Chapter 134: Glimmer Camp, Erosion Intensifies

By the pool, Xiang Lingna jolted awake, her heart pounding wildly. In the brief faint just now, she seemed to have plunged into boundless darkness, heard Lin Mo-ge's agonized roar, and seen that terrifying furnace altar and the Doctor's cold gaze. Cold sweat soaked her back.

"Lin Mo-ge!" She threw herself to Lin Mo's side. His condition was even worse. His face was a deathly grey shot through with a strange dark purple, his breathing so faint it nearly stopped. The stardust crystal on his chest glowed with the faintest light, like a candle about to go out. But the Corrupted Claw Mark on his right arm—that dark purple ghostly glow pulsed steadily like breathing, its range seeming to have spread a little, creeping down past his shoulder, looking especially glaring in the dim light. Around the mark, faint, root-like dark purple lines had surfaced on the skin.

Fear coiled around Xiang Lingna's heart like a cold snake. She could feel Lin Mo's life force being frantically drained by that mark, while the stardust crystal's power was burning away fast, barely able to suppress it any longer!

"Wrench! Wrench! Wake up!" Xiang Lingna anxiously shook the sleeping goblin.

Wrench leapt up with a start and was startled by Lin Mo's appearance too. "Wh-what happened to him? Is that damned thing eating him?"

"The Doctor… that monster… is torturing him down below!" Xiang Lingna's voice carried a sob as she haltingly relayed the nightmare-like resonance. "We… we have to do something! The shard alone… can't hold out!"

Wrench looked at the eerie purple glow on Lin Mo's arm, then at his own mechanical arm, which was smoking black and completely wrecked, his face full of despair: "Do what? Bang our heads against it? That monster is the real body! The real body! Uncle Suolin was so powerful and still…" Remembering Suolin, his voice choked up.

Xiang Lingna forced herself to calm down. She pressed the jade shard to Lin Mo's chest again; the shard's light and the stardust crystal's faint glow answered each other with difficulty, barely sustaining the last thread of Lin Mo's life. She looked around, her gaze falling on the few remaining Starvein saplings by the pool. Their lingering purification halos were faint, but they were the only light of order in this dead land.

"Light… we need light! More order energy!" Xiang Lingna murmured, an idea taking shape in her heart. "Wrench, help me! Move these Starvein saplings… around Lin Mo-ge as best you can! Their light… might help!"

Though Wrench thought it hopeless, seeing the resolve in Xiang Lingna's eyes, he could only try it as a last resort. Using his still-working hand and teeth, he worked with Xiang Lingna to carefully move the relatively short saplings whose roots had not yet been fully corroded and fixed in place, gathering them around Lin Mo as best he could to form a crude ring.

Xiang Lingna stood at the center of the ring, gripping the jade shard tightly in both hands, closing her eyes, and straining to mobilize her nearly depleted natural affinity. She no longer tried to directly fight the corruption inside Lin Mo, but sank her will into the shard, communing with the faint lingering will of the surrounding Starvein saplings.

【Help him… please… like Uncle Suolin did… please help Lin Mo-ge…】

【Lend me your light… just a little is enough…】

Her will was filled with sorrow, pleading, and the obsession to protect, like the most devout prayer. A miracle happened! The jade shard in her hand seemed ignited by this pure intention, its emerald light flaring brightly for an instant! This light, like a signal, instantly drew a resonance from the surrounding Starvein saplings!

Hum—!

The purification halos on the remaining leaves of the few Starvein saplings, as if summoned, broke free from the leaves' confines, transforming into a few extremely slender yet exceptionally pure silvery-white threads of light that drifted slowly toward the shard in Xiang Lingna's hand! The shard's light grew steadier and softer, like a tiny emerald sun. Immediately after, the shard guided this gathered light—fusing Starvein purification with the jade's life essence—into a warm yet resilient emerald stream that slowly poured into the faint stardust crystal on Lin Mo's chest!

Hiss—!

The instant this life-light, fused with the forest's lingering will, touched the stardust crystal, the pulsing Corrupted Claw Mark on Lin Mo's right arm suddenly stalled! The dark purple light, like a flame doused with cold water, violently wavered and shrank back! The spreading lines also halted! A trace of extremely faint color seemed to return to Lin Mo's grey face, and his breathing steadied just a fraction!

"It's working! It's really working!" Wrench exclaimed in delighted surprise.

Xiang Lingna also felt a spark of encouragement, but a wave of immense exhaustion crashed over her at the same time. Maintaining this communion and guidance was draining her spiritual essence. Her face went paler, her body swaying slightly. But seeing the temporarily suppressed purple glow on Lin Mo's arm, she gritted her teeth and held on.

Just then, a sudden change occurred!

"Hiss hiss hiss—"

A spine-chilling scraping sound and low growls came from deep in the mist, rapidly closing in! Several pairs of crimson eyes lit up in the thick fog, brimming with hunger and frenzy!

"Not good! Corrupted Claw Beasts! Drawn by the light just now!" Wrench's face changed drastically; he grabbed a thick dead branch and planted himself in front of Xiang Lingna and Lin Mo. Three monsters burst out of the mist—shaped like hyenas but covered in rotting keratin, oozing pus, their sharp claws flickering with dark purple light. They had clearly been attracted by the Starvein light gathered just now and the aura of life!

Xiang Lingna's heart sank to the bottom. She couldn't interrupt the energy channeling to Lin Mo, or the corruption would immediately counterattack! But Wrench alone, with one wrecked mechanical arm—how could he possibly hold off three ferocious corrupted beasts?

"Roar!" One Corrupted Claw Beast lunged at Wrench first! Wrench shrieked and blocked with the dead branch, but was sent tumbling by the tremendous force! The other two cunningly dodged past him, pouncing straight for Xiang Lingna, who was maintaining the light stream in the center, and the unconscious Lin Mo!

At the critical moment!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several whistling sounds rang out from the other side of the mist! Followed by a few muffled "thuds" of blades sinking into flesh! The two Corrupted Claw Beasts pouncing at Xiang Lingna howled in agony and crashed to the ground; stuck in their necks and vitals were several bone arrows flickering with faint green light!

A lithe figure burst out of the mist like a cheetah! It was an elf! But unlike Suolin's elegance, his leather armor was torn and filthy, his silver hair disheveled, his pointed ears scarred, and his emerald eyes filled with exhaustion, wariness, and a sharpness honed in desperate straits. He held a crude bone shortbow, with several similar arrows stuck in his back.

He moved as fast as lightning; the instant he landed, he drew the bone short blade at his waist and precisely stabbed it into the skulls of the felled Corrupted Claw Beasts, finishing them off completely. Then he spun around sharply, drew his bowstring again, and an arrow flickering with dangerous green light was aimed at Wrench, who had just gotten up, and at Xiang Lingna maintaining the light stream! His gaze was icy and full of hostility.

"Outlanders! Stop what you're doing! Your light will draw a greater disaster!" The elf ranger's voice was hoarse and stern, filled with an unquestionable warning. When his gaze swept over the unconscious Lin Mo and the glaring Corrupted Claw Mark on his arm, his pupils contracted sharply, filled with shock and deeper hostility! "Corrupted one?!"

Xiang Lingna's heart leapt into her throat. Barely out of the wolf's den, into the tiger's mouth? Was this surviving elf friend or foe? He could see that Lin Mo-ge was being eroded by corruption—would he attack directly? And the faint light by the pool seemed to have drawn more attention; deep in the mist, more shadowy crimson eyes lit up… a greater danger was closing in on this lonely island where a single spark of hope had just been kindled.