374: The Elder's Arrival and "System Diagnosis"

The scorched earth after the purge emitted a strange smell of burnt protein mixed with debris of Laws.

The world was in dead silence.

The seventy-plus surviving Xin Huo Members stood dazed within their respective "Absolute Law Vacuum Zones," like people standing on isolated islands, watching the land outside that had been formatted clean.

Their companions who had been roaring and charging just moments ago had already turned into the most insignificant dust in the Universe.

Their consciousnesses, passing through Chaos and fear, finally converged on the corner of that dimly lit stone chamber.

That "Poor Worm" who was still curled up and trembling.

It was not fear.

Nor was it gratitude.

It was a primitive awe, akin to looking up at a god.

At this moment, the two words "Kindling" were no longer just a codename, but a brand, deeply carved into the Origin of their Divine Souls.

In the Command Hall.

Lin Fan's true form ignored the crazily rising loyalty values.

All of his focus was immersed in the core structural map of the entire base, which he had stolen during the Chaos.

His gaze quickly swept over this massive and complex three-dimensional star map, skipping over the heavily defended armory and the highest-authority command center.

Finally, his line of sight froze on the very center of the entire Tomb of the Epoch, the core area wrapped in countless layers of top-tier Restrictions.

On the blueprint, all energy extracted from the slaves and all Law crystals mined eventually flowed there, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.

It was an altar.

A magnificent altar with an ancient style and bizarre shape, as if it did not belong to this epoch.

And at the end of the energy flow, at the core of the altar, the blueprint marked an ultimate conceptual rune that could not be parsed, only its form described.

The System panel in Lin Fan's Sea of Consciousness, the moment it saw that rune, unexpectedly and without warning, exhibited a trace of an extremely slight fluctuation that even he had almost failed to notice.

The form of that rune... was almost identical to a certain underlying code in his System interface.

Just as Lin Fan's mind was shaken to the core, an indescribable and terrifying pressure descended upon the entire Tomb of the Epoch without warning.

It was not the oppression of energy.

Nor was it the suppression of Laws.

It was a "downgrading" from a higher dimension.

As if in an instant, the time and space of the entire Tomb of the Epoch had been forcibly pulled out of the three-dimensional Universe, turning into a static two-dimensional painting.

All the piercing alarms stopped abruptly.

All chaotic energy calmed down instantly.

The thoughts of all prisoners, along with their breathing and heartbeats, were frozen at this very moment.

Only within the Kindling Local Area Network, due to the protection of Lin Fan's existence value, could they still carry on the faintest communication, like a candle flickering in the wind.

"W-what happened?"

"I can't move..."

"The... Divine Soul is about to be frozen!"

Lin Fan's Clone could still move its eyeballs with great difficulty.

He saw that above the dome of the base, the chaotic sky had cracked open to reveal a pitch-black fissure.

A figure wearing dark golden armor, inscribed with scenes of the birth and death of the Universe, walked out slowly from within.

He did not emit any aura.

But his very existence made the entire world lose its color.

Anomaly Elimination Alliance, Elder.

This entity merely glanced coldly at the land below, which had been left in a mess by the purge, without the slightest emotional fluctuation.

As if what had been formatted were not tens of thousands of lives, but a few inconsequential program errors.

Then, a cold will, devoid of any emotion but capable of piercing through all Souls, resonated in the minds of every frozen prisoner.

"The root of the riot is a type of unknown Law contamination."

"Defined as: 'Logic Virus'."

"To eradicate the virus and ensure the stability of the base, we are now conducting a mandatory underlying scan and diagnostic upgrade on the 'Shackle of the Soul' of all slave units."

This voice, like a final judgment, instantly extinguished all the hope that had just ignited in the hearts of the Xin Huo Members.

A mandatory underlying scan?

That meant that the sliver of freedom they had just gained, the cracks they had just opened on the shackles, would all be completely exposed and then repaired in a way ten thousand times more cruel.

Everyone's consciousness turned once again toward that "Poor Worm" in the corner.

Lord Kindling... what should we do this time?

Lin Fan's Clone was still "violently" trembling.

His face was full of "despair" and "fear."

But deep in his heart, Lin Fan's true form was almost laughing out loud.

Virus scanning?

Isn't this the best channel for spreading the virus?

He was just worrying about how to implant the "Hope Virus" on a large scale and silently into the shackles of more slaves, and the other party had proactively delivered an opportunity.

"What a good person."

Lin Fan silently issued a card to this Elder in his heart.

The descending Elder seemed to have sensed something.

His gaze, dead silent like two neutron stars, pierced through layers of space and locked directly onto the slave barracks of the Area D-3 Mining Zone.

More accurately, it locked onto that Number 7754, who was curled up in the corner, looking the weakest and most inconspicuous.

In the previous "A-level incident" report, all data was seamless.

Only one point contained a logical paradox that could not be understood.

That was this Number 7754.

He was at the core of the energy backlash, yet he only suffered from "Soul shock."

This was unreasonable.

"The diagnostic upgrade will begin from the D-3 Zone, where data anomalies are most concentrated."

The Elder's cold voice rang out again.

"I will personally scan the first sample."

Before the voice had faded, the space in front of Lin Fan's Clone distorted.

The Elder wearing the dark golden armor had already appeared out of thin air in front of him, looking down at him from above.

Time was still frozen.

In the entire stone chamber, only Lin Fan's Clone, having been locked onto by the Elder, had regained the ability to move.

He raised his head in terror, looking at this entity that brought ultimate despair, his body trembling like a leaf in the wind.

The Elder slowly raised his hand.

It was a hand wrapped in a dark golden gauntlet; every knuckle seemed to contain the weight of a Universe.

"Your data is very interesting."

The Elder's will resonated directly in Lin Fan's Soul.

"Let me see what secrets are hidden in the Soul of this little mouse."

That cold index finger, which seemed capable of freezing all concepts, slowly reached out toward the center of Lin Fan's brow.

Under the desperate "gaze" of all Xin Huo Members, and under the expectant gaze of Lin Fan's true form in the Command Hall.

The fingertip was about to touch the skin.

Lin Fan's disguise, all his secrets, seemed about to be completely revealed in the next second.