Beneath the metal dome, dark red energy surged like a river of blood through the grooves in the walls.
The moment Lin Yi stepped into the core area, his ears rang—hundreds of faint shrieks pierced through the protective spiritual patterns and went straight for his sea of consciousness.
His pupils contracted slightly as he saw nearly a hundred translucent figures floating around the dark purple sphere. Bluish-gray mist seeped from their eye sockets and chests, gathering into scythes that wrapped around their fingertips.
"The Soul Hunter Legion!" Su Qing's light panel vibrated on his wrist. "These are the corrupted consciousnesses of high-level job changers, specializing in breaking through mental defenses!"
Long Wu's Molten Gold Gauntlets have already unleashed their first strike.
He leaped into the air, his scaled arms ablaze with crimson flames. His fist collided with the nearest gray-mist scythe, sending sparks flying: "Forget about souls, my fists are the only thing that matters!"
Old Zhou's shield slammed down at Lin Yi's feet with a thud. The Bagua formation that appeared on the shield instantly unfolded, enveloping the team in a golden light shield: "Grandma Wang, purify!"
The white-haired old woman lightly touched the ground with the tip of her broom, and the blood droplets on the new buds "crackled" and exploded into golden rain.
Little Sugar Bean tugged at Old Zhou's boots and bounced around. Pink light snakes shot out along the patterns on the shield and coiled around the nearest gray mist figure—the Soul Hunter let out a piercing scream, and the mist was scorched with black holes by the light snakes.
Lin Yi watched this scene, his Adam's apple bobbing.
The temperature of the battlefield three hours ago suddenly surged in his palm: the little girl's paper airplane was still pinned to his collar, and the fabric still held the warmth of her palm; the edges of the photos held by the old people were worn and frayed, and their fingerprints were deeply imprinted into the photographic paper; when the fist of the seriously wounded soldier pressed against the back of his hand, blood was still dripping down, so hot that his bones trembled.
"Faith Link, activate." He shouted in a low voice, and the patterns on the Boundary-Breaking Blade suddenly lit up with starlight.
In an instant, the light in the entire core area seemed to be drained away.
A golden mist rose around Lin Yi, but it didn't come from him; it came from everyone. The flames on Long Wu's gauntlets intensified, Old Zhou's shield shimmered with a clear, glassy light, Xiao Wu's arrowhead suddenly expanded tenfold, and the new buds of Grandma Wang no longer oozed blood beads, but liquid gold of faith.
The soul hunters at the very front let out a chorus of wails.
Their gray mist was swallowed by the golden light, and their translucent bodies melted with a hissing sound, like glass thrown into a furnace.
When Long Wu's fist pierced through the last wisp of mist, it even shook off a few crystalline fragments of consciousness—fragments of memories from before the erosion. One of these fragments floated before Lin Yi's eyes, showing a girl in a nurse's uniform feeding water to a wounded soldier.
"Boss!" Chu Yao's voice boomed from the tactical headset, "Aizen's Hogyoku Resonance Bomb is ready!"
The coordinates have been locked onto the defensive nodes surrounding the central energy core; you need to break through the final energy barrier!
Lin Yi looked up.
The dark purple sphere expanded to the height of two people, and the black mist seeping from the cracks on its surface was frantically pouring into the energy flow of the dome, dyeing the entire area a strange purplish-black.
Below the sphere, where the main brain interface should have been, seven rhomboid crystals with a faint glow are now floating—the defensive core of the mother nest.
"Boundary-Breaking Slash!" He spun around and leaped into the air, the Boundary-Breaking Blade drawing a golden arc above his head.
Where the light blade passed, the seven rhomboid crystals simultaneously burst into blue sparks, and the energy barrier, like a curtain slashed open by a sharp blade, cracked open with spiderweb-like patterns.
"Detonate!" Aizen's voice trembled with spiritual pressure.
Almost simultaneously, seven streaks of dark blue light pierced through the crack and precisely entered the gaps in the defensive nodes.
