{Who else is here? Why are only you weak little bugs here?}
{还有谁在这里，为什么就只有你们这几只弱小的虫子。}
Alien words entered their minds from the outside world, and the thunder temporarily subsided.
外界传递来进入心灵的异界语，雷霆暂时消失了。
“I… we were locked in here by someone.”
“我，我们被人…关在这里。”
{And so restricted in movement? Did the crystal’s master run away? Hah, a coward, planning to use me to take out an opponent.}
{居然还被限制了行动。晶石的主人逃跑了吗？呵，懦弱的家伙，竟然想借我之手来除掉对手。}
A sigh came from outside.
外面传来一声叹息。
{Then I’ll grant his wish.}
{那我就满足他的愿望吧。}
Boom!
轰隆！
Liang Xi had already thrown out his steel sword, and after this round of thunder erupted, it trembled violently on the ground by the window, struck by lightning—at this moment, any metal served as a natural lightning rod.
梁喜早将钢剑丢出，这轮雷霆再次爆起后，它在窗前地面上被雷劈得不断震动，此时任何金属都是天然的引雷针。
Outside, the few people on the ground didn’t even have time to scream before they shattered amidst the bolts of thunderlight.
外界地上几人连惨叫都来不及哼出，就碎裂在了雷光之中。
……
……
“Another unfamiliar language that I can understand directly.”
“又是能直接听懂的陌生语言。”
Usually, in such situations, what they encountered were difficult foes to handle.
一般这种情况遇到的都是很难应付的东西。
Luo Bin whispered nervously, “It’s here. Remember what I said? In these places, seeing a humanoid figure is not a good sign.”
洛宾略带紧张的小声道：“出现了。还记得吧，我说过的，在这些地方要是见到人形的话，并不是件好事。”
Though it wasn’t certain if it was human, at least it spoke in human language.
虽然还不确定是不是人，但至少对方会说人话。
Knock, knock, knock.
笃、笃笃。
“What!”
“什么！”
The three of them looked toward the old wooden door being knocked. Who would be coming to knock at such a time?
三人看向被敲响的陈旧房门，这个时候还有谁会来敲门啊。
{Won’t you invite me in for a sit?}
{不请我进来坐坐吗？}
“Fall back!” Yang Zicang swiftly pulled Liang Xi behind him. “Jump through the window and run far away.”
“退！”杨子藏一把拉过梁喜到身后，“从窗户跳下去，跑远点。”
“No, I still have a few thousand years of lifespan left; it’s my turn to protect you, Uncle!”
“不，我还有几千年时序，现在是我保护大叔你们的时候了！”
Liang Xi broke free from Yang Zicang’s grip. A faint golden glow of ethereal shadows enveloped him as he stared wide-eyed at the door.
梁喜挣脱杨子藏的手臂，他周身密布着淡金色的虚影，瞪圆眼睛看着房门。
Creak.
嘎吱。
The door was pushed open, revealing a man standing outside, clad in a gray-and-white wool tailcoat, with a pale, cracked face, exuding an eerie, weathered and peculiar charm.
门被推开，屋外站着穿着灰白绒布燕尾服，脸上有着苍白裂缝的妖异沧桑男人。
He slightly bowed, placing his arm across his chest in a salute, then straightened up with a faint smile.
他略微欠身，将手臂摆至胸下行了个礼后，挺身淡笑道：
{Are you also the victims trapped here?}
{你们也是被困于此的受害者吗。}
Snap! With a light flick of his finger, a surge of thunderlight burst forth.
啪！他指头轻弹，一团雷光喷涌而来。
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble!
轰轰轰轰！
[Scheduling has been maxed out to the highest grid!]
[调度已发动至最大格位！]
A vacuum seemed to appear within the electric field. Yang Zicang’s scalp tingled as he grabbed the two people beside him, but fine arcs of light still relentlessly extended onto them.
雷场中仿佛出现团真空，杨子藏头皮发麻地拉住身旁两人，但细密的弧光还是不断延伸至他们身上。
“Who are you?”
