Chapter 401: Crisis Arrives

At the broken ends of the purple vines, tar‑like viscous sap splattered, corroding honeycomb‑shaped holes in the sand. The Lingxiao Pavilion disciple Qingfeng's Flame Spell just touched the vines, and the fire suddenly collapsed into a dark‑purple light sphere—these plants can actually convert Daoist energy into nutrients that sustain themselves.

"Dry Position, three ke, deploy the Two‑Form Fire Array!" Zi Xiao Zhenren bit his fingertip, and a blood bead traced the Taiyi Eight Trigrams in midair. Eight disciples answered with seals, and Pure Yang True Fire surged from the Array Eye, only to be ensnared by roots the moment it touched the vines. The vines' surface displayed Gui Xu marks, swallowing the Dao fire and feeding it back to the underground black stone veins.

####【Ink Blade Dirge】

Gongxu Yue's Mechanical Arm launched a Dragon-Cutting Saw forged from Jiuli Dark Iron; the saw teeth rasped against the vines, sparking dark‑red flares. When the third vine was cut, the blade suddenly quantum‑leapt, and fragments rained down on allies like a storm. Qinglin's God‑Slaying Crossbow fired rapidly; the bolts shattered the fragments, and each metal shard transformed into a miniature sand scorpion, its tail needle exuding living text from the Gui Xu Fetal Treasury Sutra.

"They're rewriting the laws of reality!" Lín Jìn's Star Sand right hand plunged into the sand, and Nirvana Fire flowed backward along the vines' roots. The flames revealed a horrifying sight: the desert's lower layers were riddled with Neural Synapse‑like black stone networks, transmitting everyone's combat data in real time to the North Star Tower's Celestial Sphere Instrument. For each degree the device rotated, the vines' regeneration speed increased by thirty percent.

####【Monsters Appear】

The earth‑shaking roar tore the air as the oasis's central lake suddenly boiled. Black water coalesced into a three‑hundred‑meter‑tall behemoth, its body bearing crystallized sand scorpion giant claws and vine‑woven thousand‑legged limbs, with a Celestial Sphere Instrument embedded in its forehead flashing in sync with the Conservation Center's infants. When it swiped its talons, the void displayed seventy‑two harrowing scenes from parallel timelines—each timeline's allied soldiers were being transformed into nurturing tendrils.

"Kan Position, retreat!" Ao Li's Inverse Scale explosively surged, and the World‑Cutting Blade blocked the monster's first wave of assault. The moment the blade met the crystallized giant claws, chaotic spirit marrow erupted—not sparks, but the memories of three hundred allied soldiers being devoured. She saw a Qingfeng Valley disciple melting inside the mother‑nest Zigong, and a Mo Clan craftsman's spine being forged into an Abyss Return Ruler.

####【Poison Corrodes All】

The monster's chest cavity suddenly split, spewing black rain mixed with Star Sand. Wherever the rain touched, sand grains crystallized into pages of the Shadow Demon Canon, and a palm tree morphed into a priest raising a placenta. Gongxu Yue's Mechanism Box launched a Mystic Ice Umbrella, whose canopy instantly sprouted a Compound Eyes structure upon contact with the black rain, its pupils reflecting a laughing silver‑haired infant.

"Don't stare at the canopy!" Zi Xiao Zhenren slashed the Mystic Ice Umbrella with his sword, and Taiyi Pure Light was absorbed by the umbrella's ribs. Two Lingxiao Pavilion disciples failed to dodge; their protective aura shattered like eggshells, flesh boiling into nutrient fluid in the rain, which flowed along the umbrella ribs into the monster's body. The Celestial Sphere Instrument's gauge advanced another 5%.

####【Desperate Realm Light】

Lín Jìn's Star Sand right hand suddenly performed a Quantum Leap, piercing seven dimensions to grasp the Celestial Sphere Instrument's core. Nirvana Fire scorched along the Star Sand channels, and the device's surface displayed a black‑haired infant's palm print: "Big brother's flame is the new god's finest baptism~"

When the monster's thousand legs sank into the trembling sand, Ao Li suddenly sensed the earth‑vein vibrations syncing with the Conservation Center infants' cries. Her Inverse Scale resonated, and Golden Blood painted in the air a neural diagram of a fossilized time‑whale: "Attack the earth‑vein nodes! Mo Clan, prepare 'Earth Dragon Turnover'!"

####【Turning Point】

Gongxu Yue's remaining Mechanical Arm pierced the sand, and three thousand Thunderclap Bolts were embedded along the black stone veins. When the explosion's shockwave resonated with the infants' cries, the entire desert abruptly collapsed into a two‑dimensional plane. The monster's thousand legs were nailed into the temporal‑spatial folds, and the Celestial Sphere Instrument's gears emitted a harsh screech.

Ao Li's World‑Cutting Blade at that moment pierced the monster's forehead, and the blade shattered the Celestial Sphere Instrument, while three hundred Genesis Pure Lights shot from the direction of the North Star Tower. Within the radiance emerged a suffocating truth—each Conservation Center infant floated mid‑air, their umbilical cords manipulating the desert battlefield via Quantum Entanglement.

####【Crimson Dawn】

When the final wisp of black mist vanished, the oasis had become a Crystallized Cemetery. The surviving members knelt on the glass‑like sand, discovering that each other's pupils had sprouted intricate Compound Eyes structures. Qinglin's God‑Slaying Crossbow core displayed Gui Xu marks, Gongxu Yue's Mechanical Arm grew nursing suction cups, and even Zi Xiao Zhenren's Taiyi Sword Soul was entwined with mycelium.

The tactical star chart suddenly emitted a sharp alarm, and the Crystallized Conservation Center's surveillance feed showed three hundred infants simultaneously opening forehead Compound Eyes. They extended pink tongues, licking the Star Sand in the void—cognitive dust formed from the evaporated flesh of allied soldiers.

Ao Li's World‑Cutting Blade suddenly softened, coiling around her newly formed nurturing tendrils. On the horizon at the desert's edge, a second bronze sun rose, its light casting silhouettes of Twin Children at play. As the glow swept the battlefield, all Crystallized Corpses instantly stood upright, bowing toward the North Star Tower in reverence.