The dome of the Reality Alliance headquarters hall projects a real-time battlefield map, while alarms from various defense zones flash on a 360-degree holographic screen.
Lin Yi stood on the central energy resonance platform, the phantom images of three keys swirling in his palm, the golden-purple halo stretching his shadow long, perfectly covering the seats of the representatives of various races below.
"Mr. Lin," the head of the Ancient Martial Arts Sect slammed his hand on the mahogany table, making the teacups jump three times, "You say this key can suppress the will of the Old Gods, but we personally witnessed Night Owl use the remnants of the Old Gods' souls to condense 100,000 Yin Soldiers—" His calloused fingers pointed to the holographic screen on the left, where translucent corpses were surging like a tide on an alternate-dimensional plain, "Just these three orbs of light?"
The chief engineer on the technology side adjusted his anti-radiation glasses: "Our quantum scanner detected abnormal spatial fluctuations when the key resonated, but the consciousness of the ancient gods is essentially high-dimensional pollution. How can you prove this isn't letting a wolf into the house?"
Discussions began to rise from the audience.
The demon high priestess's snake tail rustled across the ground, her snake pupils contracting: "Our clan sensed residual data about Su Qing within the key. That child... can she really still help us?"
Lin Yi gently stroked the illusory image of the key with his fingertips, and felt a slight burning sensation in his palm—this was a normal reaction of the Core of Cause and Effect when it resonated.
When he looked up, his gaze was like a sword tempered with starlight, sweeping over every questioning face: "Everyone, three days ago I saw the truth about the consciousness of the Old Gods in a spacetime rift." He flicked his finger, and the holographic screen suddenly switched images, showing countless tangled black tentacles wrapping around a dark blue ball of light. "That's not a god, but an experimental subject rejected by an advanced civilization."
Their method of absorbing consciousness is completely opposite to the path by which the key absorbs causality.
"Like fire and water?" Long Wu's voice suddenly boomed from the communicator, crackling with static. "I'm right here on the edge of a void rift, and even the wind in this lousy place stinks—hey, look!"
The holographic screen suddenly changed, and in Long Wu's tactical goggles, black mist was surging out from the depths of the crack, with the leading ghost soldiers having black blood crystals embedded in their foreheads, just like those of Night Owl.
Long Wu's Tang sword flashed from its sheath, the blade gleaming with a poisonous, eerie green: "You little brats got here pretty fast!" He patted the shoulder armor of the mecha soldier behind him, "Turn the mental shield up to the maximum—"
Before he could finish speaking, the scout in the front row suddenly clutched his head and screamed in agony, blood streaming down his face from between his fingers: "My...my head is going to explode!"
They're stuffing... rotting faces into my head!
"Mental erosion!" Long Wu's pupils shrank sharply. He drew a semi-circle with his Tang sword in front of his chest, and the sword energy dispersed the approaching black mist. "Everyone, back to back!"
He used his ancient martial arts inner energy to protect his sea of consciousness—"But he felt his temples throbbing, and his mother's face before her death flashed before his eyes, the blood splattered on his wristband when he killed a monster for the first time, and the bottle of iced soda that Lin Yi handed him in the newbie village.
These memories suddenly became sticky and rotten, like rotten meat soaked in formaldehyde.
"Long Wu, look up at the sky."
A familiar voice echoed in my mind.
Long Wu gritted his teeth and looked up, just in time to see a golden-purple stream of light in the sky like a cascading silver river, within which he could vaguely make out a figure in a white dress—it was Su Qing!
Data particles clung to the ends of her hair; with a flick of her fingertips, countless cocoons of light fell from the sky, enveloping the soldiers' heads.
The corrupted scout suddenly widened his eyes: "Those rotting faces... they've been burned away!"
"It's a key resonance!" The engineer on the technology side suddenly stood up, and the alarm of the quantum scanner suddenly changed tone. "The resonance frequency matches the frequency of Su Qing's data body!"
Mr. Lin, you already sealed fragments of her consciousness inside the key?
Lin Yi's thumb rubbed the illusory image of the key, a faint warmth rising in his eyes: "Before Su Qing sacrificed herself, she engraved the core data into the core of cause and effect."
The Old Gods corrupt with consciousness, so we counter with consciousness—that's what she taught me.
The hall suddenly fell silent.
