170: Chapter 170 I'll take the order, not my life.

Just as Chen Fan’s boot pressed onto the third Soul Ring, a fine layer of cold sweat broke out on the back of his neck.

Those translucent halos glowed grayish-blue under the moonlight. The instant he stepped on one, the sound of an infant’s cry mixed with an old woman’s sob violently flooded his mind—it was a fragment from the residual memory he hadn't managed to process earlier.

He swallowed twice, tightening his grip on Su Shuang’s arm. The girl in his embrace had eyelashes that were still lightly trembling, and the force with which her fingertips hooked his lapel was stronger than before, like a small beast instinctively clinging on.

"Don't look at the lake center... Don't look at the lake center..." the whisper of the Echo Sacrifice suddenly rose in pitch, exploding against his left eardrum.

Chen Fan’s temples pounded, and the veins on his forehead crawled up along his temples and into his hair.

The system’s Critical Hit Foresight projected a light blue screen onto his retinas. Just as the words "Soul Ring Trigger Mechanism: Foot vibration exceeding the threshold will cause detonation" flashed across, another line of bright red pathing appeared, the arrow pointing directly toward the eastern fissure, marked with three flashing red dots: "Vibration Points, Avoid."

He breathed extremely lightly, every step feeling like he was treading on an eggshell.

The footwork he developed on construction sites now proved invaluable—back then, he could walk a straight line across scaffolding beams while carrying ten bags of cement on his shoulders without even wobbling.

Now, with a living person in his arms, he was even more cautious than he was then.

His left boot tip lightly touched the ground, tentatively bypassing the first vibration point. His right heel scraped along the edge of the fissure as he pressed down, causing gravel and fine sand to rustle and fall into the crack. This startled the Soul Ring, making ripples appear, but it didn't detonate.

"Stop."

A cold, sharp female voice crashed down, laced with ice shards.

Chen Fan looked up. A half-figure had materialized atop the crystal pillar in the center of the lake at some point.

The woman’s lower body merged into a deep blue water, while her upper body was wrapped in sacrificial robes embroidered with silver scales. The golden bells on her wrists jingled with the trembling of the Thousand Soul Chains—it was Water Flawless.

Her pupils were a deathly, grayish-white, like a dead fish. The chains lunged from all directions like living things, weaving a dense net above the two of them.

"You cannot take the moon marrow," her voice sounded like two pieces of ice colliding. "It is meant to seal the calamity, not awaken it."

Chen Fan stared at the bizarre patterns carved on the crystal pillar behind her and suddenly laughed.

He recalled the scene he saw in the residual memory: a little girl in a red belly wrap being pressed onto the altar, while Water Flawless held a dagger, reciting, "For the peace of Mirror Lake." "Are you sealing an eye, or a person?" he retorted, his hand holding Su Shuang sinking slightly as he aimed the fox tail mark on the girl's chest toward the crystal pillar.

Su Shuang suddenly let out a soft hum.

Although her golden-red pupils remained closed, a pale golden mist rose from the mark on her chest, colliding with the milky white crystal atop the pillar.

The moon marrow crystal in Chen Fan’s chest became searingly hot, like a piece of red-hot charcoal, burning his skin through two layers of cloth.

The moment the system prompt exploded in his ear, the crystal pillar violently cracked—"Dual Blood Resonance: Activated."

"You will destroy everything!" Water Flawless shrieked. The Thousand Soul Chains suddenly surged, one of them grazing past the back of Chen Fan’s neck and slicing a bloody gash in his cloak.

He didn't dodge, focusing on the ghostly passage surging out of the cracked pillar. His throat moved slightly.

The unexpected event occurred the instant he lifted his foot.

A dark shadow lunged from the statue of the Silent Lake Monk, its withered arm tightly gripping his calf.

Chen Fan was yanked off balance and looked down, colliding directly with a pair of cloudy eyes—those eyes held a momentary clarity, like a dust-covered mirror wiped clean at one corner. "Don't go down..." the old monk's voice trembled violently. "Below is... where they eat people..."