“你是谁？”
{Oh? A question-and-answer model? Hmm, no… you’re trying to interrogate me.}
{哦？问答模型吗，咦不对，你想审问我。}
He adjusted his dirty gloves, stepping in leisurely with composure.
他整理着手上的肮脏手套，从容迈步而入。
{How amusing. I haven’t been interrogated in years… Who am I? I’m the last guest of this theater.}
{好有趣啊，好些年我都没被人审问过了。嗯，我是谁。我是这间剧场的最后一名客人。}
“Were you trying to divert our attention just now?” Luo Bin continued.
“你刚刚是想转移我们的注意力？”洛宾继续道。
This damn lunatic— even at a time like this, he wouldn’t let go of the chance to greedily collect intel from a terrifyingly powerful monster like him through the model’s data efficiency.
这该死的疯子，都这种时候了，还不放过在这强得可怕的怪物身上去贪模型的情报收集率。
Yang Zicang dismissed the thoughts about the drunkard. His mind raced: this was only a C-rank intersection; they shouldn’t meet someone absolutely unbeatable.
杨子藏将关于酒鬼的念头抛开。心念急转的想到，这只是C级交错地，不应该遇到完全无法力敌的人。
The other party’s strength should only be slightly higher than the one who took his weapon.
对方的实力限度应该只是比那个拿走自己武器的人稍强而已。
So, he wasn’t invincible.
所以他并非不可力敌。
Recalling the terrifying thunder that had manifested outside but had not yet unfolded in the room.
想到刚在外面出现的恐怖的雷霆，此刻还未在房间展现。
“He’s stalling for time. For my investment.”
“他在拖延时间，为我投资。”
Yang Zicang called out loudly.
杨子藏大声地道。
{Stalling for time? What if I am?}
{拖延时间？是又如何。}
The man across from him flicked his finger again. As lightning flashed, his figure merged into the thunderstorm and instantly crossed space, reappearing behind the group.
对面那人又将手指一弹，雷光出现的同时他的身影化为雷暴般融入其中，瞬息间跨越空间出现在几人身后。
Thump!
嘭！
Liang Xi only felt a numbness rush through his body. Intense pain spread across every inch of his skin, and even his stomach spasmed as if twisted into knots.
梁喜只感觉浑身一麻，剧烈的疼痛感布满了身上每处肌肤，连胃里也抽搐般搅成一团。
As his palm pressed against the boy’s back, a crackling thunderous light exploded within the boy’s body.
手掌按在他背上的同时，一团雷光在少年体内炸响。
With a booming sound, Liang Xi was flung away like a tattered rag.
轰地声，梁喜如破布般飞了出去。
One strike, five thousand time-shifts! Liang Xi’s last thought, while still airborne, was the feedback from his model losing five thousand sequences.
一击五千年！还在空中的梁喜最后个念头，是自己少了五千年时序的模型反馈。
Yang Zicang’s fist, carrying a fierce gust, blasted toward the monster that appeared abruptly beside him like a cannonball.
杨子藏的拳头带着劲风如炮弹朝身旁突然出现的怪物轰去。
[Luo Bin has added an investment of 3000N for me!]
[洛宾为我追加投资3000N！]
A faint smirk curled on the man’s lips, and with a crackling sound, the fist passed right through his body.
这人嘴角微翘，噼啪声响，拳头穿过他的身体。
The strange figure had already appeared abruptly by the wall; the punch wreathed in intense golden radiance had only hit his departing afterimage.
怪人已然突兀地出现在墙边，杨子藏带着浓烈金辉的一拳打中的不过是他离开的残影罢了。
But the next second.
但下一秒。
Boom, crackle!
轰隆隆！
The gust imbued with fist intent suddenly expanded, spreading out as a surge of golden radiance that flooded onto the strange man.
带着拳意的劲风猛然扩大，金辉如气浪扩散至怪人身上。
As if struck by a truck, the figure smashed heavily into the wall, blasting a large hole through the entire structure.
如同被卡车撞到，人影轰然被砸入墙中，整堵墙碎裂出大洞。
Another shadow of a punch came hurtling down.
