95: Chapter 95 The Last Prisoner: "The Gravedigger"

That bell toll did not strike the eardrums but was carved directly into the soul.

Like an invisible heavy hammer, it smashed a bone-deep gap into everyone's spirit, allowing cold chaos and frenzied malice to pour in through the cracks.

"Ahhh—!"

"My hand! My hand is gnawing on my face!"

"Don't come over! Get away! It's all eyes! It's all eyes!"

The collective hallucinations brought about by the plummeting SAN values caused the vanguard's formation to fall into fatal chaos in an instant.

Dozens of players with weaker wills collapsed on the spot, curling up on the ground while holding their heads, attacking the empty air indiscriminately, and letting out unintelligible roars.

Ninth Prince groaned, feeling the scene before him distort as countless resentful and twisted faces emerged from the void, tearing at his sanity.

He bit his tongue hard, the intense pain and the taste of blood forcibly pulling him back from the brink of sinking, but his face was deathly pale.

If even a local elite like him was in such a sorry state, the condition of the players could be imagined.

And this was just the beginning.

"He has awakened..."

"The last warden, the gravedigger of God Prison... is also the last prisoner."

The Old Ancestor's consciousness, filled with sorrow and killing intent, echoed in everyone's hearts like a final alarm bell.

In the center of this dead sea formed by the remains of countless immortals and gods, before that vaguely outlined creation furnace, a figure of light and shadow slowly condensed.

It was a humanoid figure whose magnificence could not be described in words.

He was a hundred zhang tall, clad in an ancient suit of armor that seemed to merge with chaos itself. The surface of the armor had no runes, only countless scars of varying depths, each one seeming to recount a tragic war that spanned eras.

He was not a physical entity; his body was composed of countless shimmering particles, yet it exuded a texture more dense and heavy than eternal black iron.

He had no face; beneath his helmet was a profound darkness.

Only two points of light ignited in the darkness.

One point was white, clear as glazed glass.

Pure, firm, containing the eternal laws of protection and order.

The other point was black, murky as ink.

Tyrannical, frenzied, permeating with the most primitive pollution and malice from the Evil Gods beyond the realm.

Black and white were distinct, yet they coexisted in one body in a bizarre way.

He slowly raised an arm, the movement incredibly sluggish, as if carrying the weight of a world.

He extended a finger, pointing from afar at the very front of the vanguard array, at that steel line formed by Immovable as a Mountain and his subordinate "Pot Lid Army".

There was no earth-shattering magical radiance, no world-destroying energy fluctuation.

He just tapped lightly.

An invisible, cold "rule," like an oracle, instantly covered the entire battlefield.

Immovable as a Mountain's pupils shrank; he felt it—not danger, but a kind of... "error."

A denial of "existence" itself, originating from the very foundation of the world.

The next moment, a sudden change occurred!

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A series of muffled, loud noises did not come from the enemy's attacks, but from within the "Pot Lid Army"!

Three hundred of the Alliance's top tank players found that the massive alloy shields in their hands, capable of withstanding ten thousand jun of force, seemed to possess an independent will at this moment, violently "flicking" their owners away with an incredibly berserk force!

Immediately after, it was the heavy armor on their bodies!

Those armor parts that they lived with day and night, long since merged with their bodies, seemed to have a violent rejection reaction; joints burst, armor plates turned into barbs, madly squeezing and tearing at the flesh and blood inside!

"Pfft—!"

Immovable as a Mountain spat out a mouthful of blood; his proud protective divine ability, "Immovable Wisdom King Body," was as fragile as paper in the face of that strange "repulsive force."

He watched helplessly as his shield, engraved with "Specializing in Curing All Disobedience," left his hands, and the armor on his body seemed to come alive, wanting to "squeeze" him out from the inside!

This was not an attack; this was... "concept erasure"!

He erased the two concepts of "holding" and "wearing"!

He made the weapons reject their masters and made the armor betray the bodies!

"What the f*ck! What kind of ghost thing is this!"

"Help! My Flying Sword is going to stab me to death!"

