130: Chapter 130 The Memory Maze: Breaking the Stalemate with Violence in Just Three Minutes

The army returned to the Netherworld Fortress, carrying the 'spoils' from Wailing Canyon—the mysterious black star chart fragment—and the intelligence Lin Weiwei had risked her life to obtain.

The atmosphere inside the Fortress was tense yet orderly due to the continuous operations and updated intelligence. The armory was operating at a frenzied pace, stockpiling supplies for the next move. Meanwhile, Zhang Hao and Lei Xiao took the fragment to compare and decipher it against the star chart inherited from the Tombstone Guardian.

Lin Chen wasted no time. After confirming the precise coordinates of the 'Memory Maze,' he immediately mustered his troops and set out.

This time, the force was much smaller but far more elite. Lin Chen only brought Lei Xiao and his most elite three thousand Yin Soldiers (all equipped with the latest generation soul-armor war blades), Zhang Hao's special operations team, and Su Qingyu, who had volunteered. Little Red Clothes was left behind at the armory to continue working overtime. Lin Chen also needed her, as the 'artifact spirit,' to hold down the fort at the main base.

Passing through the teleportation gate, the scene before them was completely different from Wailing Canyon.

There was no towering resentment, no distorted terrain. Only an endless forest, shrouded in grayish-white thick fog, composed of countless massive, smooth mirrors!

The mirrors varied in height and shape. Some stood upright like tombstones, others tilted precariously, and some even floated mid-air. The mirror surfaces did not reflect reality; instead, they continuously swirled with blurry, fragmented images, light, shadows, and colors. Faint whispers, laughter, weeping, and various other sounds mingled together, forming a dizzying, hallucinatory noise.

This was the Memory Maze. Beneath its calm surface lurked dangers that reached deep into the soul.

"According to Lin Weiwei's intelligence, this maze reads the memories of intruders, especially those related to the Netherworld and the Nether Lord Bloodline," Su Qingyu reminded in a low voice. Her hand unconsciously brushed over the pale crack on her neck, her eyes alert.

"Read memories? Screen for material?" Lin Chen scoffed. "It would have to be capable of understanding them first."

He didn't bother with any probing. He directly ordered Lei Xiao, "Form a defensive formation. Stand by here. Without my command, no one is to take a single step into the Mirror Forest, nor look at any mirror surface for more than three seconds."

"Yes, sir!" Lei Xiao immediately commanded the Yin Soldiers to form a tight circular formation. All Yin Soldiers lowered their heads and eyes. The runes on their soul armor operated at full power, isolating them from the outside.

Zhang Hao and his operations team also immediately retreated, keeping their distance from the edge of the Mirror Forest.

"Are you going in alone?" Su Qingyu looked at Lin Chen with concern.

"Alone is more efficient." Lin Chen patted her shoulder, gesturing for her to step back. Then, without hesitation, he took a step into that eerie Mirror Forest.

The moment he stepped inside—

BZZZZT!!!

The entire Memory Maze seemed to awaken! All the mirrors simultaneously erupted with blinding white light! The swirling images on the mirror surfaces instantly sharpened and accelerated. Countless invisible psychic tendrils, like sharks smelling blood, extended from the mirrors in all directions, frantically surging toward Lin Chen, attempting to drill into his mind and rifle through his memories!

If it were an ordinary person, or even an average Ghost General, they would likely have already been overwhelmed by the deluge of memories, or dragged into their own most painful recollections, unable to break free.

However, Lin Chen merely stood there, not even frowning.

The moment those psychic tendrils touched his body, it was as if they had collided with an absolutely impenetrable barrier! No, not a barrier, but something... more 'solid' and 'chaotic'?

The core consciousness of the Memory Maze seemed somewhat confused. It increased its power, attempting to force a breakthrough.

This time, it finally 'saw' some fragments.

But what kind of memories were these?

—Countless nether talisman numbers madly jumping, piling up, calculating...

—System interfaces constantly popping up with prompts for purchases, construction, upgrades...

—The Yin Soldier Legion lining up, engineering golems rumbling, armory assembly lines operating...

—And various contract terms, contribution point formulas, risk assessment reports...

No warmth of familial love, no sweetness of romance, no pain of betrayal, not even a pure thirst for power...

Only cold numbers, efficient processes, endless transactions, and blatant calculations of profit!

The 'density' and 'hardness' of these 'memories' were beyond imagination, filled with a certain... 'stench of money' and 'sense of rules'? They were completely different from any soul's memories the maze had ever read before! It simply couldn't comprehend them, let alone sift out the 'deep memories about the Netherworld' or 'intense emotional fluctuations' it wanted as 'material'!