When Lin Yi landed, the ground trembled like an earthquake—the shockwave from the detonation of the Hogyoku Resonance Bomb, enveloped in purplish-black and eerie-blue light, tore the black mist surrounding the dark purple sphere into fragments.
The cracks on the surface of the dark purple sphere suddenly closed completely.
Thick black liquid seeped from the bottom of the sphere, spreading out into a huge array on the ground.
The sphere itself began to twist and deform, first extending countless tentacled black chains, then expanding as a whole, and finally transforming into a black vortex that covered the entire dome.
At the center of the vortex, a pair of scarlet vertical pupils slowly opened, and a voice like rusty gears grinding against the nerves: "You... cannot stop me."
Order... is about to arrive.
Long Wu wiped the blood from his face; half of his molten gold scales were shattered, but his eyes shone brighter than ever: "Bullshit!"
I'll smash your lousy order to smithereens today!
Old Zhou's shield cracked open with a "crack," but he laughed even harder: "Xiao Wu, recharge Grandma's broom!"
Even if it costs us our lives, we'll make this bastard know—"
"What do you mean by 'human fate is not determined by heaven'?" Grandma Wang's broom sprouts suddenly blossomed into golden flowers, and the pollen drifted into the vortex, burning out specks of light on the dark screen.
Lin Yi gazed at the crimson vertical pupil at the center of the vortex, his fingers slowly tracing the patterns on the Boundary-Breaking Blade.
He could feel the warmth from the battlefield, from the streets, from everyone who believed in him, flowing down the blade into his heart.
When he looked up, his gaze pierced through the dust and light, meeting directly in his eyes with those scarlet vertical pupils.
"True order..." His voice was soft, yet it pierced clearly through all the roar, "...never being enslavement."
The black vortex suddenly contracted violently.
The moment the black vortex contracted violently, Lin Yi's voice, like a steel needle tempered with gold, pierced through all the roar: "True order is not enslavement, but free choice." His Adam's apple bobbed, and his fingertips pressed heavily on the star pattern on the Boundary-Breaking Blade—the temperatures from three hours ago suddenly boiled in his blood: the creases of the little girl's paper airplane, the worn fingerprints on the old photograph, the still-uncongealed blood droplets on the back of the soldier's hand, all now transformed into golden light, rushing along the blade's spine into his heart.
"Bomb it!" He took a step forward, his left foot crushing the cracked metal plate beneath him. The power of faith, like a tsunami breaking free of its shackles, crashed into the surface of his consciousness, carrying countless points of light.
As the dark purple vortex was torn open for the first time, Long Wu's molten gold gauntlets clashed head-on with the three black chains—the crimson flames on the gauntlets were stained an eerie purple. He gritted his teeth and groaned, his arm bones making a cracking sound, but he laughed even more maniacally: "Old Zhou! Shield, use it to shield me!"
Old Zhou's shield slammed down near Long Wu's feet with a "thud," and the clear light of the Bagua array on the shield almost overflowed from the edge.
Veins bulged on his forehead, blood seeped from the cracks in his shield, yet he still roared, "Grandma Wang! Purify, follow up! Little Sugar Bean! Bite off that tentacle on the lower left!" The white-haired old woman's broom flower suddenly bloomed into a golden flame half a person's height, pollen raining down on the surging black mist; Little Sugar Bean shrieked and leaped up, pink light snakes wrapped around her small body, precisely biting the fiercest black chain—the black chain emitted a piercing shriek, spiderweb-like cracks appearing on its surface.
"Lin Yi! There are three waves of remnant soul soldiers at 30 degrees to the left!" Su Qing's light panel flashed wildly on Lin Yi's wrist, and the data stream condensed into a semi-transparent battlefield projection: "They are trying to interfere with your spiritual power circulation with a consciousness shock!" He didn't even turn his head. He casually waved his left hand, and the golden light mist rising from his palm automatically condensed into a barrier, shredding those gray mist scythes into fragments.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two more scales fall off Long Wu's body, revealing the bleeding muscles beneath. His throat tightened—these people could have been hiding in the safe zone drinking hot soup.
