Chapter 530: Victory, for now

In the underground top‑secret area of Qiu Ce Yuan, there are hardly any intact ground left.

The alloy walls softened and sagged, with silvery‑gray liquid flowing down the surface in thick strands.

The air is filled with a burnt smell.

Qin Zhixia half‑kneels on the ground, white hair sticking to her forehead; the mechanical prosthesis on her left arm is cracked open, exposing its internal frame.

Red alarm lights flash on her face, flickering erratically.

She lifts her right hand, palm gripping Ignorance.

Fire erupts from her palm lines, cracking her skin inch by inch.

"Lu Yu."

Her voice is hoarse.

"Can you still move?"

Opposite her, Lu Yu leans against a half‑collapsed restraint frame; the black core fragment in his chest pulses, expanding and contracting.

The Xingtian Domain remains only a thin layer clinging around them, barely holding back the fleshy tentacles outside.

He lifts his gaze upward.

Beyond the rift in the sky, that eye is still there.

It does not blink.

Nor does it need to.

It merely looks down.

Just by looking down, the rules inside the top‑secret area begin to rewrite.

Gravity swings left and right.

Sometimes the ground becomes a wall, sometimes the wall softens into water.

A security guard kneels ten meters away, hands over his ears, muttering words no one can understand.

After the third chant, his facial features collapse inward, and his whole body is compressed into a red‑and‑white mass.

Qin Zhixia doesn't even glance at it.

It's not that she doesn't want to.

She simply has no strength left.

The meat mountain formed by Xu Chen blocks the end of the passage, countless eyeballs opening and closing in the flesh seams.

It is no longer human.

Those eyeballs reflect the giant eye above, Lu Yu, Qin Zhixia, and also the alloy door behind them, dented from impact.

"God is watching me."

Xu Chen's voice squeezes out from over a dozen meat holes.

Male and female, old and young.

It makes listeners' scalps tighten.

"Team Leader Qin, aren't you supposed to be able to hold out?"

"Hold on longer."

"For the bigger picture, for the Federation, for those who don't even remember your name, keep burning your life."

Qin Zhixia lifts her head, her eyes filled with bloodshot veins.

"You talk too much."

White fire of Ignorance crawls from the back of her hand up to her shoulder.

The mechanical arm emits a sharp overload screech; a bolt flies off, grazing her cheek and leaving a bloody gash.

Xu Chen laughs.

Over a dozen mouths laugh together.

"You really are a blade raised by the Investigation Bureau."

"If the blade breaks, he'll just get another."

"But you only have one life."

Lu Yu coughs lightly twice, spitting blood mixed with black fragments.

He raises a hand to press against his chest.

The Taotie Core trembles.

It's not from injury.

It's fear.

When the afterglow of that high‑dimensional eye sweeps over him, the core inside him that once devoured heaven and earth sends out an almost instinctive urge to kneel.

Absurd.

But this is reality.

Before a higher‑order existence, the so‑called apocalyptic rebirth, the so‑called Taotie, the so‑called Xingtian are all reduced to toys.

Lu Yu lets out a low laugh.

It is light, tinged with the smell of blood.

"Truly embarrassing."

Qin Zhixia tilts her head.

"Who are you cursing?"

"I'm cursing myself."

Lu Yu lifts his eyes; black patterns re‑gather in the depths of his pupils.

"I've struggled for so long, only to be used as a coordinate by others."

Qin Zhixia tugged at her cracked lips.

"Not bad."

"At least you finally have self‑awareness."

Lu Yu gave her a glance.

"Team Leader Qin, is it a bit late to complain now?"

"Liang Wen's."

Qin Zhixia propped herself against the ruined wall, her mechanical arm hanging at her side, her fingers no longer able to grip.

"Not saying a few words before death—what a waste."

Xu Chen's Meat Mountain surged forward.

The ground was rolled into sticky, damp traces.

Countless tentacles emerged from deep within the Meat Mountain, each tip bearing a human face.

Those faces were crying, laughing, pleading, and chanting.

"Come back."

"Submit."

"Let the gods finish you."

Qin Zhixia lifted her foot.

A half step forward.

The bright Ignorant Fire suddenly flared up, scorching her white hair into a wild blaze.

Her skin began to develop tiny fissures, from which a pallid fire hue seeped.

Lu Yu's pupils contracted.

"If you keep going, you'll die."

Qin Zhixia did not look back.

"Spare me the lecture."

"When I was a police officer, you were still pretending to be a frail student."

Lu Yu was silent for half a second.

"I'm not frail."

"Shut up."

Qin Zhixia raised her battered mechanical arm, aiming at Xu Chen.

"Stay alive and go out to argue again."

At the summit of the Meat Mountain, Xu Chen's largest face split open to the base of the ear.

"Go out?"

