The darkness was like an invisible giant net, tightly wrapping everyone up.
Lin Yin could clearly hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. Long Wu's heavy breathing mixed with the white-bearded old man's intermittent coughing was particularly clear in this silent space.
His palm, which was holding Su Qing's wrist, was damp with a thin layer of sweat—the touch was not like that of a living person, but rather like metal that had been soaked in liquid nitrogen, chilling to the bone.
"Chu Yao, locate the current coordinates." Lin Yi lowered his voice, his other hand lightly resting on the time-space wristwatch at his waist.
A pale blue stream of data rose from the watch face, casting tiny specks of light in his pupils.
As the [Master of Time and Space], he could sense the existence of spatial barriers, but at this moment, the barrier seemed to be covered by a layer of chaotic fog, and he could not even detect the most basic spatial anchor points.
"Analyzing..." Chu Yao's voice came from the wristwatch, carrying the characteristic coolness of a machine. "Spatial fluctuations are abnormally chaotic, high concentration of dark matter radiation detected... Wait, this structure looks a bit like..."
Before he could finish speaking, Long Wu suddenly let out a muffled groan.
His right arm, now in half-dragon form, was muscular and bulging, with the back of his hand covered in dragon scales pressing against a ball of energy that glowed with an eerie green—something that had appeared beside him at some point, resembling a rotting eyeball covered in blood vessels.
"Watch out!" The white-bearded old man's peach wood sword suddenly burst out with dazzling golden light, slashing towards the shadow beside Long Wu.
Where the blade sliced through, darkness was like a curtain ripped open by a sharp blade, revealing half of a bluish-gray arm.
The arm was covered in festering sores, but the fingertips gleamed with a cold, metallic light as they slowly moved toward the back of Long Wu's neck.
monster!
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He had seen over 90% of the monster illustrations in "Infinite," but he had never seen anything like this—something that was neither an energy body nor a physical entity. Their bodies were semi-transparent, able to pass through ordinary attacks, but when hit by weapons imbued with primal power, such as dragon scales or peach wood swords, they would emit a crisp sound similar to bones shattering.
"Su Qing!" Lin Yi pulled Su Qing behind him and threw a punch at the same time.
The power of spacetime condensed into a silver blade of light at the tip of his fist, which precisely struck the waist and abdomen of a monster that was lunging at the white-bearded old man.
The monster was cleaved in two, but no blood flowed out. Instead, it burst into a cloud of black mist like a punctured balloon, and then instantly reformed three steps away.
"These things... are devouring spatial energy!" Chu Yao's voice suddenly became urgent. "Every time they recombine, the spatial barrier weakens a little!"
Lin Yi, we must stop them from continuing to split!
Long Wu's tail swept out, creating a hurricane.
He transformed into a complete dragon, raising his head high and gathering crimson-gold dragon breath in his mouth: "I'm here to clear the field!" The scorching dragon breath spewed out, and wherever it passed, the black mist-like monsters were burned and let out shrieks. However, the parts that were just scattered quickly reassembled outside the range of the dragon breath, as if they could never be killed.
Lin Yi's forehead was covered in cold sweat.
He noticed that Su Qing had somehow broken free of his protection and was now standing on the edge of the battle.
Her pale fingertips hovered in mid-air, as if drawing some kind of rune. But whenever a monster approached within three feet of her, it would suddenly turn away, as if pulled away by some force.
"Su Qing!" Lin Yi shouted, and the power of spacetime condensed into a silver ring under his feet.
He instantly moved to Su Qing's side, grabbed her shoulder, and asked, "What are you waiting for?"
Su Qing looked up, her pupils unfocused.
Her lips moved, her voice as soft as a sigh: "They...are looking for the keys."
"What key are you looking for?" Lin Yi's fingers almost dug into her shoulder bone.
He recalled the female corpse he had seen in the ice coffin in the ruins three days ago—the corpse's face bore a seven-tenths resemblance to Su Qing, and a bronze key engraved with time-space runes hung around its neck.
At that moment, Su Qing stood in front of the ice coffin, her fingertips trembling as she touched the coffin lid, but at the last moment she withdrew her hand as if she had been burned.
"Ding—Spatial patterns detected!" Chu Yao's notification suddenly rang out. "Ten meters to the southeast, there are dark patterns on the wall. The frequency matches the core rune of the ancient teleportation array!"
Lin Yi suddenly turned his head.
Under the reflection of the dragon's breath, fine silver patterns indeed appeared on the dark space walls, spreading out like blood vessels.
Just as he was about to speak, he caught a glimpse of Su Qing's fingertips pointing at the patterns, and the black mist monsters around her suddenly became frenzied, abandoning everyone else and surging towards Su Qing!
"Watch out!" The white-bearded old man swung his peach wood sword again, but this time the monsters passed right through the sword light. One of them grazed Su Qing's cheek with its claws, leaving a bloody mark on her face.
Strangely, the wound didn't bleed; instead, it emitted a ghostly blue light.
"Su Qing!" Lin Yi shielded her behind him, instantly activating his Time Freeze skill.
Everything around suddenly froze—Long Wu's dragon breath hung in mid-air, the black mist monster's claws stopped three inches from the back of his neck, and even the patterns on the spatial wall solidified into a silver spider web.
He looked down at Su Qing in his arms.
Her pupils shimmered with tiny, starlike rays, a light not belonging to humanity. "Who exactly are you?" Lin Yi's voice was deep and thunderous. "The corpse in the ice coffin, the key in the ruins, and these monsters... you knew what was going to happen, didn't you?"
Su Qing's eyelashes trembled.
In the frozen gap of time and space, her voice was terrifyingly clear: "They don't want us...it's you, Lin Yi."
Your [Master of Spacetime] is the key to opening the gates of dimensions.
\"boom--\"
The freeze in time and space was suddenly broken.
A violent tremor came from beneath their feet, and the silver patterns on the spatial wall began to twist wildly, converging into a huge blue vortex.
A teeth-grinding tearing sound came from the center of the vortex, as if some enormous creature was squeezing in from another dimension.
"Hold on tight!" Lin Yi shouted, grabbing Su Qing's wrist and pulling on Long Wu's horns with his other hand.
The white-bearded old man's peach wood sword automatically floated above everyone's heads, radiating a golden light shield.
However, the suction force of the vortex was far beyond imagination. Long Wu's dragon scales were torn and made to pop. Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the white-bearded old man's light shield. Even Lin Yi's spacetime power was somewhat out of control.
"Lin Yi!" Chu Yao's voice was filled with unprecedented urgency, "The vortex is drawing away your spacetime origin!"
Just three more seconds and I'll be able to locate the exit—
Before he could finish speaking, a sharp pain, enough to tear his soul apart, shot up his spine.
Lin Yi's vision blurred, and in his dazed state, he saw a faint smile playing on Su Qing's lips. In the last moment before being swallowed by the vortex, she whispered in his ear, "Don't be afraid, this is just the real beginning..."
Darkness surged in like a tide.
Lin Yi felt as if his body was being torn into countless pieces, yet his consciousness remained unusually clear.
He heard Long Wu's roar, the white-bearded old man's low growl, and Chu Yao's final scream—
"Dimensional coordinates locked! It's..."
The words came to an abrupt halt.
Amidst the excruciating pain, Lin Yi vaguely realized that they had ultimately been drawn into that vortex.
Deep within the vortex, a pair of eyes were open, waiting for him.
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