Chapter 350: Prison?

What on earth is this?!

This thing that suddenly appeared in his mind?! A database?

Echo? Forbidden Wall? Dark Eclipse Unit?

It seems to have forced a connection and activation by resonating his right‑arm vines with the stone wall! What does it consider him to be? A user? A binding?

Just as Lin Yifan felt himself about to black out again, the cold data stream finally slowed, eventually freezing on a relatively clear, faintly flickering interface. The interface was composed of symbols he could not decipher and constantly flowing data, yet oddly, he could grasp its meaning:

【'Eos' End Echo' Database (Fragment) – Status: Extremely Unstable】【User Permission: Temporary (Minimal)】【Available Functions:

·Environmental Monitoring (Limited Range)

·Energy Flow Perception (Weak)

·Database Fragment Retrieval (Extremely Low Efficiency, High Risk)】【Warning: Insufficient energy, cannot maintain prolonged connection. Warning: Unknown error… Data loss rate 99.97%…】

The illusory interface before his eyes and the pain in his mind gradually faded, and the Stone Chamber scene returned. Yet the cold alert tone and those shattered, terrifying images were etched into his memory like a brand.

Lin Yifan was drenched in sweat, as if just hauled out of water, his heart pounding wildly. He glanced at his blood‑smeared right arm, at the dark golden patterns resonating with the vines, and his gaze changed completely.

This is far from a simple ruin!

"Prison", "Barrier", "Exile", "Doomsday Echo"… The truths hinted by those words sent a bone‑chilling cold through him. Xiao You's origin, the vines' source, the purpose of this underground space… all seemed to point to an ancient secret terrifyingly beyond his imagination.

And this suddenly appearing "Database" resembled a "ghost" that had slumbered for countless years, now shattered, mistaking him for some kind of permission holder and forcibly binding him.

Blessing? Curse?

He tried to focus his mind, thinking "shut down" or "disconnect".

The cold interface in his mind flickered a few times, seeming extremely reluctant and slowly fading, yet the faint sense of connection never fully vanished, merely lying dormant like a cold observer lurking in the depths of his consciousness.

Sharp pain in his right arm struck again, reminding him of reality's cruelty. Whatever he had just experienced, the most important thing now was to survive.

He struggled to sit up, enduring the agony, retrieved the finest healing pill from his Storage Ring and swallowed it, then carefully tended the horrific wound on his right arm. The pill turned into a warm flow, slightly suppressing the internal burning, but the arm's injury was too severe to recover quickly.

He looked at Ling Ling, still undergoing metamorphosis, and Xiao You, recovering, then surveyed the cold stone walls covered with unknown patterns, and finally sensed the dormant cold connection in his mind.

The road ahead is unknown, danger lurks everywhere. Yet this bizarre "Database" might… also become a tool for him to glimpse a sliver of hope in this dire situation?

But using this tool inevitably comes with unpredictable costs and risks.

He leaned against the cold stone wall, which flickered with faint dark‑gold light, closed his eyes, and while straining to recover, he digested the surging, unsettling fragments of truth.

Silence once again enveloped the Stone Chamber. Only the faint rustle of moonlight flowing around Ling Ling and Xiao You's weak, slow breaths could be heard.

But Lin Yifan knew that beneath this silence lay a raging undercurrent and an even larger, more suffocating mystery.

The silence inside the Stone Chamber did not last long.

The healing pill Lin Yifan had just swallowed had not fully taken effect; the searing pain in his right arm still felt like maggots in his heel, and the cold "ghost" of the database in his mind remained unsettled.

At that moment, a new, entirely different throb traveled again through the dark‑gold vines on his right arm and the faint resonance of the stone wall!

This time, it was neither a cold mechanical data stream nor a vile, evil will.

But a… summons.

An exceedingly faint, intermittent fragment that seemed to span endless time and space, bearing infinite sorrow and obsession… a spiritual imprint fragment!

The fragment was not language, but resembled broken images and surges of intense emotion, forcefully thrust into Lin Yifan's already exhausted sea of consciousness.

In the endless dark void, a colossal structure of unimaginable size, built from some dark‑gold metal, was slowly collapsing.

Countless figures shimmering with starlight fought within, their power immense, causing galaxies to sway with a wave of their hands, yet they were constantly devoured, polluted, and assimilated by dark‑red shadows spilling from void fissures like viscous, tainted blood.

