The metal floor of the command center trembled beneath Lin Yi's feet. He could clearly hear the resonance between his heartbeat and the silver thread connecting him to his faith—the breaths, shouts, and prayers of millions of ordinary people, coursing through his veins like living things.
The patterns on the Blade of Destruction on his right palm were burning hot, and the blade reflected the reddened corners of his eyes, with starlight like the Milky Way flowing deep within his pupils.
"It's time," he hissed, and his raised arm suddenly burst forth with blinding golden light.
A golden beam of light shot into the sky from his palm, piercing through the base's dome and illuminating the entire ruins.
The advancing group of job changers in the distance all looked up at the same time. Some squinted because of the bright light, but when they saw the figure at the top of the beam of light, a suppressed roar rolled out of their throats.
Long Wu's heavy axe struck the ground first.
The muscular man knelt on one knee, his rough fingertips pressing heavily on the tactical bracelet. The little girl's name lit up with a warm yellow glow on the screen. "Little Sugar Bean," he murmured hoarsely, his Adam's apple bobbing, the gruesome scar on his neck trembling. "Once I've chopped off that damn source core, I'll shove a candied hawthorn in your hand—you said you wanted strawberry flavor last time, and I ran three blocks to find it."
Before he finished speaking, he had already leaped out of the command center.
The shockwave from the swing of the heavy axe sent half a wall flying, and metal fragments grazed Aizen's shoulder armor, only to be gently deflected by the barrier enveloped in spiritual pressure.
Aizen lowered his gaze to the Hogyoku in his palm. A deep blue spiritual pressure flowed through his veins into the gem, and a spiderweb of blue light appeared beneath his skin. "Resonance device activated," he said, his voice like iron tempered by ice. His fingertips tapped the control panel seven times, and the Hogyoku suddenly exploded into countless points of light, each speck bound with a strand of silver faith. "Chu Yao, confirm the Mother Nest's central frequency."
"Synchronized." Chu Yao's projection reassembled amidst the lingering light of the Hōgyoku, her pupils filled with dense code. "The energy wave is expected to arrive at the core area in thirty seconds, with an error of 0.03 seconds." As she spoke the last word, her virtual fingertip suddenly paused—on the tactical screen, the previously stable "Absolute Order Network Construction Progress" suddenly jumped from 50% to 52%, then plummeted to 48%. "Abnormal fluctuation!"
The mother nest is devouring the faith link in reverse!
"Normal." Lin Yi's voice was three octaves lower than usual. He could feel the silver threads being pulled painfully, as if someone was repeatedly scraping his mind with a steel brush.
But what's clearer is a little girl hiding at the end of the silver line, clutching his clothes—it's Little Sugar Bean, whom he met three days ago at the shelter. She had a fever but still gave him the last half of a cookie, saying, "Big brother, you have to fight monsters!"
He smirked, his left hand pressed against his chest, where the silver threads suddenly emitted a white light more intense than gold. "The more the owl struggles, the more we've hit a nerve."
Su Qing's data stream suddenly enveloped his wrist, the cool touch seeping into his bones through his skin. "Source core coordinate correction." Her voice carried the characteristic buzzing of data, but softened at the end, "Just now, an old lady in the link shouted 'Go, Xiao Linzi!' It was Grandma Wang from your hometown."
Lin Yi's eyelashes trembled.
Grandma Wang's chanting of Buddhist prayers suddenly rang in his ears, mixed with the sweet fragrance of osmanthus cakes that she had given him when he was a child.
He looked down at the tactical screen; the dots representing ordinary people were still flickering, even as the dark clouds over the Mother Nest pressed lower, those eerie green eyes almost bleeding. "Tell Grandma Wang," he said to the air, his voice sweet, "that after this battle, I'll go back and sweep her yard."
"Energy wave will be emitted in five seconds." Chu Yao's voice returned to its mechanical tone. "Long Wu has arrived at the rift entrance, currently moving at 4.9 times his normal speed—as expected."
Aizen suddenly looked up, his spiritual pressure condensing into a massive phantom behind him—the strongest Hollow Beast he had ever slain, now obediently lowering its head. "Resonance complete." With a flick of his finger, countless specks of light suddenly converged into a dark blue streak, piercing straight towards the surging black tide in the sky.
At the same time, Long Wu's heavy axe cleaved through the dark clouds.
His figure left afterimages in the 0.8-second gap, each step crushing a tendril of consciousness that tried to entangle him. "Little Sugar Bean!" His roar ripped through the clouds, and his heavy axe, imbued with golden light of faith, struck precisely at the eerie green source core—
\"boom!\"
The entire nest suddenly trembled violently.
Lin Yi was jolted and staggered half a step, but was caught by Su Qing's data stream before he fell.
He looked up and saw the "Absolute Order Network Construction Progress" on the tactical screen climbing at a visible rate: 60%, 70%, 85%...
"Success?" Chu Yao's projection froze for a moment, an emotional fluctuation that was extremely rare for her as an AI.
"No." Lin Yi stared at the suddenly thickened dark clouds outside the window, his pupils shrinking sharply.
Those eerie green eyes were merging, and the previously scattered consciousness of the hounds had formed a gigantic human face—the face of a night owl, its mouth stretched to its ears, revealing a dense array of sharp teeth. "It's...it's devouring its own consciousness."
\"warn!
"The mother nest's energy is surging exponentially!" Chu Yao's voice finally betrayed panic. "Unknown energy fluctuations detected, suspected to be... a consciousness storm!"
Lin Yi gripped the Boundary-Breaking Blade tightly, and the silver patterns on the blade suddenly lit up.
