85: Chapter 86 The First Power

As the pale red fragment detached from the altar, the black fire in Lu Jin's palm suddenly thinned by a layer!

It wasn't burned away, but rather as if something sharp had lightly shaved off its outer edge, causing even the fire sequence to pause for half a beat!

Lu Jin's eyes darkened suddenly. He clenched his fingers tightly, forcibly gripping the scattered black fire back into a solid form. The fragment was only half a finger long, but its edges were terrifyingly sharp, like a shard broken off from a peerless fire bone. It hovered in the center of the altar, neither swaying nor falling. Within its red glow, a faint trace of golden brilliance was hidden, exuding a pressure that warned strangers to stay away.

Wu Fu had just stepped back into the courtyard gate when her footsteps halted abruptly, her pupils slightly constricted. "What is this thing?"

Grey Pupil stared fixedly at the fragment. The line of newly condensed dark red in the depths of his grey eyes was still trembling slightly, and his breathing was so light it was almost inaudible. After two breaths, he spoke in a deep voice, his tone carrying a warning: "Don't touch it with your bare hands!"

Wu Fu raised an eyebrow, becoming intrigued instead, and leaned half a step forward. "You've already advanced to a Furnace Priest, and you're still afraid of such a small piece of scrap?"

Grey Pupil cast a sidelong glance at her, his tone chillingly cold. "I'm not afraid of it. I'm afraid of your itchy hands leading you to your own deaths!"

Wu Fu's mouth twitched. Just as she was about to retort, Lu Jin had already stepped forward, his gaze locked tightly onto the fragment.

He dared not touch it directly. First, he compressed a wisp of extremely fine black fire into a thread and carefully wound it around the fragment. The moment the black fire touched the fragment, a layer of shallow patterns suddenly emerged on its surface. They were as fine as ripples on water and vanished in an instant, yet they caused Lu Jin's Sea of Consciousness to jolt violently!

It wasn't intense pain, but an eerie sense of displacement—Furnace Cave Fortress, Grey Stele Post, Outer Fire Well, Second Sub-nest Site, and the newly established Priest Court. These nodes, which had originally been firmly positioned within his Sea of Consciousness, were suddenly illuminated entirely by the red light of the fragment.

With this illumination, Lu Jin instantly saw the gap—it was like placing a finely forged copper buckle next to a crudely made wooden frame. Although they belonged to the same system, the level of precision and weight were simply not on the same tier!

Lu Jin's knuckles tightened sharply, and the black fire in his palm trembled along with them.

At that moment, the fragment suddenly dipped slightly, as if it intended to follow his fire thread and forcibly drill into his Sea of Consciousness!

"Let go!" Grey Pupil's voice dropped suddenly, carrying an unquestionable urgency. "Don't let it touch your Sea of Consciousness!"

Lu Jin reacted extremely quickly. The black fire in his palm flipped violently, forcing the fragment back into mid-air. A layer of cold sweat had already seeped out on his back—in that instant just now, he had clearly felt his Sea of Consciousness frame aching faintly. If it had truly drilled inside, he feared it would have shattered on the spot!

Wu Fu also completely dropped her playful demeanor, her expression solemn. "It wants to drill into your Sea of Consciousness?"

Lu Jin stared at the fragment, exhaling slowly, his tone steady. "It's looking for a spot, a spot where it can be embedded into the frame of my Sea of Consciousness."

Upon hearing this, the light in Grey Pupil's grey eyes deepened further. He pressed, "You saw it?"

"I only saw a little." Lu Jin nodded, his words clear. "It's like a fastener, but my current frame is too coarse. If it's forced in, my Sea of Consciousness will crack first!"

Wu Fu felt a shiver in her heart—she had just ascended to Brood Mother Overseer and knew better than anyone the danger of "forcing it in." The Royal Court Breeding Nucleus could be held together by life-bound nest threads, but this fragment was hard and fierce, completely unreasonable. Once forcibly embedded, Lu Jin would likely be severely injured!

"Then seal it up first!" Wu Fu frowned. "Isn't the Grey Casket still here? It should be safe if you put it in there, right?"

Grey Pupil sneered, his tone certain. "The Grey Casket can hold fire ash, but it cannot hold Authority."

Authority!