The dark purple vortex suddenly emitted a deafening shriek, and countless black chains poured down like a torrential rain.
Long Wu's fist finally smashed through the last black chain, but the subsequent chain blades slashed open his chest, and blood splattered on Lao Zhou's shield, blooming into eerie purple spots; Xiao Wu's arrowhead "plop" pierced into the edge of the vortex, but was blown away by the recoil force, coughing up a mouthful of black blood when it hit the wall; Grandma Wang's broom sprouts began to wither, and strange ink mixed into the golden flames.
"Hold on!" Lin Yi shouted, and the starlight of the Boundary-Breaking Blade surged threefold.
The power of faith condensed into a tangible armor around him, each line etched with the face of an ordinary person: a nurse feeding water to the wounded, a boy rescuing a cat from the ruins, an old woman squatting by the roadside handing hot porridge to the soldiers.
These light armors flowed with his movements, and with each inch they flowed, the cracks on the vortex widened.
"Remember, everything comes at a price."
A clear, slightly hoarse voice suddenly rang in my ears.
Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply—Xuan Mingzi was standing at the edge of the vortex at some point, his gray robes billowing in the black wind, his face hidden in the shadows, but the struggle churning in his eyes was clearly visible.
Before Lin Yi could speak, Xuan Mingzi raised his hand and pressed it against the surface of the vortex. The purplish-black mist was instantly drawn into his palm, and his figure began to become transparent. He glanced at Lin Yi one last time and said, "Mythical-level power... never belongs to a single civilization." Before he finished speaking, he vanished like smoke.
"The price?" Lin Yi gripped the Boundary-Breaking Blade tightly, his palms bearing red marks from the hilt.
But what he heard at that moment was cheering outside the battlefield, the ticking of medical equipment in the hospital, and the voices of kindergarten children reciting poems—these sounds were louder than any warning.
He took a deep breath, and the power of his faith surged within him: "Then I'll take the blame!"
The tip of the Boundary-Breaking Blade finally pressed against the core of the vortex.
Golden light flowed like a reversed Milky Way, while the dark purple vortex emitted a dying groan. The black chains on the surface crumbled in pieces, revealing the pulsating, dark blue source core inside.
When Long Wu's fist slammed into the last black chain, the entire metal wall collapsed with a roar; Old Zhou's shield shattered completely, but he laughed as he lunged at the surging black mist, using his flesh and blood to shield Little Sugar Bean from a fatal blow; Grandma Wang's broom sprouted new green shoots, and this time, the golden flames were mixed with a few strands of fresh emerald green.
"burst!"
The moment Lin Yi shouted, all the star patterns on the Boundary-Breaking Blade lit up.
The power of faith and the source core exploded simultaneously, and golden and dark blue waves of light swept across the entire dome.
The metal dome trembled and dust fell in a flurry, the dark purple vortex was torn to pieces, revealing the charred core of the mother nest below—the black sphere that had once devoured countless consciousnesses, now slowly collapsing like a block of melting wax.
"It worked?" Chu Yao's voice trembled.
Long Wu knelt in the ruins, his molten gold gauntlets completely destroyed, yet he raised his bloodied fist and laughed; Old Zhou held the unconscious Little Sugar Bean, a shard of shield embedded in his back, blood still smeared at the corner of his mouth; Dewdrops clung to the new shoots of Grandma Wang's broom, refracting rainbow colors in the sunlight.
Lin Yi stood before the core ruins, the Boundary-Breaking Blade hanging at his side, his breathing rapid.
He was about to speak when he suddenly stopped—
An unusual spatial fluctuation was emanating from the depths of the charred core debris beneath our feet.
The fluctuation was faint, yet it carried a familiar feeling that sent chills down his spine, like... the tremor of a spacetime rift being forcibly torn apart.
He squinted and gently pressed his fingertips on the ground.
Beneath the scorch marks on the metal surface, a faint, ghostly light flashed and disappeared.
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