Chapter 69: Qingrang

The journey to the northwest was more dead‑silent than expected. The earth seemed drained of its last spark of life, leaving only weathered rocks and a dried riverbed; occasionally twisted metal wreckage, as if an invisible giant force had kneaded it, testified to the horrors of the old wars. An indescribable sense of "emptiness" hung in the air, and even the Primordial Law here appeared thin and hushed.

Chen Mo walked at the front of the party, his Rule Perception being heavily suppressed here, as if viewing through thick ink. Su Yu's True Knowledge Vision could only barely catch some vague energy afterimages and broken rule lines. Only Hui Jin and the five Pure Fire Cultists with him emitted steady white halos, like lighthouses in darkness, dispelling the unsettling "emptiness".

"The rules here… have been 'formatted'," Hui Jin said in a deep voice, the Pure Fire at his fingertips flickering faintly as if resisting something, "It's not the system's order, nor the whisper of chaos, but a… more thorough 'eradication'. It's as if something has 'reset' everything here to an initial state, perhaps even worse."

Li Siwen's planned route avoided several zones of abnormally strong energy reactions, but the closer they got to the coordinates, the stronger the "emptiness" felt. Not until the dusk of the third day did they find the target at the rim of a massive crater formed like a meteor impact.

It was not the grand structure they imagined; at the crater's central depression lay only an inconspicuous circular gate sealed with heavy alloy, above which a plaque, almost buried by wind‑blown sand, faintly read "Qingrang VII". Beside the gate was an emergency manual turn‑wheel, but it appeared long since rusted dead.

No guards, no signs of battle, and no trace of life. Only a death‑like silence.

"Is this it?" a Pure Fire Cultist asked uncertainly.

Chen Mo gave no answer; he stepped to the gate, his palm lightly pressing the cold alloy. His consciousness tried to probe, but sank like a stone in the sea, yielding no feedback. The metal here seemed treated by some force, completely isolating internal and external rule exchange.

"The signal does indeed originate from here," Su Yu confirmed, her gaze piercing the heavy metal to see the complex internal machinery and… a wreckage? "But inside… it's chaotic. There are many… shattered containers, collapsed supports, and… some moving… light points?"

Moving light points?

"Prepare to open the gate," Chen Mo ordered. "Hui Jin, the guide, please stay alert for possible data contamination."

Two tall Pure Fire Cultists stepped forward, seized the rusted turn‑wheel, let out a low growl, muscles tensed, Pure Fire flowing, and forced it to turn! A harsh metallic screech echoed through the silent valley, as if awakening a sleeping nightmare.

The gate slowly rose, revealing a downward, pitch‑black, deep passage. A blend of mildew, disinfectant, and some indescribable, rot‑like electronic component stench assaulted the nose.

The emergency lights inside the passage flickered a few times, barely casting a dim yellow glow. In that light, everyone saw the "wreckage" Su Yu described—what should have been transparent observation windows along the passage were now mostly shattered, the cultivation chambers broken, dried nutrient solution mingling with wilted plant debris. Various instrument fragments and paper scraps littered the floor.

Most striking were the white light points drifting slowly in the air, like fireflies. They were only the size of a fingernail, shapeless, sometimes coalescing, sometimes dispersing, emitting faint yet pure data fluctuations.

"What… are these?" Su Yu asked, puzzled, watching the light points; her True Knowledge Vision could not fully decipher their composition.

Chen Mo also furrowed his brow; the data fluctuations of these light points differed from any form he had encountered, containing neither malice nor a life sign, more like an… unconscious, drifting "information dust"?

At that moment, an anomaly erupted!

It seemed the gate's opening sound and the presence of the living spurred them; the previously slow‑drifting white light points suddenly flared! Like a disturbed swarm of bees, they instantly coalesced into a white stream, lunging toward the nearest Pure Fire Cultist.

The cultist reacted instantly, raising a Pure Fire shield. Yet when the white stream touched the Pure Fire, it was not purified or dispersed; instead, like a droplet merging into a sponge, it silently… permeated it!

"Ah—!" the cultist let out a short, harrowing scream, his body trembling violently; the Pure Fire aura around him dimmed and scrambled at a visible speed, countless fine white lines resembling circuit board traces surfacing under his skin! His gaze instantly lost focus, becoming hollow, and he babbled meaningless words mixed with electrical static!

"Careful! These things can contaminate Pure Fire!" Hui Jin's complexion changed dramatically; his staff thudded, and a denser Pure Fire halo expanded, shielding the remaining members.

Chen Mo's gaze hardened, and he acted at once! He did not attack the light points, but directly performed rule intervention on the infected cultist.

