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Chapter 448 The Abyss of Consciousness!

Zhang Yan had no idea where he was.

There was no light, no sound, and no temperature.

His body vanished, his five senses vanished, leaving only a lonely consciousness suspended in the endless void.

"Where is this?" he asked.

no answer.

Only his own echo reverberated in the void, repeating those three words over and over again.

Then, a figure appeared in the darkness.

The figure approached from a distance, walking slowly, each step punctuating Zhang Yan's heartbeat.

As the distance closed, the outline gradually became clearer—it was a middle-aged man, wearing faded plaid clothes and wearing a gentle smile.

Zhang Yan's heart skipped a beat.

"dad."

That was Zhang Huaichuan's face.

"Xiao Yan." The man's voice was soft, like the wind, "Long time no see."

Zhang Yan stared at that face without saying a word.

He had seen this photo before: in Nie Qingcheng's investigation files, in the handwritten copies in Guantiange, and in the descriptions of countless people.

But this was the first time he had "seen" his father.

I know you don't believe me.

Zhang Huaichuan said, "But I am real. The community read your memories and shaped me with your memories."

Zhang Yan remained silent.

"Why don't you ask your mother?" Zhang Huaichuan smiled. "She misses you too."

Another figure appeared in the darkness.

A woman, dressed in a plain-colored long dress, with long hair flowing over her shoulders, and gentle eyes and brows.

She walked to Zhang Huaichuan's side, looked up at a certain direction in the void, which was where Zhang Yan's consciousness was located.

"Xiao Yan," she said, "Mom is sorry for not being able to be there for you as you grow up."

Zhang Yan's consciousness trembled violently.

The face was exactly the same as the one he had seen in the file.

Her gentle eyebrows and eyes, her slightly upturned lips, and the same beauty mark at the corner of her eye as Nie Qingcheng's.

"What do you want to say?" Zhang Yan's voice was calm.

"We want to tell you the truth," Zhang Huaichuan said. "The gate, the celestial anchor, the heart of the craftsmanship... these things have protected the earth for 30,000 years, but do you know what the price was?"

"cost."

"Generation after generation, people have dedicated their lives to this gate." Zhang Huaichuan's tone became heavy. "For thirty thousand years, countless people like you have died in solitude and vanished in the darkness. Their names are unknown, their sacrifices are unremembered."

"Then what."

"Then, the next person continues," Zhang Huaichuan said. "It's endless."

Lin Shuning took a step forward, her voice soft and sorrowful: "Xiao Yan, don't you feel tired?"

Zhang Yan did not answer.

"You're tired," Lin Shuning said. "From the moment you obtained the Heart of the Heavenly Craftsman, you've been fighting non-stop, sacrificing non-stop, and pushing yourself to the limit."

"Have you ever thought about what all of this is for?"

"For what?" Zhang Yan repeated.

"For a problem that can never be truly solved," Zhang Huaichuan said. "Doors will age, communities will evolve, and sky-anchoring devices will fail."

"Three hundred years from now, five hundred years from now, a thousand years from now, another person just like you will appear and repeat everything you have done."

"This isn't fair," Lin Shuning said softly. "You deserve a better life, you deserve to grow old with the people you love, and you deserve to watch your children grow up."

In the darkness, two figures simultaneously reached out their hands.

"Give up, Xiao Yan," Zhang Huaichuan said. "Open the door, let the community in. This is not destruction, it is integration. Humanity will lose some things, but it will also gain eternity."

Lin Shuning's eyes reddened: "Mom only hopes you'll be happy."

Zhang Yan looked at the two faces.

Those are his parents.

It was a face he had never seen before, yet had fantasized about countless nights.

Their voices were gentle and sincere, their eyes loving and sorrowful, and every word they spoke pierced his heart like a knife.

He almost believed it.

Almost.

"You are not my parents," Zhang Yan said.

The two figures in the darkness froze simultaneously.

"You are puppets created by the community using my memories." Zhang Yan's voice was calm, as calm as the deep sea. "You have read my memories, but you cannot read my heart."

"Why?" Zhang Huaichuan's voice changed, becoming somewhat urgent. "Every word we said was true."

"What you're saying is indeed the truth," Zhang Yan said, "but the truth is not the same as the facts."

He paused.

"The door is not a shackle, but a barrier; the community is not salvation, but devouring. You say that giving up everything will bring happiness, but you have never told me what the price of happiness is."

The darkness remained silent for two seconds.

"cost."

Lin Shuning's voice changed, becoming somewhat cold. "The price is the assimilation of the consciousness of all humanity, becoming part of a group. It's not death, it's the loss of self."