The blue light of Critical Hit Foresight exploded before his eyes. The prompt "Abnormal mental fluctuation, clarity window: 8 seconds" stung him, making him squint.

Chen Fan immediately bent down, his nose almost touching the Silent Lake Monk's forehead: "Who is eating people? How do we break the altar?"

The old monk's pupils suddenly dilated, like ink dispersed by the wind.

His scattered gaze refocused, but the clarity from before was gone, replaced only by an empty woodenness. "Amitabha..." He raised the wooden fish staff in his hand. The copper bell on the staff head emitted a piercing hum. "Sinful creature, repent before it is too late..."

Chen Fan spun away to avoid the strike, his back hitting a fragment of the crystal pillar.

He looked at the hundred figures on the altar whose vital spirits had been extracted and suddenly remembered the scream of the mother in the residual memory—she was shielding the infant in her arms, still crying out, "Save my child," as the chains tore her apart.

If he forcibly destroyed the altar now, the energy backlash from the lakebed... The system's projection flashed in his mind. The scene of a hundred living souls simultaneously bursting made his stomach churn.

The Critical Hit Foresight screen began flashing wildly, dozens of solutions being crossed out with red X’s. Finally, only one line of blood-red text remained: "Utilize 'Charm - Immobilize' to delay Soul Ring detonation, substitute the sacrifices."

Chen Fan took out the moon marrow crystal from his embrace, bit open his index finger with his canine tooth, and let his fresh blood drip onto the crystal surface, causing green smoke to rise.

Using blood as ink, he drew patterns similar to Su Shuang's fox tail mark on his palm—this was the engraving technique he had secretly learned from an old carpenter on the construction site, now used to forge bloodline resonance.

"Pardon the intrusion," he muttered, pressing the blood talisman onto the forehead of the nearest unconscious priest.

The priest's Soul Ring suddenly brightened. The light chains originally connected to the crystal pillar flickered, yet they did not break.

Chen Fan formed a hand seal in reverse, detonating the stored skill [Fox Demon Charm - Beginner Level] within his body—this was the life-saving technique Su Shuang had previously passed to him. It now enveloped the entire area in a pink-gold mist.

Thirty seconds of immobilization time was enough for him to run three round trips.

Chen Fan moved like a wind-up machine on a stage, starting the replacement from the outermost edge of the altar. Where the blood talisman was pressed, the Soul Ring's light shifted from scarlet to orange, and the rate at which the vital spirits were extracted slowed down.

When he finished pressing the tenth priest, the system prompt finally sounded: "'False Sacrifice' successful. Altar maintained for 48 hours."

Chen Fan bent down and picked up Su Shuang. Her eyelashes were still trembling, but this time, she rubbed against his chin, making it tickle.

He glanced back at the altar. The chests of the substituted priests were rising and falling steadily. The light flowing through the channels from which the vital spirits were being drawn had become turbid but no longer rapid.

Water Flawless was still screaming, her Thousand Soul Chains splashing water as they struck the immobilization mist; the Silent Lake Monk’s wooden fish staff fell to the ground, rolling into the fissure and falling silent.

"Old man doesn't steal lives," Chen Fan said toward the lake center, then turned and stepped into the ghostly passage.

The wind inside the passage carried a sweet, bloody scent, making his cloak billow loudly.

He looked down at Su Shuang in his arms. Her fox tail mark was still glowing, looking like an unquenchable flame in the ghostly light.

The light at the end of the passage grew brighter and brighter. Chen Fan vaguely saw star sigils carved into the stone wall—they were a type of Star Map completely different from the alien civilization markings in the system. Every carved line carried an ancient warmth.

As he stepped onto the final stair, he heard the sound of cracking stone behind him. He turned back just in time to see fragments of the crystal pillar plummeting into the darkness.

Deeper within, the outline of a water-submerged palace was emerging in the ghostly light. The star sigils on the stone pillars glowed deep blue, strongly resembling the tear mole at the corner of Su Shuang's eye.