As the bronze doors of the temple opened fully, starlight leaking through the cracks fell onto the chip in Lin Yi's palm.
Long Wu's communicator was still vibrating. His shout of "Boss!" mixed with the sound of metal scraping, made everyone's eardrums hurt.
"Why are you running so fast?" The dark figure reached out and pressed down on Long Wu's shoulder, his knuckles turning white from the force, but his gaze remained fixed on the crack in the door.
The sword of the enforcer at his waist trembled and hummed softly, like some kind of warning.
Lin Yi walked at the front.
The closer one gets to the temple, the faster the spacetime rift on the wrist flows. Those silver and black interwoven light bands drill along the veins to the fingertips, leaving fine patterns on the surface of the chip.
He could hear faint clicking sounds coming from inside the chip, like an old machine finally being wound up—it was the triple encryption lock breaking down.
"First level, Mythical-level mental power." Su Qing's data stream shot from the back of his neck to his eyes, forming a pale blue text projection. "Your mental power strength is detected at 9.7 stars, meeting the standard." Her voice was three points faster than usual, and tiny golden sparks danced between the data nodes. "Second level, spatial rift origin fluctuations... Matching, matching degree 99%, 99.5%, 100%!"
The chip suddenly got hot, so hot that Lin Yi's fingertips turned red.
He smiled, for within those originally obscure encrypted patterns, the same divine frequency as when he awakened to be the master of spacetime was emerging—the tremor etched into his soul the first time he heard the “Laws of Spacetime” whispering in his ear.
“The third layer,” he said softly, the warmth of his palm traveling through the chip to the depths of his palm lines. “It requires someone who won’t use it to rule the world.”
The temple doors burst open with a loud bang.
The first thing that fills your nostrils is the cool, stardust smell, like frozen metal.
Then came the light—a deluge of starlight poured out from the doorway, swirling across the ground.
Long Wu raised his hand to shield his eyes, and through his fingers he gasped in surprise, "That...that's a key?!"
Suspended in the center of the temple is a silver-white key inlaid with starlight.
It was three times larger than a regular key, with galaxy-like bands of light flowing across its surface. In each ray of light, one could see blurry human figures—a mother holding a child, a warrior wielding a sword, and an old man in his twilight years. Their mouths were all repeating the same sentence, but their voices were silenced by some force.
"It's waiting for you," the shadowy figure suddenly spoke.
His law enforcement uniform epaulets gleamed coldly, and his usually sharp eyes were now somewhat dazed. "I've seen the Reapers of advanced civilizations use this light; they call it 'the embers of civilization.'"
Lin Yi took a step, and the crisp sound of his heel hitting the bluestone slab startled the key, causing it to tremble slightly.
The next second, the entire ruins began to tremble.
Stone chips rained down from above, and Long Wu immediately rushed over and grabbed his arm: "Boss! This place is going to collapse! Let's get out of here—"
"Wait." Su Qing's data stream wrapped around Lin Yi's wrist, this time not with a tremor, but with a rapid pull. "The energy fluctuation is abnormal! The key is releasing resonance waves, and the frequency is exactly the same as your causal core!"
"The core of cause and effect?" The shadowy figure's pupils contracted slightly, and his fingertips subconsciously pressed the spatial button at his waist.
That's standard equipment for law enforcement officers in highly civilized societies; it can directly locate dangerous energy sources.
"It's responding to some kind of call." Su Qing's voice held an unusual urgency as the data nodes flickered wildly. "Like a baby hearing its mother's heartbeat!"
Countless reflections of the world suddenly appeared on the surface of the key.
Some worlds are shrouded in black mist, and cities collapse in flames; some worlds are filled with golden flowers, and children run under rainbows; and some worlds are nothing but a blank space, with only a string of numbers floating in the void—those are the “harvested civilization numbers”.
“This is no ordinary key.” The shadowy figure’s voice was as heavy as lead. His enforcer’s sword suddenly drew three inches from its sheath, its hum echoing throughout the temple. “It is the ‘Key of Faith,’ carrying the last vestiges of all the harvested worlds. Those figures… are their final cry for ‘free choice’ before they died.”
Lin Yi stared at the reflection in the key.
A little girl with pigtails was pressed against the glass, watching him. Outside the glass was the starting village, torn to pieces by monsters.
He recognized her—the first child he had rescued in the starting village three months ago, when she cried and said, "I want to choose for myself whether I want to be a doctor or a mage."
“Therefore, the power of the key comes from the choices of all living beings,” he said, his voice as soft as a sigh, yet it echoed in the temple.
