181: Chapter 181 Risking one's life for the heavens, snatching chestnuts from the fire

Thoughts flashed like lightning, a decision made in an instant! There was no longer a shred of hesitation in Ling Ye's eyes, only a cold, desperate madness!

He bent his legs slightly, and the last remnants of "Qi" within his body, combined with the will condensed by the "Star Visualization," erupted violently. Mingled with the unyielding shimmer of the "Ancient Ring" mark, it all poured into his legs!

"Whoosh—!"

He moved! No longer sneaking or hiding, he was like a cheetah pouncing on its prey, like thunder tearing through the darkness. With the fastest explosive speed of his life, he lunged out from the shadows behind the console, diving straight toward the leather-bound notebook half-hidden in the shadows five meters away!

Faster! A little faster!

His figure left a blurry afterimage in the open space!

On the fungal mat of the wall, several nearby "eyes" seemed startled by this sudden high-speed movement, abruptly "widening" and turning in unison toward Ling Ye! But their reaction seemed a beat too slow!

Ling Ye's hand, like an iron pincer, grabbed the leather-bound notebook! It felt thick and cold to the touch!

Success!

He did not pause for even a second! Without even having time to stow the notebook away, he performed a roll on the ground to dissipate his momentum, simultaneously using the force to turn and sprinting at full speed once again toward the metal staircase he had come from!

Throughout the entire process, his "Spiritual Sense" remained locked tightly onto the isolation chamber in the center of the hall!

Just at the moment he grabbed the notebook and began to turn—

"Hum—!!!"

An indescribable, massive humming sound—one that acted directly upon the level of the "Soul," filled with cold, indifference, and endless greed—erupted violently from the center of the deep blue vortex, from that point of gloomy starlight, like the tolling of a billion funeral bells at once!

The air in the entire hall seemed to freeze instantly! The flow of time itself became viscous!

All the fungal mat "eyes" on the walls erupted at the same moment with a blinding, eerie light mixed with blue and white, all "staring" at Ling Ye! No, they were staring at the notebook in his hand, which emitted weak but unique "information ripples"! And... at him!

The "breathing" tumor in the distance emitted a sharp hiss that sounded like countless voices overlapping. The dark blue veins on its surface pulsed frantically, a large amount of mucus gushed out, and the entire tumor began to writhe violently, as if it were about to hatch something!

"Locked on!"

Warning bells rang wildly in Ling Ye's heart! But he dared not look back! He could only push his speed to the limit and sprint toward the stairs!

"Swoosh—!"

Several thick tentacles, made of dark blue fungal hyphae and mucus, shot out violently from the fungal mat on the wall, lashing through the air like venomous snakes toward Ling Ye's back and legs! Their speed was astonishing!

Ling Ye could even smell the nauseatingly sweet and rotten odor on the tentacles!

"Get lost!" he roared in his heart, forcing his body to twist while sprinting, and swept the crowbar in his hand backward in a backhand strike!

"Bang! Rip!"

The crowbar collided with a tentacle, producing a dull thud and the sound of mucus being torn. The tentacles were exceptionally tough; though one was knocked aside, it only delayed it slightly, and more tentacles were already surrounding him from all directions!

At the same time, he felt the leather-bound notebook in his hand suddenly become scalding hot! The blurry gold-stamped signature on the cover was actually emitting a weak but clear milky-white glow on its own! This glow seemed to carry a certain power of "Purification," causing the incoming fungal tentacles to pause slightly, as if they were wary of it!

Was it the power of the notebook itself? Or protection left behind by its original owner?

There was no time to think! Seizing this split-second opportunity, Ling Ye stepped onto the rusted metal staircase!

"Roar—!!"

In the center of the hall, the gloomy starlight within the deep blue vortex suddenly flared brightly! A cold, solid, deep blue beam of light that seemed capable of freezing the "Soul" struck out like a spear of judgment, ignoring spatial distance, instantly crossing half the hall and shooting violently toward Ling Ye's back!

