98: Chapter 98 Lao Tzu's Critical Strike, a Special Cure for Pretenders and Ghosts

As the altar's tremor surged from the soles of his feet into his spine, Chen Fan stared at the faint golden mist seeping out of the bronze heart.

The consciousness sealed for a hundred years floated gently between the cracks, like willow catkins awakened by the spring breeze—Little Ma’s tiger teeth, the blood spray kicked up when Blue Ash’s broken sword struck, and Lin Qi’s flour-dusted fingertips while stuffing mooncakes, all flickered in and out of sight within it.

"Weng—"

This tremor was more violent than before. Chen Fan staggered half a step back, raising his head directly into Mo Jiu’s raised palm.

That hand was so white it was almost translucent, wrapped around the wrist by data chains as fine as silk threads, each one emitting a cold, blue light.

As he slightly hooked his fingers, thousands of cracks suddenly split the ground, and silver chains shot out like living things, instantly wrapping around Chen Fan’s ankles, wrists, and even his neck.

The stinging pain of the metal digging into his flesh made him gasp in cold air. The system prompt exploded in his sea of consciousness: [Detecting High-Tier Suppression—Thousand-Man Chains: Draining 10% Critical Hit Rate per second, lasting until the target submits].

"Cough!" Chen Fan was yanked to his knees by the chains, his forehead pressed against the rough rock surface. He could clearly feel the Yan Marrow draining from his body.

The fiery flow that had been surging in his meridians grew sluggish, and even the ice beads formed by the Cold Dew began to melt, seeping along his blood vessels into the chains, turning into flickering points of light dancing on the silver links.

"The source of the chains... is the 'Heart Cocoon Wielder's' brainwaves."

Su Shuang’s voice carried heavy gasps.

Chen Fan turned his head to look. She was using her fox tail to support herself as she stood up, her fingertips tracing the bronze runes around the altar’s edge. Every rune rippled as she touched it.

Her fox ears drooped listlessly, but the golden markings at the corners of her eyes were brighter than ever: "He was the first person to hear the system prompt, and also the first person to say 'No'."

Following her fingertips, Chen Fan looked toward the deepest part of the altar.

A man was curled up there, his skin pale to the point of transparency, enveloped by light filaments thinner than the chains, as if wrapped in a transparent cocoon.

Above his temples, a line of pale blue light characters pulsed: "Welcome to the Game World."

"You treat him like a switch, but he is a person!" Chen Fan roared. The chain around his neck tightened, and a metallic sweetness rose in his throat.

He looked at the Heart Cocoon Wielder’s hunched back—the curve was strikingly similar to Old Zhou, soaked by a downpour at the construction site, and strikingly similar to himself squatting in a corner, smoking silently when his wages were overdue.

Before his words faded, Su Shuang suddenly coughed violently.

A mouthful of blood spray splashed onto the altar. The dark red droplets seeped into the rock crevices, colliding with the scorching heat of the Earth Fire and the icy cold of the Cold Dew to create fine shards of light.

Chen Fan watched as that light condensed into a bridge, extending from Su Shuang’s feet to the Heart Cocoon Wielder’s brow—like a thin yet tenacious thread, stringing together the essences of Fire, Water, and Fox Blood.

"Ding—"

The roar of the critical hit system was clearer than any bell.

A system prompt flashed before Chen Fan’s eyes: [Detecting Three-Source Resonance (Fire, Water, Fox Blood), triggering 'Reverse Return · Enhanced Version'—Can counterattack the mission issuer, limited to 1 use/day].

"Did you think Critical Hit was a talent?" Mo Jiu’s voice drifted down from the high platform, laced with a cold sneer.

Behind his cracked mask, half his face was pale, while the other half glowed with the ethereal blue unique to data: "It is a testing tool bestowed by the System.

The stronger you are, the more it proves the rules are effective."

He raised his hand, and blinding silver light gathered at his fingertips.

Chen Fan stared at that light, suddenly remembering the look in the foreman’s eyes when he swung the iron rod to smash his hand—a look of condescension, certain that he would beg for mercy.

But this time, he absolutely would not.

"This punch is for everyone who has been treated as 'test data'." Chen Fan bit his tongue until it broke, the taste of blood exploding in his mouth.

The intense pain made his consciousness exceptionally clear. He stared at his wrist bound by chains and circulated the newly learned 'Life-Breaking Rune'.

Faint golden patterns crawled out from his palm, branding scorch marks onto the chains.

"Crack!"

The thickest chain snapped in response.

Chen Fan used the momentum to leap up, his right fist wrapped in the light of the Flame Frost Double Burst, aiming directly for Mo Jiu’s heart.

"Bang—"

This punch didn't land solidly.

Mo Jiu remained standing on the high platform, but the bronze armor on his chest exploded with a roar, splattering blood flowers mixed with data fragments.

Chen Fan watched his mask shatter completely, revealing a thousand overlapping faces beneath—all faces of New Players. Some held fear, some reluctance, and some still retained the confusion from just entering the game.

The server-wide announcement’s red light enveloped the seabed again: [Regent Envoy 【Mo Jiu】 has suffered a fatal backlash; consciousness stability reduced by 50%].

The movements of the Echo Armor suddenly stopped.

The voices of his trio’s repetitions became fragmented: "Obe...y... Why... Pain?"

A choking tremor emanated from beneath the bronze armor, like rusty gears jammed in the wrong place.

Mo Jiu staggered back, reaching out to grab his chest.

His body began to disintegrate. Countless phantoms drilled out of the data chains, murmuring in different voices: "We... also refused..." "Why must we be purged..." "It hurts..."

"So... I am the one being purged."

Mo Jiu suddenly laughed, a sound laced with weeping.

He raised his hand and grabbed the chain around his neck, pulling hard—that was the last thread connecting him to the altar.

The thousand chains shrieked and snapped back, smashing down onto the bronze heart like a torrential storm.

"You want to destroy their last vestiges of consciousness?!" Chen Fan’s pupils constricted sharply.

He lunged with all his might toward the Heart Cocoon Wielder, taking the incoming chains on his back.

Sharp pain surged through his entire body from his spine, but he tightly shielded the Heart Cocoon Wielder, pulling him into his embrace.

The system prompt sounded at the right moment: [Guard successful, obtained 'Heart Cocoon Resonance': Brief immunity to chain draining].

The altar’s tremor reached its peak.

From the cracks of the bronze heart, the faint golden mist surged out like a fountain.

Chen Fan looked at the light characters above the Heart Cocoon Wielder’s temples—the line "Welcome to the Game World" was distorting, every character seemingly crumpled by an invisible hand, finally transforming into a new prompt: [The first system prompt originated from humanity itself].

Mo Jiu’s body completely disintegrated.

He cast one last look at Chen Fan, his mouth clearly forming the words: "We... are the players." Before the sound faded, he turned into stardust scattered across the sky.

The bronze armor of the Echo Armor clattered to the ground with a clang, revealing three young faces.

They looked in the direction where Mo Jiu had vanished, their eyes filled with a confusion deeper than ever before.

Chen Fan helped Su Shuang stand up.

Her fox tail lightly swept across the back of his hand, carrying warmth.

The two looked toward the center of the altar—the chains entangled with IDs were breaking one by one.

The beating sound of the bronze heart grew clearer, like a war drum, like a heartbeat, like a power suppressed for a hundred years that was finally about to break through the earth.