The moment the stone gate burst open, Lin Yi's breath almost stopped.
Within the golden light emanating from the doorway, a figure stood with his hands behind his back.
The white lab coat was faded from washing, and the gaze behind the glasses was as gentle as ever. Even the faint scar on his left eyebrow bone, left by the laboratory explosion, was exactly the same as he remembered—it was Gu Tianxing, the former chief scientist of the Administration Bureau who was swallowed up by the energy flow of the Mother Nest three years ago while trying to save him.
"Professor Gu...?" Lin Yi's Adam's apple bobbed, and a thin layer of sweat appeared on his palm from the Time-Space Key.
He clearly remembered that three years ago, at the edge of the interdimensional rift, when Gu Tianxing's body was torn to pieces by black energy, he was still holding the corner of the other's blood-splattered white coat.
Looking at that familiar face, he subconsciously clenched his back teeth and quietly pressed his fingertips on the activation pattern of the space-time rift—it was not an illusion. The lingering fragrance of the Divine Court in the air was mixed with the scent of Gu Tianxing's usual cedar perfume, and even the tiny scratch on the other person's glasses that he had personally wiped was clearly visible.
"Mr. Lin, don't be nervous." Gu Tianxing raised his hand, revealing a half-broken silver data chain wrapped around his wrist from the explosion years ago. "I did die, but some things are more resilient than flesh." Before he finished speaking, the space behind him suddenly twisted into a flowing cocoon of light, with countless pale blue dots gathering like stardust, eventually condensing into a suspended holographic projection—a global neural network diagram, each node pulsating with fluorescence representing human consciousness.
"Chu Yao, analyze." Lin Yi's voice was deep, and his other hand had already reached for the dragon-patterned short blade at his waist.
He could feel that every chain of light in the projection was trembling slightly, as if echoing the spacetime origin within his body.
"Detection in progress... Quantum entanglement rate 99.7%." Chu Yao's voice suddenly rose, and the virtual projection exploded with data streams on Lin Yi's retina. "This is not a virtual image!"
It is...it is a real-time mapping of the collective unconscious of humanity!
Each point of light corresponds to the thought frequency of an awakened being, and the light chains are their faith bonds—"A fluctuation appeared in her electronic voice for the first time, "Sir, look at these dark purple nodes."
Lin Yi looked in the direction she pointed out, and his stomach suddenly churned.
Among those pale blue dots that should represent normal consciousness, there were actually dozens of dark purple spots devouring the surrounding light. For each one devoured, a pitch-black chain would extend from the center of the projection and pierce into the core of the spot.
At the very center of the projection, on the brightest golden node, the four blood-red characters "Faith Project" were clearly printed.
"I see." Lin Yi suddenly laughed, his laughter carrying a chilling coldness. "I thought 'faith' was a medium to empower the awakened, but it turns out it uses collective thinking as nourishment." He took a half step forward, the spacetime key burning hot in his palm. "Obsidian shifting towards the Divine Realm-A, is it here to power these dark purple nodes?"
Do you need enough faith power to activate some kind of... control program?
A flash of white light appeared on Gu Tianxing's glasses, a habitual gesture he made when thinking. "You're faster than I expected." He raised his hand, and the projection suddenly accelerated, dark purple light spots beginning to frantically devour the surrounding light points. "Three years ago, during the Mother Nest invasion, we discovered a certain resonance frequency in the consciousness of the awakened beings of Earth's civilization."
Initially, we only intended to use this frequency to enhance human combat capabilities, but as we delved deeper into the subconscious sea…” His gaze suddenly deepened, as if looking through Lin Yi into a more ancient spacetime, “We discovered a grander picture—”
"Wait!" Chu Yao's alarm suddenly blared, "Sir, the absorption rate of the dark purple node has increased by 300%!"
They are...absorbing the fluctuations of your spacetime origin!
Lin Yi's temples throbbed, and the spacetime power within his body surged uncontrollably toward the center of the projection.
He bit his tongue hard, the taste of blood spreading in his mouth, forcibly severing the connection with the projection. "Professor Gu, who exactly are you?" His voice was as cold as an icicle. "Or rather, who exactly are 'we'?"
Gu Tianxing's smile faded slightly.
He reached out and touched the projection. As his fingertips passed through the light chains, the dark purple spots of light suddenly quieted down, like wild beasts being soothed. "Some truths you need to piece together yourself." He turned and walked towards the center of the projection. As the hem of his white lab coat swept across the floor, a semi-transparent stream of data seeped from the fabric. "But there's one thing you must know—"
His voice suddenly softened, as if he were revealing a secret spanning centuries: "We created you to test..."
