216: Chapter 216 Child, what's your name?

His shriveled lips trembled slightly, and a few sparks of electricity even flickered within his mechanical eye sockets.

"This pure soul frequency, this aura that commands all things... Child, what is your name?"

Ye Fei felt a bit creeped out by his gaze, but she braced herself and answered,

"My name is... Ye Fei."

"Ye Fei... Ye Fei..."

The cyborg muttered the name to himself. Suddenly, a smile that was extremely hideous yet filled with infinite nostalgia and sorrow appeared on the human half of his face.

"That's it... I knew it. Even after a hundred years, that plan ultimately left behind a spark of hope."

"You... carry the bloodline resonance of the first generation creator. You are her descendant, or perhaps... a continuation of her soul."

"Senior, who exactly are you?" Chen Xi took a step forward, shielding Ye Fei, and asked in a low voice.

The cyborg leaned against the cold wall, the reactor in his chest letting out a series of violent, wheezing gasps.

"Who am I? Hehe... It's been a hundred years; even I have almost forgotten who I am."

"I once had a human name. But a hundred years ago, I had another identity—"

He raised his right arm, which was entirely metallic and mechanical, and pointed downward.

"I was one of the first members of the scientific expedition team that followed Wu Tian into this spaceship back then."

Boom!

The revelation of this identity stunned Chen Xi and the others.

A survivor from a hundred years ago?!

He had actually lived in this isolated Tower of Heaven for a full century?!

"Are you surprised?"

The The Watcher gave a self-deprecating smile and tapped his patched-up metal chest.

"Back then, Wu Tian was assassinated by that traitor 'Shadow,' causing the Origin Stone energy to run wild. To survive, to hold the final line of defense in this tower filled with high-dimensional radiation and void monsters..."

"I could only continuously cut away my damaged flesh and replace it with mechanical parts from the ship. For a hundred years, I transformed myself into this monstrous form, just to serve as a gate... here on the eightieth floor."

"A gate?"

"Exactly."

The The Watcher's gaze became incredibly solemn.

"That traitor named 'Shadow' is the original leader of what you now call the Men in Black. Although he detonated the energy back then, he never obtained true control permissions."

"The ship's core, the [Origin Stone], is locked at the very top of the tower on the hundredth floor."

"Shadow established an organization called the 'Truth Cult.' For the past hundred years, they have been everywhere, constantly trying to breach this tower's defenses and seize the Origin Stone!"

"Once they get the Origin Stone, they can modify the underlying code of human awakening! At that point, they won't just be able to mass-produce emotionless 'God-level Cyborgs'; they'll be able to instantly wipe out any Awakened who refuses to obey them!"

"All of humanity will become slaves kept in their pens!"

Hearing this shocking conspiracy, Su Xiaoxiao and Li Murou turned pale with fright.

Modifying the awakening code? Wiping out Awakened? This was ten thousand times more terrifying than simple slaughter!

"Then what should we do now? We came here to destroy the Origin Stone!" Chen Xi clenched his fists.

"Destroy it? No, you can't. The Origin Stone is a high-dimensional product; it's impossible to destroy with human strength."

The The Watcher shook his head, his eyes burning as he looked at Chen Xi and Ye Fei.

"The only way is to use the [Myriad Spirit Divine Seal] inside her as a key to reformat the Origin Stone's system! To seal it away completely!"

"I have guarded this place for a hundred years, and my body has reached its limit. But I have finally waited for you..."

"Wooo—!! Wooo—!!"

Just then, a shrill, blood-red alarm suddenly blared throughout the entire eightieth floor!

All the lights on the ceiling turned a piercing blood-red!

[Warning! Spatial barrier is being forcibly torn!]

[Warning! Ultra-high energy lifeform intrusion detected!]

The The Watcher snapped his head toward the control console screen, his mechanical eye spinning wildly as his expression changed drastically.

"Not good!!"

"They are here!"

"Who?" Chen Xi's muscles tensed, his cards already held between his fingertips.

"The high-ranking members of the Truth Cult... Using the void coordinates they've gathered over the century, they bypassed the defense mechanisms of the seventy-nine floors below and descended directly via spatial transporters!"

The The Watcher drew the heavy metal sword from his back, the miniature reactor on his body emitting an overloaded roar.

"Prepare for a fight to the death! Children!"

"The ones they've sent... are the [Council of Elders]!"

Screech—!

Before he could finish, a pitch-black rift over ten meters long was forcibly torn open in the void at the center of the eightieth floor.

Three overwhelming pressures, so terrifying they made one's breathing stop, crashed down from the rift like three massive mountains!

Crack... crack...

The edges of the spatial rift let out a tooth-aching cracking sound, as if even this reinforced void could not withstand the compression of these three forces.

As the three figures slowly stepped out of the pitch-black rift, the originally rapid alarm of the eightieth floor actually suffered brief distortion and static under this terrifying pressure.

They were three elders clad in black robes with dark gold patterns.

They wore no masks, revealing faces as wrinkled as tree bark, but their eyes were as deep as black holes. Within them was not a single trace of human emotion, only an extreme disregard for life.

[Truth Cult · Ruling Elder: Blood Nightmare]

[Level: Lv.85 (Peak 8th Rank)]

[Class: Blood Prison Blood Lord]

[Truth Cult · Ruling Elder: Nether Wind]

[Level: Lv.86 (Peak 8th Rank)]

[Class: Void Storm Ripper]

[Truth Cult · Ruling Elder: Hellfire]

[Level: Lv.85 (Peak 8th Rank)]

[Class: Purgatory Demonic Flame Controller]

When Chen Xi saw these three names and the shocking "Lv.85" through [Card Affinity Reflection], his heart sank to the bottom, and an unprecedented chill surged up his spine to the back of his head.

Lv.85!

And there were three of them!

These were terrifying existences at the peak of the eighth rank! One must know that in the public rankings of the entire Dragon Country, National-level experts who could reach level eighty or above were few and far between! And now, the opponent had casually sent three!

After crossing the level 60 watershed, the gap between each level was like the difference between heaven and earth.

The Nirvana Battle Team, at level 30+, were like three ants trying to shake a Tyrannosaurus Rex in front of them!

"A hundred years... We finally found an internal anchor for this damned turtle shell."

The elder in the middle, 'Blood Nightmare,' spoke slowly, his voice dry like sandpaper rubbing together.

His gaze swept casually over Chen Xi and the others who were standing ready, finally landing on the battered semi-mechanical The Watcher. A hint of mockery curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Serial Number 003... That researcher who luckily didn't die back then. You turned yourself into this piece of scrap metal just to stay here like a watchdog?"

"Shut your mouth! You lapdog of a traitor!"

The The Watcher roared, the reactor in his chest glowing brightly. The heavy metal sword in his hand ignited with blue plasma flames, and without the slightest hesitation, he launched a suicidal charge toward the three elders!

"Children! I'll hold them off! Run to the eighty-first floor, quickly!!"