197: Cursed Gift and Road of Despair

Thirty days.

This number, like an invisible noose, instantly tightened around the necks of everyone on the Bridge, and slowly began to constrict.

"What a joke!" Gu Zhixia was the first to let out a low growl, her pretty face, which had just softened, once again filled with frost and fury. "We fought with all our might, only to end up with just thirty days to wait for death?!"

The feeling of humiliation and powerlessness, of being wantonly toyed with by fate, made the hand not holding her sister instantly clench into a fist, her knuckles turning white from the effort.

"Wuwu…" Gu Nianqiu was also terrified by the news. She buried her small face deep into her sister's embrace, her tiny body once again trembling uncontrollably. Having just escaped from a nightmare, she was now plunged into an even colder, vaster abyss of despair.

Only Lin Mo remained calm.

"Thirty days to find the remaining five hearts of the world. That's impossible." He looked at the distant, almost faint points of light on the star map, stating a fact calmly.

Let alone finding them, just crossing the vast distances between galaxies, thirty days would be far from enough.

"If it were just to make you run this meaningless map, I wouldn't be here today." Lan Yue's voice still showed no ripples.

She seemed oblivious to Gu Zhixia's anger and Gu Nianqiu's fear. Her interlocutor, from beginning to end, was only Lin Mo.

"While you and The Collector were playing hide-and-seek, I wasn't idle either."

As she spoke, she raised her slender hand.

In her palm, the deep blue point of light representing herself suddenly brightened. Immediately after, a scene that surprised both Lin Mo and Gu Zhixia appeared.

The blue point of light, as if possessing Life, suddenly lunged towards the nearest gray point of light.

On the star map, the image representing that unknown starfield was instantly zoomed in and magnified.

It was a desolate, deathly starfield filled with spatial rifts. Countless wrecks of warships, like iron tombs, floated silently in the void.

And in the center of those wrecks, the remains of a creature, whose size rivaled a small planet, whose form resembled a legendary combination of a giant dragon and stars, and which had been dead for an unknown number of years, exuded a terrifying, heart-pounding pressure.

A faintly glowing, diamond-like, crystal-clear heart was embedded in the brow of this star dragon.

The star map's display ended there.

The next second, under the shocked gazes of Lin Mo and Gu Zhixia, the blue point of light in Lan Yue's palm and the gray point of light slowly merged together.

She had actually obtained a heart of the world at the same time they were fighting Leviathan!

"This is for you."

Lan Yue's voice rang out.

A multifaceted crystal, glowing with a faint blue light, as if composed of pure, solidified space itself, appeared out of thin air on the main console in front of Lin Mo.

The moment it appeared, the surrounding space underwent extremely subtle, imperceptible distortions.

This was… the second heart of the world!

"This is the cornerstone that wields the authority of 'space'." Lan Yue's tone was as if she were giving away an insignificant gift. "Its former owner was an ancient creature that called itself the 'Dragon of Stars'. Unfortunately, it was too superstitious about its powerful physical body. After I severed its connection with this space, its proud body became the strongest, inescapable prison."

She casually narrated a deicidal battle worthy of being recorded in epics.

A raging tide surged in Gu Zhixia's heart. She had always thought that her and Lin Mo's growth rate was unbelievably fast, but the power and methods possessed by this woman, who was also a "pawn," seemed to have exceeded their comprehension.

Lin Mo didn't thank her; he simply reached out and clasped the cold, heavy heart of space in his hand.

"What do you want?" He knew very well that this "gift" was definitely not free.

"I want you to live." Lan Yue's gaze became incredibly serious for the first time, and Lin Mo's reflection appeared in her deep blue eyes. "You, me, and that girl next to you, the three of us are the only three 'variables' on this chessboard. The death of any one of us will make the remaining two bear several times the pressure from 'God'."

"So, this isn't a gift; it's an investment," she added coldly. "I need you to grow quickly enough to stand alongside me, rather than always needing me to clear obstacles for you."

As her words fell, the star map on the main console changed again.

The two hearts of the world Lin Mo had just obtained—the heart of dreams and the heart of space—and Lan Yue's merged heart seemed to produce a peculiar resonance between them.

Above the star map, the remaining four gray points of light instantly became incredibly clear.

One of them shone the brightest.

Lan Yue stretched out a finger and pointed at that point of light.

"Here, on the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy, a chaotic zone called Narcissus Plain."

"That place is the highest-grade 'black market' in this 'hunting ground', and also a den of iniquity and refuge for all the 'local players' who are unwilling to submit to the major guilds and prefer to go it alone."

"There are no rules there; the only rules are power and wealth. Countless rare treasures, including fragments of laws, scoured from all corners of the universe, are traded there."

"According to my intelligence, the next heart of the world is there. It is being used by the controller of Narcissus Plain, a guy of extremely mysterious identity known as the gardener, as the core to maintain the stability of the entire black market space."

Lan Yue withdrew her hand, her gaze returning to Lin Mo.

"Get it."

"This is your only goal from now on. It is also your next test to prove your 'investment value' to me."

After saying that, her holographic image began to become ethereal, as if it could disappear at any moment.

"Wait," Lin Mo called out to her, "And you? Where are you going?"

"Me?" A cold arc curved on Lan Yue's lips, a desperate resolve to go to a certain death battlefield in her smile. "Of course, I'm going to fulfill my duty as a 'firewall'."

"I will return to the higher-dimensional spacetime rift and, in my own way, intercept the first, and even the second wave of the inspector for you."

"Remember, Lin Mo. My interception is not infinite. Every block consumes my origin. When I can no longer hold on, that is the moment the wrath of the gods descends upon your heads."

"So, hurry up."

"Don't let me... die for nothing."

As her words fell, her image completely vanished.

The war beast named thanatos also disappeared into the deep cosmos without warning, just as it had appeared, as if it had never existed.

Dead silence.

The Bridge once again fell into a deathly silence.

A heavy, almost suffocating boulder pressed down on everyone's hearts.

After a long while, Gu Zhixia slowly walked to Lin Mo's side, her gaze falling on the crystal in his hand that distorted space, her voice hoarse.

"Andromeda Galaxy... another dragon's den."

"Sister... we..." Gu Nianqiu timidly tugged at Gu Zhixia's sleeve, her eyes filled with fear and unease.

Lin Mo didn't speak.

He merely raised his head, his gaze sweeping over his two companions. One was a valkyrie, her body radiating indomitable spirit and fighting intent. The other was a little chef, almost crying from fear, yet still clutching her sister's sleeve tightly.

He tightened his grip on the heart of space in his hand, its cold touch making his chaotic thoughts clear and firm again.

He looked at them and gave his orders in an undeniable, calm tone.

"World Tree."

"Set course, destination, Andromeda Galaxy, Narcissus Plain."

"Activate the heart of space for superluminal warp jump."

"We... depart."