The instant the spacetime rift closed, Lin Yi felt his eardrums being pierced by a violent buzzing sound.
He staggered back half a step, and Long Wu's palm caught his lower back in time—the dragon scales on his palm still retained the chill from the depths of the cracks, but made his burning skin feel a little more comfortable.
"The core of cause and effect is burning." Lin Yi looked down at his chest, where dark purple and silver-blue interwoven light patterns were climbing up his collarbone and down his neck, like a snake that had come to life.
He could clearly feel that this core was resonating with the origin of the entire "Infinite" system, like two ancient bells whose frequencies had finally aligned, making his soul tremble.
Long Wu's pupils shrank to vertical slits: "You look even worse than when you went in."
“But I heard it.” Lin Yi suddenly raised his head, the starry sky in his eyes swirling into a vortex. “The sound of the Seven Keys of Creation.” He licked his bitter lips. “It wasn’t the crisp bell sound of the Key of Destiny, it was… the sound of rusty gears meshing, mixed with dragon roars.”
"bite--"
Chu Yao's electronic voice suddenly pierced into his consciousness, startling Long Wu so much that half an inch of dragon claw shot out from his fingertips.
The girl's voice carried an unusual urgency: "Master! The Infinite Core has just deciphered an encrypted message, the coordinates of which are located in the abandoned starport of sector 0-7, and the tag is 'Dragon Soul Dungeon'."
“Dragon Soul Dungeon?” Long Wu frowned. “I’ve heard of that place. Three years ago, it was ranked number one in risk among all team dungeons. Every time the portal was opened, it would explode.”
Before the words were finished, a cloud of black mist suddenly condensed between the two of them.
The black mist first twisted into a blurry human shape, and when the outline became clear, it turned out to be a wrinkled face—a high nose, drooping eyes, and a kind expression; it was none other than the white-bearded old captain.
"That's where I fought my last battle." The white-bearded man's voice was hoarse, like metal scraping, clearly from the remnants of his consciousness. "Three hundred years ago, I led all eight hundred brothers of the 'Dragon Chaser' into the Dragon Tomb, intending to retrieve the dragon soul to forge our anchor, but... humph, that place was locked up by unknown energy." His cloudy eyes suddenly gleamed with golden light. "But it is precisely because it has been locked up for three hundred years that it may contain clues to the Seven Keys of Creation."
Lin Yi reached out and touched the black mist, his fingertips piercing through it but bringing with them a few glimmers of starlight: "You knew this day would come?"
“Those chosen by the core of cause and effect deserve a little gift.” The white-bearded figure began to dissipate. “Remember, the key to the Dragon Soul dungeon… is in the Dragon Blood.” As the last word faded, a rusty red scale floated out of the black mist and landed precisely in Lin Yi’s palm.
"Let's go." Lin Yi put the scales into his spatial ring and turned around, his usual cold demeanor returning. "Summon all members of the Time-Space Legion and activate the Faith Link." He looked up at the sky, where the previously scattered star trails were slowly converging into a vortex. "Mythical-level buff sharing. This time, no one is allowed to fall behind."
Five minutes later, in the central square.
Two thousand job changers stood in a star-shaped formation, each with a star trail mark on their forehead, just like Lin Yi's.
Long Wu stood at the very front, the world-destroying dragon pattern on his back resonating with the star trails in the sky; the fire mage girl in the front row gripped her staff tightly, the flames at the tips of her hair turning from orange to gold—a sign that the mythical "elemental affinity" bUFF was taking effect.
“Link strength 99%.” Chu Yao’s voice rang out from everyone’s communicators. “Detected an increase of 300% in all attributes and 200% in resistance.”
Lin Yi stood on the high platform, holding the Anchor of Time in his palm.
A silver chain dangled, drawing a massive teleportation array on the ground: "Target: Dragon Soul Dungeon Entrance." His voice wasn't loud, but it clearly penetrated everyone's ears. "Remember, we're not going on an adventure—" he smiled, "we're going to take back what belongs to us."
"roar--"
His response was the roar of two thousand weapons being unsheathed.
Just as the teleportation array was about to light up with blue light, the system suddenly issued a piercing alarm.
Chu Yao's voice suddenly rose: "Warning! External consciousness fragments have been detected intruding; the teleportation coordinates are being tampered with!"
The star trail between Lin Yi's brows suddenly lit up with a dazzling white light.
He could sense a sticky mass of spiritual energy climbing along the light chain of the faith link, trying to pry open the node of the teleportation array.
He knew that scent all too well—it was Night Owl.