"Mediation: target's interior—energy flow isolation! Information exchange block!"

An invisible force forcibly severed the connection between the cultist's internal Pure Fire and the white stream, temporarily imprisoning the invading white energy. The cultist ceased trembling, yet his gaze remained hollow, as if his soul had been drawn out.

And those white light points, after losing their first target, immediately turned, surging toward Chen Mo like a tide! They seemed more sensitive to fluctuations on the rule layer.

"Step back!" Chen Mo barked low, but instead of retreating he advanced, his hands gesturing empty space before him! He did not attempt to define or eradicate the light points; rather, he mimicked their "drifting" and "permeating" traits on the rule layer, tuning his Rule Perception frequency to an extremely subtle state!

"Resonance: define self—information state, neutral, harmless."

In that instant, Chen Mo seemed to temporarily "peel away" from the material world, becoming an invisible, attribute‑free information stream.

The surging white stream, upon touching him, seemed to lose its target and became bewildered. It swirled and darted around him, unable to locate an "invasion" interface, eventually drifting away slowly, reforming into drifting light points that floated aimlessly within the passage.

Everyone exhaled in relief, yet the chill in their hearts deepened. These seemingly harmless white light points proved so bizarre and dangerous!

"They're not attacking… more like… 'assimilation'," Su Yu said, still shaken, watching the light points, "They aim to turn everything into the same… 'information dust'."

Hui Jin approached the isolated infected cultist, letting Pure Fire cautiously probe, trying to disperse the white patterns, but with little effect. "This contamination… is deeper than the Data Plague. It's not destroying structure, but rewriting the very 'Definition' of existence."

Chen Mo deactivated his own 'information state', his expression solemn. He walked to the far end of the passage, picking up a half‑torn experimental log from the ground. The paper was yellowed, the handwriting faint, yet some fragments were discernible:

"… 'Data Ruins Mayfly' activity abnormal… breached Level‑3 isolation…"

"… they are devouring the station's network… assimilating ecological samples…"

"… 'Definition Firewall' failure… request activation… final purification protocol…"

"… 'Signal… cannot be sent…'"

Data Ruins Mayfly! Data Ruins!

Hui Jin's earlier sensing was confirmed! These white light points are indeed some entity from the Data Ruins! They infiltrated the Qingrang Ecological Station, 'digesting' it from within into its current state!

That distress signal was likely the final desperate cry of a survivor before the final purification protocol was triggered.

"This place is already a tomb," a Pure Fire Cultist said hoarsely.

"Not necessarily," Chen Mo said, looking at the tightly sealed inner airtight door at the passage's end. "The log mentioned the 'final purification protocol'; perhaps… some area remains not fully assimilated. Moreover, we need to find a way to counter these 'Data Ruins Mayfly'."

He approached the airtight door, which was also locked. Beside the door's identification panel lay a manual physical switch, and next to it a slot requiring a specific permission key.

"Li Siwen gave me this," Su Yu took from her backpack a strangely shaped device resembling an old‑era USB drive, "He said it's a universal Decoder reverse‑engineered from the previous white‑clad personnel's equipment, perhaps we can try our luck."

She inserted the Decoder into the slot; the device's indicator lights flashed wildly, emitting faint computational sounds. A few seconds later, a soft "click" echoed from within the airtight door.

Chen Mo and Hui Jin exchanged a glance, then together pushed with force, opening the heavy airtight door.

The scene beyond the door made everyone hold their breath instantly.

It was not the expected devastation, but a… frozen world.

A massive circular space, resembling the station's core area. Everything inside—shattered cultivation chambers, toppled instruments, even floating papers and Data Ruins Mayfly—was covered by a faint, translucent blue ice crystal layer, preserving the moment the disaster struck. Time seemed frozen here.

At the exact center of the space, within a cylindrical transparent console, an elderly man in a white researcher uniform with graying hair held the pose of pressing a button, frozen in the blue ice crystal. His face still bore a resolute expression tinged with a hint of… relief?

On the console's screen, a line of scarlet text was frozen:

【Final purification protocol activated: absolute zero containment.】

【Warning: Data Ruins Mayfly mother body not fully eradicated, only entered dormancy.】

【Unlock condition:... permission verification... Primordial Origin key...】

Absolute zero containment! Data Ruins Mayfly mother body!

The truth of the Qingrang Ecological Station was far more terrifying than they imagined. What they found was not a hopeful oasis, but an ice‑sealed, potentially reawakening horror hatchery!

And that 'Primordial Origin key'… Chen Mo subconsciously touched the chest where the Primordial Core was fused.

The crisis, in another form, arrived silently.