When the dark gold patterns on the ground suddenly lit up beneath everyone's feet, the hairs on the back of Lin Yi's neck stood on end before he even realized it.
"Retreat—" He had barely uttered a word when the metal ground beneath his feet shattered like glass from a giant hammer, spiderweb-like cracks spreading wildly from the altar's center.
As soon as Long Wu's boots rolled over a crack, the entire ground suddenly collapsed, and the feeling of weightlessness gripped everyone's hearts like a giant hand.
"Grab her!" Chu Yao's scream was torn apart by the sound of the wind.
Lin Yi instinctively reached out and grabbed the wrist of the person beside him, his palm touching a soft, delicate skin—it was Chu Yao.
The moment he looked down, their eyes met.
The girl's pupils trembled slightly as she fell, her bangs were blown wildly by the air currents, and her eyelashes were still stained with specks of sweat from when she dodged the black flames.
"Hold on tight!" Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed, and his knuckles turned white from the force.
He could clearly feel the warmth emanating from his palm, more real than the body temperature of any NPC in the game, and he could even count the pulse beating on Chu Yao's wrist—the frequency of which strangely overlapped with his own heartbeat.
"Long Wu!" came Xuan Mingzi's furious shout from above.
Long Wu's dragon roar pierced through the wind, and the piece of his battle blade that had been shattered by the night owl suddenly glowed with golden light, actually forming a dragon claw phantom in mid-air, which fiercely gripped the metal wall at the edge of the collapse.
The shadowy figure's dagger pierced the wall like a nail, and dark gold blood seeped out along the blade, weaving a spiderweb-like energy barrier above the heads of the falling crowd.
"Bang!"
The fall lasted three seconds, but it felt like three centuries.
As everyone crashed onto the slippery ground, a pungent, sour smell instantly filled their nostrils.
Lin Yi quickly rolled on the ground to dissipate the force, but could still feel something corroding his tactical uniform on his back, making a hissing sound.
He looked up and saw that dark green liquid was seeping from the surrounding walls. The liquid would rise up with blue smoke when it touched the ground, and even the metal was corroded with honeycomb-like holes.
"Venom Corrosion Zone!" Chu Yao's terminal cracked when it hit the ground. She rubbed her aching elbow as she got up, but Lin Yi pulled her behind him.
The girl's forehead rested against his shoulder, and she could hear the rapid heartbeat emanating from his chest, even faster than when he had fallen.
"Everyone, move closer!" Lin Yi pulled off his tactical belt and gathered everyone in the middle.
Long Wu's dragon scales were gleaming faintly, and each scale was oozing pale golden dragon blood, forming a semi-circular barrier around everyone—the venom dripping onto the dragon blood produced a crackling sound similar to burning.
Xuanmingzi formed a hand seal, and the fire within his fingertips danced, evaporating the approaching poison into white mist.
The shadowy figure crouched, drawing intricate runes on the ground with his dagger. As each rune lit up, venom was drawn back into the cracks in the wall.
“This is the mother hive’s secondary defense.” Chu Yao’s voice trembled slightly but remained clear-headed. She tilted her head back, her chin only a fist’s distance from Lin Yi’s. “What was cut off just now was the main energy source, but the secondary system uses… uses bio-energy!” She suddenly grabbed Lin Yi’s tactical vest. “Look at the walls! There are Night Owl gene chains in that slime!”
Lin Yi looked in the direction she was pointing.
Sure enough, fine black crystal fragments, as thin as hair, floated in the dark green venom, each one faintly glowing and wriggling like living things.
His hourglass emblem burned on his chest, a warning from the power of time and space of danger.
"Back off!" the dark figure suddenly hissed.
As soon as the group moved, several black spikes "poof" shot out from the venom outlet on the left wall—the very form of condensed owl flames.
As the black thorns pierced through the air, Chu Yao instinctively gripped Lin Yi's clothes tightly, her nails almost digging into his flesh, but loosened slightly the moment they touched his skin, as if afraid of hurting him.
This subtle movement startled Lin Yi.
He recalled that three days ago in the spacetime rift, Chu Yao knelt for six hours in the turbulent energy flow to repair the damaged teleportation array. At that time, her nails dug into her palms, but she didn't utter a sound.
At this moment, her hands were as soft as cotton, and he could even feel the thin calluses on her palms—marks left from years of typing on the terminal.
"Close your eyes." Lin Yi suddenly lowered his head and covered Chu Yao's face with his tactical helmet.
The next second, his pupils shimmered with a galaxy-like light pattern, and the white light of the hourglass emblem spread from his arm to his fingertips.
The power of spacetime condensed into a vortex in his palm. The black thorns suddenly turned as soon as they touched the edge of the vortex and "plop plop" pierced into the venom outlet on the right wall.
"Spatial distortion!" Xuanmingzi's Li Huo paused. Long Wu's dragon blood barrier expanded due to this power, and even the approaching venom was deflected by the distorted space, forming a green liquid vortex above everyone's heads.
"So...so strong." Chu Yao's voice was muffled inside the helmet, with a slightly distorted softness.
She could feel Lin Yi's body temperature through his tactical uniform, a hundred times more real than the virtual touch in the game, and she could even smell the faint scent of gunpowder mixed with pine wood on him—a scent that only exists in reality.
"Go!" Lin Yi grabbed Chu Yao's wrist and rushed into the gap in the venom vortex.
Long Wu led the way, his dragon claw phantoms smashing all the black thorns blocking his path; Xuan Mingzi's Li Huo exploded above his head, burning a passage through the venom wall that was trying to close; the black shadow brought up the rear, leaving dark gold runes on the ground with each step, slowing down the venom's pursuit.
As the group smashed open the last metal door, a furious roar of a night owl came from behind them.
The sound shook the ceiling, causing dust to fall in a flurry and even ripples to appear in the air.
"Chase them! Grind their bones to ashes!"
Lin Yi, panting with his hands on his knees, turned to look at Chu Yao.
The girl's face was flushed from the intense running, and her hair was still dripping with evaporated venom. But when she met his gaze, she quickly looked away, her fingertips unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes.
Just as he was about to speak, the shadowy figure's dagger suddenly pressed against a spot on the wall—there was a raised piece of metal engraved with seven extremely fine lines, the curvature of which was exactly the same as the runes in Su Qing's memory fragments.
"Seven...?" Chu Yao's terminal suddenly beeped. When she looked up, her eyes met Lin Yi's, and they both saw the same sharp glint in each other's eyes.
A soft sound of liquid flowing came from behind the wall, as if something slumbering had been awakened.
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