Forgotten Photo Studio

Chapter 183 A Glimmer of Hope in Desperation
Xu Yan didn't even have time to react.

Time is stretched out in perception, and the destructive force does not strike in an instant.

Instead, it's like millions of cold, red-hot needles piercing through every pore of the skin.

First, it extinguished spiritual energy, then it tore muscle fibers, and finally even the fragments of memory that constitute the soul began to be forcibly stripped away and dissipated.

The light of the golden spirit core was not dim, but rather like a drowning person being choked, emitting a final, silent cry of despair.

Defense against chaotic psionic energy?
It felt like trying to block erupting lava with a wet sheet of paper; even the process of 'breaking apart' was a fleeting moment of hope.

The eternal darkness, like icy seawater, rose above his ankles, waist, and chest...

Just as it was about to devour the last spark of his consciousness.

The black jade cicada he always wore close to his body suddenly vibrated with an unusually clear, even slightly proactive, quality, due to the terrifying aftershocks of the C-level soul pressure.

This tremor was not a lament of impending destruction, but rather more like a...hunger awakened by high-quality "food" of the same origin.

This unusual tremor, like the last straw, suddenly pulled Xu Yan's consciousness back from its downward spiral.

A scene, forcibly unearthed from the depths of memory by a life-or-death crisis, suddenly flashes before my eyes.

That was in his previous life. He had just killed the traitor Zhou Wenbin and found the "Eighteen Gates Secret Records" on his body, which contained countless forbidden knowledge.

On the last page of the secret record, instead of text, there was a jade cicada, entirely black with lifelike cicada wing patterns, sealed with special spiritual runes. Beside it were only two lines of ancient, small characters:

The cicada that conceals one's breath: Wearing it can conceal one's vital energy.

Note: It feeds on souls.

At the time, he felt that this item could conceal his own aura and was an excellent treasure for dealing with wandering ghosts in the city, so he wore it all the time.

Later, during the fierce battle in Cold Storage No. 7, when he was seriously injured and on the verge of death, the Jade Cicada spontaneously unleashed its power, silently devouring three powerful vengeful spirits from the Cold Storage that were trying to deliver a fatal blow to him, thus saving his life.

Afterwards, the jade cicada seemed to have become even more lustrous, but he was still recovering from serious injuries and was exhausted, so he did not investigate further. He simply thought it was a strange object protecting its master, and gradually buried this characteristic of "feeding on souls" deep in his memory.

Even more so, ever since his father sealed the "Abyss Core" within him, the jade cicada would occasionally emit an extremely faint, almost imperceptible, cool sensation when the Abyss Core fluctuated, as if... carrying a subtle restraint and scrutiny.
Fragments of the past, overlooked details, the unusually active trembling of the jade cicada, and the two C-grade "feasts" before them, radiating ultimate soul and rule fluctuations...

At this critical moment, all the clues came together to form a lightning bolt that illuminated the darkness.

It's not just a simple way to conceal its presence! It's... a predator!
It feeds on souls and the origin of rules, and can even react to fluctuations in the Abyss Core.

An extremely crazy idea suddenly ignited in his almost dead mind like wildfire.

"Gamble!"

"Either we get eaten by them, or this thing eats us all!"

A crazy thought, so blasphemous as to desecrate all survival instincts, burned through his almost lifeless heart like a raging fire from hell.

Instead of defending himself, he used his remaining willpower to roar at the jade cicada, no longer a plea for protection, but an invitation to feast together!

He used all his remaining mental and physical strength, no longer trying to channel his power into the nearly destroyed Soul-Sealing Camera. Instead, he followed the increasingly clear guidance of the thirst emanating from the jade cicada, frantically stimulating, infusing, and even "inviting" the long-dormant black jade cicada with his last bit of spiritual energy and resolute will.

At the same time, he transformed himself into the most tempting bait, releasing the aura of chaotic spiritual energy without reservation to attract the attention of the two C-rank individuals.

The cold, spinning star of the "Data Devourer" intensifies its power to erase rules.

The dark red tentacles of "Touch of Destruction" danced wildly, unleashing a surge of destructive energy.

Just as these two forces, powerful enough to instantly annihilate him, were about to strike him at the critical moment...

"Om-!"

The black jade cicada, which had always been regarded as an auxiliary magical artifact, stopped vibrating and instead emitted a satisfied sigh that seemed to come from the ancient wilderness.