"System Prompt: Your equipment 'Bloodthirsty Mad Blade' has entered a 'Concept Conflict' state and is temporarily unavailable!"

The entire vanguard exploded in chaos.

Everyone holding weapons and wearing armor was "betrayed" by their own equipment at the same time.

This was an unheard-of attack method that transcended all combat logic!

"Report to the Commander-in-Chief! The situation is critical!" Inside the shelter, the technical personnel watching remotely had trembling voices. "The vanguard's equipment system has failed on a large scale! Over ninety percent of the combatants have been injured by their own equipment, the formation has collapsed, and we... we cannot analyze this attack!"

In front of the light screen, Outlaw Zhang San's expression was unprecedentedly grave.

His brain was running at a speed beyond its limits.

Just then, an urgent communication request forcibly cut in.

It was Charge to the End!

His voice was filled with shock, anger, and disbelief.

"Zhang San! We've been ambushed! Those monsters... those monsters can devour 'a popular chinese chili sauce brand, used here as a symbolic name for the weapon'! Our faith damage is ineffective against them; instead, it's like charging them! The people from Tianxuan Peak are all dead! We are surrounded, requesting..."

"Sshhh—"

The communication cut off abruptly.

In the council chamber, there was a deathly silence.

Everyone's gaze was focused on Zhang San.

The vanguard's main force encountered a rule-based natural enemy, and the rescue team fell into a desperate situation.

Fighting on two fronts, and both fronts collapsed simultaneously!

This was definitely not a coincidence!

That invisible hand, that enemy lurking in the deepest part, finally bared her fangs at the most fatal moment.

Outlaw Zhang San closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were filled with cold determination.

"Abandon the rescue team."

He spat out four words, each one seeming as heavy as a thousand jun.

"Order the vanguard to tighten the formation. All members, immediately discard all physical equipment! Listen, all of it! Weapons, armor, talismans... every external object!"

"STEM Man! I don't care what method you use, calculate the trigger interval and duration of that 'rule' for me immediately!"

"Old Ancestor! He is your kind; you must have an impression of his attack pattern!"

A series of orders were issued clearly and coldly.

On the battlefield, after spitting out his third mouthful of blood, Immovable as a Mountain instead let out a beast-like roar.

"What the f*ck are you all standing there for! Listen to the command! Strip off all that scrap metal on your bodies! Throw it away!"

He was the first to use brute force to tear off the armor on his body that was "rebelling," baring his scarred upper body, and like a blood-drenched demon god, he stood his ground again.

"We are players! If we don't have equipment, we still have our lives!"

"Pot Lid Army! Use our bodies to build another wall for those squishies in the back!"

His roar ignited the madness in the players' bones.

That's right, when had they ever relied on those dead things?

Their greatest weapon was that life which was worthless once it respawned at the resurrection point!

Piece by piece, divine weapons and top-grade armor were discarded by the players into the Sea of Chaos without hesitation.

Bare-handed and using their flesh and blood, they re-formed a defensive line that, while looking disheveled, had a much firmer will.

It was also at this moment that The Romance of the Science Guy's forever calm voice sounded in the channel:

"Calculation complete. The target of this rule is the 'binding relationship between person and object.' The moment the rule is activated, it judges and severs all bindings. The effect of the rule lasts for 3.4 seconds, and the cooldown... is unknown, but based on the energy fluctuation curve, it is estimated to be no less than one minute. We have an attack window!"

"Received."

A cold female voice responded.

It was Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet.

This girl, who usually always collected intelligence and looked harmless, now had eyes as sharp as knives.

Beside her, dozens of assassin-type players, also empty-handed, silently blended into the shadows.

"The window period is enough."

On the other side of the Sea of Chaos, that black-and-white giant seemed a bit puzzled by the players' behavior of "cutting off their own limbs," and the black light point representing malice flickered.

He raised his hand again.

This time, he spread his palm and aimed it at the void.

The entire dead sea formed by the remains of immortals and gods trembled accordingly.

"Hum—!"

The remnants of souls of immortals and gods that had fallen in the previous era were forcibly stripped from the remains, turning into hideous wraiths holding broken divine artifacts, rushing towards the players in an overwhelming tide!