\"boom!\"
A violent tremor came from the direction of the stone gate, and Long Wu's roar pierced through the energy barrier: "Boss!"
The outer defenses are crumbling; Obsidian's Annihilation Cannon is charging!
Lin Yi suddenly turned his head, and the patterns of the space-time rift appeared behind him.
When he looked at Gu Tianxing, the other's figure had already begun to blur, and the dark purple light spots in the projection were also fading rapidly.
"Next time we meet, I'll give you the complete answer." Gu Tianxing's voice was laced with static. "Remember, the 'faith' you saw was nothing but..."
The words came to an abrupt halt.
When Lin Yi turned around again, all that remained inside the door was the empty Divine Court Incense and a fragment of a silver data link on the ground that had not completely dissipated—the broken old object from Gu Tianxing's wrist.
Chu Yao's analysis pop-up flashed on his retina: "Data chain residual information: 'Perfect template' verification progress 98%."
Lin Yi bent down to pick up the fragment, his fingertips brushing against the words "Gu Tianxing · 2030" engraved on the chain.
Long Wu's urging voice came from afar. He clenched the fragment tightly, and when he turned around, his eyes were filled with an even darker undercurrent than before.
"Old Dragon, here are the coordinates." His voice was steady and cold. "Bring all members of the Time Legion here—" He looked down at the fragment in his palm, a triumphant smile playing on his lips. "Some scores need to be settled."
As Gu Tianxing spoke, the golden light inside the stone gate gradually subsided. When he turned around, the data stream under his white coat was no longer hidden, like countless silver threads running under his skin.
Lin Yi's pupils contracted to pinpoints, and the essence of spacetime surged within his body, but it was not an attack; rather, it was a stinging pain as if his soul had been dissected—the image of him personally pushing Gu Tianxing out of the energy stream during the laboratory explosion three years ago suddenly flashed back. At that time, the old man's white hair at his temples was ruffled by the blast wave, and his last words were, "Protect the data link."
"A perfect template?" Lin Yi's voice was like a blade chilled by ice, his knuckles turning white from gripping the Time-Space Key so tightly. "So you deliberately made me awaken the Time-Space Overlord when the Mother Nest invaded?"
Did the Obsidian Legion chase me for three hundred miles?
"Even letting them blow up the teleportation array in the third district?" With each word he spoke, a ghostly blue pattern lit up on the key in his palm, a sign that the spacetime rift was about to open.
A fog clouded Gu Tianxing's glasses, whether from projected light or the emotions in his eyes, it was hard to tell. "There's a 0.3-second delay bug in the Obsidian Annihilation Cannon calibration program," he said, his voice as soft as a sigh. "The backup plan I planted in the Mother Nest Core is enough to let you escape seven times—until you trigger the awakening conditions for a Mythical class."
"So those crises that almost killed me were all tests you designed?" Lin Yi suddenly laughed, his laughter sharp as shattered glass. "Long Wu lost half his dragon tail to save me, Chu Yao was corrupted by the dark web virus to only 1% of her data, even Su Qing..." His Adam's apple bobbed violently, the last half of his sentence like a snapped string, "Even Su Qing's fragmented memories were part of your experiment?"
Gu Tianxing's finger paused on the projection for two seconds, and the dark purple nodes suddenly glowed with a blood-red light. "Su Qing's exceptional nature has exceeded expectations." He finally stopped avoiding Lin Yi's gaze, and behind his glasses, his eyes held the same gentleness as three years ago. "But you must understand, our goal is not harm, but selection—"
"Selecting containers capable of holding the legacy of advanced civilizations?" Lin Yi interrupted him, the patterns of the Time-Space Key now covering his entire arm. "So the 'Faith Project' isn't about enhancing combat power at all, but about using the resonance of awakened consciousness as a furnace to forge me into... some kind of switch?"
Gu Tianxing did not deny it, but instead raised his hand and pressed it to his chest: "When you used Time Rewind for the first time in the newbie village, we knew we had succeeded."
"Your sea of consciousness can simultaneously contain mythological origins and human emotions, which is unique among all civilizations..." His voice suddenly choked, data spilling from between his fingers, "...the probability of this among all civilizations is one in a billion."
