Just as Lin Yi's fingertips were about to touch Su Qing's outstretched hand, his consciousness began to blur.
He saw a galaxy of golden light swirling in Su Qing's eyes, and those once weak and pale shadows were completely crushed. At this moment, she seemed to be standing at the source of the river of time, with every strand of her hair rippling with the laws of time and space.
"Grab him!" Su Qing's voice struck Lin Yi's mind like a heavy hammer.
He instinctively clenched that hand.
In an instant, endless spacetime energy surged into his meridians like the Milky Way pouring in from the bottom of the sky—not the kind of cold, sharp power he was familiar with, but a kind of warm, primordial power that seemed to come from the core of his mother planet.
The light sphere of the Dark Blade exploded into countless fragments the moment it came into contact with this power. Each fragment condensed into an ice crystal in mid-air, reflecting the faint silver runes on Su Qing's forehead.
"Spacetime resonance?" Xuan Mingzi's voice suddenly exploded in Lin Yi's ears.
The game's mastermind, whose eyes were always half-closed and who always wore a half-smile, now had pupils that shrank to pinpoints, and his black Taoist robe fluttered without wind. "That old bastard Night Owl has pushed the interdimensional erosion body to the third stage. If we delay any longer, the entire Forgotten City will become his nourishment."
Lin Yi suppressed the surging blood in his throat and shielded Su Qing behind him.
He could feel that force reshaping his spacetime network; even the previously depleted spacetime blade was trembling and humming on the ground. "You want to cooperate?" He stared at the pale blue light condensing at Xuan Mingzi's fingertip—the core energy controlling the spacetime nodes of the game's mainframe. "Last time you said, 'The Civilization Trial doesn't need unnecessary variables.'"
"Now the variable has become the key to breaking the deadlock." Xuan Mingzi raised his hand, and the ball of light at his fingertips collided with the spacetime vortex rising from Lin Yi's palm, exploding into a ripple like star trails between the two of them. "Su Qing's positioning crystal is connected to the observation anchor point of an advanced civilization. Night Owl wants to destroy it, and I want to protect it."
"And you..." He suddenly smiled, a hint of sincerity gleaming in the lines at the corners of his eyes, "You must save her."
The shriek of an owl echoed from afar.
The figure shrouded in black mist was piercing dozens of extradimensional tentacles into the ground, each tentacle corroding space and leaving behind honeycomb-shaped black holes.
Anren emerged from the independent spacetime at some unknown time, half of his face melted into a sticky black liquid, and he was holding a spear forged from spacetime fragments, the spearhead pointing directly at Su Qing's back.
"Three breaths." Lin Yi bit his tongue, using the excruciating pain to stay awake. "Cooperation is fine, but if you dare to play any tricks—"
"I remember the eternal zeroing of the Time-Space Ruler." Xuan Mingzi's fingers traced ancient runes in the void, those runes resonating with the Time-Space Laws within Lin Yi's body. "Repeat after me: Time is the guide, space is the bridge, dispel illusion and reveal truth."
The instant their voices overlapped, a silver crack appeared in the sky above the entire Forgotten City.
The crevice was like a piece of silk cleaved by a giant blade, revealing a chaotic space behind it where stardust flowed.
Chu Yao's holographic projection suddenly unfolded above everyone's heads, and a pale blue stream of data poured down like a waterfall: "Spacetime channel stability detected at 78%. It is recommended that Whitebeard-senpai use Thousand-Pound Guard to reinforce the edges. Long Wu-senpai, activate True Dragon Domain to maintain air pressure!"
"Understood!" The white-bearded man's halberd slammed heavily onto the ground, bronze battle patterns spreading from the tip of the halberd, forming a semi-transparent defensive wall at the edge of the passage; Long Wu raised his head and let out a dragon roar, his entire body covered in crimson-gold dragon scales, his dragon claws pressed against the passage wall, each scale oozing dragon blood, gluing together the fragments of space that were about to collapse.
Aizen's Hogyoku suddenly emitted a blinding white light. He pressed the Hogyoku into the entrance of the passage with his backhand, and the extradimensional tentacles that were trying to crawl in made a sizzling burning sound as soon as they touched the white light.
"Let's go!" Lin Yi grabbed Su Qing and rushed into the passage first.
He could sense that the flow of time in the passage was different from that in the outside world—the light and shadow in front of him were blurry, like a videotape being fast-forwarded, while the scene behind him was frozen. The black mist of the night owl was frozen into a sculpture as soon as it touched the edge of the passage.
Chu Yao's voice rang urgently in his ear: "Watch your step!"
There is a spacetime turbulence at the third meter, coordinates (x-7, Y+12)!
Lin Yi touched the ground with his toes, and spun around with Su Qing to avoid the swirling turbulence.
He caught glimpses of familiar scenes flashing by on both sides of the passage: the cherry blossom trees in the beginner village, the lightning and thunder when the spacetime rift was first opened, Su Qing's pale face on the hospital bed... It turned out that this passage was not only a bridge of space, but also a reflection of time.