This time, it was a true army of thousands!

"It's coming!" Ninth Prince, holding a long sword condensed from his own spiritual power, guarded the flank of the defensive line.

However, at this critical moment.

The Old Ancestor's aged and weary consciousness, finally under the questioning of Outlaw Zhang San, provided the key information.

"...He is not attacking; he is... 'enforcing the law'."

"He views us as 'viruses' and is invoking the underlying permissions of 'God Prison' to perform a 'scan and kill.' The first time was 'isolating equipment,' and this time is 'summoning guards'... We cannot fight against the rules of 'God Prison'."

"The only way... is not to fight, but to awaken."

"Awaken that part of his corrupted will that belongs to the 'warden.' I need a 'beacon,' a sufficiently pure beacon that can carry my will, to look directly at him!"

"A beacon?"

"A pure beacon?"

Outlaw Zhang San's gaze instantly swept across everyone's data panels on the battlefield.

"Who is the purest?"

"Not those PVP gods; their killing intent is too heavy."

"Not those life-skill players; their combat will is too weak."

"Nor those local cultivators; their spiritual power would be polluted by the Evil God."

Zhang San's gaze finally settled on a little-known female player who was in the back, healing the wounded with the most basic "Holy Light spell."

"Her ID is: [Star Dust]."

"A player whose combat power was approximately zero but who possessed the server's only special talent, [Memory Resonance]."

"[Star Dust]! Step forward!" Zhang San's voice was unquestionable.

"All players, listen to my command!"

"Stop attacking! Form the [Myriad Spirit Sacrifice Array] with [Star Dust] as the center! This is not asking you to die! It is to temporarily 'lend' your 'incense power,' your 'recognition' of this world, to her!"

"We want to use our own way to tell that big guy that we are not here to destroy; we are... here to save him!"

Once the order was given, everyone was stunned.

Let them give their power to a "historian" player who had almost no combat power?

But the trust built up over a long time made them immediately start acting after hesitating for a second.

The players quickly retracted, forming a huge circle with [Star Dust] as the center.

They sat cross-legged, closed their eyes, and placed their hands on the backs of the companions in front of them.

"In the name of the Old Ancestor..."

"In the name of everything we protect..."

[Star Dust] trembled as she recited the guidance words of the array.

She raised her head and looked at the god-demon giant overlooking all living beings; there was no fear in her eyes, only an indescribable sorrow and empathy.

"Hum—!"

Streams of brilliant golden incense power, containing the memories of countless players' laughter, curses, and bloody battles, rose from the crown of every player's head, and like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, they all poured into [Star Dust]'s body!

Her body was instantly rendered into pure gold.

A vast, warm, and vibrant will awakened within her.

That was the collective body of countless players' wills, and even more, it was this world's desire for "rebirth"!

[Star Dust] slowly raised her hand, and behind her, the vague spiritual projection of the Old Ancestor appeared.

Her movements were completely synchronized with the Old Ancestor's projection, and she pointed from afar at the giant's... white eye, clear as glazed glass.

"Wake up!"

A voice sounded.

This voice belonged to [Star Dust], the Old Ancestor, and even more so, to thousands of players.

It traversed the barriers of time and space, penetrated the walls of rules, and like a golden arrow, it precisely shot into that expanse of pure white representing "order" and "protection."

The overwhelming army of immortal and god wraiths rushing over suddenly stalled at a distance of less than a hundred meters from the player line.

The giant standing between heaven and earth shuddered violently.

His murky black eye flickered wildly, and the tyrannical aura skyrocketed exponentially, as if it wanted to overwhelm everything.

But, that white eye, under the illumination of the golden light, appeared, for the first time, a trace of... confusion.

He slowly lowered his head, and for the first time in endless years, he seriously "scrutinized" this group of tiny, yet incredibly glaring "ants" at his feet.

In the silence of all things.

A syllable filled with endless exhaustion and ancient vicissitudes was, for the first time, clearly spat out from his mouth.

"...Lu... Bei?"