Rules-related weird stories: 4016.

Chapter 671 The Land of "Time Exile" (Seeking monthly votes at the beginning of the month~)

Mao Feiyang helplessly shrugged: "With Lao Lin involved, my reputation for being a 'cheap' persona will naturally revert to its rightful place."

Lin Yi: "..."

"No...? You...?"

Kuai Hongji glanced at her: "The situation you described is worse than you can imagine."

“Once this happens, it means that the entire legal framework is out of control.”

"There is a probability, but it will not happen."

"Okay...that's for the best." Lin Yi shrank his neck.

Kuai Hongji drew back the curtains and then moved away a bit.

"Hey Maozi, give me the music box."

Mao Feiyang quickly put away the bronze key and then handed "Amon's Music Box" to Kuai Hongji.

Kuai Hongji took the music box and held it in his palm.

Lin Yi leaned closer curiously and asked, "What extraordinary properties does this 'Amon's Music Box' possess?"

Kuai Hongji looked at the music box and slowly explained, "Its characteristics are 'penetration' and 'location'. You can think of it as a kind of sonar on the layer and dimension level, which can help users effectively explore the depth of the layer and locate the traces of something."

"Layered sonar? That's interesting!" Lin Yi exclaimed in surprise.

Kuai Hongji nodded: "Its melody can continuously permeate time and dimensions. Once someone who hears its sound responds, the user will obtain its coordinates. If there is no response, there is still a way to obtain the other party's location..."

"I will then use it to penetrate the time dimension and find the location of the Dharma within the 'time exile'."

"Okay, wait! Hiss—" Lin Yi suddenly thought of something and took a deep breath. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, ever since I entered the school, I've been hearing calls that seem to come from the depths of the ocean. Could it be that there are similar traps in those calls? Are they waiting for me to respond to them and get the coordinates?"

Tian Bufan once said that he only entered the "band" after his pollution level reached a certain depth. When the pollution level was not deep enough, he was not even qualified to "receive" such calls.

In other words, the other party really did come from the depths of the ocean, but it was a wide-ranging diffusion and release, like the ripples of pollution released by "angels" from the depths of the ocean!
Fortunately, he never responded to this, otherwise, wouldn't his coordinates have been intercepted by some unknown entity?!

The thought of how many times he had flirted with exposure sent chills down his spine and made him break out in a cold sweat.

Kuai Hongji said, "That's possible. In any case, just don't respond to any random calls."

"Hmm..." Lin Yi nodded heavily.

Although he had some inappropriate "exploratory (self-destructive) desires" when he was completely "clueless" when he first entered the school, he still had a bottom line... Perhaps this was the insurance measure he left for himself.

Kuai Hongji said, "I'm about to begin, Lao Lin, pay attention to your senses..."

"What exactly do you perceive?" Lin Yi asked. "I mean... what kind of feedback does that place of time exile provide?"

“It’s a feeling I can’t quite describe, but when you sense it, your subconscious tells you—'That’s it,'” Kuai Hongji said mysteriously.

"That's incredible?" Lin Yi was surprised, but seeing that Kuai Hongji couldn't describe it in more detail, he had no choice but to give up.

Kuai Hongji held the music box in his palm. As "Amon's Music Box" turned, the dotted cylinder slowly rotated. He plucked the small reed, and the completed melody of the music box began to play...

"Ding-dong ding-dong dong-dong..."

"Ding-dong... Ding-dong-dong-ding-dong..."

"Ding-dong..."

As "Amon's Music Box" operates, the existing grating effect trembles as if each piece of paper is being manipulated, and the entire bedroom feels fragmented, as if it were constructed with sugar icing.

A dark gray mist began to rise behind Kuai Hongji, within which appeared stars and a long night, as well as countless dense secret patterns.

These secret patterns transformed into ripples like water, slowly flowing into the music box.

"Buzzing..."

"Buzzing..."

