Chapter 128: Crystal Prison, Moon God's Final Song

Xiang Lingna's consciousness drifted in the rushing underground river and the terrifying aftershocks of the impact. The biting cold pierced her bones like countless steel needles, and every gulp of water carried a rusty, putrid stench that seared her throat. By instinct she clung desperately to the heavy, cold body in her arms—that was Lin Mo, her last reliance and hope.

She had no idea how long she had been swept along before the current finally slowed. Xiang Lingna struggled to lift her head above the water, coughing violently, greedily breathing in the turbid yet strangely cool air. She found herself in a relatively wide underground river bend, where the current formed a swirling backwater. The riverbank was no longer a sheer rock wall, but a relatively gentle mudflat covered in thick, dark-purple moss.

"Lin Mo-gege... Wrench... Uncle Suolin..." Xiang Lingna's voice was hoarse and weak, sounding especially helpless in the empty river bend. She laboriously dragged Lin Mo onto the slippery mudflat and checked his breath—faint, but still there.

"This... this place..." A familiar voice came from beside her, accompanied by the coughing of someone choking on water. Wrench lay on the mudflat like a dead fish, his "survival arm" twisted even more severely, emitting ominous scraping sounds.

Uncle Suolin also struggled to crawl out of the water, in terrible condition. The wound on his back had split open again in the cold water, oozing dark-purple pus and blood, and his silver-grey eyes were dim and lifeless.

The three of them looked around. The river bend was a sizable space, with huge stalactites hanging from the dome, many of them entwined by rotting roots. Most striking of all, near the center of the bend, in the direction of the crystal pillar's base, stood several relatively intact, massive crystal clusters emitting a faint blue-white fluorescence! Liquid seemed to flow within the clusters, giving off faint pulses of Order energy that clashed sharply with the putrid atmosphere pervading the entire space.

"It's... pure leyline crystals... not fully corrupted..." Uncle Suolin panted, a flash of astonishment in his eyes. "The heart of Wang Ting... the last sanctuary..."

However, before they could rejoice at finding a temporary safe spot, another change occurred!

Hum!

The entire river bend space shuddered violently! A muffled, continuous roar and the sound of cracking came from above! Clearly, the Doctor's will was madly assaulting the core cage, trying to crush that rebellious orb of light completely! Every strike made the crystal pillar shake violently, and more rotting roots snapped and fell!

Worse still, at the river bend's entrance, dark-purple light began to gather in the water! A smaller, but more condensed, energy projection of the Doctor slowly rose from the turbid current like a phantom! Its target was clear—the jade shard in Xiang Lingna's hand, and these "bugs" who had escaped time and again!

"Like a haunting ghost!" Wrench grabbed a stone in terror.

Uncle Suolin struggled to draw the broken bowstring, and another dim moonlight arrow condensed, but his hand was trembling violently.

Xiang Lingna gripped the shard tightly, watching the approaching shadow of death, her little face streaming with tears of despair. Fleeing here was already the limit.

The Doctor's projection wasted no words and slowly raised its hand. A condensed beam of dark-purple light, radiating an aura of absolute annihilation, gathered at its fingertip, locking onto Xiang Lingna and the shard in her arms!

No way to dodge! No way to block!

At this critical moment—

"Aaaagh—!!!" Uncle Suolin suddenly let out a roar that was barely human, filled with the utmost agony and resolve!

He saw him violently drive the dim moonlight arrow he had just condensed deep into the hideous wound on his own back, which was oozing dark-purple pus and blood!

Splurch!

Dark-purple tainted blood mixed with faint silver light spurted out violently!

"Uncle Suolin!" Xiang Lingna cried out in shock.

Uncle Suolin's body convulsed violently, his face contorted and twisted by the agony, yet a near-sacred, deathbed silver radiance blazed in his silver-grey pupils! At the wound on his back, the entrenched corruption seemed to be stimulated by this self-mutilation and the residual power of the Moon God, and it counterattacked madly; a grey haze instantly spread up his neck and across half his face!

"In the name of... Moon Shadow... Sentinel... Suolin Greyleaf!" Uncle Suolin's voice was hoarse and broken, yet carried a soul-piercing solemnity! Ignoring the approaching Doctor projection, ignoring the corruption raging inside him, he poured all his remaining life and the inherited power of a Moon God priest, madly, into that moonlight arrow lodged in his wound!

Hum!

The arrow erupted with an unprecedented, blinding silver-white radiance! This light was pure and cold, carrying the Moon God's final compassion and the Sentinel's unwavering guardian will unto death! The radiance even temporarily suppressed the grey haze spreading across his body!

"Protect... the new sprout!" Uncle Suolin used the last of his strength to draw the bowstring to its limit—the bow frame let out an unbearable groan, on the verge of shattering completely! His target was not the Doctor's projection, but the crystal clusters emitting blue-white fluorescence in the center of the river bend!

Twang—!!!

The bowstring snapped! The broken bow crumbled entirely to dust! That silver-white light arrow, condensed with all of Uncle Suolin's life, will, and Moon God inheritance, shot fiercely into the core of the largest crystal cluster like a meteor flowing against the current!

Boom—!!!

Like a drop of water into boiling oil! The pure Moon God power and the relatively pure leyline energy contained within the crystal cluster triggered a violent chain reaction! The entire crystal cluster was instantly lit up! It erupted with a blue-white radiance more dazzling than the sun! Countless energy pulses imbued with Order purification power, like an out-of-control tide, spread madly outward from the crystal cluster, sweeping through the entire river bend space!

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!!!

Wherever the blue-white purification pulses passed, the rotting spores filling the air were instantly annihilated! The dark-purple moss covering the ground withered and carbonized as if doused with strong acid! Even the drooping rotting roots smoked and rapidly shriveled! The entire river bend space was suddenly enveloped by this sudden, powerful purification field!

The Doctor's projection, which had been gathering the annihilation beam, took the brunt of it! The pure purification pulses slammed violently into its body composed of annihilation energy!

Hiss—!

Like a red-hot iron plunged into ice water! The Doctor's projection let out a silent yet soul-chilling shriek! The dark-purple energy composing its body fluctuated violently and dispersed! Though it failed to destroy it completely, the gathered beam was interrupted, the entire projection became extremely thin and unstable, and its movements instantly froze!

Uncle Suolin's final strike, which burned his life and soul and triggered the leyline crystals, was like detonating a purification bomb in the filthy cage! It temporarily paralyzed the Doctor's projection, buying them precious breathing room!

Yet the price Uncle Suolin paid was his life. After releasing this arrow, the wound on his back completely collapsed, and dark-purple corruption energy gushed out like a breached dam, instantly engulfing his entire body! The grey haze covered him whole, the silver radiance in his eyes quickly extinguished, and his body, as if drained of all vitality, slowly fell backward, a final trace of relief and release frozen on his face.

"Uncle Suolin!" Xiang Lingna's wail was heart-wrenching.

Wrench was also stunned, staring at Uncle Suolin's falling figure.

The light of the purification pulses began to weaken, and the Doctor's thin projection recondensed in fury. Time was running out.

Xiang Lingna wiped away her tears, looking at Lin Mo, still unconscious in her arms, then at the jade shard—sharing the same origin as the core—clutched tightly in her hand, and then at this temporarily "clean" space Uncle Suolin had bought with his life, and those crystal clusters still emitting blue-white radiance.

A bold, desperate idea was taking root and growing wildly in her heart.