Merged into one.

Lin Xian thought he misheard. His power armor activated its recording function. It was clear that what Chen Yanxiu expressed likely meant he truly had communication with the dark civilization. At least, this concept did not sound like something humans could conceive.

From Chu Yan’s words, Lin Xian knew that the Crimson World was originally dominated by digital life and mechanical revolution. After developing mycelium technology, their concepts of life forms, abilities, and consciousness had become extremely distorted.

But what Chen Yanxiu said was clearly not about what they were pursuing, but rather what they were waiting for.

“It sounds like you and the dark civilization already have very direct communication?” Lin Xian looked at Chen Yanxiu and asked his question.

Chen Yanxiu smiled slightly, raised both hands, and instead of answering directly, he said, “Eradicate all suffering and tyranny. The world belongs to the superior civilization. You can choose to accept it or be evolutionarily eliminated. Captain Lin, please believe me, this is not a slogan, nor does it involve any interests, hostility, morals, or value orientations. It has nothing to do with race or... nation.”

“Lin Xian, this guy seems to have been completely brainwashed.” KIKI spoke up at this moment.

Lin Xian looked at the refined middle-aged man in front of him. Hearing his words, he suddenly felt a vague sensation, as if the person standing before him was not human but another strange species.

How could he have such a feeling?

Lin Xian raised his eyes and suddenly found his consciousness somewhat hazy. The figure in front of him overlapped strangely. His first reaction was that the other party might be using some method or that he felt a very peculiar energy surging from him.

So Lin Xian immediately used the Mechanical Heart to envelop him. He wanted to pinpoint what forbidden artifact the other person was activating and find any weaknesses to restrain him.

But strangely, his brain suddenly felt like it was hit by a chaotic flicker. His vision began to distort. He saw Chen Yanxiu smiling, opening his mouth, and speaking in a voice that fluctuated between near and far...

“Looks like... you are also obsessed with the power of forbidden artifacts. You must know, these are the Master’s... blessings.”

“Lin Xian!”

“Captain Lin!”

Seeing Lin Xian’s pale face and staggering posture, everyone immediately sensed something was wrong. KIKI directly supported Lin Xian, and Shiori, sensing a huge fluctuation in Lin Xian’s spiritual power, panicked and immediately used her ability on him. But this time, when her ability entered Lin Xian’s spirit, a bottomless black hole suddenly appeared before her and sucked her in. In the next moment, an endless bloody aura from the darkness surged toward her, directly shocking Shiori.

“Ah...”

The sudden anomaly occurred. Xiao Qing and Fire Bro looked at Chen Yanxiu, both instantly launching attacks!

“Fire Fist!”

“Shadow Slash!”

The two shouted softly, and violent power arrived instantly. In a mere instant, sharp blades were at his throat, and the Fire Fist was already at his face.

At this moment, Chen Yanxiu suddenly opened his pocket watch. To his eyes, all attacks seemed frozen and distorted at this moment. Then he looked at Lin Xian and said in a low voice,

“You will meet again, Sword Bearer.”

After saying this, he took out another strange gear and immediately vanished from the spot.

At this moment, Ke Ming’s consciousness was rapidly rising. He felt an astonishing speed pulling him away from Blue Star. The space became increasingly pale and dark. When his light froze, he suddenly saw a giant artificial spatial device slowly appearing behind him—Southern Celestial Gate!

At the same time, Chu Yan’s consciousness directly penetrated the outer shell of the Southern Celestial Gate, passing through the channel and through Chen Yanxiu’s flickering bullet communication device.

At that moment, I could clearly feel myself being forcibly pulled by the power of a forbidden artifact. Then I broke through the Southern Celestial Gate, heading toward the deep universe’s Hundred Dark Nebula.

After an unknown time, Lin Xian completely lost his sense of location. Before him was only vast darkness as deep as an abyss. He tried hard to look, and it seemed something was staring at him, but he could see nothing.

At this time, star lights began to converge in Lin Xian’s vision. At first, he thought the universe was changing, but as time passed, he realized those star lights seemed to appear on his retina because when he moved his head, the star lights moved synchronously. Then those points of starlight gathered into certain lines, finally forming a string of numbers...

34:32:11

In the next second, the numbers changed to

34:32:10

“This is... a countdown?!” Lin Xian was horrified. He shouted into the dark void,

“Who are you? What is your purpose on Blue Star?!”

