2026-01-25 13:46:36Two weeks had passed since the sky closed. Jiangnan City was a mess of construction cranes and broken glass. But for Xin, the hardest part wasn't the rubble—it was the quiet.
He sat on the edge of a rooftop, looking at his hands. Without the armor, he looked like a normal kid again. But the silver mark on his chest felt like a cold stone. It hadn't glowed since the fight.
"If you stare at your palm any harder, you’ll grow a third eye," a voice teased.
Mei climbed onto the roof, carrying two steaming bowls of noodles. She handed one to Xin.
"Any word from the 'Voice'?" she asked, sitting down.
"Nothing," Xin said, slurping the salty broth. "It’s like the Engine went into a coma. I tried to lift a brick yesterday and almost pulled a muscle. I think I’m back to Level 0."
"Better than being a Level 10 statue," Mei said. She pointed toward the center of the city.
The Spire was still there. It didn't belong to the Elementals anymore. The Resistance had turned it into a research base. It looked like a giant needle made of glass, reflecting the sunset.
"Captain Han wants to see you," Mei said, her voice turning serious. "Some of the people you saved... they aren't acting right."
Xin frowned. "What do you mean?"
"They’re seeing things, Xin. Shadows. They say they hear the General’s laughter in their sleep. Han thinks a bit of Earth-6 stayed behind inside their minds."
Xin felt a chill. He remembered the General’s words about the Engine being a parasite. Was it happening to the others too?
Suddenly, the silver mark on Xin’s chest gave a sharp, painful pulse. It wasn't blue or red. It was a dark, oily purple.
"Warning," the voice whispered, but it sounded cracked and distant. "The Rift didn't just close. It leaked. Enemy Class: Mind-Stalker detected nearby."
Before Xin could react, the rooftop around them began to melt—not into lava, but into a foggy nightmare. The city sounds vanished. Mei was still sitting next to him, but her face was gone, replaced by a smooth, blank surface.
"Xin..." the blank-faced Mei said, but the voice belonged to the General. "Do you really think a hero gets a happy ending?"
Xin scrambled back, dropping his noodles. "This isn't real. This is a trick!"
[Trial 1: The Mirror of Guilt.]
[Objective: Do not lose your identity.]
The roof turned into the scaffolding from the first day. Xin looked down and saw Old Chen falling. Then he saw his parents. Then he saw the thousands of people he had "saved" screaming that it was all his fault.
"You brought us here," the voices whispered. "You kept the Engine. You are the monster."
Xin closed his eyes, his head throbbing. This wasn't a fight he could win with a punch. This was a test of his mind.
"I didn't choose the meteor," Xin yelled into the fog. "But I chose to save them! The power doesn't make me the monster—my choices make me who I am!"
He grabbed the silver mark on his chest and squeezed. He didn't ask for power. He asked for truth.
The purple fog shattered like glass. Xin was back on the roof. Mei was staring at him, her face normal, looking worried.
"Xin! You were screaming!" she cried, holding his shoulders.
Xin panted, sweat dripping off his chin. The mark on his chest was glowing a steady, calm white now.
[Trial 1 Complete.]
[New Ability Unlocked: Mental Shield.]
[Upgrade Path: The Guardian’s Mind (Level 11).]
"It’s not over, Mei," Xin said, standing up. His eyes were sharper than before. "The Elementals didn't just want our world. They wanted to break our heads. We need to go to the Spire. Now."
