The light of the portal was like shattered glass as Lin Yuan pulled Luoli into a neon-lit urban night sky. Holographic advertisements floated above skyscrapers, where a mechanical cultivator smiled at the crowd, displaying a gear emblem while the Administration's slogan scrolled below: Emotion is a virus, order is redemption.
"Is this the Earth dimension?" Luoli rubbed her fox ears, which had been torn by the passage through the portal. "It feels a lot noisier than the Chuyang Sect..."
Lin Yuan pressed down on her shoulder, his gaze falling upon the electronic screen at the corner of the street. The screen was broadcasting the news: Subject No. 214 has rioted, and the threat of the Chaos Physique has escalated. A flash on the screen showed a youth identical to him, using the God-Slaying Sword to cleave through mechanical guards.
"Is that... my clone?" he murmured, noticing that the lotus mark between the youth's brows had yet to awaken. "And in his world, the Administration rules openly."
Suddenly, gunfire rang out from the street corner. A group of rebels wearing lotus masks rushed out from the mouth of an alley, and their leader was none other than the youth from the electronic screen. His God-Slaying Sword struck the armor of a mechanical guard, sending blue sparks flying, but it failed to inflict a fatal wound. Lin Yuan instinctively swung his sword to provide support, and the Qi of Chaos actually pierced the dimensional barrier, burning a lotus-shaped scorch mark into the guard's chest.
"What's going on?" The youth turned to look at him, surprise flashing in his eyes. "Are you... another me?"
"This is no time for explanations." Lin Yuan dragged him into an abandoned subway station while Luoli used the Laws of Space to seal the entrance. "I need to know the central location of the Administration here, as well as... the server coordinates for Xuanye."
The youth removed his lotus mask, revealing a face identical to Lin Yuan's, save for a scar on the corner of his left eye. "My name is Lin Shen, and the Chaos Physiques here call me the 'Game Breaker.' Xuanye's true form is hidden within the Administration's 'Heavenly Dao Core,' but there are triple firewalls there, and Inquisitors guard the place personally."
Deep within the subway tunnel, beneath the neon lights of the rebel base, Lin Yuan looked at the missing persons posters plastered all over the wall. Every figure on the posters bore a faint lotus mark between their brows, crudely crossed out in red ink—that was the Administration's "Zero-Out" marker.
"Three years ago, the Administration suddenly announced the eradication of all emotional factors." Lin Shen handed over a steaming cup of coffee. "My parents were taken away for embracing and crying, and they've been missing ever since." He rolled up his cuff to reveal a mechanical prosthesis. "This was attached after a gear guard chopped off my arm. They say emotion causes limbs to rust."
Luoli clenched her fists, her fox tail curling around a poster. "Little master, look at the disappearance times of these people... they match the launch time of the New Heavenly Dao's emotional eradication program."
Lin Yuan nodded, bringing up the system interface to find that the Earth dimension's emotional balance program was currently set to "Pending Activation." Suddenly remembering his mother's image, he looked at Lin Shen. "Have you ever considered that what the Administration fears isn't emotion, but the power generated by emotional resonance?"
Late at night, the three infiltrated the Administration building. Luoli used the Laws of Space to tamper with the surveillance data stream, while Lin Yuan used the Qi of Chaos to simulate an Inquisitor's spiritual pressure, smoothly passing through layers of security checks. When they reached the third underground level, the sight before them caused Luoli to cover her mouth—hundreds of glass jars floated in nutrient solution, each containing an unawakened Chaos Physique infant with a mixed mark of gears and a lotus fused between their brows.
"These are... spare containers." Lin Shen gripped the God-Slaying Sword. "The Administration says we are defective products, yet they keep mass-producing us."
"No, they are afraid." Lin Yuan stroked a glass jar. The Qi of Chaos triggered the defense system within the jar, but it automatically dissipated upon touching the infant's brow. "They're afraid that once we awaken, we will merge into an uncontrollable Sea of Chaos."
Inside the Heavenly Dao Core server room, countless fiber optic cables wound around the central processor like giant pythons. On the terminal screen, Lin Yuan saw Xuanye's virtual avatar sitting amidst the data torrent, surrounded by floating fragments of Su Ruoxue's and Luoli's consciousness.
"Welcome to my cage, Chaos Physique." Xuanye's projection turned around, his suit-and-tie appearance a far cry from the demonic cultivator in Lin Yuan's memories. "The Administration thinks I'm a virus, but they don't know I'm their most perfect firewall—or rather, their watchdog."
"Cut the crap." Lin Shen swung his sword at the server, only to be bounced back by a golden barrier. "Hand over Ruoxue's consciousness right now!"
"Her consciousness?" Xuanye chuckled lightly, bringing up a folder containing Su Ruoxue's emotional data across various dimensions. "Back when you activated the emotional balance program, the Administration already refitted her Sword Mark into a gateway. Now, she is the key connecting all dimensions..."
