's mainframe." She suddenly stopped, and a few strands of static electricity flashed at the edge of the projection. "The red light frequency of the rune fragments perfectly matches the tremor waves from the spacetime rift three days ago. This is a warning signal from a higher dimension—the ultimate nest... is being conceived between reality and illusion."
"Between reality and illusion?" Long Wu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, crimson flames dancing in his palm. "That thing can play hide-and-seek?" Before he finished speaking, the leaden clouds in the sky suddenly churned more violently, and a bolt of dark blue lightning struck the roof of an abandoned factory three kilometers away, instantly melting a charred hole in the metal roof.
Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe fluttered without wind. He pressed his hand to his chest, his Adam's apple bobbing twice. "This means that what we dealt with before was merely a fragment of a branch that had fallen from the Mother Nest." His fingertips unconsciously twirled his beard, each word sounding like he was chewing on a steel ball. "The true Mother Nest hasn't fully manifested yet—it's completing its final evolution in the gap between two dimensions. Once it's fully formed..." The old man suddenly coughed violently, a few wisps of eerie blue mist seeping from between his fingers—a sign of the game's main brain's residual energy going berserk. "Once it's fully formed, we won't even be able to locate its coordinates, let alone destroy it."
Steam rose from beneath Long Wu's scales. He strode up to Lin Yi, his boots grinding sparks on the metal floor. "What are we waiting for? Let's charge straight in! My dragon flames can burn through the void!" The small fireball on his shoulder suddenly swelled into a half-person-high pillar of crimson gold fire, but abruptly contracted when it touched Lin Yi's clothes—only then did Long Wu realize that his knees were trembling slightly, and he had not yet recovered from the exhaustion.
Lin Yi pressed down on Long Wu's shoulder, the scalding heat from his palm reminding him of the first time he saw the boy: a seventeen-year-old boy huddled in the ruins, protecting half a piece of moldy bread in his arms, but giving his last sip of water to an injured stray dog.
Now, those hands that once held bread are now gripping dragon flames capable of burning mountains and rivers.
He withdrew his hand, his gaze sweeping across the churning clouds in the sky before settling on Ivan's pale face—the latter was struggling to get up, but he gently pressed him down.
“It hasn’t even shown itself yet, and we don’t even know where to attack.” Lin Yi’s voice was like a steel blade immersed in ice water. “But…” He opened his hand, the red light of the rune fragment casting a distorted shadow on his palm. “Three days ago in the spacetime rift, Li Mu’s faith resonance imprint was embedded next to this fragment.” He remembered that day, the last words Li Mu’s remnant soul said to him in the rift: “If the Heavenly Mother Nest is to be revived, use my imprint… to lure it out.” At the time, he thought it was a dying wish, but now it seemed to be a trap laid out by his predecessor with his life.
Ivan suddenly grabbed Lin Yi's wrist. His palm was as cold as ice, yet it carried an undeniable strength: "When I was parasitized, the consciousness of the mother nest... contained the shadow of Li Mu." His pupils trembled slightly. "It was devouring his memories, deceiving us in his own way."
Chu Yao's projection suddenly flickered, and her voice trembled for the first time: "Energy disturbances have been detected simultaneously in seventy-two spacetime rifts around the world, synchronized with the tremor frequency of the Mother Nest Summoning Cloud." She raised her head, the data stream solidifying in her eyes, "This is... the contractions before childbirth."
Lin Yi took a deep breath. He could feel the spacetime vortex spinning wildly deep within his consciousness; it was the warning from his [Spacetime Dominator] professional instinct.
He turned and walked toward the metal box in the corner, his military boots stepping over the broken glass on the floor, each step feeling like a blow to everyone's nerves.
Long Wu was about to follow when Xuan Mingzi stopped him—the old man shook his head at him, his white hair fluttering in the wind: "Let him make the decision."
The combination lock on the metal box made a soft click, and Lin Yi took out a palm-sized bronze bell.
The bell was covered with fine runes, and the moment he touched it, pale golden patterns appeared on its surface—the resonance mark that Li Mu had carved with his soul power.
His hand holding the copper bell hovered in mid-air, and a faint hum could be clearly heard coming from inside the bell, much like someone whispering in his ear.
A sudden rumble of thunder echoed across the sky, and a bolt of dark blue lightning struck the signal tower where they were located.
Long Wu's dragon flames instantly covered his entire body, transforming into a crimson-gold shield; Xuan Mingzi flicked three runes from his fingertips, weaving a cyan light net above everyone's heads; Ivan gritted his teeth and erected a spiritual energy barrier, cold sweat seeping from his forehead.
But the lightning bolt vanished into countless points of light the instant it touched the shield.
The points of light converged into a line of blood-red text, hovering above everyone's heads: "The Mother Nest will be born in twelve hours."
Lin Yi gripped the bronze bell tightly, his fingertips gently brushing against the incantation on the bell.
He could sense that a dormant will was awakening within the bell, like a stream of spring ice melting, carrying a familiar warmth, slowly flowing over his sea of consciousness.
"Get ready." He turned to look at everyone, his eyes swirling with a vortex of time and space like a galaxy. "Twelve hours later, we will be in the gap between two dimensions, delivering the first birth to the mother nest." The moment the bronze bell trembled in Lin Yi's palm, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
That familiar will surged through his consciousness like a tide—it was Li Mu.
