With Mu Qing's arrival, Feng Qi finally felt relieved.
The Psionic Race was still locked in a standoff with Little Black, making this the perfect opportunity to escape.
He stepped out and waved at Mu Qing.
Mu Qing immediately turned her head and spotted him.
When she saw Feng Qi in his skeletal form, she looked momentarily surprised, but she quickly recognized that it was indeed him.
After a brief moment of shock, she flashed over to his side.
As she grabbed his arm, Feng Qi used telekinetic resonance to speak:
"Wait, take some of the research data with us!"
Saying this, he crouched down and started gathering the scattered blueprints and documents from the floor.
The battle between the Psionic Race and Little Black had torn many of the documents apart, leaving much of the data incomplete.
But Feng Qi couldn't afford to care about that now.
He had to take whatever he could.
He suspected the Psionic Race wouldn't last much longer. Once Little Black finished them off, he and Mu Qing would be the next targets.
If that happened, escaping would become much harder.
Even if they fled to the Crimson Secret Base, there was no guarantee that Little Black wouldn't pursue them.
Right now, every second counted.
Mu Qing crouched down as well, helping him gather the scattered documents and blueprints.
After picking up a stack of blueprints, Feng Qi looked up at the Psionic Race members still trying to hold back Little Black.
The suppression from the divine script was gradually weakening.
It was clear that the Psionic Race was struggling to hold on, but they didn't dare let go.
Little Black's mist-like tendrils were only about two meters away from their leader, the Seventh Elder. If they loosened their grip, he would be the first to be engulfed and devoured.
After exchanging blows earlier, they had clearly realized the terrifying extent of Little Black's ability to consume energy.
Their bodies were entirely composed of energy.
If they so much as touched Little Black, they wouldn't even leave a corpse behind.
Feng Qi knew they couldn't afford to stay any longer. He turned to Mu Qing and said:
"Senior, we need to go!"
Mu Qing nodded firmly.
She flashed to his side and lifted him onto her back.
A jade-colored glow flowed across her body as she lowered her head slightly. Then, in the next instant, her figure transformed into a streak of jade light, shooting toward the exit of the Research Institute's headquarters.
Seeing this, the Psionic Race members locked in battle with Little Black looked grim.
The moment they noticed Mu Qing's arrival, they had already realized something.
Their clan member stationed outside—Hei Gu—must have been killed. Otherwise, this mysterious woman wouldn't have arrived at such a critical moment.
But what they couldn't understand was how this incredibly powerful woman had broken free from the five-sense sealing technique.
Obliteration was an incomplete miracle artifact, but its effects were far from weak.
If this mysterious woman possessed power on par with a Pillar God, they wouldn't have found it strange that she could break through Obliteration's seal.
But the reality was that while she was strong, she was nowhere near the level of a Pillar God who transcended all beings.
Under the five-sense seal, no matter how strong one's physical body was, they shouldn't have been able to escape.
While they struggled to comprehend this, the Seventh Elder and the other Psionic Race members felt an increasing sense of dread.
They had come fully prepared to capture Hei Lin.
They had brought two precious miracle artifacts—Reversal and Obliteration—and had even resorted to using the divine script.
Yet, despite all this, they had failed at every turn. Not only did they fail to capture anything, but now they were trapped here, facing the very real possibility of death.
By this point, Little Black's mist-like tendrils were spreading at an increasing speed.
The Seventh Elder turned his head and spoke in a deep voice:
"You all go first. I'll hold it back."
The other Psionic Race members looked at him in shock.
They immediately understood his intent.
They had all fought together, and even with their combined strength, they couldn't stop this mysterious entity.
The Seventh Elder was choosing to stay behind—clearly planning to sacrifice himself to buy time for the others to escape.
"You are the future of the Psionic Race. I can die, but you must live… When I give the command, leave together."
Seeing the determination in the Seventh Elder's eyes, the other Psionic Race members felt conflicted.
But they knew he was right.
Dying together was foolish.
Sacrificing one to ensure the survival of the rest was the logical choice.
"Seventh Elder, let me do it instead!" The heavily injured Hei Sha stepped forward resolutely.
"Shut up! If you want to do something for me, avenge me in the future!"
With that, the Seventh Elder turned his gaze toward the oncoming Little Black.
The golden light in his eyes flared to its peak.
"Listen to me… Retreat!" he roared.
As soon as he gave the command, the other Psionic Race members withdrew their hands and retreated out of the restricted laboratory.
Watching the Seventh Elder charge toward Little Black, their eyes were filled with grief and rage.
As they watched, the Seventh Elder roared at Little Black, unleashing a golden energy storm that pierced through the pitch-black body, attempting to drag it into mutual destruction.