The deep, dark light did not erupt, but rather spread like viscous ink, engulfing and digesting even the rule-erasing power of the "Data Devourer" wherever it passed.

It is no longer a jade pendant, but a living pupa.

The cicada-wing-like patterns unfolded in the dark light, and with each slight tremor, the surrounding space groaned under its unbearable weight.

A will descended fiercely—it was older than the "Data Devourer" and purer than the "Touch of Destruction".

It carries no emotion, only the most primal urge to eat.

The "data devourers," whose bodies are made of nothingness, were the first to understand the fear of being "devoured."

Its stellar core is frantically reversing, attempting to analyze, imitate, and even cover this power.

But all is in vain.

Its rules, in the face of the Jade Cicada's dark light, were like butter met with a hot knife, easily sliced ​​and peeled away.

"hiss--!"

This cry was no longer a cold thought, but was filled with the despair and pain of a dying creature.

The cold, void origin of rules that constituted its existence was forcibly extracted. It was no longer a gray stream of air, but a series of collapsing, broken, pale white data streams, like torn nerves and blood vessels, uncontrollably thrown towards the tiny jade cicada.

Yu Chan swallowed greedily.

With each bite it took, the dark sheen on its surface deepened, and the patterns on its cicada wings became clearer, as if it had been parched for a long time and then received timely rain.

The "Touch of Destruction" next to him stood frozen in place.

Its pure will to destroy felt a chill like that of its natural enemy at this moment.

The wildly beating tentacles were not frozen, but stiff, as if the slightest movement would attract the gaze of that terrifying dark light.

It's now!

Xu Yan suppressed the dizziness of fading memories and seized this fleeting opportunity.

He mixed the last trace of chaotic spiritual energy in his body with a wisp of pure soul power fed back from the Jade Cicada when it devoured the origin of the "Data Devourer," and then suddenly injected it into the Soul-Sealing Camera on the verge of being destroyed in front of his chest. The dark golden wide-angle lens locked onto the stunned "Touch of Destruction" beside him.

"Crack!!!"

The shutter sound wasn't as loud as before, but it carried a sense of resolute determination.

This time, there were no dazzling beams of light, nor a vast domain.

Only a single, extremely condensed, dark line, seemingly interwoven with countless shadows and data streams, pierced precisely into the very core of the "Touch of Destruction," a collection of violent energy.

This thin line contains the "data erasure" characteristic weakened by the Jade Cicada, as well as the "erosion" and "simulation" of Xu Yan's own chaotic spiritual energy.

The core of the "Touch of Destruction" was struck, and the violent rules of destruction within it instantly descended into chaos and conflict.

It let out a painful roar, and its enormous energy body violently expanded and contracted, becoming extremely unstable.

At this moment, the black jade cicada had already devoured most of the "data devourer's" essence.

The star-like core dimmed and shattered completely, and the enormous void body vanished into thin air.

The jade cicada's dark light shifted, as if it hadn't had enough, and it locked onto the "Touch of Destruction," which was on the verge of collapse.

The "Touch of Destruction" let out a terrified shriek, no longer caring about Xu Yan. Its remaining tentacles danced wildly, tearing through space as it tried to escape.

"Want to leave?!"

A fierce glint flashed in Xu Yan's eyes. He took a deep breath and urged the Jade Cicada to activate.

The dark light, like shackles, arrived first despite being delayed, coiling around and devouring once more.

“Buzz——!!!”

Amidst the desperate roar of "Touch of Destruction," its core was forcibly torn out and devoured by the dark light. The massive body of destructive energy collapsed as if it had lost its support, transforming into a pure energy storm that swept outwards.

Xu Yan was the first to be hit, violently thrown away by the final energy storm, spitting out blood as he crashed heavily onto the distant metal wreckage, his consciousness plunging into darkness.

But this time, there seemed to be a faint smile on his lips.

He won.

The victory was hard-won, but in the face of adversity, a stunning reversal was achieved with the help of a overlooked jade cicada.

As his consciousness swirled, Xu Yan touched upon fragments of memories that had been devoured by the Abyss.

This bizarre and fantastical dream city, Mirage, is far more than just a prison.

It is a buffer or firewall built by ancient powerful beings at the cost of their own demise, to filter and defend against the whispers of the abyss from beyond the world that can drive all things mad.

