378: A desperate measure: reverse poisoning

In the Command Hall.

Time seemed to have been stretched into viscous amber, and all sounds had faded away.

Zhao Linger's weeping and Fatty Zhang's wailing had turned into the blurred background noise of another world.

Lin Fan knelt on the cold metal floor, maintaining the posture of that embrace.

His arms were empty.

He could not even feel a single trace of Hanyue's lingering warmth.

"Cannot be resurrected."

Those four blood-red characters on the System panel were like four red-hot rivets, piercing through his Divine Soul.

All his trump cards, all his reliance, had become a cold joke at this moment.

He could perform Infinite Resurrection.

But he could not save her, the one who had blocked the End for him.

Fury and regret did not erupt like a volcano; instead, they settled down, congealing in his chest into a substance colder and harder than ten-thousand-year black ice.

His body stopped trembling.

His eyes, which had bled from the corners due to him staring so intensely, also slowly returned to calm.

A deathly calm.

He slowly stood up from the ground.

"Lin Fan..."

Zhao Linger raised her head, her eyes teary, her voice hoarse.

Lin Fan did not look at her; his gaze fell upon his own empty palms.

Li Hanyue had been erased by the concept of "End."

This was an overwriting of "existence" itself, originating from a higher dimension.

Conventional resurrection methods could not possibly take effect on a target that had been completely defined as "non-existent."

It was like trying to repair a piece of paper that had already been burned to ash.

Unless...

In Lin Fan's mind, countless data streams were frantically flashing, colliding, and reorganizing.

Unless he could extract the "fire" that burned the paper from the ashes.

The concept of "End" had been applied by that Elder.

That Elder belonged to the Anomaly Elimination Alliance.

That Elder had just performed a mandatory underlying scan on him.

The channel for the scan was the "Shackle of the Soul."

A thought, crazy to the extreme and absurd to the limit, tore through all the despair and darkness in his mind like a black lightning bolt.

Since the "End" was a "virus" at the rule level.

Since the "Shackle of the Soul" was a "network" that could perform data transmission.

Then, could he... extract the lethal "virus" from Li Hanyue, and then "cast" it back along the same path through this "network"?

Reverse poisoning!

As soon as this thought appeared, he instantly denied it himself.

That was an Elder-level existence, a monster capable of dimensional strikes.

Poisoning him? It was no different from an ant spitting at the sun.

But...

Lin Fan's thinking entered a state of absolute, inhuman calculation.

He was not trying to kill that Elder.

He only needed to "graft" the continuously active "End" brand from Li Hanyue's already disintegrated Soul Origin.

As long as he could strip this "End" concept from her for even a second.

A logical loophole might appear in the System's "Cannot be resurrected" judgment.

He might then be able to create a sliver of a chance to save her.

"System."

Lin Fan's will resonated in his Sea of Consciousness, cold and clear.

"Scan the entire Command Hall and find the remaining rule traces of the 'End' concept. Spare no cost."

[Command confirmed.]

[Starting high-dimensional rule trace scan... existence value will be consumed.]

On Lin Fan's System panel, the percentage of his existence value began to drop at a terrifying speed.

[9.999%...] [9.998%...] [9.997%...]

The space of the entire Command Hall instantly changed in Lin Fan's "eyes."

Countless light fragments, invisible to the naked eye and resembling broken code, floated in the air.

Those were the final traces left behind after Li Hanyue's "existence" was erased.

And at the core of these light fragments, a wisp of "concept," deeper than nothingness and resembling black cracks, was tightly entwined around them, constantly wearing them away.

That was the brand of the "End."

Found it!

"System, perform a 'Karma Grafting' between this 'End' brand and Li Hanyue's Soul Origin traces, and package it into an independent 'Logic Virus' data packet."

[Warning: 'Karma Grafting' is a high-risk operation. It requires mandatory tampering with two supreme rules. Success rate is lower than 0.01%.]

[Warning: If it fails, the Host will be backlashed by the 'End' concept, resulting in the total erasure of existence. The 'Infinite Resurrection' protocol will be permanently invalidated.]

The cold warning did not cause Lin Fan's will to waver in the slightest.

"Execute."

[Command confirmed.]

['Karma Grafting' program initiated...]

[Building virus data packet... existence value is continuously being consumed...]

Not enough.

He needed a transmission channel.

A channel that would allow that high-and-mighty Elder to lean down once more and personally "receive" this "gift."

