Chapter 118: The Nest of Rot, Moon God Arrow

The hungry roar echoed within the massive, rotting cavern, shaking ash-gray fungal threads loose from the walls. The instant the Thorn Gate swung open, the corrupted heart-tumour coiled at the center awoke fully—like some primordial beast!

Hiss-rip—!

Dozens of rotting vine-tentacles, bristling with fangs and barbs and dripping with dark-purple pus, tore through the air like venomous arrows loosed from a bow. Reeking of a stinging stench, they lunged to savage Copper Beard, Wrench, and Lin Mo, who had barely found their footing at the entrance! They moved so fast they left only afterimages!

"Fall back!" Lin Mo roared. The stardust crystal on his chest flared with milky-white light once more, but the glow was noticeably dimmer than before, forming a thin shield of light before the three of them!

Thud thud thud!

The vine-tentacles slammed brutally into the stardust shield, producing dull, heavy impacts! The shield rippled violently, instantly webbed with cracks! Lin Mo grunted, a thread of fresh blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, his body swaying—he was clearly holding on by sheer will! Though the shield blocked the lethal bite, the corrosive pus splashing off the vines acted like strong acid, spattering across the shield with a sizzling sound, steadily eating away at its energy!

"Boss! Look up!" Wrench screamed in terror.

Above the tumour, the rapidly spinning dark-purple spore-cloud—blown like storm-clouds by a gale—suddenly poured toward the entrance! Countless rice-grain-sized spores, glittering with ominous purple light, swept down like a lethal sandstorm, blanketing everything! The air instantly turned thick and suffocating!

Before the spore-cloud even arrived, a wave of intense dizziness and life-force drain swept over the three of them! Xiang Lingna screamed in terror from within the gate!

"Hold your breath! Close your eyes!" Copper Beard bellowed. His massive frame lunged forward a step, shielding the tottering Lin Mo! His single eye burned red as he drove the rune-engraving knife hard into the ground. Gripping it with both hands, he mobilized every ounce of strength and will within him, madly channeling the energy from the crystallized conduit of his severed arm—energy drawn from the Root Furnace and the Life Altar!

"Thorn Wall! Rise!"

Hum—!

A pale-green energy barrier, woven from countless thorn-shadows and several times stronger than the one in the shelter, instantly unfurled around the rune-engraving knife, blocking the path of the oncoming spore-cloud!

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!

The lethal spore-rain poured down upon the thorn barrier! Like red-hot iron beads plunged into ice-water! Countless blinding points of corrosive light flared across the barrier's surface, erupting in a dense volley of bursts! The resilient thorn-shadows, under the spores' terrifying withering power, swiftly turned ashen and snapped! The barrier thinned and dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Copper Beard's whole body shuddered violently, as though hammered again and again by an invisible mace! Cracks raced wildly from his crystallized severed arm, the searing pain boring into his very marrow! He clenched his jaw so hard his gums split and bled, his single eye blazing with an unyielding flame! He knew this barrier could not hold much longer!

"Uncle Suolin!" Lin Mo forced himself through his weakness and dizziness, roaring toward the gate, "Shoot its core! That tumour!"

Uncle Suolin, who had been guarding Xiang Lingna's side and using the emerald barrier to suppress the corruption, now saw a light of absolute resolve explode within his silver-gray eyes! He saw the desperate strait outside the gate! He heard Lin Mo's cry! Images of the outpost's fall and his companions' gruesome deaths flashed through his mind!

"For Moonshadow!" Uncle Suolin let out a hoarse war-cry and seized the broken longbow on the ground! The withered vines wrapped around the bow seemed to come alive in his grip! Ignoring the searing pain from the purification barrier at his back, he drew the bow with every ounce of his strength, in an awkward posture that nonetheless carried the rhythm of ancient elven combat-arts!

There was no arrow!

Yet his withered gray hair stirred without wind, his silver-gray pupils shining like cold stars! A faint but incomparably pure force, carrying the cool, clear aura of moonlight, was wrung from within him and madly poured into the broken bow!

Hum!

The broken bow groaned under the strain, yet in Uncle Suolin's hands it erupted with a dazzling silver-white radiance! Upon the bowstring, an arrow formed of condensed moonlight coalesced from nothing! Slender, yet radiating an edge that could pierce the void, its tip aimed straight at the pulsing, corrupted heart-tumour at the cavern's center!

The Moon-God Priest's inherited secret art—【Moon God Arrow】! Using life and moonlight as its guide, it slays evil and shatters demons! In his gravely wounded, near-death state, with corruption clinging to his body, Uncle Suolin burned his remaining life-essence to loose this final—and most powerful—strike!

"Go!" Uncle Suolin roared hoarsely, his fingers releasing!

Twang—!

The bowstring sang! The silver-white moonlight-arrow became a meteor tearing through the darkness! Ignoring distance, ignoring the wildly dancing vines that sought to block it, it shot with unerring precision toward the dark-purple energy-node pulsing most violently at the corrupted tumour's center!

Pshhh—!

The moonlight-arrow sliced into the corrupted tumour's core like a hot knife through butter, meeting no resistance!

Time seemed to freeze for an instant.

ROAR——————!!!

A howl more shrill, more agonized, brimming with endless fury and terror than any before burst forth from deep within the tumour! The entire cavern trembled! The tumour writhed and swelled madly! From the core-node struck by the arrow, a dazzling silver-white light pierced outward from within like a blade! Countless fine cracks instantly webbed the tumour's surface!

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!

Thick dark-purple smoke gushed wildly from the cracks like a fountain! The tumour's pulse grew chaotic and feeble! The wildly dancing vine-tentacles, as though their source of power had been severed, instantly went limp! The lethal spore-cloud in the air also lost control, its rotation abruptly slowing, growing thin and scattered!

