The morning mist scattered like gold dust under the rising sun, and the bronze lamp tree inside the large tent still shone with a warm light, but it could not conceal the golden light surging on the surface of the Star Key.
When the last commander—the mechanical general of the Technology Alliance—placed his palm on the key, the entire key suddenly emitted a bell-like hum, and twelve golden lines, as if alive, climbed from the handle to the tip, outlining a star-shaped contract mark in mid-air.
"It's done." Lin Yi lowered his eyes to look at the Star Key in his palm, which was slightly warm, and gently stroked the newly emerging patterns with his fingertips.
He could sense that the twelve lines corresponded to the original will of the twelve allied commanders, and at this moment they were weaving an invisible net through the power of spacetime, binding the fate of the entire allied forces together.
The tent was initially deathly silent, then erupted into a deafening cheer.
The elementalist leader crushed the fire crystal in his palm, and a rain of crimson light exploded above his head; the head of the ancient martial arts family slapped his thigh and laughed, causing the jade pendant at his waist to jingle; even the usually serious mechanical general removed his goggles, his metal fingers slamming heavily on the table: "This is much more reliable than the quantum protocol we used with nanobots!"
Lin Yi raised his hand, and the noise inside the tent suddenly subsided.
He stepped onto the makeshift wooden platform, and the morning breeze swept in through the curtains, causing his black cloak to flutter loudly.
Below, thousands of eyes shone brightly. There were the soft sounds of warriors sharpening their swords, the muffled snorts of warhorses, and the final forging sound from a blacksmith's shop in the distance—this was the most diverse coalition in human history: those dressed in ancient martial arts attire, those in mecha suits, those wrapped in elemental robes, and even a few green-skinned alien resistance fighters, all looking up and fixing their gazes on him.
"Do you know why we chose today?" Lin Yi's voice wasn't loud, but it was like a silver needle, precisely piercing everyone's eardrums. "Three hundred years ago today, the first alien spaceship appeared in Earth's orbit; thirty years ago today, the 'Infinite' game first descended into reality; three days ago today, I found this key in a spacetime rift." He raised the Star Key, golden light shimmering in everyone's eyes. "Fate always loves to throw challenges at us, but today—"
He suddenly gripped the keys tightly, his knuckles turning white: "We'll write the answers ourselves!"
The thunderous shout of "Kill!" resounded like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami crashing, causing the dragon-patterned flag on the flagpole outside the tent to tremble violently.
Long Wu squeezed to the front row, his fiery red combat boots creaking under his feet: "Commander!"
The vanguard battalion is getting impatient. Let me go and take down Night Owl's sentry post first! The dragon scale tattoo on his neck shimmered with his movements; it was an injury he sustained in the ruins last time, and now it looked like a medal.
Lin Yi looked at his brother who had been with him since the beginner village, and his Adam's apple bobbed.
Long Wu always claimed to be a self-taught fighter, but at this moment, the fire in his eyes was more scorching than any epic-level combat skill. "Take five thousand men and head along Starfall Valley." Lin Yi tossed over a spacetime badge. "Don't fight the consciousness sentinels head-on; use this—"
"Alright!" Long Wu caught the badge and hung it around his neck. As he turned around, a gust of wind rose up, and his loud voice rang out amidst the clinking of armor against armor, "You brats from the Time Legion!"
Follow me and fight your way through the outpost!
Five thousand figures surged out of the tent like a flood, the sound of horses' hooves, the roar of mech thrusters, and the soft chanting of elementalists instantly shattering the morning mist into fragments.
Lin Yi watched their retreating figures until the fiery red silhouette completely disappeared on the horizon before turning to look at the holographic projection in the corner of the tent—Chu Yao's virtual figure was standing amidst a torrent of data, her fingertips rapidly tapping on an imaginary keyboard, her pale blue hair brushing against a string of green code.
"The coordinates of the mother hive have been locked." Her voice, clear and crisp with a mechanical quality, trembled slightly at the end. "The fusion progress of Night Owl... is already 87%." A series of fluctuating numbers appeared on the holographic screen, the red progress bar at the top climbing at a visible speed. "The fragment in his hand is resonating; I guess it's the core of the 'First Will'."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
Three days ago, in the spacetime rift, he glimpsed a corner of that fragment—pitch black, yet shimmering with eerie silver veins, like the blood vessels of some living thing. "How much time is left?"
"At most twelve hours." Chu Yao's fingertip hovered over the "Confirm" button. "But Long Wu's vanguard has run into trouble."
The projection suddenly switched to a live view: Long Wu's fiery red battle blade was held against the neck of a semi-transparent consciousness, whose head resembled a churning black mist, emitting a piercing shriek.
But what's even more striking is Long Wu's hand—a golden dragon scale is crawling out from his wrist, spreading along the blood vessels to his arm. Wherever it passes, his originally bronze skin glows with a golden luster, and even his pupils turn into vertical pupils.
