A loud, ripping sound erupted from within the vortex of purple mist.
Xuanmingzi raised his fingertip and a ball of dark blue light condensed within it. Fragments of rules that did not belong to this dimension surged within the ball of light, like a shattered galaxy.
Lin Yi's pupils contracted sharply—he recognized this energy fluctuation. Three months ago, deep in the Void Sea, it was this very force that tore apart the spacetime barrier of the entire "Eternal Night Realm" instance.
"Senior!" he blurted out, the Seven Keys burning in his palm, yet he hesitated to strike.
A defensive barrier suddenly opened between the two of them, and spiderweb-like cracks immediately spread across the pale golden light membrane. Dark blue energy was creeping in through the cracks, burning his hand with a stinging pain.
The pain reminded him of the bamboo house behind the beginner village.
At that time, Xuanmingzi was still an old man with a dignified and otherworldly air. He sat on the bluestone slab and taught him to form the spacetime seal, saying, "The laws are dead, but the human heart is alive." When he turned around, the bamboo leaves swept by his Taoist robe would linger in mid-air for three breaths, just to wait for him to see the trajectory of the hand seal.
Later, during the crisis at "Thousand Machine Pavilion," the old man used his remnant soul to shield him from a fatal blow. At that time, it also emitted a similar pale blue light, but with a cool warmth, unlike now, which was bone-chillingly cold.
"Data stream access 73%!" Chu Yao's voice crackled with static. Her projection split into three interfaces in mid-air. In the central consciousness map, Xuan Mingzi's soul light was tearing at a dark shadow. "The Mother Nest amplified his self-blame with Time Echo—three years ago, when the mainframe collapsed, he failed to protect the last batch of data backups!"
Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed.
Of course he knew that rainy night when Xuanmingzi knelt before the main brain core, his white hair soaked by the rain and plastered to his face, repeating, "I have let them down."
He held the old man's trembling hand and said, "Senior, those data will exist in another form." Looking back now, those words became the breach in the erosion of the hive.
"Watch out for the side!" The shadowy figure's silver-white rune net suddenly contracted, slicing the ten phantoms into pieces.
Blood seeped from his left shoulder, but he didn't even glance at it. "Long Wu, suppress the fluctuation frequency!"
Long Wu's dragon wingspan was a full two zhang wide, his scales gleaming gold and red under the purple light. He swung his dragon scale blade with a backhand, precisely embedding it into the energy node in the ground. "That Lin fellow!" Veins bulged on his neck, and his dragon breath sprayed onto the defensive barrier, creating a white mist. "This old bastard is a living bomb right now!"
You protect him, he protects the mother nest—how long is this going to go on?
The defensive barrier cracked open with a "crack," creating a gap about the width of a thumb.
The azure energy seeped in through the crack, grazed Lin Yi's earlobe, and burned a charred hole in the wall.
He could clearly hear Xuan Mingzi's panting, filled with broken sobs, like someone being held underwater and struggling.
"His heart rate hasn't changed," Lin Yi suddenly said, his voice even more steady than before.
He stared into Xuan Mingzi's eyes—in the depths of that deep blue, a very faint glassy color shimmered, like stars obscured by dark clouds.
Three months ago in the "Mirror Abyss" instance, he did the same, capturing the last glimmer of clarity in Chu Yao's eyes, who was controlled by shadows.
The tremors of the seven keys suddenly became regular.
The image of Su Qing's smile in the crystal overlapped with memories of her. She once said, "Ayi, true strength is not about destruction, but about helping those who deserve it to stand up again."
"Chu Yao, locate his memory anchor point." Lin Yi took a deep breath, placing his left hand on the defensive barrier. Pale golden light seeped through his fingers, like gentle vines entwining the dark blue energy. "Long Wu, give me your dragon blood."
"Are you crazy?!" Long Wu's pupils contracted to vertical slits, but he still bit his fingertip, and a drop of golden-red blood shot through the air.
Lin Yi caught the drop of blood and mixed it with his own blood, pressing it onto the barrier.
The moment the two bloodlines mingled, the defensive barrier suddenly rippled, reflecting Xuan Mingzi's attack wave back—but instead of striking the old man, it precisely shattered the three Mother Nest consciousness beacons at his feet.
"Memory anchor locked!" A green light flashed across Chu Yao's screen. "It's the bamboo hut in the beginner village, the afternoon he taught you hand seals!"
Xuanmingzi's fingers suddenly trembled even more violently.
The pale blue ball of light trembled precariously in his palm, and he let out a broken sob, as if someone was forcibly tearing at his vocal cords.
