Forgotten Photo Studio

Chapter 99 A Big Gamble

His gaze grew colder and colder.

It wasn't fear, but a coldly brutal self-analysis.

He knew why Yuan was able to wake up.

Because he "left".

During the time the soul leaves the body, all memory flow is interrupted, the Soul-Suppressing Iron Brand is not powered by the host's consciousness, and the Jade Cicada loses its resonance with the host's soul pressure.

They were no longer chains, only a dead rune remained.

But he also knew that the connection was still there.

He could feel a faint pull, extending from the depths of the mirror, like an extremely thin thread wrapped in the darkness of the abyss, connecting him at the other end.

That was the resonance of the "Mirror of Shared Life".

It did not break off, but rather fell into a dangerous state of resonance.

Of course, he was afraid of losing his body—that physical body was not only the vessel of the "self," but also the anchor point for the Soul-Suppressing Iron Brand and the Jade Cicada Talisman Array.

Once completely possessed by the Abyss, he will no longer possess a "human" form, but will only become a memory that is devoured.

As long as he can break free from the possession of the Mirror of Shared Life and return to his own body before the "Abyss" completely takes over his body, the Soul-Suppressing Iron Brand will be reactivated, and the Jade Cicada's spiritual energy field will also be activated simultaneously.

At that time, he was 30% confident that he could suppress Yuan again.

%.

To others, this is practically tantamount to suicide.

But Xu Yan's thinking was like a sophisticated instrument, quickly filtering out all the emotional bubbles.

He had carried out eleven missions with a survival probability of less than 50%, and he survived all eleven.

Thirty percent means that it requires a bit of luck, and... perfect timing.

His gaze swept past the lingering arcs of electricity in the judge's golden eyes, past the broken bronze lamp in the lamplight, and finally settled on the little finger of his own right hand.

That spot where he had bumped and bruised countless times since childhood, leaving a shallow scar.

right here.

When consciousness returns, this scar will be the first coordinate to be perceived again.

"It's not over yet," he thought coldly to himself. "As long as I go back, 'it' will have no right to wake up for me."

The words echoed deep within his consciousness, calm to the point of being almost ruthless.

But at the same time,
He couldn't suppress another, even deeper impulse.

—Yuan is awakening.

—And the center is still trying to suppress it.

He wants to see it.

I want to see the bottom line of this confrontation, and I want to know what these high-ranking officials who control fate are really afraid of.

Xu Yan remained remarkably clear-headed amidst the chaos.

He was like a player observing a chess game, knowing full well that he was just a piece on the board, yet still wanting to use this "loss of control" to see the player's hand clearly.

"Then come on."

His inner thoughts were almost devoid of emotion.
"Let me see—what kind of creatures are you feeding?"

next moment,
He sensed the anger of "Abyss".

That's not just malice, but a creature's instinct to be robbed and spied on.

That anger and he were separated by the mirror of the camera, staring at each other and reflecting each other.

The mirror reflects the abyss of "Yuan," while outside the mirror lies the calmness of "Ren."

At this moment, the two consciousnesses were like two mirrors reflecting each other, seeing each other and seeing themselves.

The judge gritted his teeth, a wisp of electricity crackling from his palm, but it was instantly absorbed as it approached Xu Yan's body.

—In that instant when that thought flashed through his mind, Yuan awoke.

An invisible cracking sound came from the camera lens; it wasn't a sound, but rather the tearing of space itself.

At the center of the lens of an old-fashioned camera, the dark, inky pupil suddenly contracted, and countless tiny symbols appeared and shattered within the lens rim.

Those soul-suppressing iron marks that were supposed to suppress Yuan completely lost their command after the soul left its host.

The "Jade Cicada" rune originally embedded in Xu Yan's body also became ineffective. The golden threads on its surface broke off one by one, fell off, turned into ashes, and were swallowed up by the reverse flow of Yin energy.

Like a giant beast lurking at the bottom of a deep well, the abyss finally stretched out its first breath.

The air solidified instantly.