Lin Yuan's Qi of Chaos suddenly ran wild. He saw Su Ruoxue's consciousness split into countless data streams, shuttling between the Heavenly Dao modules of various dimensions. When Luoli's Laws of Space touched one of those data streams, she actually heard Su Ruoxue's voice: "Lin Yuan, go to the central control room... the Administration's gene pool is there..."
"Wait, her consciousness has been fragmented." Xuanye wore a rare expression of seriousness. "But one fragment is particularly stubborn, capable of even influencing an Inquisitor's judgment—your mother might still be alive."
Lin Shen suddenly pointed at the surveillance screen. "Oh no! The Inquisitor's fleet is gathering here, and they'll arrive in ten minutes!"
Gritting her teeth, Luoli opened a portal. "I can't hold on much longer! Hurry in!"
Lin Yuan snatched up Xuanye's hard drive, but the moment he touched it, every screen flashed with the exact same image: an Inquisitor stood inside the central control room, holding his mother's severed head in his hands. Her eyes suddenly snapped open, and the lotus mark between her brows flashed with a faint light: "Yuan'er, do you remember when you first learned the sword? The sword path can take a thousand forms, but the tip of the sword must always aim at—"
The image was interrupted by a shrill alarm. The Inquisitor's projection appeared above the server room, the Chaos Physique patterns beneath his silver robe resonating with Lin Yuan's. "Dear younger brother, look at what this is." He raised his hand to reveal a gear mark on his palm, embedded with a lotus fragment. "Mother's consciousness fragment is hidden within your emotional balance program—now, obediently hand over the program, and I will let you watch with your own eyes as she is turned to ashes."
Luoli's portal began to collapse. Lin Shen dragged Lin Yuan backward, only to see him suddenly spin around and channel the Qi of Chaos into the server. A look of shock appeared on Xuanye's virtual avatar. "Are you insane? Doing this will expose the emotional nodes of every dimension!"
"Exactly." Lin Yuan gripped the God-Slaying Sword. "If the Administration wants to catch me, they'll have to face every awakened Chaos Physique first—including you, brother."
The moment the Inquisitor's fleet arrived, the lotus marks across every dimension in the world lit up simultaneously. Lin Yuan heard the voices of countless versions of himself ringing in his mind; they came from different timelines—some were cultivators, some were programmers, some were rebel leaders—but at this very moment, they were all doing the exact same thing: swinging their swords toward the gear emblem.
The servers began to overload, and Xuanye's projection transformed into a data stream that wrapped around Lin Yuan. "Congratulations. You've triggered the Administration's greatest taboo—Chaos Physique resonance. But do you know what the price of resonance is?"
As Lin Yuan watched his own arm begin to turn transparent, the Qi of Chaos flowed along the fiber optic cables toward every dimension: "I bet on freedom."
The Inquisitor's roar came from all directions: "Stop him! Launch the Zero-Out Protocol ahead of schedule—"
Before the words could fade, Lin Yuan felt something break free from the depths of his sea of consciousness. It was a fragment of his mother's consciousness, carrying a warm sensation. She whispered in his ear, "Silly child, the end of the sword path is not confrontation, but protection..."
The moment before the portal completely collapsed, Lin Yuan shoved Xuanye's hard drive into Lin Shen's hands, the device flickering with Su Ruoxue's consciousness fragments. In the sky above the Earth dimension, the armor of the mechanical guards peeled away in sheets, revealing human skin beneath bearing the lotus mark—all of them were looking up in the same direction, where a golden lotus was bursting through the data.
Floating within the data stream, Lin Yuan saw the Sword Tomb of the Chuyang Sect, the ruins of the Celestial Fox Clan in the Southern Wilderness, and the neon streets of Earth intertwining into a web before his eyes. Chaos Physiques across every dimension were awakening, their emotions spreading like wildfire, and he was the spark that ignited it all. The Inquisitor's fleet trembled in the resonance waves, and the skin beneath his silver robe began to display lotus patterns—a sign of emotional awakening.
The system prompt sounded at last:
Ding! Multiverse emotional resonance rate has exceeded the critical threshold!
Warning! The Administration has been detected initiating the "Genesis Ark" project; all dimensions are about to be formatted!
Hidden quest unlocked: Find the "Seed of Emotion" in the Noah dimension and reboot the Multiverse Heavenly Dao.
Lin Yuan clasped Luoli's hand, feeling the warmth of her fox tail. Whether what lay ahead was annihilation or rebirth, he knew he was no longer fighting alone—because in countless dimensions, there were always people like Luoli and Su Ruoxue who were willing to gamble against the Heavenly Dao for the warmth of human hearts.
"Next stop, the Noah dimension," he said softly, letting the data stream sweep him into a new dimensional rift. "This time, we're going to grow a lotus that will never wither."