108: Chapter 108 The Mark Fades, the Bamboo Slips Return to Dust

The final sixty seconds.

The aftershocks of the energy counter-current completely spiraled out of control within Jiang Feng's body.

He felt as if his body were a gas tank on the verge of exploding.

Beneath the superficial calm, the Belongs to Me mark bared its fangs.

This greedy, ancient beast had devoured all the malice from the bamboo slips, and now it wanted to feast on its host's soul for dessert.

Jiang Feng pressed his hands firmly against his thighs, forcing himself not to collapse to his knees.

He had calculated up to this step long ago.

From the moment he suggested using himself as the catalyst for the Evil-Suppressing Talisman, this had been a series of interlocking traps.

The Mask wanted to seize his body; he would ensure the Mask left no corpse behind.

"Beep—beep—beep—"

Inside the headset, Lu Cheng's alarm was so sharp it could pierce eardrums.

"Consultant Jiang! Your vital signs are in a freefall!" Lu Cheng's voice had completely lost its usual composure, laced with an unmaskable anxiety and disbelief.

"Blood oxygen saturation has dropped to critical levels! Your energy feedback is abnormal! The contaminated energy shown on the instruments has turned into a negative number!"

Lu Cheng's hands flew across the console, frantically adjusting the settings.

She couldn't comprehend what physical concept this so-called "negative energy" represented.

How could a living person exhibit data of an energy collapse after devouring a high-density source of contamination?

Jiang Feng didn't respond; he didn't even have the strength left to speak.

His body began to emit a golden light tinged with the aura of death.

This wasn't some divine protection technique; it was the visual manifestation of his life force being forcibly drained by the mark.

His remaining lifespan was burning away at a terrifying speed visible to the naked eye.

Jiang Feng gritted his teeth.

He was waiting—waiting for the mark's greed to reach its absolute peak.

This was the second.

Jiang Feng used his willpower to lock onto the core of the Belongs to Me mark within him.

It was a mass of Devouring Rules.

He didn't use his mental strength to resist; instead, he followed its greed and issued an extremely lethal induction.

Eat.

Eat the thing that poses the greatest threat to you right now.

Eat the substance with the highest energy level in this space.

The external bamboo slips had been emptied, and Jiang Feng's physical body was powerless before it.

In this absolutely sealed energy field, the only remaining substance with the highest energy level was itself.

The devouring attribute of the Belongs to Me mark was successfully guided by Jiang Feng, forming a perfect paradox.

It bit down on the very source of its own existence.

Inside the command area, chaos broke out completely.

Qian Li watched Jiang Feng on the screen, shrouded in that weak golden light, the color draining entirely from his face.

The instruments beside him blared overload alarms.

"Bang!"

A monitor placed outside the isolation door began to emit black smoke.

"The indicator lights are all out!" a researcher reported, drenched in sweat. "The capacitors on the periphery of the focus field have all burned out! The equipment can't hold on!"

Old Chen's breathing became heavy.

His eyes were bloodshot, and the hilt of the blade in his left hand was soaked with sweat.

He couldn't wait any longer; he raised his right foot, making a move to kick the emergency valve of the maintenance passage.

"Don't touch the door!" Lu Cheng shouted sharply, pointing directly at Old Chen across the console. "If you open it now, the internal negative pressure will collapse, and the airflow differential will instantly tear him into shreds!"

Old Chen froze mid-motion, the muscles in his forearm twitching from the sheer force of his restraint.

Inside the isolation zone, a trail of dark red blood leaked from the corner of Jiang Feng's mouth.

The blood dripped from his chin onto the floor.

He remained standing, his consciousness remarkably clear; he could even feel the arrogant, ancient mark within him struggling frantically inside this logical death loop.

The more it struggled, the faster it devoured itself. This was a battle it could never win.

Clang!

The screen of the electronic clock on the wall flickered, and the digits jumped.

01:00.

The zi hour had officially ended.

Every hum in the hall, the vibration of mechanical operations, and even the faint movement of air currents fell into absolute silence at that very second.

Jiang Feng's body suddenly pitched forward.

He opened his mouth and spat out a large mouthful of purplish-black, foul-smelling blood.

The moment that blood was spat out.

The chilling sensation that had been lingering at the back of his head, that Belongs to Me resonance that had clung to him like a maggot on a bone, vanished.

It disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed.

The karma left by the Golden Mask had been severed clean by the blade of the bamboo slips.

In the center of the hall, ten meters away.

The pile of Pre-Qin Bamboo Slips that had driven the base's high-level officials into madness lost its last shred of energy support.

The originally blackened wood fibers rapidly turned grayish-white and carbonized.

Within a second, the entire pile of bamboo slips silently crumbled into a floor full of ash, completely returning to dust.

The bodies of the six researchers lying on the ground began to rise and fall rhythmically.

Their complexions turned from ashen-gray back to normal; they had completely emerged from their madness and entered a physiological sleep.

Jiang Feng finally couldn't hold on any longer.

His legs gave way, and he fell to his knees on the sticky floor.

Supporting himself with his hands on the ground, his chest heaved violently as he gulped down air greedily, his clothes completely drenched in cold sweat.

He had won.

In this game of chess where he had wagered his life, he was the sole winner who took it all.

The hydraulic locks of the blast door hissed as they released air.

The heavy metal door slowly slid open to both sides with a piercing grinding sound.

The light from outside projected in, casting a long band of light across the floor.

Jiang Feng lacked the strength to stand; he half-raised his head and looked toward the doorway.

Old Chen was the first to charge in.

Blade in hand, his sharp gaze swept across the surroundings before finally locking onto Jiang Feng, and he hurried over.

But someone was faster than Old Chen.

Lu Cheng.

Her oversized white lab coat fluttered as she ran.

She didn't look at her colleagues who had narrowly escaped death on the floor, nor did she care about the pile of ash from the bamboo slips.

She tightly gripped a slender analysis rod, the collector at its tip flickering with a ghostly blue light.

There was no concern in her eyes, nor was there fear.

There was only the irrepressible fanaticism and eerie light seen in a research maniac when they encounter an unknown truth.

Lu Cheng stepped over the mess on the floor, her target extremely clear.

She ignored Jiang Feng, who was kneeling on the ground, and charged straight for the center of the focus field where Jiang Feng had just been standing.

The blue probe of the analysis rod poked directly into the pool of steaming, purplish-black blood that Jiang Feng had just spat onto the floor.