Chapter 162: Desperate Choice, Stardust Burns As One

The horrifying sight of the Rotting Claw Altar seized Xiang Lingna's heart like a frigid giant hand! The enormous vertical pupil of annihilation coldly "watched" the rift, and the Doctor's energy projection was about to press that hand of destruction toward Lin Mo's forehead! The spatial rift twisted violently under the impact of the Doctor's will, and the terrifying suction tore at Xiang Lingna and the Wrench's bodies, threatening to drag them into this hell of despair!

"Lin Mo-gege——!!!" Xiang Lingna let out a heart-wrenching scream, despair flooding over her like a tide. The violent remnant energy of the Rotting Claw stored in the scar of her right arm instantly boiled over under the immense stimulus, like a volcano about to erupt, searing her very soul!

At this critical, hair-raising moment!

Hum——!!!

The identity tag pressed against her chest, engraved with "07," seemed to sense the extremely faint stardust glow on Lin Mo's chest, and also sensed the life-and-death-defying cry of protection deep within Xiang Lingna's soul, and suddenly erupted with an unprecedented, dazzling milky-white stardust radiance! This radiance was no longer faint, but like a supernova compressed to its utmost, instantly enveloping Xiang Lingna and the Wrench!

A thought imbued with warmth, resilience, and an unyielding order, like a bridge spanning time and space, slammed fiercely into Xiang Lingna's consciousness on the verge of being swallowed by despair through the stardust radiance!

"Lingna... live on... believe... the light..."

It was Lin Mo! It was his consciousness on the verge of collapse, under the Doctor's suppression, 借助 the final resonance of the stardust crystal, transmitting a broken yet incomparably clear意念!

This intent struck like thunder in the darkness, instantly cleaving Xiang Lingna's despair! Lin Mo-gege was still fighting! He needed her! She could not give up!

"Ah——!!!" The fear in Xiang Lingna's eyes was instantly replaced by a flame mixed with madness, resolve, and protection! She no longer resisted the boiling, about-to-run-amok remnant energy of the Rotting Claw in her right arm! Instead—she actively embraced it! Guided it!

But not to blast it toward the spatial rift! The Doctor was on the other side of the rift; attacking the rift directly would only hasten their deaths!

Her target was the stardust radiance erupting from the identity tag! She would make this protective light of stardust from Lin Mo-gege become the "kindling" that ignited the Rotting Claw remnants!

"Lin Mo-gege! Give me strength——!!!"

Xiang Lingna screamed with all the strength of her soul, and slammed her right arm—that arm like a lava ghost claw, storing terrifying energy—fiercely against the identity tag erupting with dazzling stardust radiance!

Sizzle——!!!

Like pouring boiling lava into a frigid sea of stars! Dazzling intense light and devastating energy shockwaves instantly erupted! The dark-purple Rotting Claw remnant energy and the milky stardust light—two forces of utterly opposite natures, even conflicting with each other—under the forceful guidance of Xiang Lingna's will and the identity tag as a "medium," underwent an unprecedented, brutal collision and... fusion!

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

Only a silent, most primordial clash of annihilation and creation!

Xiang Lingna's body became the most brutal battlefield! The charred bones of her right arm shattered inch by inch under the violent energy clash! Skin and muscle were torn and vaporized like paper! The agony instantly stripped her of all bodily sensation, and her consciousness flickered like a candle flame in a gale, ready to extinguish at any moment! But she clung desperately to her last sliver of clarity—guide! Guide these two forces, not to destroy herself, but... to resonate! To ignite!

Hum——!!!

A miracle occurred! Within the identity tag acting as a peculiar "crucible," under the guidance of Xiang Lingna's will pushed beyond its limits, deep within the core of that violent Rotting Claw remnant energy, a thread of the order of "steel and earth" belonging to the origin of this wasteland world—twisted and buried by the Doctor's power, extremely faint—was suddenly awakened by Lin Mo's pure light of stardust order!

This tiny, faint resonance was like a spark tossed into a powder keg!

Boom——!!!

An indescribable chaotic flame, mixing stardust order, Rotting Claw destruction, the resilience of steel, Earth's Heaviness, and Xiang Lingna's will to protect, erupted with the identity tag as its core, like the first light of creation splitting heaven and earth!

This flame was no longer pure destruction, but a chaotic creative force brimming with contradiction and vitality! It did not directly attack the spatial rift, but transformed into a condensed pillar of light that slammed fiercely into the already crack-ridden, structurally fragile metal cavity wall beside the spatial rift!

Crack——sizzle——!!!

The metal cavity wall, like fragile glass, was instantly melted through and torn apart under the impact of the chaotic flame! A larger, more irregular breach was forcibly torn open! Beyond the breach was no longer the sight of the Rotting Claw Altar, nor spatial turbulence, but a... even more chaotic, riotously colorful unstable spatial interlayer, filled with violent energy vortices and fragments of shattered scenery!

Xiang Lingna had gambled correctly! She had not attacked the rift (which would only have been exploited by the Doctor), but instead used the chaotic creative force beyond the norm produced by the collision of the two forces to forcibly tear open a new path of life leading to an unknown interlayer in a more fragile spot! This path was extremely unstable and fraught with danger, but at least it temporarily shook off the Doctor's lock!

"Go!!!" Xiang Lingna screamed with the last wisp of her consciousness, her left hand gripping the unconscious Wrench tightly. Borrowing the tremendous impact force of the chaotic flame's eruption, like a stone hurled from a trebuchet, she slammed fiercely into that newly torn spatial breach!

"Vile insects!!!" The Doctor's intent, brimming with rage, exploded from the other side of the rift! The enormous vertical pupil of annihilation erupted with terrifying purple light, and a condensed annihilation beam instantly shot forth, crossing the spatial rift in pursuit of Xiang Lingna and the Wrench's figures! At the same time, the giant energy hand reaching toward Lin Mo's forehead also suddenly accelerated!

However, at the instant the annihilation beam was about to strike Xiang Lingna's back—

Hum!!!

The stardust crystal on Lin Mo's chest, faint to the extreme, stimulated by the chaotic flame erupting from Xiang Lingna that contained resonance with him, like a final flicker before death, suddenly burst forth with one last, yet exceptionally pure, milky-white radiance! This point of radiance instantly formed a stardust shield as thin as a cicada's wing before Lin Mo!

Puchi!

The annihilation beam slammed fiercely into the stardust shield! The shield instantly became covered in cracks, but it also bought Xiang Lingna a fatal tenth of a second! The figures of Xiang Lingna and the Wrench vanished, narrowly escaping, into that violent spatial interlayer! The annihilation beam grazed the edge of the breach, expanding the molten metal edge once more!

Bang!

The stardust shield shattered completely! Lin Mo's body jolted violently, his already faint aura dropping once more, and he fell completely into a deep coma. But at the corner of his mouth, a barely perceptible curve seemed to appear.

"Hmph!" The Doctor's energy projection looked at the fully closed spatial breach, then glanced at the comatose Lin Mo, his cold intent carrying a hint of annoyance and deeper calculation. "Fleeing into the spatial interlayer... seeking death... the key... will eventually return..."

The enormous vertical pupil of annihilation slowly closed, and the altar once again fell into a cold, deathly silence. The Doctor's giant hand pressed upon Lin Mo's forehead, drawing even more brazenly upon the chaotic yet precious origin power within him that fused stardust and corruption.

And Xiang Lingna and the Wrench, like fallen leaves in a gale, were swept into the violent turbulence of the spatial interlayer.