Lin Fan's consciousness instantly switched to his Clone in the Area D-3 Mining Zone.

Inside the dim stone chamber.

Those seventy-plus Xin Huo Members were still immersed in boundless horror.

They watched as No. 7754 slowly stood up, his aura undergoing a heaven-turning, earth-shattering change, their Divine Souls trembling.

Just then.

That expressionless "Poor Worm" spoke.

His voice was not loud, but it clearly resonated in the depths of every Xin Huo Member's consciousness, piercing through layers of space and transmitting toward the endless Chaos Void.

"Elder of the Anomaly Elimination Alliance."

"Your 'End' has flaws."

This abrupt, inexplicable sentence left all the Xin Huo Members stunned.

Lord Kindling... who is he talking to?

Moreover, the content of those words was simply rebellious to the extreme!

However, the next instant.

A familiar, terrifying will, capable of freezing the Soul, descended once again.

It was colder and more magnificent than the last time.

"Logic virus, are you speaking to me?"

The Elder's voice exploded directly within the Kindling Local Area Network.

He was clearly still tracking that false coordinate, but this provocation from Lin Fan successfully attracted a sliver of his attention.

On the face of Lin Fan's Clone, for the first time, a look that could be described as "mockery" appeared.

"I am just a program error that you cleaned up."

"But before being 'Ended,' I saw an interesting phenomenon."

"Your 'End' concept was contaminated by another rule when you erased me."

"It is... mutating."

Lin Fan's voice was full of seduction.

He was gambling.

Gambling on the obsessive-compulsive nature of an existence that held "Order" as its highest creed.

A perfect program would never allow any flaws to appear.

Somewhere in the Chaos Void.

That figure wearing dark golden armor stopped the pursuit.

His gaze, like a neutron star, pierced through incalculable distances and once again locked onto that lowly slave in the Tomb of the Epoch.

Mutation?

His rules were the ultimate truth of the Universe; how could they mutate?

But, caution was the first element of maintaining Order.

"Show me."

The cold will carried a hint of unquestionable command.

This was exactly what Lin Fan was waiting for.

"As you wish."

He slowly raised his hand.

In the Command Hall.

Lin Fan's main body, his eyes blood-red, stared fixedly at the System panel.

['Karma Grafting' complete!]

['End Virus' data packet generated!]

[Detected high-dimensional data transmission channel is open...]

Now!

"System! Disguise the 'End Virus' data packet as a 'mutated data stream' and upload!"

Lin Fan let out a final, hysterical roar in his heart.

The remaining existence value on his panel, which was already scarce, instantly plummeted to zero.

[Warning: existence value reached zero!]

[Warning: Host existence is in a critical state!]

An indescribable sense of weakness swept over Lin Fan's main body.

His body began to turn transparent once again.

This was the final gamble, risking everything.

Area D-3 Mining Zone.

On the raised palm of Lin Fan's Clone, a wisp of data stream, so weak it was almost invisible and resembling a black electric arc, slowly emerged.

It looked full of ominousness and Chaos.

That was exactly the brand of the "End" that Lin Fan had packaged.

The will from the Chaos Void showed a clear fluctuation the moment it "saw" this wisp of data stream.

It was indeed his "End" concept.

But it was stained with some chaotic and stubborn "Impurities" that did not belong to it.

Those "Impurities" were exactly the final trace of Li Hanyue's Soul Origin, which was about to be completely obliterated.

The Elder's logic began to operate once again along the track laid by Lin Fan.

This "Logic Virus" born inside a low-class slave actually possessed the characteristic of contaminating the "End" concept?

This was no longer a simple program error.

This was a major security vulnerability that had to be immediately recovered, analyzed, and eradicated.

"Transmit it... to me."

The Elder's will issued the final command.

It worked!

A sense of wild joy from surviving a disaster surged in Lin Fan's heart.

The wisp of black data stream on his Clone's palm instantly turned into an invisible signal, flowing upstream along that high-dimensional data channel, shooting toward the end of the Chaos Void.

The next second.

The terrifying pressure that had shrouded the entire Tomb of the Epoch receded like a tide.

The Elder's will also disappeared completely.

He had already obtained the "research sample" he wanted.

In the Command Hall.

Lin Fan's already semi-transparent body trembled violently.

Deep in his Sea of Consciousness, on the System panel, that line of blood-red "Cannot be resurrected" text, after flashing frantically.

With a "pop" sound.

It shattered.