Chapter 195: Whispers of the Wreckage, Coordinates of Star Dust

The instant Lingna's crystal palm touched the charred rhombic interface, there was no earth-shattering explosion, no surging flood of energy. Time seemed to freeze for an instant.

Immediately afterward, a cold, vast, galaxy-spilling torrent of complex information surged along the crystal arm and slammed into Lingna's mind! It was not language, not images, but pure spatial coordinates, dimensional parameters, energy node schematics, and… countless shattered fragments of will, filled with despair and defiance!

【Coordinate locked… Star Sea… Third Arm… Wandering Star Region…】

【Dimensional parameters… offset… stability… critical…】

【Core furnace… overload… structural collapse…】

【Escape… must escape… for the… seed…】

【Warning! Spatial anchor… subjected to… unknown erosion… erosion source… pale…】

【Engine… failed… Ark… falling… Wang Ting… farewell…】

Countless chaotic coordinates, icy alarms, and desperate cries exploded in Lingna's mind! She felt her skull stuffed inside a high-speed, shattered engine—the agony blackened her vision, nearly knocking her unconscious! This was the final record of the ancient elf ark engine's wreckage! The lament of Wang Ting's destruction!

Meanwhile, the crystal on her right arm erupted with unprecedented light! Dark purple, emerald green, and milky white streams spun wildly, compressed—those inscribed runes glowed like activated circuits, blasting blinding radiance! Within the crystal, the tiny emerald speck born from the new sprout of the dead tree now served as a stabilizer, struggling to guide the chaotic influx of spatial information, attempting to sort and integrate it!

"Ughhh—!" Lingna collapsed to her knees, clutching her head, screaming in agony. The crystal arm burned like a red-hot iron; sparks flew violently where it connected to the interface! The entire thorned metal wreckage began to tremble faintly, emitting a low hum, while the starlight liquid flowing across the platform churned violently as if boiling!

On the other side, Ai Li was locked in a desperate battle! More and more monsters surged from the starlight liquid—formless, composed purely of viscous starlight; physical attacks had little effect, only precise energy beams could inflict meaningful damage. Those shadow blades were elusive and impossible to defend against! Ai Li bore several new wounds, her movements growing sluggish. She stood like a rock, fiercely shielding Priestess Liyana.

"Lingna! Hold on!" Zero's electronic voice carried rare urgency; the control console unleashed full firepower, sending precise azure beams toward the starlight monsters to relieve Ai Li's pressure. "Information stream… is… interstellar coordinates! Engine… attempting… to reboot anchor!"

Reboot the anchor? Lingna caught the key amid the agony and chaos! The wreckage was pouring coordinates into her—trying to make her… reposition? Activate this abandoned portal?

That thought was a spark in the darkness! Lingna gritted her teeth against the pain threatening to split her skull, no longer passively enduring the information surge—she focused all her will, cooperating with the emerald speck in her right arm's crystal, attempting to "understand" and "lock onto" the most central, most stable set of spatial coordinate data within the stream!

【Star Dust Sea… Third Arm… Wandering Star Region… unknown planet… energy signature… stable… faint… star dust… resonance…】

Star dust? Resonance? Brother Lin Mo's Star Dust power?! Lingna's spirit surged! The endpoint of this coordinate emitted an energy signature identical to Lin Mo's Star Dust core? Could that be where Lin Mo's trail led? Or… his actual body?

Hope acted like an adrenaline shot! Lingna bit her tongue—the sharp pain cleared her mind! She abandoned sorting all the data, instead directing every ounce of her will like a drill, stabbing fiercely into the coordinate set radiating faint Star Dust resonance! Guiding the wild chaotic energy within her crystal arm, mixed with the emerald speck's orderly force, she violently "imprinted" it toward the core of the thorned metal wreckage!

"Lock it… NOW!!!"

Whrrrr—!!!

Lingna's crystal arm exploded with sunlight-bright radiance! The entire thorned metal wreckage shuddered violently! The charred rhombic interface at its core blazed to life! A concentrated emerald beam, woven from countless tiny thorn runes and mingled with Lingna's chaotic star-cloud glow, shot skyward and slammed into the "starfield" above—the dome of azure crystal clusters!

