Chapter 404: Severing the Vines

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Crystallized sand grit, under the lightning spell of a Lingxiao Pavilion disciple, steamed into purple toxic fog, Gongxu Yue's mechanical compass needle suddenly spun wildly, finally pointing rigidly at the foul lake in the center of the oasis. In the boiling black water at the lake's heart, a prismatic black crystal rose slowly, its surface covered with bite‑mark‑like incisions like infant teeth, each groove flowing with Star Sand‑like cognition spores.

"Exchange position, leave fire, burn!" Qingxu Zi formed seals with both palms, seventy‑two Taiyi Thunder Talismans spliced in the air to create a Demon‑Refining Formation diagram. At the instant thunderlight struck the lake surface, the black crystal suddenly swelled like a beating heart, the lake water split into billions of vascular‑like tendrils, channeling all the thunder into the subterranean mother nest. The Mo Sect mechanical beast "Po Jun"'s Drill at this moment pierced the lake bottom, bringing up not mud but three hundred curled skeletal remains of crystallized infants — their foreheads' Compound Eyes still flickered with Abyss Return Ruler incisions.

The fire that burns the heavens

"Mo Sect disciples, sacrifice the 'Heavenly Craft Blood Ronglu'!" Gongxu Yue's mechanical arm suddenly thrust backward into his own dantian, tearing out burning chaotic spirit marrow. Lingxiao Pavilion disciples chanted in unison, using their life‑blood as a conduit, converting the Taiyi Thunder Formation into a World‑Burning Ronglu. The black crystal emitted a piercing shriek like a contracting Zigong in the blaze, its incised surface oozing amniotic fluid mixed with Brain Fluid; each droplet incubated a shadow‑demon larva in the void.

The divine beast, the incarnation of Xuanyuan Hao, surged ferociously; its claws clamped the black crystal, and within the crystal suddenly opened the pupils of a silver‑haired infant. Creation Pure Light burst from the iris, the beast's fur peeled away in the glow, revealing beneath it a writhing black‑stone vascular network. "Bad big dog~" the infant's babble slipped along the veins into Xuanyuan Hao's primordial spirit; the memory of an ancestor, melted into a divine weapon a hundred years ago by the Abyss Return Ruler, exploded in the Consciousness Sea.

The moment to defy fate

Ao Li's Boundary‑Slicing Blade cleaved through the swarm of shadow demons charging the furnace; the blade's edge touching the black crystal, the entire oasis suddenly collapsed into a two‑dimensional plane. Her reflection multiplied infinitely across the crystal surface, each phantom enacting a different death scenario—some drained of brain matter by vines, some turned into the amniotic membranes of orphanage infants, the most tragic one being crushed of its spine by the silver‑haired infant, harvested as raw material for an Abyss Return Ruler.

"Break!" Lin Jin's Star Sand‑infused right hand suddenly performed a Quantum Leap, piercing seven dimensions to grasp the black crystal's core. Nirvana Fire flowed backward along the spacetime folds, melting the three hundred death‑reflections into a bronze liquid. The silver‑haired infant's phantom screamed and rolled in the fire, and the black crystal cradled in its arms sprouted spider‑web cracks.

A blood‑stained gift

The thousand‑legged monster suddenly over‑grew, ejecting living script of the "Gui Xu Fetal script of the "Gui Xu Fetal Treasury" from its crystallized joints. Zixiao Realist burned his primordial spirit into a sword‑soul, and Taiyi Pure Light, as precise as a scalpel, sliced the monster's energy veins. Gongxu Yue seized the chance to hurl the Mo Sect's ultimate treasure "Creation Shuttle", its tip piercing the black crystal fissure, and the celestial armillary sphere atop the Polaris Tower abruptly halted—on the orphanage's surveillance feed, the three hundred infants' Compound Eyes simultaneously exuded black blood.

"Now!" Ao Li's Inverse Scale erupted in full, chaotic spirit marrow poured into the Boundary‑Slicing Blade. The blade's edge pierced the black crystal, and the entire desert suddenly roared with a boom like a rupturing Zigong. From within the crystal burst seventy‑two Creation Pure Lights, the silver‑haired infant's phantom twisted into a Möbius Strip under the intense light, while the black‑haired infant's babble echoed along the loop: "Cognition rate 99.99%… almost… just almost......"

Rebirth from the ashes

The oasis's palm trees feathered into ash under the pure light, the vines shed their violet glow and withered into gray‑white dust. Everyone knelt on the glass‑like sand, gasping, and the tactical star chart in their arms suddenly emitted a red alarm— the orphanage's infants collectively floated half‑air, their umbilical cords piercing the void, pulling new black crystal embryos from the Gui Xu fissure.

Gongxu Yue's mechanical eye leaked oil mixed with Star Sand, and the broken mechanical arm pointed skyward: the bronze‑hued sun's edge revealed a delicate network of Compound Eyes, each pupil reflecting the crystallized remnants of allied soldiers. Ao Li's Boundary‑Slicing Blade suddenly softened, coiling around her newly formed nurturing tendrils; from the chaotic spirit marrow along the blade's ridge came the silver‑haired infant's light laugh:

"Cognition war… it truly begins now~"