Chapter 133: Deep in the Rift Valley, the Corrupted Furnace

Cold. A bone-piercing chill wrapped Lin Mo's consciousness, as if he had sunk into an abyss of ten-thousand-year profound ice. No light, no sound, only boundless cold and a crushing pressure. He felt like an abandoned stone, falling, falling through eternal darkness…

Suddenly, a searing agony tore through the icy numbness! The pain came not from outside his body, but from the depths of his soul, as if countless red-hot branding irons were simultaneously searing the core of his consciousness! Immediately after came a violent tearing sensation—two utterly opposing forces clashing wildly, annihilating each other, and forcibly merging again within the fragments of his remaining consciousness!

The icy resilience of the Star Dust Crystal guarding order! The violent, searing heat of the Corrupted Claw Mark destroying and eroding! And… a vaster, icier, purer will of annihilation from the Doctor's true form!

"Ugh… ah——!" Lin Mo let out a soundless scream from the abyss of his consciousness. He "saw" it! He saw his broken body plummeting at terrifying speed, passing through a rift valley shrouded in dark purple fog and flowing with corrosive pus! He saw on the rock walls on both sides of the rift countless massive, pulsing tendrils of decay, gnarled like blood vessels, greedily sucking the filthy energy surging up from deep within the ley lines! The deeper he fell, the thicker the stench of decay became, almost congealing into substance, forming a viscous stream of dark purple energy that reeked of rot!

Boom!

His body slammed heavily onto a sticky, scalding "ground." It was not rock, but a writhing platform woven from countless tendrils of decay, like the innards of some enormous creature! At the center of the platform was a bottomless pit, endlessly churning with sticky dark purple bubbles! The mouth of the pit radiated a terrifying, soul-freezing heat and a pure aura of annihilation! At the pit's edge stood several twisted dark purple crystal pillars streaked with runes of annihilation, together forming a bizarre and evil altar!

This place was the ultimate core of the Doctor's annihilation ritual—the Ley Line Corrupted Furnace! The source of the pollution that had withered the forest and toppled Wang Ting!

Lin Mo's body soaked in the sticky corrosive pus, his charred skin hissing and sizzling. The Star Dust Crystal on his chest, stimulated by the dense aura of annihilation, burst forth with one last faint yet extraordinarily stubborn milky-white glow, desperately shielding his heart meridian and remaining consciousness, resisting the all-pervasive erosion of corruption. The Corrupted Claw Mark on his right arm, meanwhile, pulsed with excitement as if returning to its mother nest, greedily absorbing the rich corrupted energy around it; the dark purple ghostly light grew visibly stronger, even beginning to creep up his arm!

"Vessel… perfect… vessel of chaos…" A cold, vast voice rang out directly from the depths of Lin Mo's consciousness, like the delirious whispers of billions of dead souls. The Doctor's true form hovered soundlessly above the altar, its vortex-like "face" gazing down at the tiny Lin Mo on the platform. It had no features, but Lin Mo could clearly "feel" the greed, the scrutiny, and a kind of… experimenter's cold, clinical interest in that gaze.

The Doctor did not immediately move to obliterate or transform Lin Mo. It seemed to be observing—observing how the Star Dust and the corruption contended and merged within Lin Mo's dying body. It raised its left arm, formed of rotting tendrils, and from its fingertip shot a thread of dark purple energy, hair-thin, that pierced with surgical precision into the Corrupted Claw Mark on Lin Mo's right arm!

"Ugh ah——!" Lin Mo's consciousness let out a piercing wail! That thread was not an attack—it was guidance! It forcibly drew out the relatively "pure" corrupted energy that the Corrupted Claw Mark had just absorbed within Lin Mo's body, while simultaneously stimulating the Corrupted Claw Mark to fuse with Lin Mo's soul on a deeper level! A violent will, brimming with the desire to destroy, surged madly into Lin Mo's consciousness along the thread!

Hallucinations exploded in an instant!

He "saw" Hope Fortress turn to ash beneath the pillar of annihilation! Sister Ai Li reduced to cinders amid the flames!

He "saw" Priestess Liyana's pure natural force wrapped and torn by filthy tendrils, her silver hair stained with blood!

He "saw" Groona's roar drowned in the endless tide of corrupted beasts, her red skin swallowed by darkness!

He "saw" Zero's data streams stained a filthy purple, her cold electronic eyes extinguished completely!

He "saw" Zhao Qingyi's Green Edge snap inch by inch, her cool, clear face twisting amid the annihilation…

Despair! Destruction! Submit to the corruption! Become a part of annihilation! This is the only release! The only "truth"!

The glow of the Star Dust Crystal, under the Doctor's guidance and this terrifying psychic assault, flickered violently like a candle in the wind, its light rapidly dimming! The purple radiance of the Corrupted Claw Mark, by contrast, blazed fiercely, nearly covering Lin Mo's entire right arm and creeping toward his torso! Lin Mo's remaining consciousness, battered by the despairing visions and the onslaught of violent corrupted will, was like a small boat in a storm, on the verge of capsizing and sinking completely.

"No… no…" At the instant his consciousness was about to be utterly consumed, a faint yet extraordinarily stubborn will, like a spark of starlight, stubbornly lit up in the deepest part of Lin Mo's soul. It was Priestess Liyana's gentle smile, Sister Ai Li's silent yet steadfast guardianship, Groona's hearty roar, Zero's calm analysis, Zhao Qingyi's clear, cold sword-light… it was Copperbeard's final roar of "Open it for me!" It was Uncle Suolin's purifying arrow fired with his life burning! It was Xiang Lingna's grip on the shard, tears in her eyes yet an unyielding resolve that refused to give up!

"Home… protect…" This thread of will, faint as a firefly, yet stubbornly held back the overwhelming tide of corruption!

The Doctor seemed to have sensed this resistance; its vortex-like "face" rippled slightly, carrying a hint of displeasure and… a thicker interest. "Stubborn… spark… more valuable…" it murmured, and the guiding energy thread blazed brighter, increasing the force of its extraction and fusion! At the same time, the boiling corrupted furnace at the altar's center seemed summoned by something, churning even more violently; a stream of purer, more overbearing aura of the origin of annihilation slowly overflowed, like fuel waiting to be poured in!

Lin Mo's body convulsed violently on the platform; the clash between Star Dust and corruption within him reached an unprecedented peak, the milky-white and dark purple glows beneath his skin flashing and alternating wildly. His consciousness, meanwhile, seesawed endlessly between the infinite painful visions and that single thread of guardian starlight, like stubborn iron repeatedly forged atop a furnace—on the verge of total collapse, or perhaps… tempered by destruction into an unexpected form. The Doctor's true form hovered, like a patient hunter, awaiting the prey's final transformation or demise. Deep in the rift valley, there were only the gurgling of the boiling furnace and the hissing of clashing energies—deathly still and terrifying.