Lin Yi saw the remnant soul mark under his Taoist robe—it was something he had reinforced for him using the laws of time and space, and it was now glowing with a warm, pale gold, resisting the dark blue of the mother nest.
"Senior." Lin Yi took half a step forward, and the defensive barrier completely dissipated.
He could feel the stinging sensation of the azure energy brushing against his skin, yet he stubbornly stared into those tainted eyes. "You said that when forming hand seals, one should think of the people one is protecting."
That day in the bamboo hut, you said, "Young friend, look at these bamboo leaves hanging there; they're not there to display the laws, but to wait for you."
Xuanmingzi's pupils contracted violently.
The blue light burst open with a "crack," but the fragments did not attack Lin Yi; instead, they condensed into a fine mist in mid-air.
The old man staggered back two steps, his hand gripping the wall sinking deep into the brickwork, his knuckles turning white.
The deep blue in his eyes was visibly fading, and a glassy color was spreading from the center of his pupils, like a stream after the spring snow had melted.
"Young friend..." His voice was hoarse, like a rusty gear, "Did I... do something wrong again?"
Long Wu's dragon wings retracted with a "whoosh".
He wiped the blood from his face, grinned, revealing his white teeth: "Old man, if you dare look at the boss like that again, my Dragon Scale Blade won't be so discreet."
The rune network of the shadowy figure vanished silently.
He turned to look at the heart of the storm, silver runes swirling in his palm: "The Mother Nest's connection has been severed by 37%, now's the time—"
"Wait." Lin Yi suddenly raised his hand.
He looked at Xuanmingzi's trembling shoulders and could see the remnant soul mark under the other's Taoist robe trembling violently, as if it had been awakened by some power.
The Time and Space Dominator badge on his chest was incredibly hot, the heat spreading through his veins to every part of his body. He could hear his own heartbeat like a war drum, each beat making his eardrums ache.
"Chu Yao, help me stabilize his consciousness." Lin Yi closed his eyes.
He could feel a power awakening within him, the power of faith left behind by all those who had trusted him, surging like streams flowing into the sea at his dantian. "Shadow, Long Wu, guard the surroundings."
The roar of the purple mist vortex suddenly seemed distant.
Lin Yi's consciousness sank into darkness, where countless points of light flickered—the villagers of the beginner village, members of the Time Legion, partners of the Reality Alliance, and even Long Wu, who always called him a "brat".
Their voices, like morning bells, echoed in his mind:
"I believe you can win."
"Our leader never abandons any comrade-in-arms."
"Ayi, go and wake him up."
Warm liquid overflowed from the nasal cavity.
Lin Yi smiled.
He opened his arms, letting the power flow through his fingertips, like a spring breeze melting solid ice, slowly seeping into Xuanmingzi's sea of consciousness.
The purple mist at the heart of the storm suddenly churned violently.
Amidst this turbulence, a pale golden light slowly rose from Lin Yi's body.
The buzzing of the purple mist vortex exploded in his ears like a swarm of bees. Lin Yi's eyelashes were stuck together with sweat like butterfly wings. Blood beads welled up in his nose and fell onto his chin, but he swallowed them back.
He could clearly sense the flow of power within his body—the scorching heat of the Time Legion members shielding him from the ice spikes in the "Eternal Winter Snowfield," the weighty words of the old general of the Reality Alliance as he patted him on the shoulder and said, "Young friend, this land is entrusted to you," and the warmth of the star map Su Qing drew on his palm at the end.
These fragments of memory, wrapped in faith, like ignited gold foil, surged through his meridians into his fingertips, and then along the golden pillar of light connecting him and Xuanmingzi, into the old man's chaotic sea of consciousness.
"Data overload!" Chu Yao's projection suddenly distorted into snowflakes, and when it re-condensed, a scarlet warning light appeared in her left eye: "Lin Yi's vital signs are dropping—heart rate 180, blood pressure 210/140!"
The power of faith is consumed three times that of a normal mythical skill! Her fingertips tapped frantically in the void, and blue data streams appeared on her translucent arm. "Dragon Five, use Dragon Blood to stabilize his blood and qi!"
Shadow, expand the rune network to isolate the Broodmother's interference!
Long Wu's dragon scales cracked open with a "crack," and he bit his wrist, sending golden-red blood droplets flying like arrows toward Lin Yi's Dazhui acupoint on the back of his neck.
The moment the scalding dragon blood entered his body, a metallic sweetness surged in Lin Yi's throat, but deep in his consciousness he heard Long Wu's rough, hoarse curse: "You brat, you dare to risk your life here? I'll skin you alive and use your skin as a mattress for this old man!" He wanted to laugh, but his consciousness had already sunk into that darkness—there, Xuan Mingzi's consciousness was being torn to pieces by the dark tentacles.
