Forgotten Photo Studio

Chapter 103 The Judge's Pride (Bonus Chapter 2)
The physical rules of the entire Iron Coffin Zone began to crumble and become unreliable under the will of this possessed body.

"Welcome to my domain, Jiang Yu."

Yuan used Xu Yan's vocal cords to emit overlapping, eerie laughter, and it merely raised "Xu Yan's" finger slightly.

The next second, the direction of gravity under the judge's feet suddenly flipped ninety degrees, becoming perpendicular to the wall.

If the lightning patterns around him hadn't reacted instantly, firmly "pinning" him to his current spatial coordinates, he would have been slammed against the alloy wall to the side by this tyrannical force of the rules.

Immediately afterwards, the air density on his left side was instantly evacuated, forming an absolute vacuum, while the air on his right side was compressed into a nearly solid, transparent barrier, attempting to squeeze and crush him.

The judge looked up, his golden eyes revealing a mixture of molten fury and absolute calm.

What he saw was no longer simple lightning, but countless geometric arrays that calculated and multiplied wildly, like billions of invisible carving knives, engaging in an invisible yet extremely dangerous struggle for control and control of the corrupting rules that were eroding reality.

"Here, the law prevails!" he declared in a low voice, his words carrying the weight of the law.

The lightning patterns beneath his feet no longer flickered, but instead spread backward along the distorted gravity lines like living golden magma, forcibly "bending" the vertical gravity field back to its original state.

At the same time, he loosely clenched his left hand, and the vacuum area seemed to be injected with some kind of "foundation of existence," instantly returning to normal.
His right hand slashed down like a blade, splitting the solidified air barrier in two and disintegrating it into a chaotic flow of air.

With each blink of his eyes, countless tiny spatial folds caused by the conflict of rules in the air were forcibly smoothed out.
With each breath he took, the magnetic waves of space rippled outwards from him, creating a stable and orderly "rhythm" that countered the malicious frequency of the abyss.

The "inhuman law body" of the Gold-level transcendent is being fully activated. He is using his own existence as the anchor point of the law to carve out a small island of order in a collapsing chaos.

"Soul Field Level - Imbalanced".

He whispered, his voice not loud, but it was like a precise command, causing the entire distorted, wailing space to freeze, as if a pause button had been pressed.

For the first time, a hint of "seriousness" appeared on Yuan Na's face, which was manifested through Xu Yan's physical body.

It seemed that it had not expected that the "thief" it spoke of would possess such a high level of expertise and resilience in understanding the rules.

“Not bad…that’s more interesting.” Its whisper carried the teasing tone of a cat playing with a mouse.

The judge's rule-based suppression lasted only three seconds.

Three seconds later, a deeper, more ancient will, seemingly steeped in the madness and death of countless eras, was no longer satisfied with indirect distortion of the rules.

Like the second breath of a deep-sea behemoth, it was no longer a diffuse fluctuation, but transformed into a solid, pitch-black lightning bolt that ignored the layers of legal defenses laid down by the judge and struck directly at the core of his soul.

"Uh!"

The judge's body jolted violently, and the lightning patterns around him emitted a series of chaotic explosions. For the first time, the golden geometric array in his eyes showed a brief display of snowflake-like noise.

A chilling sense of emptiness, enough to freeze one's mind, was eroding him along his psychic energy pathways!

The very foundation upon which he relied to maintain the "rules" was being shaken.

As arrogant as he was, a chilling feeling he hadn't experienced in a long time, a feeling of "horror," finally rose in his heart.

He realized that the abyss before him was far more potent and its recovery speed far exceeded his expectations.

This was no longer an opponent he could suppress with his Gold-level power alone.

If the struggle continues, he will inevitably be corrupted and assimilated by this endless madness and the rules. A sense of shame gnaws at his heart like a venomous snake, but a stronger sense of duty and reason overwhelms this personal emotion.

In the instant that the lightning around him clashed fiercely with the dark will, and the turbulent energy splashed out obscured all vision, the judge made his decision.

His left hand stealthily slipped inside his uniform lining, his fingertips deftly and swiftly tracing a complex path across a cold bronze talisman engraved with cloud patterns—a top-level emergency distress signal destined for the "White Lord"!
The message consists of only a short psionic code:
"The Iron Coffin Zone has fallen. The Abyss has broken through the D-level threshold and is anchoring to reality. Requesting... authorization for 'purification'."

Sending this message nearly exhausted his pride as a judge.

But there was no other choice.

Just as that distress signal transformed into an invisible wave, piercing through the domain's blockade and shooting towards the outside world—

"So... you've finally started begging for your master's attention, Jiang Yu?"

Yuan's thoughts, a blend of Xu Yan's voice and countless echoes, carried a hint of knowing mockery and an almost pleasurable anticipation, precisely penetrating the judge's consciousness.

It didn't even try to intercept the message, as if it had been waiting for this moment.

“Let me guess, ‘Purification’ authorization?” Yuan, through the lips of his true form, curled into a cold and twisted smile. “Very good… saves me a lot of trouble finding her.”

This would allow her to witness firsthand how the order she had painstakingly built would crumble inch by inch before her very eyes.

Far from being afraid, it is actually looking forward to it!

Looking forward to the arrival of "White Lord"!

This idea does not contain arrogance, but rather a composure and calculation that has been accumulated over countless years and has revealed a certain truth.

It seemed certain that the appearance of the White Lord would not only fail to reverse the situation, but would also facilitate some deeper purpose of its own.

The air seemed to freeze completely after the plea for help was sent out and Yu Yuan responded.

This time, even the workings of my mind felt unprecedentedly sluggish and heavy, as if I had fallen into a trap that had been laid long ago.

Inside the drill arm, Xu Yan felt the earth-shattering spiritual pressure colliding with the outside world, while also capturing that heart-pounding sense of anticipation from the abyss.

A deeper unease gripped him—this disaster might have only just begun.

Each impact caused the metal prosthetic body to groan in unbearable strain, with tiny sparks even flying from its joints.

"This infiltration... went a bit too far."

An almost absurd thought flashed through his mind, tinged with a chilling self-mockery.

He had anticipated the dangers at the center, but he hadn't expected to directly face the complete awakening of "Abyss," nor had he anticipated that the judge would be so decisive as to attempt to destroy his physical body.

But at this moment, his greater fear came from within.

He could clearly feel that the last link between himself and the "Mirror of Life and Death," and between himself and his true self, was becoming thin and fragile.

Like a rubber band being stretched and about to snap, with each increase in Yuan's power, his sense of his true self became increasingly blurred, and that "sense of belonging" originating from the depths of his soul was being forcibly stripped away.

(End of this chapter)