Survival for All: I can deconstruct projections and synthesize everything.

Twelve two-hour periods, in the Dark Sun Forest where there is no concept of day and night alternation, seem both long and short.

Lin Xiao recovered to full strength in the eighth hour.

The fragments of the rules of the Eternal Realm regained their brilliance, the three innate light orbs remained as stable as ever, and even gained a deeper understanding of the return of all things to the source due to the continuous high-intensity application of the rules.

Nelly woke up at the eleventh hour.

When she opened her eyes, she first looked blankly at the ceiling of the stone house, then suddenly sat up and warily scanned her surroundings.

"Don't panic, it's safe here for now."

Lin Xiao's voice came from the outer room.

Nelly turned her head and saw Lin Xiao sitting at the stone table, with a 3D map of the Dark Sun Forest floating in front of him, marked with dozens of complex paths and nodes.

"Lin Xiao..."

Nelly breathed a sigh of relief, only then realizing how weak she felt. "How long was I unconscious? Where are we?"

"You have been unconscious for about six hours. This is a safe house in the territory of the Storm Dragon. He has given us twelve hours of protection."

Lin Xiao didn't turn around; her finger traced a winding red line on the map.

"There's less than an hour left before the protection period ends."

Nelly's expression changed, and she struggled to get off the bed.

Although her original essence has been damaged and has not fully recovered, at least she can move around without any problems.

She walked over to Lin Xiao, looking at the densely marked map: "Are you planning an escape route?"

"It's not just about escaping."

Lin Xiao finally turned her head, her eyes flashing with a calm light.

"The Shadowmoon Wolf King is the ultimate master of the seventh-order speed rule. If we simply try to escape, we will never be able to shake it off."

"So...we must create some kind of chaos, take advantage of the environment, or even...rely on other forces."

"Other forces?" Nelly asked, puzzled.

"The waters of the Dark Sun Forest are deeper than we imagined."

Lin Xiao pointed to several key points on the map.

"In these twelve hours, I used the Omniscient Rule to analyze all the details from entering the Dark Sun Forest to now and found some inconsistencies."

"For example, the one-eyed old man who sold me information—his information was so accurate that it was beyond what an ordinary information dealer could possess."

"Especially the information about the Shadowmoon Wolf King tracking the golden target—the timing is terrifyingly precise."

Nelly asked thoughtfully, "You mean... he has someone backing him?"

"It's not that there are people, but that there is some kind of existence!"

Lin Xiao pointed to a coordinate on the map, which was a border village they had visited before.

"The Dark Sun Forest is nominally ruled by the Nine Overlords, but in reality, a true ruler slumbers deep within this forest—the eighth-order Dark Sun."

"It's just that He hasn't appeared for millions of years, so much so that most people have forgotten His existence."

"But according to my analysis, this Dark Sun is not completely asleep; His will is still secretly influencing the balance of the forest."

"And that one-eyed old man is very likely one of His eyes and ears."

Nelly gasped, "An eighth-tier being... then why would He help us?"

"He's not helping us, he's maintaining a certain balance."

Lin Xiao shook his head and said.

"The Shadowmoon Wolf King is tracking you because it's seeking an opportunity to break through to the eighth rank."

"Your connection to the Mist World likely stems from the Mist World or the Dark Eclipse Cult approaching the Shadowmoon Wolf King in exchange for an opportunity to advance to the eighth rank."

"However, the emergence of a new eighth-tier being will disrupt the existing order of Dark Sun Forest and may even threaten Dark Sun's own position, so... Dark Sun does not want the Wolf King to succeed."

"Our appearance just happens to give Him an excuse to intervene, so that we can neither directly clash with the wolf king nor disrupt his plans."

Nelly understood: "So, if we can cleverly utilize this..."

"That would give us a chance to shake off their pursuit."

Lin Xiao turned off the map and stood up.

"It's almost time, Nelly. Get ready, we should go."

The two tidied up quickly.

Lin Xiao put the remaining emergency rations and fresh water in the safe house into his storage space, and then checked his equipment again.

Although Nelly is only at the third tier, her fortune talent has recovered some of its functions, at least enough to provide some basic interference and warnings.

At worst, that's what it was like in the ruins.

Lin Xiao now is completely different from how she was back then.

Just as they were about to leave, the door of the stone house suddenly opened by itself.

There was no one outside the door, but there was something else on the ground: a black bone token.

The token's surface was engraved with a distorted symbol, emanating an eerie fluctuation of rules.

Lin Xiao used the omniscient rule to scan, and the information immediately appeared:

[Dark Sun Token: A temporary token of the ruler of the Dark Sun Forest. Holding this token allows temporary access to some unclaimed rules of the Dark Sun Forest. Uses: 3/3.]

"really……"

Lin Xiao picked up the token, a knowing glint in his eyes.

Dark Sun did not appear directly, but it provided the help that was most needed.

Although dealing with an eighth-level opponent is no less daunting than asking a tiger for its skin, Lin Xiao currently has no other choice.

It can't be that simple to summon the Golden King, so he might as well not grow at all.

Lin Xiao put away the token and nodded to Nelly: "Let's go!"

The two transformed into streaks of light, bursting out of the safe house and speeding eastward.

Almost as soon as they left, a silver-gray figure slowly appeared in the sky above the valley where the safe house was located.

The Shadowmoon Wolf King stood in the void, its left eye silver-white and its right eye pitch black, its gaze piercing through layers of space, locking onto the figures of Lin Xiao and Nelly.

