224: Chapter 224 Dreaming

When the last word echoed in everyone's minds, it brought not hope, but bone-chilling cold and fear.

The man calling himself "Zhu Long," with that once gentle and elegant face, was now completely distorted. Half was the weathered wisdom of ages, while the other half was a madness assimilated by the abyss, covered in black energy veins!

He was no longer a "human," but a... monster that had lived in symbiosis with this cold cage filled with the will of destruction for tens of thousands of years!

"You... you aren't 'Zhu Long'!"

Song Yiqing's lips trembled. He couldn't accept that a legendary ancestor of the Tomb Guardians, as great as a prophet, would become like this.

"Of course I am."

The phantom of "Zhu Long" let out a chaotic, eerie laugh that seemed to be a superposition of countless voices. "It's just that I... realized the truth earlier than you."

Countless black tentacles behind him danced wildly in the air, as if echoing his words.

"What do you think 'Guixu' is? A place of exile? A prison for punishing sinners?"

"No... you're all wrong."

"This place is an 'Incubator'! A giant petri dish for screening the 'Ultimate Weapon'!"

"And we Tomb Guardians—Qilin, Zhu Long, Ying Long... all these families that inherited ancient bloodlines—from the moment of our birth, our destiny was not to protect, but to... be screened!"

His voice was like a curse. Every word violently assaulted the perceptions of Zhang Qilin and the others.

"The civilization of the previous era was far more powerful than you imagine. They created the 'Purifiers,' attempting to rule the entire universe with pure logic and order. But in the end, they spiraled out of control."

"The remaining ancestors used the last of the creation power to create us, these 'Bloodline Weapons.' They exiled the out-of-control 'Purifier' cores along with us 'unstable factors' into this rift in space-time, which is the so-called... 'Guixu'."

"Their purpose wasn't for us to defeat the 'Purifiers,' but... for us and the 'Purifiers' to... devour each other! To merge with each other!"

"Ultimately, the one who can emerge from this bloody 'Gu Battle' that has lasted tens of thousands of years—the perfect 'Ultimate Weapon' that integrates biological emotion and mechanical logic... will be reawakened to complete their... unfinished business!"

"Zhu Long" opened his arms. His translucent body, the countless tentacles in the abyss behind him, and the golden central hub above his head seemed to have completely fused into one!

"Thirty-seven thousand years! I have been here, being eroded, tortured, and assimilated! I watched generation after generation of clansmen being exiled here, then dying in despair! I finally understood!"

"The so-called protection, the so-called mission—it's all a lie!"

"The only way out is to... become the 'Victor'! To become that... 'Ultimate Weapon'!"

"I am that answer!"

His voice suddenly became sharp and fanatical!

"I have merged with the core of the 'Purifiers,' and I have inherited their logic and power! Now, I only need one last thing... the most crucial... 'Catalyst'!"

His gaze, like a red-hot branding iron, was fixed firmly on Zhang Qilin!

"And that is... your bloodline! The purest, uncontaminated 'Qilin' power! And that piece of... 'Xirang' that can carry and create everything!"

"Come! Qilin! My fellow clansman! Become a part of me! This is your... innate... glory and destiny!"

The moment his words fell, the entire domed hall changed!

From the abyss, hundreds of giant black chain tentacles, like awakened ancient pythons, swept toward Zhang Qilin and the other five from all directions with a sky-shattering whistle!

These tentacles were no longer pure energy; their surfaces were covered with a layer of black, metal-like shells, and their tips were razor-sharp, glinting drills!

This was the ultimate weapon... a fusion of biology and machinery!

"In your dreams!"

A flash of ruthlessness crossed Lin Tianyi's eyes!

He wasn't intimidated by the other's grand narrative. Whatever the truth was, the monster in front of him was an enemy! That was enough!

He pulled a signal transmitter from his tactical vest and pressed it hard!

"Fatty! Now! Plan B!"

"Got it!"

Fatty roared. He didn't join the fight but pulled out an extremely strange-looking metal disk pieced together from countless parts from his backpack!

Embedded in the disk were several energy crystals they had found in previous ruins, as well as... the Totem Core he had been keeping close, seized from the leader of the "Pathfinders"!

He slammed the disk onto the floor of the hall!

"Open up for Lord Pang...!"

He poured the weak but pure totem power within his body into it without reservation!

Buzz—!!!

The metal disk instantly erupted with a strong spatial fluctuation!

An unstable, flickering miniature portal slowly unfolded beneath their feet!

This was their final trump card!

Before entering the spire, Lin Tianyi had anticipated they might be trapped. So, he had Fatty use his gifted mechanical talent to assemble all the space-time teleportation technology parts to try and create a... one-time, random teleportation... escape device!

Although they didn't know where they would be sent, it was better than being devoured by a madman here!

"Want to leave? Naive!"

"Zhu Long" gave a disdainful cold laugh.

He didn't bother with the crude teleportation device at all, but concentrated all his attacks on... Zhang Qilin!

He knew that as long as he captured Zhang Qilin, the others were just fish in a barrel!

Countless tentacles came flooding in!

Wang Xianzhi's sword light seemed so fragile in front of these metal tentacles. After cutting only two, she was sent flying by a massive force, spitting blood and falling to the ground!

Lin Tianyi's attacks were even more like an itch, unable to even leave a white mark on them!

Everyone's hope rested on Zhang Qilin!

However, at this moment, Zhang Qilin's state was extremely poor!

"Zhu Long's" words had a greater impact on him than anyone else!

It was a... collapse of faith!

The mission of the Tomb Guardians, the family heritage, the bloodline destiny... if all of this was just a carefully designed, cruel hoax, then what was the point of everything he had persisted in?

