Logan had no time to dwell on his thoughts. He immediately snapped his head up, eyes scanning the surroundings with sharp alertness.

Suddenly, a burning stung on his left arm.

The Truth Mark of The Observer No. 1 seeped into him from a distance, traveling along the cracks in his DNA. Golden, scar-like lines emerged on his skin, creeping up his veins inch by inch with every shift. Each step brought a tearing pain that made him wince.

Logan felt as though his very essence was being drained from afar. The cracks on his five-stranded DNA deepened further, hitting a critical threshold. Faint signs of disintegration began to appear.

Soon, drops of pale golden blood oozed from the pores in Logan’s skin, leaving tiny beads behind.

Bar looked down, his chains rattling loudly. "Logan, is The Observer No. 1’s gift to your liking? Don’t think that Time Rules make you invincible. Now that we know your hand, we’ve already prepared for this!"

"Hah, at least that last rewind just now let me dodge the Truth Mark’s instant kill," Logan wiped the golden blood from the corner of his mouth. He held his blade horizontally across his chest and spoke coldly. "Otherwise, just the activation of that mark alone would have been enough to kill me."

With that, the blade in Logan’s hand flared with bright light. "Come on then! Let’s see if you’ve come here as a grim reaper, or just another corpse!"

Hearing Logan’s words, Bar’s face remained expressionless. His gaze was cold, looking at Logan as if he were already dead. "All you can do is talk tough. Here, I’ll send you off."

As soon as Bar finished speaking, the eight Demigods around them simultaneously unleashed their pressure. The air itself seemed to thicken and become sticky under the weight.

Logan wiped the golden blood from his mouth but said nothing. Instead, his eyes quickly swept over the surrounding encirclement formation.

Nine Demigod auras locked down every escape route. A flawless spatial seal blocked any possibility of Space Teleport.

There was no way for him to summon his Familiar Legion now.

He was left with only one Save Point and two frozen rewind permissions. In other words, he had just one life left.

Logan twirled the Blade of Time in his fingertips. The Blade of Time had just brushed against the silver-gray space energy, leaving the blade’s surface chillingly cold. Holding it for too long made his fingertips feel nearly frozen.

At the same time, in the No. 53 Restricted Zone, the Destruction Temple stood silent.

Violet stood in the center, holding the Staff of Creation in one hand and the Bow of Destruction in the other. The purple-gold mark of the High Executor on her forehead glowed faintly.

She was organizing the Ancient Beast Clan legion for defense. Her fingertips tapped lightly on the totem pillars, confirming the energy levels of every defense line.

Through the mind link, she knew what Logan was going through. Subconsciously, she rubbed the purple-gold mark on her forehead. "Master, please don’t hurt yourself!"

Suddenly, a violent tremor shook from the depths of the temple.

A familiar rule fluctuation from the No. 47 Restricted Zone surged up along the ley lines.

Violet’s golden vertical pupils shrank sharply. She looked up toward the temple entrance.

Among the 110,000 flesh puppets, forty-seven hidden assassins suddenly surged forward.

Black tattoos from the No. 47 Restricted Zone glowed on their fingertips, and their combat pressure shot up instantly!

"Damn it, it’s the blood sacrifice trap left behind by the Iron-Bone Grand Elder."

"They are remnants of the Blood River! They’re rebelling!"

"Protect Lord Violet!"

Outside the hall, roars erupted as the guards immediately engaged the assassins in fierce combat.

At the same time, black blood vessels poured endlessly from the cracks in the ground, wrapping around the totem pillars surrounding the temple. They began to disrupt the connection between the Sky-Splitting Tribe royal bloodline and the ley lines.

Violet tightened her grip on the Staff of Creation, her face turning pale. "If they interfere with my control over the Restricted Zone!"

With that, she raised the Horn of the Sky-Splitting Ancestor high. Her golden vertical eyes swirled with blood as she forcibly activated the royal bloodline Resonance.

Her hand holding the Horn trembled violently. The temperature of the Horn was scorching, like holding a red-hot branding iron.

The old scar on Violet’s palm burst open from the heat.

Pale golden blood flowed down the pattern on the Horn, dripping onto the totem pillars. The pillars hissed as the blood burned them.

At that moment, the totem patterns on the Horn lit up. Violet unleashed the pressure of a Demigod.

"Die!"

The assassins surrounding her were instantly forced to their knees, their bones cracking audibly.

Once the assassins’ bones shattered, black blood splattered onto Violet’s shoes. The leather on her shoes was instantly corroded by the blood, creating holes. Yet, she didn’t seem to feel a thing.

That last strike had suppressed the rebellion, but it cost her a bit of the World’s Essence.

That Essence was part of the thirty percent reserve Logan had transferred to her before leaving. Not much was left.

Although the rebellion was temporarily controlled, the black blood vessels were still crawling over the totem pillars, continuously disrupting the stability of the totem ritual.

Moreover, where the blood vessels touched the golden patterns on the totem pillars, they emitted a hissing sound of corrosion. The golden patterns were visibly dimming at a speed the naked eye could detect.

