96: Chapter 96 My Fate, Never to Return to the Seabed

The moment the cold dew in Chen Fan's palm touched Su Shuang's fingertips, the ice cocoon cracked with a "clack," forming spiderweb-like fissures.

The faint pink fox tattoo at the corner of her eye flickered as her eyelashes trembled; when her starry eyes half-opened, they brought forth a wisp of eerie light, like a pearl kissed by moonlight floating in a cold pool.

"That bell... isn't a divine artifact, it's a coffin." Her voice was as light as a feather in the sea mist, yet it pierced precisely into Chen Fan's ear.

He squatted down, his knees making the broken coral on the seabed creak, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Shuanger?" Su Shuang's fingertip lightly pointed toward the bottom of the Bewildering Bell, where a dark pattern was glowing in sync with the bell's tolling. The twisted curvature of the lines was exactly the same as the Sealing Runes he had seen on the kindling stele.

"Inside is imprisoned the first person who said 'no'." Her voice trailed off with a tremble, but the fox tattoo became increasingly clear. "I... can hear his heartbeat."

The hairs on the back of Chen Fan's neck stood on end.

He remembered in the previous dungeon, Luo Yan's remnant soul always said "Star Speaker is not a code name." At this moment, that ethereal voice suddenly exploded in his ear: "The first Star Speaker, 'Luo Yan', was never just one person."

It's Luo Yan!

Chen Fan turned his head sharply, but only saw a faint golden halo floating over Su Shuang's shoulder—it was the manifestation of the Star Speaker's remnant soul.

A somber male voice came from the halo: "Every Awakened is captured by the system and sealed into the 'Eye of Slumber'.

They use the flesh and blood of the predecessor to nourish a 'Purifier', and then let the Purifier kill the next successor."

"So Lan Ji..." Chen Fan looked at the silver-haired priestess not far away.

Lan Ji was clutching the fragments of the Tide-Sound Bell, her fish tail unconsciously slapping the ground, her aqua-blue scales still stained with broken coral. "She is also a chosen Purifier?"

The one who answered him wasn't Luo Yan, but a soft sound.

The Cold Dew Spring suddenly surged, and countless transparent bubbles floated up from the bottom of the spring.

Each bubble trapped a fragment of memory: players in novice gear being pushed off an altar, deep-sea gene fluid slithering into their veins like venomous snakes; the skin of the failures sprouting coral branches, their eyeballs turning a murky gray; the successful ones being pressed onto stone platforms covered in incantations, their foreheads branded with a glowing "Oath of the Pure Sea."

In the last bubble, a young girl was held down by the back of her neck, her silver hair stained with blood and plastered to her pale face.

When the incantation on her forehead lit up, Chen Fan saw clearly that it was Lan Ji—a Lan Ji ten years younger than she was now.

"They are afraid of us remembering, so they created a god to forget for us." Chen Fan clenched his fist, and the Flame Marrow in his palm suddenly grew hot, clashing with the cold dew to produce fine sparks of blue light.

When the system notification sounded, he didn't even have time to read the content—[Water and Fire Harmony successful, unlocked "Energy Discharge Backlash": Overload critical hits can be converted into environmental eruptions.]

The Bewildering Bell suddenly vibrated violently.

The bronze surface cracked with spiderweb patterns, and the giant eye in the shadows opened completely, its dark-gold pupils swirling with mechanical cold light: "High-risk Awakened detected, initiating removal protocol—Code Name: Tide Mother, execute purification."

"Tide Mother..." Lan Ji murmured the repetition, her fish tail suddenly becoming as stiff as iron.

She looked up at Su Shuang on Chen Fan's back, then at the memory bubbles still rising, the fragments of the Tide-Sound Bell cutting her palm until it bled. "I... am not a tool?"

Chen Fan did not answer.

He stared at the crack opening at the top of the Bewildering Bell, where ink-colored mist was seeping out—a precursor to the system's erasure of the Eye of Slumber.

He gently placed Su Shuang by the spring. The Flame Marrow and cold dew in his palm merged into a two-colored flame; as the tongues of fire licked across the "Fate-breaking mark," the lines glowed so brightly they seemed ready to burn through his skin.

"You seal him, I release him; you create a god, I smash the god." He gave a low shout and leaped upward along the cracks in the bell's body.

With every step he jumped, the system frantically notified [Critical Hit Triggered]. The golden light of the ninth critical hit enveloped him as he crashed into the eye of the bell.

"Boom!"

Bronze fragments exploded like rain.

The Eye of Slumber shattered amidst the roar, and a beam of starlight broke through the sea, piercing the dome of the Water Palace like a silver sword.

Chen Fan was sent crashing into a coral pillar by the shockwave, but he grinned, revealing white teeth—he saw a faint golden mist floating out of the shattered bell; it was the Star Speaker's consciousness that had been sealed for a hundred years.

"I... remember now..." Lan Ji knelt among the broken coral, the pearl hair ornaments in her silver hair scattered all over the ground.

When she looked up, the murkiness in her eyes had completely faded. "My name is... Lan."

Iron Gill walked out of the shadows and patted her shoulder with a fin.

This usually stern-faced sea race warrior didn't speak, but simply made a gesture toward the surface—the horizon was surging with an eerie blue light, as if some gargantuan entity was about to emerge from the water.

Chen Fan bent over and picked up Su Shuang.

She leaned against the crook of his neck, her fox tattoo already so faint it was almost invisible, yet she still tugged at his sleeve: "Did we win?"

"The fire is suppressed, and you've been saved." He used his blood-stained thumb to wipe the ice shards from her face and turned to look at the Cold Dew Spring.

Floating there was a piece of faded blue cloth he had brought from the construction site—it was densely covered with the names of his old fellow workers. "The debt... must also continue to be repaid."

He let go, and the blue cloth sank into the spring.

Two-colored flames suddenly erupted from the bottom of the spring, wrapping around the strip of cloth and shooting straight toward the surface, like a lamp guiding the souls of the wronged.

Above the sea, the fiery word "Chen Fan" in the ruins of the Starlight Tower was still burning.

And deep beneath the sea, amidst the wreckage of the shattered bell, an illusory hand slowly rose, its fingertip lightly tapping against Chen Fan's heart.

The system suddenly emitted a piercing chime: [Detected consciousness resonance with the first Star Speaker, unlocked "Fate Resonance Mode": Can summon the names of those who were erased and briefly manifest their battle intent.]

Chen Fan looked down and saw a line of faint golden characters appearing in his palm—"Next, it's you."

He licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, his laughter mingling with the sound of the bell to shatter the Water Palace: "Fine, I'll be waiting."

On the distant horizon, a floating island shrouded in starlight slowly rose.

The bronze bell on the island tolled without wind, its clear and melodious ring penetrating the seawater and resonating with the flames in Chen Fan's palm.

The beam of starlight that had shot up from the shattered bell did not dissipate; instead, it rose higher and higher.

The moment it pierced through the sea's surface, the stars across the entire sky suddenly began to flow backward—as if a pair of invisible hands were dragging the time stolen by the system back to its original place, bit by bit.