96: Chapter 96 Missing

Chaotic Battlefield, Federal Global Monitoring and Command Center.

In everyone's understanding, the Chaotic Battlefield was completely under control.

No one knew that this seemingly orderly and perfect trial world was not a newly created independent Dungeon at all.

It was a super artificial battlefield created by the Federal Supreme Council using supreme authority and endless resources to collect countless Dungeon fragments, shattered spaces, and remnants of reincarnation realms, forcibly stitching, merging, and transforming them.

All underlying rules, war zone distributions, and spatial mechanisms were determined solely by the Supreme Council. The many ancient secrets hidden within them were things that even the Awakened Cultivation Committee, a top-tier Federal department, had no right to access or know about.

At this moment, the hall was orderly, with staff performing their duties, monitoring the trial progress and the status of the prodigies in real-time. Everything was stable and orderly.

Until a hurried warning pop-up abruptly Rend the peace.

【Anomaly Detected! Target coordinates lost!】

【Positioning signals for two high-level Contestants completely disconnected!】

A harsh, low buzzing sound echoed through the hall, instantly attracting everyone's attention.

The shift supervisor stepped forward quickly, fingers flying across the terminal, their expression instantly turning grave: "Something is wrong! The real-time positioning light points for the top-ranked Contestant Wen Xiaoyou and the combat dark horse Lin Yan have completely disappeared!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire monitoring hall fell silent.

All the staff looked up at the giant light screen.

Among the dense, colorful light points representing the Contestants, the two points that had been firmly at the top, always bright and unextinguished, had now completely vanished into nothingness.

It was a blank slate.

Whether it was global coordinate retrieval, war zone point locking, or personal terminal tracking, everything showed that the persons could not be found.

"Immediately retrieve the final surveillance footage from the Spacetime Turbulence Battlefield! Replay the whole thing!" the shift supervisor ordered in a deep voice.

The data stream jumped rapidly, freezing on the final scene before the two disappeared.

Gray fog surged, space trembled, and a pitch-black spatial rift suddenly formed, wrapping around the two caught-off-guard figures and swallowing them instantly, leaving no trace behind.

Watching the scene on the screen, a senior technician frowned and voiced their confusion: "This isn't right, it completely violates the battlefield rules! Any Contestant swallowed by a rift is only randomly teleported to another area of the Chaotic Battlefield; it should absolutely not cut off positioning or cause them to disappear without a trace!"

"This is likely not an ordinary spatial rift."

Everyone was filled with confusion and began to speculate.

"Could it be that the spatial backlash exceeded the threshold, and they were directly and forcibly eliminated?"

As soon as this guess was made, everyone subconsciously looked at the leaderboard panel on the side.

The next second, the entire hall was deathly silent, and everyone looked stunned.

On the light screen, Wen Xiaoyou and Lin Yan's points had not been cleared or stalled; instead, they were skyrocketing at a speed visible to the naked eye, soaring layer by layer!

The growth was rapid and exaggerated, far exceeding the normal speed of gaining points from grinding monsters or capturing points, clearly indicating they were receiving some kind of top-tier secret realm endowment!

"They weren't eliminated!"

"They have no signal, no coordinates, and no surveillance footage, but their points keep increasing like crazy!"

Bizarre, extremely bizarre!

Everyone's scalp went numb, completely unable to understand the reason.

As the top Federal trial management department, they knew every rule, every area, and every abnormal mechanism of the Chaotic Battlefield.

But the scene before them completely overturned all their understanding.

The people had vanished into thin air.

The signal was completely severed, and no trace remained. Yet their status was not eliminated, and their points were continuing to skyrocket.

It completely transcended all the established rules of the Chaotic Battlefield.

Just as the whole hall fell into dead silence, with everyone unable to figure it out, a high-ranking committee member sitting in a high position deep in the hall, with slightly graying temples, saw their expression change drastically, their eyes instantly filled with gravity and fear.

Having been in the Awakened Cultivation Committee for decades, he knew many obscure secrets of the Supreme Council and vaguely guessed the most terrifying possibility.

