GRMFBS CH197

Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, Central Control Room.

Ning Xi had already received the data report from the Hengtian Instrument. He calculated several locations and planes where the apocalypse was most likely to approach.

He stared at the data, frowning for a long time, then said: “Get ready. We may need to activate the formation at any time within the next hour.”

In the center of the formation, Ji Yueming wore the Tianshi’s robe and a thunder-patterned mask. She looked up at the sky. In the vision only visible to transcendents, the gray-blue shadow was becoming increasingly dense, like a wet water stain on fabric, ready to drip at any moment.

“Central node received.” She lowered her head, thunder patterns flickering at her fingertips.

Instructions spread along the signal.

At the four directional nodes of the formation, responses were transmitted one by one.

“Node 1 received.”

“Node 2 received.”

“Node 3 received.”

…

In the control room, Director Yan Chu waited until all nodes had reported back before taking a deep breath and asking Ning Xi: “Are you sure?”

Yan Chu was an anomaly among cultivators. Her serious cultivation hadn’t amounted to much; instead, she was obsessed with making money and climbing up the ranks. She was indeed good at this, so she made it all the way to the position of Director. However, she usually spent her time coordinating relationships and arguing everywhere, which could be considered an alternative form of logistics.

For matters involving the supernatural which she wasn’t good at, Yan Chu always left full authority to Ning Xi. But the bordering of the apocalypse was too big a matter, so she was also sitting here now.

The formation that the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had been preparing for so long had only one function: isolation.

This formation was completed in cooperation with the Wan Yao Alliance, relying on the world barrier of this world. Activating this formation could completely isolate the contact between the apocalypse and this world.

This was a measure to ensure ultimate safety, and also a compensation for that small fragment of the world lost in someone else’s hands. If the bordering of the apocalypse would bring irreparable losses, then activate this formation to completely block any possibility.

But the apocalypse hadn’t arrived yet. They still had a bunch of means and plans. Nothing had started yet, and they were already going to use the ultimate measure? Isn’t that a bit hasty, brother?

Yan Chu was actually quite looking forward to the apocalypse bordering this world. That world had no living beings left. What did this mean? This meant it was a large piece of ownerless resource land!

Resources meant money!

But now the little money she had been looking forward to for a long time was going to disappear before she even saw a shadow of it. Yan Chu began to feel distressed.

Ning Xi knew her old habit, glanced at her, and began to explain: “I calculated the possible locations where the apocalypse might border…”

“Wait a minute,” Yan Chu looked at him cautiously, “You calculated?”

Ning Xi: “My cultivation is crippled, not my brain. What’s so difficult about deducing possibilities based on the known situation?”

It’s not difficult. Other diviners would commit suicide hearing this.

“I used the previous data from the Hengtian Instrument to calculate some possibilities, but none of them match the current result,” Ning Xi continued.

Although he lost his cultivation and couldn’t receive revelations from heaven and earth to calculate the future like before, deducing future possibilities based on known conditions didn’t necessarily require cultivation. Even ordinary people could look at clouds to predict the next day’s weather.

The apocalypse was already very close to this world. The Hengtian Instrument’s data was detected based on the current situation, and the result could almost be presumed. Even if there were errors, they wouldn’t be large.

But Ning Xi had just reverse-engineered based on the presumed result re-estimated from the Hengtian Instrument’s detection. This was not a normal way of bordering.

“I don’t know what tricks Infinity played, but I can’t gamble,” Ning Xi said.

Their understanding of Infinity was still insufficient. This sudden pulling closer of the apocalypse was a method they couldn’t foresee.

Ning Xi distributed the results recalculated based on the Hengtian Instrument data. Since they decided to open the formation, it didn’t matter where the apocalypse would border. But Rong Sui would likely appear there, and so would the hidden power of Infinity.

The personnel he arranged in the black market reported that the Artisan had likely left the black market.

“Contact the Wan Yao Alliance,” Ning Xi murmured.

They made two preparations. Besides isolation, there was also welcoming. Similarly, it was through the world barrier. The arrangement on how to accept the apocalypse was the responsibility of the Wan Yao Alliance. But if welcoming turned into isolation, the Wan Yao Alliance would be responsible for pushing the apocalypse away when it was isolated, making the two worlds pass each other by.

The effective time of such a formation was limited. He needed to seize the best timing to provide enough time for the Wan Yao Alliance to deviate the apocalypse’s direction. After that, the apocalypse would continue forward along its inertia. The current Infinity could use means to pull it in following the inertia of the apocalypse, but it didn’t have the ability to pull it back against the inertia of a world.

On the Gossip System, the countdown panel for the apocalypse bordering time shortened rapidly. However, the only person who could see it was still deep in a dream.

In a vision unreachable by ordinary people, the gray-blue shadow at the zenith grew larger and larger.

The first to perceive the new change was the Minghe Ghost King.