"Who gave you permission to go out?"

In the next instant, a dozen tentacles launched simultaneously.

One of them slipped around the crack of the Xingtian Domain, reaching straight for Qin Zhixia's chest from the side.

Too fast.

So fast that Lu Yu could only raise his hand in time.

The black devouring vortex had just formed when it was dispersed by a high‑dimensional afterglow.

The Ignorant Fire in Qin Zhixia's hand was also locked by the Rules at that instant.

The tentacle tips split open, revealing rings of teeth.

It was only half a palm away from Qin Zhixia's heart.

Just then.

Above, the base ruins, dozens of meters thick, suddenly shook violently.

First, fine dust fell.

Then the entire ceiling caved inward.

Next, kiloton debris erupted from the center.

A jet of jet‑black flame pierced the strata, carrying battlefield smoke and the scent of blood, plummeting straight down from above.

The tentacle hadn't reached Qin Zhixia before being engulfed by the black flame, leaving almost no ash.

A gale swept broken Reinforced Steel Bar across the ultra‑secret zone.

Qin Zhixia was pushed back a half step by the gust, nearly falling.

A hand steadied her.

Jiang Yuan stood beside her.

The Black Combat Suit was torn beyond repair, blood still seeping from the chest, and the Card Bag was reduced to a half‑length hanging at the waist.

But those dim eyes shone terrifyingly bright.

Behind him, fragments of the Dark Shadow Court spread out, dense Black Card suspended in the air, each edge ignited with dark‑colored fire lines.

Su Ming landed from the other side, half his face covered in blood, his right hand clutching a still twitching Time Marrow Worm.

He glanced at Qin Zhixia, confirming she was still alive, then spoke coldly.

"Not late."

Liang Wen was the last to fall.

Saying "fell" is more like being thrown down.

He burst through half of the metal platform, rolled twice, and stood up leaning on the Black Flame Knife.

His hair was thoroughly disheveled.

Half of his Windcoat was gone.

But his frame remained.

"Dear audience members in the Ultra-Secret Zone."

Liang Wen coughed up blood‑foam, raised his knife and pointed at the Meat Mountain.

"Dark-Blooded King, make a dazzling return."

Su Ming's face was expressionless.

"If you say a few more words, Qin Team will really be done for."

Liang Wen broke his cultivation on the spot.

"Su Ming, can you give the wounded a bit of emotional value?"

Jiang Yuan did not take part.

He stared at Xu Chen, his palm slightly raised.

Black Card after Black Card flipped, and the pattern of the Shadow Throne floated on the faces.

Xu Chen's Meat Mountain halted.

Countless eyes turned toward the three of them.

"Is the front line over?"

"That Sai Men guy... actually lost?"

Jiang Yuan's voice was pressed down very low.

"Your host has already taken his final bow."

Xu Chen's dozen‑plus mouths twisted simultaneously.

"It's okay."

"It is still there."

"As long as It sees this place, as long as the coordinates remain, all victories and defeats are just jokes."

The giant eye above stared more intensely.

The alloy floor began to liquefy.

The shadow under Jiang Yuan's feet was crushed with a crackling sound.

Su Ming's Time Marrow Worm immediately curled into a ball.

Liang Wen's hand gripping the knife trembled once, then he cursed.

"This oppressive feeling really lacks martial virtue."

Lu Yu braced the restraint frame and stood upright.

Fragments of a black core in his chest emitted a harsh scraping sound.

He looked toward Jiang Yuan.

The two gazes met.

No need for idle talk.

Xu Chen is the anchor point.

If the anchor point doesn't break, that eye won't move.

Lu Yu raised his hand, pressed his chest, and his five fingers dug forcefully into flesh.

Black markings emerged from between his fingers, crawling up his arm to his shoulder.

Qin Zhixia frowned.

"What else do you intend to do?"

Lu Yu spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Pay back what I owe."

He lifted his head, his gaze passing Xu Chen, and fell on the pulsating gray flesh tumor deep within the Meat Mountain's Core.

"Its shell is protected by high‑dimensional rules; a frontal strike can't pierce it."

Su Ming replied quickly.

"Can you tear it open?"

"Can."

Lu Yu smiled rather awkwardly.

"The price is not small."

Liang Wen clicked his tongue.

Jiang Yuan raised his hand.

A Shadow Long Spear rose from the royal court.

One, two, ten, a hundred.

Each spear tip aimed at Xu Chen.

"I'll take the main attack."

Su Ming bit down on the Time Marrow Worm, his jaw clamped.

The worm's body ruptured, silver‑gray liquid surged into his mouth.

His temples bulged with blue veins, and the timeline before his eyes was forcibly straightened.

"I'm stalling time."

Liang Wen gripped the Black Flame Knife with both hands, and the black flame crawled from the blade to his shoulder.