"Hiding in the data nodes like a rat?" Lin Yi chuckled softly, tapping the air with his fingertips.
The power of the causal core surged forth like a torrent, flowing upstream along the contaminated light chain.
He "saw" it: in some abandoned data ruins, fragments of the Night Owl's consciousness were twisting into the shape of an octopus, with countless tentacles frantically tearing at the teleportation coordinates.
"Lin Yi! You think you can turn the world upside down just because you have the Core of Cause and Effect?" Night Owl's voice was crackling with static. "This dungeon hides... hides something that can crush your mythical class! You dare go in—"
"boom!"
Lin Yi flicked his finger and released a silver light.
Those were fragments of the Anchor of Time, instantly piercing through the data ruins and twisting the Night Owl's tentacles into gibberish.
A sharp pain shot through his mind, but he laughed even more wildly: "I dare to go in because—" He looked at the gradually stabilizing teleportation array, "The more you fear something, the more I will crush it."
The blue light from the teleportation array surged again.
Two thousand figures began to blur. Long Wu's dragon pattern drew a golden-red trajectory in the void. The fire mage girl's flames condensed into a phoenix phantom. Even the shield warriors at the very edge erected their shields into a protective barrier.
At the last moment, Lin Yi caught a glimpse of a semi-transparent dragon scale rising from the edge of the teleportation array.
The patterns on the scales matched perfectly with the one left by the white-bearded man, and behind the scales, one could vaguely see a giant bronze gate—the gate was covered with ancient runes, and the aura seeping from the cracks made the core of cause and effect within his body tremble with excitement.
"We're here," he said softly.
The blue light engulfed all the figures.
The bronze gate slowly cracked open, and a deep dragon's roar came from behind it, mixed with the lingering smoke of gunpowder from three hundred years ago.
The tremors from the massive bronze gate slamming shut had not yet subsided when Lin Yi's heels began to grind into the moss-covered gravel.
The damp wind, carrying the smell of rust, entered his nostrils. He looked up and saw that in the desolate ruins of the Dragon Tomb that he had expected, seven dark purple tents had been erected, and more than twenty figures in black were busy around a half-buried, broken stone tablet.
The leader had an indigo mandala tattooed on his neck, a unique mark of Aizen's "Hunye Palace".
"Long Wu." Lin Yi's voice was as soft as a feather.
Long Wu's dragon claws had retracted into his palms, but he had formed a white seal at his side: "At least three of the people from the Void Night Palace are at the ninth level of the Transcendent Realm." His Adam's apple bobbed. "They carry the aura of the Hogyoku."
The golden flames at the tips of Xiao Li's hair suddenly flickered. She lowered her voice: "The patterns on the stone tablet... are very similar to the 'Starfall Tablet' I saw in the 'Ancient God Codex'!"
The shield warrior, Old Zhou, emitted an earthy yellow glow, a sign that his defensive skill was activating: "Boss, should I lead the team to clear the area?"
Lin Yi did not answer immediately.
He stared at the pale blue light dancing at the fingertips of the mandala-embroiderer—it was clearly a fragment of the Hogyoku, resonating with the faint light seeping from the cracks in the stone tablet.
Chu Yao's data stream flickered on her retina: "A 0.03% match was detected between the frequency of the Hogyoku and the fluctuations of the Seven Keys of Genesis. Aizen may have located the keys through the Hogyoku."
"Clearing the area would alert them." Lin Yi's thumb gently rubbed his spatial ring, the Core of Cause and Effect flowing through his body with a cool trace. "Chu Yao, give me three seconds to delay."
"Understood!" The girl's electronic voice carried a hint of excitement. "Target area locked. Time flow adjusted to 1:100."
The next second, Lin Yi's vision suddenly slowed down—the movements of the people from the Void Palace seemed to be slowed down, the communicator that the Mandala Emblem user had raised to his mouth was suspended in mid-air, and even the dust floating in the air was stretched into silver lines.
He lightly touched the ground with his toes, his figure gliding across the broken wall like a fish. Long Wu's dragon pattern behind him lit up with a golden light to assist in acceleration, Xiao Li's flames condensed into an invisible barrier to envelop everyone, and Lao Zhou's shield transformed into a thick wall of air to block their retreat.
When the flow of time resumed, Lin Yi was already standing in the shadow of the broken pillar behind the stone tablet.
The Mandala Emblem user's communicator clicked against his ear, and his voice finally reached Lin Yi's ears: "...Sir, the resonance frequency between the Hogyoku and the key is increasing. We estimate we can pinpoint the exact location within three minutes."
