Moonlight cast dappled shadows on the ivy-covered exterior walls. Lin Yi stood behind a bush ten meters away from the research institute, a metallic taste rising in his throat.
The aftereffects of forcibly reversing time and space are rushing upwards along my meridians; every breath feels like tiny needles pricking my lungs.
He glanced down at his watch—2:17 a.m., the time when the human biological clock is most fatigued, and also the best time to infiltrate.
"Chu Yao, outer perimeter security confirmed?" He spoke, suppressing a cough, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the hilt of the Blade of Time and Space.
The knife was now as cool as a living thing, transmitting data on the flow of time within a three-kilometer radius through the skin.
"Thermal imaging shows no moving heat source, and the electromagnetic barrier frequency is 0.7 Hz, consistent with the blockade agreement announced by the military three years ago." Chu Yao's projection appeared beside him, the data stream at the tips of her hair condensing into pale blue operators. "But... there's a frequency fluctuation point in the southeast corner." She suddenly tilted her head, the blue light from the tactical tablet casting tiny spots of light in her pupils. "A 0.3-second gap, just enough for four human-sized individuals to pass through."
Long Wu's battle sword was already drawn, the back of the blade lightly tapping Lin Yi's back: "I'll lead, you take the middle." His voice was low, yet like a hardened stone, "I haven't recovered from the self-destruction of those shadowy figures, if you dare to hurt you again..." The second half of his sentence was swallowed back down. He reached out and tugged at Lin Yi's blood-stained clothes, the movement rough yet tinged with a hint of caution.
Ivan suddenly raised his hand and pressed down on Long Wu's shoulder.
The man, whose left eye still bore a purple tinge from being parasitized by the core of the Hive, squinted as he looked towards the second floor of the research institute: "The smell is off." He sniffed, his Adam's apple bobbing twice. "There's a metallic smell, and... burnt nerve synapses." His fingers unconsciously dug into his palm, where scars from energy blast fragments still lingered. "...and the smell of the Hive lab when I was parasitized."
Xuanmingzi's talisman suddenly exploded into sparks at his fingertips.
The man, always dressed in a Taoist robe, was staring intently at the research institute's entrance, his brows furrowed beneath his Taoist hat. "The flow of time is disordered." He raised his right hand, a spinning hourglass phantom appearing in his palm. "The normal ratio is 1:1, but here... locally it's 1:0.8." He turned to Lin Yi, his eyes filled with barely concealed wariness. "Someone's adjusting the time parameters. Perhaps they've noticed us?"
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
He could clearly feel the restlessness of the spacetime power within his body, like a swarm of fireflies trapped in a cage, frantically pounding against his meridians. "It's a trap," he murmured, but without any intention of retreating—the files from Project Dawn three years ago surged in his mind; those research logs marked as destroyed in the "meteorite accident" suddenly overlapped with the symbiote that Chu Yao had described as 97% similar. "But we must go in."
He took a deep breath and bit his tongue.
Fresh blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, blooming into a small red flower on the ground.
The Blade of Time and Space hummed, creating a layer of pale golden ripples. Within a five-meter radius centered on him, the flow of time began to distort.
Long Wu's battle sword suddenly stopped halfway up, Ivan's eyelashes froze in mid-air, and even the data stream in Chu Yao's projection solidified into amber-colored threads.
"Three seconds." Lin Yi gritted his teeth and chanted the incantation, veins bulging on his forehead. "Enough time for us to get through."
In the instant time began to flow again, everyone's figures were already pressed against the rusty metal door of the research institute.
With a light flick of Long Wu's sword, the lock cylinder made a crisp sound.
The door hinges groaned shrilly, startling several crows that were perched under the eaves.
Lin Yi's back tensed instantly—but there was no alarm, no searchlights, only stale air carrying a musty smell, like an icy hand gripping everyone's throats.
"Something's not right." Ivan walked forward, feeling his way along the wall, his fingertip scraping a speck of dust off the plaster. "The research institute was sealed off ten years ago; the walls are at most three years old in terms of oxidation." He looked up at the ceiling, where the mold patches radiated out in a regular pattern. "Mold needs humidity and nutrients to grow; it's too dry here."
