As night fell, the searchlights of the main ship drew silvery streaks across the sky.
Lin Yi's fingertips unconsciously caressed the spacetime compass on his left chest, where the burning sensation from when the shadow appeared still lingered.
Although the shadow on the star map had disappeared, he could sense that something even more dangerous was slowly slithering towards their defenses like a venomous snake along the veins of the spatial rift.
"Commander, energy replenishment complete." Chu Yao's projection floated to his side, the data stream at the tip of her hair no longer a cold silver, but shimmering with a warm golden halo—the charred chip left behind when she shielded him from a hidden arrow three days ago was now floating on her chest. "The ancient books only contain a few words about 'Abyss Gaze,' but the voice in the chip just now..." Her voice suddenly trembled, "...exactly the same tone as when the Mother System awakened me at birth."
Lin Yi turned his head sharply and saw human fear through the eyes of this artificial intelligence for the first time.
Just as he was about to ask further questions, the entire main ship suddenly trembled violently, and the alarm shattered the silence of the command center.
"Outer perimeter positions exploded! Coordinates a-7!" The adjutant at the control panel roared, veins bulging on his neck.
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He rushed toward the tactical screen, only to see that on the previously stable star map, sector a-7 had burst open like a punctured balloon, releasing purple light and mist. Hundreds and thousands of extradimensional creatures with bone wings were pouring out of the cracks, their serrated mouthparts gleaming coldly under the searchlights.
"Chu Yao!" His voice was low and heavy, like a weight of lead. "Detect the source!"
"Not the mother nest!" Chu Yao's projection instantly split into sixteen data screens. "Spatial fluctuation frequency... it's a void node! They can jump between dimensions now!" Her fingers rapidly swiped across the virtual keyboard. "Long Wu's left-wing fleet is closest to Sector A-7, it will take two minutes to arrive—"
"No need to wait." Lin Yi grabbed the spacetime dagger from his waist. "Long Wu!" He pressed the communication button. "Bring the World-Destroying Sword Formation and cut in directly. The objective isn't to clear out the monsters, but to seal the rift!"
Long Wu's signature nonchalant laugh came through the communicator: "Brother Lin, are you looking down on me? Just you wait and see—" Before he finished speaking, a streak of crimson-gold light flashed past the porthole of the main ship, which was Long Wu's War Dragon fighter jet.
Dark patterns appeared on his right arm, the "World-Destroying Dragon Mark" branded when he awakened his true dragon bloodline, now turning crimson with his roar: "Open for me!"
The dragon-shaped cannon at the front of the fighter jet spewed out blazing flames, and the three bone-winged beasts that were the first to break through the crack were blasted into pieces.
But the next second, Long Wu's laughter caught in his throat—a mechanical behemoth, as tall as thirty meters, squeezed out of the crack. Its metal shell was covered with runes that Lin Yi had never seen before. With just a raise of its front claws, it overturned three escort fighters.
"What the hell is that thing?" Long Wu jerked the control stick to avoid the sweeping mechanical arm. The jet's exhaust grazed the behemoth's shoulder, leaving scorch marks on the metal surface. "The armor's hardness is at least mythical level! Brother Lin, we need backup!"
"Whitebeard-senpai!" Lin Yi turned to the other side of the tactical screen, where Whitebeard was standing on the deck of the central warship, the blue light of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit condensing into a ball in his palm. "How is the situation on your end?"
"These little brats are no match for you." The white-bearded man's laughter, carrying a shockwave, made the communicator buzz.
He tossed the shockwave ball into the enemy ranks, and the shockwave from the explosion turned twenty bone-winged beasts into mincemeat.
But the next second, his smile froze—another wave of cracks exploded behind the central army, and this time the creatures that surged out had crystals on their backs, each exuding an elite-level aura.
"Protect the formation!" The white-bearded man ripped open his shirt, revealing a hideous old scar on his chest. The portrait of his granddaughter around his neck floated in mid-air, lifted by the shockwave.
His palm pressed down on the deck, and the entire warship suddenly shook violently, with spiderweb-like cracks appearing on the deck. "Tremor-Tremor Fruit - Great Collapse!"
The ground surged like a giant python coming to life, and the crystal beast at the forefront was lifted into the air and torn to pieces by the shockwave.
But Whitebeard's forehead was already beaded with cold sweat—he could feel that the Devil Fruit's power was being consumed three times faster than before, and that the blood of those crystal beasts contained energy similar to that of the shadow.
"Commander, the mechanical behemoth over there on Long Wu's side is absorbing spatial energy!" Chu Yao's voice was unusually urgent. "Its core... matches the frequency of the Seven Key Resonance Device!"
Lin Yi's temples throbbed.
