Lin Yi hovered in mid-air, maintaining the position of his left hand reaching forward, his brows furrowed.
Chu Yao's electronic eyes flashed red rapidly: "Warning! Target has broken lock! Escape method... Unable to analyze! Suspected involvement of higher-dimensional interference..."
Long Wu swallowed hard and leaned closer to whisper, "Brother Yi, this... this is calling for backup? Does the other side have such powerful backing?"
Lin Yi slowly withdrew his hand, his gaze sweeping over the spot where the mysterious leader had disappeared. The space there had returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
He was silent for a moment, then a mysterious smile suddenly appeared on his lips.
"Strong backing?" He uttered three words softly, his eyes flashing with a dangerous yet excited light. "Then... take down his backing as well."
There was an indescribable smell in the air, like a parchment scroll that had been sealed away for many years in an old library, or like the smell of formaldehyde in a morgue, which made people feel uncomfortable.
Lin Yi took a deep breath, trying to catch the residual energy fluctuations in the air, but the force was as slippery as an eel and impossible to track.
"Yao, analyze the source and nature of that power from just now," Lin Yi said in a deep voice, his eyes sharp as a hawk's.
"Analyzing..." Chu Yao's mechanical voice sounded strained. "Data is chaotic...information is incomplete...preliminary assessment suggests the energy source may not originate from any dimension we know of. There is high-level encryption...and...some degree of...contamination?"
"Pollution?" Lin Yi raised an eyebrow. "Tell me in detail."
“It’s similar to… a viral infection,” Chu Yao explained. “It was trying to tamper with my core algorithm and change my perception of reality. If I hadn’t severed the connection in time, I’m afraid…”
Lin Yi's eyes sharpened.
The power capable of directly breaching the firewall of a high-level artificial intelligence like Chu Yao's must be of a very high level.
It seems that the opponent we've encountered this time is more formidable than we imagined.
"Brother Yi, what do we do now?" Long Wu rubbed his hands, looking uneasy. "Should we retreat first? This place is really eerie; I have a chill running down my spine."
"Withdraw?" Lin Yi sneered. "We've come all this way. It's not my style to withdraw without figuring out the situation."
He slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping over his surroundings.
This is a huge underground space, with ancient runes carved on the walls, emitting a faint, eerie glow.
A suffocating atmosphere permeated the air.
"Everyone be careful, there might be other traps here," Lin Yi warned, while activating his [Space-Time Perception] skill to try and detect the surrounding space-time fluctuations.
Sure enough, the moment he activated his skill, the surrounding space began to distort and deform.
Invisible threads of energy intertwined in the air, forming a giant grid.
"Warning! High-density energy field detected! Target locked!" Chu Yao's voice rang out again, filled with vigilance.
"It seems they've prepared a welcoming ceremony all along." Lin Yi's lips curled into a cold smile, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "In that case, let's play along with them."
As he finished speaking, the surrounding energy threads began to contract, forming a huge energy cage that trapped Lin Yi and the others inside.
At the same time, the ground began to shake, and cracks continued to spread, spewing out scorching magma.
"Holy crap! They're serious!" Long Wu exclaimed, quickly jumping aside to avoid the gushing lava.
"Yao, analyze the structure of this energy cage and find its weak points," Lin Yi calmly instructed, while activating [Time Freeze] to try to slow down the contraction of the energy cage.
"Analyzing... the energy structure is complex... it has multiple defense mechanisms... but... we've found it!" Chu Yao's voice carried a hint of excitement, "In the southeast direction, there is an energy node with the weakest defense!"
"Excellent!" A glint flashed in Lin Yi's eyes. "Long Wu, cover me! Yao, provide the precise coordinates!"
"No problem! Just you wait and see, Brother Yi!" Long Wu roared, his whole body bursting into flames, transforming into a fire dragon, and charging towards the energy cage.
Under Long Wu's cover, Lin Yi quickly arrived at the southeast direction of the energy cage.
Chu Yao also sent the precise coordinates to his mind at the same time.
Lin Yi took a deep breath, concentrated his mind, and focused all the spacetime power in his body onto his right hand.
His right hand began to emit a dazzling light, like a miniature sun.
"【Time Travel】!" Lin Yi shouted, slamming his right palm down on the weak point of the energy cage.
A dazzling light flashed, and Lin Yi's right hand instantly pierced through the energy cage, directly striking the energy node.
"boom!"
With a deafening roar, the energy cage collapsed instantly, shattering into countless fragments that dissipated into the air.
At the same time, the magma on the ground stopped erupting, and the cracks began to slowly close.
"Well done, Brother Yi!" Long Wu shouted excitedly.
Lin Yi did not let his guard down. He kept a close eye on his surroundings, activating his [Space-Time Perception] to detect any unusual fluctuations.
"Watch out! There are other traps!" Lin Yi suddenly shouted and tackled Long Wu to the ground.
Just as they fell to the ground, beams of black light descended from the sky, striking the spot where they had just been standing.
The ground was instantly corroded, leaving behind pits emitting black smoke.
"Holy crap! What the hell is that?!" Long Wu, still shaken, scrambled to his feet, staring at the black craters with lingering fear.
“It’s the Void Ray, a high-concentration negative energy ray with extremely strong corrosive properties,” Chu Yao explained. “It seems they don’t intend to leave us a way out.”
"Hmph, you think you can kill me so easily?" Lin Yi sneered, a dangerous glint in his eyes.
He activated [Time Freeze] again, slowing the flow of time around him to its extreme.
Then, he quickly analyzed the trajectory of the Void Rays, trying to pinpoint the enemy's location.
"Found it!" Lin Yi
"Yao, lock onto the target and launch a precision strike!" Lin Yi commanded.
"Received!" Chu Yao quickly locked onto the energy sources and fired high-energy laser beams at them.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
With several loud bangs, the energy sources were instantly destroyed, and the [Void Ray] also disappeared.
"Great!" Long Wu excitedly pumped his fist. "Brother Yi, we're a match made in heaven! This teamwork is absolutely perfect!"
Lin Yi ignored Long Wu's flattery and remained highly vigilant, sensing that things were not so simple.
Just when they thought they had successfully broken through the trap, a cold voice suddenly rang out in the air: "Hehe... Lin Yi, you really didn't disappoint me..." Before Lin Yi could respond to Long Wu's flattery, a sinister voice, seemingly carrying the texture of metal friction, echoed without warning in the empty underground space, as if it had directly drilled into everyone's minds: "Hehe... Lin Yi, you really didn't disappoint me... You took apart my little toy so quickly."
The voice came from near and far, carrying a condescending mockery, like a cat toying with a mouse before catching it.
Long Wu's heart, which had just relaxed, instantly jumped into his throat again. The smile on his face froze, and he subconsciously shrank back behind Lin Yi: "Holy crap! A ghost... a ghost is coming for me?!"
Chu Yao's electronic eyes flashed red rapidly, but reported: "Unable to locate the sound source! Abnormal spatial echo... The other party may have used a sound emission method that we cannot understand!"
Lin Yi's face darkened, and the sense of ease he had felt earlier vanished.
He could feel that with the appearance of this sound, the "smell" of the surrounding air changed again. The uncomfortable smell, mixed with decay and the unknown, became more intense, like an invisible venomous snake coiling around him, cold and slippery.
"These little tricks are just an appetizer." The cold voice continued, tinged with mockery. "The real feast has only just begun. I hope you... can last a little longer and not bore me too much."
As soon as he finished speaking, an even greater and more unsettling pressure suddenly descended, as if the entire space was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand!
Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply, and all his muscles tensed instantly. He shouted in a low voice, "Ready—!"
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