She leaned under the Wenyu Tree, her half-closed eyes suddenly opened, looking up into the distance: “Death aura… but…”

She dipped her pale hand into the Minghe, sending her message out.

Every branch and leaf of the Xunmu Demon King began to tremble: “Power of the Candle Dragon? Why is there so much?”

Gu Jiancheng closed his eyes. The sea of shadows spread in his consciousness. Every place where a shadow mark had been left surfaced in his consciousness.

One place, two places, three places…

Under the blazing July sun, pedestrians hurried, cicadas chirped restlessly, and even the shade of trees was so hot that people didn’t want to stay.

The scorching air suddenly appeared with noise like disordered TV signals. Fine time dust solidified, gradually revealing ferocious monster figures—monsters from the apocalyptic world.

“So that’s it.” Gu Jiancheng murmured low.

Infinity collected the power of the Candle Dragon and, with the influence brought by the approach of the apocalypse itself, projected phantoms of the past into the present.

“Tsk.” He reported a series of addresses into the phone, “These places are yours. You can contact the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, right? Or the Wan Yao Alliance is fine too. Let them handle other places, don’t come to my place to interfere.”

Zhuo Xun shouted at him from the other end of the phone: “Wait! Don’t hang up! Big boss, where does ‘your place’ refer to?”

Gu Jiancheng: “East of the Hengduan Mountains.”

He hung up the phone and suddenly merged into the shadows.

Zhuo Xun was dumbfounded on the other end of the phone.

Zong Xiaoping poked him: “Brother Zhuo, east of the Hengduan Mountains… how big is that? Such a large area, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau can’t possibly ignore it, right?”

Zhuo Xun held it in for a long time: “Awesome.”

…

Zhan Suiru leaned on the motorcycle with one hand. Images of old days appeared and disappeared around her. They always appeared quickly as a scene, then suddenly shattered before people could see clearly, turning into another scene. But they were all familiar, familiar enough that Zhan Suiru could recognize where and when they came from with just a glance.

“Sorry, the descent of past projections is random; your existence interfered with them. I didn’t intentionally make projections of your memory appear here.” “Tequila” shrugged and said.

He caused the projections, but what content was projected had nothing to do with him. This space from the past, under the blessing of the Candle Dragon’s power, possessed the nature of a Candle Dragon remnant. It became an independent space, able to stop those who came looking to disturb them.

The projections around Zhan Suiru became more and more real.

The image of Hope Base flashed, turning into ruins in the blink of an eye, flickering again and again.

Vibrant base, broken and deadly silent ruins.

Base, ruins. Base, ruins.

Every base was different, and every ruin was different too.

Time tied knot after knot; dust accumulated like heavy snow.

Zhan Yan saw the last knot.

That was twenty-six years ago.

Rong Sui once broke free from the infinite reincarnation. She continued the fate of this world.

For Infinity, this was an unstable instance. So at the critical moment of the war, it decided to thoroughly extract the energy of this world.

Pollution began.

First were the surviving ordinary animals and plants, then ordinary people, starting from those with weak mental power, then ability users. Even mental-type ability users who could originally use mental barriers to protect others began to be polluted. The Lord’s mental domain could no longer shelter them.

Each of them had been polluted in past reincarnations. Traces of pollution were left in their souls. Today’s shelter couldn’t cross time and couldn’t save them from the pollution of the past.

But Rong Sui had never been polluted. She always died before being polluted.

So she could only watch.

Yang Ran was the last one.

“Sister Sui Sui.” He stood in the empty, deadly silent base, dragging one leg with difficulty. He wasn’t injured, but that leg was turning into a tree.

He grabbed Rong Sui’s hand and pressed it to his chest. Beneath the flesh and blood, buried his ability core.

He gripped her hand hard, whispering: “I’m about to be polluted…”

Rong Sui didn’t close her eyes.

Her hand held tightly by Yang Ran slowly exerted force, sinking into his flesh and blood. Amidst his trembling smile, she grabbed that core covered in cracks from his flesh.

“If your ability causes you pain, use mine.”

Their hands clasped in his chest cavity.

“You won’t be polluted.” Rong Sui’s voice was hoarse.

Her eyes were a sheet of silvery white, without tears. Overflowing blood dripped into his chest cavity, onto their hands.

“I’ll give everyone an ending.”

The snow-white light grew brighter and brighter, surging out just like it once sheltered Hope Base. The mental power storm accumulated and honed through countless reincarnations enveloped the entire world.

Her ability core shattered inside her body.

The blinding white cleansed the filth, breaking through pollution, breaking through rust stains and mud, breaking through this submerged world.

Silent explosion.

…

The shadow of the apocalypse had formed a clear picture at the zenith.

Desolate, broken, deadly silent, resembling the phantoms around Zhan Suiru like a reflection.