The journey home is far more complex than simply leaving a dream and returning to reality; it may mean repairing a crumbling wall and confronting the truth beyond it...

When he woke up again, the first sense he regained was touch.

Beneath him lay cold, twisted metal debris, pressing against his back.

Then came a steady, warm coolness from my chest—the black jade cicada lay there quietly, as if it had been there since time immemorial.

He slowly opened his eyes.

Dataport can no longer be called a "port".

This is a well-organized graveyard.

As far as the eye can see, the space presents a morbid color.

Half of it was a dark red, congealed scab of energy residue, emanating an aura of finality that would corrupt the soul;

The other half is a series of constantly flashing, breaking, and reassembling pale gibberish, like a huge, disordered display screen showing "undefined errors" after the world's death.

His voice was completely silenced, and even the sound of his own blood flowing seemed deafening.

This is an absolute stillness after being thoroughly "plowed" by a higher-dimensional force.

He looked down at his left arm.

His arm was completely intact, with new, radiant skin. The immense vitality and chaotic spiritual energy of the peak Gold III level had completed a near-perfect flesh and blood remodeling while he was unconscious.

But what's the cost?

He tried to recall the details of how his master taught him to inscribe his first "solid" spirit rune—the starting point from which he practiced for thousands of days and nights, eventually forming muscle memory.

The images in my memory are still there, but the most crucial "feel"—the subtle "frequency" that condenses spiritual energy at my fingertips and resonates with the material—has vanished.

It's like being cut off by the most precise scalpel, leaving only an empty space where you know what happened, but can never recreate why it happened.

"The taste... is not bad."

A cold and hoarse voice, seemingly formed from the friction of countless broken memories, resounded directly from the depths of his soul.

It is “渊”.

Xu Yan felt a chill run down his spine, his spiritual energy instantly tightening, but on the surface he maintained the bewilderment and weakness that came with waking up.

"Don't be nervous, little guy." Yuan's voice carried a hint of lazy mockery. "What you just had a good meal of wasn't just that little thing on your chest."

The 'emptiness' in your soul caused by memory loss, and the sweet, bittersweet negative emotions that erupt when you're on the verge of despair... are all rare delicacies.

It seems to be more "active" than before.

“Look at this ruin,” Yuan’s thoughts swept across this graveyard of rules like cold tentacles, “Two small ‘regional catastrophe-level’ events were enough to tear a corner of the dream into this state. Fragile, too fragile.”

Xu Yan silently gazed inward at the abyss core that his father had sealed away; it seemed to have solidified slightly more than before.

"And you, you're thinking of fighting against that White Lord who's trying so hard to repair this fragile place?" Yuan let out a low, ambiguous laugh. "How ironic. He sees you and me as viruses that must be eradicated, while you and I have become the only witnesses to this ruin."

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Xu Yan responded coldly in his mind.

“I just wanted you to see it more clearly, little one.” Yuan’s voice was full of temptation. “This dream called ‘Mirage,’ this so-called firewall, is essentially endless contradictions and conflicts. The White Lord pursues absolute order and stability, but little does he know that absolute stability is annihilation. And the chaos and nothingness that we represent are the root of the evolution of all things.”

"He repairs, we destroy. What he maintains is a cage destined to collapse. And what we destroy may be the very opportunity for rebirth..."

"Shut up." Xu Yan forcibly severed the connection between his consciousness and Yuan, banishing its seductive whispers from his mind.

He cannot let it affect him.

Whether this world is a cage or a firewall, whether the White Lord is a guardian or a tyrant, he has people he must protect and a path he must take home.

He touched the jade cicada on his chest.

Beneath the warm, smooth touch, two heart-pounding C-level fluctuations flowed and struggled within.

This power was obtained by trading his memories and a deeper bond with the demon within him.

There was no joy whatsoever, only a sobering feeling of walking on the edge of a precipice.

at this time--

Heart palpitations!

An intense sense of panic, stemming from the impending severing of their soul bond, pierced his heart like an ice pick.

"Photo studio... Zhiwei!"

The previous confusion and the solemnity of talking with Yuan were instantly dispelled, replaced by a burning anxiety.

He suddenly stood up from the ruins, his chaotic spiritual energy roaring through his newly formed meridians. His figure transformed into a dim stream of light that tore through the deathly silence, rushing madly towards the old city at a speed beyond its limits.

