Chapter 79: Trust Crumbles

A faint, stubborn rhythm, like someone tapping something in Morse code.

Over and over again.

"Is it Old Wang?" Zhang Jun's eyes snapped open.

Lin Xue swayed and stood up, pointing toward the direction where the violet mist was thickest.

"That way, from over there."

Zhang Jun yanked Lin Xue up; the two supported each other, stumbling toward that direction.

With each step forward, the surrounding violet mist grew denser, and the malicious whispers in their heads grew louder and more venomous.

Their unreliable resonance was disrupted into fragments, appearing intermittently, but that faint coded signal strangely became clearer.

"What the hell, there's no way down!" Zhang Jun stopped before a steep fissure.

The fissure was pitch‑black; looking down revealed nothing, like a monster with its mouth open.

Lin Xue slipped a hand into the darkness, and a faint silver glimmer sparked at her fingertips.

"The signal is below."

Zhang Jun cursed silently, gripping his Heavenly Sword tighter.

"Can we go down?"

"With your power, can you light it up?"

Zhang Jun bit his back molars.

"I'll try."

He strained with all his might, barely gathering a small ball of violet light in his palm, unstable, flickering like a dying bulb.

At the same time, Lin Xue condensed a wisp of cold air at her fingertips; the silver light and violet glow barely mixed, illuminating a few meters ahead.

The two, one ahead of the other, carefully slipped down the fissure.

This place was certainly not natural; it seemed like a hole blown open by something, the rock walls twisted grotesquely, exuding a vile aura.

"Tick… tick…"

The sound grew clearer, still mixed with a faint

"The power's messed up!" Lin Xue gritted her teeth, forcibly summoned Ice Soul Power, trying to reconnect with Zhang Jun's Primordial Bloodline.

A barely mixed energy shockwave surged toward the insect swarm, but due to extreme instability, it split apart midway.

Half was raging violet flame, half sharp ice shards, flailing erratically in different directions.

"Boom!" The ice wall shattered!

The insect swarm surged like a flood released from a dam, pouncing instantly!

Zhang Jun's eyes reddened, he roared, and his Primordial Bloodline went completely out of control!

Violet flames spewed uncontrollably from every pore of his body!

For a moment, the narrow space filled with the smell of burnt odor and the insects' sharp screeches.

Mutated cockroaches were engulfed by the violet flame, turned to char, yet more kept coming from behind.

Lin Xue was also locked in a bitter fight.

Ice Soul Power became unprecedentedly chaotic, even beginning to backfire on her.

A thick layer of white frost quickly covered her entire right arm, the pain contorting her face.

"Retreat! Move inward!" Zhang Jun grabbed Lin Xue, and they fled desperately deeper into the fissure.

The two fought and retreated, looking as disheveled as stray dogs.

"Your sword technique is all messed up!" Lin Xue dodged a wave of insect attacks, turned her head and shouted at Zhang Jun.

Only then did Zhang Jun react—his sword moves in hand were completely off!

The moves he had practiced thousands of times, etched into his bones, were now all muddled by the chaotic Primordial Bloodline surging within his body.

Each sword swing was painfully awkward, making him feel like a clumsy club‑wielder.

They staggered deeper into the fissure, the insects still pursuing relentlessly from behind.

Suddenly, the ground vanished beneath them!

They screamed and fell together into a larger cavern.

Zhang Jun reacted swiftly, twisting his body midair, shielding Lin Xue beneath him; they crashed onto a patch of viscous moss.

The moss emitted a faint green glow, and when it touched skin it made a soft "sizzle", accompanied by a rotting sweet smell.

Strangely, the insects that chased to the cave entrance only lingered, not jumping down.

"That is…" Lin Xue propped herself up, pointing toward the center of the cavern.

A vague humanoid silhouette leaned against the distant rock wall, half of its body buried in a pile of rubble.

Green moss coiled around its mechanical arm like vines, seemingly siphoning something.

A weak red light flickered from its mechanical prosthetic eye, the frequency identical to the earlier signal.

Data streams slammed into its brain, chaotic runes and formulas tangled together.

But a segment of text leapt out with abnormal clarity:

"Estimated coverage: Global"

"Operation mode: Forced cognitive restructuring"

"Target removal: emotional core, free will, individual memory"

"Retained functions: basic survival ability, command execution ability"

"Estimated loss: 40‑60% of population (acceptable range)"

"Project codename: Purification Nirvana"

"Dammit…" Zhang Jun felt a cold rush from his tailbone to the crown of his head, "This isn't cleansing, it's slaughter plus brainwashing…"

Lin Xue's face showed no color at all: "He wants to turn the survivors into puppets… complete puppets…".

The cloned Wang Jun's mechanical eye slowed its flicker frequency, almost going out: "And… more…".

The virtual screen switched, revealing a complex spherical network structure; five red dots pulsed on its surface, two of which had turned a glaring purple.

"Five beacons… interlinked… forming… a consciousness overlay field…" Wang Jun's voice crackled, each word sounding as if squeezed from between gears, "Lin Yan's… tuner… has… design flaws…".

Zhang Jun and Lin Xue's hearts sank together.

"It closely resembles… an abandoned early design of Lin Zhen…" Wang Jun's breath grew weaker, "That is… an energy amplifier… not a suppressor…".

Lin Xue suddenly seized Wang Jun's cold mechanical hand: "You mean—Lin Yan is deceiving us?".

The cloned Wang Jun gave no direct answer; his mechanical eye laboriously projected the final set of data waveform graphs.

Two curves intertwined.

One was a chaotic, frenzied purple waveform.

The other was regular, orderly purple, its energy signature… oddly resembled the primordial bloodline within Zhang Jun's body!

"It's not… pure chaotic energy…" the cloned Wang Jun's voice was as thin as a mosquito, "and… the primordial bloodline… mutated…".

A buzzing sounded in Zhang Jun's mind.

Lin Yan and Lin Zhen—what on earth are they up to?

"Lin Zhen said… you were created by him… is that true?" Lin Xue suddenly turned to Zhang Jun, her voice trembling.

The cloned Wang Jun's mechanical eye flickered briefly, then went completely dark.

At the final moment, he exhausted all remaining energy, forcing out a few broken syllables:

"Zhang… Tiangang… is not…".

The voice cut off abruptly.

The color drained from Zhang Jun's face: "What was he trying to say? Zhang Tiangang is not… not what?".

Lin Xue was also stunned, but she reacted faster, pulling Zhang Jun up: "We must leave this place! We've secured the crystal core, we have the data, now we must stop the next beacon from being activated!".