A blood-red fissure tore a half-mile-long wound in the night sky, and viscous blackish-purple mist surged and fell, causing the clouds in its path to hiss and melt into charred fragments as if they had been doused with concentrated sulfuric acid.
Chu Yao's monitoring screen suddenly emitted a blinding white light, and her synthesized electronic voice trembled like never before: "Energy extraction rate has exceeded 30%!"
The earth's ley line energy in the real world is being siphoned off—at 37° North latitude and 122° East longitude, three thousand meters underground, the Earth's core temperature is soaring to 13,000 degrees Celsius!
Long Wu's steps out of the command cabin suddenly stopped. The World-Destroying Dragon Pattern on the back of his neck turned dark red, and the pupils of the dragon head phantom suddenly contracted into vertical lines: "That is the location of the China Dragon Abyss Mine!"
Are they trying to drain the Earth's spiritual foundation?
"Night Owl doesn't want war, he wants sacrifice." Aizen's fingertips lightly touched the Hogyoku, a ghostly blue light creeping up his veins and across his arm. "Use the psionic energy of this planet to ignite the interdimensional teleportation array and send the entire invader army here." He pushed up his shattered glasses, his gaze piercing through the glass dome of the command center. "And the remnants of our faith have just been exhausted; the current dimensional barrier..."
"Thin enough." Lin Yi continued, the Blade of Time trembling in his palm as if it were alive.
He could clearly sense the ground beneath his feet groaning, and the streetlights, cell phone screens, and even the faint light in the eyes of stray cats in the city were all converging on the blood-red crack—that was the unawakened potential spiritual energy of ordinary people being forcibly stripped away.
"Boss!" Long Wu turned around, creating a gust of wind. "I'm taking the Dragon Guards to seal off the passage at the mine entrance—"
"It's too late." Lin Yi suddenly raised his hand, the silver light of the Blade of Time condensing into a fine needle at his fingertips. "Look at the sky."
Everyone looked up.
Dark gold runes have appeared on the starry sky that was originally covered in blood, like ancient chains wrapped around the edges of the cracks.
That was a dimensional seal left behind by an advanced civilization, and now it was groaning under the strain of the increased energy extraction—when each rune cracked, black lightning would strike, blasting deep craters into the ground.
"Xuan Mingzi's backup plan." Lin Yi's temples throbbed. He could feel a cold stream of data surging within his sea of consciousness. "Three days ago, when he was on the verge of death, he injected something into my body... a delaying spell." Before he could finish speaking, his wrist was suddenly gripped tightly by an invisible force, and bluish-purple runes appeared beneath his skin. The silver light of the Blade of Time was forcibly forced back into its sheath.
"Lin Yi!" Chu Yao's holographic projection suddenly materialized, grabbing his other hand, "The data stream is eroding your spacetime core!"
It must be cut off—
"It's useless." Aizen's voice suddenly deepened as he gazed at the void behind Lin Yi. "This is a cursed seal bound to the rules of dimensions, unless..."
"Unless someone can bear it for him."
The clear, crisp female voice, like melting snow in a mountain stream, pierced through all the noise.
Lin Yi turned his head sharply and saw Su Qing standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the command cabin.
She was wearing that familiar off-white sweater, her hair streaked with tiny starlight, but she looked like a crumpled old photograph, with pale blue snowflake-like noise around the edges.
"Su Qing?" he blurted out, the incantation on his wrist suddenly stinging. "How did you get in?"
This is a high-dimensional shielded zone —
"Because I don't belong to this dimension." She approached step by step, and with each step, the noise became more intense.
When she stood in front of Lin Yi, he finally saw the light flowing in her eyes—it was the reflection of the data torrent, the deep blue that only appeared when the core of the "Infinite" system was running.
"The seventh key fragment." Su Qing raised her hand, revealing a rhombus-shaped crystal in her palm, its surface shimmering with golden and red light patterns. "This is the final component to activate 'Genesis Reboot'." She pressed the crystal into Lin Yi's palm; its touch was surprisingly cool. "And I... am its vessel."
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He recalled the first time he met Su Qing in the beginner village, when she always managed to precisely dodge all the monsters' attacks; he recalled the hidden arrow she took to save him last month, and the data stream that flashed under her skin as the wound healed; he recalled the reddened corners of her eyes when she suddenly said three days ago, "Some farewells should be said early."
\"Who are you......\"
"The original, personified core of 'Infinite'." Su Qing finished speaking for him, her fingertips gently tracing his brow bone. "The advanced civilization sealed me in the real world, just to wait for today—to wait for someone to collect all seven key fragments and restart the system before the dimension collapses." Her voice began to crackle with electronic noise. "And you are the only one who can use it."