As soon as these two words fell, the well fire on the outer edge of the Priest Court, which had just stabilized, suddenly flickered in unison. The Red-Eyed Rat by the courtyard gate was so frightened it immediately flattened its ears, its fur standing on end—as if instinctively fearing the power within those two words!

Wu Fu stared at the fragment, her throat bobbing slightly, her tone filled with disbelief. "Are you sure? This thing… is Authority?"

"It's incomplete." Grey Pupil's tone was calm, yet every word carried immense weight. "But the scent matches; it's something from the Main Stele side."

Lu Jin did not interject. He knew better than anyone that this was by no means an ordinary resource—the moment it touched his Sea of Consciousness, it revealed higher-level rules. It was the core power capable of supporting the entire Rift Zone, even more important than the advancement of the Breeding Nest, Brood Mother Overseer, or Furnace Priest!

"Is it unstable wherever it's placed?" Lu Jin asked in a deep voice, the black fire in his palm thinning by another fraction.

Grey Pupil didn't even think, speaking extremely fast. "If you put it in the Brood Nursery Court, the Nest King Platform will fight it, leading to mutual destruction. If you put it in the Priest Well, the Whispers will smell it through the well mouth and use the power of the Authority to cause chaos. If you carry it on you, it will constantly grind your fire, and sooner or later, it will whittle away your life-bound fire!"

The more Wu Fu heard, the tighter her brows knitted. Glancing at the clearly thinning black fire in Lu Jin's palm, her tone grew more urgent. "Then why did you say it was a good thing? This is clearly a hot potato!"

Grey Pupil raised his hand and used the end of his priest staff to lightly tap the edge of the altar, his tone meaningful. "Good things always bite people first before giving them the sweet reward."

Wu Fu was left speechless—she couldn't refute those words. From the Royal Court Breeding Nucleus to this fragment of Authority, which good thing didn't come with danger?

Lu Jin stared at the fragment for a few breaths, and suddenly, an idea struck him. He raised his hand and gathered the remaining accounting flag ash from last night from the edge of the altar, forming a thin layer, just enough to cover the underside of the fragment.

The moment the flag ash touched the fragment, it suddenly brightened, its hovering body stabilized by half an inch, and the force with which it ground against the black fire weakened slightly!

Grey Pupil's eyes shifted, and he immediately realized. "It recognizes battlefield order! The battle damage in the sacrificial array, the accounting fire, the military battle aura—they are all its nourishment!"

Lu Jin nodded, a flash of certainty in his eyes—that was it! This fragment was condensed from the sacrificial array; it fed on the blood aura of frontline combat and recognized the order of the battlefield, so naturally, it would be stabilized by the accounting flag ash.

Wu Fu also instantly understood, her tone solemn. "In that case, it wasn't meant to be divided between you and me, but left for Lu Jin?"

"At least not for now." Lu Jin said, lifting the fragment along with the flag ash beneath it. He compressed the black fire even finer, like a thin sheath, firmly wrapping the fragment. "It's too fierce; I can only stabilize it first and then find a way to embed it into my Sea of Consciousness."

With the fragment wrapped in the fire sheath, the layer of pale red fine patterns on its surface finally appeared in its entirety—not characters, not military patterns, but more like an ancient map with a corner hacked off. The outline was blurry, yet it exuded a sense of heavy vicissitudes.

Grey Pupil stepped forward, his eyes almost nailed to the fine patterns, his voice trembling slightly. "The Main Stele! This is the outline of the Main Stele of the No. 7 Rift Zone!"

Lu Jin also saw it clearly—the deepest part of the fine patterns was clearly the unrevealed Main Stele in the center of the Main Stele Area, except now, only a corner remained, and the rest was all broken emptiness.

"Go to the Post Station!" Lu Jin decided on the spot, his tone decisive. "We'll compare it with the battle map! Only the ancient battle map of the Main Stele Area can reveal what it looks like in its entirety!"

Wu Fu instinctively wanted to follow, but after taking half a step, she stopped abruptly—the Second Sub-nest Site was still consuming material bit by bit, and the Brood Nursery Court had just undergone an advancement. If any egg tray went haywire, she would vomit blood and suffer severe injuries; she simply couldn't leave!