"Twelve hours... have passed."

It did not immediately give chase, but instead raised its claws and lightly slashed in the air.

A crescent-shaped spatial rift appeared, and twelve shadow wolves leaped out from it, respectfully prostrating themselves before the wolf king.

"Chase."

Extremely simple command.

The twelve shadow wolves transformed into black shadows and scattered, flanking from different directions.

The wolf king followed slowly behind, like a cat toying with its prey.

But this time, it quickly discovered the anomaly.

Lin Xiao and Nelly's escape route was extremely strange. Instead of going away in a straight line, they repeatedly crisscrossed the border between the Wind and Thunder Domain and the Bone Tomb Domain.

Sometimes they would rush into the turbulent zone of rules, and sometimes they would turn back into a relatively calm area. On one occasion, they even deliberately triggered a warning array on the border of the Wind and Thunder Domain, causing a small-scale thunder riot.

This haphazard movement disrupted the Shadow Wolves' encirclement rhythm.

What made the wolf king even more worried was that it sensed that the rules of the Dark Sun Forest seemed to favor the two fugitives at certain times.

For example, just as a shadow wolf was about to catch up, a small-scale storm of rules suddenly erupted ahead, blocking its path.

For example, when Lin Xiao and his group passed through a spatially fragile area, the spatial structure there was unusually stable, but when the pursuers arrived, the space began to collapse.

Once is a coincidence, twice is luck, but seven or eight times in a row...

The wolf king stopped, a hint of hesitation flashing in his eyes.

But soon, he sped up.

The majesty of the seventh rank was fully unleashed, and the speed rules were pushed to their limit.

Its figure began to blur, each step leaving a residual image in the void, and a thousand miles were covered in an instant.

At this speed, it will take at most fifteen minutes for it to catch up with Lin Xiao and Nelly.

However, just as the wolf king was about to enter the final sprint, a sudden change occurred.

Suddenly, a grove of dead trees in front of us came to life.

Those twisted, withered trees that had been dead for countless years suddenly erupted with dense shadow rules from their roots, and countless shadow tentacles emerged from the ground, frantically wrapping around the wolf king and the shadow wolves.

This is not an attack, but interference.

The shadow tentacles were not strong enough to harm the seventh-tier wolf king, but they could temporarily impair its vision and perception.

"A trivial skill!"

A flash of black light appeared in the crescent moon of the wolf king's right eye, and the shadow tentacles shattered instantly.

But this delay allowed Lin Xiao and Nelly to fall further apart again.

What's more troublesome is that the Wolf King sensed that the causal link between himself and those two people was beginning to blur.

What force is interfering with its tracking spells?

"Dark Sun Order..."

The wolf king recognized the source of that power, and his hesitation deepened.

But it remained calm.

The fact that the ancient eighth-tier being dared not make a direct move and could only interfere through these minor means shows that He also had some reservations.

"It seems the mist is also holding Him back!"

Since that's the case, let's see who has more patience.

The wolf king stopped pursuing and began to adjust its strategy.

It commanded the twelve shadow wolves to disperse, forming a surveillance network covering an area of ​​five hundred miles.

At the same time, it began to mobilize deeper levels of rule power, preparing to unleash a wide-range locking spell.

Once the spell is complete, the entire eastern part of the Dark Sun Forest will be within its perception range, at which point any abnormal fluctuations will have nowhere to hide.

However, what the wolf king didn't notice was that while it was fully preparing its spell, an inconspicuous black rune silently affixed itself to a patch of shadow at its feet.

The rune was the mark left after the Dark Sun Order was used for the first time.

Meanwhile, a hundred miles away.

Lin Xiao led Nelly into a naturally formed cave.

He took out the Dark Sun Token; two of the symbols on the token had dimmed.

"The first use disrupted the wolf king's tracking. The second use activated the shadow traps in the Deadwood Forest. One last time..."

He looked at Nelly and asked, "What can your fortune-telling talent sense now?"

Nelly closed her eyes and focused her mind, a pale golden halo flowing around her.

A few seconds later, she opened her eyes and pointed deep into the cave: "There... there's an underground river that leads to the Forgotten Canyon, deeper within the Dark Sun Forest. My luck tells me that if we can enter the canyon, we have a 90% chance of completely escaping our pursuit."

Ninety percent of the time, that's a conservative estimate from Nelly. If we take into account Lin Xiao's omniscient rules and her talent for good fortune, the chances could probably reach one hundred percent.

"Forgotten Valley..."

Lin Xiao retrieved the map information from the omniscient rules.

That was one of the forbidden areas of the Dark Sun Forest. Legend has it that the time rules within the canyon were disordered and the spatial structure was complex, so even a seventh-level expert dared not venture deep into it.

More importantly, it is one of the few areas in the Dark Sun Forest that even the Overlord cannot fully control.

"It's very risky, but worth a try."

Lin Xiao made a decision and pulled Nelly along, heading deeper into the cave.

"But before that, we need to leave a 'gift' for the wolf king."

He took out three sixth-order energy crystals from his pocket and began to inscribe complex rule runes on them.

It was a complex trap combining the rules of explosion, spatial disorder, and illusion. Once triggered, it was enough to trap a sixth-level expert for ten breaths.

It might only have a fleeting effect on the wolf king, but sometimes, a single breath can determine life or death.

After setting the trap, the two dived into the underground river and drifted towards the Forgotten Canyon with the swift current.

At the entrance to the cave, the Dark Sun Token lit up for the last time, completely erasing all traces of the two individuals.