Survival in an apartment, starting with a stroke of luck on a plane

Bai Xue's eyes reddened slightly, but she forcefully suppressed it.

Having followed Lin Yu for a while, she knew what kind of person her master was; he couldn't stand useless emotions.

"The balance... is gone." She spoke, her voice hoarse, and her first words made the air in the cabin sink. "Master, the balance wasn't disrupted by outsiders. It was replaced overnight by our own people from the inside."

Lin Yu didn't interrupt, waiting for her to continue.

"Most of the people you contacted before—Night Owl, Zhao Shanhe, those from the Seventh Squad…—are not the same people they used to be." Bai Xue's voice trembled, whether from fear or pain, it was hard to tell. "They're still alive, still the same, still remember things, but they've actually been replaced. A group of people in the organization have already defected to 'Gui Xu'."

Return to the ruins.

Lin Yu's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the name spoken by the man in the gray uniform.

What is Guixu?

"I don't know the whole story," Snow White shook her head. "I'm not high enough level. All I know is that the balance has existed through more than one cycle, and its real task is far more complex than simply fixing glitches and repairing the world..."

She had just finished speaking when her brow twitched suddenly, and a trace of grayish-white liquid seeped out from under the seal. She gasped in pain and stopped abruptly.

Lin Yu raised his hand to help her suppress the streak of gray hair: "You can't say that. Say something else: Where's Old Chen?"

Upon hearing the name "Old Chen," Bai Xue's eyes dimmed.

"Old Chen was the first to discover that someone in the organization had been replaced." Bai Xue paused for a while before continuing, "He investigated for a long time, and in the end, he didn't even trust those close to him anymore."

On the day of the accident, he risked staying behind himself to send the rest of us out via different routes.

"Did he say 'Don't trust anyone' before he was taken away?"

Bai Xue suddenly looked up at him, her eyes filled with astonishment: "How could you...?"

"He also left me a message," Lin Yu said calmly. "Continue."

"Old Chen said that Guixu is not afraid of outside enemies, but he is afraid that Pingheng will reveal that matter." Bai Xue's voice was very low. "He told us to escape separately, and no one was allowed to contact anyone else. Only by finding someone who is 'not on the chessboard' can we have a chance to survive."

I have nowhere else to go... In the entire system, the only person Guixu can't calculate or interfere with is you.

Lin Yu didn't respond to that.

He never considered himself someone "out of the game," and Mr. Fang's metal box that recorded his whereabouts was the best counterexample.

But he didn't interrupt her.

"Qingyuan, do you know her?" Lin Yu asked.

Bai Xue's expression changed.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but this time, the gray lock reacted more violently than before. Her face instantly turned pale, and the lock on her soul tightened abruptly. She curled up in pain, cold sweat pouring down her forehead.

"Don't think about it, stop." Lin Yu immediately pressed on her forehead, slowly channeling his energy into her, helping her to press the lock back in little by little.

Several minutes passed before Bai Xue recovered from the excruciating pain. She clutched Lin Yu's sleeve, her breath coming in gasps, yet she managed to squeeze out each word quickly, as if afraid that if she hesitated even a second longer, she would never be able to speak again.

"Master, I can't talk about her... I can only tell you that in the last period of his life, what Old Chen cared about most was the Divine Body Project."

Sister Qingyuan's fusion with the divine core was not a stopgap measure after defeat, but a move that Elder Chen had arranged long ago.

"That divine body beside you, that divine core, is far more important than you think. The Void is searching for it, and the system restart can't bypass it. Elder Chen put Sister Qingyuan inside... to guard the last line of defense..."

She couldn't bring herself to say the word "gate".

Because the lock between her brows lit up completely at that moment.

Grayish-white lines frantically drilled into her heart and mind, causing her to arch her back on the bed, blood seeping from her seven orifices. Cracks in the seal of Qingmingzi exploded one after another, and the seal locked deep within her soul emitted a piercing, silent shriek.

At the same time, the Queen's voice exploded in Lin Yu's mind, more urgent than ever before.

[My Lord! Something within her has been activated, sending out coordinate signals! The direction is... the Void! The signal strength is escalating; it won't be able to lock on in another thirty seconds!]

Lin Yu's face darkened.

He instantly understood that this was Guixu's method. Core members could escape, but as long as they tried to mention "that matter," the lock would be triggered, simultaneously burning their souls to silence them and sending their location to Guixu.

Bai Xue was determined to get the message to him, even if it meant her soul would be shattered.

"Master..." Bai Xue gripped his wrist tightly, her eyes already starting to glaze over, but she managed to stay upright by sheer willpower, and shakily pulled something out of her bosom and placed it in his palm.

It was half a broken, warm white jade talisman, the broken edge charred black, as if it had been forcibly broken in two. The jade talisman was engraved with an ancient character "衡" (heng).

"Old Chen... asked me... to bring this to someone 'not on the chessboard'..." Her voice was as soft as a thread that might snap at any moment, "The two halves... put together... can... achieve true balance..."

At the most crucial point, her pupils dilated, and she completely fainted.

The lock that was transmitting coordinates weakened in the instant she lost consciousness, but it didn't stop completely; it continued to pulsate, like a timed thunderbolt.

Lin Yu held the half of the white jade talisman, sitting motionless in place.

Outside the cabin, the Queen Insect, the Emperor of the Underworld, and Qingmingzi were all waiting for his instructions.

He looked down at the half of the jade talisman with the character "Heng" in his palm, then at his disciple who was lying unconscious on the bed, half of his body still wrapped in gray and white lock patterns. A few seconds later, his voice was as cold as ice.

"Qingmingzi, keep her alive, no matter what it takes."

"Queen Insect, immediately cut off the external signal of her lock. If you can't cut it off, use the Silent Flow Field to completely cover the entire cabin, turning it into a dead zone for the outside world."

All members of the Divine Body, immediately cease silence and enter Level 1 combat readiness. The coordinates may have been leaked; the people of Guixu may arrive at any time.

"Aura, combine this half of the jade talisman, the two pursuer corpses, the core of the gray uniform, and all the intelligence on Guixu City and analyze them together."

I need to know what lies hidden behind the balance.

With a series of commands issued, the Zerg, Qingmingzi, and Aura all sprang into action simultaneously.

The cabin fell silent again, leaving only Lin Yu standing there.

He opened his hand, and the half of the white jade talisman lay quietly in his palm, the broken edge charred black, and only half of the character "衡" remained.

What is true balance?

What is the true foundation? What is the true legacy? What is the true "gateway"?

Old Chen risked being taken away himself, sending people out one by one, just to deliver this half of the jade talisman to someone "not on the chessboard".

And his Mr. Fang, who was always shrewd and treated everyone as pawns, and that behemoth called Guixu, went to great lengths to clean up the entire balance and lock up every core member, all to prevent what was behind this half of the jade talisman from seeing the light of day again.

Lin Yu slowly closed his five fingers and clenched the jade talisman tightly.