The tragic and desperate emotions nearly drowned everything.

When he narrowed his view to a section of the massive structure, it was the passage—or Stone Chamber—lined with dark golden patterns where he stood.

Several non‑human moans, shrouded in a halo, were urgently manipulating the complex patterns on the wall, seemingly activating some device.

One of the figures suddenly turned, apparently "looking" toward Lin Yifan's direction, or rather, at the "point" where his right‑arm vines resonated.

Within its gaze came an extremely burning fragment of thought, bearing a final hope:

"…Forbidden…Seal…must…guard…the 'Key'…cannot…"

Unfortunately, all of that was too far away.

A massive explosion, light devouring everything.

The entire area was sealed off completely, all energy instantly drained, turning into dead silence.

Only the dark golden patterns on the wall flickered at the last moment, recording this desperate end, and imprinting the lingering, unwilling resolve and fragmented warning deep into the material's very essence.

A surge of determination, unwillingness, massive sacrifice, a warning to successors, an utmost concern for the thing called 'Key', and a deep‑seated terror and hatred toward those 'dark red shadows'!

"Ugh!" Lin Yifan clutched his head again, this time not from pain but from his soul trembling under the timeless tragic and desperate onslaught. These fragmented pieces of information were more immediate and more heart‑stirring than the database's cold prompts!

He understood instantly.

This ruin, this so‑called "Forbidden Wall" and "Seventh Beacon Room", was essentially a corner of an ancient battlefield, a massive tomb.

Those dark golden patterns were not merely energy circuits but also bore the final spiritual imprints and obsessions of the fallen.

And the dark‑gold vines on his right arm, resonating with the ruin's source, unintentionally acted like a key, subtly prying open the sealed tomb, allowing him a glimpse of a distant, brutal truth.

"Prison", "Exile"… The database's cold terminology combined with these tragic images made his skin crawl.

What is imprisoned or exiled here is likely not just a single entity, but perhaps an entire civilization's final relic against some catastrophe! And they now stand at the deepest part of that ruin!

At that moment, as if triggered by the ripple of the spiritual imprint, the dormant cold database interface in his mind flickered uncontrollably again, spitting out a new, violently fluctuating string of information:

【Warning! Detected residual resonance of a high‑dimensional spiritual imprint! Risk: May attract 'them'!】

【Analyzing imprint content… Matches ancient protocol 'Final Alert' (Fragment)…】

【Related Item: 'Key'… Data missing… Highest‑priority command (vague): Guard the 'Key' or ensure it is not obtained by the 'Echo'…】

【Rescanning local environment… Scanning user… Scanning binding unit…】

【Scan complete. No target matching the 'Key' energy signature found.】

【Conclusion: User may have triggered the 'Final Alert' protocol, but is not a 'Key' holder. Permission insufficient to obtain further information. Recommendation: Terminate resonance immediately to avoid unknown risks.】

The database's warning gave Lin Yifan a scalp‑tingling chill. Attract 'them'? Does it refer to those 'Breaths of the End'?

He almost instinctively tried to cut off his right arm's contact with the stone wall, forcibly suppressing the activity of the dark golden vines.

However, just as he strained to gather his breath, trying to let everything return to calm.

In the center of the Stone Chamber, an anomaly regenerated.

Ling Ling, who had been quietly absorbing moonlight energy, suddenly had the dense light cocoon around her violently fluctuate.

The rune imprint on her forehead, now stabilized, burst forth unprecedented dazzling light, even faintly outshining the glow of the moonlight crystallized grass!

One, two, three… a total of five huge fox‑tail phantasms, entirely formed from pure moonlight, suddenly unfurled behind her and shot skyward.

Though only phantasms, they exuded astonishing Overwhelming Pressure and an ancient aura!

This was not her physical tail, but a phenomenon where a brief surge of power invoked deeper bloodlines and ancestral inheritance!

The dormant power of the Moon‑Shadow Fox Ancestor seemed to be triggered by the successive external anomalies and Ling Ling's own advancement, beginning some deeper… awakening!

Hum!

The entire silver‑white protective array resonated, flaring brilliantly! No longer a simple guard, it now carried a sense of scanning, probing, even… scrutinizing.