Zhang Yan looked at the two faces.

They began to blur, their outlines distorted, gentle brows and eyes turned into empty eye sockets, and loving smiles turned into cracked abysses.

"We just want you to make a choice." Zhang Huaichuan's voice became hollow. "Choice is more important than confrontation."

"I've made my choice," Zhang Yan said.

He closed his eyes.

In the deepest darkness, he saw a ray of light.

The light was neither the dark blue of the Heart of Heaven nor the silvery white of the network, but a warm, body-warm golden color.

It pierced through the darkness from some distant place, like a life-saving rope, stretching straight to him.

"Zhang Yan".

That was Nie Qingcheng's voice.

It wasn't a fabricated voice from a group, nor a copied memory, but a real, living voice, filled with anger and heartache.

"You promised me twelve hours." Her voice trembled. "It's been over fourteen hours."

Zhang Yan reached out and grasped the golden light.

The light was warm, like her hand.

"I'm back," he said.

Golden light surged, and darkness began to collapse.

The two fake figures roared and struggled in the light, trying to grab Zhang Yan's consciousness, but the golden light shattered them one by one.

Then, Zhang Yan heard another voice.

A deafening roar from a beast.

The roar of the beast came from the depths of the light, carrying a primal, ancient power.

Zhang Yan felt a massive energy surge into his consciousness. This energy was neither from the Heart of Heaven nor from the Gate Network, but from something more primordial.

Wind Spirit Beast.

The wind spirit beast deep within Broken Cloud Valley transcended the barriers of space and infused its primal power into his consciousness.

The darkness completely dissipated.

Zhang Yan opened his eyes.

Inside the cockpit of the Chaos Mech, all the screens lit up again.

The light of the Heart of Heaven returned to normal, and the dark cyan energy pulsed steadily in his chest.

Outside the mecha, what he saw was not the blue sky of the stratosphere, but a golden curtain of light.

The light curtain expanded outward from the Chaos Mech, covering the entire sky above Jinghai City.

The meme contamination quickly dissipated under the light curtain, like ice and snow meeting the scorching sun.

Deep within this golden light curtain, a gigantic beastly shadow was faintly visible.

That was the projection of the Wind Spirit Beast's true form.

A colossal beast, entirely silver-white in color and resembling a Qilin, with its mane fluttering in the void.

It glanced down at Zhang Yan, its golden vertical pupils devoid of any emotion, only an ancient understanding that transcended species.

Then it turned and ran off in some unknown direction, disappearing into the end of the light.

Qin Xiao's voice came through the communication channel, trembling with relief: "Brother Yan... are you alright...?"

Zhang Yan stared at the vanished beast figure for three seconds in silence.

"It's nothing," he said. "Has the meme contamination been cleared?"

"It's been cleared away, completely cleared away," Qin Xiao said. "But..."

"But what?"

"The direction the Wind Spirit Beast disappeared from... was Broken Cloud Valley." Qin Xiao's voice became tense. "Its energy signature was shrinking into the valley, and then... it went to zero."

Zhang Yan closed his eyes.

The Wind Spirit Beast used its own life as fuel to complete a trans-dimensional transmission of its origin.

It gave him its last bit of strength.

"Understood." Zhang Yan opened his eyes, his voice calm. "Notify Guanxing to record this incident and compile it into the network's maintenance log."

"Received. Brother Yan, what's next?"

Zhang Yan looked down at Jinghai City.

The city is returning to normal, traffic is flowing again, and pedestrians are returning to the streets. Everything is as if nothing had happened.

But Zhang Yan knew that everything was different now.

The community did not break down or destroy the gate.

It proved one thing with a nearly successful meme attack: a door can block out the physical, but it cannot block out the spirit.

"Next step," Zhang Yan said, "Repair the third door."

"From the Sahara?"

"Yes," Zhang Yan said. "The colony will come again, but this time it won't be a test. Before it launches its final attack, I need to repair every door to its maximum capacity."

He paused. "Also, find out the Wind Spirit Beast's file for me, the more detailed the better. It's not an ordinary beast; it's part of the gate."

"receive."

Communication was cut off.

The Chaos Mech began to descend, crashing towards Jinghai City.

Sunlight shone through the atmosphere onto the dark gold body, reflecting a dazzling light.

Zhang Yan leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

The image of those golden vertical pupils remains vivid in my mind.

In the last look the Wind Spirit Beast gave him, he understood something.

That wasn't a farewell.

That's a commission.