Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly as the alarm pierced his eardrums.
He could clearly hear his own heartbeat—not from nervousness, but from some dormant power coursing through his veins.
Seven minutes and twenty seconds is enough for the antimatter reactor in the core of the mother nest to complete three chain decays, enough to turn the entire base from a metal fortress into cosmic dust.
But the most troublesome thing at this moment is the purple light membrane blocking the evacuation cabin.
The moment Long Wu's dragon claw pressed down, Lin Yi noticed that the dragon scales on his arm shimmered with a dark gold.
That was a sign that the true dragon bloodline was being suppressed—as a descendant of the ancient celestial dragon, Long Wu's full-force attack could even penetrate an epic-level defense, but this light membrane only rippled outwards, like slapping on flowing mercury.
When Long Wu withdrew his hand, the skin on his palm was charred black. He lowered his head and blew on the wound, letting out a muffled chuckle: "Interesting, hotter than my old Grandpa Long's alchemy furnace."
Chu Yao's nanobots wove a silver spiderweb in front of the light membrane. Her fingertips danced across the screen, the acrid smell of burnt hair mixed with ozone filling her nostrils. "Antimatter particle flow... but the arrangement is wrong." She suddenly stopped, her eyelashes fluttering violently. "These particles are simulating the firing frequency of some kind of biological neural synapses!" Before she could finish speaking, the green progress bar on the screen, which had just reached 17%, went out with a "zzzz" sound. She bit her lower lip and slammed her thigh: "The core database has been locked by the self-destruct program!"
Xuanmingzi remained silent.
He lowered his eyes and stared at the fragment of the star chart in his palm. The patterns on the surface of the fragment were flashing in sync with the dark patterns on the light membrane.
As Long Wu's attack created ripples, the fragment suddenly buzzed. He abruptly looked up, a sharp glint in his eyes: "I've seen this kind of barrier in Sector B2!" His voice held an unusual urgency. "The Mother Nest's self-destruct mechanism has three layers. The innermost defensive network requires interference with energy waves of the same origin—" He pressed the fragment onto the light membrane, and the patterns instantly overlapped with the membrane's dark lines to form a golden star map. "The star chart is crafted from the Mother Nest's builder's source energy ore; it can pinpoint the barrier's resonant frequency!"
Lin Yi's fingers unconsciously caressed the bronze box.
The heartbeat inside the box grew clearer and clearer, resonating with the tattoo on the back of the shadowy blade—a detail he hadn't noticed before. Every time the shadowy figure made a move, the tattoo would ooze pale golden particles of light. At this moment, those particles of light were drilling into the box through the spacetime rift, as if charging some ancient device.
He suddenly remembered what the shadowy figure had said ten minutes earlier: "This body won't last more than half an hour." Now the shadowy figure was leaning against the corner of the wall, the short knife hanging down, even his breathing was as light as a whisper, yet he was still staring at the light membrane, as if he would not close his eyes as long as the barrier remained intact.
"Six and a half minutes left." Lin Yi's voice was low, but it struck everyone's nerves like a heavy hammer.
He looked at Chu Yao: "How long will it take to locate the resonance point?" Chu Yao's screen lit up again, this time the progress bar was a pulsating purple wave: "The interference from the celestial disc can break 30% of the defense algorithm... Give me two minutes!"
Long Wu suddenly ripped open his blood-stained tactical uniform, revealing the dragon pattern on his chest.
The totem was oozing golden blood, which traveled along the muscle and finally converged at the fist: "I can withstand a mythical-level attack for three seconds now. You break through my defense, and I'll smash it!" His dragon eyes turned blood red, and the ground cracked with spiderweb-like patterns beneath his feet.
Xuanmingzi rotated the star chart fragment at a different angle, and the star map on the light membrane suddenly twisted into a vortex.
Chu Yao's screen pinged, and a red marker popped up: "Found!"
The neural synapse of the barrier is at node 73!
The particle density there is 40% lower than elsewhere! She looked up, her forehead drenched in cold sweat. "But it requires three precise strikes in quick succession, with no more than 0.5 seconds between them!"
Lin Yi's spacetime power condensed into a dark blue light blade at his fingertips.