The master of the ancient martial arts sect slowly withdrew his hand from the table, his knuckles still maintaining the arc of his slap; the high priest of the demon race stopped waving his snake tail, and watery light appeared in his snake eyes; the engineer on the technology side had his glasses slip down to the tip of his nose, but he forgot to push them up.
\"boom!\"
The sound of the metal door being smashed open startled everyone, causing them to turn around.
A dark figure rushed in, enveloped in gunpowder smoke, with starship fragments still clinging to its shoulder armor.
He removed his helmet, revealing a fresh bloodstain on his forehead: "The opposition within the advanced civilization is willing to provide the jump coordinates, but Night Owl has made contact with the remnants of the Old Gods—" His voice suddenly became hoarse, "...they want to awaken the dormant 'First Will,' the most primordial consciousness matrix of the Old Gods."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly, and the phantom of the key trembled violently in his palm, the golden-purple halo almost burning his skin.
He could hear the hum of the causal core resonating, like an ancient war drum calling out: "How long?"
"Seventy-two hours." The shadowy figure ripped off a blood-stained bandage and casually wrapped it around the wound. "But Night Owl's vanguard has already set out three days ahead of schedule; he wants to shorten our preparation time."
"Then we won't give him time." Lin Yi turned to look at Chu Yao, who was sitting behind the control panel, rapidly typing on the keyboard. A 3D model of an alternate dimension popped up on the holographic screen. "Chu Yao, how far can the key's energy open a spatial rift?"
"With the current resonance intensity," Chu Yao's fingertips paused, the blue light in her hair flickering as she thought, "it can directly connect to the command center of the Night Owl's lair—with an error margin of no more than ten meters."
The shadowy figure suddenly looked up: "You mean... a surprise attack?"
"Yes." Lin Yi's gaze swept over the two of them, finally settling on the surging black mist on the holographic screen. "Night Owl thought we could only passively defend, but he forgot—" He clenched his fist, and the phantom of the key suddenly solidified, its surface shimmering with star-like patterns. "The duty of the master of time and space is never to wait."
\"bite--\"
A crisp, light sound suddenly echoed in the hall.
Everyone instinctively looked up, only to see a silvery-white light suddenly detach from the key's surface, hovering in mid-air and slowly unfolding into a blurry image: the silhouette of an old man with white hair, holding an object identical to the key in his hand, his voice seemingly coming from a great distance: "Remember... the key is not a weapon, but a bridge... the real enemy... has not yet shown himself..."
The moment the image vanished, Lin Yi's fingertips trembled slightly.
He stared at the fading silver mark on the key and suddenly remembered the jade pendant that Xuanmingzi had given him before his death—it turned out that the old man had sealed his final warning in the core of cause and effect long ago.
"Mr. Lin?" Chu Yao's voice pulled him back to reality.
Lin Yi took a deep breath, his gaze sharpening like a knife once more.
He looked at the shadowy figure: "Assemble the elite squads of the 'Time Legion.' Be on standby at the Energy Resonance Platform in half an hour." He then turned to Long Wu's communicator: "Old Long, hand over frontline command to the vice-captain. You bring your knife back—" His fingers lightly traced the surface of the key, and the unique hum of the spatial rift began to echo in the hall. "We're going to Night Owl's lair to deliver a welcoming gift."
Long Wu's laughter exploded through the communicator, filled with excited, cracking voice: "Alright!"
I'm going to slaughter ten of his forwards to fill my stomach—wait for me, it's been ages since we've been killing people side-by-side!
The shadowy figure had already begun inspecting the weapons, the energy dagger pulsating with a ghostly blue light in his palm; Chu Yao's fingertips traced the final command on the holographic screen, precisely locking the coordinates of the spatial rift five meters below the Night Owl Throne.
Lin Yi stood in the center of the resonance platform, holding the key, and could clearly feel the energy gathering beneath his feet.
He gazed at the gradually brightening morning light outside the window, listening to the sounds of preparations rising and falling in the hall, and suddenly recalled that stormy night in the newbie village—at that time, he did not know that the so-called mythical profession was never a gift of talent, but rather a responsibility to shoulder the weight of the entire civilization.
"Let's go," he said softly.
The golden-purple aura on the key's surface suddenly surged, tearing open a shimmering spatial rift above everyone's heads.
A faint rumble of thunder came from the depths of the rift, as if responding to some kind of transdimensional call.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com