Chu Yao's projection suddenly flashed to the front, the beam of light from the tactical tablet sweeping across the ground: "Footprints." She crouched down, the beam tracing several blurry shoe prints on the concrete. "Size 42, rubber sole, left within the last three days." Her fingertips rapidly tapped the tablet, data condensing into a three-dimensional model in the air, "Matching the tread pattern of the combat boots worn by the shadowy figure who attacked civilians in downtown Jiangcheng last month."
Lin Yi's breathing suddenly became heavier.
He drew the Blade of Time and Space, the blade drawing translucent ripples in the air—not an attack, but a probe.
The power of time spread along the blade, and wherever it passed, the mold on the walls began to peel off, revealing brand-new metal plates underneath; the cobwebs on the ceiling suddenly contracted, shrinking into several fist-sized black balls, which rolled into the ventilation ducts.
"This place has been disguised," he said, his voice cold. "The true state has been concealed using time magic."
Long Wu's sword slammed against the wall with a "clang".
The crisp sound of metal clashing echoed through the empty research institute, making one's eardrums ache.
The slashed plaster fell away, revealing an alloy plate with a faint blue luster underneath—it was "Starfall Alloy," used only in the military's top-secret laboratories, capable of blocking all electromagnetic waves and mental detection.
"Go to the third basement level." Lin Yi suddenly spoke, his temples throbbing. The power of spacetime was telling him about an anomaly at a certain coordinate. "The main server for Project Dawn should be there."
The group went down the emergency staircase.
The further down you go, the stronger the burnt smell in the air becomes.
Upon reaching the second basement level, Ivan suddenly stopped. The purple spot in his left eye twitched violently, as if something was struggling beneath his skin: "There's...something alive ahead."
Long Wu immediately stood in front of Lin Yi, his battle sword held horizontally in front of his chest.
But when they turned the corner, they didn't see the enemy—but a row of neatly arranged incubation chambers, with twenty human bodies floating in a pale green liquid.
Their faces were exactly the same as the shadowy figures that had been killed earlier, and each of them had a silver tube inserted into the back of their neck, with the other end of the tube connected to a metal connector on the wall.
Chu Yao's projection blurred and then reformed instantly. Her fingertips trembled as they traced the nearest incubation chamber: "Vitality signs stable." She brought up the spectral analysis, "But the brainwaves are abnormal. Delta and gamma waves are active simultaneously, which is... a characteristic of consciousness being forcibly fragmented." She suddenly looked up, the data stream in her eyes surging wildly, "These tubes are extracting their brainwaves!"
"The opposite of the parasitic mode of the mother nest." Xuanmingzi walked to the incubation chamber and placed his hand on the glass.
The talisman seeped from his palm, drawing a six-pointed star on the glass. "The Mother Nest uses viruses to erode consciousness; here... it feeds something with consciousness." His voice suddenly tightened. "The talisman is burning hot; this is... the remnant of faith."
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He recalled a photo he had seen in military archives three years ago—Researchers from Project Dawn kneeling in the center of the laboratory, their foreheads touching the ground, with a pale golden mist floating behind them.
The file notes state: "Subjects voluntarily dedicated their faith, resulting in a 300% increase in consciousness intensity." However, the accident report states that the light mist suddenly materialized into a meteorite, destroying the entire laboratory.
"Chu Yao, find the terminal," he said, his voice laced with suppressed anger. "I need to know what they're feeding them."
Chu Yao's projection flashed to the control panel at the end of the corridor.
Her fingertips danced across the dusty keyboard, and data streams darted into the interface like silver snakes.
The console screen suddenly lit up, the blinding white light causing everyone to instinctively close their eyes.
When I opened my eyes again, a surveillance video was playing on the screen—in the video, researchers from ten years ago were wearing white coats and implanting a rhomboid crystal into the back of a subject's neck.
The crystal shimmered with the same eerie blue light as the shadowy body, while the researchers wore almost fanatical smiles.