Xu Yan transformed into a streak of light, but abruptly stopped just as he entered the edge of the old city.

The sight before him made even his gold-level spirit core tremble.

At the junction of the data port and the old city, the space resembles a tattered cloth torn and then haphazardly glued back together by a mischievous child.

On the left is the dark red scar left by the "Touch of Destruction," where matter is silently annihilated like a sandcastle; on the right is the area eroded by the "Data Devourer," where color and rules have faded away, leaving only constantly refreshed, dizzying, pale gibberish.

He seemed to be walking on the corpses of a destroyed world.

At the end of this grand apocalyptic scene, a beam of pure white light descended from the sky and was firmly fixed on the photo studio, appearing so cold and dazzling.

"Knowing the subtle..."

He whispered the name, no longer with panic, but with a resolute confirmation.

The next moment, he no longer avoided those dangerous cracks in the rules, enveloped his entire body in chaotic spiritual energy, and like a fish swimming upstream, he recklessly crashed into this shattered death zone.

At the edge of his vision, in the center of the old town shrouded in chaotic celestial phenomena, a faint, eerie blue light flickered like the last candle flame in a storm, captivating his entire being.

The "Forgotten Photo Studio" in the old town of Jiangcheng.

The source of that faint blue light was now a lone boat teetering on the brink of capsizing in the eye of the storm.

From the outside, the photo studio looks like it's been stuffed into a bizarre and broken kaleidoscope.

The sky to the left is filled with the dark red embers left by the "Touch of Destruction," like a dying nebula, constantly releasing ripples of annihilation, silently turning everything it touches into nothingness.

On the right is the legacy left by the "data devourer"—a constantly distorting, flickering void of gibberish, where colors and shapes lose their meaning, leaving only a mind-bending "undefined" state.

Beneath these two slowly expanding death zones, two more direct and violent forces, like millstones, were crushing the dim, light-covered barrier around the photo studio, which was supported by an array.

One of them was a chaotic current of rules overflowing from a C-level collision, invisible and intangible, yet more terrifying than any physical attack.

It's like a cruel joke of fate, sometimes striking like a heavy hammer, and sometimes scraping away at the very concept of the defensive structure's "existence" like a file.

The other was a pure white beam of light descending from the sky, precise, cold, and carrying an unquestionable sense of absolute order.

It doesn't seem like an attack; it's more like executing some kind of "instruction."

Countless tiny runes, representing "purification" and "formatting," flowed within the pillar of light. They slowly and steadily permeated and decomposed the array's psionic structure, restoring it to the most basic and "harmless" primal energy. The process was quiet yet carried a kind of programmed cruelty.

Inside the workshop, the situation was already extremely precarious.

"Woo-hum-hum!"

The piercing alarm mingled with the hum of overloaded equipment, sounding like the wail of a dying man.

The several monitoring screens in front of A Zhe were already filled with static and jumping garbled text. On the main control panel, several key rune nodes were emitting dangerous sparks, reflecting the blood constantly spilling from the corner of his mouth and his pale face.

"Sister Zhiwei! The psionic circuit of the third node on the left wing is overloaded! Structural cracks have appeared in the core rune plate! We...we can't hold on much longer!"

His voice was hoarse, trembling with despair, but his hands were as if welded to the control board, futilely trying to squeeze in more psionic energy to delay the final collapse.

Chen Zhiwei stood in the center of the workspace, her body trembling slightly, not from fear, but from the excessive workload.

Her Silver II-level psionic energy was being released with unprecedented intensity, no longer confined to herself, but forming a deep connection and resonance with the land beneath her feet and with the world.

In her perception, the world was groaning in pain. The turbulent flow of rules was the wound torn open by the dream, while the pure white pillar of light was a cold pair of scissors, trying to trim away all the "abnormalities" and cut away her, this "dissonant note." What shook her even more was the complex resonance that arose deep within her soul, a resonance that was both repulsive and subtly attracted.

That pure white light seemed to be calling out to something within her very essence.

"I won't... I absolutely won't let you destroy this place!" She bit her lower lip, and even tasted a faint metallic taste of blood.

She was no longer merely passively supporting the defense, but was trying to actively guide her own peculiar "stabilizing" power.