"As expected." Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
He could clearly sense a fluctuation thirty meters below the stone tablet that made even the core of cause and effect scorch – that was the aura of the Seven Keys of Creation.
He walked along the base of the wall into the depths of the ruins, the shards of pottery he stepped on making a soft, crisp sound.
As you turn past the last remaining wall, a bronze stone gate covered with ancient runes suddenly appears before you.
The patterns on the door perfectly matched the dragon scales left by the white-bearded man, and the faint light seeping from the crack in the door resonated with the core of cause and effect in his palm.
"Only those who truly understand the meaning of sacrifice can open this door."
A hoarse voice came from above.
Lin Yi looked up and saw the phantom of the white-bearded figure hovering above the lintel. His eyes still held a kind smile, but now carried a hint of the grimness of three hundred years ago: "Three hundred years ago, my eight hundred brothers died in front of this door."
They fed the dragon guarding the key with their own flesh and blood, making it possible for the door to open.
Lin Yi's fingers gently pressed on the stone door.
The cool touch spread along my palm, and memories suddenly flooded back like a tidal wave—
- In the torrential rain of the starting village, the first shield warrior to sacrifice himself, with half a bone spur embedded in his chest, smiled through his blood and tears, saying, "Boss, lead us out of here."
In the battle for the spacetime rift, the healer Xia exhausted her last bit of healing magic. Her last words before her body became transparent as light were: "Don't stop. Our lives... must be used to pave the way."
During the battle against the interdimensional legion, Long Wu had half of his dragon scale shattered by an energy cannon, yet he stubbornly pushed himself out of the blast radius, his dragon roar filled with madness: "I sold my life to the Time-Space Ruler long ago!"
My eyes suddenly felt hot.
Lin Yi closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, the star trails in his eyes dazzlingly bright: "I understand."
The stone gate emitted a deep, resonant roar.
The runes, as if alive, traveled to his fingertips, leaving a mark on his palm identical to the white-bearded dragon scales.
The door slowly cracked open, and a pale golden light poured out from the crack—a key floated in the center of the light, its surface shimmering with starlight like the Milky Way; it was the "Dragon Soul Key," one of the Seven Keys of Creation.
\"Give me!\"
A sharp mental stab suddenly pierced through the sea of consciousness.
The owl's consciousness transformed into a giant black hand, piercing through the stone gate's defenses and heading straight for the key!
The scorch marks on his hands, still bearing garbled data, were clearly forcibly formed after he was injured by the fragments of the Anchor of Time.
Lin Yi's temples throbbed.
Instead of retreating, he took a step forward, and the power of the core of cause and effect surged out like a volcanic eruption.
The power of spacetime condensed into a pale purple cocoon of light around him, and all movements were completely frozen within the cocoon—Night Owl's hand stopped ten centimeters away from the key, Dragon Five's raised dragon claw still maintained its charging posture, and even the starlight on the surface of the key solidified into a star map.
"This time, no one can take it from me." Lin Yi's voice carried the unique power of laws of a mythical profession, and every word seemed to be engraved into the very bones of time and space.
He raised his hand and grasped the key. The cold metallic touch reminded him of the dragon scales on Long Wu's palm, the warmth of Xia before she disappeared, and all the comrades who paved the way for him with their lives.
The key trembled slightly in his palm, as if in response to his vow.
The instant the space-time confinement was lifted, a surge of heat suddenly erupted from inside the stone gate.
Lin Yi subconsciously looked up and, through the half-open door, saw a burning ancient battlefield inside—charred flags lay in pools of blood, broken swords were still stained with undried blood, and faint shouts of battle could be heard in the distance, among which a dragon's roar was particularly clear, carrying a deep sorrow.
"This is..." Lin Yi's breath hitched.
Long Wu's voice came from behind: "Boss, the flow of time inside the door is different from outside!"
Xiao Li's flames suddenly surged into the form of a phoenix: "That dragon's roar... it's exactly the same as the 'World-Suppressing Dragon Lord' I read about in the 'Dragon Clan Codex'!"
Lin Yi gripped the Dragon Soul Key tightly in his hand, and when he turned around, the star trails in his eyes had already swirled into a vortex.
He could sense that the key was building a new causal chain within him, and the battlefield behind the door would be the next node of this causal chain.
"Let's go." He stepped through the stone gate. "We should see what really happened three hundred years ago."
The moment the door closed behind them, the shouts of battle from the burning battlefield suddenly became clearer.
A dark golden dragon shadow rose into the air from the flames, its sorrow and resentment piercing Lin Yi's heart through the cracks of time and space.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com