"Project codename 'New God'." Chu Yao's voice suddenly changed, and her projection stuttered for the first time. "The goal is to cultivate symbiotes using human consciousness, ultimately... creating a vessel capable of holding a god." She pulled up a financial statement. "The transaction records show that 'Dark Moon Company,' the predecessor of Mother Nest Technology, made payments here for three consecutive years, each payment being fifty million US dollars."
Lin Yi felt a fire burning in his chest.
He recalled the city corrupted by the Mother Nest virus, the civilians turned into zombies, and the eyes peering from the interdimensional rifts he saw when he first used the power of time and space.
It turns out everything was connected all along. The Mother Nest was just a test subject they put on the stage; the real mastermind was hiding deeper inside.
"Let's go," he said, his voice as cold as an icicle. "To the third basement level."
Just as everyone was about to turn around, Xuanmingzi suddenly froze in place.
His Taoist robes billowed without wind, and talismans swirled wildly around him, as if forcibly pulled by some force. "Wait." He looked up at the ceiling, his pupils reflecting countless tiny electrical currents. "These devices... shouldn't still be working." His voice trembled. "A ten-year-old circuit system couldn't possibly support both the monitoring and cultivation chambers operating simultaneously." He turned to Lin Yi, his eyes filled with an unprecedented fear. "Someone is remotely controlling them."
The lights in the research institute suddenly went out.
In the darkness, the liquid in the incubation chamber began to boil, making a bubbling sound.
From some distant place, the sound of metal gears turning could be heard, as if some enormous creature had just opened its eyes.
Darkness, like a cloth soaked in ink, instantly enveloped everyone's vision.
Lin Yi felt a fine layer of cold sweat on the back of his neck—this was no ordinary power outage. He could clearly feel the power of spacetime condensing into ice crystals in his nasal cavity, indicating that an external force had forcibly interfered with the flow of time in the power system.
"Chu Yao, backup light source." His voice was two octaves lower than usual. His right hand rested on the hilt of the Time-Space Blade, his fingertips tracing the star patterns on the guard. "Long Wu, protect the left side; Ivan, olfactory coverage radius of ten meters; Xuan Mingzi, deploy defensive talismans." The commands exploded like a machine gun, each word carrying a calmness etched into his very bones—three years ago, when he was besieged in the Mother Nest Laboratory, he did the same, using a three-second time freeze to save half of Chu Yao's data core.
Long Wu twirled his battle sword in his palm, the sparks from the blade illuminating his taut jawline: "I'm here." He took half a step to Lin Yi's side, his shoulders and back taut like an iron shield.
Ivan's Adam's apple bobbed twice, and the purple spot on his left eye suddenly merged into an eerie purple mist.
He bent down close to the ground, his nose almost touching the cement: "There's a gear sound to the north, 12 Hz." He stretched out his dusty finger and drew a semicircle in the air: "Mechanical patrol units, at least two, are moving towards the second basement level."
Xuanmingzi's talisman suddenly emitted nine golden rays, which wove into a net above everyone's heads.
His fingers, hidden beneath his Taoist robe, were forming the Meridian Seal, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. "Something is tearing my talismans apart." He looked up at the dark ceiling. "It's spiritual energy, carrying... the sticky feeling of faith."
Chu Yao's projection suddenly lit up with a ghostly blue light, and the cold white beam of light from the tactical tablet cleaved through the darkness.
Her fingers flew across the tablet, the data stream at the ends of her hair condensing into sharp arrows: "There's an independent power supply system on the third underground level!" Her voice carried the tension characteristic of a mechanical tone, "Coordinates (b - 7 - 3), the main control console has 5% remaining power, enough to support image reading!"
"Let's go." Lin Yi's palms were sweaty, and the Blade of Time and Space suddenly became hot—it was warning of impending danger.
He rushed towards the stairwell first, his boot heels striking rapid drumbeats on the steps.
Long Wu followed closely behind, his battle blade slicing through the air at his side; Ivan bent low, hugging the wall, avoiding the shadows with every step; Xuan Mingzi's talismans floated above the group like fireflies, their golden light scorching holes in the darkness.
