130: Chapter 130 After I've finished punching, I still have to snatch people away.

Dust swirled in mid-air. As Chen Fan's boot heel crushed the last bit of wall plaster, the smell of charred soul-ash still lingered in his nostrils.

At the center of the altar, the cluster of blue flame chains suddenly glinted with a cold light, tightening around the figure on the ground like a living thing—Su Shuang's stray hairs clung to her pale forehead, her eyelashes trembled slightly, and the rise and fall of her chest was weaker than a mosquito's wing. The golden powder illusion floated around her like fine snow, yet it couldn't hide the bloody welts where the chains bit into her wrists.

"The Tower Heart is siphoning her consciousness fluctuations!" Black Crow's breathing sounded like a broken bellows as he stumbled forward. His fingertips almost touched the chains before he jerked back. "Three more seconds and she'll truly be an empty shell!" Chen Fan's Adam's apple bobbed, the blood scabs on his knuckles stinging as he clenched his fists.

He remembered three days ago when Su Shuang served him tea at the Teahouse, a red string still tied around her wrist; he remembered when she was taken by the Shadow Pavilion, smiling at him through the iron cage, saying, "I'll wait for you to smash this damn tower."

Now, on those same wrists, the red string had long been torn away, leaving only bruised welts.

"I'm here," he growled, his right fist wrapped in blue flame as he smashed it toward the chain's joint.

But the expected sound of shattering didn't come. Instead, the blue flame hissed and surged half a foot high, recoiling like a snake that had its tail stepped on, searing a charred mark onto the back of his hand.

Chen Fan gritted his teeth and didn't retreat. Just as he was about to strike again, a warm sensation suddenly pressed against his ankle—Silent-Faced Child had crawled to his feet at some point. That faceless face was tilted up, but the murky eyeballs were shining with startling intensity.

The child used a fingertip to trace characters in his palm, stroke by stroke: Fire... Seed... Con... tain... er.

"Container?" Chen Fan's pupils constricted.

The Shadow Pavilion Pass in his pocket was burning against Su Shuang's jade pendant, two streams of heat drilling through his veins toward his dantian.

He suddenly recalled the "power of silence" Thousand Faces had mentioned before dissipating—perhaps the chains weren't meant to lock a person, but to lock a certain frequency?

He squeezed his eyes shut, sinking the critical hit core from his chest down to his dantian.

The originally violent, surging blue flame suddenly missed a beat, like a tide that had its speed slowed, beginning to pulse at a low frequency, beat by beat.

"Now!" Old Cripple's raspy roar, mixed with the stench of rotting flesh, hit his ears.

Chen Fan opened his eyes to see the crippled veteran propping himself up with a right leg rotted to the bone, pulling three blackened fragments from his robe—they were fragments of the Shock Grenades that had blown apart the Shadow Guard armor earlier. "Nodes!" Old Cripple tapped his knuckles against three protrusions connecting the chains to the altar. "Jam them here and blast a break!"

Chen Fan's fingers flew as he embedded the fragments into the nodes. "Burst!" At his low shout, the pulse of the critical hit core suddenly accelerated.

Three muffled bangs overlapped. Black smoke rose from the chain nodes, and the previously synchronized blue flame frequency was torn into three cracks.

Chen Fan seized the opportunity to grab the chains, his muscles as rigid as cast iron. With a crisp crack, the chains finally split open by an inch.

He scooped Su Shuang into his arms. When his palm touched the warmth of her fingertips, those fingers, which had almost lost all sensation, actually gripped back slightly—like a withered leaf falling into the lines of his palm, yet heavy enough to make his eyes sting.

"Go!" Black Crow's voice suddenly spiked.

The entire Starlight Tower began to vibrate. A high-pitched screech like metal grinding echoed from the top, and black shadows poured down the stairs like spilled ink.

Chen Fan looked up and saw a blurred silhouette floating in the shadows of the highest level. It had no facial features, yet it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. "That's Light Erosion!" Black Crow dragged him toward the drainage canal. "It devours those who speak the truth. Don't say a word!"

Stone Skin's muffled groan came from behind.

Chen Fan turned back to see the burly former miner slamming his shattered sternum into the bronze bell on the side wall—his chest no longer contained any intact bones, and with every strike, bloody foam sprayed from the corner of his mouth. Yet the bell tolled louder and louder, like a net trapping the shadow of Light Erosion. "Go!" Old Cripple tore a strip from his military uniform and stuffed it into his mouth, gesturing toward the drainage canal with blood-stained fingers, his rotted leg dragging a crimson trail on the ground.

Silent-Faced Child suddenly darted to the front, his fingertips rapidly searching along the ground.

The child had no eyes, yet he could perceive airflow through touch—he tapped three spots among the damp brick gaps and waved his hand forcefully.

Chen Fan ran while holding Su Shuang. The smell of mold in the drainage canal mixed with the scent of rust filled his nose. Behind them, the screeching of Light Erosion drifted closer and further, like a thin needle pricking his eardrums.

"Stop." Black Crow suddenly grabbed his arm.

Chen Fan looked down to see the pass in his arms glowing with an eerie light, its temperature burning his chest through his clothes.

The shadow of Light Erosion stopped three paces away as if blocked by an invisible wall, slowly receding. "It... it's spoofing the Purifier's signal." Black Crow stared at the pass, his Adam's apple moving. "Your fire seed is reverse-simulating the Shadow Pavilion's data waves. It thinks you're one of them."

Chen Fan sneered, pressing the pass even tighter.

The blue flame in his eyes compressed into thin streams, and his entire presence seemed to melt into the darkness.

The shadow of Light Erosion retreated another two steps and finally disappeared around the corner.

The light from the exit was already visible, but Chen Fan suddenly halted—the blue flame crystal on Su Shuang's chest suddenly rippled, resonating with the pass. A line of phantom text floated in the air: Below the seventh floor, it is not a tower, but a coffin.

"Shuang?" he called out softly, looking down.

Su Shuang's eyelashes fluttered, but she didn't open her eyes.

The mechanical voice of the critical hit system rang in his ears, clearer than ever before: [High-dimensional soul frequency detected. Heart Returning Blast can perform directional penetration].

Chen Fan reached out to stroke the top of her head, then looked up at Black Crow, his gaze sweeping over the blood on Old Cripple's rotted leg, the shattered bones in Stone Skin's chest, and the wet marks by Silent-Faced Child's feet.

"Protect her." He gently placed Su Shuang into Black Crow's arms, his thumb brushing against her cold earlobe. "I'm going to open the coffin."

Black Crow opened his mouth, but in the end, he only nodded forcefully.

Old Cripple spat out the cloth strip and made a "kill" gesture with his blood-stained fingers.

Stone Skin leaned against the wall and grinned, bloody foam sticking to his cracked teeth. "We'll cover your back... remember to bring back some wine."

Chen Fan turned and walked deep into the drainage canal, his footsteps echoing against the brick walls.

The further down he went, the lower the temperature dropped. A faint scent of sandalwood began to drift in the air—it was remarkably similar to the scent in Su Shuang's Teahouse.

The light at the end of the passage grew dimmer. When he felt his way to the deepest part in the dark, a wall suddenly appeared before him.

The wall was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting his blood-stained face.

Chen Fan reached out to touch it. As soon as his fingertips met the surface, he heard the faint rattle of chains from the other side, and a familiar voice, like a wind from a thousand years ago, softly said, "A-Fan, I'm here."