Chapter 388: Threefold Twists

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Gui Xu's starlight soaked the rebuilt rooftops, Ao Li's fingertips brushed over the bone fragment presented by a Dragon Clan spy—this is evidence brought back from the northern snowfield, the fragment's surface crawling with fungal‑like filigree that, in moonlight, forms the twin children's lips.

"The seventh village." Lín Jìn's Star Sand hovered above the tactical star map with his right hand, Nirvana Fire outlined the northern map, "The missing villagers' hair tested at the Mo family workshop contains Gui Xu spores, at a concentration three thousand times that of the reconstruction zone."

Qing Lin's mechanical prosthetic eye suddenly erupted in an electric arc, and a holographic projection displayed the dying memory of a northern sentinel: the aurora over the snowfield twisted into a baby's palm, with quantum‑infused villagers' Soul flowing through every finger gap. When the memory reached a particularly bloody scene, Qing Lin's spine suddenly ejected a god‑slaying crossbow, and the bolt autonomously aimed at Ao Li's brow.

"Cognitive backlash!" Zixiao Real Person pointed his sword at a spot, and Taiyi Pure Light froze the crossbow mechanism. Gongxu Yue's mechanical arm shot out molecular tweezers, extracting a fleshy spirit core from the bolt's core—on that spirit core's surface conspicuously appeared the pattern of Ao Li's newly formed Inverse Scale.

####【Extreme Night Journey】

At dawn, Ao Li's Dragon Claw pressed onto the northern teleportation array. Lín Jìn's Star Sand transformation had already spread to his right ear, and Nirvana Fire formed a Vermilion Bird ear ornament on the auricle; Qing Lin swapped in a specially crafted cognitive‑filtering prosthetic eye from the Xuanyuan family; within Gongxu Yue's mechanism box, the low hum of a Creation Furnace could be heard, imprisoning three mutated spirit mice captured from the Spirit Field.

The instant the teleportation array activated, everyone saw black Brain Fluid seeping from the Array Pattern. As the dizziness faded, they were met not by the cold wind of the snowfield but by a warmth as viscous as amniotic fluid. The northern village that should have been frozen was now soaked within the shadow of a massive jade basin, and the thatched roofs were coated with the fetal fat of a cosmic embryo.

"Time‑Space Coordinate error," Gongxu Yue's celestial instrument spun wildly, "We've been pulled into a cognitive crevice!"

####【Strange Village Phenomenon】

Qing Lin's god‑slaying crossbow suddenly auto‑charged, and the arrow cluster reflected the villagers' phantoms—they were walking along the edge of the jade basin, each step stirring ripples of memory in the void. When Ao Li reached out to touch the nearest thatched hut, the wall suddenly feathered into stardust, revealing a horrific scene inside: three hundred villagers' husks were seated at a banquet, their cavities open like blossoms, and instead of organs, miniature cosmic embryos blossomed within.

"Dinner time~" the phantom of a silver‑haired infant leapt from the beam, its chaotic spirit marrow turning into a dining knife. Lín Jìn's Nirvana Fire was just about to ignite when the entire house suddenly inverted, and everyone fell into a forest of embryos. Countless embryos extended umbilical cords that wrapped around Gongxu Yue's mechanism box, and the Creation Furnace inside emitted a screech like childbirth.

####【Quantum Beast Shadow**】

Zixiao Real Person sliced the embryos with his sword, but Taiyi Pure Light was absorbed by the umbilical cords. Qing Lin's god‑slaying crossbow fired in rapid succession, yet the bolts transformed into candy before touching the embryos. When the first embryo cracked, what surged out was not plasma but a viscous cognitive mist. Within the mist appeared the giant beast described by witnesses—a monster cobbled together from villagers' memories, with antler adorned by infant teeth and tiger claws dripping with time‑whale Brain Fluid.

"Don't look directly!" Lín Jìn's Star Sand right hand covered Ao Li's eyes, but he himself was swept by the monster's claw wind. The Star Sand‑transformed wound did not bleed; instead it seeped the silver‑haired infant's laughter: "Big brother's blood is so sweet~"

Gongxu Yue's mechanism box suddenly burst open, and the imprisoned spirit mice fused into a meat‑mountain‑like synthetic beast. This creature's forehead opened to reveal seventy‑two Compound Eyes, each pupil reflecting a different scene of destruction. When it lunged at Ao Li, the core of Qing Lin's god‑slaying crossbow overloaded: "Detected Gui Xu Mother Body Pinqü... it's a trap!".

####【Jade Basin Truth】

Ao Li's world‑cutting blade pierced the synthetic beast's brow, and the blade resonated with the heartbeat of a cosmic embryo. The chaotic spirit marrow suddenly swelled, ejecting everyone from the cognitive crevice. On the true northern snowfield, they saw that each missing village's location floated with fragments of jade basins, and the villagers soaked within the basins were being transformed into humanoid mother hives.

Lín Jìn's Nirvana Fire burned away the nearest jade basin, and the rescued villagers suddenly crystallized. Their celestial spirit caps automatically peeled back, their brains turned into pulsating chaotic spirit marrow, and a black‑haired infant's mouth split open on their foreheads: "Cognitive upgrade complete~"

The projection of the silver‑haired infant suddenly enveloped the snowfield, its umbilical cord in hand linking all mutated villagers: "New game rules—" As the cord quivered, the villagers turned into three hundred streams of light, slamming into Ao Li's world‑cutting blade.

####【Gui Xu Fetal Movement】

The blade's surface suddenly opened to billions of Compound Eyes, each pupil reflecting a reconstruction scene somewhere on the continent: the children of Lingxiao Academy reciting the Dark Abyss Scriptures, the sowing machine of the Mo family workshop scattering cognitive spores, and the embryos in the Buddhist relic tower sucking on incense flames...

"Do you like the gift?" the phantom of the twin children swung on the blade's spine like a swing, "Sister Little Dragon Girl is now... the Mother of Cognition~"

The snowfield suddenly collapsed into a Gui Xu vortex, and the surviving northern outpost sounded an alarm. Ao Li stared at the writhing villagers' faces on the blade, and the newly formed Inverse Scale suddenly erupted, piercing Lín Jìn's Star Sand right hand—where the silver‑haired infant's buried quantum spark was pulsing.