Chapter 143: Thorn Corridor, Shards of Consciousness

Chaos! Rending! Vertigo!

The instant she was sucked into the spatial rift, Xiang Lingna felt her body and consciousness hurled into a high-speed spinning centrifuge! This was no longer the relatively directional teleportation of the Thorn Gate, but a frantic battering inside an extremely unstable, narrow "tunnel" filled with violent energy turbulence! The emerald light radiating from the jade fragment, battered by the chaotic colors of raging grey-white, dark purple, and crimson energies, struggled like a lone boat in a furious sea, barely maintaining a small protective barrier that wrapped her and Lei En within.

Lei En had fallen into complete unconsciousness, his face a sickly green, his lips a bruised purple, the wounds on his body bitten by flying insects seeping a dark-green pus and blood — clearly the toxin had already penetrated deep into his lungs. Xiang Lingna gripped his arm tightly, feeling his body temperature draining away at frightening speed.

"Hold on! Lei En!" Xiang Lingna cried out, pressing the jade fragment against the worst of Lei En's wounds. The fragment's light blazed at full output, trying to drive out the toxin and sustain his last thread of life. The emerald light of life clashed violently against the dark-green corrosive toxin, emitting a sizzling hiss.

This spatial rift was extremely unstable. The "walls" forming the passage flickered in and out of existence, and violent energy turbulence lashed against the barrier like whips from time to time, making the light sway violently. Xiang Lingna felt as though she were riding a maddened horse that might lose control at any moment, her nerves stretched to breaking point, on the verge of collapse at any second.

Just as the barrier's light grew dimmer and dimmer, and Xiang Lingna was nearly about to give way, ahead in the chaotic play of light and shadow, some… relatively stable "scenes" suddenly appeared? They were like tattered canvases floating in the turbulence, vanishing in a flash—

She saw a stretch of scorched wasteland ablaze with the fires of war. Sister Ai Li's figure darted through the flames, the firearm in her hands spewing fire, her gaze cold and resolute.

She saw the New Moon Grove. Priestess Liyana stood before the withered sprout of the World Tree, cradling the Moonlight Bead in both hands, the pure light of nature struggling to disperse the surrounding mist.

She saw Furnace Keep. Gerona swung a massive fire-patterned steel battle-axe, letting out a thunderous roar as she led the orc warriors charging into a tide of enemies.

She even saw the Prism Hub. Zero's holographic projection flickered rapidly through a flood of data, countless streams of information swirling around her…

These scene fragments were startlingly real, as though they could be touched, yet the instant Xiang Lingna tried to approach, they shattered and were swallowed by the violent turbulence. They looked like shards of memory captured by this unstable spatial rift, drawn from different times and spaces!

What made Xiang Lingna's heart pound even harder was that, in one of the fragments that swept past at speed, she saw Lin Mo!

It was inside a massive cage formed of dark-purple energy! Lin Mo was bound tight by countless chains flowing with annihilation runes, suspended in midair! His eyes were tightly shut, his face deathly pale, and the light of the stardust crystal on his chest had dwindled to its faintest. And beside him, a projection of the Doctor — composed purely of dark-purple annihilation energy — was extending an energy tentacle connected to Lin Mo's forehead! It seemed to be drawing something out, or pouring something in! Lin Mo's body convulsed in agony, and the Corrupted Claw Mark on his right arm erupted with a blinding purple light that nearly covered half his body!

"Brother Lin Mo!" Xiang Lingna screamed. That fragment was instantly devoured by the turbulence!

A fierce surge of anger and worry slammed into Xiang Lingna's heart and mind! Brother Lin Mo was being subjected to inhuman torment! Was the Doctor draining his power? Or using him for something?

This violent emotional upheaval seemed to resonate on some deep level with the jade fragment in her hand! The fragment suddenly erupted with an unprecedented emerald radiance! This light was no longer mere protection — it carried Xiang Lingna's fierce will, piercing forward into the violent turbulence ahead like a blade!