"I don't want to!" Lin Yi grabbed her wrist with his other hand, and the Blade of Time suddenly burst out with a dazzling silver light, trying to sever the data stream on her body. "You said you would go see the aurora with me!"
She said she would plant blue roses all over the top floor of the Time-Space Chamber of Commerce! He could feel her wrists getting lighter, as if he were holding a wisp of mist about to dissipate.
"That's my most greedy wish." Su Qing smiled, a pale blue light falling from the corner of her eye. "But more than being trapped in data forever, I want..." Her voice was suddenly drowned out by a crackling sound, and she began to become transparent. "I want to see you... and make our world..."
"Su Qing!" Chu Yao's holographic projection suddenly collapsed into fragments, and when it reformed, its eyes glowed with an abnormal red light. "Her existence is being recycled by the system!"
Data breakdown rate of 97%!
Long Wu's world-destroying dragon mark suddenly let out a mournful cry. He rushed over to grab Su Qing, but only touched nothingness.
Aizen's Hogyoku suddenly emitted a piercing cry, and a dark blue light surged wildly into Lin Yi's body, attempting to repair his meridians that had been eroded by the incantation.
"Listen to me." Su Qing's voice surged from all directions, "Integrate the key fragments into the Blade of Time, before the teleportation array is fully formed..." Her figure completely transformed into specks of light, the last ray gently touching Lin Yi's nose, "...to show me the aurora borealis one last time."
Lin Yi clenched the crystal in his palm, and the scalding liquid splashed onto the back of his hand—only then did he realize that he was crying.
Suddenly, the Blade of Time let out a dragon's roar, and the blade automatically sprang open. The silver-white blade light enveloped the crystal, melting into golden-red droplets in mid-air, which flowed down his wrist and into his heart.
"Boss!" Long Wu's voice was hoarse, "The teleportation array is 85% complete!"
Lin Yi looked up.
Through the blood-red cracks, the outline of a metallic warship could already be seen, like a group of black whales squeezing through a narrow doorway.
He wiped his face, and the blade of time suddenly expanded ten miles, lifting him into the sky.
"Tell everyone." His voice, mingled with the roar of spacetime energy, resounded through the communicators of every job changer, "Lend me your power of faith once more."
Above the clouds, Su Qing's last wisp of data light was merging into the patterns of the Blade of Time.
No one saw that in her final moments before disappearing, a line of tiny text flashed within the crystal: "Genesis Reboot Protocol, activated."
Seven rhombus-shaped crystals floated in Lin Yi's palm, and the last glimmer of light that Su Qing had dissipated darted into each facet like swimming fish.
The golden and red light patterns suddenly came to life, climbing and merging along the surface of the crystal, outlining a semi-transparent key shape in mid-air—the first crystal sank into the key handle, the second embedded in the tooth marks, the third filled in the hollowed-out patterns, and when the seventh crystal completely merged, the entire key suddenly burst out with light that was enough to burn the retina.
"This is..." Aizen's Hogyoku suddenly froze, its eerie blue light condensing into a mirror-like surface, reflecting the ancient runes flowing on the keys. "The Seven Keys of Creation, the ultimate weapon used by advanced civilizations to reset dimensions." His fingertips pressed against his temples. "But Su Qing's consciousness..."
"Her existence has been reclaimed by the system." Chu Yao's holographic projection suddenly froze into snowflake noise, and when it reappeared, the corners of her eyes were scorched black. "Data fusion rate 100%, key completion rate 100%."
But it detected... "Her voice was suddenly cut off by an electric current, "Residual emotions of Su Qing were detected, resonating with the key's core."
Lin Yi stared at the key in his palm, his knuckles turning white from gripping it so tightly.
The sensation of Su Qing touching his nose for the last time was still there, like a piece of melting snow, yet clearer than any brand.
He recalled how, three days ago, she had crouched on the rooftop of the Time-Space Chamber of Commerce, using her data abilities to force the blue roses to bloom, their petals adorned with virtual dewdrops. She had said, "After this battle, shall we go see the real aurora?"
"Lin Yi."
A hoarse male voice ripped through the void.
A dark figure appeared ten paces away, its black robe billowing in the energy storm, revealing a faint silver collar around its neck—the mark of a high-level civilization's law enforcer.
His gaze swept over the key in Lin Yi's palm, a chaotic light swirling in his pupils: "Do you know what activating the core means?"