He abruptly activated the ship's communication system: "All warships, adjust your main gun angles and concentrate fire on the crack in area A-7! Whitebeard, tighten your defenses and use the shockwave to cover Long Wu! Chu Yao, activate the backup power source; I need to see that crack close within three minutes—"
Before he could finish speaking, spiderweb-like cracks suddenly appeared in the glass of the command center.
Lin Yi looked up and saw the black shadow on the tactical screen coalesce again, with the phantom images of seven keys flowing within it. This time, the smiling face formed by the key was clearer than before.
"The game has only just begun."
These words pierced Lin Yi's eardrums like an icicle.
He gripped the spacetime compass tightly and could clearly feel an even greater energy than before drilling into his body along the compass's patterns.
But he had no time to think about it—Long Wu's fighter jet suddenly emitted a piercing alarm, and the mechanical behemoth's front claw pierced through the fighter jet's left wing. Long Wu was thrown into space, and the light of the world-destroying dragon pattern flickered in the vacuum.
"Long Wu!" Lin Yi's pupils shrank sharply.
Just as he was about to rush to the cockpit to provide personal support, Long Wu suddenly groaned through the communicator: "Brother Lin... don't come over... the core of this thing... is inside the stomach..." Before he could finish speaking, Long Wu's figure was suddenly enveloped in crimson-gold dragon flames, and the dragon pattern on his right arm bulged, directly tearing through his spacesuit, "World-Destroying Dragon Pattern - Explosion!"
A violent explosion rocked the A-7 area, blasting a hole in the mechanical behemoth's chest, and the light from the crack dimmed noticeably.
Whitebeard seized the opportunity to deliver a follow-up shockwave, and the crack finally began to close.
"All medical ships, deploy!" Lin Yi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and turned around to see Chu Yao staring blankly at the half-chip, her data stream surging with emotions he had never seen before.
Meanwhile, in the laboratory at the bottom of the main ship, Aizen's fingertips gently pressed against the instruments engraved with runes.
He stared at the horrific battlefield on the monitor screen, a faint smile playing on his lips.
As the equipment hummed to start, the warrior's body inside the incubation chamber began to glow blue, gradually merging with the energy body—
"Project Hogyoku, initiated."
Aizen lightly pressed his fingertip on the instrument, and the metal surface engraved with runes shimmered with a faint blue light.
On the monitor screen, the skin of the warriors in the incubation chamber began to become transparent, liquid starlight flowed in their blood vessels, and the originally tense facial lines gradually relaxed—that was the unique comfort of energy body fusion.
He stared into the pupils of one of the soldiers, where the human glow was fading, replaced by a pale blue that matched the instrument's frequency.
“Not bad,” he muttered to himself, tapping his knuckles on the control panel. “The third stage of integration has reached 78%, which is ten minutes faster than expected.”
An alarm suddenly sounded from the monitor, showing footage of the Long Wu fighter jet exploding.
Aizen raised his eyebrows slightly, but showed no sign of panic.
He pressed another button, and a hidden compartment opened in the laboratory floor, from which twelve silver syringes rose and precisely pierced the blood supply channels of each culture chamber.
“Try this enhancement injection,” his voice was like an ice-cold harp string, “The armor of those mechanical behemoths needs to meet the real piercer.”
The hatch of the incubation chamber clicked open, and when the first warrior stepped out, his palm was already fully energized, and the light spear condensed at his fingertips easily pierced through the alloy wall of the laboratory.
Aizen watched the live footage of the battlefield on the monitor—the left flank defense line, which had been suppressed by the mechanical behemoth, suddenly had twelve streaks of silver light. Each warrior was able to tear open the carapace of the bone-winged beast with his bare hands, and the light spears accurately pierced the energy core of the mechanical behemoth.
"The Hogyoku Project has achieved its first victory." Aizen loosened his collar, revealing the mysterious patterns that were faintly visible on his neck.
He turned and walked deeper into the laboratory. The holographic screen in the shadows lit up, displaying a green progress bar showing "fusion degree 92%"—the real killer move was yet to come.
On the tactical screen in the command center, a red alert suddenly popped up in the previously tense A-7 area: "Enemy casualties 40%".
Lin Yi's finger hovered over the communication key, his gaze sweeping over the image of Long Wu being rescued and brought back to the medical pod—the kid was holding up a nutrient solution and making a peace sign at the camera, the burns on the dragon pattern still bleeding, but he was laughing carefree.
"Chu Yao," he softened his voice, "what was the effect of the Hogyoku Project?"
"Mr. Aizen's modified warriors have an energy compatibility rate exceeding the database by 98%." Chu Yao's projection floated in front of the tactical screen, the data stream at the ends of her hair no longer disordered, but instead radiated a strange warmth. "But... their vital signs are disappearing." Her fingertips traced the warriors' life monitoring curves, the originally undulating wavy lines gradually flattening into straight lines. "Now they are more like... living weapons."
Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed.
He could understand Aizen's choice—in the face of an army from another dimension, any means that could enhance combat power were necessary.
But when he saw the faces of those who had fought alongside him now with empty eyes, his heart still ached uncontrollably.
“Notify Aizen,” he pressed the communication button, “to control the degree of fusion and retain at least 30% of human consciousness.”
Aizen chuckled softly through the communicator: "Commander is indeed soft-hearted. But don't worry, I have a backup plan."
Before the words were even finished, the void node on the tactical screen suddenly flashed again.
This time it wasn't region a-7, but rather β-9 and γ-12 that simultaneously exhibited purple light haze.
"The spatial fluctuation frequency is the same as before!" the adjutant's voice trembled with tears. "It's a cluster of void nodes!"
Lin Yi's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
He grabbed the Time-Space Dagger, the patterns on the hilt burning in his palm—this was the third time he had used a mythical-level skill in three days.
"Chu Yao, calculate the energy required to close the node." He pulled open his collar, revealing the spacetime compass on his left chest, its silvery light spreading from his collarbone to his fingertips. "I will seal the passage, but I need you to stabilize the spatial structure using the Skynet protocol."
"Commander, your mental strength is only 42%!" Chu Yao's projection suddenly became transparent. "After using Time Shatter last time, you were unconscious for seventeen hours—"
"There's no time." Lin Yi interrupted her, the dagger drawing a silver arc in the air.
He could feel the compass burning, a backlash from the power of spacetime, but what was even clearer was the oppressive feeling coming from the other end of the node—this intruder was more than ten times stronger than the previous mechanical behemoth.
"Spacetime Shatter!" he shouted, slashing his dagger toward the void node of sector β-9.
The purple light mist resembled silk cleaved by a sharp blade, with spiderweb-like cracks appearing at the edges of the nodes.
But the next second, an even denser black mist surged from the crack, directly enveloping the dagger's light.
"Spatial distortion!" Lin Yi pressed his other hand on the tactical screen, and the entire screen suddenly sank into a vortex, drawing in the black mist and causing the nodes to dim abruptly.
Large beads of sweat rolled down his chin and landed on the tactical table.
He could hear his own heartbeat, which vibrated like a drum, making his eardrums ache.
But as he looked up, the nodes of β-9 and γ-12 had already begun to close, and Whitebeard's shockwave seized the opportunity to deliver the final blow, crushing the remaining extradimensional creatures into dust.
"Commander!" The medic's voice boomed through the communicator, "Long Wu's dragon-pattern burns have triggered a bloodline surge, his body temperature has risen to 42 degrees Celsius, and he's attempting to break through to the Mythical level!"
Lin Yi's finger slammed down on the tactical screen.
He wanted to laugh, but the movement pulled at the wound on his lip.
Long Wu, that kid, always manages to break through in dire situations.
“Inject the medical pod with dragon blood essence,” he wiped the blood from his nose, “and tell him that when he wakes up, I’ll treat him to a ten-year supply of Moutai.”
The alarm in the command center suddenly changed tone.
Chu Yao's projection froze abruptly, the data stream churning wildly in her eyes. "Unknown signal source detected...frequency 3, same origin as the main brain's core code." Her voice trembled, as if someone had grabbed her throat. "Coordinates...pointing to that floating city."
Lin Yi suddenly looked up.
Through the observation window of the command cabin, he saw a faint blue light shimmering at the end of the starry sky, much like the illusion that appeared in his compass when he first awakened to the power of spacetime three years ago—a crystal city suspended in nothingness, its walls covered with characters he had never seen before, and a giant gate in the center of the city slowly opening.
“That is… the Gate of Destiny.” His voice was as soft as a sigh.
The compass on my left chest suddenly emitted a burning sensation; this time it wasn't a backlash, but some kind of summons.
He recalled what Chu Yao had said three days ago; the voice in the chip was the same as the tone she used when she was born—could it be that the floating city was the starting point of everything?
Chu Yao's projection suddenly materialized.
She reached out and touched the viewing window, her fingertips leaving pale golden watermarks on the glass. "Signal strength is increasing... 5% every three seconds." She turned to look at Lin Yi, the data stream in her eyes disappearing completely for the first time, leaving only pure human pupils. "Commander, I think... I remember something."
Just as Lin Yi was about to ask further questions, the tactical screen lit up red again.
But this time it wasn't an enemy attack, but a communication request from Aizen.
Looking at the complex emotions in Chu Yao's eyes, and then at the gradually brightening floating city, he felt as if a piece of red-hot iron was stuck in his throat.
A dark shadow flashed through the crack of the Gate of Destiny.
In the far reaches of the starry sky, that pale blue light is rapidly transforming into a sea.
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