The metal door on the third basement level was covered with a thumb-thick iron chain, but it was as brittle as paper under Long Wu's battle blade.
The air inside the door carried the acrid smell of burning, mixed with a hint of sweetness and fishiness—the smell of high-frequency current breaking down circuit boards.
Ivan suddenly grabbed Lin Yi's sleeve, his left eye swirling with purple mist: "Stop." He pointed to the ventilation duct on the right, "There's a thermal reaction inside, the temperature is 37.2°C, the same as human body temperature."
"Mechanical patrol unit?" Long Wu raised his sword to his shoulder.
“No.” Ivan closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, his pupils gleaming with an eerie silver-gray. “They are androids, with nanofibers embedded under their skin, and their heartbeats… sound like the second hand of a clock.” He suddenly crouched down and wiped some dust on the ground. “They just passed by here, three minutes ago.”
The group crouched low and moved forward, hugging the wall.
As we rounded two bends, a "click" came from the overhead air vent.
Long Wu's sword slashed at the source of the sound almost reflexively, but only struck a wisp of air—a mechanical eyeball was retracting from the vent, and a red scanning light swept across everyone's faces.
"We've been discovered." Chu Yao's projection suddenly distorted. "The main control panel's energy has surged!"
Lin Yi's temples throbbed.
He shook off Long Wu's hand and ran wildly—in his perception of the power of spacetime, the location of the main control panel was like a red-hot coal, extinguishing at a visible speed.
As his fingertips touched the metal casing of the main control panel, the last 0.1% of energy surged into the Space-Time Blade.
The holographic image exploded above everyone's heads.
The researcher in the picture has bloodstains on his white lab coat, his gold-rimmed glasses are cracked in two, and his right hand is pressed against his chest, where there is a charred hole—as if it was pierced by some kind of energy weapon.
“If the ‘Faith Project’ fails…” His voice crackled with static, yet was sharp and piercingly clear, “then let the ‘Rebirth Project’ inherit its will.” He suddenly looked up, his pupils reflecting something from outside the scene, his expression shifting from madness to terror, “They…they’ve crawled out of the cracks! Those crystals are speaking, saying they want to—”
The screen went black with a "sizzle".
The entire research institute suddenly emitted a metallic, groaning sound.
The alarm blared like scraping glass, piercing everyone's eardrums, while red warning lights flashed wildly in the corridor.
Lin Yi's Space-Time Blade suddenly trembled violently. He could feel something drilling upwards from the ground, tearing apart the barrier of space-time with every inch of it.
"Ventilator!" Ivan's roar blared amidst the alarm.
Everyone looked up—a pale blue mist was pouring out of all the vents, writhing like a living thing, condensing into translucent tentacles in the air.
Tiny rhomboid crystals floated in the mist, each one gleaming with the same eerie blue luster as the black shadow's neck tube.
A metallic taste rose in Lin Yi's throat.
He suddenly grabbed Chu Yao's projection, the data stream stinging his palm: "This is... the initial form of a consciousness symbiote?"
“98% match.” Chu Yao’s voice trembled for the first time, “They are absorbing brainwaves from the air… they are evolving.”
Long Wu's battle blade cleaved through a cloud of mist, only to see the mist reform within the blade's wind, its tendrils instead wrapping around the blade.
Xuanmingzi's talisman went forward, but the golden light was swallowed up by the mist like a mud ox sinking into the sea.
"Retreat!" Lin Yi dragged everyone towards the door, the Blade of Time and Space drawing a pale golden barrier in front of them.
But just as they rushed to the stairwell, the metal door slammed down, completely blocking their way out.
Pale blue mist was spreading throughout the entire floor at a visible speed.
The foremost tentacles had already brushed against Ivan's hand, and he cried out in pain as purple spots immediately appeared on his skin—exactly the same as the wounds he had when he was parasitized by the Mother Nest.
Amidst the sirens, a mechanical, synthesized voice announced a countdown: "Emergency lockdown procedure initiated, 00:59:59..."
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