As the dark gray mist was injected, the trembling of the entire space grew stronger and stronger. The bedroom seemed to be unable to maintain its shape any longer, and suddenly shattered like countless snowflakes with a "bang".

"boom--!"

As the snowflakes shattered, the warm tones in the bedroom suddenly collapsed. The bed, bookshelves, curtains... everything turned into a raster state, then split into endless bands of light as if through dialysis, spreading out in all directions.

The picture frame on the desk was twisted and broken, and the white plush bear on the chair bounced uncontrollably.

Lin Yi instinctively wanted to grab the broken negative from the shattered photo frame and catch the teddy bear, but these thoughts were completely futile. At this moment, his willpower seemed no different from that of a spectator.

The state of expansion and collapse in the bedroom before me is very similar to how a clock tower appears in a layer, but the way a clock tower collapses is limited and cannot be compared with the infinite expansion of this bedroom at this moment.

"Buzzing...buzzing..."

The space around Kuai Hongji continued to expand, and the boundaries continued to extend. The raster kept overlapping with the broken snowflakes, causing the entire layer to start iterating wildly. Then, the raster and the snowflakes began to combine in a certain way, forming a world that looked like it was made of countless icicles crisscrossing and combining!
"What...what is this?!" Lin Yi felt countless streams of information flooding into his brain. Everything around him, even just a fleeting glimpse, seemed to contain an immense amount of information.

Kuai Hongji roared, “Don’t rush to observe! First, perceive the expansion of the layers! We are entering the realm of ‘Time Exile,’ in other words, we are ascending in dimension!! Time is materializing into a cage!! Don’t observe for too long during this unfolding of time, or your time will be absorbed by the dimensions!”

"Clang clang clang clang clang clang... clang clang clang clang clang clang..."

The world was constantly shaking, as if it were being presented to Lin Yi in another way.

The world, space, layers, dimensions—they are naturally changing. As the dimension of time becomes more concrete, the entire dimensional realm will become an existence that transcends cognition!

As the fission, combination, and iteration of the grating gradually stabilized, Lin Yi discovered that his original bedroom had disappeared, and he had fallen into an infinitely nested luminous frame structure.

This place is filled with geometric structures far beyond his comprehension, completely different from the chaotic, disgusting, and terrifying environments he had previously perceived.

Here, each frame is composed of flowing liquid light strips, within which surges a powerful torrent of information, as if containing the underlying logical code of the architectural world.

These frames are not static, but rather they contract and expand rhythmically like the alveoli of a breathing lung. With each breath, a brand new hypercube frame is generated within the frame—it turns out that the iteration of the layer world has not stopped, but his position has been temporarily anchored... As the anchoring is completed, his will body takes on a material form, but he is completely naked, like a newborn humanoid shrouded in light and shadow.

When he appeared, countless versions of him appeared within the hypercube framework, each appearing within a framework as if countless mirrors were reflecting the same him.

Eerie, magnificent, and breathtakingly grand.

"What's this……"

"What's this……"

"What's this……"

Countless Lin Yi murmured their doubts, their voices echoing endlessly within the timeless hyperdimensional cube.

There are countless Lin Yis, making it impossible to determine which one is the original body, or perhaps they are all the original body.

"Old Lin..." Kuai Hongji's voice echoed in Lin Yi's heart.

"Kuai Kuai!" Lin Yi looked around. "Where are you?! I can't find you and Maozi!"

All around him were framework structures composed of flowing liquid light bands, which looked like a terrifying... prison.

Kuai Hongji's voice continued: "The depths of the layers, the higher dimensions, cannot be entered in a physical state... I can only use the power of the music box to infuse your will into 'sound waves' and project them into the infinite layers..."

"The Russians and I will provide you with assistance on other levels, and at the same time, we will support you!!"

"Listen to me, Lao Lin, close your eyes, close your eyes first! You will not see countless timeline landscapes. The causal chain here is visible. Don't do anything reckless, otherwise any wrong step will create some indescribable horrors in the time paradox!"

