The metal door slammed shut behind him, and Lin Yi's tactical boots crunched over the scraps of metal on the ground, making a screeching sound.
His gaze remained fixed on Chu Yao's reddened ear tips—the girl had just lifted her head out of his tactical helmet, her hair still damp with the white frost from the evaporation of venom, and was tiptoeing closer to the metal protrusion on the wall with seven lines engraved on it.
"It's the 'Seven Pivots of the Starry Sky' from Su Qing's memory fragments." Chu Yao's fingertip hovered three centimeters above the runes, the terminal projection casting a pale blue light into her eyes. "The fragments say that the seven pivots correspond to the resonance frequencies of the seven keys of creation, and the curvature error of each pattern cannot exceed 0.01 degrees." She suddenly pressed the terminal, and the memory screenshot provided by Su Qing appeared in the projection. When it perfectly overlapped with the patterns on the wall, the terminal emitted a crisp "ding" sound.
Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed.
Three days ago, in the spacetime rift, Su Qing was covered in wounds from the spacetime turbulence while trying to extract memory fragments, but she smiled and said, "This is much better than being devoured by the data flood in the laboratory back then."
Looking at the overlapping patterns, he could clearly hear his own heartbeat drown out the soft sound of liquid flowing behind the wall—this was the first tangible clue they could touch in the three months they had been searching for the Seven Keys.
"The energy fluctuations of the Mother Nest are intensifying." The shadowy figure suddenly pressed his dagger against the wall, dark gold runes creeping along the blade into the metal gaps. "This is an energy node, the key part of the Seven Keys... should be deeper inside." As he looked up, his pupils reflected the data stream jumping on Chu Yao's terminal. "We need to pass through three core zones, each with a Night Owl's defense matrix."
"I'll calculate the path!" Chu Yao's fingers flew across the terminal, her hair brushing against Lin Yi's hand. "According to the nest structure diagram, there are emergency passages between the core areas, and the width is just enough to accommodate Long Wu's dragon shape—"
The alarm suddenly pierced the air.
A bright red light poured down from the ceiling vents, and the ground vibrated like the heartbeat of a giant beast.
Long Wu's dragon scales instantly stood on end. He grabbed the nearest job changer and threw him behind him, his dragon claws carving a half-meter-deep trench in the ground: "Night Owl's 'Bloodline Guard'!" Before he finished speaking, the metal door exploded open with a "boom," and twenty figures covered in black blood crashed in.
Their eye sockets had no eyeballs, only wriggling black tentacles, and their fingernails were longer than their elbows. Every step they took corroded the ground, sending up blue smoke.
"It's a mutant modified with the venom of the Mother Nest!" Xuan Mingzi's Li Huo condensed into a Crimson Flame Spear in his palm, but the spear tip stopped when it touched the first Bloodline Guardian—the monster's wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the black blood splattered onto the Li Huo, making a "hissing" corrosive sound.
"They're absorbing the fire energy!" Chu Yao's terminal flashed wildly. "Night Owl has adjusted its defense mechanism; all attacks will be converted into regenerative energy!" Her fingertips turned white as she pressed the terminal. "Lin Yi, we must break through the first wave within thirty seconds, otherwise the defense matrix will activate and trap us here!"
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted to thin slits.
He could feel the power of spacetime boiling in his veins, like countless fine needles pricking his bone marrow—this was a side effect of continuously using space distortion, but he couldn't care less about it at the moment.
He grabbed Chu Yao's wrist and pulled her behind Long Wu, his voice as steady as inscriptions carved on a stone tablet: "Shadow, set up the 'Void Locking Array' to restrict movement; Xuan Mingzi, use the Blazing Fire to clear a path on the left; Long Wu, protect the job changer."
"Understood!" the four responded simultaneously.
The shadowy figure's dagger drew a dark golden arc on the ground, and runes burrowed into the feet of the Bloodline Guards as if they were alive; Xuanmingzi's Li Huo suddenly turned into a ghostly blue, which was the "Evil-Breaking Flame" mixed with the Xuan Tie essence fire of the real world; Long Wu raised his head and let out a dragon roar, and his dragon blood condensed into blood-red armor on his body, with ancient characters that suppressed evil spirits flowing on each scale.
