The emergency lights in the laboratory cast dark red spots on the ceiling. Lin Yi leaned against the metal wall of the energy capsule, his fingertips digging deeply into his palms.
He could hear his own heartbeat as if it were soaking in honey, slow and sticky—the most direct manifestation of the aftereffects of time travel.
As the master of time and space, he should have been a trendsetter in the river of time, but at this moment he was like a fish being slammed against a reef by the waves, every nerve trembling in protest.
"Attempt to synchronize with the frequency of faith." Aizen's voice came from the left, carrying the low rumble unique to spiritual pressure.
His palm remained pressed against the Hogyoku on Lin Yi's wrist, his knuckles white from the pressure. "I'll use my spiritual pressure as an anchor point for you. Try to re-weave the disordered lines of law..."
Before he could finish speaking, Lin Yi suddenly gasped.
The dark patterns on the surface of the Hōgyoku resembled a lit fuse, with golden and black light flowing wildly through the patterns.
The world before his eyes suddenly distorted, the outline of the laboratory began to blur, and Aizen's concerned face, Su Qing's fingertips tapping on the holographic keyboard, and the static electricity jumping in Chu Yao's hair all turned into phantom images on the background.
Fragments of memory.
The moment this understanding took shape in my mind, the image became clear—
In the bluish-gray void, Xuanmingzi stood with his back to him.
The game's mastermind was no longer the composed Taoist priest he usually was. Half of his face was covered in silver data streams, while the other half displayed the texture of human flesh, his pupils swirling with starlight: "If chaos is unavoidable..." His voice, like two metal plates rubbing together, resonated with a dual vibration of machinery and humanity, "Then let order be reborn."
The scene abruptly ended.
Lin Yi's temples throbbed, and cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck and into his collar.
He gripped the Hōgyoku tightly, the metallic chill piercing his bones through his skin: "This is... his memories from before he was sealed?"
"Residual consciousness projection detected inside the Hogyoku." Su Qing's voice came from the right. Her fingertips hovered in front of the holographic screen, and the silver data chains in her hair suddenly stood upright. "When your faith link became disordered, a memory reading protocol was unconsciously triggered." Strings of code flowed through the pupils of this data-body girl. "Do you need me to retrieve more fragments?"
"Not for now." Lin Yi took a deep breath, forcing his mind to snap out of the shock.
He looked at Su Qing's holographic projection—on the screen behind her, Night Owl's future projection data and Xuan Mingzi's encrypted information were being cross-referenced, with green and red data streams constantly colliding. "Process Night Owl's stuff first."
"Comparison complete." Su Qing's fingertips suddenly stopped, the data link above her head exploding into tiny starlight fragments—a sign of her emotional fluctuation. "Mr. Lin, look at this timeline." She pulled up two overlapping timelines. "The 'interdimensional invasion outbreak period' deduced by Night Owl perfectly matches the 'order reshaping start date' in Xuan Mingzi's encrypted message..."
The air in the laboratory suddenly froze.
Aizen withdrew his hand from the Hogyoku, his knuckles trembling slightly at his side.
He stared at the two overlapping timelines, his Adam's apple bobbing: "You mean... Xuanmingzi knew all along that Night Owl would come?"
"Not only do you know." Su Qing pulled up an encrypted conversation record. The speaker's voiceprint matched Xuan Mingzi's perfectly. "In his log three months ago, he wrote: 'Guiding that master of time and space to the center of the storm, his laws are the sharpest carving knife.'"
'\"
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
He recalled that three days ago, deep within the ruins, Xuanmingzi had said, "Some paths must be walked alone." He also recalled the spacetime crystal core that the other party had deliberately left behind when repairing the spacetime rift last week—it turned out that those seemingly random "hints" were all precisely calculated guidance.
\"bite--\"
Chu Yao's projection suddenly flickered twice, and the static electricity at the ends of her hair turned a blinding red: "The results of Aizen-sensei's spiritual pressure detection are out!"
"Below the ruins of the Mother Nest..." Her voice, unusually trembling, trembled. "An energy vortex with a diameter of three kilometers has been detected. Its structural characteristics match the 'rule anchor point' description in 'Dimensional Rule Theory'."
Aizen immediately turned and walked to the control panel, his fingertips tracing spiritual pressure paths in the air.