又一道拳影轰来。
{This is…}
{这是…}
[Amplification 1000N!]
[增幅1000N！]
Bang, bang, bang!
嘭嘭嘭！
Yang Zicang appeared before him with equally rapid speed.
杨子藏同样高速出现在他身前。
{What kind of skill…}
{什么技能…}
Before the strange figure could react, he was pummeled by a relentless barrage of fists—each time his finger twitched, Yang Zicang’s fist would slash down first with a ferocious blow!
怪人还未反应过来，就被抽风般的拳影砸在身上，每当他的指头微动，杨子藏的拳头就会先一步悍然砸下！
The time-sequence offsets differed across various parts of his body, and Yang Zicang rapidly probed for weak points.
他身体各处抵消的时序不一样，杨子藏飞快寻找着薄弱点。
Found it!
找到了！
{This doesn’t seem like…}
{这不像是…}
The strange figure pinned beneath the wall had no chance to move, absorbing dozens of punches within a single second!
墙下的怪人根本来不及动弹，他身上一秒之间中了数十拳！
Bang! Suddenly, a crimson shadow punched down, and the gruesome figure’s body shuddered, emitting a cracking sound.
嘭！突然一拳红影砸下，怪人顿时身体一颤地发出破裂响动。
{No… a bloodline aura… it’s not that, a secret skill?}
{没有，血脉的气息…尽然不是，秘技？！}
Thin blood was already oozing from his mouth, indicating he had little left to guard internally.
他嘴中已经吐出淡薄的鲜血，说明其保护内部的时序已经不多。
“Don’t move!”
“别动！”
The gruesome figure turned his head with great effort, casting a murderous glare around.
怪人吃力转头，目光带着无尽杀意扫来。
“I said don’t fucking move!” Yang Zicang roared wildly.
“老子让你别动啊！”杨子藏疯狂地吼道。
Bang! This punch, carrying the esoteric essence of centuries of training and Yang Zicang’s last bit of Amplified Chrono, slammed into the monster’s eye socket.
嘭！这一拳带着数百年的训练奥义与杨子藏最后的增幅时序，一拳砸在他眼框上。
The skin that had shown no injury after countless punches finally yielded with a heavy, dull thud under this blow.
挨了无数拳都没有出现伤痕的皮肤终于在这一拳下“嗙”地声沉响。
His skull burst open, spattering red and white matter.
头颅爆裂，溅出了红白之物。
The monster’s vitality was terrifyingly tenacious; even with half its head gone, its body could still move. Its index finger and thumb strained to come together.
这怪人的生机强得可怕，哪怕头已消失大半，身体也还是能够动弹，他的食指与拇指吃力地想要聚拢。
Clang!
嘡！
Liang Xi, his clothes tattered and covered in dust, his hair standing on end like bristles, wrapped a thick layer of grass around the sword hilt and cleaved the monster’s right hand clean off.
衣服破败满身尘埃，头发炸毛般竖立的梁喜，用厚草裹着剑柄，一剑斩下他的右手。
At the same time, Yang Zicang destroyed its left hand.
同时杨子藏也废掉了他的左手。
The corpse of this monster finally lay still.
这怪物尸体终于不再动。
[I have gained 100N.]
[我收获了100N。]
[I have gained 100 N.]
[我收获了100N。]
Yang Zicang and Liang Xi both sensed the feedback from Chrono at the same time.
杨子藏和梁喜同时感知到了时序的反馈。
Yang Zicang thought nothing of it, but Liang Xi, who had just been through life and death, was overjoyed—he had never before obtained such a large amount of Chrono in a single battle.
杨子藏并不觉得什么，可刚经历生死的梁喜却高兴得不行，他还从未在战斗中一次性获得这样多的时序。
“He actually attacked you first just now.”
“刚才他竟然先攻击的是你。”
After a brief rest, Yang Zicang gave Liang Xi a thumbs up.