The light swept the whole Stone Chamber, focusing on the dark golden vines on Lin Yifan's right arm, the unconscious Xiao You, and the dark‑gold patterns on the surrounding walls.

The array's power seemed to briefly link the bloodline resonance caused by Ling Ling's advancement with the ancient relic imprint Lin Yifan unintentionally pried, connecting them together.

【Warning! Warning!】

The database interface in Lin Yifan's mind flickered wildly with red light.

【Detected high‑tier bloodline power interacting with the "Forbidden Barrier" base protocol! Energy pattern conflict! Information flow overload! Unable to parse!】

【Detected "Silent Extinction Star Beast" juvenile energy signature marked! Risk level increased!】

【Detected "Dark Erosion" unit activity abnormally heightened! Connection attempts intensifying!】

【Error! Error! Unknown protocol triggered… connection… connection established?!】

"Crack—"

A faint yet crystal‑clear shattering sound came from the stone wall beside Lin Yifan!

He whirled around and saw that at the center of the dark‑gold pattern he had just stained with his blood and resonated with the vines, a palm‑sized, wasp‑wing‑thin dark‑gold metal fragment had detached from the rock wall.

The patterns on this metal fragment were billions of times more intricate than any he had seen before. It emitted a faint warmth, as if alive, its surface flowing with liquid light, the patterns writhing and shifting like living things!

After detaching, it did not fall to the ground but, as if drawn by invisible threads, slowly hovered, its surface light growing ever brighter!

At the same time, the dark golden vines on Lin Yifan's right arm seemed to receive the strongest Summoning, growing wildly and dancing uncontrollably, the runes on them blazing, all pointing at the hovering metal fragment, emitting an intensely yearning hum!

The prompt tone from the database in Lin Yifan's mind had turned into chaotic noise, as if the system were operating at overload:

【…identifying…core…beacon…fragments…】

【…requesting connection…denied…permissions…】

【…linking "Key"…partial feature match…error…incomplete…】

【…maximum alert…relic defense protocol…may activate…】

The hovering dark‑gold metal fragment's light peaked, suddenly projecting a condensed dark‑gold beam composed of countless leaping runes, ignoring spatial distance and striking directly at the wildly dancing dark golden vines on Lin Yifan's right arm.

"Ah—!"

Lin Yifan felt his right arm as if thrown into a steel‑forging furnace! A far purer, older, more domineering energy than the previously absorbed spirit crystal energy, mixed with an immense, utterly incomprehensible torrent of complex information, surged madly up the vines into his body!

This was not nourishment, but more like forced infusion.

His meridians, Qi sea, even his soul core, all emitted a strained lament.

Blood pearls seeped again from his surface; his eyes, ears, and nostrils began to bleed!

【User vital signs dropping sharply! Energy overload! Soul overload!】

【Forced connection abort failed! Binding unit "Dark Erosion Vines" refused to execute!】

【Warning! Unknown information template writing into user's soul substrate!】

【…compatibility…extremely low…conflict…collapse risk…97%…】

Lin Yifan felt he was about to explode.

His flesh, soul, and consciousness were being forcibly reshaped and filled by this external, tyrannical force!

Just as his consciousness was about to completely dissipate and his body neared the limit of disintegration.

The 【Dawn Sword Embryo】, which had quietly floated deep within his dantian's Qi sea since the cave encounter, had saved him many times yet remained unmastered, for the first time trembled lightly, voluntarily.

A pure white sword intent, refined to the utmost, as if able to cut all causality and pierce all chaos, silently spread from the sword embryo, not to attack the outside but like the most precise scalpel, instantly slashing into the raging alien energy and information flood inside Lin Yifan's body!

Hiss!

No thunderous crash, only a profoundly "cutting" and "combing" sensation.

The forcibly infused domineering energy flow was forcibly diverted and guided by this supreme sword intent.

Most of it was absorbed and devoured by the 【Dawn Sword Embryo】 itself like a bottomless pit; a small portion was compressed, refined, and polished by the sword intent, becoming a trickle that Lin Yifan's body could barely endure, merging into his dried meridians and dantian.

The massive chaotic information flow was mercilessly sliced, filtered, and stripped of most uncarryable "impurities".

Only some core, relatively gentle "knowledge imprints" and "energy templates" remained, shallowly etched onto his soul's surface and the dark golden vines on his right arm.