His spiritual pressure was deep blue, like shattered starlight, solidifying on the detector's surface: "Rule anchors... the cornerstones used to fix the rules of new dimensions." His voice deepened, "Combined with Xuan Mingzi's memory fragments... he didn't intend to destroy the world, he intended to..."
"Reshape the rule system," Lin Yi interjected.
He gazed at the darkening sky outside the window—the sky in the direction of the Brood Ruins was tinged with an unnatural purple, like a curtain forcibly torn open by some force. "Destroy the old order with chaos, and then anchor the new order with rules."
"And me..." He reached for the tactical knife at his waist. The character "破" (break/destroy) engraved by Long Wu on the hilt was still warm from his body. "It was the knife he used to tear apart the old order."
The laboratory alarm sounded again.
Chu Yao's projection was covered by a red data stream, barely maintaining a human form: "Dragon Five Squad has arrived at the underground entrance of the Mother Nest Ruins, vital signs..." Her voice suddenly distorted, "Abnormal!"
Multiple life signals highly similar to Long Wu were detected; thermal imaging showed...
"Get to the point." Lin Yi's tactical knife was already three inches from its sheath, the cold light reflecting off the blade dancing in his eyes.
"They encountered...a clone on the third basement level." Before Chu Yao's projection shattered completely, her last words were as clear as an icicle: "A clone exactly like Long Wu."
A brief silence fell over the laboratory.
Lin Yi gazed at the surging purple mist in the direction of the Mother Nest ruins outside the window and slowly sheathed his tactical knife.
He could feel the black light in the Hōgyoku on his wrist wriggle a little more, but he just lowered his head and smoothed out the blade marks on the tactical knife—they were sharpened by Long Wu himself, and every scratch carried the warmth of his comrade-in-arms.
"Notify Long Wu." His voice was like a sword tempered in a cold pool. "Have him take the projector and retreat to the fourth basement level. I marked the structure there three days ago." When he looked up, the golden light in his pupils had sharpened again. "Aizen, prepare the spiritual pressure amplifier; Su Qing, analyze the coordinates of the rule anchor points; Chu Yao..." He looked at the newly formed projection, "Keep an eye on the energy source of those clones."
In a corner unseen by everyone, the black light within the hidden patterns of the Hōgyoku suddenly surged, rushing along Lin Yi's blood vessels toward his heart.
Within that glimmer of black light, half of Xuan Mingzi's face could be vaguely seen, bearing a smile that bordered on reverence: "Very good, you're finally beginning to understand."
The emergency lights on the third basement level cast dim yellow spots of light on the damp stone walls. When Long Wu's tactical knife collided with the blade of the clone, the sparks that flew almost burned his eyes.
This is the seventh—no, the eighth—encounter.
"Same as always, you go left!" came the shout from teammate Ah Hu behind him, his voice filled with his usual hot-bloodedness.
Long Wu instinctively turned half a step to the side, but the enemy who was expected to flank from the right did not appear. Instead, a tactical knife with the same "broken" character engraved on it stabbed from his left blind spot, precisely pressing against his ribs three inches below the waist—the location of the old wound he had sustained three months ago while saving his teammates.
"Damn it!" Long Wu gritted his teeth and rolled on the ground, his tactical knife making a piercing sound as it scraped the ground.
When he looked up, the clone opposite him was showing the same cold smile as him, even the two-centimeter scar on his brow bone was exactly the same.
What sent chills down his spine even further was that the four team members behind the clone were also using their most familiar code: "Team Leader Dragon, reinforcements have arrived!" That was the lie Ah Hu told to stabilize morale during the last encirclement and suppression of the mutated beasts.
"Shut up, all of you!" Long Wu roared, and the blade suddenly grew three inches longer.
His move, "Cloud-Piercing Slash," was meant to be a killing move when the enemy was distracted, but the clone's blade seemed to have anticipated this and was positioned horizontally in mid-air. Amidst the clanging of metal, Long Wu heard the cracking sound of his own joints—this clone seemed to know better than him how much wrist strength was needed to cleave through the defense.
\"team leader!
"They know our weaknesses!" Ah Hu's scream came from the right.
Long Wu turned his head and saw the clone Ah Hu's dagger plunge into the real Ah Hu's shoulder socket, the very spot Ah Hu had exposed to protect his head during each charge.