The terrifying energy tore apart everything in the restricted laboratory, trying to annihilate Little Black.
But the miracle never happened.
The raging psionic storm lost its potency the moment it came into contact with Little Black, while its black mist expanded, rapidly growing by devouring the energy.
The psionic storm was soon enveloped by the black mist, shrinking at a visible rate until, finally, the restricted laboratory fell into eerie silence.
…
At this moment, Feng Qi and Mu Qing had already reached the core area of the Technological Research Institute and were rushing toward the exit of the headquarters at breakneck speed.
Mu Qing's speed was astonishing, and in Feng Qi's vision, the surrounding scenery became a blur.
It was like the motion blur effect in a video game.
Mu Qing's incredibly resilient physique allowed her to withstand the strain of high-speed movement, but Feng Qi's skeletal body was struggling to endure it.
As they sped forward, several fractured bones fell from his body.
But at this point, it didn't matter anymore.
Bones could fall off for all he cared—his body was already too broken to worry about minor losses.
The priority was to get out of the Technological Research Institute as fast as possible. Once the Psionic Race failed to hold the line, any nearby living being would become Little Black's next target.
Mu Qing was incredibly strong, but whether she could defeat Little Black remained uncertain.
At least, none of the existing methods seemed to have any effect on it.
Even if Mu Qing could suppress Little Black momentarily, she would eventually be worn down.
"Once we get out, contact all units and order a retreat. The most important thing right now is bringing this data back to Star City and handing it over to the Crimson Research Institute. We can't afford to push the front lines toward Old Day City anymore," Feng Qi said.
Hearing this, Mu Qing nodded firmly and responded, "Understood!"
Feng Qi's original war plan only included Future City as a stepping stone.
If they still had enough military strength, he had planned to lead the Dawn Army toward Old Day City. Even if they couldn't conquer it, they could at least attempt to break into Twilight City and search for the mysterious underground lab hidden beneath.
However, after witnessing the capabilities of the Psionic Race, he realized that the combat strength of the Dawn Army was vastly inferior in comparison.
Continuing the war would only lead to insurmountable obstacles.
The intervention of multiple domain combat squads to stop their war efforts was just one such complication.
At this point, the best course of action was to retreat to Star City and deliver the classified research data to the Crimson Research Institute.
…
A few minutes later, Mu Qing carried Feng Qi out of the research headquarters.
Before them lay a scene of utter devastation, a war-torn landscape. Even the distant buildings had been flattened, allowing for an unobstructed view of the far horizon.
The perimeter walls of the Technological Research Institute had long since been reduced to rubble.
What puzzled Feng Qi, however, was that the domain warriors who had come to halt their advance were now standing motionless in place, eyes vacant, like statues frozen in time.
"What happened to them?" Feng Qi asked curiously.
"They've been sealed off from their senses. I almost got caught in it myself, but I managed to break free in time," Mu Qing replied.
"The Psionic Race's doing?" he asked.
"It was likely a miracle artifact. A purple ring," Mu Qing responded as her gaze shifted toward the area where she had fought Hei Gu.
There, lying quietly on the ground, was a ring emanating a soft purple glow.
Following Mu Qing's line of sight, Feng Qi spotted the ring as well. In an instant, he realized it was the miracle artifact she had mentioned.
"Take it back to Crimson," he ordered.
"Got it!" Mu Qing answered without hesitation.
This unexpected discovery took Feng Qi by surprise.
Earlier, when he saw the Psionic Race using time reversal in the projection footage from the restricted lab, he had already been shocked.
It proved that the Psionic Race was far stronger than he had initially believed.
But now he realized that they had brought not just one, but two miracle artifacts just to capture Hei Lin, their traitor.
There was no way he would leave such a valuable artifact behind.
At his command, Mu Qing swiftly nodded and flashed toward the ring.
However, the moment she bent down to pick it up, a jet-black energy surged out from the ring, latching onto her body.
Feng Qi had no time to react before the energy struck him as well, turning his skeletal frame completely black.
The energy was incredibly corrosive.
He barely had time to process what was happening before the dark force wrapped around him.
A wave of dizziness hit him instantly.
"A curse!"
During his studies on cultivation sciences, Feng Qi had learned about various energy forms.
One of them had no known countermeasure.
The curse.
Curses didn't cause immediate fatal damage, but they were extremely persistent, inflicting long-term suffering on their victims.
Many frontline warriors had died slow, agonizing deaths due to curse energy.
Now that he had been suddenly afflicted, it was clear that the Psionic Race had placed a powerful curse on this miracle ring.
There was even a possibility that they had embedded a tracking device within it.
Thinking about it carefully, it made sense.
The Psionic Race wouldn't entrust something this important to their members without leaving a backup plan.
This powerful curse was likely just one layer of it.