The cold light was torn to shreds, and the temperature in the iron coffin area plummeted to below zero.

The magnetic patterns on the wall suddenly flashed in the opposite direction, switching from a monitoring system to a spiritual pressure alert.

"Energy Reversal!" the lamplight screamed, its voice drowned out by the cold wind.

The green flame flickered violently in his palm, then snapped out with a "pop." —The camera cracked.

A pale hand emerged from the depths of the mirror.

What seeped from between the fingernails was not blood, but a colorless light.

Where the light landed, even the anti-spirit alloy began to rust, bubble, and collapse.

The judge's body suddenly leaned forward, and his golden vertical pupils suddenly shone brightly!

A pure golden arc of lightning shot out from his body, like an extension of a law, forcefully locking Yuan's wrist. The lightning pierced the air, so bright that it was impossible to look directly at it.

"Using the law as a prison—sealing it off!"

His voice was like thunder, yet it couldn't hide the tremor within.

Lightning roared, but Yuan's hand did not retreat.

With a flick of that pale finger, the rhythmic patterns on the judge's body collapsed with a roar!
The golden arc of electricity was instantly swallowed back and returned to the judge. He groaned, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, and knelt on the ground.

Xu Yan could see very clearly from inside the drill arm's body.

That's not just a simple backlash, but a "feedback".

Yuan is studying.

It imitates the central laws and rewrites this space with higher-level rules.

The air was filled with broken runes and shards of light, each one carrying a painful whisper.

The area around the iron coffins began to tremble.

The alloy walls that originally sealed the abyss were twisting little by little, as if the entire space was being "rewritten".

"Judge!" the shadowy voice was almost a scream, "The laws are ineffective! It's altering energy levels!"

"Retreat—everyone evacuate the anti-spirit layer!" The judge's roar turned into thunder, but no one could move.

—Because the air has turned into a solid.

Xu Yan could see that his body was surging.

The spiritual veins beneath the skin, like ink flowing backwards, are redrawing the structure.

That was “Abyss” taking over his body.

He knew that it wasn't light, but a wound torn open by his consciousness.

But for a moment, he wanted to reach in and see for himself being swallowed up.

Strangely, he could feel that the connection with the mirror of life was still there, a faint thread of consciousness spanning between reality and illusion. He was not completely separated from the camera and his own body.

“Very good…” he murmured to himself.

"This line—is the way back for me."

The camera lens opened wide at this moment, like a giant eye watching the whole world.

The aura of the abyss spread out from the mirror, and all the psionic instruments began to malfunction, with runes flickering and jumping erratically.

The judge struggled to his feet, the electric arcs deep within his golden eyes almost burning through them. He gritted his teeth and uttered his final command:

"Activate the ultimate blocking protocol!"
Use the spirit seal as a lock, and the soul as a guide!

—Seal the Abyss!

Immediately, he raised his hand and summoned the entire spirit array.

The entire area of ​​iron coffins was bathed in white light.
Hundreds of spiritual runes surged up from the ground, surrounding the camera.

At that moment, light and darkness collided, and the aura of thunder and the abyss intertwined, unleashing a deafening roar.

Xu Yan watched all of this through the drill arm's field of vision; the scene was like a battle between gods.

And there he was, calmly counting the sounds of each rune shattering.

Abyss's breath spread out.

The space in the iron coffin area was folded into dozens of layers of mirrors.

On each mirror, the same scene is reflected—the judge, the lamplight, the ghostly shadows, and countless "Xu Yans".

Their forms were stripped away layer by layer in the reflection of light, leaving only the act of "observation" itself.

The judge looked up, and lightning crisscrossed his golden eyes, forming a net. His Adam's apple trembled slightly—not from fear, but from a rare state of mental confusion.

He saw himself repeating himself in the mirror until even the symbols of the "laws" were swallowed up by the reflection.

Xu Yan watched the distortion of everything through the drill arm's perspective.

He suddenly realized that the so-called "seal" was nothing more than humanity's self-description of the unknown.

They thought they were closing a door.

The other side of the door was never closed.

(End of this chapter)