"Fifty meters to the core area!" Chu Yao's voice was filled with excitement. "The energy reaction in the core area is SSS level. Detected...detected the 'observer' marker of an advanced civilization!"
Just then, the passageway suddenly trembled violently.
The once stable stream of stardust began to condense into spikes, grazing Long Wu's horns and drawing blood from his scales; spiderweb-like cracks appeared on Whitebeard's Thousand-Pound Guard, and the outermost defensive wall shattered into dust with a "boom".
"That old bastard Night Owl is burning his very essence!" Cold sweat beaded on Xuan Mingzi's forehead. His Daoist robe had been torn to shreds by the spatial turbulence, revealing skin covered in mysterious patterns beneath. "He's fused the erosion core from another dimension into his attack. Just hold on for three more minutes, and the passage will..."
"I have to hold on even if I can't hold on!" Lin Yi's spacetime blade suddenly floated up automatically, drawing a six-pointed star array around him.
He could feel Su Qing's hands burning hot, and golden chains of light were surging from where the two were clasped, melting away the spikes that were trying to tear the passage apart. "Chu Yao, locate the entrance to the core area!"
Aizen, seal off the rear with the Hogyoku!
Long Wu, channel your dragon blood into the passage wall!
The crowd's responses mingled with the shrill roar of the spatial turbulence.
Aizen's Hogyoku erupted with a white light ten times stronger than before, melting the pursuing Dark Blade Spears into molten iron; Ryugo bit open his wrist, and his crimson dragon blood, like a living thing, burrowed into the cracks in the passage, each drop making a "sizzling" healing sound; Whitebeard's halberd suddenly burst into golden flames, and the black mist that tried to penetrate the defensive wall turned into blue smoke upon touching the flames.
"Ten meters to go!" Chu Yao's voice trembled. "The core area gate... is opening!"
Lin Yi looked up.
The stardust at the end of the passage suddenly coalesced into a giant bronze door, covered with runes he had never seen before, each one resonating with the spacetime laws within him.
A deep rumble came from behind the door, as if some ancient, slumbering being had been awakened.
But at that moment, the vibrations in the passage suddenly intensified.
Night Owl's black mist broke through Aizen's Hogyoku barrier, and Dark Blade's spear pierced through Ryuu's dragon blood defense line, while simultaneously thrusting towards the center of the passage.
Xuanmingzi suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood, and his hands began to turn transparent, clearly indicating that he was burning the main brain's essence to maintain the passage.
"Lin Yi!" Su Qing suddenly broke free from his hand, her figure becoming semi-transparent, golden chains of light surging from her body like vines, wrapping around the bronze gate, "Push me in!"
quick! \"
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He saw that Su Qing's ankle had begun to dissipate, as if it had been peeled away by some higher-dimensional force.
Before he could react, Xuan Mingzi suddenly grabbed his shoulder and poured the last bit of the main brain's energy into his body: "Master of Time and Space, this is your only chance!"
Lin Yi gritted his teeth and pushed Su Qing toward the bronze door.
The moment she touched the door, the entire corridor suddenly burst into a blinding white light.
He heard the roar of the night owl, the scream of the dark blade, Chu Yao's exclamation, and Aizen's low growl, and then—
\"boom!\"
The bronze door burst open with a roar.
But the tremors in the passageway did not stop.
On the contrary, the previously suppressed spacetime turbulence suddenly surged back, and the owl's black mist, wrapped around the spear of the Dark Blade, rushed into the passage with even greater force than before.
Xuanmingzi's figure became completely transparent. In the last moment before disappearing, he shouted something to him, but it was swallowed up by the roar of the turbulent current.
Lin Yi turned around, gripping the spacetime blade, and saw that the cracks on the passage wall were expanding at a visible speed.
Ryugo's dragon scales have almost all fallen off, revealing the bleeding skin beneath; Aizen's Hogyoku has developed a penetrating crack; Whitebeard's halberd flames are about to go out.
At the end of the passage, a clearer rumble came from behind the bronze door, as if some enormous creature was awakening.
"Hold on!" Lin Yi's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping. He swung his spacetime blade, slicing through a wisp of black mist that was piercing towards Long Wu. "The core area is right in front of us. No one is allowed to die!"
But what answered him was a loud bang from the depths of the passage—like the crisp sound of some kind of shackles being completely broken.
Immediately afterwards, the entire passage began to twist violently, and the stardust streams that had originally guided the way surged back to the entrance, engulfing the attacks of Night Owl and Dark Blade into a black-gold storm.
Lin Yi!
The channel stability has dropped below 20%! Chu Yao's projection flashed red, "Immediately recommended—"
"Shut up!" Lin Yi wiped the blood from his face. He could feel Su Qing's power still surging within him. "Tell everyone to grab whatever's around them!"
We...haven't lost yet!
Before he could finish speaking, a huge gaping maw suddenly opened at the top of the passage, revealing the owl's distorted face.
His black mist enveloped the remains of Dark Blade, and the two voices overlapped, filled with a maniacal laugh: "Want to enter the core area?"
You have to get past me first!
The next second, the black-gold storm, carrying enough power to tear space apart, crashed down on the group in the center of the passage.
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