The dome's crystal clusters, struck by the beam, ignited like lighthouses, bursting into brilliant blue radiance! The light flowed and converged across the dome, finally projecting at its center a rotating, elliptical portal composed of pure starlight—just wide enough for one person to pass through. Within the portal, bizarre, shifting scenes flickered: a ruin shrouded in Star Dust glow.

"Space gate… stable! Target… locked! Duration… unknown!" Zero's voice trembled with excitement.

Success! Lingna collapsed, exhausted; the crystal on her arm dimmed, the heat faded, but the runes seemed deeper now. She stared at the rotating star gate, hope swelling in her heart. Brother Lin Mo… might be behind that door!

"Sister Ai Li! The gate's open! Go!" Lingna struggled to her feet.

Ai Li saw the hope too. She took a shadow blade to the shoulder—deep enough to expose bone—used the pain to burst forward, repelling the starlight monsters, snatched up Priestess Liyana from the ground, and charged for the star gate!

"Go!" Ai Li reached Lingna's side, gesturing for her to enter first.

Lingna did not hesitate—she stepped into the rotating star gate. The familiar spatial distortion washed over her.

Ai Li followed close behind, carrying Priestess Liyana into the portal!

Zero's control console entered last; just before the gate vanished, she seemed to catch a fleeting, massive silhouette of pure starlight deep within the churning starlight liquid—a wave of ancient, weary intent: 【…guard… the seed…】

The star gate flickered several times after the three and the AI entered, then shrank rapidly and vanished. The dome's crystal clusters dimmed; the platform fell silent again, the starlight liquid only gently rippling, as if nothing had ever happened.

A few seconds later.

Whrrr!

A far more terrifying, colder annihilation will—like a world-ending storm—violently tore through the crumbling energy barrier above the stone chamber and descended upon this wreckage space! The Doctor's true will had finally arrived!

But here, only cold wreckage, rippling star-liquid… and silence remained.

【Escaped?】 The cold will swept across the entire space, tinged with fury at being deceived. Finally, it fixed on the center of the platform—the faint, still-flickering energy trace left by Lingna's crystal palm on the thorned metal wreckage: a trace of faint chaotic energy… and a set of forcibly imprinted spatial coordinates, pointing clearly to the distant Star Dust Sea!

【Star Dust Sea… Wandering Star Region…】 The Doctor's will captured the coordinates; his cold intent carried a mocking, all-controlling amusement, 【So… they fled there. Perfect… I shall recover the key… and the final vessel… together.】

The terrifying will receded like a tide, leaving only silent ruins.

Far away, in the unknown Star Dust Sea's Wandering Star Region, within a ruin shrouded in Star Dust glow, a faint spatial ripple spread—three ragged figures and a hovering control console stumbled onto the cold metal ground.

Lingna struggled to lift her head. Before her eyes: the familiar, battle-scarred, broken dome; massive server arrays toppled and askew; the air thick with the stench of burnt wiring and ozone.

Prism Nexus! They had returned here!

"Zero… sister?" Lingna whispered weakly.

Zero's control console floated up, scanning the surroundings; its electronic voice carried a tremor of survival: "Location confirmed… Prism Nexus… outer edge of core zone…"

Ai Li gently laid Priestess Liyana down, leaning against a broken metal support to catch her breath, tending to her several gruesome wounds—especially the shadow erosion on her ribs and shoulder, leaving her pale.

Lingna stared at her right arm's crystal. The crystal now covered her shoulder; the inscribed runes appeared more complex and profound, the chaotic light within clearly threaded with emerald veins. Even more heart-pounding: in her mind, the set of Star Dust coordinates imprinted from the ancient engine wreckage now pulsed with a faint, persistent resonance—the source of the resonance seemed to lie… deep within the Prism Nexus?

Is Brother Lin Mo truly here? Or… only his residual power?

At that moment, Zero's alarm sounded again, more urgent than ever:

"Detecting… hyperspace fluctuation… origin… coordinates: outer edge of Star Dust Sea Third Arm… signature… matches… Doctor's fleet!"

"Estimated arrival… in this star system… in less than 72 standard hours!"

Lingna and Ai Li's faces turned instantly ashen. The Doctor… had followed them so fast?! They had escaped one ruin only to fall into a larger trap? Was the Prism Nexus a temporary refuge… or another meticulously laid trap?