Chapter 718

Chapter 718

The meeting room was dead silent.

Concepts like spatial folds, secret realm cores, and energy sources... these were far beyond the imagination of ordinary people. Even the top brass of the Elite Alliance were stunned and speechless.

Though Francis still looked grim, his eyes were filled with uncertainty and shock.

"Using the Purifying Flame Stone to deal with the Mainframe..." I zeroed in on the key issue, "Besides directly purifying its creations like you did earlier, or resisting mental corruption like on the spaceship, are there other ways? Can we mine this stone on a large scale, refine it, or even replicate it? Could we integrate it into our defense systems, like making shields, weapon coatings, or even purifying the Control Spirit Crystal network tainted by the Mainframe?"

My questions cut straight to the point, with a hint of urgency.

The Mainframe's "Reset Sequence" hung over us like a sword of Damocles. What we needed was a plan that could quickly turn into real combat strength.

Uri and Dane exchanged a glance, both seeing the seriousness and a trace of hesitation in each other's eyes.

"Large-scale mining is tough," Uri said, her voice heavy with reality, "First, the space structure of the Heart of the Sacred Mountain secret realm is unstable. Over-mining could trigger unpredictable disasters, even causing the realm to collapse completely, cutting off our source of Purifying Flame Stone forever."

"Second, the refining process is extremely slow and requires guardians to continuously channel the energy of the Heart of the Sacred Mountain. It's very inefficient. Most of our clan's current stock of Purifying Flame Stone is used to protect the Sacred Mountain and make weapons and gear for the guardians. We have very little left."

Dane chimed in, his tone blunt in the typical style of the Wildman Tribe, "And replication? Forget it! We've spent hundreds of years and still can't figure out how to make that stone without refining it through the Heart of the Sacred Mountain. The elders say it's a gift from the 'Heart of the Sacred Mountain,' not something you can cook up in a furnace!"

"As for purifying tainted crystals..." Uri paused, thinking, "In theory, the power of the Purifying Flame Stone should work, just like it did with that crystal shard. But the crystal network is huge and complex. Each crystal is like a tiny node, and the Mainframe's corruption might have dug deep into their energy structure."

"To fully purify the entire network, we'd need to find the source of the corruption or key nodes and inject a massive amount of purifying flame energy. That requires precise targeting, enormous power, and likely a huge cost."

She stopped for a moment, her clear eyes looking straight at me with a wisdom beyond her years, "James, the Purifying Flame Stone is a key to fighting the Mainframe, but it's not a magic fix, and it's not easy to get."

"It's more like a spark. To turn it into a wildfire that can drive away the ice brought by the Mainframe, we need to find a way. We need time, and we need to go deep into the Sacred Mountain secret realm, face the 'Heart of the Sacred Mountain,' understand the essence of its power, and maybe even seek its guidance."

"This won't be easy. The secret realm is full of unknown dangers, and the spatial folds are unstable. The elders, especially the conservative ones, will never easily allow outsiders to enter, let alone go to the core."

Uri's words were like a bucket of cold water, dousing the overly optimistic flames that had just been ignited in the meeting room by the display of the Purifying Flame Stone.

Hope existed, but the path to it was filled with thorns and barriers too high to climb—limits of space technology, resistance from the Wildman Tribe's conservative traditions, the dangers of the secret realm itself, and the scarce, precious resource of the Purifying Flame Stone.

Just then, the tech supervisor, a quiet old man with thick glasses and gray hair, Cecil's right-hand man, suddenly pointed at a secondary screen in the corner of the room connected to the crystal energy monitoring system and let out a terrified scream, "No! Impossible! These readings..."

Everyone's heart sank as we instantly turned to the screen.

On it, the curve showing the stability of the headquarters' deep underground crystal energy core was dropping at an unprecedented, cliff-like speed!

At the same time, a glaring, flashing warning sign covered half the screen—

Core Contamination Index: CRITICAL! Spatial Coordinates: Lock Anomaly! 'Reset Sequence' Infiltration: Deep Activation! Estimated Total Loss of Control Countdown: 1 hour 47 minutes!

The numbers on the screen kept ticking down mercilessly!

"Deep activation? This can't be! Our isolation layers..." Cecil lunged at the main console, his fingers frantically typing on the virtual keyboard to pull up more detailed data. His face turned pale as a sheet, "It's over. The isolation layer was bypassed! The contamination source is inside the core! It's from redundant modules planted during the last maintenance! They were dormant erosion seeds! The Mainframe was waiting for us to get the sample, waiting for us to let our guard down!"

Cecil's voice trembled with despair.

The Mainframe's "Reset Sequence" wasn't a slow infiltration at all!

It had long ago planted deadly seeds in the most critical, most powerful energy source at Elite Alliance headquarters—the crystal core. And now, they had finally been triggered!

Our so-called victorious return had become the final spark to light the fuse!

Time was no longer a luxury; it was the cruelest countdown!

What would happen if we lost control? A massive explosion at headquarters? Everyone getting mentally corrupted or physically mutated? Becoming puppets of the Mainframe? Or worse, turning into fodder for its next "experiment field"?

"1 hour 47 minutes..." Gilbert muttered. The former leader, who had weathered countless storms, now had bloodshot eyes, "Evacuation won't work! There are millions of people in the main city!"

"Purify! We have to purify the core!" I turned sharply to Uri and Dane, my voice firm, "Uri! Your blade! The Purifying Flame Stone! It's our only hope! Tell me, is there a chance?"

Everyone's eyes, filled with the desperate hope of a drowning man grasping at straws, locked onto Uri.

For the first time, a fierce wave of emotion flickered in Uri's clear eyes.

She looked down at the long blade on her lap, her fingers gripping the sheath so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

Dane, growing anxious, shouted in a rough voice, "Uri! That's a sacred relic! It's for protecting the Sacred Mountain..."

"I know!" Uri snapped her head up, her eyes shining with determination, overpowering her usual calm, "Dane, the purpose of a sacred relic is to protect! To protect the Sacred Mountain, our people, and everything worth protecting! If this place falls today, the Mainframe's next target will be the Forbidden Island! It will be the Sacred Mountain!"

Her gaze swept across the desperate, hopeful faces in the meeting room, finally landing on me, "James, the power of the Purifying Flame Stone can try to purify the core, but like I said, it needs massive energy and precise guidance. The core's contamination runs deep. My strength, combined with the purifying flame energy stored in this blade, might suppress or even purify a small part of the key nodes to buy us time, but the cost..."

Uri took a deep breath, her voice carrying a faint, barely noticeable tremble, "The cost might be the complete destruction of this 'Breath of Purifying Flame,' a blade passed down through seven generations of guardians. And guiding this power deep into the core's contamination vortex might corrupt my own mind in return."

"Uri!" Dane roared in shock and anger, trying to stop her.