Countless "Lin Yi" figures within the cracks continued to scream, the fear in the pupils of the younger version of himself piercing Lin Yi's heart like a fine needle.
His hand holding the Seven Keys trembled slightly, but the moment he touched Su Qing's smiling figure in the crystal, his knuckles tightened abruptly—in those timelines distorted by the Mother Nest, every "he" was repeating the same cry for help, but the real crisis was never himself at a certain point in time, but something hidden deep in the cracks, reaping hope with the silhouette of a night owl.
"Time Anchor Stabilizer." Lin Yi shouted, and the dark figure immediately tossed over the device that was burning hot in his palm.
The instant the metal and crystal came into contact, the flowing light on the surface of the Seven Keys suddenly solidified into a pale golden anchor chain that plunged into the void.
The energy overflowing from the stabilizer spread like ripples, and the time turbulence that was originally tearing everyone apart was temporarily suppressed by a third—this was the control of a mythical-level professional, where even the rules had to yield to his will.
“Safe path detected.” Chu Yao’s projection suddenly solidified, her fingertips tracing a pale blue path in the void. “The entropy of the storm core is decreasing. There is a 7.2-second window at a 37-degree angle with the current anchor point as the center.” When she looked up, a rare hint of anxiety flashed in the data stream in her eyes. “But it can only accommodate three people. One more will trigger a collapse feedback.”
"I'll go."
"no."
Two voices rang out simultaneously.
Xuan Mingzi appeared before Lin Yi without anyone noticing. His already transparent figure almost melted into the void, but the light in his eyes was brighter than ever: "When the mainframe was stripped away, I should have perished with the sea of data. Now, being able to shield you from the machinations of the Mother Nest is the most perfect farewell for this remnant soul." He reached out to touch the Seven Keys, but his withered fingers stopped three inches from the crystal—the temperature flowing on it was the warmth of thirty million beliefs, so hot that he dared not desecrate it.
Lin Yi stared at the faint light in Xuan Mingzi's eyes and suddenly remembered the old man under the old locust tree outside the beginner village, who always liked to wave his feather fan and say "Young friend, please take a look."
Back then he always said, "Fate cannot be defied," but now I have to defy fate for him this time.
“You taught me that a true strongman never lets his companions die in his place.” He placed his hand on Xuanmingzi’s forehead, and the power of faith surged into the old man’s sea of consciousness like a hot spring. “Back then, you reshaped my soul, and now it’s my turn to help you strengthen this remnant soul.”
In the pale golden mist, Xuanmingzi saw his shattered consciousness being rewoven bit by bit.
Those weak points that would have been crushed by the storm are now imbued with the patterns of the Time and Space Legion emblem, the golden spots of Dragon Five's scales, and the silver light of Chu Yao's data chain—all imprints left by those who once stood shoulder to shoulder with him.
He suddenly laughed, his laughter making the illusory light in the corners of his eyes tremble: "Young friend, you always say that you are the master of time and space..." His figure solidified again, and he raised his hand to pat Lin Yi's shoulder, "But I think you have tied everyone's life to your own destiny."
"Then tie it tighter." Lin Yi raised the seven keys above his head, and the belief imprints in the crystals suddenly lit up simultaneously, forming a rotating star map above everyone's heads.
Long Wu's dragon wings unfolded, and golden light danced on his scales in sync with the star map; the black shadow's time anchor stabilizer was completely integrated into the Seven Keys, and the same starry river pattern appeared on its surface as in Lin Yi's pupils; Chu Yao's fingertips pressed on the center of the star map, and data streams drilled into every gap of the time turbulence as if they were living things.
The moment everyone stepped onto the edge of the storm, the air suddenly became thick and sticky.
As Long Wu's dragon wings swept across the sky, they left an icy blue afterimage in the void—a sign that the flow of time had suddenly slowed down.
The time anchor of the shadowy figure suddenly let out a mournful cry, and the runes on its surface began to rotate in reverse; Xuan Mingzi's Taoist robe fluttered without wind, and the ends of his hair turned white at a speed visible to the naked eye; even Chu Yao's projection showed several frames of reversed double images.