A deep blue light rippled out from her body like water, gently brushing against the crumbling defensive light shield.

Miraculously, the tiny cracks torn open by the turbulent flow of rules on the light shield healed a little faster; and the area "purified" by the pure white light pillar seemed to be infused with a bit of resilience, and the momentum of collapse was subtly slowed down.

She was like a clumsy weaver, desperately trying to mend the edges of this broken world with her meager strength and soul, buying time for the person returning from afar.

Just as she pushed the dark blue light to its limit, attempting to stabilize the core formation once again...

"Crack...crack—!"

First came a faint yet chilling cracking sound, as if the ice was breaking open beneath our feet.

A pitch-black crack appeared out of nowhere on the defensive light shield, spreading rapidly like a vine of death.

Immediately afterwards——

"boom!!!!!!"

The deafening explosion swallowed everything.

The protective barrier, which had been holding on for so long, was like a shattered glass lamp, instantly turning into billions of scattered fragments of spiritual energy.

The terrifying shockwave, like a real tsunami, surged in all directions.

Ah Zhe, who was the first to be hit, didn't even have time to groan before he was slammed against the wall behind him by an invisible force. Blood spurted from his mouth and nose, and he immediately lost consciousness, his fate unknown.

Chen Zhiwei was pushed backward by that tremendous force, her spiritual energy instantly became disordered, her blood and qi surged, and she felt a sweet taste in her throat.

But before she could even steady herself, the cold, pure white beam of light, imbued with the will of "purification" and "formatting," had already lost all resistance and was mercilessly descending upon her—or rather, upon the wall behind her that bore the mark of her mother.

Before the light even arrived, the will to completely erase her existence had already frozen her soul, leaving her almost unable to muster any will to resist.

In that critical moment, when everything seemed to have frozen in time.

"Boom!!!"

A deep, muffled thud, like the beating of a war drum, came from overhead.

The roof of the photo studio was smashed open by an incredibly powerful force, leaving a huge hole, and countless pieces of stone and broken wood fell like rain.

A figure, carrying the unique smoke and destructive aura of DataPort, crashed down between Chen Zhiwei and the pillar of destruction with a speed beyond visual perception, like a meteor burning with the flames of revenge.

The ground cracked and sank beneath his feet, forming a clear footprint-shaped depression.

The turbulent air currents stirred up dust, ruffled Chen Zhiwei's long hair, and temporarily disturbed the pure beam of light.

It's Xu Yan!
He was covered in blood, and his body, which had just healed, was now covered with countless tiny cracks and wounds, marks left from forcibly crossing the zone of broken rules.

But his spine stood straight, like an unyielding spear.

The newborn left arm was clenched into a fist, with veins bulging.

What's most chilling are his eyes—burning with an almost insane will to protect, and a ruthless ferocity that comes from crawling out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, daring to bare his fangs at any enemy, so bright that it's impossible to look directly at them.

"Senior brother!" Chen Zhiwei looked at his hideous wounds, a mix of old and new, and tears instantly streamed down her face. It wasn't because of fear, but because of heartache and the overwhelming excitement of surviving against all odds.

Xu Yan didn't even have time to turn around and look at her. The thought of confirming that she was safe and sound flashed through his mind before being replaced by a more urgent crisis.

He suddenly spun around, using his not-so-broad but exceptionally firm back to completely shield Chen Zhiwei behind him, facing the pure white radiance that was enough to purify everything.

The black jade cicada on his chest seemed to be provoked by a higher-level power of the same origin. No longer satisfied with its dim light, it suddenly burst out with a deep black light, the cicada wing patterns clearly emerged, and it emitted a low buzzing sound.

"Come on!" Xu Yan let out a low growl, which sounded less like a human voice and more like the roar of a wounded wild beast.

He unleashed his peak Gold III level chaotic spiritual energy without reservation, simultaneously triggering the "nothingness" and "erasure" rule characteristics of the "data devourer" that the jade cicada had just absorbed.

A dark, psionic torrent, seemingly interwoven with countless collapsing data streams and shadows, surged upwards against the heavens and crashed violently into the pure white purifying pillar of light.

“Sizzle——!!!!”

There was no roar of an explosion, only the grating, ear-piercing noise of two diametrically opposed rules eroding and annihilating each other.

