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Chapter 225 The Struggle for the Throne
“I knew you would come here.”

Su Wanqing looked up abruptly. What she saw made her blood almost freeze.

"Night" was hovering above the core. He was no longer a pure blue energy body, but had been perfectly integrated with countless intricate mechanical parts, forming a sleek and powerful biomechanical battle suit.

Behind him stretched a pair of enormous wings made of pure energy, and in his eyes was a bottomless blue light.

What made her scalp tingle even more was that, right in the center of his breastplate, was another core, the one that should have been in the hands of the military or Xiao Ran.

He has successfully captured one.

Night slowly descended, and her feet landed steadily on the throne woven from countless vines.

He glanced at Su Wanqing, then at Lin Che, who was dying in her arms, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his lips.

"This is my place. And you, Su Wanqing, have probably misunderstood something."

"Night" looked down from above, his voice echoing in the empty square: "You think what I'm going to do is open a portal and bring destruction to this world? You're wrong." He spread his hands. "What I'm going to do is repair the 'Time Loom,' not to save you fragile humans, but to create a truly eternal new order that I will rule."

The three cores represent the past, present, and future, respectively. Only by controlling them simultaneously can one truly master time.

His gaze shifted to Lin Che, and at that moment, his eyes were as if he were looking at an old, worn-out tool.

“He was a failure, a temporary vessel I created to retrieve the core. Now that his mission is complete, he should be discarded.”

Then, his gaze returned to Su Wanqing. "And you, Su Wanqing, your role is far more important than you imagine. You are the final piece of the puzzle, the only perfect 'anchor' that the 'loom' has selected through countless cycles. Only you can activate its full potential."

As he finished speaking, he gently raised his arm. In response, the throne beneath him and the entire network of plants around him began to writhe and stretch rhythmically, as if it were an extension of his body.

Everything here was already completely under his control.

Time ticked by, and Lin Che's body in his arms had grown as cold as a stone.

Su Wanqing is facing an unsolvable dead end.

“I can save him,” Night unexpectedly suggested, breaking the deadlock.

"The condition is that you hand over yourself, along with the core in front of you, to me."

He looked at the jade bracelet on Su Wanqing's wrist and explained, "Do you know why its energy was depleted? Because it was originally part of the core, a 'gift' I gave you in the first reincarnation."

Rather than watching him die meaninglessly, let's make a deal—your cooperation in exchange for his life.

It's very simple. All I need is for you to stand on this throne, resonate with the core, and trigger the final procedure.

"After it's all done, Lin Che will return to normal, I promise."

Su Wanqing's nails dug deeply into her palms. Save Lin Che, or...?

"Don't believe him!" Lu Zhao's roar suddenly came from the distance on the second floor. He was struggling to break free from several awakened vines. "He needs you to become the core's living connector! Once the program is activated, your consciousness will be completely merged with the core, making you a part of the 'time loom' for all eternity, a slave without your own thoughts!"

Before he finished speaking, "Night" frowned slightly. He didn't even turn around, but just waved his hand casually.

On the ground, countless vines, like a group of giant black pythons, suddenly attacked Lu Zhao, instantly wrapping him tightly and hanging him high up, unable to move.

Just as Su Wanqing's will was about to be completely crushed and she was about to nod in agreement to "Night's" conditions, a faint force grabbed her hand.

She looked down and saw that Lin Che had opened his eyes slightly at some point, a clear look in them that showed he had exhausted all his strength.

With the last of his strength, he spoke with difficulty and in broken sentences: "Wanqing...don't...believe...him..."

His lips moved, uttering a faint, almost inaudible voice: "I... am not important... the core is... listen to me... activating three cores simultaneously... is not for the portal... nor for repair... but for... resetting..."

“The jade bracelet… is not just a tool… it is… a key… you are… the true master…”

After saying these words, Lin Che's head lolled to the side, and he fell into a complete coma again, his faint breathing almost ceasing.

Upon hearing Lin Che's words, the expression on "Night's" blue face, composed of energy, visibly distorted.