"It was... an afternoon in the bamboo house." In Xuanmingzi's mind, the shattered glass-like scene suddenly pieced itself together.
Freshly picked bamboo shoots were drying on the bluestone slab. He held the boy's hand, forming a spacetime seal, his fingertips carrying the fresh scent of bamboo shavings. "Young friend, look at these bamboo leaves." He gently waved his hand, and three new leaves hovered atop the boy's head. "Laws are dead, but waiting for a person's will can bring them to life." The scene suddenly distorted, and dark tentacles wrapped around the bamboo leaves, crushing them into powder. "No!" Xuan Mingzi's consciousness roared as he saw more memories being torn apart—during the crisis at Qianji Pavilion, he used his remnant soul to protect the boy, and in the ghostly blue light, the boy cried out, "Senior"; on the night the mainframe collapsed, the boy knelt beside him, holding an umbrella, saying, "Data will exist in another form"; and three days ago, they shared compressed biscuits in a spacetime rift, and the boy suddenly said, "After this battle, I'll go back to the bamboo house with you and plant bamboo."
"Enough!" Xuan Mingzi's consciousness suddenly surged.
He raised his hand and grasped the inky tentacles that bound his memories. The tenderness he once saw as a weakness had now transformed into the sharpest blade. "Those I have protected have no need to be destroyed by me," he uttered in a low voice. Suddenly, countless golden lights shone in his sea of consciousness—the power of faith transmitted from Lin Yi, those he had protected standing behind him, forging a sword for him with the purest trust.
"Pfft!" In reality, Xuan Mingzi spat out a mouthful of black blood, his body crashing against the wall like a kite with a broken string.
His Taoist robe was charred black, but the mark of his remnant soul shone brightly, as if it would burn through the entire space.
A deep blue energy seeped from his seven orifices, but was evaporated by the golden light when it touched the ground.
He slowly raised his head, his azure pupils now devoid of gloom, only filled with the clarity of someone who had survived a catastrophe: "Young friend..." He staggered towards Lin Yi, each step shattering a fragment of the Mother Nest's consciousness, "I... I heard the sound of bamboo leaves again."
Long Wu's dragon wings folded with a "whoosh," and he rushed over to catch Lin Yi, who was about to fall. His dragon tail wrapped around Xuan Mingzi's waist, pulling the two of them to a safe area. "Boss!" His eyes were red, and fine beads of blood seeped from the skin under his dragon scales—he had just taken three shockwaves from the Mother Nest to protect the two of them.
The shadowy figure's runic network suddenly contracted into a silver ring, precisely trapping the last few wisps of escaping azure energy: "Mother Nest link 98% broken, core fluctuations..." His voice abruptly stopped, his silver brows furrowing, "No, the fluctuation frequency is splitting!"
Hundreds of red dots instantly popped up on Chu Yao's screen, each moving at a different time flow rate. "Detected the Mother Nest consciousness undergoing quantum splitting!" Her voice trembled with panic for the first time. "They...they're escaping to different timelines!"
The blank period of the past three years, the next five years, and even before the start of the newbie village —
\"boom!\"
A deafening roar suddenly erupted from the core of the storm.
The purple mist vortex, like a punctured balloon, collapsed wildly into a black hole three meters in diameter, from which countless translucent shadows spewed out—each shadow perfectly matching the energy fluctuations of the mother nest's core.
They have no physical form, yet they reek of nauseating decay. The moment they touch the barriers of space and time, they vanish like water droplets merging into a river.
Lin Yi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked up at the constantly collapsing black hole.
He could feel the Time-Space Dominator's badge burning hot; it was a warning from the dimensional laws. "Chu Yao, locate the time coordinates of all the split entities." His voice trembled slightly, yet remained exceptionally clear. "Long Wu, prepare the stabilization device for the time-space rift."
The shadowy figures marked their residual energy with runic netting.
Xuanmingzi suddenly pressed down on his shoulder.
The old man's palms still held the warmth of his lingering soul, yet their resolve was stronger than any vow: "Young friend, this time it's my turn to stand guard before you." He turned to look at the collapsing black hole, his Taoist robes fluttering without wind. "Those I have protected, I will personally reclaim their peace from the depths of time."
The sound of the black hole collapsing suddenly became sharp.
Amidst this sharp buzzing, Chu Yao's interface displayed the last line of bloody text: [The entire Mother Nest Splitter has entered the timeline. Current residual spacetime fluctuation value: 99.9%]
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