Chapter 74: A Strange Rescue

Ke Long Wang Jun's mechanical arm also began to frost over its surface: "Danger! Two energies are resonating! We must separate you!"

He extended his mechanical arm, trying to pull Lin Xue away, but was flung back by an invisible force, slamming heavily into the distant wall with a loud "Clang!"

Lin Xue felt an unprecedented chill surge from deep within her body, and the Ice Soul Power completely slipped from her control.

What frightened her even more was that she discovered her hand pressed on Zhang Jun's chest could not be loosened at all—it was as if an invisible energy chain had formed between them, binding them tightly together.

"Zhang Jun!" she shouted desperately, "Wake up!"

Zhang Jun's eyes snapped open!

But they were no longer human eyes—purple energy had replaced the pupils, the light blinding, devoid of any emotion.

His wounds were healing at an astonishing speed!

Flesh reassembled, bones reconnected, skin rapidly grew to cover.

"Xue'er…"

His voice was hoarse beyond recognition, dry and rasping like sandpaper rubbing, but Lin Xue recognized it—it was still him.

"Let go… you'll… suffer backlash…"

Lin Xue shook her head desperately, tears streaming uncontrollably: "No!"

Zhang Jun painfully lifted his other hand and placed it on the back of hers.

"Trust me."

A strange, warm power flowed from his palm, instantly surging into Lin Xue's body, soothing the runaway icy force.

Lin Xue felt the chill inside her rapidly recede, and the Ice Soul Power returned to her control.

She slowly released her grip, and the ice crystal armor on her body quietly faded away.

The purple light in Zhang Jun's eyes gradually faded, restoring normal black pupils, though a faint purple glow seemed to linger deep within.

He slowly sat up, lowered his gaze to his chest and the wounds on his body—gone, leaving only a few ferocious, ugly new scars as testament to what had just occurred.

"Damn…" he muttered, his voice full of incredulous shock and bewilderment.

Ke Long Wang Jun crawled up from the wall corner, walked over, his mechanical eye flickering as it scanned Zhang Jun.

"Primordial Bloodline, fully awakened. Your DNA structure is being reorganized."

Zhang Jun flexed his arm, feeling explosive power coursing through his body, yet simultaneously there was an indescribable sense of unfamiliar strangeness.

"I made a deal with that energy entity…"

Zhang Jun recounted in detail the bizarre experience he had while unconscious.

The truth about the Primordial Bloodline, how Lin Zhen was contaminated by some chaotic energy, and the real purpose of that damn purification plan.

Lin Xue's face turned pale, her lips lacking color: "So he never intended to save the world… he was brainwashed, meant to destroy everything?"

"Nine times out of ten." Zhang Jun nodded, rolling his neck; the skin at the back of his neck still tingled from the burn, "But I can't guarantee these things are reliable. After all, it's the alien energy in my brain saying so."

Ke Long Wang Jun stood to the side, the light in his mechanical eye flickering as if processing data at high speed: "This matches some fragment data I ripped from the Ark System. Lin Zhen did indeed discover the Energy Gate twenty years ago at Dragon Spring Cave on Lofty Mountain, but his research then took a 180‑degree turn."

"From researching how to coexist with energy, it turned into researching how to control people's minds…" Lin Xue continued, her voice low, "This is totally abnormal."

Zhang Jun stood up, tried to move his limbs, feeling a slight tug at the new scars, while that strange power inside him still surged wildly.

"No matter what, we need to drag out that old dog Lin Zhen first. He surely has more tricks up his sleeve."

Hardly had the words left his mouth when the heavy iron door of the garage let out a piercing "Screee—"!

The three of them tensed instantly.

Zhang Jun instinctively gripped the Heavenly Man Sword tighter.

Lin Xue's fingertips gathered chill.

Ke Long Wang Jun's mechanical arm silently shifted into weapon form.

The iron door slowly rolled upward, and blazing sunlight poured in, making the three squint.

A tall figure stood silhouetted against the light in the doorway.

"Looks like you all made it through." A low male voice drifted in, "Not bad for all my effort."

Zhang Jun's pupils contracted: "Lin Zhen?!"

The person slowly walked into the garage, the light no longer blinding, his face becoming clear.

It wasn't Lin Zhen.

He was a man in his forties, wearing a plain black combat uniform, his right eye a glowing mechanical prosthesis, his entire left arm made of metal.

His face resembled Lin Zhen's somewhat, but the lines were harder, bearing the rugged resilience of one weathered by storms. The feeling wasn't madness, but a heavy weight of something repressed.

"I am not Lin Zhen." the man said, his voice carrying a metallic grating quality, "I am his younger brother, Lin Yan."

Zhang Jun, Lin Xue, and Ke Long Wang Jun were all stunned.

Lin Xue was the first to recover: "My dad… he never mentioned having a brother!"

"Official records say I've been dead for twenty years." Lin Yan said evenly, "I died in the so‑called Energy Gate accident at Dragon Spring Cave on Lofty Mountain."

Ke Long Wang Jun's mechanical eye flickered: "The database does have a record. Lin Yan, captain of the Dragon Spring Cave Exploration Team, died in an accident."

"It wasn't an accident." Lin Yan's voice turned icy, laced with bone‑deep chill, "It was murder. Lin Zhen personally shoved me into the Energy Gate to monopolize the research."

Zhang Jun tightened his grip on the Heavenly Man Sword: "Then how…"

"The Energy Gate didn't kill me; it flung me into another dimension." Lin Yan swept his gaze over the three, the light in his mechanical eye twitching slightly, "I spent five years there, by Earth time, before finally finding a way back."

He paused, then continued, "Upon returning I discovered that Lin Zhen had been contaminated by that chaotic energy and had begun his crazy scheme."

"Was it you who saved us?" Lin Xue asked.

Lin Yan gave a slight nod: "I've been watching him from the shadows. When the underground city collapsed, I happened to be nearby and pulled you out."

Zhang Jun narrowed his eyes at him: "Why help us?"

"Because you're the key to stopping Lin Zhen." Lin Yan's gaze fell on Zhang Jun, his good eye holding complex emotions, "Especially you, Zhang Jun. The Primordial Bloodline in your body is the purest dimensional energy, the only force capable of grappling with chaotic energy."

"And what about Xue'er?" Zhang Jun instinctively stepped half a pace in front of Lin Xue, "How does her Ice Soul Power factor in?"

"Ice Soul Power is the purest energy crystal native to this planet, and it is complementary to the Primordial Bloodline. Lin Zhen wants you to merge, to open all dimensional gates. But he doesn't know that the correct way of merging is not forced control, but resonance."

Lin Xue frowned and asked: "What does that mean?"