"I slash."

Qin Zhixia leaned against the wall, white hair lifted by the heat wave.

Qin Zhixia stared at the backs of several people, Qin Zhixia's throat moved.

In the end, only two words were spat out.

"Alive."

Lu Yu lowered his head and smiled slightly.

"You say that, but it's not very convincing."

The next second, the Xingtian Domain beneath his feet unfolded in reverse.

It was not defense.

It was devouring.

A black vortex clung to the ground and rushed toward Xu Chen, forcibly biting the high-dimensional protective shell of the outer layer of the Meat Mountain.

Xu Chen let out a scream.

"You, dare defy the God?"

Lu Yu tore his hands to both sides, his chest flesh bursting open, and half of a black core fragment was pulled out.

"The one I oppose is Him."

A slit was torn in the outer shell of the Meat Mountain.

The gray flesh tumor was exposed.

Jiang Yuan moved.

The Dark Shadow Court fully opened.

Countless spears turned into a black rain curtain, piercing the outer layer of the Meat Mountain, pinning those faces dead in midair.

Xu Chen's tentacles wildly counterattacked.

Su Ming lifted his eyes.

"Slow."

A word fell.

Partial time was compressed to the limit.

The tentacles lagged in midair, the slime hovered, and even the diffusion of high-dimensional radiation was forcibly slowed.

Su Ming's seven orifices bled.

He gritted his teeth, forcing words out through the gaps between his teeth.

"Liang Wen, stop babbling."

Liang Wen lifted the Black Flame Knife.

The Black Flame Knife's blade drew dark fire scars dozens of meters long.

His adolescent swagger vanished.

This time there was only one sentence.

"Cut it for me."

The knife fell.

The Black Flame Knife slashed along the tear Lu Yu had ripped, cutting through the protective shell, the Meat Mountain, and the high-dimensional patterns on the outer layer of that gray flesh tumor.

Jiang Yuan's long spear then pierced through.

The time Su Ming compressed was released at the same point.

Lu Yu finally exerted force, the devouring vortex rolled back from within the flesh tumor, forcibly pulling out the connection between Xu Chen and the high-dimensional sight.

It was a gray-white thread.

Fine enough to be hard to catch.

Yet heavy enough to make space sag.

Jiang Yuan's pupils darkened.

All Black Cards merged into a throne card.

"Cut."

The throne card fell.

The gray-white thread snapped.

The Meat Mountain of Xu Chen let out a wail.

It was not a sound a single life could make, like tens of thousands of mouths being shoved into fire at once.

The Meat Mountain collapsed from within.

The eyeballs shattered.

The tentacles withered.

The gray flesh tumor was completely crushed by the Black Flame Knife, and even the fragments were mostly devoured by Lu Yu's devouring vortex.

Above, that giant eye paused.

It lost its coordinates.

It was still watching.

But the Ultra-Secret Zone no longer responded to it.

A few seconds later, the massive being beyond the rift in the heavens withdrew.

It was not leaving.

It seemed to have lost interest.

High-dimensional radiation withdrew like a tide.

The melting walls stopped flowing.

The chaotic gravity returned to its place.

The alarm light kept turning, red light sweeping over everyone's faces in circles.

Jiang Yuan knelt on the ground, and the Dark Shadow Court collapsed into a floor of Black Cards.

Su Ming slid down the wall, raised a hand to wipe his nosebleed, but his hand shook so badly he could barely hold the communicator.

Liang Wen plopped down on the rubble, the Black Flame Knife lying across his thigh.

He stared at the ceiling for two seconds.

"I declare."

"Today my overtime pay must be calculated at the level of a god-war."

No one laughed.

After a moment, Qin Zhixia walked over to Lu Yu's side.

Lu Yu half-kneeled on the ground, his chest flesh churning, the black core fragments retracting back into his body, his breath dropping to an alarming low.

Qin Zhixia looked down at him.

"Can you still stand?"

Lu Yu lifted his eyes.

"For now."

"That'll do."

Qin Zhixia turned and gazed over the devastated extreme-secret area.

"Report to Duke Wei."

"Anchor point cleared."

Jiang Yuan pushed himself up on his knees, took a few breaths, and nodded.

"Yes."

Su Ming pressed the communicator; his fingertip had just touched the button when he stopped.

He lifted his head.

The extreme-secret area was very quiet.

So quiet it gave one the creeps.

No high-dimensional sight.

No Xu Chen.

No Sai Men.

Only the smell of scorchedness, blood, and the pungent odor of leaked medicine remained.

And the ragged breathing of the survivors.

They had won.

At least for now, they had won.

But in a dark corner of the ceiling that no one noticed, a surveillance camera long overdue for scrapping slowly turned a notch.

The red light came on.

It was operating normally.

At the other end of the screen.

Someone was watching.