Chapter 159: Data-Thorns, Rot-Claws for Fuel

The icy mud had soaked up to Xiang Lingna's trouser legs, sticky and heavy. The crimson eyes of the corrupted beasts glowed like hellfire lanterns, slowly closing in through the darkness; the wet drag of slime and low, guttural snarls wove together into a deathly prelude. At the center of the chamber, upon that massive rot-claw root nodule, the Doctor's dark-purple energy-face stared at her in silence, its cold intent flowing like a frigid current, freezing the blood in her veins.

Retreat was cut off; hope was slim. Xiang Lingna leaned back against the cold metal wall, feeling the icy touch of the emergency data case clutched to her chest and the faint glow of the jade fragment. The thought that had flashed through her in despair now crystallized with perfect clarity—ignite! Just like on the tunnel platform, ignite the power of the brand! But this time, the target was not to open a path, but... destruction! Destruction of this massive, developing corruption tumor before her eyes! Even at the cost of herself!

"Wrench... I'm sorry..." Xiang Lingna glanced at her unconscious companion, a flash of resolute apology in her eyes. Then her gaze sharpened to a razor's edge, locking dead onto the cold energy-face upon the root nodule.

"Doctor..." Xiang Lingna's voice was hoarse, yet carried a strange calm, like the dead stillness before a storm. "You want annihilation? You want to devour everything? Fine... I'll give it to you!"

She no longer suppressed the throbbing of the brand on her right arm; instead, she deliberately, completely released all restraint upon it! At the same time, she poured every last shred of power remaining within her—emerald life-force, silver-white thorn-order, even the final vitality of her body—into the jade fragment at her heart like a sacrificial offering, a mad, frenzied flood!

"Come on! Take what you want!" Xiang Lingna's heart let loose a soundless roar!

Wooooom——!!!

The claw-mark brand instantly erupted with an unprecedented dark-purple radiance! As if a miniature black hole had opened upon Xiang Lingna's right arm! Pure, frigid annihilation energy came pouring in like floodwaters through an opened gate! In an instant it smashed through her fragile meridian defenses; her skin cracked inch by inch, and dark-purple lines, like burning vines, madly spread toward her torso and head! The agony turned her vision black; her body convulsed beyond her control!

The Doctor's energy-face seemed to ripple faintly as well, carrying a trace of icy mockery and greed. This little insect had finally abandoned her futile resistance and offered herself up of her own accord.

However, at the very instant the annihilation energy was about to completely drown Xiang Lingna's consciousness-core—

"Now!" A final, most dazzling light exploded in Xiang Lingna's eyes! It was not despair, but the madness of an all-or-nothing gamble!

Her left hand suddenly hoisted the icy emergency data reader case clutched to her chest high into the air! Not to smash it against the enemy, but... to slam it hard against her own chest, pressed tight against the dimming jade fragment!

Wooooom——!!!

The faint, frigid energy-wave belonging to the old-world tech-core that had been activated when the data case had slotted into the copilot's console instantly traveled through the metal casing and conducted itself onto the jade fragment!

This alien, frigid tech-energy, like the last straw, like the strangest catalyst, instantly shattered the fragile balance of power within Xiang Lingna's body!

Hiss-crack——!!!

The pure annihilation energy flooding into Xiang Lingna, and the emerald energy compressed to its absolute limit within the jade fragment—a fusion of life's order and her will to protect—under the "catalysis" of this frigid tech-energy, underwent an unprecedented, runaway, violent reaction! No longer a simple clash of annihilation and purification, it formed a savage, ruinous vortex of chaotic energy! The center of that vortex was the claw-mark brand!

"Graaaah——!!!" Xiang Lingna let out a shrill, inhuman scream! Her right arm instantly became a terrifying luminous body! Emerald, silver-white, dark-purple, ghostly-blue lights madly intertwined, clashed, exploded! Skin and muscle carbonized and flaked away like burning paper! Beneath them, her bones were laid bare, with chaotic energy flowing through them like molten lava!

A chaotic storm beyond description—mingling the withering of life, the collapse of order, the chaos of tech-logic, and at its core the breath of annihilation and destruction—erupted with Xiang Lingna at its center like a runaway stellar detonation! This storm was no longer mere pressure; it was filled with indiscriminate, all-destroying madness!

Rumble rumble rumble——!!!

The chaotic energy-storm swept across the entire chamber! First to bear the brunt were the approaching corrupted beasts! Before the storm they were like paper toys, instantly torn apart, pulverized, annihilated! They didn't even have time to scream!