"Time...is flowing backward?" Long Wu's voice, carrying the unique vibration of a dragon's roar, shattered a wisp of purple mist flowing in reverse.
He looked down at his dragon claws, and the scars from when he was scratched by wild monsters in the beginner village were slowly emerging on the back of his hands, which were originally covered with scales—the first wound he had inflicted while protecting Lin Yi, which should have healed three years ago.
In Lin Yi's pupils, the strings of the timeline suddenly shifted completely.
He saw a purplish-black mist twisting excitedly at the heart of the storm ahead, like a venomous snake that had caught the scent of blood.
Deeper still, the younger version of himself in the white shirt was retreating step by step to the very bottom of the crack—where the outline of the owl was fully formed, and the smile on his lips almost overflowed the crack, touching everyone's eyebrows.
"Stabilize the anchor point." Lin Yi's voice was as steady as a pillar of strength. He grabbed Long Wu's wrist with his other hand, the warmth of his palm penetrating through the dragon scales and reaching his blood vessels; with his other hand, he grabbed Xuan Mingzi's Dao sleeve, the power of faith wrapping around the old man's remnant soul like vines; finally, his palm met the black shadow's, and the vibration of the time anchor resonated between the two of them.
The reverse flow of time on the edge of the storm suddenly stopped, as if two invisible hands were vying for control.
Behind the scenes, unseen by the crowd, the thousand-meter-high black rift was expanding at an even faster pace than before—deep within the rift, Night Owl's fingertips had already touched the back of young Lin Yi's neck.
Dragon Five's dragon claws suddenly emitted a burning pain.
He stared at the old, bleeding scar on the back of his hand—the wound inflicted three years ago outside the starting village when he shielded Lin Yi from a rampaging stone giant, a wound caused by a sharp stone horn.
At that time, he had not yet awakened his true dragon bloodline. His wounds were so deep that the bone was visible, and he rolled around in the mud three times in pain.
At this moment, the scar seemed to come alive, and the sweet-smelling blood that had just seeped out of the skin actually retreated back into the muscle tissue against the flow of time.
\"puff!\"
Long Wu felt a sweet taste in his throat, and the blood mist he spat out condensed into red ice crystals in mid-air before falling back into his mouth with a "ding-ding".
The scene before him began to distort: the edge of the storm, which had been churning with purple-black light, suddenly lost all color and turned into a gray-blue wasteland.
In the distance, the old, crooked locust tree was sprouting new buds—it was a landmark outside the newbie village. Three years ago, it was under this tree that he first met Lin Yi, who was covered in injuries but still protecting the newbie gift pack.
"Long Wu! Get out of the way!"
The familiar roar exploded in my ears.
Long Wu turned his head sharply and saw himself at seventeen—wearing a coarse cloth jacket and a rusty iron sword at his waist, holding a shield to block the stone giant's sweeping tail.
Amidst the flying stone chips, the boy's shield cracked with a spiderweb pattern, his knees slammed heavily into the ground, and cold sweat dripped from his forehead down his chin into the soil, leaving a small crater.
"No!" Long Wu's dragon wings contracted uncontrollably, and his scales made a cracking sound.
He wanted to rush over and take the blow for his cowardly self, but his legs felt like lead—this was an illusion created by the echo of time, and he was trapped at the most humiliating point in his memory.
The stone giant's foot rose again, casting a shadow over the boy's trembling back. Long Wu heard his own tearful voice from years ago: "Lin...Lin Yi hasn't gone far, I can't die..."
"Being able to shield him now is the most perfect farewell for this remnant soul."
Xuanmingzi's words suddenly rang in my ears.
Long Wu's pupils contracted sharply, and the blood beneath his dragon scales began to boil.
He recalled three days ago at the Time Legion's base, when Lin Yi patted his dragon horns and said, "Old dragon, your dragon breath can now melt stars"; he recalled last month when he was conquering the Abyss dungeon, he used his dragon tail to pull Chu Yao out of the lava fissure; he recalled the temperature from Lin Yi's palm when he held his wrist just now, which was hotter than any dragon flame—it turned out that he was no longer the boy who could only kneel in the mud.
