The temperature inside the tunnel spiked by twenty degrees Celsius in three seconds.
The Time-Space Blade in Lin Yi's palm hummed, and the vibration of the bronze box penetrated through the hilt and reached his very bones.
He could clearly feel the heartbeat-like rhythm inside the box—like an ancient beast awakened, scratching at the lock with its claws.
Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced ahead: Long Wu's back was taut like an iron bow, Chu Yao was gripping his collar tightly, her hair curled from the heat; behind him, Xuan Mingzi's star chart floated above his head, its silver light sparking as it collided with the falling pebbles; and the shadowy figure... his right leg had dissipated into a semi-transparent mist, leaving a pale gray mark on the ground with every step.
"Flame velocity increased." Chu Yao's voice was distorted with an electronic tone. A blood-red warning light flashed on the screen from her trembling fingertips: "Molten lava flow path changed; there is a pipe leak three meters to the left front—"
Before the words were finished, a sharp, metallic whistling sound came from above.
A burning ventilation duct slammed into Long Wu's nape, Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply, and the Blade of Time and Space drew a semi-circle beside him.
Time seemed to crawl by in that small space. He saw the flames on the pipe surface solidify into orange-red amber, saw the veins bulging on Long Wu's nape, and even saw the beads of sweat hanging on Chu Yao's eyelashes slowly falling.
"Go!" he shouted, and the ripples in spacetime shattered the deceleration field.
Long Wu was prepared. Dragon flames exploded into a crimson-gold barrier on the back of his fist. The pipe slammed against the barrier with a muffled thud, and molten lava splashed onto his dragon-scale-covered arms, hissing and emitting blue smoke. "Little girl, hold on tight," he chuckled, his dragon tail bursting from his lower back, tearing through his clothes and sweeping away the molten lava surging from his left. "My skin is tougher than this damn metal."
Chu Yao's nails almost dug into Long Wu's shoulder: "Right!"
"Right!" she suddenly raised her voice, and the heat map on the screen exploded with a blinding red dot, "Antimatter leak zone!"
Spacetime disorder within a two-meter radius —
The shadowy figure suddenly thrust his dagger in front of them.
On his almost transparent wrist, the tattooed light particles were extinguishing at a visible speed, but bursting into a ghostly blue light the instant they touched the chaotic area. "Come with me." His voice was like the friction of shattered porcelain, and his footsteps trod on the edge of molten lava, each step leaving a pale blue afterimage on the ground.
The distorted air was cleaved open by the short sword, revealing a narrow passage that could only accommodate two people—a spacetime rift that he had forcibly stabilized with his dissipating spirit.
Lin Yi's breath hitched.
He had seen similar records in the fragments of the bronze box: using oneself as an anchor, exchanging the disintegration of the spirit for spatial stability.
This is a forbidden technique used only by assassins, and the shadowy figures... he hadn't even asked their names.
"Run!" The shadowy figure's left shoulder suddenly crumbled into stardust. He shoved Xuan Mingzi, who was closest to him, with his backhand. "I can't hold on for ten seconds."
Xuanmingzi's star chart suddenly burst forth with dazzling starlight.
He made a hand seal, and the twenty-eight constellations on the astrolabe lit up simultaneously. The spatial rift, which had previously needed the shadowy figure to stabilize, now sawped out specks of starlight for support. "Old man, I owe you a favor," he grinned at the shadowy figure, his Taoist crown somehow charred by the heat. "Hold on, I'll treat you to the strongest liquor when we get out."
The shadowy figure didn't respond.
Half of his face began to dissipate, yet he continued to slash at the molten lava that suddenly gushed forth from his right side.
Lin Yi could see the light in his eyes—not the murky darkness of impending death, but rather a kind of relieved clarity, as if a long-awaited promise had finally been fulfilled.
"We've arrived!" Long Wu's dragon tail swung violently, sweeping everyone into the blue light range of the evacuation pod.
Just as Lin Yi's shoes touched the metal of the hatch, a low chuckle came from behind him: "Tell... Miss Su, the password box is in... ventilation duct B..." The voice stopped abruptly, and he transformed into thousands of particles of light, one of which gently landed in Lin Yi's palm and then dissipated.
"Hatch closed!" Chu Yao lunged at the control panel, her fingers flying across the holographic keyboard. "Antimatter reactor decay rate 97%—"
\"boom!\"
The explosion in the core of the mother nest caused the hull to shake violently.
Lin Yi was thrown towards the cabin wall, but was caught by the power of spacetime before he hit it.
