Chapter 408: Smoke Crisis

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The crystallized neural bundles hanging from the cave's vaulted ceiling suddenly convulsed, and billions of semi‑transparent tendrils danced wildly in the mist. Ao Li's Dragon Scale shield flared open and met the black fog with a hiss like quenching steel—this fog was no ordinary poisonous haze but a mixture of crushed cognitive residue and Gui Xu amniotic fluid, each speck etched with the twin children's prank.

####【Bone‑Eating Mist】

Blue Scale's mechanical prosthetic eye sparked electric fire in the fog, and the modified visual sensor projected a terrifying spectrum: fragmented memories of allied soldiers floated in the black mist, each replaying their most desperate moments. Mo family disciple Ji Yang suddenly knelt and convulsed, his sleeve‑arrow uncontrollably pointing at his comrades—within the corrupted vision, the teammates had become shadow‑demon forms sprouting compound eyes on their foreheads.

"Close your eyes! Use spiritual awareness to navigate!" Purple Sky Immortal's sword tip struck the ground, and Taiyi Pure Light rippled outward. The ripple brushed the rock wall, and the runes on the stone platform suddenly surged, blue‑black veins crawling like blood vessels across the cave, converting the pure light into nutrient fluid that fed the tendrils. Xuan Yuan Hao's heavy sword slashed the veins, and what burst forth was not sparks but the laughing sound of a silver‑haired infant.

####【Flame Shield】

Ao Li's Inverse Scale vibrated at high frequency on the inner wall of the shield, each Dragon Scale reflecting a different temporal‑spatial afterimage. She saw herself in a Parallel World giving birth in a jade basin, the umbilical cord's other end linked to the celestial sphere atop Polaris Tower. "Hold on!" Lín Jìn pressed Star Sand with his right hand onto the shield, Nirvana Fire surged up the Dragon Clan Spiritual Vein in reverse, scorching a Vermilion Bird totem onto the surface of the light shield. When the flame touched the black mist, three hundred wailing infant phantoms suddenly rose in the smoke, their tears turning into acid rain that corroded the shield.

Gongshu Yue's mechanism box ejected the Mo family's treasure "Creation Furnace," but the furnace's mouth spewed not a magical artifact but a cleanser mixed with Time Whale Brain Fluid. When the liquid touched the fog, the black mist collapsed into pages of the Gui Xu Embryonic Treasury Sutra, the razor‑sharp pages slicing the shield like wheel‑blades. Lingxiao Pavilion disciples formed a formation and recited the Calm Heart Incantation, only to discover the scripture had been altered by the fog, each maxim twisted into the twin children's game rules.

####【Purification Illumination】

Ao Li's pupils suddenly turned jade‑like, and chaotic spiritual marrow flowed upward through her spine. She recalled the annihilation rite depicted on the Dragon Tomb murals—ancestors once offered Inverse Scale as sacrifice, burning the polluted era. "I need three breaths!" she shouted, thrusting both hands into her own chest and pulling out two segments of Dragon Bone entwined with holy relic runes. When the blood‑stained Dragon Bones crossed to form the Abyss Return Ruler shape, all the runes inside the cave went berserk, the blue‑black veins convulsing as if struck by electricity.

"Mo family, aid me!" Gongshu Yue's mechanical arm plunged into the core of the Creation Furnace, extracting burning chaotic spiritual marrow. Lingxiao disciples used Taiyi Sword Soul as a conduit, pouring their lifelong cultivation into the Dragon Bone. Xuan Yuan Hao sliced his wrist, and divine‑beast essence blood painted a neural map of the Time Whale's remains in the void. When all forces converged at the Dragon Bone's intersection, a world‑creating pure light tore through the black mist—

####【Truth Birth】

The instant the mist cleared, the stone platform exploded with a thunderous crack. From the scattering shards, everyone beheld a horrifying truth: the altar was an enlarged ten‑thousand‑fold model of a Zigong, each rune a living Gui Xu contract. At the shattered core, three hundred embryonic chaotic spiritual marrows pulsed, their surfaces bearing the faces of orphanage babies.

"Cognitive synchronization complete." The silver‑haired infant's illusion leapt from the marrow, lightly tapping each wound, "Now, you are all the fetal membranes of a new god~"

The cave suddenly contracted violently, the crystallized rock wall oozing colostrum mixed with Star Sand. Ao Li's shield dissolved in the strong acidic milk, and her final vision was Lín Jìn's right hand transformed into Star Sand, opening seventy‑two compound eyes—each pupil reflecting the celestial sphere atop Polaris Tower, whose gauge now pointed to the end's 100%.