It's like a red-hot branding iron being forcibly plunged into ice water, or like the world's "mistakes" engaging in the most fundamental struggle with "correctness."

In that instant, the dark torrent actually withstood the downward momentum of the pillar of light, even causing its light to dim and shrink visibly for a moment.

"what?"

At the end of the beam of light, inside the seventh monitoring tower high above the city, came a clear, low murmur, imbued with a sense of "surprise" and "inquiry".

It was as if a finely tuned program had encountered an "unknown variable" that it could not immediately analyze.

However, the gap between social classes is so cruel.

Xu Yan's chaotic spiritual energy was like water droplets splashed on a hot iron, rapidly consumed and evaporated in the fierce confrontation.

The pure white beam of light was only blocked for less than a breath before it gathered an even more powerful and icy force, slowly pressing down with an even heavier force.

"Ugh—!"

The terrifying pressure acted on every corner of his body and soul. Xu Yan let out a painful groan, his bones creaking with a teeth-grinding sound, and bright red blood once again spilled from his seven orifices.

For the first time, his straight spine was bent slightly by the pressure, and his knees trembled uncontrollably, almost causing him to kneel down.

But with his burning eyes fixed on the pillar of light above, he stubbornly resisted the urge to kneel, relying on his indomitable will and his unwavering devotion to protecting those behind him, like a javelin driven into the ground...

Just as Xu Yan was about to collapse, a cold but firm hand pressed down on his back.

It was Chen Zhiwei.

Without a word, a gentle yet vast power surged into his nearly dried-up meridians.

It was not a brute force of gain, but a wonderful 'harmony' and 'stability'.

The strange rules within his body, which had been restless and conflicting due to the devouring of C-level ghosts, became docile and cohesive as this power flowed through him, like a tangled mess being untangled.
The emptiness and dizziness in his mind caused by the 'Abyss's' gnawing were soothed by a cool comfort.

At this moment, Xu Yan 'saw' that in the center of the 'ocean' he had created with chaos, a sea full of infinite possibilities yet also full of confusion, Chen Zhiwei's existence was like an indestructible lighthouse rising up.

Where the light shines, the raging waves subside, and the shattered rules are rewoven.

She was his anchor.

And he was her courage to face all the storms.

The fusion of their powers is no longer an unconscious resonance, but a conscious and firm joining hands at the level of souls—when we stand side by side, we are complete.

Just as this delicate balance was achieved, the dim aura once again resisted the pure white beam of light.

Behind the beam of light, a sudden change occurred.

The pure light was no longer just energy, but began to collapse and condense inward, eventually transforming into a blurry humanoid outline composed entirely of white light.

It has no facial features, no details, only an absolute indifference that looks down on all living beings and enforces the rules.

A voice, no longer transmitted through the air, but like cold code, was directly implanted and resounded deep within Xu Yan and Chen Zhiwei's consciousness, carrying an unquestionable authority:

"Incorrect variable".

The white light formed a "gaze" that fell on Xu Yan. Xu Yan instantly felt as if his golden spiritual core and even the deeper abyss core were being penetrated by invisible scanning rays.

Is it analyzing my composition? Does it know about the existence of the Abyss Core?
"With redundant anchor points."

The gaze shifted to Chen Zhiwei.

Chen Zhiwei trembled all over as the resonance and repulsion originating from the very source of her soul intensified suddenly, making her almost unable to stand.

Redundancy? Anchor point? It...it recognizes me?
No, it recognizes what it thinks it is of me!

The voice continued to echo, devoid of emotion, yet more chilling than any mockery, because it stated what it considered to be "facts":
“The dreamlike ‘mirage’ is neither a prison nor a paradise. It is the last ‘firewall’ of the real world. The rationality of billions of living beings relies on its stable operation to keep out the ‘whispers of the abyss’ that can reduce all things to nothingness.”

This grand truth struck Chen Zhiwei's mind like a heavy hammer.

Firewall? Whispers of the abyss? The world they've been struggling to survive in actually carries such a heavy burden?
The white light pointed at Chen Zhiwei, and the words were like a final diagnosis:

"Your 'stability' should have been the cornerstone of maintaining the system's balance. But your 'self-awareness'... has caused it to collapse into an unstable singularity. You attract the erosion of internal rules and disturb the external defense structure. Your existence is accelerating the collapse of the 'firewall' from within."