He could feel the spacetime rift churning deep within his consciousness, and the heat of the bronze box burning through his skin to his palms.
This was the first time he had simultaneously invoked the power of spacetime manipulation and the bronze box, but there was no time to hesitate—Long Wu's dragon power was boiling, Xuan Mingzi's celestial disc was humming, Chu Yao's nanobots were forming a line of sight, and the shadowy light particles were still drilling into the box, as if pushing him to take the final step.
"Long Wu's first strike, Xuan Mingzi's second strike, and I'll finish with the third." Lin Yi's voice carried an undeniable certainty. "Chu Yao, use the nanobots to lock onto the node; Shadow, conserve your energy." As he looked at Shadow, the other's short sword slightly rose in response.
Long Wu's roar shook the ceiling, causing dust to fall.
His right fist, wreathed in golden dragon flames, slammed precisely at the red marker.
The light membrane trembled violently, and the purple particles, like smoke blown away by the wind, revealed dark spots the size of coins.
Almost simultaneously, Xuanmingzi flicked three beams of starlight from his fingertips, and the fragments of the star chart suddenly split into three star cores, which precisely shot into the dark spot.
The light membrane emitted a piercing shriek, and the dark spot expanded into a black hole the size of a bowl.
Lin Yi's Space-Time Blade sliced through the air.
This time, the time-space patterns on the blade were no longer a deep blue, but a bronze color mixed with the bronze box, like some kind of chain that transcends time.
Instead of directly piercing the black hole, he drew three ripples of spacetime around it—these were the "spacetime anchors" he had just comprehended, capable of concentrating all energy into a single point.
The residual power of Long Wu, the star core of Xuan Mingzi, and even the recoil force of the light membrane itself were all pulled into the black hole by the anchor point.
\"boom!\"
The light film emitted a crisp sound like glass shattering.
The purple fragments fell to the ground like meteors, burning charred craters into the metal floor.
The blue light indicator of the evacuation pod was finally fully revealed, and Chu Yao's screen displayed the message "Safety passage has been opened." She slumped to the ground, still smiling: "Two minutes and seventeen seconds, faster than expected..." Before she could finish speaking, the entire nest suddenly emitted a roar even more shrill than the alarm.
"It's the core area!" Xuan Mingzi suddenly grabbed the nearest handrail, and the fragments of the star chart re-fused into a complete disc. "The self-destruct program has been accelerated!"
The chain decay in an antimatter reactor accelerates to three times per second!
Long Wu scooped Chu Yao up and hoisted her onto his shoulder, his pupils shrinking as he turned: "The passage ahead—"
Lin Yi followed his gaze.
The corridor that originally led to the evacuation pods is melting.
The metal walls resembled blocks of wax thrown into a furnace, flowing with orange-red molten lava; fragments of stone kept falling from the ceiling, each carrying waves of heat from the scorching air; further away, several pipes exploded, sending up fireballs, flames licking the walls, burning the "B12" sign to just half a charred "1".
"The evacuation pod is at the end of the passage." Lin Yi touched the bronze box, and the heartbeat inside suddenly became rapid, as if urging something.
He drew his Space-Time Blade, its tip unleashing a burst of space-time power that enveloped the group. "Long Wu, lead the way; Xuan Mingzi, protect the rear; Chu Yao, watch the screen; Black Shadow..." As he turned, Black Shadow stood at the back of the group, gripping his short sword tightly again, the light particles on his tattoo almost completely gone. "Follow up."
As the heatwave hit him, Lin Yi heard a soft, crisp sound behind him.
He didn't need to turn around to know that the shadowy figure's body was disintegrating—like grains of sand scattered by the wind, even the shadow was almost impossible to grasp.
But no one could stop at this moment, because the blue light of the evacuation pod at the end of the passage was being swallowed up by the ever-approaching molten lava.
They must escape before the mother nest completely collapses, otherwise...
"Run!" Long Wu's dragon flames surged at the peak of his fist, directly shattering the wall of lava blocking his path.
The crowd followed him into the inferno, and behind them came the rumble of the ceiling collapsing, like some kind of death knell.
Above all this, Lin Yi heard a soft sound coming from the bronze box—like the sound of a lock being opened.
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