Chapter 150: Land of Wreckage, Echoes of the Wasteland

After the icy sensation of falling came the impact against hard ground and the dizzying tumble. Xiang Lingna Heavy crashed onto a patch of dry ground strewn with gravel and dust, coughing violently, every breath thick with the taste of dust. The sharp pain in her body and the weakness from clashing energies surged over her like a tide, leaving her nearly unable to move.

"Cough, cough… ptooey! That fall nearly killed me…" came the familiar grumbling of Wrench from beside her. Xiang Lingna struggled to turn her head and saw the goblin crawling out of a pile of broken rubble, grey-faced and dust-covered; his twisted mechanical arm wreckage seemed to have completely fallen apart, parts scattered all over the ground.

"Wrench… are you okay?" Xiang Lingna's voice was hoarse and weak.

"S-still alive…" Wrench bared his teeth as he worked his body, limping over to Xiang Lingna's side and trying to help her up. "That kid Lei En…" his voice sank low, carrying immense grief and helplessness.

Xiang Lingna's heart ached, tears sliding silently down. Lei En… to cover their retreat… She struggled to sit up and looked around.

This was not the forest. The sky was shrouded in a thick, never-dispersing cloud of radioactive dust, presenting a suppressive leaden grey, letting through a dim, heatless glimmer. The air was saturated with a pungent mix of dust, corroded metal, and the residue of some chemical agent. As far as the eye could see stretched an endless wasteland built of twisted metal frames, shattered concrete blocks, and all manner of unrecognizable mechanical wreckage! Tall, rust-covered steel structures thrust toward the gloomy sky like the ribs of some great beast; collapsed buildings were reduced to broken walls and remnants; abandoned vehicles, enormous pipes, and broken electronic screens lay scattered among them, blanketed in thick dust. A deathly stillness reigned, broken only by the wind whimpering through the ruins, kicking up gust after gust of sand.

"Wh-where is this?" Wrench stared dumbfounded at the apocalyptic scene. "Doesn't look like that damned forest we were in before?"

Xiang Lingna was also stunned. This environment… had a strange sense of familiarity. The acrid smell of dust, the twisted metal, the oppressive sky… She suddenly recalled what Brother Lin Mo had first described—the 【Wasteland World Fragment】! The place where he had become a lord and built Hope Fortress!

Could the final exit of the Thorn Corridor have sent them back to Brother Lin Mo's original territory?

The thought made Xiang Lingna's heart pound wildly! If this really was the place, then Sister Ai Li must be here! And everyone at Hope Fortress! They could be saved!

"Wrench! Quick! Help me look around! This might be my brother's territory! There are our companions here!" Xiang Lingna struggled to stand, but the weakness in her body and the icy sting from the brand on her right arm made her stumble.

"The wasteland? Boss Lin Mo's turf?" A spark of hope also lit in Wrench's beady eyes. "Alright! Look! Look for landmarks! Look for people!"

The two leaned on each other for support, struggling forward through the enormous ruins. The ground beneath their feet was littered with rubble and sharp metal fragments, every step unbearably hard. The surroundings were deathly still, with only the wind and their rough and heavy panting. The clash of energies inside Xiang Lingna's body persisted; the emerald-green light cluster, while suppressing the brand, was also repairing the damage to her body, but slowly.

After walking for a long time, the scene before them remained the same unvarying ruin. No sign of life, no familiar markers. Only ruins, endless ruins.

"Something's off…" Wrench panted heavily, leaning against a tilted, enormous metal pipe. "This place… is too quiet… not even a radiation rat… and—" He pointed at some twisted metal structures in the distance, covered in dark purple moss. "Look at those things… they look a bit like those corrupted things we saw in that damned forest!"

Xiang Lingna's heart sank. She had noticed it too. This wasteland ruin, though similar in environment, did not carry the air of pure radioactive dust; it was laced with an extremely faint yet oddly familiar… scent of decay and annihilation! Identical to the withered forest and the corrupted lands! Moreover, much of the corroded metal and concrete in the ruins was covered in that dark purple moss or fine root-like patterns!

This was not an uncorrupted wasteland! This was… a doomsday world polluted and abandoned by the Rotclaw's power! Most likely another wasteland fragment similar to Lin Mo's territory, but one that had already fallen and been destroyed!

Despair washed over her again. Just as Xiang Lingna was on the verge of collapsing, the metal identity tag she had kept hidden against her chest all this time, engraved with "07," seemed to be stimulated by some lingering old-world signal in these ruins. It suddenly trembled faintly, emitting an extremely weak but continuous cold fluctuation belonging to old-world tech!

At the same time, the icy claw-mark brand on Xiang Lingna's right arm throbbed again! This time, the throbbing did not come from the distant Shepherd of Decay, but… pointed toward a certain direction deep within the ruins! As if something there was drawing the brand, or rather… summoning the Doctor's power!

"Over there…" Xiang Lingna weakly pointed in the direction the identity tag's tremor and the brand's throbbing both indicated—the depths of a ruin pile like a small hill, buried under enormous twisted metal structures. "Something… is calling… it…"

Wrench looked at the ruin pile emanating an ominous aura, then at Xiang Lingna's pale face and the eerie purple glow on her arm, and swallowed hard. "Kid… you sure? That place looks… even more sinister than the rest!"

Xiang Lingna looked at the jade fragment in her hand, feeling the power of the guardian light cluster, and her gaze grew firm once more. "Not sure… but this is our only lead. It could be danger, or it could be… the key to leaving this place. Brother Lin Mo is still waiting for us… we have no retreat."

She gripped the fragment tightly and took a step toward the depths of the ruins, guided by the dual "signals." Wrench sighed, picked up a still-sturdy metal pipe as a weapon, and limped after her. Their figures, amid the enormous, deathly still, corruption-eaten wasteland ruins, looked so small and alone.

And deep within that ruin pile, beneath an entrance hidden beneath thick metal plates and rotting vines, a faint, rhythmic blue indicator light belonging to old-world tech could be dimly seen, silently blinking in the darkness. As if a ghost that had slept for countless ages was waiting for the key to awaken it.