Immediately after, the storm slammed hard into the massive rot-claw root nodule at the chamber's center!

Sizzle-crack——!!! Boom!!!

Like molten iron poured into an icy lake! The tough, fleshy carapace flowing with dark-purple runes on the nodule's surface let out a piercing tearing sound under the chaotic storm's assault! Dark-purple, viscous sap gushed out like blood! The nodule convulsed violently, swelled, and let out a soundless shriek of agony! The Doctor's energy-face upon its surface instantly twisted and shattered apart!

"No——!!!" The Doctor's will, brimming with shock and fury, exploded from deep within the nodule! He felt it clearly: the core of annihilation-origin within this important root-nodule node he had so painstakingly cultivated was being madly battered, polluted, and dismantled by this savage, chaotic, ruinous energy! This power was even corroding back into the corruption network connected to him!

Xiang Lingna was like a torch burning itself out; her body trembled violently at the storm's center, her skin carbonized and flaking off in great patches, her life-force draining away at frightening speed. Yet her face wore a near-transcendent, mad smile. She had succeeded! She had ignited herself, ignited the brand, ignited this corruption tumor!

However, the power of this chaotic storm far exceeded her control! While tearing apart the nodule, it also madly destroyed everything around it! The massive metal pipes supporting the chamber groaned under unbearable strain within the storm, cracks spreading at frightening speed! Icy mud poured down through the fissures like waterfalls! The entire underground chamber was on the verge of collapse!

"Warning... structural integrity... imminent collapse..." The screen of the data case in her arms flickered madly within the energy-storm, spitting out one last line of broken, fragmented text, then went completely dark.

The storm of destruction continued. Under the chaotic energy's rampage, the nodule was like a hunk of meat dropped into sulfuric acid—rapidly withering, rotting, crumbling! Vast amounts of dark-purple corruption-matter were vaporized, purified! But Xiang Lingna's life, like a candle in the wind, was about to go out.

Just as Xiang Lingna's consciousness was about to sink completely into darkness—

Hum... hum... hum...

A sensation of vibration, extremely faint yet oddly familiar, came from her nearly numb left hand—it was that metal ID tag engraved with "07"! Pressed tight against the data case, within the violent chaotic energy-storm and the massive energy shockwave released by the nodule's collapse, it had actually been activated once again!

What the ID tag radiated was no longer signal-blue light, but an extremely faint yet unusually steady, star-dust-like milky-white halo! This halo was not powerful, but it carried a strange sense of order, like a lighthouse in a raging sea, faint yet steadfastly resisting the violent chaotic energy-turbulence around it!

What made Xiang Lingna's soul tremble even more was that this milky-white star-dust halo actually produced an extremely faint yet incomparably clear resonance with the emerald-light core belonging to the jade fragment at her heart, a light on the verge of going out! As if a summons from the same source!

"Lin... Mo... brother?" The thought flashed through Xiang Lingna's blurred consciousness. Star-dust... this is Brother Lin Mo's power? A resonance from the Star-Dust Crystal? Could Brother Lin Mo's power have also seeped into this isolated corruption-land?

This faint resonance, like the last drop of sweet dew, nourished Xiang Lingna's soul-core on the brink of collapse. The cluster of emerald light on the verge of going out, supported by the star-dust halo, actually stubbornly re-coalesced by a thread, fiercely guarding the last scrap of her consciousness from being extinguished!

The chaotic storm gradually subsided. The massive rot-claw root nodule had already turned into foul-smelling, wisping, viscous residue scattered across the ground. The entire chamber was a shambles, riddled with huge fissures, with icy mud flowing through it like little streams. The corrupted beasts were utterly gone.

Xiang Lingna lay on the ground like a broken doll, her whole body scorched black, her breath a thread, her right arm reduced to a charred skeleton with the dying embers of chaotic energy still flowing through it. But at her heart, that speck of emerald light, enveloped by the star-dust halo radiating from the ID tag, pulsed faintly yet tenaciously.

The unconscious Wrench had been washed by the mud into a corner, his breath faint.

And at the center of the nodule's wreckage, a fist-sized crystal, like a dark-purple gemstone, with a trace of chaotic light-mark still lingering within it, lay quietly amid the filth, radiating an unsettling residual ripple. It was the remnant left behind after the nodule's collapse—the highly concentrated rot-claw origin fused with Xiang Lingna's chaotic energy.

A forgotten corner. A brutal victory. A dying body. A remnant imbued with terrifying energy.

And that faint resonance-light, connected to distant star-dust.