But the number of bloodline guards is still increasing.
Blackish-red liquid continuously gushed from vents, drainage pipes, and even the monitoring probes on the ceiling, condensing into new mutants in mid-air.
Chu Yao's terminal showed that the number of enemies had exceeded fifty, and their stamina was decreasing at a visible rate—cracks appeared in Long Wu's Dragon Blood Armor, Xuan Mingzi's Li Fire began to flicker, and the rune light of the black shadow gradually weakened.
"Brother Lin!" The front-row job changer had his shoulder pierced by the Bloodline Guard's black claws, but he gritted his teeth and pushed his teammates behind him. "The Faith Link still works!"
We'll recharge you!
Lin Yi's temples throbbed.
He could feel countless warm streams of information flowing into his mind through the "Faith Link"—the beliefs, fighting spirit, and even the concern for their families of the job changers.
These emotions converged into light in the hourglass emblem between his brows, refining the originally stinging power of time and space into a purer energy.
"Time and spacetime stand still!"
His voice was like a heavy hammer striking the air.
All the Bloodline Guards suddenly froze, and even the black blood splattering in the air hovered as strings of red beads.
Chu Yao's terminal was stuck on the "Remaining Time: 00:12" screen, Long Wu's dragon claw was suspended in mid-air, and even the soft sound of liquid flowing behind the wall disappeared.
Lin Yi pressed his fingertips to his brow, and the white light of the hourglass emblem spread from his arm to his entire body.
He could clearly see the energy channels within each bloodline guard—black venom swirled within the blood vessels, and a pulsating crystal core at the heart, which was their weakness.
"Space distortion."
This time he didn't shout.
The power of spacetime condensed into a transparent vortex in his palm, precisely enveloping the heart core of each Bloodline Guardian.
The next second, all the crystal cores twisted into a pretzel shape at the same time. The Bloodline Guard's body was like a balloon that had been popped, black blood splattering everywhere but unable to land. It was all rolled into a red spiral by the distorted space.
The instant time resumed its flow, Chu Yao's terminal popped up with a "ding": "Enemy Count: 0."
Long Wu's dragon claw slammed into the ground with a "thud," causing everyone to stagger.
He threw his head back and laughed, the cracks on his dragon scales healing at a speed visible to the naked eye: "That's great!"
Brother Lin's time-space manipulation is even more impressive than when I broke through ten thousand demons in the Kunlun Mountain formation back then!
"Go!" Lin Yi grabbed Chu Yao and rushed into the passage. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a dark figure carving tracking runes on the remains of the last Bloodline Guard—this was in case Night Owl had any backup plans.
Xuanmingzi's Li Fire burned a path ahead, and the job changers helped each other to keep up, each of them with a light in their eyes that burned even brighter than the Li Fire.
Unbeknownst to them, in the giant incubation chamber deep within the nest, Night Owl was crushing the crystal sphere in his hand.
The image reflected in the crystal sphere was of the Bloodline Guard being wiped out.
Countless black veins rippled from beneath his skin, turning his originally pale face a bizarre bluish-purple. His mouth split open to his ears, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth: "Dare to touch my mother nest...you'll regret waking up today."
The metal door at the end of the passage suddenly emitted a piercing, twisting sound.
Lin Yi stopped in his tracks.
He could feel a sudden increase in pressure in the air, as if an invisible mountain was pressing down on his head.
When he turned his head, he saw that Chu Yao's terminal was flashing wildly, and the words on the screen were distorted into gibberish by some force—it was because the energy fluctuations of Night Owl were too strong, and even the data stream could not be transmitted stably.
"Lin...Lin Yi." Chu Yao's voice trembled as she pointed to the metal door in front of her.
Black mist seeped from the crack in the door, and from within the mist came a low, metallic laugh: "Run, little mice."
Let me see... whether you can find that key before I crush your bones.
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