Chapter 176: The Sacred Tree Weeps Blood, the Cocoon Stirs the Stardust

"Wooo—!"

A low, mournful hum, like the wail of a wounded beast of enormous size, suddenly burst out from within the Moon Shadow Sacred Tree at the center of the woodland! The entire New Moon Woodland seemed to be struck a vicious blow by an invisible sledgehammer, shaking violently! The silver curtain of light shed by the Sacred Tree that illuminated the woodland instantly began to flicker, like a candle guttering in the wind!

"The Sacred Tree!" High Priestess Thalande's face changed drastically. A mouthful of fresh blood spurted out, and the palm pressed against the Sacred Tree's roots was instantly flung back! He staggered backward, his eyes filled with disbelief, horror, and agony! Just now, a terrifying will—cold, brutal, brimming with an aura of annihilation—had struck like a siege hammer crossing through space, slamming brutally into the core will that guarded the woodland and sustained the root network!

"Enemy attack! Highest alert! All combat personnel to positions! Activate all defensive runes!" Priestess Liyana's sharp cry instantly rang across the woodland, drowning out the Sacred Tree's wail! Her emerald eyes burned with icy fury and a barely perceptible trace of panic. The warning thought Lin Mo had sent last was crystal clear—【Be careful! He's coming! Protect… Lingna…】—the Doctor's attack had truly come! And so violently! Shaking the very foundations of the woodland!

The shrill blasts of elven horns rose one after another! The once peaceful, tranquil woodland instantly transformed into a war fortress! Elven archers atop the walls nocked arrows shimmering with the power of nature, aiming them into the depths of the forest; within the woodland, druids chanted loudly, emerald light surging from their bodies, pouring into the earth, activating ancient defensive runes inscribed everywhere; elven warriors wielding curved blades and vine shields formed battle formations, standing ready!

Almost at the same instant the defenses activated!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The mist at the forest's edge was torn apart by violent force! Countless hideous corrupted creatures poured out like a breached black tide, roaring as they charged! Withered Guardians lumbered forward with heavy, stiff steps, swinging arms like massive tree trunks; Rot-Claw Hounds moved as fast as lightning, corrosive drool dripping from their mouths; in the sky, swarms of flying creatures—hybrids of rotting bats and moths—let out piercing shrieks as they dove!

Worse still, behind the tide of corrupted creatures, several massive shadows slowly advanced—the reanimated remains of ancient war trees, thoroughly eroded and brought to life by the power of the Rot-Claw! They stood dozens of meters tall, their twisted branches like giant arms, each step making the earth tremble!

"Loose!" the commander atop the wall roared!

Hmm—!

A dense rain of arrows, like emerald meteors, cut through the mist and plunged brutally into the wave of corrupted creatures! The power of nature attached to the arrows had a notable restraining effect on the corrupted beasts; the hounds struck by arrows screamed, and the Withered Guardians' movements visibly slowed. Thorned vines summoned by the druids erupted wildly from the ground, entangling and piercing the charging monsters.

However, the enemy numbers were too great! And they feared no death! The corrupted tide slammed into the base of the walls in an instant! The Withered Guardians' massive fists slammed brutally into the coiled root-walls, producing dull, thunderous crashes as wood chips flew! The reanimated ancient tree remains swung their giant arms, each strike making the walls shake violently!

Within the woodland, Priestess Liyana and several elven elders gathered beneath the Moon Shadow Sacred Tree, pouring their own power of nature into it with all their might, trying to stabilize its wounded will and maintain the strength of the protective light curtain. The Sacred Tree's wail weakened somewhat, but its radiance remained dim, clearly bearing tremendous pressure.

At the center of the Binding Array, the chaotic light cocoon around Xiang Lingna, stimulated by the Sacred Tree's wail and the violent energy impacts from outside, began to fluctuate violently once more! The swirling tri-colored halo grew restless and agitated, especially the dark purple portion, which, as if summoned, tried to expand outward and slam against the silver light chains of the Binding Array! The array's runes flickered under the assault!