No response.

The universe seemed silent and extinguished.

Lin Xian tried to erase the numbers from his vision but found it useless. He could only watch the countdown flow.

Then, his consciousness suddenly began to fall backward. In an instant, he returned to the steel platform of the island submarine base.

“Phew!”

Lin Xian took a deep breath. Coming back to his senses, he saw Xiao Qing and Fire Bro attacking simultaneously, while Chen Yanxiu left behind a strange fluctuation on the spot, gradually fading away.

He didn’t know what had just happened, but seeing this scene, he didn’t hesitate and immediately raised his hand!

Gravitational Lens!

After hearing about the silver pocket watch’s characteristics from Chen Yanxiu, he had already thought that using gravity might stop the opponent’s spacetime field. Lin Xian wanted to keep this guy as the leader of the Sacred Revelation faction, as he must hold many secrets. He and Ye Lan’s plan was to trace the Sanctum’s true core, so Lin Xian launched his full power, not wanting this guy to escape!

Buzz!

In an instant, a distorted space appeared out of thin air where Chen Yanxiu disappeared and began tearing the spacetime field apart. This move worked. Under the gravitational field’s effect, the spacetime field that made Chen Yanxiu vanish began to change. Within the transparent spatial ripples, a figure rapidly being extracted appeared beside Xiao Qing. Lin Xian’s Gravitational Lens caught one of his arms!

Chen Yanxiu’s originally calm expression suddenly changed sharply. He looked fiercely at Lin Xian, then at his left hand. The black gear in his hand, along with the entire arm, was being frantically sucked into the gravitational field.

At this moment, everyone around remained frozen, only Lin Xian broke Chen Yanxiu’s spacetime field. The two stared across the gap. The confusion in Chen Yanxiu’s eyes gradually turned into coldness. He then glared angrily at Lin Xian, gritted his teeth, released his left hand, and before the skin was peeled off and his spacetime field’s acceleration was canceled, he broke free and vanished again.

Lin Xian’s expression darkened. How many forbidden artifacts did this guy have on him? He could no longer expand the Gravitational Lens;

otherwise, Xiao Qing and Fire Bro would be affected immediately. So he retracted the Gravitational Lens with a flick of his finger.

Beautiful!

In the next moment, Fire Fist and Shadow Slash pierced through, raising a gust of wind that flattened the steel platform’s guardrail ahead.

Only then did Xiao Qing and Fire Bro realize Chen Yanxiu, who was dangerously close, had vanished under their attack, both stunned and confused.

“Strange?!”

“Disappeared?”

“No need to chase.” Lin Xian stood firmly and glanced away. The assistant beside Chen Yanxiu had already collapsed and died without a trace, and below, more than a dozen Sanctum members simultaneously died violently.

“Lin Xian, what’s wrong?” KIKI supported Lin Xian and asked anxiously.

“Nothing.”

Ning Jing frowned, looking down: “Why are they all dead?”

“Probably some kind of remote-triggered suicide device. These people... were not just armed personnel, but also researchers.” Lin Xian’s gaze tightened. “Looks like they were all silenced.”

At this moment, the huge submarine port was left with only Lin Xian’s squad.

“What about that Chen guy?” Ning Jing asked, puzzled. Everything that happened was too strange and seemed to occur in an instant.

“He ran.” Lin Xian stepped forward and squatted down, reaching to scan the black gear on the ground. “Looks like besides the submarine, there are other escape methods. This guy has many secrets.”

“What is this thing?” KIKI came over and asked.

“A forbidden artifact... probably used for his escape.” Lin Xian raised his hand and created a lead box to hold it. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be a clutch gear from some vehicle, but it was completely pitch black and reflected a strange dark red light under the lamp.

“As expected of a big shot from Sacred Revelation. He has more than one forbidden artifact.” Lin Xian’s heart sank. This guy’s gear was truly godlike. He didn’t know if the silver pocket watch’s properties were real or fake, but so far, Chen Yanxiu hadn’t lied.

To be able to generate a spacetime field like the one in the Star Abyss was practically a divine tool. With such a thing, if there was no countermeasure, he would be very hard to deal with.

“Do you think he will counterattack?” Ning Jing’s expression turned serious. “His forbidden artifacts are truly difficult to handle. Should we search here?”

Lin Xian put away the black gear in the lead box and said in a low voice,

“If he comes back, he might never leave again. But we should still be cautious.”