A point of fluorescence flickered in the ruins.

“Tequila” looked down and picked out a shining ring from the ruins: “Key ring.”

The chibi doll hanging on it had broken off, leaving only this key ring soaked in death aura and mottled with scars.

“There’s a secret in here, do you know?”

Another real key ring rubbed in Zhan Suiru’s palm.

“Tequila” smiled gently and broke open the key ring from the past projection in his hand.

Inside its overlapping interior, a line of engraving was hidden:

“Sui Sui Ping An (Peace year after year).”

“Tequila” looked up at the zenith.

“Look, it’s already very close.”

“What you want is also very close.”

What a weak emotion love is; it becomes everyone’s greatest weakness.

“Infinity?” Zhan Suiru raised her eyes, her gaze deep cold as ice.

“I’ve been waiting for you to appear for a long time.”

This treacherous and cautious world consciousness finally deigned to cast a trace of real consciousness here at this time.

Zhan Suiru tore off the necklace around her neck.

“Tequila” looked at that silver cube almost greedily.

It had wanted the fragment of the apocalyptic world for a long time too.

Zhan Suiru let go. The silver cube fell onto the phantom of the ruins, unfolding into a workshop.

But there was no infinite fragment it wanted hidden in the workshop. It fell to the ground, walls flipping, corridors extending, floors spreading. The workshop room was arched high by the new structure, overlapping with the once room atop the high tower. The fruits of machinery and industry were growing; in the blink of an eye, it had become a base—Hope Base.

The Artisan’s fortress was rebuilt upon the ruins.

Gears turned, chains stretched, machinery roared.

Zhan Suiru stood atop the high tower. No enclosed walls, no isolating windows. The fierce sun shone straight on her. Xiao Ran stood behind her.

She smiled gently under “Tequila’s” surprised gaze.

“The world fragment isn’t on me.”

Blood overflowed from Zhan Suiru’s eyes. The overloaded manufacturing ability broke through limits under the usage of the originally strongest mental power ability user. The fully enclosed fortress blocked Infinity’s consciousness from escaping.

It was captured within this fortress.

The fortress coming to life let out a roar, locking all hostility onto “Tequila”.

The reflection of the apocalypse was clearly mirrored at the zenith.

Below the ruins, above the fortress, she gazed at Infinity’s consciousness.

“Compared to saving him, I’d rather take him and perish together with you.”

Infinity sensed things slightly slipping out of control: “Without the world fragment, you will do.”

It detached from Tequila, rushing towards Zhan Suiru: “You come from the apocalyptic world, and are also the key to open it.”

Central Control Room.

Ning Xi ordered: “Activate the formation.”

The mask was taken off; the Tianshi’s robe moved without wind.

Thunder patterns wove underfoot, connecting nodes lighting up one by one. Bright lightning was drawn on the earth, then rushed to the sky, weaving into a net on the world barrier.

The hanging reflection stagnated.

The cries of the Chongming Bird hovered in the air; the vigorous demon power of the great demons rushed out beyond the world barrier.

The stagnant reflection moved slowly.

Infinity finally realized the omen of failure.

Chains of steel locked its consciousness under the ability breaking through limits.

“I don’t understand,” it said. “Doing this, you can at most only obliterate a trace of my consciousness. Is it worth it?”

Zhan Suiru didn’t answer. She opened her arms.

Xiao Ran embraced her from behind. Gear pupils turned, mechanical lips opened: “Sui…”

The mental power that once filled the ability core surged out, rushing towards the unprepared consciousness of Infinity under Zhan Suiru’s guidance.

Dark red mental power like blood left a brand on its will, and thereby located Infinity’s complete will, echoing and spreading on its weak will.

This brand had only one function—rejecting all non-compatible worlds.

From now on, Infinity could never use other worlds to revive again.

Infinity’s will finally became shocked and angry. It began to struggle violently, wanting to force back those blood-colored mental powers.

But they entangled it deadly tight under a firmer will.

Blood was overflowing from all of Zhan Suiru’s facial features. With the key ring on her finger, she guided the mental power to grip hard. Dark red mental power flowed from her back to her palm, like flowing blood.

They flowed from her fingertips onto Infinity’s consciousness.

Zhan Suiru looked up at the sky. Her home, her ruins, everything she deeply loved that was once destroyed.

She clenched her five fingers tight, just like she gripped Yang Ran’s ability core back then.

Faces of family flashed across the bottom of her heart.

Dad and mom who secretly bought her sculptures, the older brother who helped her fight behind the scenes, the younger brother who discovered she didn’t sleep well and drank milk with her for months…

Her world was already dead. Then let her, this surviving orphan, be destroyed under its remains, letting this world flourish brilliantly.

…

Zhan Yan woke up with a start.

Rong Sui… Rong Sui is the Artisan, Rong Sui is older sister!

Older sister!!

Older sister!!!

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