"Suppress the light cocoon!" High Priestess Thalande shouted anxiously while channeling power into the Sacred Tree. Lingna was the greatest variable at this moment; if the light cocoon lost control, the consequences would be unthinkable!

Priestess Liyana split off part of her focus, her staff pointing at the light cocoon. Pure moonlight power transformed into bands of light that wrapped around it, attempting to soothe and suppress. The moonlight power resonated with the emerald portion of the cocoon (Thorn Order), enhancing the suppression to some degree. But the dark purple annihilation energy within the cocoon, responding to the corrupted tide outside the woodland, grew even more violent!

Just at this moment!

Hmm—!

The identity tag on Xiang Lingna—the metal plate engraved with "07"—under the dual stimulation of the chaotic light cocoon and the violent energy fluctuations outside, suddenly erupted with an unprecedented, blinding milky-white stardust radiance! This radiance pierced through the chaotic light cocoon like a sharp sword, stabbing straight into the heavens! It even briefly illuminated the woodland's gloomy sky!

This sudden, intense stardust radiance seemed to carry a strange penetrative power and resonance!

At the edge of the Binding Array, Wrench—who had been bound by silver light chains, growling and struggling—his chaotic electronic eyes, the instant they came into contact with this intense stardust radiance, abruptly stopped flickering! A perfectly clear command, like an override of the highest authority, instantly shattered all the chaotic killing programs and erroneous logic in his consciousness!

【Core Command Override: Highest Priority—Protect Target: Stardust Signal Source (Lingna)!】

"G…irl…protect!" Wrench emitted a hoarse yet clear electronic tone! The violent energy within him instantly calmed, the red light in his electronic eyes extinguished completely, replaced by a cold, absolute focus! He snapped his head up, looking toward Xiang Lingna wrapped in the light cocoon at the center of the array. His intact mechanical left arm rose, the energy cannon in his palm instantly charging, the ghostly blue light not aimed at the elves, but—locked onto a massive Rot-Claw hound that had just climbed the wall and was about to leap into the woodland!

Pew—!

A condensed beam of ghostly blue energy shot out with precision, instantly piercing the hound's skull! The powerful energy blew half its body into fragments!

This sudden "reinforcement" made the elven warriors guarding the walls all freeze for a moment.

An even more wondrous change occurred on Lingna's light cocoon. The intense stardust radiance erupting from the identity tag not only triggered Wrench's guardian command, but also, like a fuse, instantly ignited the interior of the light cocoon! The faint stardust glow belonging to Lin Mo that had always been wrapped around the chaotic core, at this moment seemed to have been injected with a stimulant, suddenly swelling and brightening!

The stardust light erupted and swirled within the cocoon! It no longer merely passively balanced the chaos, but like a sovereign possessing consciousness, actively guided and sorted the violent dark purple annihilation energy and the mixed Thorn Order power! Under the harmonizing of the stardust light, the tri-colored radiance displayed, for the first time, a brief and strange…state of harmonious circulation!

The light cocoon wrapping Xiang Lingna, within this harmoniously circulating radiance, like a heart, gently yet powerfully…throbbed once!

"Ugh…" Xiang Lingna, still unconscious, let out an extremely faint yet clear moan! Her eyelashes trembled, ever so slightly!

Priestess Liyana, Thalande, all the elves who witnessed this scene held their breath!

The seed of chaos…was about to awaken?

However, at the very instant this hope appeared!

From the direction of the Rot-Claw root nodule where the Doctor's true body resided in the depths of the forest, an absolute darkness aura—indescribably terrifying, as if it could devour all light and existence—like an awakening world-destroying beast, suddenly surged upward! The intensity of this aura instantly overwhelmed all the clamor of the battlefield, making the Moon Shadow Sacred Tree's radiance flicker violently once more, making the charging corrupted creatures all halt, making the souls of all living beings feel an instinctive shudder!

A thought—cold, grand, as if sounding directly in the depths of everyone's soul—like the proclamation of a doomsday judgment, enveloped the entire New Moon Woodland:

"The game…is over."

"Hand over…the key…or…turn to dust!"