Blood splattered on the stone wall like a blooming flower of evil, and Long Wu's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
At the same moment, the holographic screen in the laboratory suddenly emitted a piercing sound.
Chu Yao's hairline exploded into a blinding purple with a data link, her fingertips leaving afterimages in the air: "Cracking progress 97%...98%..." She suddenly stopped, the data link hanging from her head, condensing into a twisted silver vortex in front of her chest, "The command source...is not Night Owl's lingering regret!"
Lin Yi's hand, which was gripping the Hogyoku, tightened suddenly, and the dark patterns on the surface of the Hogyoku began to heat up: "What?"
"These are fragments of Xuan Mingzi's consciousness!" Chu Yao's projection was almost transparent, yet her voice was as clear as an icicle. "The control protocols of these clones are embedded with his law codes. Every command is testing the 'synchronization rate'—he's using humans as experiments to test the stability of the 'order cycle'!"
The air in the laboratory instantly dropped to freezing point.
Aizen's spiritual pressure solidified into a tangible starlight in his palm, yet he remained motionless; on Su Qing's holographic screen, all data streams suddenly flowed backward, a sign of her intense emotional fluctuations; Lin Yi's tactical knife hummed softly, the word "broken" on the hilt burning hot under his grip.
"Damn it!" Aizen suddenly slammed his fist on the control panel, his spiritual pressure exploding and shattering half the screen. "He said he was guiding us, but he was just using us as guinea pigs?"
"No." Lin Yi's voice was three octaves lower than usual. He gazed out the window at the surging purple mist towards the ruins of the Mother Nest. The black light from the Hogyoku was drilling into his heart through his veins, bringing a burning pain. "He's gambling."
Before he finished speaking, the air in the laboratory suddenly distorted.
Xuanmingzi's figure emerged from the torrent of data, half of his face still made of flesh and blood, the other half covered in silver data streams.
His gaze swept over the crowd, finally settling on Lin Yi with a hint of pity: "You all think I'm controlling everything?" His voice was no longer a clash between machine and humanity, but carried an ancient sigh, "No... I'm just preventing an even more terrible ending."
"What's the ending?" Lin Yi took half a step forward, his tactical knife already drawn.
Xuan Mingzi didn't answer. He raised his hand and gestured, a string of dark golden coordinates appearing in the air: "Go there, and you will see the answer." His figure began to dissipate, but the half-face of the data stream suddenly revealed a relieved smile: "Remember, the rebirth of order comes at a price... and you are the only one who can make that price worthwhile."
"Wait!" Chu Yao's data link suddenly entangled the disappearing figure. "What exactly is this 'more terrifying ending' you mentioned?"
The only response she received was the roar of the data deluge.
The moment Xuanmingzi completely disappeared, all the equipment in the laboratory emitted a blinding white light. When the light faded, the coordinates remained suspended in place, like some kind of ancient prophecy.
Lin Yi reached out and caught the coordinates. The moment his fingertips touched them, a sharp pain shot from his temple to the back of his neck—he saw a bronze door, engraved with patterns of spatial rifts, awakening deep beneath the Mother Nest. Behind the door was surging chaos, and he could vaguely hear the sighs of countless civilizations.
"Su Qing, locate these coordinates." Lin Yi's voice was as steady as a precisely calculated gear. He input the coordinates into the holographic screen, and the red dot on the 3D map of the Mother Nest's underground continuously magnified, finally stopping at a node on the twelfth underground level. "Chu Yao, hack into the Mother Nest's defense system and open a passage to the twelfth underground level for me; Aizen, prepare the spiritual pressure barrier, the control source of those clones might be on the twelfth level; Long Wu..." He brought up Long Wu's real-time location, twirling his tactical knife in his palm with a beautiful flourish, "Take your people and retreat to the fifth underground level. I'll come to pick you up personally."
The purple mist outside the window grew thicker, as if an invisible hand was tearing the sky apart.
Lin Yi stared at the flashing red dots on the holographic screen—those were the coordinates left by Xuan Mingzi, and also the secret of the deepest part of the Mother Nest.
He could feel the black light within the Hogyoku cheering, hear the spatial rift beckoning, and clearly realize that the truth of the so-called "rebirth of order" would soon be revealed behind that door.
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