"So now you want to take back this switch?" Lin Yi's breathing became rapid, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up—he finally smelled it. In addition to the scent of Divine Court Incense and Cedarwood, there was also a faint burnt smell in the air, which was a sign of high-level energy overload.
Chu Yao's alarm vibrated in her ears at just the right moment: "Spatial stability has dropped to 37%; Gu Tianxing's energy source is the same as the interdimensional rift!"
"If you're willing to cooperate," Gu Tianxing took a step forward, his figure becoming transparent, "we can make you the cornerstone of the new world."
"Everyone you care about will gain eternity in the new civilization." His fingertip lightly touched Lin Yi's heart. "Including Su Qing."
These words struck Lin Yi like a heavy hammer blow.
He recalled three months ago in the spacetime rift, when Su Qing's soul fragments were being eroded by dark matter, and her last words were, "Don't stop for me"; he recalled Long Wu gritting his teeth in pain in the medical pod, yet smiling as he said, "Boss, you were the one who saved my life"; he recalled Chu Yao's first time learning to blink as a human, saying in a mechanical voice, "Sir, I think I understand the feeling of 'worry'."
"The cornerstone?" Lin Yi suddenly loosened his grip on the time-space key, letting it fall to the ground.
He raised his hand, and a ball of light swirling with gold and purple appeared in his palm—the culmination of three years of fusing the power of faith with the essence of spacetime. "You've got one thing wrong," he said, his voice as soft as a whisper, yet it sent tremors through the entire space. "I am not anyone's template, nor will I be your pawn."
Gu Tianxing's pupils contracted sharply, and a stream of data erupted from his entire body, like a silver cocoon being pierced. "Wait!"
You had no idea this force would...
The ball of light in Lin Yi's palm suddenly exploded.
The power of spacetime surged forth like boiling magma, tearing Gu Tianxing's figure to shreds; the power of faith transformed into countless golden threads, precisely binding the data streams that attempted to escape.
Chu Yao's scream almost pierced her eardrums: "Warning!"
The origin of faith resonates with the origin of space and time!
The spatial structure is collapsing—
"Old Dragon!"
"Lead the legion to retreat three kilometers away!" Lin Yi's voice was torn apart by the energy storm, but it was accurately transmitted into Long Wu's communicator.
He could feel his skin cracking and his bones reshaping, but his consciousness had never been so clear—those limitations that Gu Tianxing called the "perfect template" were being obliterated by this violent force.
Gu Tianxing's last projection appeared in the storm. His eyes, looking at Lin Yi, held both regret and relief: "You will...understand..." Before he could finish speaking, he was swept into the turbulent flow of time and space.
When the energy storm finally subsided, Lin Yi knelt amidst the mess on the ground, his chest heaving violently.
His right hand remained in a forward-pushing posture, and the blood seeping from his fingertips condensed into tiny spacetime vortexes on the ground.
Chu Yao's virtual projection appeared before him, her hair still bearing scorch marks: "Sir, the core node has been exposed to the main space... Do you wish to destroy it?"
Lin Yi supported himself on his knees to stand up, and the Time-Space Key automatically flew back into his palm.
He walked toward the "Faith Project" node in the center of the projection, which was flashing with blood-red light, each step leaving cracks in the ground.
Just as he raised his hand, preparing to plunge the key into the node core—
A warm wave of consciousness suddenly surged into his sea of consciousness.
The feeling was like the spring night breeze, carrying the scent of jasmine and a familiar warmth.
Lin Yi's movements suddenly stopped, his pupils dilating in shock.
He subconsciously touched his chest, where half of a broken jade pendant hung—it was given to him by Su Qing before she disappeared, saying, "Put it back together when we meet again."
His consciousness grew clearer, mingled with a faint chuckle: "Ah Yi, don't be in such a hurry..."
Lin Yi's breathing suddenly became rapid.
He turned to look at the void behind him, the patterns of the spacetime rift swirling wildly in his eyes.
Chu Yao's voice drifted from afar, but sounded as if it were coming through frosted glass: "An abnormal consciousness has been detected... with Ms. Su Qing's brainwave frequency... a 99.2% match..."
He opened his hand, and the time-space key in his palm emitted a soft light.
Just before the rift was about to open, Lin Yi chuckled softly, his voice softening in a way he hadn't shown in three years: "This time... it's my turn to wait for you."
(The temperature of the fluctuation of consciousness penetrated the barrier of space and time. In a forgotten space, a figure slowly opened his eyes, and the beauty mark at the corner of his eye shone faintly in the darkness.)
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