Chen Zhiwei was struck dumb.
Was it me... or was it my very existence that brought about this disaster?

Did it hasten the destruction of the world? No... that's not it!

A huge sense of bewilderment and self-doubt instantly overwhelmed her.

The white light immediately turned towards Xu Yan, and the judgment was equally cold:
"And you, the Chaos Favored One bearing the 'Abyss Core,' your very existence is a 'virus' that continuously pollutes the system's underlying code. If left unchecked, it will eventually lead to the collapse of the firewall, the collision of reality and the abyss, and the annihilation of all things."

Xu Yan felt a surge of anger.

A virus? It saw Zhiwei and my struggles as viruses that needed to be eliminated!

The white figure slightly "raised its hand," as if demonstrating a "mercy" with no other choice:
"Calibration and sealing. Stripping away redundant consciousness and purifying chaotic pollution. This is the necessary price to maintain the existence of both worlds."

The phrase "necessary cost" is like a final death knell.

"cost?"

Xu Yan suddenly raised his head, coughed up a mouthful of blood, but grinned with a blood-stained and arrogant smile, his eyes burning with an indomitable flame.

"Who defined 'necessity'? You?!" His voice was hoarse, yet it carried a resolute determination to sever all ties. "She is not your program, and I am not your virus. We are living, breathing human beings. Her destiny is written by herself. Our path is walked by ourselves."

He no longer looked at the white figure, but with all his remaining strength, he let out a final roar, a roar that carried all his hopes, towards the direction of the unconscious A-Zhe:

"Ah Zhe! Backup plan!!!"

Xu Yan's roar echoed in the shattered, dark room. The response wasn't the expected start-up of a machine, but a sound that seemed ancient, gentle yet carrying a certain resolute determination…

sigh.

Xu Yan's shout of "backup plan" echoed in the dark room, but the only response was a faint, painful groan coming from where A Zhe was unconscious.

The console has been completely shut down, and the last hope seems to have been extinguished.

In this utter despair, Chen Zhiwei suddenly raised her head.

Looking at Xu Yan's blood-soaked, upright figure, and at the ever-approaching pure white light, an unprecedented determination overwhelmed her inner turmoil.

She didn't know what the backup plan was, but she knew she had to do something.

“Those… marks…”

Almost instinctively, she no longer used her newly promoted Silver Level II psionic energy, along with the strange "resonance" between herself and the world, for defense, but instead poured it all into the surrounding walls—into those ancient patterns that she was already familiar with but whose function she had never understood.

She didn't know the principles; she was simply "feeling." She felt the "order" sleeping within these patterns, an order that shared the same origin as her "stable" nature but was far more ancient and profound.

She was trying to "call" them.

"Om-"

A sound, extremely faint yet seemingly resonating from the depths of the soul, rang out.

It was as if an ancient device, dormant for a thousand years, was gently activated by the right key.

On the wall, the lines carved by Xu Yan's mother and sealed by the dust of time lit up one after another in response to Chen Zhiwei's "call".

The light did not erupt violently, but rather, like a mother awakening her instincts, it gently and firmly filled the entire dark room.

This light is warm and pure, carrying a vitality that nurtures and embraces all things.

It gently illuminated Chen Zhiwei's face, which had grown increasingly pale from exhausting her spiritual energy, and also caressed Xu Yan's blood-stained yet still upright figure.

This is a radiance completely different from the cold, annihilating pure white of the White Lord—it is the manifestation of "protection" itself in the human world.

"Mother……"

Xu Yan stared at the familiar yet unfamiliar light, his mind reeling.

He instantly understood that this was not A Zhe's backup plan, but Chen Zhiwei... She had awakened the last legacy left by his mother in a way that even he himself did not know.

Guided by Chen Zhiwei, the light instantly converged on the most central mark in the corner, transforming into a pure white firefly that was condensed to the extreme and seemed to contain all the concepts of "boundaries" and "protection" in the world.

It didn't tear through space, but rather, like a hot knife cutting into butter, it silently and smoothly "cut" open the seemingly unshakeable pure white blockade of the outside world, creating a brief and stable passage.

After completing this final mission, the light from all the engravings on the wall, like a guardian spirit that had fulfilled its final request, quickly dimmed and faded away with a trace of lingering affection and relief.

They were not broken, but they lost all their mystique, turning back into the most ordinary, almost forgotten scratches on the wall.