She clicked her tongue, raised her hand, and flicked out three strands of nest silk, winding them around the entrance of the Priest Court, the thin slot of the Post Station, and the rear pool of the Main Nest, respectively. Her tone carried instructions: "I'll stay behind to guard the rear lines; the Brood Nursery Court and the Sub-nest Site cannot fall into chaos! You two go, and if there's any movement, send a signal immediately!"

Grey Pupil didn't waste words and turned to leave. He spun his priest staff in his palm, and the well fire pressed out a line of dark fire along the old grooves of the courtyard wall, silently illuminating the path from the Priest Court to the Grey Stele Post, without disturbing even a whisper of noise.

The two of them hurried along and arrived at the Grey Stele Post in a moment.

The Post Station remained brightly lit. Under the main fire pillar, the ancient battle map of the No. 7 Rift Zone was still glowing. The Fire Well, Bridge Belly, and Post Station were like three red-hot iron nails, firmly pinned to the map. Further away, everything was filled with half-bright, half-dim grey shadows, like a large, unopened map that had only had a corner torn open, revealing endless mystery.

Lu Jin walked to the main fire pillar but did not immediately press the fragment onto it—he knew that this touch would likely trigger a chain reaction, causing even the entire battle map to shift!

He stared at the battle map first, then looked down at the fragment wrapped in the fire sheath in his palm, his expression solemn.

Grey Pupil stood behind him to the side, his voice kept extremely low, carrying a warning: "Once you touch it, the entire battle map might move. If the test line team from the outer ring takes the opportunity to attack, we'll be beset on both sides!"

"Even if I don't touch it, it's always moving." Lu Jin's tone was steady, and he raised his hand to shake his palm slightly. "From the Priest Court to here, my life-bound fire has already thinned by two layers. If we drag this out, sooner or later it will find a gap to drill into on its own, and that will be even more dangerous!"

Grey Pupil fell silent—Lu Jin was telling the truth. This fragment of Authority looked quiet, but in reality, it was constantly consuming Lu Jin's power in secret. The longer they dragged it out, the greater the risk.

"Keep the outer ring guarded tightly." Lu Jin ordered in a low voice, a flash of determination in his eyes. "If anything goes wrong, cut the fire first. Prioritize protecting the battle map; don't let the Whispers take the opportunity to drill in!"

"Understood!" Grey Pupil agreed readily. He held his priest staff horizontally across his chest, the well fire gathering strength in secret, and stared fixedly at the direction of the outer ring, not daring to relax for even a fraction.

Lu Jin took a deep breath and finally raised his hand, slowly moving the pale red fragment in his palm toward the ancient battle map.

When it was a foot away from the battle map, the main fire pillar suddenly brightened violently, and the fire patterns surged frantically. When it was half a foot away, the return patterns on the old copper main slot of the Outer Fire Well flashed in unison, and the force of the backfire traveled along the thin slot. When it got even closer, even the darkest grey shadows under the old path of the Bridge Belly revealed a layer of extremely fine red light, as if responding to the aura of the fragment!

But the real anomaly was not these outer nodes—it was the center of the battle map, the patch of the Main Stele Area that had always remained pressed down and lifeless!

When Lu Jin brought the fragment within three inches of the Main Stele Area, the fire on the edges of the entire battle map simultaneously dimmed for an instant, as if all the surrounding light had been violently sucked away, leaving only that faint glimmer in the Main Stele Area!

The next instant, in the center of the Main Stele Area, a ball of fire suddenly ignited—it was barely larger than a grain of rice, yet it shone with a piercing brightness, carrying an ancient and heavy aura!

As soon as this ball of fire lit up, Lu Jin and Grey Pupil's pupils constricted simultaneously, and they saw a shocking fact—the center of the Main Stele Area was not dead!

There was something there, a presence that had been sleeping all along, waiting for this fragment, waiting to be awakened!

Grey Pupil's breathing became even lighter, his voice filled with disbelief. "It's recognizing… it's recognizing this fragment, recognizing this first piece of Authority!"

Lu Jin didn't speak, just stared fixedly at that ball of fire. The black fire in the depths of his eyes gradually settled down, replaced by a trace of realization—

What he held in his hand was never a dangerous hot potato.

It was a key, a key that could directly open the gate to the Main Stele Area and uncover the secrets of the No. 7 Rift Zone!