休息片刻后，杨子藏对梁喜竖起拇指。
The boy, feeling a bit embarrassed, scratched his head and said,
少年不好意思的扣了扣头，说道：
“Hehe, he probably thought, after hearing what I said, that I had the most Sequence… you’re amazing, big bro!”
“嘿嘿，应该是他听到我的话，以为就我时序最多的吧，大哥你好厉害。”
“It’s alright. Your courage bought us that opening.”
“还好，是你的勇气换来的时机。”
The opportunity was fleeting, and Yang Zicang seized it.
机会稍纵即逝，杨子藏抓住了。
Luo Bin, whose clothes and pants were now blasted with countless small holes, slumped down onto the straw mat with a weary thud, listening to the voice that resounded in his mind.
衣裤已经炸得到处是小洞的洛宾有些瘫软地一屁股坐在草垫上，听着心中响起的声音。
[As you survived until the moonlight dissipated, you have gained 30N.]
[因我存活至月影消散，因此收获了30N。]
“And you still said you didn’t get a Skill from that dream,” Luo Bin gasped, shooting Yang Zicang a sideways glance.
“你还说没从梦里获得技能。”洛宾喘着气瞟了杨子藏一眼。
“I didn’t acquire it there; I trained and developed it inside that place. It’s called the Explosive Wind Fist.”
“这不是我获得的，是我在那里面练出来的，它叫爆风拳。”
“Trained?”
“练？”
“Didn’t you say that when I get intel on the Complete Stamp Emblem, I should remember to sell it to you? How much Sequence are you planning to spend on it?”
“你不是说，有关完整邮徽的情报，记得卖给你吗？你打算出多少时序来换。”
“Huh? Dude, we’re like brothers here, still need to be so formal? I just gave you everything I had left, my absolute last resort.”
“啊？哥们，咱们之间还这么见外吗，我刚刚可是把压箱底的存货都给你了。”
Luo Bin had just invested over three thousand years of his Sequence into himself. Without it, it would have been far from easy to handle this suddenly appearing monster.
刚才洛宾给自己投资了三千多年，如果不是他，还真不容易能够搞定这突然冒出来的怪物。
“Ha, alright then. Consider this my repayment for that free information you gave me before. And yes, I’ve spent most of the four thousand years I earned in there.”
“哈，那好吧。这次权当是我回报你之前的免费情报好了。没错，我之前赚到的四千年，大多都花在里面了。”
“Spent that much!”
“花了那么多！”
Luo Bin had, in fact, heard that completing the Stamp Emblem would cost quite a bit of Sequence, but he had predicted it would be a few hundred years at most. Even that figure was incredibly tough for an average person to accumulate.
洛宾的确是听说完整邮徽会花不少时序，但在他的预想中恐怕也就几百年，这个数字对普通人来说已经是很难存的了。
“You can’t tell me you spent Sequence to extend time inside that realm or something.”
“该不会是花时序在里面延长时间之类的吧。”
“Exactly.”
“没错。”
“What’s the ratio?”
“比例是多少？”
“No ratio—whatever you spend is what it costs, except you can accelerate.”
“没比例哦，花了多少就是多少，除了可以加速。”
“Huh? One-to-one!” Luo Bin’s neck shrank, and his mouth fell open in surprise.
“啊？一比一！”洛宾脖子一缩，惊讶地张开嘴巴。
Liang Xi also caught on, staring at Brother Yang incredulously.
梁喜也反应了过来，他不可思议的看着身旁的杨大哥。
“So… you spent several thousand years practicing martial arts inside?”
“所以，你在里面练了几千年的武功？”
“Ha, not that extreme—most of that time I skipped through with acceleration.”
“哈，那道没那么夸张，大多数时间都被我加速跳过了。”
[Under the fading influence of Moon Shadow, the frequency with Clearmoon has decreased.]
[受月影消散影响，与皎月的共频已经降低。]
[The intersecting space is now fully stabilized.]
[交错空间已完全稳定。]
The figure on the ground quickly dissolved into motes of light, which expanded and then coalesced. A small human-like statue appeared on the ground—like a miniature black granite figurine.