There was an unprecedented... wavering in his heart!

And his Golden Pupils, due to excessive energy consumption and the loss of his mental focus, were... slowly fading!

"Qilin! Wake up!"

Seeing Zhang Qilin's dazed state, Song Yiqing shouted anxiously, "Don't be fooled by his words! He's gone mad! He's just looking for an excuse to devour you!"

"No... what he said... might be true..."

Zhang Qilin muttered to himself, his eyes hollow.

Chuh—!

At the moment he lost focus, a tentacle, like a poisonous snake striking, instantly broke through his defense and... pierced his right shoulder!

"Ugh—!"

The intense pain made Zhang Qilin let out a muffled groan!

Black energy, like maggots on a bone, flooded into his body through the wound, suppressing the boiling Qilin Blood within him!

His power was rapidly draining!

"Little Brother!"

Fatty's eyes nearly burst at the sight!

The portal beneath him had expanded to its limit, but it also began to become extremely unstable, threatening to collapse at any moment!

"The portal is almost ready! Captain Lin! Take Little Brother and the others and go!"

Fatty roared. He knew this device could only teleport four people at most! And he, as the initiator, had to stay here to maintain the stability of the energy!

He made the same choice as he had before the Bronze Gate!

"Fatty! Are you fucking crazy!" Lin Tianyi shouted.

"Stop talking! I'm tough! This old monster might not be able to kill me!"

Fatty grinned, showing a smile that looked worse than crying. "You guys... must come back... and save me..."

"No..."

At this desperate moment, a weak but incredibly firm voice rang out.

It was Zhang Qilin!

With a tentacle piercing his shoulder, he knelt on one knee, but his head... slowly lifted.

His eyes, which had almost lost their golden color, reignited with a spark of light.

He looked at Fatty, at the fallen Wang Xianzhi, and at the anxious Lin Tianyi and Song Yiqing.

"Whether destiny... is a lie... is no longer important."

His voice was raspy but exceptionally calm.

"Whether protection... is a hoax... is also no longer important."

"What's important is..."

He slowly stood up, using every last ounce of his strength!

The tentacle piercing his shoulder let out an overburdened scream under the pressure of his muscles!

"What's important is that you all... are my companions."

"I will not let any of you die in front of me again!"

Boom—!!!

A golden flame, purer and more condensed than before, erupted from his body!

This flame was no longer violent, but... warm.

Like a divine fire... that protects all things!

The tentacle piercing his body was instantly incinerated into ash under the burning of this flame!

His eyes became... pure Golden Pupils once again!

This time, in the depths of his eyes, there was no longer cold killing intent, but... the determination to protect!

He had found... something more important than destiny!

He had found... his own... "Dao"!

"Stubborn!"

"Zhu Long" seemed enraged by Zhang Qilin's current state and let out a furious roar!

More and thicker tentacles rose from the abyss, like an inescapable net, trying to completely crush this ant who dared to resist "fate"!

However, Zhang Qilin didn't look at those tentacles again.

He slowly raised the black gold ancient blade in his hand and then the piece of "Xirang" fused with his left hand.

Then, he made a move that caught everyone off guard.

He actually plunged the golden-flame-burning black gold ancient blade... hard into the "Xirang" in his hand!

Using Qilin Blood as a catalyst and the edge of a divine artifact as a medium!

He was going to... detonate this... divine object of creation!

[No—!!!]

In "Zhu Long's" mind, for the first time, an alarm representing fear and destruction rang out!

"Dust to dust, earth to earth..."

Zhang Qilin chanted an ancient, incomprehensible song.

"All things... return to... the Void..."

Boom—!!!!

No sound, no light.

Only... a pure "Nothingness" that devoured everything.

With the "Xirang" as the center, a primal force interwoven with creation and destruction erupted!

The entire domed hall, the entire black spire, along with those mad tentacles and "Zhu Long's" unwilling roar...

Everything was instantly... erased in this "Nothingness"!

And at the instant before the explosion occurred.

Zhang Qilin used his last strength to push Lin Tianyi, Wang Xianzhi, and Song Yiqing, along with Fatty nearby, into the collapsing... portal.

While he himself, with a smile of relief, was completely devoured by that pure "Nothingness."

[Inside the livestream room, the screen was pure white.]

[Then, it fell completely into... darkness.]

[Connection... interrupted.]

...

...

(Several months later)

In a secret medical base in China.

Lin Tianyi slowly opened his eyes.

He, Fatty, Wang Xianzhi, and Song Yiqing had all survived.

At the final moment of that explosion, they had been teleported to a random corner of the Guixu world. After a narrow escape, they were eventually found by subsequent rescue teams and brought back to the real world.

But they had forever lost... one person.

"Will he... ever come back?"

Wang Xianzhi looked out the window and asked softly.

No one could answer.

The self-detonation of the "Xirang" had caused a collapse of space-time.

Zhang Qilin might have completely disappeared in the turbulence of space-time, without even a body left.

Or perhaps...

Just then, a staff member responsible for monitoring global abnormal energy fluctuations suddenly rushed in, crawling and stumbling, his face full of terror and disbelief.

"Report! In... in the center of the Sahara Desert... we've detected... a giant... Bronze Gate!"

"It... it's slowly rising... from the ground!"

Following that was a dead silence worldwide for several minutes, and then an unprecedented tsunami of public opinion erupted.

The exploration of "Guixu" had come to an end in a tragic and heroic way.

Zhang Qilin—that man who was like a god and a demon—had exchanged his own sacrifice for his companions' survival. His name became a legend, a symbol remembered by billions.

The hero's story seemed to have come to an end.

However, for some people, this... was just the beginning.