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Level 20: Predators Form
The light from the Core didn't just stay in the room; it seemed to settle into Xin’s very skin. As the First Piece of the Star fused with the Needle’s ancient heart, a massive back-pressure of energy slammed into Xin. It wasn't the cold, crushing weight of the ocean or the sharp sting of the coral forest. This was pure, unfiltered evolution.Xin felt his vision fracture. The world turned into a grid of heat signatures and kinetic pathways. He could hear the heartbeat of every person in the room, and even the tiny scuttle of insects deep within the tree’s bark. His silver scars didn't just glow; they peeled back, revealing a new layer of skin that shimmered like polished obsidian.[Status: Level 20 Achieved.][Class Evolution: Predator of the New World.]"Xin? Your eyes..." Pip whispered, backing away a step. Her voice sounded like a thunderclap in his heightened ears. "They’re completely amber. There’s no white left.""I’m okay," Xin said, though his voice sounded deeper, like a g
The First Piece of The Star
The Salty Nut creaked as it finally bumped against the mossy stone of the Jiangnan docks. The city was quieter than Xin remembered. Since the magic had died down to a flicker, the vibrant neon glow of the upper districts had been replaced by the dim, flickering orange of oil lamps. People stood on the pier, their faces weary and smudged with soot, watching the battered ship with a mix of curiosity and hope.General Ironwood was there, waiting at the foot of the gangplank. He didn't look like a warlord anymore; he looked like a man who had spent the last month hauling water and stacking bricks. He took one look at the dented hull of the ship and the exhausted faces of the crew, then he stepped forward to catch the thick rope Xin tossed to him."You look like you've been through a meat grinder," Ironwood said, his voice a low rumble."We went through a whirlpool, actually," Pip panted, stumbling off the ship and kissing the solid stone of the pier. "I am never, ever going on a boat a
Escaping The Whirlpool
The sky above the boundary between the 100th Earth and the home waters of Jiangnan didn't look like air; it looked like bruised skin. Clouds of purple and slate-gray swirled in a violent circle, mirroring the terror developing in the ocean below. As the Salty Nut reached the final gateway, the sea began to slope downward. This was the "Great Drain," a massive, permanent whirlpool created by the closing of the Multiversal Gate. To get home, they had to skim the very edge of the abyss without being swallowed by the throat of the world."The rudder isn't responding!" Pip shouted, her small hands white-knuckled as she hung onto the wheel. The ship was tilting at a twenty-degree angle, the deck slick with freezing salt spray. "The water is moving faster than the engine can push us! Xin, we’re being sucked in!"Xin ran to the stern, his boots sliding on the wet wood. Looking over the railing, he saw the center of the vortex. it was a hole in the ocean miles wide, a spinning throat of whit
Capturing The Steel
Thee Salty Nut felt lighter, but the air around it had grown thick and electric. With the Eternal Heart secured in Xin’s pack, the ship was no longer just a vessel; it was a target. They had barely cleared the sinking lagoon of the glass cathedral when the horizon was blotted out by a fleet of low-profile, black-sailed raiders. These were the Steel-Hunters, scavengers who lived on the edge of the 100th Earth, led by a man known only as Vane."They aren't firing cannons," Mei said, her eyes glued to the brass telescope. "They’re launching harpoons. Xin, they don't want to sink us. They want to board us and take the Heart.""They can try," Xin said, tightening the straps on his pack. He felt the Level 19 power humming in his blood, a heavy, grounded strength that made the wooden deck feel like solid stone.The first harpoon struck with a deafening thud, the barbed steel head burying itself deep into the Salty Nut’s mast. Then another hit the stern, and a third pierced the railing jus
Ancient Alien Tech
Thee Salty Nut drifted into a lagoon that shouldn't have existed. Surrounded by a ring of jagged volcanic rock, the water inside was as still as a mirror and glowed with a faint, silvery mist. In the center of the lagoon sat an island that looked less like land and more like a crashed cathedral made of white bone and emerald glass. This was the "Origin Point," a place whispered about in the oldest journals of the Ark."The scanners are dead, but the Catalyst is going crazy," Mei said, her voice hushed. She held a hand-held sensor that was vibrating so hard it hummed. "This isn't just a ruin, Xin. The island is powered. It’s a massive battery that has been waiting for someone to wake it up."Xin stood at the bow, watching the emerald glass towers reflect the morning sun. He felt a strange pull in his chest, a magnetic tug that moved his silver scars like iron filings under skin. "It’s not just a battery, Mei. It’s a forge. The original Star-Steel wasn't made by humans or the System.
Crushing Gravity
Thee Salty Nut didn't just slow down as it entered the Dead Zone; it felt like the ship was being dragged into a swamp of invisible lead. The water around them stopped rippling and became as flat and heavy as a sheet of mercury. Ahead, a massive, jagged fragment of the old Ark sat wedged between two sea-stacks, its white hull cracked and leaking a strange, violet distortion that warped the very air."Mei, the pressure gauges are lying!" Pip shouted from the helm. She was standing on her tiptoes, pulling the steering wheel with her entire body weight just to keep the prow straight. "The dial says we’re at sea level, but my knees feel like they’re about to snap! Everything is too heavy!"Mei ran to the bridge, her face pale. She dropped a heavy wrench, and instead of bouncing, it hit the deck with a dull thud and stayed there, as if it had been glued to the wood. "It’s a gravity leak, Pip! That Ark fragment... its localized mass-generators must have malfunctioned when it fell. It’s cr
You may also like
Holy Demon God
LuoFeng91520.7K viewsWizard Of Cosmos
MadRain28.3K viewsThe Ultimate Devourer
Daoist Of Lies15.0K viewsThe Saga of the Unbroken
RandomGuy33.2K viewsRise of the Unpredictable Man II
CABO270 viewsThe Sword Of The Fire Dragon
X34L10.2K viewsBullied Hollowborn: My Tribrid System Awakening
Alexander Jackson708 viewsHeir of the Supreme Sky Throne
Evanscapenovel13.1K views