地上那人的身影快速化为微粒般的光芒扩散又聚拢，一个小型的人像出现在地上，就像个黑花岗岩手办。
“Is this the bonded statue you mentioned?”
“这就是你说的伴生像？”
Yang Zicang’s heart stirred—could this be a type of monument?
杨子藏心中一动，难道这就是雕像的一种吗。
“Heh heh, I know what you’re thinking, but sadly it’s not counted as a Bloodline Resonance Statue. However, once it resonates with the headquarters’ statue, it can remotely use the larger statue’s abilities—essentially a small clone of the headquarters’ monument.”
“嘿嘿，我知道你在想什么，不过很遗憾它不算是血脉雕像。但与总部的雕像共鸣之后，可以远程使用大雕像的能力，相当于总部雕像的小分身。”
Liang Xi shot a glance at Yang Zicang, and upon seeing his nod, stepped forward to pick up the small statue.
梁喜看了杨子藏一眼，见对方点点头后，上前将这小雕像拿起。
“Whoa—with this, we can control this area’s opening and closing. We’ll be able to open the channel door anytime.”
“哇哦，用它可以控制这个区域的开合，我们可以随时打开通道门了。”
“It can do that?” Yang Zicang was taken aback.
“还能这样？”杨子藏一愣。
Luo Bin stood up, walked over, and took the statue in his hand to sense its power. Sure enough—it worked. This was intelligence even he had never known.
洛宾起身走来拿在手里感受了下，果然是如此，这是他也不知道的情报。
“Hahaha, now I see why those folks held their bonded statue so dearly—it can also seal off the space here after stabilizing the compromised zone. Still though, it takes a hundred years of time sequence to resonate.”
“哈哈哈，我就说为什么一个伴生像被那些人那么宝贝，原来它还能在稳定交错地后继续封闭这里的空间。不过，竟然需要一百年时序来共鸣。”
The man’s face was about to split from grinning.
男人的脸都快笑烂了。
“In that case, let’s make this our base from now on. Who’s going to resonate with this thing?”
“那以后，这里就作为我们的基地好了，这东西谁共鸣？”
The three of them exchanged glances, and Liang Xi said, “Let’s vote. I cast my vote for Brother Yang.”
三人互相看了看，梁喜道：“投票吧，我投杨大哥一票。”
“Vote for your grandpa.”
“投你大爷。”
Luo Bin casually tossed the statue to Yang Zicang.
洛宾随手就把雕像丢给了杨子藏。
……
……
The three looked down through the window, where several charred, human-like shapes lay on the ground.
三人通过窗户看下去，地上几个焦炭般的人形。
But suddenly, they heard faint sobbing sounds—someone was still alive.
但忽然他们听到轻微的呜咽声，还有活人。
Yang Zicang leaped down from the upper floor in one go.
杨子藏从楼上一跃而下。
Yu Chen, hanging beneath the staircase, swayed his body like drying meat, nearly driven mad by fear.
悬吊在楼梯下的余晨宛若晾晒的腊肉般摆动自己的身子，这人已经快被吓疯了。
“You actually survived.”
“你居然能活下来。”
“Where it hung wasn’t conductive.”
“它挂的地方不导电。”
“Brother, big brother, I was blinded by greed. I know I was wrong.”
“哥，大哥我鬼迷心窍，我知道错了。”
To have survived under such circumstances, he was indeed a fortunate person.
能在这样的情况下还活下来，也算是个命大的人。
“Contact your men outside to come and get you, then get the hell out.”
“联系你外面的队员来接你滚吧。”
“Thanks, thank you, big brother. But I don’t have any men left,” Yu Chen said, on the verge of tears. “They’re all dead. The one outside should have been taken out by that guy who ambushed us.”
“谢谢，谢谢大哥。但我已经没有队员了，”余晨带着哭腔道，“他们都死了，外面的那个也应该被搞偷袭的那人给干掉了。”
Helplessly, he looked at Yang Zicang, his heart now devoid of any bitterness.
他欲哭无泪的看着杨子藏，此刻心里哪还有一丁点儿的憎恨情绪。