"This is... a dragon mark?" Lin Yi leaned closer to the screen.
In the scene, Long Wu suddenly raised his head and let out a low roar, the sound wave causing the surrounding consciousnesses to shatter.
His battle blade ignited with crimson-gold flames, and wherever the blade swept, the mist in the entire valley was evaporated, leaving only the faint blue light spots left by the remnants of consciousness on the ground.
"The purity of Long Wu's bloodline has been increased to 92%." Chu Yao's voice finally showed some emotion. "The latent true dragon bloodline within him has been activated."
It seems that the consciousness sentinels deployed by Night Owl contained the protective imprint of the dragon ruins.
Lin Yi smiled; it was the most relaxed smile he had shown since the start of the war.
Long Wu, that kid, always said he was just a jack-of-all-trades who carried bricks on construction sites, but it turns out he was hiding such a big secret.
He reached out and pressed the communicator: "Long Wu, well done."
Keep pushing forward, and collect all the relic fragments you encounter—"
"Commander!"
"The main force is ready!" came the shouts of the guards outside the tent.
Lin Yi turned his head and looked through the lifted tent flap. He could see the allied forces gathering all over the mountains and plains: the black iron chariots of the ancient martial arts families were at the forefront, the hovering fighters of the technology alliance swept across the sky, the elementalists laid out mine arrays in the clouds, and the giant beast cavalry of the interdimensional resistance army swung their reins, the roars of beasts and the rumble of machinery intertwined into a war song.
He stepped off the wooden platform, his boots crushing a patch of fire crystal fragments.
The wind ruffled his cloak, revealing the spacetime compass hanging at his waist—the core equipment of the Spacetime Master, now trembling gently in sync with his heartbeat. "Chu Yao, synchronize Long Wu's coordinates with all teams," his voice was as steady as a drumbeat. "Tell everyone, we're not going to our deaths, we're going to buy time."
"Understood." Chu Yao's projection bowed slightly, the code at the ends of her hair suddenly turning completely gold. "Also... Xuan Mingzi's jade talisman has an abnormal temperature." She pulled up another set of data. "He just sent a text message towards the mother nest, but the content was blocked by the power of spacetime."
Lin Yi paused in his steps.
The night before last, he felt that hidden gaze outside the tent.
Xuanmingzi, the ancient martial arts disciple who always wore a blue robe, appeared to be there to surrender, but he already knew that the jade talisman on his chest contained the spiritual imprint of Night Owl.
But at this moment, he looked at Xuan Mingzi, who was inspecting the Xuan Tie Sword in the distance, and the other man happened to look up, and their eyes met.
Xuanmingzi was stunned for a moment, then hugged his sword and performed an ancient salute, the red silk on the sword tassel fluttering in the wind.
"Let him be." Lin Yi withdrew his gaze. "Some answers need to be seen with one's own eyes."
As the first ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds, Lin Yi mounted the jet-black warhorse of time and space.
This horse was brought back from a spacetime rift and can sense spatial fluctuations. At this moment, it is nuzzling his hand with its head and emitting a low neigh.
He glanced back at the allied forces behind him—a column of tens of thousands stretching as far as the eye could see, banners like a forest, armor like snow, even the air itself seemed to burn with the heat of battle.
"Let's go!" he shouted softly, and his warhorse reared up.
Behind them, countless battle flags were unfurled at the same time, and the shouts of battle shook the clouds apart.
Before passing through the final star gate passage, Lin Yi touched the Star Key on his chest. At this moment, it was resonating with Long Wu's bloodline, Chu Yao's data, and the will of the allied forces, its heat burning his skin through his clothes.
"Commander!" Chu Yao's urgent call came through the communicator, "The spatial fluctuations in the Mother Nest are abnormal!"
Night Owl...he seems to be summoning something!
Lin Yi narrowed his eyes, the blue light of the stargate passage flowing in his eyes.
He could sense that something enormous was awakening beneath the mother nest, like a giant beast that had been sleeping for many years finally opening its eyes.
But it's okay, he thought, we're awake too.
"Speed up." He patted the horse's neck. "Tell Long Wu to prepare to pick up the people."
The wind whistled in my ears, and the blue light of the stargate was about to envelop my entire body.
Lin Yi reached for the Time-Space Compass at his waist, where the secret technique of the "Tremor-Tremor Fruit" left to him by Whitebeard was still hidden—it was his last trump card.
But perhaps, we won't need it anymore.
Because he could feel the footsteps behind him getting closer and closer, the heartbeats of tens of thousands of people, a resolute determination to live towards death that human civilization had never seen before.
And in those footsteps, he heard his own heartbeat.
Slowly, steadily, like a war drum, like a morning bell, like the very first sound of every story—
\"start.\"
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