Wherever the beam passed, the air made "crackling" freezing sounds, and even the flying dust was solidified!

Death was close at hand!

Ling Ye could even feel the bone-chilling cold emanating from behind him!

He couldn't dodge it! He couldn't block it!

At this critical, desperate moment—

In his chest, the "Black Eye" pendant, already covered in cracks and nearly broken, along with the ID tag of "Deep Space Frontier Capital" employee Chen Yan, suddenly erupted with their final, intense light!

The "Black Eye" pendant transformed into a pitch-black vortex that seemed capable of absorbing all light, meeting the deep blue beam head-on!

Chen Yan's ID tag emitted a dark blue ripple filled with unwillingness, obsession, and the final will of the "Guardian," faintly resonating with the power of the "Black Eye"!

"Boom—!!!"

The pitch-black vortex and the deep blue beam collided in mid-air! There was no earth-shattering explosion, only an eerie zone of absolute darkness—where it seemed even sound and light were swallowed—that flashed and vanished!

The deep blue beam was actually deflected slightly by this sudden interference, which was of the same origin but carried the will of the "Guardian"!

It was this slight deflection!

"Pfft!"

The deep blue beam grazed the outside of Ling Ye's left arm and struck the metal staircase railing behind him!

There was no explosion, no melting. The section of the metal railing that was hit, along with a small area of space around it, instantly lost all color and texture, turning into absolute, cold, gray-white powder that seemed to have had the very concept of "existence" erased from it, falling down with a rustle!

The sleeve on Ling Ye's left arm instantly turned to ash, and his arm's skin felt the excruciating pain of being eroded by extreme ice, but fortunately, it was only a graze, and he hadn't been hit directly!

He couldn't care about the pain; using the impact of the collision, he scrambled up the stairs and lunged toward the ventilation duct entrance!

Behind him was the silent, even more furious roar of the "abyssal eye" after being blocked! More fungal tentacles and cold beams of light were gathering!

He climbed frantically using both hands and feet, almost biting down on the scalding hot notebook, and rushed into the ventilation duct!

Then, using his last ounce of strength, he pulled the removed ventilation grate back and braced it tightly!

"Bang, bang, bang!"

From outside the grate came dense, heart-stopping sounds of impact and scraping! It was the fungal tentacles attacking frantically! The grate vibrated violently, and the rusted screws groaned under the unbearable pressure!

Ling Ye leaned against the duct wall, breathing heavily, his mouth full of the taste of blood, and his left arm felt an eerie, burning yet bone-chilling pain. He looked at the leather-bound notebook in his hand, which was emitting a milky white glow and gradually calming down, and the gold-stamped signature on the cover was now clearly visible:

"Senior Researcher Chen Qinghe's Final Words".

It really was Senior Researcher Chen Qinghe! The Advanced researcher who had gone missing in the accident, claimed to have seen the "dual rings" phantom, and detected the "harmonious signal"! This was his final notebook!

The sounds of impact outside gradually weakened; it seemed those tentacles could not break through the grate or had been summoned back by the main body of the "abyssal eye" to deal with other matters (perhaps the influence of the "Meltdown" protocol?).

Temporarily safe... perhaps.

Ling Ye dared not linger; he knew it was still dangerous here. He had to leave the ventilation duct immediately, return to the upper level, and get far away from this awakened "abyssal eye" nest.

He stowed the notebook away and checked his injuries. The graze on his left arm was not large, but the sensation of icy erosion remained; he had to slowly dispel it using "Qi." His physical strength was completely exhausted, and he was relying entirely on willpower to hold on.

He crawled back along the ventilation duct in the direction he came from, arduously, bit by bit.

In his mind, the thrilling moments from just a moment ago kept flashing back: the deep blue beam that erased everything, the Black Eye and the ID tag resisting with the same origin, and the final faint light on Senior Researcher Chen Qinghe's notebook...

Hope lay within this notebook.

He had to find a safe place and read it immediately.

And then... face that impending, perhaps already arrived, final "Tribulation."