The Chaotic Battlefield was stitched together from countless Dungeon spatial fragments, and the Supreme Council had never disclosed the source of all the fragments.

This meant that within this artificial battlefield, it was highly likely that there were hidden forbidden areas that were not under Federal regulation, completely detached from all maintenance systems, and not on the registered list!

Ordinary battlefields had a full set of Federal protection mechanisms.

Contestants on the verge of death would be forcibly teleported out, and those seriously injured would be protected by the rules; true death would absolutely not occur.

But those hidden reincarnation forbidden areas had no Federal rules and no death protection!

Once entered, losing contact was the norm. The most fatal thing was that dying inside meant true annihilation of both body and soul, being completely erased from the world, with even the body unable to be transported back to reality!

Thinking of this, a layer of cold sweat instantly seeped from the high-ranking official's back.

He knew too well the weight of these two missing prodigies.

Wen Xiaoyou, the undisputed first place in this trial, carried unsolvable destiny and was the Federal-designated core of the future; her fortune was deep and ancient, rarely seen.

Lin Yan, the biggest dark horse of this trial, had combat power that crushed his peers, possessed a random talent, and had bizarre and special methods; his value was immeasurable.

These two top-tier prodigies, the most worth cultivating in the Federation, had both fallen into an unknown ancient forbidden area, their lives and deaths completely beyond control!

The situation had become extremely serious.

"Immediately, convene an emergency high-level meeting!"

With the urgent order given, within just a few minutes, several core high-ranking members of the Awakened Cultivation Committee arrived, closing the doors to begin emergency consultations.

Inside the closed conference room, the atmosphere was extremely oppressive.

"The two have completely lost contact, are detached from all monitoring systems, and their points are continuing to skyrocket. They have 100% entered an unknown, hidden area of the battlefield."

"This artificial Dungeon indeed has spatial blind spots that the Supreme Council has never disclosed!"

"The most dangerous thing is not the loss of contact, but that there is no death protection there! Once they fall, they are truly gone!"

A high-ranking member with a grave expression voiced the core crisis: "These two are the most important part of this trial. Without accidents, Wen Xiaoyou will still firmly hold the first place in the trial settlement and is an important force for the Federation's future. Losing two top prodigies at the same time is a consequence we simply cannot afford!"

As the words fell, everyone fell silent, and then they faced the most thorny core of the controversy: whether to report it to the Federal Supreme Council, bypassing the chain of command.

Someone took the lead, their tone resolute: "We must report it! This matter has exceeded our department's jurisdiction and cognitive authority! The emergence of an unregistered forbidden area in the Chaotic Battlefield, the collapse of rules, and prodigies trapped in a life-and-death crisis—this is a hidden danger left by the Supreme Council's stitching of spatial fragments. We have no right to handle it and must hand it over to the top level for a decision!"

Others were full of concerns and tried to dissuade them: "We cannot easily report it! We are the Federal top trial Dungeon management department, in charge of Dungeon operations. Now that a major management loophole has appeared, and we failed to even detect the hidden forbidden areas of the battlefield, reporting it would be a serious crime of dereliction of duty!"

"Let's observe for a while longer! The two's points are continuing to grow, which means they are currently safe, and they are likely in a secret realm opportunity area. If they can escape and return on their own, this matter can be quietly passed over, without needing to bring trouble upon ourselves."

The two viewpoints clashed fiercely, and the conference room fell into a dilemma and a stalemate.

On one side was the life and death of top-tier prodigies, a heavy responsibility that they dared not hide.

On the other side was the department's power, responsibility, and reputation, with strict hierarchies that made them afraid to act rashly.

No one knew that, at this moment, inside the Eight-Cornered Demon Slaughter Arena of the Corridor of the End.

Lin Yan was relying on the infinite stacking characteristics of the Prismatic Hex to crush everything against the odds, becoming stronger the more he fought.

And the high-level game that would determine the fate of the two had already quietly begun on the edge of the Federal supreme power circle.