"It means the restructuring of the universe." Lin Yi looked up, tears swirling into tiny ice crystals in the wind. "It means the timelines of all dimensions might be reset, the memories of all life might be erased." His thumb gently traced the remaining light patterns Su Qing had left on the key. "But tell me," his voice suddenly deepened, as if pressing down on the entire galaxy, "if we can't even protect the present, what's the point of the future?"
The shadowy figure's Adam's apple bobbed.
The law enforcement officer, who had coldly observed Lin Yi's awakening, now had a crack in his eyes: "Su Qing's core data will be completely dismantled, leaving not even the smallest fragment of her emotions."
"I know." Lin Yi's voice trembled, yet it was as firm as a steel nail driven into an iron plate. "Therefore, I must personally send her on her final journey with this key."
The shadowy figure fell silent.
He raised his hand, and the black energy that gathered at his fingertips drew a distorted star map in mid-air—the coordinates of the dimensional rift.
The moment the tip of the key touched the crack, the entire command ship suddenly emitted a dying groan.
Long Wu staggered and grabbed the control panel, the World-Destroying Dragon Mark exploding in blood on the back of his neck: "The Earth's core temperature has exceeded 20,000 degrees!"
The mineral vein's psionic energy has been drained!
"Start!" Lin Yi shouted.
The moment the seven keys disappeared into the rift, the whole world began to turn upside down.
The clouds were torn into a spiral shape, the warships in the blood-red gaps suddenly froze, and even Night Owl's distorted face was frozen in a roaring expression—time, at this moment, was forcibly nailed down by the power of the master of spacetime.
"Impossible!" Night Owl's roar pierced the time barrier, his fingernails drawing sparks in the void. "I have fused the origins of three dimensions!" The invader legion behind him suddenly moved, tens of thousands of mechanical tentacles piercing through the spacetime rifts, coiling towards Lin Yi like venomous snakes.
"Defense system!" Chu Yao's voice carried the burning smell of electricity. Her projection suddenly split into millions of data fragments, each of which transformed into a blue light shield in front of Lin Yi.
As the front-line light shield was pierced by the tentacles, she let out a cry of pain similar to a human's: "Main system is rebooting, backup energy only 3% remaining!"
"Dragon Five!" Lin Yi roared without turning his head, "Take the Dragon Guards to stabilize the Earth's core!"
Aizen, use the Hogyoku to restrain the tentacles! In his pupils, the Seven Keys were blooming into golden buds deep within the rift, each petal unleashing a dimensional storm. "The rest, leave to me!"
Long Wu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. The World-Destroying Dragon Mark suddenly materialized into a physical dragon head, swallowing three mechanical tentacles in one gulp: "Boss, if the mine collapses, half the Earth will sink!" As he turned, his dragon tail swept across the control panel, causing all the instruments to hum. "But if you say you'll protect it, we'll protect it!"
Aizen's glasses shattered completely, and a deep blue light spilled from his pupils: "This is the first time I've risked my life for someone else." The Hogyoku suddenly exploded, transforming into thousands of chains that wrapped around his tentacles. "However..." He tilted his head and smiled, "To witness the birth of a mythical being is not bad at all."
Night Owl's face was distorted beyond recognition in the energy storm. He suddenly threw out a dark purple dagger, which pierced through Chu Yao's light shield and went straight for Lin Yi's heart.
Lin Yi didn't even move. The Blade of Time automatically unsheathed itself, a flash of silver light, and the dagger was cleaved in two.
But his attention was not on that at all—the golden bud of the Seven Keys had fully bloomed, and a beam of light more intense than the sun burst forth from the crack, piercing straight into the sky.
"That is..." Chu Yao's projection suddenly became clear again. She looked up at the pillar of light, and the red light in her eyes was dyed gold. "The Reboot Light of the Core of Infinity."
The rules of all dimensions are being rewritten, the intruders' teleportation array...
Wherever the beam of light passed, the crimson fissures melted away at a visible speed, like ice being roasted by fire.
The invading warships, which were originally squeezed into the gaps, suddenly began to disintegrate. Metal fragments were swept up by beams of light and flew into the sky, drawing a dazzling river of light across the starry sky.
The owl's roar grew weaker and weaker until it was finally drowned out by the roar of the beam of light.
Beyond the unseen star trails, an alliance fleet that had been hovering on the far side of the moon was being enveloped by the aftershocks of the beam of light.
The flagship energy shield at the very front suddenly rippled, and golden-red patterns identical to the seven keys in Lin Yi's palm appeared on the previously stable blue light membrane...
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