The metallic roar tore through the air. As Lin Yi's star map exploded into a silver vortex in his palm, he could clearly feel the cold sweat trickling down his spine from the back of his neck—the dome of the Mother Nest was collapsing at a visible speed, and chunks of reinforced concrete were raining down on the protective barrier below, sparking blinding sparks.
"Time and space stand still!" He bit his tongue, the metallic taste exploding in his mouth—this was the most primal price to pay for activating a mythical-level skill.
The star map suddenly expanded into a light shield covering the entire mother nest, freezing all the falling rocks, flying sparks, and even the strands of hair at Su Qing's temples that were lifted by the shockwave in mid-air.
Five seconds, we can only gain five seconds.
His pupils turned bloodshot, and his divine sense spread out like a spider web, accurately capturing Xia, who was using healing magic to support the residential building three hundred meters away—her healing aura had faded into a thin veil, and her fingertips were trembling.
"Chu Yao!" he growled into the communicator, his voice hoarse from exhaustion. "Recharge Long Wu's protective barrier! Old Zhou's mechanical legion, take over Xia's shift immediately!"
"All squad coordinates synchronized!" Chu Yao's projection suddenly appeared beside him, her hair stained with charred black marks that didn't belong to the data entity—clearly she had just rushed back from the edge of an explosion at the communications tower. "But the core in the Mother Nest's main control room... Senior Xuan Mingzi is running that way!"
Before he could finish speaking, Lin Yi saw the figure in the Taoist robe smash open the half-deformed metal door.
Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe had a large hole burned through the hem, revealing a hideous burn mark on his calf, but his fingertips glowed with a ghostly green magical light as he pressed them against the last intact chip on the main control panel.
"Something's wrong!" Xuan Mingzi suddenly looked up, his pupils reflecting the churning black mist deep within the crystal chip. "Night Owl's remnant soul hasn't dissipated; it's parasitizing the crystal core!"
"Then crush it." The dark figure appeared beside Xuan Mingzi at some point, his enforcer armor was covered in cracks, but his left hand was condensing a spear of light powerful enough to annihilate stars.
As a law enforcer of a higher civilization, his approach to dealing with this parasitic consciousness was simple and direct—to destroy the carrier.
"Wait!" Su Qing suddenly rushed over and grabbed the dark figure's wrist.
Her water-spirit patterns, already dimmed by the previous suppression of the rift, now resembled a flickering candle flame. "There are data remnants inside the chip..." She closed her eyes, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. "They're the sealing patterns of the Seven Keys of Creation!"
I've seen it in ancient texts; the Seven Keys are the keys to unlocking the databases of advanced civilizations, and they might contain the weaknesses of the Void Realm!
Lin Yi's star chart suddenly trembled violently—a countdown to the freeze of time and space started to beat in his mind, with three seconds left.
He took two steps to the crystal core and looked at the owl's face, which was faintly visible in the black mist: a cold smile even appeared on the other's lips, and the black mist was spreading along the patterns of the crystal core toward the foundation of the mother nest.
"Can you separate the consciousness of the Night Owl?" he asked Xuan Mingzi, while at the same time separating a wisp of his divine consciousness to wrap around Su Qing's wrist and transferring his star power to her—her body temperature was frighteningly low, like a piece of jade buried in snow all night.
Xuan Mingzi drew a mysterious array of runes on the surface of the crystal core with his fingertips, and the magical light and black mist collided fiercely: "It can only last for three seconds at most!"
This thing is absorbing the energy from the collapse of the mother nest; any later and the dimensional rift will reopen!
"Shadow, suppress the energy output of the crystal core." Lin Yi turned to the enforcer. "Su Qing, locate the Seven Keys." He pressed his thumb firmly against the crystal core, the silver light of the star map piercing the black mist like a sharp knife. "I will sever the parasitic chain."
The light shield that had frozen time and space shattered at that moment.
The first falling steel pillar crashed ten meters away, the shockwave overturning half of the control panel; the second wave of Shadow Corrosion energy surged from the cracks, corroding all the metal it touched; Xia's healing aura finally shattered, and the residential building began to tilt—but Lao Zhou's mechanical arm caught the building in time, and Long Wu's flame barrier lit up again, burning the falling debris to ashes.
"Found it!" Su Qing suddenly opened her eyes. Her water spirit pattern instantly erupted with a dazzling blue light, and a bronze key engraved with star trail patterns appeared inside the crystal core. "The Seven Keys are in the core of the black mist!"
The remnant soul of the night owl in the black mist let out a piercing laugh, and the black mist suddenly condensed into tentacles, wrapping around Lin Yi's wrist.
