186: Chapter 186 Breaking the Stalemate with Rhythm, Seizing the Secret Amidst the Chaos

The instant "White Coat"'s invisible Mental Energy hammer was about to smash into his "Sea of Consciousness", a fierce glint flashed in Ling Ye's eyes!

He did not choose to meet it head-on, nor did he attempt to dodge. Instead, he instantly plunged all his focus into the "Ancient Ring" imprint deep within his "Soul", and forcibly recalled and simulated the prototype of the "Balanced Rhythm" he had just comprehended in the coolant hub!

"Hum—!"

A strange, low vibration—seemingly originating from the level of the "Soul", yet also echoing throughout the entire platform space—suddenly radiated outward with Ling Ye at its center!

This vibration was not a physical sound wave, but rather an extremely faint information disturbance carrying a strange sense of "Order" and stability. Mixed with the "Guard" starlight of the "Ancient Ring" imprint, it forcibly intervened in this environment, which was saturated with the cold, chaotic power of the "abyssal eye"!

In an instant!

The effect was immediate!

"Argh—!!!"

"White Coat", who was unleashing the "Mental Energy" shock, bore the brunt of it!

The blue mucus crazily surging within his turbid, grayish-white eyes suddenly stalled, as if an ice cube had been thrown into boiling oil, emitting a "hissing" sound of violent backlash on the level of consciousness!

His hunched body jolted violently, and he let out a painful, shocked, and angry hoarse roar. The "Mental Energy" shockwave he released instantly became chaotic and was weakened by more than half!

Although it did not dissipate completely, the pressure exerted on Ling Ye's consciousness dropped sharply!

Meanwhile, the four mutated guards lunging from both sides also experienced an extremely brief, unnatural stiffness and delay!

It was as if the chaotic power originating from the "abyssal eye" that drove them from within had been interfered with by that sudden "Balanced Rhythm", causing a momentary "Severing Flow" or "Conflict"!

In their scarlet eyes, the look of madness was replaced by a trace of confusion and chaos, and their lunging movements became uncoordinated and deformed!

Now is the time!

The moment the "Balanced Rhythm" was emitted, Ling Ye's body, already like a leopard poised for action, exploded with maximum speed, rushing towards the gap between "White Coat" and the ring entrance!

He did not attack anyone; he had only one target—that pitch-black maintenance passage entrance emitting a dim blue light!

"Roar!!"

"White Coat" was the first to recover from the rhythmic interference. Although his "Mental Energy" was damaged, his ferocity burned even hotter!

He violently waved his withered, fungus-covered hand, and a solidified, dark blue "Mental Energy" spike carrying a cold, corrosive sensation shot towards the center of Ling Ye's back, arriving before he could react!

The mutated guards on both sides also recovered from their stiffness, letting out angry roars as they brandished their alienated bone blades and tentacles, lunging again to seal off Ling Ye's evasion space!

A spike in front, encirclement from the sides!

It was a critical moment!

Ling Ye could even feel the chill emanating from the "Mental Energy" spike behind him, a cold that pierced through the "Soul"!

But he did not look back, nor did he attempt to dodge completely. The instant the "Mental Energy" spike was about to hit his body, his body performed an extremely strange, almost defying-physics, tiny twist toward the front-side!

"Hiss—!"

The "Mental Energy" spike grazed the outside of his right shoulder. It did not hit him directly, but that cold, corrosive intent still numbed his right shoulder, causing his movements to stutter slightly.

And it was because of this slight stutter that the bone blade of a mutated guard on the right had already slashed towards his waist, carrying a fishy stench!

He couldn't dodge it!

A fierce look flashed in Ling Ye's eyes. Instead of dodging, he violently threw the crowbar in his left hand at another guard lunging from the left to disrupt its movement. At the same time, he held the pipe wrench in his right hand horizontally across his waist, forcefully parrying the incoming bone blade!

"Clang!!!"

The loud sound of metal clashing accompanied the noise of cracking bone!

The pipe wrench blocked the main force of the bone blade, but the immense impact still left a sweet taste in Ling Ye's throat. His body was knocked staggering to the left, slamming hard against the cold metal wall of the base!

But it was precisely this collision that allowed him to narrowly avoid the entanglement of tentacles from the other side and the second "Mental Energy" shock that followed closely from "White Coat"!

His internal organs were in excruciating pain, and his right shoulder was icy and numb, but Ling Ye's eyes were terrifyingly bright!

Because the direction he was knocked flying was exactly towards the entrance of that maintenance passage!

He was less than three meters away from the entrance!

"Stop him!!" "White Coat" let out a hoarse, twisted roar. Blue light surged in his grayish-white eyes, and an even more powerful "Mental Energy" pressure unfolded like a "Domain", attempting to freeze Ling Ye's movements again.