"You are in a higher dimension, where any butterfly effect will have a devastating impact on lower dimensions... A single drop of water is enough to change the world of ants!"

Lin Yi became increasingly panicked as he listened, and quickly closed his eyes: "Then what should I do?"

He felt like he had traveled into The Matrix, fighting in a virtual world like Neo, while Kuai Hongji and Mao Feiyang were hackers in the spaceship helping him monitor the data changes.

As soon as he closed his eyes, the entire space instantly felt like nothingness. He felt as if he could not perceive anything. This feeling of losing everything made him feel extremely panicked. He wanted to open his eyes immediately, but he still firmly believed in Kuai Hongji's words and kept his eyes tightly closed.

"Don't panic, don't panic. What I just said was only the worst-case scenario. If you want to turn the gears of time, you need to have the ability to do so. With your size, you can't even do that if you're annihilated here... so there's no need to be so hesitant."

"I'm just giving you a heads-up, so you don't act recklessly because you see some non-existent future."

Lin Yi quickly said, "Just tell me what to do!"

“All you have to do is sense it,” Kuai Hongji said. “With the bond between you and Difa, you will definitely be able to sense her location…”

"Time Exile" is like throwing her into a time-materialized cage like where you are now, except that there's a bond between us, allowing us to leave at any time, but not her..."

"So!" Lin Yi suddenly realized, "By finding her, she has this connection!"

Everything makes sense now. It's like descending into a confined cave with a safety rope. The "Master of the Ritual"'s rope snapped the moment he was banished, while he was still attached to the rope.
But what does Kuai Hongji mean by "bond"?

“That’s right!” Kuai Hongji said, “Hurry up and sense it, don’t forget the advice that the person who seems to be your past self gave you! Once you find it, open your eyes to confirm!”

"Could it be a misperception?!" Lin Yi was uncertain.

"Believe in yourself!" Kuai Hongji said. "Believe in the 'you' who orchestrated this!"

"Okay, alright! I understand! I understand!" Lin Yi replied repeatedly.

Kuai Hongji and Mao Feiyang immediately fell silent, and Lin Yi could only vaguely sense the subtle connection between them.

“Master Di…Master Di…” Lin Yi kept muttering to himself.

Gradually, he seemed to sense a faint call...

[Lin Yi, oh Lin Yi...]

[Lin Yi... Lin Yi...]

A distant call, indistinguishable as male or female, drifted out slowly, penetrating the time-materialized cage and reaching Lin Yi's ears.

"A calling voice...? That's...?"

Lin Yi's spirits lifted, and he quickly began to wander through the time-materialized prison, following the call.

He constantly traversed the void, drawing ever closer to the source of the sound through the fluctuations of the call.

However, he remained cautious and did not respond to the call.

Nevertheless, his movements within the time-materialized cage still produced some subtle fluctuations, and the calling voice also took on a restrained urgency.

"He doesn't seem like a 'Dharma Master'."

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat.

Logically speaking, one should be conservative and withdraw when in doubt.

However, there were two reasons why he could not take the most conservative approach to retreat.

First of all, such an opportunity only comes once. Although life offers many opportunities, and if this one doesn't work out, there will be another, Lin Yi is keenly aware that opportunities are actually few and far between. Many of them are false opportunities, and the real opportunity may only appear once or twice in the long run.

They had been planning and strategizing for this project for an unknown period of time; how could they possibly back down and run away at the last minute?

Secondly, the faceless "him" who seemed to have infiltrated from the future through the "dream boundary" still made him go there once despite the frantic warnings, but after going there, he should not linger, take one look and then immediately escape.

what does this mean?
This means that "arriving at the place of exile of the Dharma Master" is, from a timeline perspective, "something that must be experienced," leaving no room for negotiation or change.

Either don't choose to liberate Master Di in the first place, or don't make any other choices along the way.

(End of this chapter)