He could feel the owl's malice flowing back through the faith link, corroding the silver threads that carried hope like concentrated sulfuric acid.
But deeper inside, Grandma Wang's chanting of Buddhist prayers, Little Sugar Bean's coughing, and the workers' cursing suddenly converged into a torrent, washing away the corrosive acid and scattering it into pieces.
"Come on." He raised his chin to the sky, the roar of the Boundary-Breaking Blade drowning out all other noises. "Let me see how loud your last struggle can be."
The face in the dark clouds suddenly narrowed its eyes.
The next second, the air in the entire ruins began to distort.
The distortion of the air intensified abruptly under the tearing of the Night Owl's mental storm, and Lin Yi's temples throbbed, his sea of consciousness feeling as if it were being repeatedly clawed by invisible claws.
He bit his tongue, swallowing the sweet and pungent blood mixed with his saliva, which instead cleared his muddled mind—the silver threads of faith that were entwined in his consciousness were buzzing, Grandma Wang's chanting of Buddhist prayers was wrapped in the sweet fragrance of osmanthus cake, Little Sugar Bean's nasal "Big brother, keep going!" and Old Zhang's cursing but unusually steady shouts at the construction site, all of these now transformed into golden chains, crushing the owl's malice layer by layer.
"Boss!" Long Wu's roar pierced through the storm. His heavy axe was pressed almost to the ground, and his muscular arms bulged with bluish-purple veins. "This damn wind is so strong I can't even open my eyes!" Before he finished speaking, he suddenly tilted his head back and gulped down half a bottle of strong liquor. The liquor dripped down his chin onto the heavy axe. "Little Sugar Bean once said that liquor emboldens cowards!" The smell of liquor mixed with the golden light of faith rose up, and the heavy axe actually cleaved through the invisible pressure pressing on his shoulders, slashing towards the source core again with a whooshing sound.
Aizen's spiritual pressure barrier was torn apart by the storm, leaving spiderweb-like cracks, yet he chuckled softly, his fingertips rapidly forming hand seals. The remnants of the Hogyoku suddenly condensed into a dark blue cocoon around him. "A consciousness attack?" His pupils gleamed with a deep, ocean-like blue. "Three hundred years ago, my consciousness was torn apart by the Hollow King in Hueco Mundo; it hurt ten times more than this." The spiritual pressure coursed through every nerve, transforming the invading negative emotions into searing pain, which ironically made his movements even more ruthless: "Chu Yao, locate the storm's core!"
"Analyzing—" Chu Yao's projection suddenly flickered, and tiny snowflakes exploded in the code stream, "Abnormal frequency detected!"
It's Mr. Shadow's shielding frequency!
As dark purple ripples spread from the edge of the battlefield, a shadowy figure stood atop the highest point of the ruins.
His black trench coat fluttered in the wind, and the silver device in his hand gleamed coldly, like a monster emerging from the shadows. "Three hundred years ago in the Omega system, I witnessed this kind of desperate struggle." His voice was like the cracking sound of a glacier breaking. The moment his fingertip pressed the device, Night Owl's storm of consciousness suddenly shattered—more than half of the malice was swallowed by the wave frequency and dissipated into wisps of black smoke.
"Your era is over." The shadowy figure looked up at the distorted dark cloud, a cold smile curving his lips.
Almost at the same moment, a gray shadow flashed in the shadows of the command center.
Xuan Mingzi's Daoist robes fluttered without wind, and he held a translucent rhomboid crystal in his palm—a cognitive virus condensed from three hundred years of cultivation. "My turn," he said softly, his figure suddenly blurring, merging into the dark patterns in the air along the data stream channel Su Qing had opened for him.
Within the consciousness space, the owl's consciousness was writhing wildly, like a lump of flesh covered in sharp spikes.
When Xuanmingzi's divine sense transformed into a thin stream and entered, he heard countless fragments of consciousness being devoured screaming and begging for mercy.
He pressed his fingertip against the core of the tumor, and the crystal instantly melted: "You've been trapped in the program for too long... Taste true freedom—it's pain, but also liberation."
Outside the battlefield, Lin Yi watched as Night Owl's consciousness suddenly twitched, and the energy index on the tactical screen began to plummet.
Grandma Wang's voice suddenly became clear: "Little Linzi, don't be afraid, we're all here." Little Tangdou's cough subsided, but she smiled: "Big brother, I'll wait for you to eat candied hawthorns."
"This battle is either a complete victory or annihilation." Lin Yi gripped the Boundary-Breaking Blade tightly, the silver patterns on the blade shining brightly.
He could feel the power of faith boiling in his veins, every silver thread carrying heat, as if millions of people were simultaneously injecting their power into his body—Grandma Wang's bamboo broom sweeping the yard, Little Tangdou's dirty hands clutching biscuits, Old Zhang's hard hat worn shiny, all the vivid fragments piecing together in his consciousness into a cocoon of light.
"Click—"
A piercing cracking sound came from afar.
The black outer shell of the mother nest cracked with spiderweb-like patterns, and a ghostly blue light seeped out from the cracks, like the dying breath of a giant beast.
Lin Yi strode forward, his boots crushing a patch of gravel.
His shadow was stretched long by the light of faith, overlapping with thousands of blurry shadows—the shadows of ordinary humans, the shadows of those who had changed jobs, the shadows of everyone who had struggled to survive this war.
He raised his hands, and the Boundary-Breaking Blade suddenly dissipated, turning into specks of starlight that merged into his body.
The power of faith surged within him, like a volcano about to erupt, or a star waiting to bloom, golden patterns emanating from beneath his skin and creeping up his arms toward his clasped hands.
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