Chapter 173: Root Nodule Awakens, Shadow of Lin Mo

At the bottom of the deep pit, the massive Rotclaw root-tumour pulsed like an enraged prehistoric beast, the rhythm faster and more forceful with every beat! Across the viscous, dark-green cuticle surface, the throbbing dark-purple runes blazed like red-hot branding irons, radiating scorching heat and a suffocating pressure of annihilation. The pit walls' rock cracked and popped under the high temperature, and the dark-purple moss covering them withered and carbonised as though plunged into boiling water.

Deep within the core of the root-tumour, the "pale humanoid" projection formed of pure dark-purple energy—the consciousness node the Doctor had left here—was twisting and swelling violently! Priestess Liyana's strike, imbued with the power of Lunar Purification and Thorn Strangulation, and the chaotic resonance triggered by Xiang Lingna's detonation of the Wang Ting fragment, drove into the root-tumour's centre like two red-hot spikes!

"Ants… how dare you… wound my foundation…" A cold, viscous thought, brimming with endless fury, rippled through the cramped space inside the root-tumour like a tangible shockwave. The Doctor's projection grew more solid, yet its form seemed unstable, energy constantly leaking and reforming at its edges. The countless energy threads connected to it frantically drew on the root-tumour's stored origin-force, trying to repair the damage.

However, the greater trouble lay in the area imprisoning Lin Mo's soul projection.

The dark-purple energy shackles binding Lin Mo were severely weakened and "contaminated" under the chaotic light of the Wang Ting fragment's detonation; some chains even developed fine cracks. The backlash from the Doctor's forcibly interrupted drain, combined with the core-shake caused by Priestess Liyana's attack, produced an extremely brief—one-thousandth of a second—loosening in the shackles' control!

In that lightning-flicker of an instant!

The faint yet pure stardust glow on Lin Mo's chest, like a volcano compressed to its limit, suddenly contracted inward—then erupted with a roar!

No longer a feeble flicker, it condensed into a focused beam of milky-white light, like the first ray of light at the dawn of creation! This beam carried Lin Mo's final will, held fast through days of imprisonment and erosion by the annihilation origin, as well as… a strange resilience born of being "contaminated" by Xiang Lingna's chaotic energy!

Sizzle—!!!

The beam, like a red-hot steel needle, viciously pierced the most critical energy shackles binding his chest! The cracks spread in an instant!

"Roar—!" The Doctor's projection let out a furious howl, and an enormous energy hand lunged at Lin Mo, trying to reinforce the shackles!

But Lin Mo had waited too long for this moment! The instant the shackles were pierced, his soul projection was no longer a helpless, weakened state! A nascent "Chaos Origin" of his own—born from the fusion of myriad-world origins, faint yet incomparably tenacious—was fully awakened at the edge of life and death! This power no longer merely defended; it struck out on its own!

"Get lost!" A soundless roar, bursting with indomitable will, exploded deep within Lin Mo's soul!

The erupting stardust beam did not dissipate; under Lin Mo's will, it coiled around the Doctor's lunging energy hand like a living serpent! Stardust light clashed violently with the rotting substance of annihilation, emitting a piercing sound of obliteration! More critically, the trace of "chaos" from Xiang Lingna within the beam acted like the most cunning virus, beginning to erode and assimilate the structure of the Doctor's energy hand!

"What?!" For the first time, clear shock surfaced on the Doctor's projection! This power… was actually eroding his origin in return?! Though exceedingly faint, its nature was so bizarre it stirred a flicker of unease within him!

Seizing the chance, Lin Mo's soul projection unleashed its final strength! No longer a phantom shimmer, it condensed into a blurred humanoid silhouette! He wrenched free from the broken chest-shackles, like a fish escaping a net, and hurled himself toward the region where the root-tumour's core energy flowed thinnest—the thick root-tubes connected to the outside, responsible for channelling energy!

He would escape this cage! Even if only as a wisp of a remnant soul!

"Don't even think it!" The Doctor's projection was utterly enraged! He abandoned part of his control over the energy hand, gathered greater power, and formed a sky-covering net of dark-purple energy that plunged down over Lin Mo's fleeing soul-silhouette! At the same time, the entire root-tumour's pulsing abruptly halted; every dark-purple rune blazed to its limit, and a terrifying suction radiated from the core, trying to drag Lin Mo back!

Boom!!!

Lin Mo's soul-silhouette slammed into the energy net! A soundless shockwave erupted within the core space! The stardust beam and the Chaos Origin's power burned away furiously in the collision! The silhouette grew dimmer and more translucent, as if it might disperse at any moment!

Yet, amid this fierce struggle, Lin Mo's soul-silhouette seemed to set itself alight, exploding with speed beyond its limits and a touch of desperate agility! He did not meet the net's centre head-on; instead, like a fish, he grazed its edge by a hair's breadth and plunged headlong into one of the thick, violently pulsing energy-transport tubes leading out of the root-tumour!

"Damn it!" The Doctor's projection let out a snarl of unwillingness; the energy net snapped tight, but caught only a wisp of scattered stardust afterglow.

Lin Mo's soul-silhouette, like a faint firefly, drifted along the viscous, frigid, annihilation-laden energy torrent, carried by the current through the dark tube, rushing at speed toward an unknown destination! His consciousness, under violent depletion and energy erosion, slipped into a half-coma; only a single obsession burned like an unextinguished spark—survive! Find them! Stop the Doctor!

In the root-tumour's core, the Doctor's projection churned violently at Lin Mo's escape, his fury almost taking the shape of real flame. His cold gaze pierced through the root-tumour's walls, as though he saw Sister Liya's party retreating, and Xiang Lingna wrapped in her cocoon of chaotic light.

"The key… the vessel… and… the escaped specimen…" The viscous thought brimmed with calculation and deeper killing intent. "You… cannot escape my grasp… the Seed of Annihilation… will ripen in the end…"

His vast will spread along the corrupted network; throughout the depths of the Withered Forest, countless lurking Rotclaw guardians and twisted creatures raised their heads at once, their crimson eyes locking onto the direction of the New Moon Grove. A long-planned encirclement against the elves' last sanctuary was triggered early by Lin Mo's escape and Xiang Lingna's appearance.