"Wake up, you bastard!" Long Wu roared to the sky, his dragon breath bursting out from his throat.
A golden-red crack was torn open in the bluish-gray illusion, and his dragon claw pierced through the stone giant's foot, tearing sparks out of the void.
The boy looked up and saw a giant dragon covered in golden scales shattering time as it arrived. The wind generated by the dragon's wings overturned the stone giant and dried the tears on his face.
"I've come to take you home." Long Wu's voice shook the illusion.
The boy's figure suddenly turned into particles of light and merged into the Time Legion emblem on his heart.
When Long Wu opened his eyes again, a golden mark appeared in the purple mist at the edge of the storm—a victory he had branded on the past timeline with his current power.
"Illusion interference level reduced by 47%." Chu Yao's voice crackled with static, her fingertips pressed against her temples. "Lord Shadow's barrier has activated."
Only then did everyone notice the dark figure.
He removed his mask at some point, revealing a sharply defined face. His left eye was a mechanical prosthetic, from which flowed a ghostly green stream of data.
He formed hand seals, and the silver-white runes characteristic of enforcers spread from his palms, weaving a net above everyone's heads—a "True Barrier" that connected consciousness. "The Mother Nest is using the Time Echo to amplify everyone's psychological weaknesses," the shadowy voice said, like the scraping of metal. "Long Wu's past may be yours next."
Lin Yi gripped the Seven Keys tightly.
Su Qing's smiling image suddenly became clear in the crystal, and he could hear her voice: "Ayi, you said that time never truly flows backward, right?" He looked up at the core of the storm, where the purple mist was condensing into a vortex, and countless fragments floated in the center of the vortex—these were "Lin Yi", "Long Wu", and "Chu Yao" from various failed timelines. Their expressions were frozen in a moment of despair, and the vortex was draining the last bit of light from them.
"It's absorbing the energy of the failed timeline," Lin Yi's voice was as cold as ice. "The Mother Nest isn't trying to destroy us; it wants to use these negative forces to be reborn."
The seven keys suddenly trembled violently, and countless cracks appeared on the surface of the crystal.
Lin Yi looked down and saw his reflection twisted into more than a dozen shapes in the cracks—all of them were versions of himself from those failed timelines who failed to save Su Qing.
He pressed his hand to his chest, where the Time and Space Dominator Badge was burning hot, reminding him of the system notification he heard during his first job change in the starting village: "The only mythical hidden class."
"Since I am the only one, I should be the one to end all possibilities of failure." In Lin Yi's pupils, the Milky Way began to flow in the positive direction again.
He took a step forward, and a faint golden light burst forth from the cracks in the Seven Keys, enveloping the most recent fragment of the failed timeline. With a gentle squeeze, "Lin Yi" inside the fragment opened his eyes wide, and a smile appeared on his lips.
"That is..." Xuanmingzi suddenly clutched his chest.
Beneath his Taoist robe, the remnant soul that Lin Yi had reinforced was now rippling with a ghostly blue light, as if something was gnawing at his consciousness.
The old man's fingertips trembled uncontrollably, and when his gaze swept over Lin Yi, a strange, sinister glint flashed deep in his pupils.
He opened his mouth, and a string of obscure syllables rolled out of his throat, like the beginning of some ancient incantation.
"Senior?" Long Wu sensed something was wrong and instinctively spread his dragon wings to protect Lin Yi.
Xuanmingzi suddenly looked up.
His eyes, which were originally clear and glassy, were now filled with a deep blue, like two lamps immersed in venom.
His right hand slowly rose, and energy that did not belong to this world gathered at his fingertips—a sign that the main brain program had been corrupted by the nest.
"Watch out!" Chu Yao's data stream suddenly surged, attempting to entangle Xuan Mingzi's wrist.
But it was too late.
Xuan Mingzi pointed his fingertip at Lin Yi's heart, and the final syllable of the incantation became clear: "...annihilation."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com