His calm demeanor vanished, and the blue energy emanating from his entire body began to fluctuate violently, displaying unprecedented rage.

"Enough! He's lying! Time's up!"

With his angry shout, the entire shopping mall's plant network went into overdrive, with countless millstone-thick vines crashing down from all directions towards Su Wanqing and Lin Che's location.

At the same time, a violent explosion rang out on the outskirts of the shopping mall in the distance, followed by the faint shouts of Xiao Ran and the "Taoist".

Reinforcements seemed to be arriving soon, but it was too late.

At the critical moment, facing the overwhelming threat of death, Su Wanqing made a move that surprised everyone—instead of pushing Lin Che towards the core, she raised her wrist and resolutely pressed the dull jade bracelet onto the purple core in front of her.

In an instant, a blinding pure white light burst forth from the point where the jade bracelet made contact with the core.

"No!" Night cried out in terror, "That will cause the system to restart!"

The terrified cry of "Night" was completely swallowed up by a pure white light.

Centered on the point of contact between Su Wanqing's jade bracelet and the purple core, an indescribable energy suddenly erupted, instantly expanding into a huge energy hemisphere that enveloped the entire central square.

Night tried to stop him, but his movements were incredibly sluggish in the face of the light. He was violently thrown back by the powerful shockwave and crashed into the vine throne in the distance, his biomechanical armor emitting a piercing metallic groan.

A strange chain reaction occurred. The remaining blue patterns on Lin Che's body, which were in Su Wanqing's arms, suddenly lit up like a lit fuse, resonating with the pure white light flowing within the hemisphere.

At the edge of the gruesome wound on his chest, granulation tissue began to wriggle and heal at a visible speed.

His almost stopped pulse regained a faint but strong rhythm. On the second floor, the shockwave swept over the spot where Lu Zhao was trapped. The resilient vines that had been holding him high up seemed to have been drained of all life force, instantly turning dry, charred, and breaking off one by one.

Lu Zhao fell heavily to the ground, but ignoring the pain, he immediately got up and rushed towards Su Wanqing in the center of the square.

The energy hemisphere did not dissipate; instead, it stabilized, and the light and shadow inside began to distort and recombine.

With the core fused with the jade bracelet, holographic images are projected onto the inner wall of the hemisphere, revealing a long-forgotten memory of the past.

The scene depicts a large and sophisticated laboratory. Several scientists in white lab coats are intently recording data around three cores suspended in special containers.

One of the young faces made Xiao Ran and the "Taoist" who had just arrived stop in their tracks—it was the "Taoist" who had become much younger.

Standing before everyone, directing the entire project, was a refined-looking man with gold-rimmed glasses. His appearance was almost identical to "Night's" energy-based face.

In the video, the chief scientist explains to his team: "Gentlemen, the ultimate goal of Project Orion is not to create weapons. Our real objective is to create an unprecedented time defense system."

According to the last information we received, a civilization called the 'Weavers' is about to arrive, and their very existence will cause irreversible damage to our spacetime continuum.

We must find a suitable 'anchor point,' a special entity that can perfectly resonate with the three cores. Only in this way can we stabilize the cores' immense energy and create a powerful time barrier sufficient to resist them.

The memories continued to flow, and the scene shifted to the day the project went out of control.

The laboratory alarm blared and flashed red lights, signaling the start of the first viral outbreak.

Before the devastating energy storm swept everything away, the chief scientist calmly walked to the control panel and uploaded his consciousness into the system core.

At that moment, "night" was born.

The scene shifts again, and a young man covered in tubes appears on the lab table; it is Lin Che.

He was forcibly injected with a modified version of the Hunter Sequence, with only one purpose—to become a temporary container and tool for "Night" to return to the physical world.

An even more chilling truth has emerged: the destruction of the entire world and the endless cycle of time were not accidents.

This is in itself a huge experimental field meticulously designed by "Night," a cruel selection process.

He used repeated resets to eliminate all unqualified variables, all in order to find the perfect "anchor point" among countless survivors that could withstand the full power of the core.