Hmmm—!

A miracle occurred! The turbulence ahead seemed to be split open by a crack by this light that fused the essence of life with the will to protect! At the end of that crack, there was no longer chaotic energy, but a relatively stable, strange passage — woven from countless enormous thorny vines, radiating a faint silver-white and emerald halo!

This passage was like the interior of a colossal plant rhizome. Its walls were gnarled, interwoven thorny vines flowing with orderly energy, and the passage was saturated with an ancient, weary breath of life. Though the battering of the outer turbulence could still be felt, this place was like a tranquil harbor in the eye of a storm!

"Thorn… Corridor?" The words rose unbidden to Xiang Lingna's mind, and she recalled the Thorn Gate opened by the core of Wang Ting. Could this be a similar spatial passage? A more stable, safer spatial path?

She had no time to think. She immediately steered the barrier and, following the direction indicated by the jade fragment's light, forced her way into that Thorn Corridor!

The instant she entered the corridor, the roar of the violent turbulence outside was largely shut out, leaving only a low hum. Though the light inside the passage was dim, the faint halo from the thorny vines on the walls provided basic illumination. The air was filled with a reassuring, faint scent of grass and trees — though it was also laced with a hint of decay, it was far better than outside.

Xiang Lingna collapsed, utterly spent, onto the relatively "soft" ground formed by the thorny root tendrils, gasping for breath. Her first priority was to check on Lei En. He was still unconscious, his breathing faint, but the relatively pure breath of life flowing into the passage seemed to temporarily halt the worsening of his injuries, and the spread of the toxin also seemed to slow. Xiang Lingna continued pressing the fragment against his wounds, the emerald light pouring out without pause.

Safe, for now. Xiang Lingna leaned against the cold thorny wall, and exhaustion crashed over her like a landslide, like a tidal wave. She looked at the unconscious Lei En, then lowered her gaze to the cold claw-mark brand on her own right arm. The brand's light had already dimmed, but the dark-purple patterns coiled on her arm remained as ferocious as ever.

The scene fragments that had flashed through the spatial turbulence a moment ago — especially the image of Lin Mo imprisoned and tormented — were seared into her mind Like a Brand. What was the Doctor doing to him? How much longer could he hold on?

A vague thought, in the instant she relaxed her spirit and merged with the faint breath of life in the Thorn Corridor, quietly flowed into her consciousness:

【... passage... ancient... veins of the... forest...】

【... being eroded... pain...】

【... core... calling... fragment... key...】

This thought came in broken snatches, filled with pain and weariness, as though the entire Thorn Corridor were moaning. Xiang Lingna understood at once! This relatively stable spatial passage was not naturally formed—it was part of the veins of the ancient forest space of this corrupted land that had not yet been fully eroded! It was resisting the corruption in agony, and it had sensed the aura of the jade fragment and guided her inside! It was calling to the fragment, yearning for the fragment's power to help it resist the erosion!

At the same time, Xiang Lingna also clearly sensed that this Thorn Corridor was not fixed in place! Like a living root tendril, it was slowly, erratically "drifting" through the seams of space! Where did it lead? To a path of survival, or to another dead end?

Just then, another item Xiang Lingna kept pressed against her chest — the metal identity tag engraved with "07," obtained from the wasteland shelter — seemed to be stimulated by the Thorn Corridor's breath of life and spatial energy, and trembled faintly, emitting an extremely weak, almost imperceptible cold fluctuation belonging to old-world technology. This fluctuation vanished in a flash, and Xiang Lingna did not notice it.

And in the "upstream" direction of the Thorn Corridor, in a distant region shrouded in dark-purple corrupted energy, the claw-mark brand on Xiang Lingna's arm seemed to resonate with some existence in an extremely faint way, and a cold, greedy thought drifted over like a spider's silk stretching across space…