Uncle Suolin's arrow, fueled by his burning life-essence, had critically wounded the corrupted core!

"Now!" Copper Beard felt the pressure plummet, his spirit surging! The strain on the thorn barrier eased sharply!

Ice-blue flames burned in Lin Mo's eyes as he seized this once-in-a-lifetime chance! Forcing himself to wring the last of the stardust crystal's power, he slammed both palms onto the thorn barrier Copper Beard had raised!

"Stardust! Purify!"

Hum—!

Milky-white stardust energy, like a rushing river, poured mightily into the crumbling thorn barrier! Bolstered by the stardust's power, the once-dim thorn barrier blazed brilliantly at once! The ashen, snapping thorn-shadows upon it, as though infused with life, grew and tangled wildly, becoming thicker and tougher! A flowing stardust light-film even coated its surface!

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!

The remaining spores struck this reinforced "Stardust Thorn Wall" like moths into a flame, instantly purified and annihilated by the stardust's power! The barrier stood firm as a rock!

"Wrench! Xiang Lingna! Star-grain Wood!" Copper Beard's roar rang with wild joy! The chance had come!

Wrench could no longer hold himself back. He screeched and charged toward the entrance! "Watch my 'Root Bomb'!" He snatched up the Star-grain Wood saplings with the most developed root systems that Xiang Lingna had hastened to grow, grabbed a handful of luminous moss and the remaining crystal dust, roughly mixed them together, and bound them into a strange sphere with strips of torn cloth. Then, with all his might, he hurled this "bomb" at the critically wounded, still-twitching, crack-webbed corrupted tumour!

Xiang Lingna also rushed to the entrance, her small hands pressed against the doorframe, eyes shut, pouring every ounce of her natural affinity into a wild shout toward the cavern: "Grow! Purify! Star-grain Wood!"

Her will swept through the entire rotting cavern like an invisible storm!

A miracle occurred!

The instant Wrench's "Root Bomb" struck the corrupted tumour, it burst open! Dust billowed! The Star-grain Wood saplings and luminous-moss fragments wrapped within, catalyzed by Xiang Lingna's surging natural will and the lingering Life Altar energy within the cavern (channeled through the Thorn Gate), sprang up as though doused with a divine spring!

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Countless silver-white Star-grain Wood sprouts burst forth at an unbelievable speed—from the cracks in the corrupted tumour, from the ground carpeted in purple-black moss, even from the limp, rotting vines! They grew wildly! Star-grain Wood's domineering purification-and-soil-binding properties were amplified to the extreme by Xiang Lingna's will!

Hiss—!

Like a red-hot branding iron plunged into snow! Wherever the Star-grain Wood reached, the thick aura of rot was madly neutralized and dispelled! The dark-purple moss swiftly withered to ash! The rotting vines, drained of moisture, rapidly shriveled and snapped! Even the spore-dust hanging in the air was swiftly settled and purified by this newborn, powerful purification field!

The massive corrupted tumour became the perfect breeding ground for the Star-grain Wood! Countless silver-white roots bored madly out from its internal cracks, spreading and coiling around it! The tumour let out a final, despairing wail, then rapidly deflated like a punctured ball! The dark-purple light on its surface was utterly extinguished!

Within the span of a few breaths, the cavern that had been steeped in rot and death was now covered by a grove of hardy Star-grain Wood saplings, glowing with a silver-white shimmer and exuding a pure, purifying aura! Though tender, they brimmed with vigorous life!

The corrupted nest had been forcibly reversed, transformed into a newborn purified land!

"We did it!" Wrench dropped onto his backside, weeping and laughing at once.

Xiang Lingna, utterly drained, slumped against the doorframe, her small face flushed with joyful color.

Copper Beard and Lin Mo exchanged a glance, each seeing in the other's eyes both shock and a trace of relief at having survived the calamity.

Yet Uncle Suolin staggered to the entrance, his silver-gray eyes fixed in terror upon the depths of the cavern—at the edge of that newborn Star-grain Wood grove—and cried out in a voice brimming with boundless fear and despair:

"Moon-Tear Lake... the direction of Moon-Tear Lake! Look!"

Everyone followed his gaze, and their hearts instantly sank to the bottom.

Deep within the cavern, through the sparse Star-Grain saplings, a far more expansive space could be faintly seen. It was no longer the darkness of an underground cave, but was shrouded beneath a bizarre, dusk-like, dark crimson sky! The air was saturated with an aura of withering and decay a hundred times, a thousand times thicker than here!

Even more hair-raising was the fact that, at the far end of that dark crimson canopy, the earth seemed to be writhing! Countless thicker, more grotesque, mountain-like, undulating giant decayed roots tangled together, forming a living, corrupted earth that stretched beyond the horizon! And at the center of that corrupted earth, the silhouette of a terrifying Wang Ting—twisted from the remains of withered giant trees and decayed vines, so vast it defied imagination—flickered in and out of view beneath the dark crimson canopy!

The Withered Wang Ting! They were truly right on its edge!

And high above the silhouette of the Wang Ting, within that dark crimson canopy, a massive, twisted, purple-black rift, as if tearing the sky apart, was slowly opening! Deep within the rift was an endless void of chaotic currents, and... the phantom of a terrifying eye, incomprehensibly vast, composed of pure decay energy, gazing down upon the earth with indifference!

The Eye of Annihilation! The passage the Doctor was opening! What he truly intended to descend upon was the very core of the Withered Wang Ting!

"Annihilation... it's truly coming..." Uncle Suolin's voice carried endless despair. "We... opened the door... and awakened... the true nightmare..."