There was a high chance that this ring was also embedded with a tracking device. That way, even if a clan member carrying the miracle artifact perished during a mission, the Psionic Race could still retrieve the lost artifact quickly.
The dizziness intensified, and Feng Qi fought against the overwhelming urge to lose consciousness. With difficulty, he turned to Mu Qing and used telepathic resonance to say:
"Whatever you do… don't bring this ring to Crimson."
The moment he finished speaking, his vision faded, and he lost consciousness.
As Feng Qi collapsed, Mu Qing—who had been directly struck by the black energy—felt a surge of crimson light flashing in her eyes. She clenched her fists tightly.
In an instant, a powerful jade-colored arc of electricity erupted across her body, shattering the black energy that clung to her.
But the curse energy was persistent, rapidly spreading across her body once again.
She turned her gaze toward Feng Qi, who lay motionless nearby, a flicker of urgency flashing in her eyes.
As her emotions surged, a blurry phantom of a fierce beast emerged behind her.
The crimson in her eyes deepened, and she suddenly lowered her head, inhaling deeply at the dark energy covering her body. In the next instant, the cursed energy surged into her mouth.
Her terrifying digestive ability manifested at this moment.
The tenacious curse energy was swiftly broken down inside her body, converted into pure energy, and absorbed into her limbs and bones, becoming part of her strength.
Mu Qing exhaled a mouthful of dark mist, then immediately dashed toward Feng Qi.
Upon closer inspection, she realized that his condition was dire.
His entire skeletal frame had turned pitch black, and the soul fire flickering inside his skull was dimming, as if on the verge of collapse.
Seeing this, Mu Qing's expression filled with panic.
She had the ability to purge the curse from herself, but she couldn't help Feng Qi remove the curse.
Unless… she devoured him.
Doing so would completely neutralize the curse, but it would also mean Feng Qi wouldn't survive.
Without hesitation, she bent down, hoisted him onto her back, and in a flash of jade-colored light, disappeared from the battlefield, heading straight for the Dawn Army's location.
…
Not long after Mu Qing left, fourteen figures emerged from the ruins of the Technological Research Institute.
Behind them, a thick mass of black mist spread rapidly, chasing them down.
Faced with Little Black's pursuit, none of them dared to stop.
Just moments ago, in an attempt to stall Little Black, two more of their members had stayed behind—and were completely devoured.
Even though they had escaped the research institute, they still weren't safe.
Against an entity that could not be harmed, they were filled with despair.
Opening a spatial passage to flee required time, but in their current situation, stopping for even a moment was a death sentence.
If they were caught by that mysterious entity, they would be instantly drained of all energy, reduced to nothing.
"Split up and run!"
Heavily injured, Hei Sha gritted his teeth and gave the order.
The remaining members of the Psionic Race didn't hesitate. They immediately scattered, each fleeing in a different direction.
Hei Sha turned to face the encroaching Little Black, his cold gaze locked onto it.
Strange markings emerged on his forehead, and he raised his right hand toward Little Black.
A nearly imperceptible purple light flickered.
Purple energy wrapped around Little Black, and Hei Sha, his eyes filled with determination, clenched his fist tightly.
Time Reversal activated instantly.
The area shrouded in faint purple light entered a state of temporal regression.
The expanding black mist abruptly retracted, and Little Black was forcefully pulled backward.
Hei Sha, too, was caught in the effect and was dragged back into the entrance of the Technological Research Institute.
Watching as his fleeing clan members grew distant, Hei Sha's expression remained calm. He slowly closed his eyes.
At that moment, he recalled his childhood at the Psionic Academy, listening to the Grand Elder recount stories of their clan's rise.
The Psionic Race had once been weak, suffering under the oppression of surrounding forces.
Their pioneers had endured countless hardships, rising from the depths of despair.
These predecessors gave everything but never lived to enjoy the privileges of the Psionic Race's rise, nor did they witness its vast future.
Their sacrifices were solely to ensure a better life for those who came after.
The first leader of the Psionic Race left behind words that were still engraved in the Holy Spirit Consciousness Repository's first level—a guiding principle for countless new generations of the Psionic Race:
"I can spend my life in suffering, but my people must not!"
It was through the sacrifices and struggles of those pioneers that the Psionic Race had reached where it was today.
Now, Hei Sha suddenly felt a profound connection to them.
For the first time, he truly understood how those pioneers must have felt.
Just then, he saw cracks forming in his vision, rapidly spreading across his perception of the world.
And then, the entire world collapsed.
The time reversal was broken once again by Little Black.
As Hei Sha coughed up golden liquid, a smile appeared on his face.
"So this is what it feels like…"
The black mist behind him drew closer, enveloping his body, pulling him into an endless abyss.