Three years ago, in the spacetime rift, the man who shielded him from the tentacles of the Mother Nest was now using the faintest fragments of his spiritual consciousness to outline a series of coordinates like star trails deep within his mind.
“It is…the Hill of Oblivion.” Lin Yi’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he pressed his fingertip heavily against a recessed spot on the bell, where the bloodstains Li Mu had carved with his fingernail before his death still remained.
The last image before he closed his eyes flashed back: a man covered in blood stuffed a bronze bell into his palm, his lips stained with black blood but he smiled like a child, “This thing can skin the mother nest. If it ever shrinks up... remember to use my soul as bait.”
"Boss!" Long Wu's voice hummed with metallic vibration, crimson-gold dragon scales spreading from his neck to the back of his hand. "The time turbulence coordinates have been locked! Chu Yao said she can only hold out for three minutes at most!"
Lin Yi suddenly opened his eyes, the spacetime vortex in his pupils almost overflowing his eye sockets.
He saw Chu Yao's projection being torn to pieces by the turbulence, but it was still counting in a mechanical voice: "10 - 9 - 8... The spatial anchor point has been injected, Long Wu's dragon flame can stabilize the wormhole, Ivan's psionic energy is responsible for positioning, Senior Xuanmingzi's boundary-suppressing talisman..." The voice stopped abruptly, and the last stream of data from the artificial intelligence disappeared into the spacetime watch on his wrist.
"Go!" Lin Yi gripped the bronze bell tightly, and with his other hand grabbed Ivan's wrist—the latter's fingertips were uncontrollably oozing beads of dark blue blood, a sequela left over from parasitizing the mother nest.
Dragon Five's dragon flames instantly enveloped the four of them, the crimson-gold light so bright it was blinding, and a sound like shattering glass reached their ears—the turbulent flow of time tearing apart the boundary between reality and illusion.
Upon landing, Long Wu's knees slammed heavily against the charred rocks.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and when he looked up, his pupils contracted in shock at the sight before him—the so-called "ruins" were nothing more than a collapsed crater, its surface covered with dark purple tentacles, each of which was oozing a sticky, fluorescent liquid. The air was filled with the stench of rotting sandalwood, much like the religious pollution in the altar of the newbie village three years ago.
“It…is already here.” Xuanmingzi’s Taoist robe was lifted by the putrid wind. His fingertips were pressed against his brow, and a wisp of white smoke rose from his forehead—that was the residual computing power of the game’s main brain scanning the composition of the air.
The old man's voice was colder than the mountain wind, "The cellular structure of these tentacles... is exactly the same as the fragments of the mother nest branches, except..." He suddenly stopped, his gaze sweeping over the bronze bell in Lin Yi's palm, "except that it has the imprint of Li Mu's faith."
Ivan abruptly shook off Lin Yi's hand and staggered toward the nearest tentacle.
Just as his pale fingertips were about to touch the purple liquid, his tentacles suddenly curled up like a living thing, etching three charred characters into the rock: "Sacrifice Arrives."
"Step back!" Lin Yi teleported in front of Ivan, and the seven floating Space-Time Keys suddenly emitted a buzzing sound.
He could feel the rune fragments heating up in his storage ring, their resonance with the Seven Keys tearing through the air—a semi-transparent rift unfolded before them, with countless points of light floating deep within, much like stardust at the birth of the universe.
“This is the path to the core.” Lin Yi turned to look at everyone, his hair whipping wildly in the turbulent currents within the rift. “The mother nest needs absolute dimensional shielding during incubation, so it chose this place as its birthing room.” He rubbed the bronze bell with his thumb, his voice tinged with coldness. “But Li Mu’s mark was faster—he used his faith power to carve a hole in the eggshell of the mother nest.”
Long Wu condensed the crimson flames into a long spear, the tip of which pointed directly at the crack: "I'll lead the charge!"
Xuan Mingzi stopped him, a faint blue light flashing in his eyes beneath his white hair: "Let Lin Yi go first. The core resonance of the Mother Nest only recognizes Mythical-level professionals; his spacetime power can..."
"No need to explain." Lin Yi interrupted the old man and stepped into the crevice.
As soon as his figure disappeared, Long Wu leaped in, his dragon flames leaving a trail of crimson-gold light behind him; Ivan gritted his teeth and followed closely behind, his spiritual power condensing into an ice shield around him; Xuan Mingzi entered last, flicking out nine boundary-suppressing talismans from his fingertips, weaving a golden light net at the entrance of the rift.
The anomaly occurred the instant all four stepped inside.
The entire ruins suddenly trembled violently. Amidst the rumbling of rocks cracking, a deep, metallic sound came from the depths of the crevice. Each word struck the minds of everyone like a heavy hammer: "Welcome, Lin Yi... Your faith will become the nourishment for my rebirth."
The tremor lasted for three seconds. When everyone regained their footing, the scene before them had been completely transformed. They were standing on the edge of an altar made of pale golden light particles. In the center of the altar floated a semi-transparent cocoon. A human figure could be vaguely seen inside the cocoon. Above the cocoon, a bronze bell was floating. The bloodstains on the bell were now oozing a strange purplish-black liquid.
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