"I have to stop these blood vessels from eroding the totem!" Violet’s aura surged to a temporary peak. She was about to press down on the blood vessels again when—

Snap!

A tiny golden pattern on the tip of the Horn suddenly snapped. A visible crack appeared on the Horn itself.

Violet raised her left hand, trying to send an emergency distress signal to Logan through their soul master-servant contract.

But as soon as her mind link touched the spatial barrier, it was bounced back.

Nine Demigods had locked down all spatial paths, sealing off any signal transmission. Her message couldn’t get through.

In a desperate move, she coldly ordered the Sky-Shattering Chieftain, the Flesh Temple Lord, and the Shadow Chairman standing outside the hall: "You go help suppress these assassins. We must hold the east side of the hall. Leave the west side empty to lure the assassins into the Blood Sea and wipe them out."

The Sky-Shattering Chieftain swung his great axe and grunted in response, "Understood."

Flesh Temple Lord wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with a cold sneer. "Bring as many as you want; we’ll swallow them all."

Shadow Chairman’s figure slowly faded into the shadows. Her only words were, "Clear the area in three minutes."

Her voice remained calm, showing zero panic.

Seeing this, Violet let out a quiet sigh of relief.

She looked at the totem being eroded, then silently raised her hand. Droplets of pale golden blood from her fingertips fell onto the black blood vessels on the ground, hissing as they corroded.

Almost instantly, the black vessels were burned by the blood, which was charged with the World’s Essence, sending up plumes of white steam.

Violet did the math silently. In this state, she could hold out for 27 days.

"I must hold No. 53 Restricted Zone until Master returns," she muttered, glancing out of the hall.

Outside, Sky-Shattering Chieftain was already swinging his great axe, cleaving through waves of rising assassins.

Flesh Temple Lord released [Boundless Blood Sea], helping Sky-Shattering Chieftain while simultaneously corroding the black blood vessels on the ground.

Meanwhile, Shadow Chairman slipped quietly into the shadows to eliminate the assassins who had slipped through the net.

Over at Black Abyss Canyon, Origin Devourer’s Black Hole Domain shrank again, preparing to coordinate with Bar’s attack and completely swallow Logan.

Logan stared at the silver-gray energy in Bar’s palm. The Blade of Time in his fingertips trembled slightly, but he had no intention of retreating.

He had just used his first Save Point. Only one final Safe Room state Save Point remained. I must complete the first repair within a few days, or the DNA disintegration will be irreversible, he thought grimly.

Logan bent down, dodging a spatial chain that whizzed past his head.

The chain scraped his scalp, slicing off a clump of hair. The moment the hair touched the chain, it turned to ash.

His back slammed into the cold cave wall, and a sharp stone pierced his back, making him grunt in pain.

He yanked the stone out and threw it on the ground. The stone was instantly shredded into dust by the spatial turbulence.

A jagged rock hit his shoulder armor with a dull thud.

He quickly scanned the surroundings. The cave stretched far back, and the walls on both sides were covered in fine scratches—the marks of passing space cracks, providing natural cover.

"We can’t fight head-on anymore; I need to find a flaw in the spatial lock," Logan said, leaning against the wall. He pressed his left hand against the golden scar on his arm.

The burning pain drilled deeper into his marrow, making him grit his teeth. "Damn, the remaining one Save Point is my last trump card."

"But first, I have to figure out the rules of the spatial lock to make a plan."

Logan clenched his jaw and silently whispered, "Read."

Suddenly, Logan’s body rewound to the state before he entered the cave. His wounds and pain vanished instantly.

But the next second, his mind suddenly went blank.

He shook his head. His brain felt like a bowl of mashed porridge. He couldn’t even remember if he had just dodged a spatial chain or a Space Cut.

He tried hard to recall how he found this cave, but only vague gray fragments remained. He couldn’t remember the specific path.

Even the scene of Violet handing him hot soup last night flickered and faded completely away.

He couldn’t remember the taste of that soup, nor what Violet had said to him at the time.

He looked down at his left arm. The scar-like Truth Mark had spread from his elbow down to his wrist.

The scar had crawled up another inch, now on the inner side of his wrist, glowing hot.

He pressed his arm against the cold rock wall just to barely suppress the burning sensation.

He tried to recall Violet’s face. Her outline was clear, but the color of her eyes seemed a bit blurry. His heart skipped a beat. He knew his memories were fading faster than he had imagined.

The patterns were twice as deep as before, seeming to crawl under his skin like living creatures.

He could clearly feel his five-stranded DNA trembling. The cracks had torn open another gash, and the disintegration was accelerating.

"Damn it!" Logan cursed under his breath, realizing this was the price of using a Save Point.

Every time he rewound, his DNA cracks worsened permanently, and memories slipped away like fine sand. If he used his last Save Point, the cracks would get even worse, and his memories would fade so much he wouldn’t recognize the people standing right in front of him.

Thinking this, Logan gripped the Blade of Time tightly, his knuckles turning white from the pressure.

He decided not to force a breakthrough anymore. Instead, he began studying the fluctuating Space Rules around him.

He projected the Ten Realms, aiming a strike at the energy nodes of the spatial lock to test the blockade’s strength.

...