A sharp pain shot through his veins and spread throughout his body, but his smile grew even colder: "You think you can hold me back?" The star map unfolded into a vortex above his head, and the flow of time around him suddenly slowed down—this was the "domain deceleration" unique to the master of spacetime.
"Chu Yao!" he shouted into the communicator, "How much computing power does the remaining Mother Nest network have?"
"Connecting...37%!" Chu Yao's projection was suddenly distorted by the electric current. "But the main control core's firewall is strengthening!"
"Once I sever the link with Night Owl, immediately hack into the crystal core." Lin Yi's star power surged into the crystal core like a tidal wave, tearing a crack in the black mist and revealing the increasingly clear outline of the bronze key. "I want the data of the Seven Keys, and I also want the fragments of Night Owl's consciousness—keep them all for me."
The remnant soul of the night owl let out a final scream, and the black mist receded into the deepest part of the crystal core like a receding tide.
Xuan Mingzi's rune array cracked with a "crack," revealing spiderweb-like patterns. He staggered back two steps, grabbing the control panel to avoid falling: "It can't hold on any longer, the crystal core is about to overload!"
Lin Yi pulled the crystal core into the spacetime rift with his backhand—this was his personal storage space, which could isolate all energy fluctuations.
By the time he finished, his back was soaked with cold sweat, and the star chart's light had dimmed by a third.
"Everyone evacuate!" he yelled into the communicator, grabbing Su Qing's hand at the same time, "Chu Yao, how are things on your end?"
"Breaking the core firewall... requires thirty seconds." Chu Yao's voice suddenly crackled with static. "But the mother nest's self-destruct program has been activated; the remaining network can only last... ten seconds at most!"
Lin Yi looked up at the window—the black rift had already swallowed half of the city, and his spacetime rift entrance was only fifty meters away.
He gritted his teeth, pushed Su Qing into the crevice, and then supported the staggering Xuan Mingzi: "Retreat first, we'll wait for Chu Yao."
"Boss!" Chu Yao's projection suddenly became transparent. "Skynet Protocol... requires your biometric authentication!"
Lin Yi pressed his fingertip on the communicator, and star power poured in like a torrent: "Authentication successful."
The rest is up to you.
The suction force of the spacetime rift suddenly intensified, pulling him inside.
In the last moment before he completely disappeared, he saw the crystal core floating in the spacetime rift, the patterns on the bronze key emitting a faint light—and in the black mist, the owl's eyes were still staring at him.
"This is just the beginning," the voice echoed in his mind.
But Lin Yi smiled.
He touched the star map on his chest, where Su Qing's body temperature still lingered. Chu Yao's breathing could be clearly heard through the communicator, while outside the entire Mother Nest, the light of faith from all the job changers was converging into a golden river.
The will of the void realm?
He looked up at the sky beyond the crack, where even brighter light was gathering.
Just wait and see.
The silver mist within the spacetime rift suddenly surged, and Lin Yi's divine sense spread like a spider web to the ruins of the Mother Nest outside the rift—Chu Yao's communication voice, accompanied by a piercing ring, drilled into his eardrums: "Crystal Core Firewall... Cracking progress 97%!"
The owl's consciousness was darting wildly through the data stream; I used fragments of Skynet to create a virtual cage!
The veins on his hand, which was gripping the communicator tightly, bulged out.
A metallic rumble echoed from outside the rift—the sound of the mother nest's support pillars snapping.
Su Qing knelt before the crystal core, the water spirit pattern forming a deep blue vortex between her brows. Her fingertip lightly touched the bronze key: "The key's will resonates; it requires guidance from mythical-level star power."
"Xuanmingzi, seal the energy escape route from the crystal core." Lin Yi bit his fingertip, and a drop of blood dripped onto the star map. Silver light, like a living thing, drilled into the cracks of the crystal core.
He could clearly feel the star trail patterns on the key's surface pulsating along his veins—this was the key to the advanced civilization's database, and also the last trump card against the Void Realm.
"Sizzle—" A corner of Xuanmingzi's Taoist robe suddenly caught fire, but he seemed unaware. The talisman array formed by his hands wrapped the crystal core into a green cocoon: "The remnant soul of the Night Owl is tearing at my magic!"
That old bastard, even on his deathbed he still won't let go...
Before the words were finished, Long Wu's furious shout came from outside the rift: "Xia! What's wrong with you?"
Lin Yi's pupils suddenly contracted.
He sent a wisp of his divine sense through the crack and saw Xia kneeling on the ground in the evacuation passage 300 meters away.
Her healing spell, which was originally glowing with a soft white light, suddenly turned into a murky gray-black, and the black mist seeping from her fingertips was creeping up the ground toward the nearest residential building—that was the Night Owl's Shadow Corrosion Energy!
