The cracks in the temple dome widened further, and pebbles fell softly onto the fixed broken pillars, making a series of crisp, crackling sounds.
Just as Lin Yi's fingertips were about to press the three keys, his temple suddenly felt as if it were being pierced by a red-hot steel needle.
The voice came without warning, hoarse and carrying the stench of decaying leaves, piercing directly into his mind: "Ants dare to touch fate? When the gears turn, you are not even worth a speck."
Long Wu's wolf-head knife clattered to the ground.
This fearless man bent his knees, gripped the ground tightly with both hands, and his neck veins bulged like earthworms: "Boss! This thing is poking my brain!" Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, and the scar on his face twisted into a hideous shape as it twitched.
Chu Yao's data stream suddenly exploded into a blinding red light.
Her projection went from semi-transparent to blurry, and the voice sounded like an old-fashioned radio cassette: "Detected...abnormal mental wave...frequency...99.7% match with the Old God database." A string of garbled characters flashed across her pupils, "Recommendation...immediately sever...external links—"
"No..."
A faint groan mingled with the crackling sound of electricity.
Xuanmingzi staggered backward, his back slamming into a wall covered with runes.
His once lean face was now contorted like crumpled paper, and spiderweb-like black lines appeared on his forehead, spreading towards his eye sockets at a visible speed.
"It's gnawing at my core code..." He raised his trembling hand, and the moment his fingertips touched the lines, his entire hand felt like it had been doused with concentrated acid, hissing and steaming. "I'm a puppet it sculpted from stardust... even its betrayal was a pre-written program..."
The shadowy figure's particle gun remained pointed at the shadows of the dome, but at this moment he suddenly turned to the side, his metal glove precisely gripping Xuan Mingzi's shoulder.
A ghostly blue current seeped from the enforcer's palm, searing into the other's skin like a red-hot branding iron: "You should have understood long ago that programs can lie, but choices cannot." His voice was as cold as ice frozen for three hundred years. "When you shielded him from three annihilation rays and stuffed the game's mainframe access card into his pocket, you were no longer a puppet."
Xuanmingzi's body began to become transparent, like a piece of melting crystal.
He stared at the dark figure's tightly clenched hand, then suddenly laughed, a laugh more tragic than a cry: "That's why I... I had to give him one last push." His gaze shifted to Lin Yi, black lines now etched across half his face, "The key must be intact... but the heart must be intact even more..."
"Old man!" Long Wu staggered forward, but Lin Yi stopped him with his arm.
A storm was raging in Lin Yi's golden-purple eyes.
He could clearly sense that the resonance of the three keys was teetering on the brink of collapse under the suppression of the Old God's will, and the core of cause and effect was trembling wildly deep within his sea of consciousness, as if it would disintegrate into fragments at any moment.
But what worried him even more was Xuan Mingzi's increasingly transparent fingertips—that fading light looked exactly like Su Qing's data shattered three months ago.
"Chu Yao, the energy node parameters of the Reality Alliance's central hub." His voice was as steady as a precision instrument, but the veins on the back of his hand holding the key bulged. "Now."
"Coordinates have been synchronized to your retinal projection." Chu Yao's data stream re-condensed into a light blue color. "This node is powered by twelve quantum reactors, with a stability 37 times that of the Temple, and can support... up to three minutes of mythical resonance."
"That's enough." Lin Yi looked down at the key in his palm.
The light traces left by Su Qing still danced on the fragments, like a flame that refused to be extinguished.
He suddenly remembered the snowy night in the starting village, when Su Qing, wrapped in his coat, stood in front of the campfire and said, "We'll walk to the end together"; he remembered the little sun she drew in his palm with her last data fragments before she was torn apart by the dark creatures.
"Withdraw." He put the key into his spatial ring, his movements so fast they were like a blur. "To the central base."
"What about that old man?" Long Wu turned around with red eyes, only to see that Xuan Mingzi's figure had faded to almost invisible.
The shadowy figure suddenly released its grip.
The law enforcement officer pointed his particle gun at the dome, the muzzle gleaming with a ghostly blue light: "He doesn't need to be taken away."
"I do." Xuanmingzi's voice was as soft as a sigh, yet it pierced through all the noise.
He raised his hand and pressed his fingertips on Lin Yi's spatial ring.
Black lines instantly covered the entire arm, but the moment they touched the ring, they were scorched by the light trace left by Su Qing, leaving a black hole.
"This is... the last bit of fuel I can give."
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He sensed that the key fragments suddenly boiled over, with three different types of energy frantically merging together, even causing the core of cause and effect to resound with joy.
Xuanmingzi's body was dissipating at a visible speed, and in the end, only the words "The human heart must be whole" remained, falling into his sea of consciousness like a snowflake.
"Go!" Lin Yi grabbed Long Wu by the back of his collar and rushed towards the palace gate. The particle gun of the black shadow exploded behind them, forcing back two tentacles that sprang out from the shadows.
Chu Yao's data stream wrapped around everyone's ankles, like an invisible rope pulling them faster.
As the bronze doors of the temple slammed shut behind him, Lin Yi glanced back.
In the light leaking through the crack in the door, the last trace of Xuan Mingzi's figure was fading away, while at the spot where he had pressed the spatial ring, the resonance of the three keys had become one, like a battle song of breaking free from a cocoon.
"Boss, we've arrived." Long Wu's voice was nasal.
The metal dome of the Reality Alliance's central base gleamed coldly in the twilight.
The moment the automatic door opened, twelve laser scanners lit up simultaneously, casting a pale green net over everyone.
Lin Yi took off his tactical goggles and glanced at the ancient martial arts practitioners, technology researchers, and several resistance fighters wearing extradimensional armor who were all standing by in the base hall.
Their expressions varied—nervous, expectant, doubtful—but all eyes were fixed on him, like soldiers waiting for their general.
"Chu Yao." He took off his tactical vest and handed it to his assistant who came to greet him. "Notify all core members that an emergency meeting will be held in twenty minutes."
What documents do I need to prepare?
“The analysis report of the Old God’s mental wave, the key’s resonance data, Xuan Mingzi’s… final transmission.” Lin Yi paused for half a second, his fingertips lightly touching his spatial ring. “And…” He looked up at the holographic star map at the top of the base, his golden and purple eyes shining in the shadows. “Tell them that the new script we’re writing needs everyone’s pen.”
The security door at the end of the corridor opened with a "ding".
Long Wu rubbed his face and slammed the wolf-headed knife on the ground: "I'm going to wipe the knife first, so my hand won't slip when I'm chopping down the old gods later." As he turned around, the scabbard hit the wall with a dull thud, like some kind of silent war drum.
The shadowy figure had disappeared.
Only the residual heat of the particle gun lingered in the air, like an unfinished vow.
Lin Yi stood under the star map, gazing at his reflection on the metal ground.
Within those golden and purple eyes, the light from the three keys was merging into a new color—a light more dazzling than mythology, a light belonging to the human heart.
He took out his phone, and on the screen was a missed call from Su Qing, the time frozen three hours earlier.
“After the meeting,” he said softly to the air, “I will show you the new ending we’ve written.”
The base alarm suddenly sounded, and red lights flowed down the corridor.
It's time to begin.
Lin Yi straightened his collar and walked towards the conference room.
His shadow was stretched long by the lamplight, as if it were meant to extend to all places that needed light.
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