As he spoke, he rubbed his eyes and was shocked to see the countdown he had seen in the starry sky actually appearing in his vision.

34:29:22

“What’s wrong with you?” KIKI noticed Lin Xian’s abnormality and asked.

“I saw something strange...”

Lin Xian’s expression turned grave. He didn’t need to guess to realize the countdown in front of him was definitely a bad omen. At the same time, he felt a chill down his spine. He didn’t know if what had just happened was caused by Chen Yanxiu or something else, but Lin Xian’s consciousness told him that the forbidden artifacts he possessed were no longer just treasures on some level. They had some connection with the dark civilization. The worst situation he feared was seemingly coming true.

Lin Xian’s mind was in chaos, feeling powerless under the dark’s gaze, but he had no way out.

What did this countdown mean?

The end of life?

An unknown disaster?

What changes would the world undergo?

Why had the dark civilization stopped killing him? What kind of monster was Unica No.1? What was its relation to Mount Garland? What did the fusion of life that the dark civilization conveyed, mentioned by Chen Yanxiu, really mean? Could all the forbidden artifacts still be used?

Lin Xian had no clue.

He removed his head armor, walked to the edge of the steel platform, leaned on the railing, took several deep breaths to suppress the surging chaotic thoughts. Cold sweat poured down his face. The people around looked at each other. KIKI realized Lin Xian might be going through something but saw his complicated expression and didn’t dare disturb him, only watching silently.

Lin Xian closed and opened his eyes. The countdown in his vision was clear and persistent, as if someone had installed a HUD on his retina that he could not escape.

He kept breathing deeply, watching the countdown decrease, trying to suppress the chaos in his mind and calm himself.

After a while, Lin Xian became much calmer. He looked down at the nuclear-powered submarine and glanced aside.

“Sister Ning, you and KIKI A Bai search this level of the port and inspect that submarine. Xiao Qing, Fire Bro, and Shiori, you three search the upper base carefully. Watch out for those experimental creatures from before. Pay attention to the flood discharge channel and don’t attract the monsters’ notice there. I’ll dispatch all drones to assist you. Before dawn, we must thoroughly explore this base and check all useful information, supplies, weapons, including the geothermal device.”

He assigned A Bai and Shiori separately because both had reconnaissance abilities. Lin Xian planned to try connecting consciousness with Chu Yan and communicate with the Phoenix Society.

Ning Jing nodded, “Understood.”

“Brother Lin, don’t worry.” Fire Bro was eager when he heard he would act with Xiao Qing.

“What about you?” KIKI asked.

“I’ll stay here.” Lin Xian pointed to the submarine below. “We’ll meet at the command center here later.”

KIKI nodded, “Okay.”

Everyone immediately moved. Lin Xian released over a thousand drones. Most were scouting with Viola. The relay drones were connecting with the Infinite in Haiyan Island city. Once information was linked, he could call Viola back quickly.

At this moment, Lin Xian looked at the countdown in his vision, steadied himself, and entered the upper submarine command center. Sitting on the floor, his consciousness sank into the Black Star Forge.

“Chu Yan.”

No response. In the megastructure star body, the Sky Dome train was slowly rotating. Numerous mechanical arms in the construction sequence were busily manufacturing weaponry ship hulls. Meanwhile, the wreckage of Emperor Xuanwu floated silently in the distance. Lin Xian looked at his mechanical space with a slightly gloomy expression.

“Chu Yan...”

No response. It was as if the connection between him and Chu Yan had disappeared.

This feeling made Lin Xian’s face change slightly.

“What’s going on?”

34:15:22

The countdown was still changing. From the time, there were still 34 hours left.

Lin Xian felt a bad premonition. He immediately connected consciousness to the Flickering Bullet and called Grace.

“Grace.”

As Lin Xian called Grace, he suddenly noticed the metal dice he had fixed earlier. Approaching and shining his light on it, he found the dice had changed direction again.

4

At the sight of the number, Lin Xian first frowned slightly, then his pupils suddenly contracted sharply.

Why did this number look so familiar?

Lin Xian remembered the dice’s numbers had changed three times before: 3, 4, 1.

And this time, it became 4.

3414?

“Have I seen this number somewhere just now?”

Lin Xian turned to search but suddenly froze. He saw the countdown numbers in his retina change at that moment.

34:15:00

34:14:59!