Pale-blue phantasmal energy chains, like venomous snakes with lives of their own, crossed space in an instant and coiled toward the Shadow Fiend Fragment!
They were not entirely made of energy. They resembled highly ordered manifestations of some law, exuding a frigid aura that froze all activity and imprisoned every change.
Danger! Extreme danger!
Once caught by those chains, not only the fragment, but even this wisp of his remnant soul, as well as the Shadow Fiend's true spirit spark, origin light dust, and information aftershocks—
would likely be completely "stilled," then sent like specimens into that so-called "Stasis Core" for analysis and dismantling!
At the brink of life and death, Ming Xin erupted with unprecedented speed of reaction! He did not try to control the fragment to physically evade them.
That would never be faster than chains of law. Instead, he hurled all his focus, along with the last potential of the "key" frequency deep within his soul, fiercely at the slowly rotating illusory pattern of light above the control console!
Not resonance, not simulation, but the most direct and domineering—carrying the will of his entire existence and his desire to survive—a "challenge" and "declaration"!
His thoughts became invisible yet piercing "information spikes," using the "key" frequency as their carrier as they surged into that illusory pattern:
[How could the "Source Sea Key" be judged by an inferior imitation? Though this body shatters, this frequency is genuine! You forged this grave mistake, triggering the Source Sea's reversal, Quadrant Collapse, and turning yourselves into silent wreckage—yet you still dare use remnant laws to imprison the breath of the "key"?!]
He was gambling! Gambling that the control core of this ancient facility, even if only residual logic and instructions remained—
still retained the most basic recognition and reverence