He saw the scene outside the window: the original steel-cast Mother Nest was like shattered glass, with fragments of purple light film, molten lava, and metal debris exploding into the sky. In the firelight, the bronze box suddenly floated up from his arms, a crack appeared at the lock, revealing the silver light flowing inside—the outline of half a key, engraved with the same pattern as the Blade of Time and Space.
"Evacuation successful." Chu Yao slumped to the ground, and the screen automatically switched to communication mode, showing Su Qing's face on the screen.
Her eyes were visibly dark, and her hair was stained with undried coffee, clearly indicating that she had stayed up all night: "The shockwaves from the self-destruction of the hive have been detected by the intruders."
Their main fleet is undergoing a jump and is expected to reach Earth orbit in twelve hours.
The air inside the cabin instantly froze.
Long Wu's dragon scales slowly faded, and he tore off his tattered, burnt outer garment, revealing charred burn marks on his chest: "How many ships?"
"Thirty-seven capital ships, three hundred Star Destroyers, and..." Su Qing's fingers paused on the keyboard, "They activated the dimensional anchor point."
Earth's spacetime barrier will be completely locked, and then...
"There's no escaping it," Xuan Mingzi finished for her, the celestial compass slowly spinning in his palm. "So the only option is to tough it out."
Lin Yi stared at the half-key in his palm; the trembling of the bronze box had subsided at some point.
He could sense that the other half of the key was resonating somewhere thousands of miles away—the first part of the "Seven Keys of Creation" that they had collected after infiltrating the five Mother Nests.
But at this moment, the key suddenly became very light, as light as a feather that could be blown away by the wind at any moment.
"Boss?" Long Wu patted him on the shoulder. "What are you thinking about?"
Lin Yi looked up and saw that the sky outside the cabin was already turning a pale white.
The outline of the city in the distance was faintly visible in the morning light. There was his time-space army, 100,000 warriors of the real-world alliance, and millions of job changers waiting to awaken.
In the far reaches of space, thirty-seven capital ships are tearing through the star curtain, like thirty-seven sharp blades hanging overhead.
"Prepare for the final battle." He put the key into the bronze box and glanced at everyone: Long Wu's fist was still faintly hot, Chu Yao's fingertips were still trembling slightly from the previous operation, and Xuan Mingzi's Taoist robe had three holes burned in it, but he was still slowly tidying his beard.
Finally, he stopped on Su Qing's image: "Send all available combat power data to my terminal, including the reclusive masters of ancient martial arts families, the war mechs of the technology corporation, and..." He paused, "...the location of the interdimensional resistance force."
Su Qing nodded, and the image suddenly started to show static.
Her voice grew muffled, but she still mustered all her strength to shout her last words: "Be careful... Xuan Mingzi—"
Communication was suddenly interrupted.
A brief silence fell over the cabin.
Xuanmingzi paused in stroking his beard, and a complex emotion flashed in his eyes as he looked up.
He gazed at the city gradually coming into focus outside the window, then suddenly spoke: "Young friend, I have a suggestion for you when we get to the base."
"What suggestion?" Lin Yi frowned.
Xuanmingzi's star chart suddenly emitted a ghostly blue light, and the arrangement of the twenty-eight constellations was completely different from usual.
He gazed at the astrolabe, his voice barely a sigh: "Perhaps... we shouldn't have concentrated all our forces on the main battlefield."
Long Wu's brows immediately furrowed: "Old man, what do you mean?"
The capital ships are practically pressing down on us; how can we resist without concentrating our forces?
Xuanmingzi ignored him and just stared at Lin Yi: "You and I both know that the invaders' weakness is not in the fleet, but in the dimensional anchor point."
But destroying the anchor point requires...someone as bait. His finger traced the brightest star on the astrolabe. "Perhaps, it should be me."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
He suddenly remembered the half-key in the bronze box, the last words of the shadowy figure before it disappeared, and Su Qing's interrupted warning.
The morning light shone through the cabin window onto Xuan Mingzi's face, casting a long, long shadow, like a chasm stretching across everyone's eyes.
The landing warning sound for the evacuation pod rang out at the right time.
Long Wu kicked open the hatch, and scorching air rushed in, carrying the smells of smoke and fire from the distant city.
But no one was in the mood to appreciate it at the moment; all eyes were on Xuan Mingzi—this old Taoist priest who always talked crazy, the seriousness in his eyes at this moment was more unsettling than ever before.
The battle horn seems to have sounded.
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