Cold sweat beaded on Long Wu's forehead. His other hand gripped a tactical knife, the tip sparking as it cut through the stone ground. "Who cares what it's from! If we don't leave now, we're all going to be buried here! I'll count to three—"
“We can’t leave.” Lin Yi pressed down on Long Wu’s wrist with his back, the warmth of his palm passing through the tactical glove. “The key needs resonance, otherwise it can’t fuse stably. It’s like a baby that has just woken up. Forcibly taking it away will…” He paused, recalling the backs of the members of the Time Legion standing in front of the civilians, “…will cause it to close up again, or even collapse.”
Long Wu's Adam's apple bobbed.
He gazed at the starlight flickering in Lin Yi's eyes, then suddenly released his grip, took two steps back, and tapped his temple with the dagger: "Alright, whatever the boss says goes! I'll protect you!"
The shadowy figure didn't speak, but retreated to the temple entrance, his sword fully drawn, the tip touching the ground.
His shadow was stretched long in the starlight, like a wolf ready to pounce at any moment.
Su Qing's data stream suddenly enveloped the entire temple, forming a pale blue protective shield.
The falling stone chips struck the cover, making a soft sound like rain pattering on banana leaves: "Data barrier activated, can hold for three minutes. Lin Yi, hurry!"
Lin Yi closed his eyes.
The core of cause and effect was spinning deep within the sea of consciousness; it was the core power of the master of space and time, and it was now surging towards the fingertips along the meridians.
He could feel the key calling to him, like a long-lost friend, making his very soul feel warm.
The moment the resonance was activated, an ancient stone tablet rose in the center of the temple.
The monument is covered with cracks, yet it gleams with a jade-like luster in the starlight.
The inscription above reads: “Fate is not predetermined, choice is freedom.”
"bite--"
As the key fell into Lin Yi's palm, he heard countless sighs.
The figures in the reflection smiled at him. Suddenly, the little girl's glass shattered, and she waved to him through the shards, mouthing "thank you."
The tremors of the ruins gradually subsided.
Su Qing's protective shield vanished with a "pop," and Long Wu immediately rushed over and tugged at his shoulder: "It worked? It worked, right? Let's hurry—"
"Wait." The dark figure suddenly looked up at the dome.
On the collar of the law enforcement officer's uniform, a silver badge was glowing hot. "Fluctuations in another dimension... Something is sensing the key."
Lin Yi gripped the key tightly.
The starlight on the key's surface suddenly condensed into a beam of light, piercing through the dome and leaving a bright streak in the night sky.
He could sense that in some unseen dimension, a pair of eyes were staring back at him across the void—cold, hungry, and filled with the excitement of a hunter.
“Night Owl.” The shadowy figure gritted his teeth and spat out the name, twirling his sword in his hand. “The leader of the Reapers from an advanced civilization, an expert at tracking ‘abnormal energy.’ He’s found the key.”
Long Wu's tactical dagger clattered to the ground.
He bent down to pick it up, and when he looked up, his face was pale: "Then shouldn't we...?"
“Back to the Reality Alliance Central Base.” Lin Yi interrupted him, his gaze sweeping over the key in his hand, then over the shadowy figure’s tense jaw, Su Qing’s steady data stream, and finally landing on Long Wu’s tactical uniform still covered in stone dust. “They need to know that we have the leverage to fight the Reapers.”
The roar of engines could be heard outside the temple.
Just then, the Time Air Force's hovercar arrived, its searchlights piercing the night and casting swaying shadows on the ground.
Long Wu rubbed his hands together, bent down to pick up the dagger and tucked it back into his waistband: "Alright, I'll go urge Lao Zhou to bring the hovercar over! I never want to come back to this crappy stone house again in my life!"
His footsteps slammed against the bronze door, making a dull thud.
The dark figure sheathed his sword and patted Lin Yi on the shoulder: "I'll go check the perimeter first, to guard against the Reapers' advance team." His shadow, stretched long by the searchlight, quickly disappeared into the night.
Su Qing's data stream wrapped around Lin Yi's wrist, this time the tremor carrying a hint of excitement: "Detected 87% fusion rate between the key and the core of causality, continuing to improve. Should I send a pre-report to the central base simultaneously?"
"Send it." Lin Yi gazed at the starlight flowing through the key, recalling Xuan Mingzi's words about "chess pieces," and the cries of those worlds being harvested. "Tell them that we have found the 'bridge of choice'."
The hovercar's horn sounded three times outside.
Lin Yi took one last look at the stone tablet in the center of the temple, then turned and walked out the door.
The starlight behind him gradually faded, leaving only the words on the stone tablet still glowing—"Fate is not predetermined, choice is freedom."
Meanwhile, in an alternate dimension hundreds of millions of light-years away, in a palace made of black crystal, Night Owl is crushing a crystal ball in his hand.
Purple blood dripped from between his fingers, forming hideous incantations on the ground.
"Interesting." He licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, his red eyes gleaming with excitement. "Finally, a little bug has dared to steal my prey..."
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