Su Wanqing is the ultimate answer to this grand experiment.

"Enough! You mortals simply cannot comprehend the grand vision I am carrying!"

A roar interrupted the memory projection. "Night" had recovered from the shock, and the core of the subway on his chest shone brightly, sending a destructive blue energy beam straight towards Su Wanqing.

Lu Zhao rushed up to Su Wanqing and, without thinking, immediately activated an inconspicuous device on his wrist.

A faint energy shield unfolded before him, but it was torn apart the instant it came into contact with the blue energy beam.

Lu Zhao was thrown back by the immense force, crashing into the wreckage several meters away.

Meanwhile, the plant network throughout the shopping mall went wild again.

But this time, a strange split occurred. Some of the vines still responded to "Night's" command, transforming into countless black whips that lashed out at Su Wanqing; while the other part, those plants closer to the second core, seemed to have been given a new will, spontaneously growing and intertwining, forming a green, protective barrier in front of Su Wanqing.

Amidst the chaos of battle, the long-absent system voice suddenly sounded in Su Wanqing's mind.

[System reset complete... Re-established connection with 'Prototype Core-02'... Jade bracelet's energy conduction efficiency restored to 85%.]
[WARNING: Unstable oscillations between cores detected. Recommendation: Synchronize the three cores as soon as possible, or isolate them at a safe distance.]
Just then, Xiao Ran led more than a dozen members of the Dawn Organization through the broken doors of the shopping mall.

Seeing the chaotic situation before him, he immediately issued an order over the radio: "All personnel on high alert!"
Target: Night! Priority mission: Escort Su Wanqing and Lin Che to safety! "Cultivator," please assist in stabilizing the core energy!

Lieutenant Cui's anxious voice suddenly came through Xiao Ran's public channel: "Xiao Ran! Unidentified energy fluctuations have appeared in the industrial zone and underground rails, and the area is expanding! We suspect that resonance has occurred between the cores! Report the situation on site immediately!"

The "monk" did not participate in the battle. He slowly walked forward, formed a complex hand seal, and began to chant an ancient incantation that no one else could understand.

The air around him began to distort due to the energy fluctuations. His gaze fell on the interrupted core projection, looking at his younger self, and he murmured with a complex expression: "I thought history wouldn't repeat itself. It seems we all underestimated the adaptability of the Orion Sequence."

He turned his head, his voice becoming extremely solemn, and shouted to Su Wanqing, "Child! Hold on tight to Lin Che and that core! The two cores are so close that they have begun to cause a larger-scale spacetime tremor. I will create an evacuation route for you, but you must act immediately! This place is about to collapse!"

The monk's voice was like a booming bell, clearly reaching everyone's ears amidst the chaotic energy field.

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly pushed forward the complex hand seals he had formed with his hands.

The air ahead distorted violently, as if an invisible hand was pushing aside the wildly lashing vines and chaotic energy flows, forcibly clearing a narrow passage for only a few people to pass through.

"Go!" Xiao Ran roared, directing the members of the Dawn Organization to cover the flanks.

Lu Zhao didn't hesitate any longer and pulled Su Wanqing up. Su Wanqing, in turn, held tightly to Lin Che, who was still recovering, and the purple core.

The moment they stepped into the passage, the ground beneath their feet trembled violently.

This was not the impact of a battle, but a harbinger of the collapse of the entire shopping mall structure.

The enormous crack, like a black lightning bolt, spread rapidly from the ground of the central square, all the way upwards, extending to the crumbling ceiling.

The surrounding plant network grew wildly, with countless vines trying to entwine around the broken beams, only to futilely produce the sound of them snapping and breaking.

While running, Su Wanqing took out a specially made metal container from her backpack and carefully placed the purple object, which was still attached to the jade bracelet, inside.
The core, connected by energy threads, was placed inside and quickly locked in place.

A new notification immediately popped up in her mind's system interface: 【Core Stable】

[WARNING: Another core has been detected locking onto your current location. Immediately move away from open areas.]

(End of this chapter)