"He's trying to possess someone!" Su Qing looked up abruptly, her water-spirit patterns trembling violently with anxiety. "Xia Xia overdrawn her mental energy with the healing spell; there's a flaw in her sea of consciousness!"
Lin Yi's star map exploded above his head, and ripples of spatial distortion spread out from him.
He could hear his own heart pounding like a drum—Xia was the most innocent healer in the Time Legion, and three days ago she had given him cookies she had baked herself.
At this moment, her neck bent backward at an eerie angle, and a cold sneer, the signature of Night Owls, curled at the corner of her mouth: "Lin Yi, do you think you can protect everyone?"
This body's healing power can just right to repair my remnant soul. Once I reconstruct my physical body...
"Shut up!" Lin Yi pressed his palm against the void, and the distorted space shattered like glass, completely isolating Xia from the surrounding five meters.
He could sense that the Night Owl's consciousness was frantically crashing against the spatial barrier, like a wild beast trapped in a cage.
"Chu Yao!" he roared into the communicator, "How's the cage preparation going?"
"100%!" Chu Yao's projection suddenly emerged from the crystal core, the charred ends of her hair already spreading to her shoulders. "I used your biometrics as bait; Night Owl's consciousness fragments are drilling into the virtual space!"
Lin Yi took a deep breath, and the star map on his chest suddenly lit up with all the starlight—it was the resonance of the faith power of all the job changers.
Golden light flowed through his veins into his palm, which he pressed against the spatial barrier: "Xia, hold my hand."
A glimmer of clarity flashed in the girl's cloudy eyes.
She raised her hand with trembling hands, and the moment her fingertips touched Lin Yi's palm, a stream of golden light shot into her consciousness like a sharp arrow.
The owl's shriek shook the light and mist within the rift, and black mist poured out from her seven orifices, only to be burned to ashes by the power of faith.
"Step back." Lin Yi shouted in a low voice, and Xia's body went limp and fell down, but was caught by Long Wu who arrived just in time.
He turned to look at the crystal core; the star trail patterns on the bronze key were fully lit up and were slowly floating toward Su Qing's palm.
"Extraction complete!" Su Qing's voice trembled with tears. "One of the Seven Keys, the Key of Star Orbit!"
\"boom--\"
The last main beam of the Mother Nest Dome broke off and crashed into the evacuation passage, kicking up clouds of dust.
Lin Yi's star map suddenly trembled violently, and the entrance to the spacetime rift began to shrink—the self-destruct program of the mother nest had been triggered, and they had to leave within thirty seconds.
"Let's go!" He grabbed Su Qing by the waist with one hand and pulled on Xuan Mingzi's Taoist robe with the other.
Chu Yao's projection automatically appeared, the data flickering in and out of the rift storm: "The crystal core has been stored in the spacetime warehouse. The Skynet protocol has locked 98% of Night Owl's consciousness fragments!"
"The remaining 2%?" Lin Yi asked as he ran.
"When you purified Xia just now, it slipped away along with the power of faith," Chu Yao's voice suddenly became very soft, "but it left behind a sentence..."
\"What?\"
"It says, 'Can you protect the present, and can you protect the past?'"
Lin Yi paused in his steps.
He looked back at the crumbling mother nest, where the light of dawn was piercing through the dark clouds through the black cracks.
The light of faith continues to gather, like a golden river, carrying all the departing job changers.
The entrance to the spacetime rift is now only one meter wide.
"Go in!" He pushed Su Qing and Xuan Mingzi inside, then turned around to catch Long Wu, who was rushing towards them last.
Sparks flew as Lao Zhou's robotic arm burst behind him, barely managing to catch the steel pillar that was about to crash down.
"Boss!" Long Wu's flame barrier lit up above his head. "Quick!"
Lin Yi's star map burned into a silver sun, and the suction force of the spacetime rift surged.
Just before the steel pillar crashed down, he felt himself being pulled into a warm, misty light.
A deafening roar came from behind him, and the entrance to the rift closed before his eyes.
Su Qing suddenly gripped his sleeve tightly.
She pointed towards the spacetime warehouse—where a thin wisp of black mist was seeping into the patterns of the Star Orbit Key on the surface of the suspended crystal core.
Deep within the crystal core, the owl's remaining pupils slowly contracted, revealing a hint of a smile.
Outside the ruins of the Mother Nest, the first rays of sunlight fell on the scorched earth.
In the distance, the light of faith from all the job changers was still converging, forming a golden pillar of light that stretched straight to the sky.
But at the top of the beam of light, a shadow that did not belong to this dimension was quietly unfolding.
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