The four mutated guards also roared and lunged again!

Ling Ye, with his back against the base wall, looked at the entrance within reach, at the crazily lunging enemies, and at "White Coat"'s twisted face and surging "Mental Energy".

He slowly pulled at the corners of his mouth, revealing a cold and crazy smile.

Then, he did something that all his enemies found unexpected—

He turned abruptly. Instead of rushing towards the entrance, he used all his strength to hurl the heavy pipe wrench in his hand at a valve handle on the base wall next to the entrance—a handle flashing with red light, labeled "Danger! High-Pressure Coolant Emergency Pressure Relief Valve"!

"Open—up!!!"

"Clang!!!!!"

The pipe wrench collided violently with the metal valve handle, erupting with a deafening bang and blinding sparks!

The already old valve handle actually snapped and flew off under the massive impact!

"Hiss—!!!!!!!!!"

The next moment, an indescribable, terrifying screech, like a giant high-pressure water dragon bursting, sprayed wildly from the broken valve!

It was not water, but an extremely freezing coolant mixture, emitting strong energy fluctuations, pale blue mixed with flocculent shadows!

The pressure was so great that it instantly sent Ling Ye, who was closest, and the two mutated guards who had lunged nearby, flying away violently!

Ling Ye had been prepared. The moment he smashed the valve, he had already curled his body, protected his head and face, and adjusted his direction.

He was swept away by the violent liquid flow like a kite with a broken string, but he was thrown exactly towards the direction of the maintenance passage entrance!

"Plop!"

He fell heavily into the darkness inside the entrance, rolling down the downward slope. The cold coolant mixture, carrying a strong sense of corrosion from the "abyssal eye", poured over his head and face, making him feel as if he had instantly fallen into an ice cellar.

The old wound on his left arm and the new wound on his right shoulder simultaneously sent waves of tearing pain, and his consciousness almost blacked out.

But he bit his tongue hard, using the intense pain to stay conscious. He knew that this violent liquid flow and chaos were his only cover and opportunity!

Outside the entrance, the shocked and angry roars of "White Coat", the howls of the mutated guards, and the roaring of the liquid spraying wildly and hitting metal could be heard.

The entire base platform was instantly shrouded in cold, pale blue liquid mist and chaotic energy turbulence, severely interfering with both sight and perception.

Ling Ye scrambled regardless of anything else, rolling and crawling in the slippery, inclined passage, desperately moving downwards, away from the entrance.

The passage was not long, and soon reached its end.

At the end was a smaller, sealed chamber filled with a pale blue glimmer.

In the center of the chamber was a small metal platform covered by some kind of transparent crystal (similar to the material of an isolation chamber). Resting quietly on the platform was a—

A simple-looking ring, pitch-black all over, with deep, mysterious light flowing like water on its surface, and inside, it seemed to have stars being born and dying intertwined with reflections of the abyss!

The xuanyuan ring!

Ling Ye's heart was almost jumping out of his chest!

He struggled to stand up and lunged in front of the crystal cover.

The cover had no lock; it seemed to be maintained by some kind of energy field, but at this moment, due to the chaotic energy impact from the coolant leak outside, it had become extremely unstable and was flickering.

He reached out, easily penetrating the thinning energy field, and grabbed the cold black ring!

The moment it touched his hand— "Boom!!!"

It was as if a volcano that had been dormant for ages erupted deep within his "Soul"!

It was also like two long-lost stars, crossing endless space and time, colliding with a roar!

At this moment, the "Ancient Ring" imprint deep within Ling Ye's "Soul" erupted with an unprecedented, fierce light, like the birth of a supernova!

A grand, ancient torrent of intent, filled with the majesty of "Guard" and "Gateway", swept through his entire consciousness!

And the xuanyuan ring in his hand simultaneously burst forth with a deep, cold, mysterious light that carried a strange rhythm of "Balance" and "Sorting"!

The two lights, the two rhythms, the moment Ling Ye touched the ring, produced an intense resonance and conflict that could not be described in words!

Cold and heat!

"Order" and abyss!

Guarding and balance!

Two supreme powers, originating from the same source yet opposing each other, used Ling Ye's body and "Soul" as a battlefield, crazily colliding and merging, attempting to find that legendary, perfectly harmonious state of "dual rings" resonance!

"Ah—!!!"

Ling Ye let out an irrepressible, painful roar, feeling that his body and "Soul" were about to be completely shattered under the tearing of these two forces!

The "abyssal eye" erosion wound on his left arm was like ignited dynamite, sending waves of heart-burning and bone-corroding pain!

The world before his eyes became bizarre, and countless broken images and information fragments, seemingly from different space-times, flashed crazily in his mind:

—Under the starry sky, the phantoms of two rings circled a huge Gate of Light inscribed with endless runes...

