The violet light pouring from the torn sky washed the marble terrace in the color of a fresh bruise. Lin Feng took a breath, but his lungs felt full of glass. The god-realm power humming in his chest was no longer a warm engine; it was a heavy, unstable weight that made the stone floor beneath his boots groan."They skipped the two months, Chen," Lin Feng said, his voice terrifyingly calm as he stared up at the mountain-sized warships blotting out the moon. "Why did the clock reach zero?"Xiao Chen dropped to his knees among the shattered wine goblets, his hands clawing through his satchel until he dragged out the damp architectural scrolls. His eyes darted across the blood-drain schematics, his fingers trembling so violently he tore the parchment."It's not a battery discharge diagram," Xiao Chen whispered, a thin line of spittle trailing from his lip. "Lin Feng, the altar. The obsidian array you built in the capital, the blood channels, the geometry, it was never designed to emit a

"That’s impossible," Lin Feng said, his voice barely a breath against the heavy air. "They haven't touched the altar. They haven't touched the core."Xiao Chen didn't look up from his papers. His hands shook so violently he dropped his charcoal stick twice before grabbing it off the blood-slicked stone. "It isn't about physical contact, Lin Feng. It’s an emotional frequency lock. The cosmic signature doesn't just read your energy; it maps the people holding your soul together."Zhang Wei pulled back his leather breastplate with a sudden, violent jerk. Beneath the jagged scar on his chest, a thin black line was blooming like spilled ink beneath the skin. "It stings," the general muttered, his thumb tracing the discoloration. "Feels like cold salt in an open wound."Meng Yao held up her left hand. Through the pale blue frost marks covering her fingers, a fine violet thread thrummed with a rhythmic, sickly light. "It’s matching your pulse, Lin Feng," she whispered."They need the bond,"

The sky did not break; it melted.The cosmic altar descended through the atmosphere like a mountain of dark glass, casting a shadow that swallowed the entire capital. Down in the ruined courtyard, the air grew so heavy that breathing felt like swallowing sand. The violet barrier above them twisted into jagged shapes, groaning under the pressure.Lin Feng shifted Meng Yao’s weight in his arms, his knees cracking as the floor shook beneath them. Her skin was freezing, but the purple vein on her neck beat against his chest like a second heart."Lin Feng, we have to move!" Xiao Chen yelled, dragging himself over the scattered stone debris. Soot covered his teeth, making his panicked face look like a skull. "That is not a siege weapon. It is a dimensional gateway! It is bridging the upper realm directly into our sky!""I am not running," Lin Feng said. His boots sank an inch into the shattered tiles. "She cannot walk, Chen. If I move her, the seal breaks.""If you stay here, you both get f

The noise inside Lin Feng's head was deafening. Thousands of voices sobbed, screamed, and chanted his name, their grief heavy enough to force him to his knees. His forehead hit the smooth stone floor, his hands clawing at his ears."Lin Feng!" Meng Yao dropped beside him, her small hands grabbing his elbows. She gasped as a sharp static shock bit her palms. "I hear them too. They are not just echoes. They are... they are people, Lin Feng. Kings, warriors, witnesses from every world that fell before us.""I have to let them out," Lin Feng gritted his teeth, his teeth red with blood from biting his own tongue. He forced his hand toward the bright core of light pulsing before them. "I can tear the barrier right now.""Touch that blindly and you drop ten thousand realms into the void," the silver-haired survivor called out, his dissolving legs reformulating into liquid silver. "The network is the only thing keeping those worlds from drifting into total entropy

The cosmic altar hovered over the capital like an inverted mountain, its base pulsing with jagged violet light. Down on the ruined cobbles, Lin Feng pressed a hand against his left side, blood leaking between his fingers where a shadow blade had caught him protecting Meng Yao.The air grew thin, smelling of scorched stone and dry iron. All around them, timber beams in ruined houses groaned, and loose gravel began drifting upward into the sky."They are not dropping a bomb on us, Lin Feng!" Xiao Chen yelled, scrambling backward over a pile of broken roof tiles. His hair was slick with sweat, his leather-bound notebook clutched tight against his ribs. "They are drawing spiritual energy straight out of the ground! The whole Central Plains is being turned into a sacrificial plate!"Lin Feng took a heavy breath, his jaw set. "Wei, get the civilians out of the central square. Move them toward the southern gates."Zhang Wei wiped a smear of black blood f