A sense of eternal, irretrievable "loss" weighed heavily on Xu Yan's heart.

He knew perfectly well that this last haven left by his mother, the warmest proof of her existence in this world, had vanished forever with the complete release of this power.

It was Chen Zhiwei's proactive actions that brought the only turning point to this desperate situation.

"go!"

Xu Yan embraced Chen Zhiwei, and his spiritual energy swept up A Zhe, transforming into a glimmer of light that rushed into the crack.

The cold, pure white figure did not pursue. In the blurred light and shadow, only a barely audible whisper, yet containing a hint of solemnity and inquiry, could be heard:
"The traces of the border guardians... are indeed intertwined with the disturbances of the 'primordial code'..."

The abandoned underground drainage system reeks of rust and decay.

Xu Yan leaned against the cold, damp wall, each breath accompanied by a slight tremor of burning pain in his internal organs.

He closed his eyes, and the final image of the photo studio collapsing burned in the darkness: A Zhe's unwilling gaze before he vomited blood and fainted; Chen Zhiwei's pale face when her spiritual energy was overdrawn; and the marks left by his mother on the wall, which, after bursting out with the last and most brilliant light, were completely extinguished like stars that had burned out.

What disturbed him even more was the emptiness in his mind—the memory of his master teaching him to inscribe the first "solid" spirit rune had become blurred, leaving only fragmented images and a tactile sensation that could no longer be grasped.

"Abyss" let out a satisfied yet cold sigh from the depths of his soul, as if mocking him: "Look, this is the price you pay for your thirst for power."

He touched his chest; the black jade cicada remained warm and smooth, and the struggle of the two C-level phantoms inside emitted a heart-palpitating fluctuation.

This power, though acquired tragically, cannot warm the coldness in my heart at this moment.

In the deathly silence of the underground drainage system, Chen Zhiwei's choked voice broke the silence first: "Those marks... they've disappeared..."

"Hmm." Xu Yan responded. He opened his eyes, and what he saw was no longer the relief of surviving a disaster, but a deep, unfathomable calm, as cold as iron.

He looked at the faint yet tenacious pure white light in his hand—the last embers of his mother's "boundary" power.

“It says that sacrificing us is a ‘necessary price’.” Xu Yan’s voice echoed in the narrow space, not loud, but with a sharp edge that cut through everything. “Sacrificing the minority for the majority; eliminating variables for the whole. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?”

He raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping over A Zhe and Chen Zhiwei in turn.

"But by what right should it define who is the price to pay? Whose survival is a mistake?" The pure white light at his fingertips flickered, as if in response to his question.

"We live, we think, we fight—we ourselves are the most powerful rebuttal to the conclusion that we are the price!"

"The photo studio... is gone." Ah Zhe's voice was hoarse, not just from exhaustion, but also from a sense of bewilderment after his "roots" had been severed.

"The photo studio is gone, but we are still here." He slowly clenched his fist, holding that sliver of light in his palm, as if grasping some kind of belief. "Next stop, we will not flee, we will question."

"Let's use the embers of this boundary to burn through His cold logic; let's use our existence as variables to fight for a... different answer for all existences defined as costs!"

His voice wasn't loud, but it was like a hammer striking an anvil, each word carrying weight.

"But we traded this 'home' for three lives and two crucial pieces of intelligence."

He looked at Chen Zhiwei, his gaze no longer merely protective, but also scrutinizing her as an equal comrade-in-arms:
"First, the White Lord sees you as an 'abnormally stable source' that must be 'calibrated,' and me as an 'error variable' that must be 'cleared.' The two of us are the biggest bugs in its system."

"Secondly, we have witnessed firsthand that the 'boundary' power left by my mother is the key that can unlock its 'purification' rules."

He reached out and gently grasped Chen Zhiwei's cold fingers.

"It says that sacrificing us is a 'necessary price' for the sake of both worlds." Xu Yan's lips curled into a defiant and cold smile. "Then we'll go find the 'Original Code,' figure out the truth about the 'Boundary,' and then tell it—"

He opened his palm, and a faint yet resilient ray of pure white light quietly emerged, like a lighthouse in the darkness.

"We do not accept its 'necessary price'!"

"Next stop, let's smash its 'optimal solution' to pieces."

(End of this chapter)