—Behind the Gate, there was an endless, writhing, cold, deep blue darkness, and a huge, indifferent eye slowly opened...

—War and destruction, stars falling, the figure of the ring-bearer fading away in the light...

—Senior Researcher Chen Qinghe's desperate face, the last moment he placed the ring into the crystal cover...

—And, a vague, cold declaration that seemed to come from a higher dimension: "the key... returned... detection... "Gatekeeper" candidate... sequence... conflict... error... erasure... program... initiated?"

No!

He could not die here!

On the verge of his "Soul" shattering, Ling Ye let out the most desperate roar, stemming from the instinct of life!

He threw all his remaining will, all his thoughts of "Star Visualization", and all his unwillingness to just "Guard" into the fray, forcibly intervening in the crazy resonance between the "Ancient Ring" and the xuanyuan ring!

Not to oppose, not to guide, but—using his own will as a bridge, to forcibly reconcile and buffer!

"Stop... it!!!"

It felt like an instant, yet it also felt like an eternity.

The violent resonance between the "Ancient Ring" and the xuanyuan ring finally subsided and converged under the intervention of Ling Ye's weak but incomparably tenacious will.

The phantoms of the two rings slowly floated deep within his "Soul", still circling each other, emitting their respective faint lights, but no longer in fierce conflict.

Instead, they formed an extremely fragile, reluctant, yet real dynamic balance.

A weak but incomparably pure, cold power carrying the meaning of "Order" and "Harmony" flowed out from the xuanyuan ring, spreading rapidly throughout his body along his arm.

Wherever it passed, the "abyssal eye" erosion on his left arm was quickly "Purification" and dispersed like melting snow!

The cold numbness in his right shoulder was also instantly relieved.

Even the other wounds on his body felt an itchy sensation of healing.

And the "Ancient Ring" imprint, under the balance of the xuanyuan ring's power, became more stable and solid, and the "Guard" intent it radiated also took on a touch of roundness that it hadn't had before.

The "dual rings" returned to their places, initially showing balance!

Ling Ye collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath, his whole body as if fished out of water, soaked with cold sweat.

The xuanyuan ring in his hand was still cold, but the mysterious light flowing inside it had already established a weak connection with his aura.

He had successfully obtained the xuanyuan ring and had initially established a balanced connection with the "Ancient Ring"!

Although the process was extremely dangerous, almost resulting in the death of his body and "Soul", the result was—he had survived, and, he was different.

He could clearly feel his "sense of disharmony" towards the power of the "abyssal eye" in the surrounding environment; his perception was sharper, and he had an added instinctive impulse to "repel" and "sort" it.

The erosion wound on his left arm had basically healed, leaving only a faint, cold mark.

Although his "Mental Energy" was heavily depleted, it was recovering rapidly under the nourishment of the weak balance of the "dual rings", and was even more condensed than before.

He struggled to sit up and carefully put the xuanyuan ring on his right finger (the phantom of the "Ancient Ring" was on the left).

The ring automatically adjusted its size to fit his finger.

The moment he put the ring on, he felt as if a layer of connection between him and the surrounding environment had been severed, and the ubiquitous, suffocating pressure of the "abyssal eye" had lessened significantly.

At the same time, he seemed to be able to vaguely "hear" the more chaotic and angry sounds coming from the platform above— "White Coat" and the mutated guards seemed to be trapped by the leaked coolant and energy turbulence, unable to enter the passage for the time being.

But he knew he couldn't stay here for long.

He had to leave immediately.

He looked at the metal platform under the crystal cover.

Under the platform, there seemed to be a few pages of paper pressed down.

He took them out; they were the brief instructions left by Senior Researcher Chen Qinghe on how to initially use the xuanyuan ring for self-protection, and how to use the weak balanced force field of the "dual rings" to conceal his aura and interfere with the perception of low-level "abyssal eye" derivatives.

There was also a final warning: "Balance is initially formed, avoid abuse. Leave this place quickly, find ancient ruins or knowledge regarding the 'Star Gate' and the 'Gatekeeper', and completely master the power of the "dual rings". Otherwise, the balance will eventually collapse, and you too will become a part of the 'Abyssal Darkness'... or a target for 'Cleaning'."

Ling Ye put the papers away.

Now, with the xuanyuan ring in hand and the initial balance achieved, his resistance to the power of the "abyssal eye" and his concealment ability had greatly increased; it was the best time to leave.

He had to return the way he came, pass through the chaotic platform area, and find a path to leave the B7 Sample Repository, return to the upper levels, and finally leave this underground forbidden zone.

And just as he was about to set off, the xuanyuan ring on his hand suddenly sent out an extremely faint but clear directional throb, as if guiding him to look at the wall on the other side of this sealed chamber.

There, there seemed to be an extremely hidden metal secret door that was almost integrated with the wall.