The maze consciousness seemed to... freeze up?

It had never encountered such 'memory data' before!

In that moment of its stunned hesitation—

"Finished reading?" Lin Chen's voice rang out coldly. "My turn now."

He made no attempt to search for the maze's core or decipher any memory illusions.

He simply raised his hand, palm facing upward.

[nether domain asset system], highest authority activated!

[Target area scan: Memory Maze (Rule-type Ghost Domain)].

[Function: Reads, copies, distorts intruder memories, screens for specific soul traits.]

[Risk assessment: Ineffective against the host. Presents medium-to-high threat to units under the host's command.]

[Disposal suggestion: Violent dismantling / Forced acquisition / Rule override.]

"Violent dismantling is too crude. Rule override is too slow," Lin Chen muttered to himself. "Acquisition it is. The dismantled mirrors might even sell for money."

He locked onto the core rule aggregation point of the Memory Maze—typically hidden in the deepest 'Memory Corridor.'

[Forced acquisition target: Memory Corridor (core component of the Memory Maze).]

[Valuation: 8 billion nether talismans (contains rare rule fragments).]

[Confirm?]

"Confirm."

[Executing command... Deducting nether talismans... Overriding rules...]

Outside, Su Qingyu and the others only saw that less than ten seconds after Lin Chen entered the Mirror Forest, the entire boundless forest of mirrors suddenly began to tremble violently!

All the mirrors simultaneously emitted a sharp, mournful shriek, as if glass were about to shatter! The swirling images on the mirror surfaces began to twist and distort wildly, becoming chaotic, before finally, like a TV screen with interrupted signal, turning into chaotic static snow!

BOOM—!

From deep within the Mirror Forest came a dull, thunderous sound, as if something were being uprooted!

Immediately after, to everyone's horrified gaze, countless mirrors, as if struck by an invisible giant hammer, began to shatter simultaneously from the inside out!

It wasn't a physical explosion, but a disintegration of rules!

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG—!

The dense sounds of shattering merged into a symphony of doom!

The countless mirror fragments didn't fly apart. The moment they shattered, they transformed into the purest silver light points, containing memory and rule information. Like a reversed Milky Way, they surged frantically toward the center of the Mirror Forest, toward Lin Chen's location!

In a mere three minutes!

Only three minutes!

That awe-inspiring Memory Maze, capable of trapping and killing even a Ghost General, vanished without a trace!

All that remained was bare, black land, as if licked clean by something. And in Lin Chen's hand, there now rested a fist-sized crystal sphere, constantly rotating, compressed and condensed from countless silver light points—the [Memory Corridor Core].

The maze had been completely 'acquired,' its core extracted, utterly dismantled!

Zhang Hao's jaw hung open wide enough to swallow his own fist. Although Lei Xiao and the three thousand Yin Soldiers maintained strict discipline, their soul flames flickered violently. Su Qingyu let out a sigh of relief, but the shock in her eyes remained.

That was... it?

What about the promised extreme peril? The promised memory reading and material screening?

Lin Chen tossed the crystal sphere in his hand, sensing the vast amount of memory information within (mostly fragments from previous victims) and the rare rule power it contained.

"Done." He turned and walked back to the military formation, casually tossing the crystal sphere to Su Qingyu. "Sort through the memory fragments inside. See if there are any clues about the third key, the 'key of the soul.' Take this rule core back to Little Red Clothes later. Have her research how to apply it to the armory or new equipment."

Su Qingyu fumbled to catch the crystal sphere. A sensation of icy, vast information flowed up her arm, causing a slight dizziness.

However, the moment she made contact with the crystal sphere—

A sudden anomaly occurred!

Inside the crystal sphere, those originally chaotic memory fragments, as if drawn by some powerful attraction, began to act. A portion of the faintly glowing fragments automatically separated. Like weary birds returning to their nest, they unhesitatingly and acceleratedly surged toward Su Qingyu! More precisely, toward the pale crack on her neck and the depths of her soul!

"Ah!" Su Qingyu, caught off guard, let out a low cry. Her body shuddered violently, and her eyes instantly lost focus!

(Hook: The memory fragments merging into Su Qingyu's body were not the memories of others, but... belonged to the 'Netherworld Saintess'—older, clearer memory scenes! Fragmented scenes exploded in her mind: a sacred hall, gentle teachings, dark erosion, forced devouring, endless pain and remorse... and a blurry, constantly rotating vortex pattern seemingly composed of countless souls' wails—that seemed to be... the forging place of the 'key of the soul'?!)