Chapter 197: Spark Forges the Sword, Thorn Rampart

The countdown of the Doctor's flagship's approach was like a death knell, tolling in the dead-silent ruins. 15 standard hours! The cold, desperate atmosphere nearly froze the air. Inside the sealed chamber behind the blast door, the harmonious cycle formed by the stardust crystal and the mysterious seedling radiated warm milky-white and emerald-green brilliance—the sole beacon of hope in this land of despair.

Xiang Lingna stood before the opened blast door, her gaze darting rapidly between the faint core on Lin Mo's chest, Priestess Liyana's sleeping face, and the source of hope within the sealed chamber. Zero's alarm rang cold and piercing: "Spatial lockdown… complete… physical breakout… success rate… below 0.01%… only option… activate… stardust crystal… attempt… strengthen Lord Lin Mo… or… create… energy barrier… buy time…"

Strengthen Lin Mo? Or create a barrier? Xiang Lingna's heart pounded wildly. Brother Lin Mo's core was so faint that forcibly infusing massive energy would be no different from detonating a bomb! Create a barrier? And how long could it hold against the Doctor's true form?

"Wrench…" Xiang Lingna's gaze fell on the battered yet still-standing robot beside her, "can you… connect to the hub's… remaining defense systems? Anything… that still works!"

Wrench's sole remaining electronic eye flickered, and his mechanical arm pointed toward the wreckage of a destroyed console in a corner of the hall. "…partial… circuits… usable… energy… insufficient…"

Insufficient energy! Energy was still the key!

Xiang Lingna suddenly looked toward the stardust crystal in the sealed chamber. That vast, pure power… if… if only it could be safely channeled out…

The crystal on her right arm hummed uncontrollably, the chaotic power within stirring restlessly under the temptation of the pure stardust, the inscribed runes glowing faintly. But Xiang Lingna forcibly suppressed the urge to devour—the lesson from the Elven Origin Crystal last time had been far too painful. She needed a medium, a "vessel" that could safely bear and channel the power of stardust!

Her gaze swept the sealed chamber, finally settling on the tender green seedling that shared a symbiotic bond with the stardust crystal. The Thorn Crescent patterns… the mark of the Elven Wang Ting… Sister Liyana's legacy…

A wild thought flashed through her mind like lightning!

"Zero! Analyze the seedling! Its roots… can they… serve as… natural conduits for energy transmission? Connecting… the stardust crystal… to… the hub's… defense nodes?" Xiang Lingna's voice carried the desperate urgency of someone staking everything on a single throw.

Zero's console immediately focused its scanning beam on the seedling. "Seedling… structure… contains… highly ordered… natural energy… roots… possess… superconducting properties… compatibility… with… stardust energy… extremely high! Theoretically… feasible! But… risk… seedling may… be unable to withstand… overload…"

Feasible! Even if there was only a sliver of hope!

Xiang Lingna no longer hesitated. "Wrench! Lead the way! To the defense nodes that still work! Zero! Calculate the optimal… energy transmission route! Prepare… to receive!"

Wrench emitted a confirming electronic tone, his sole remaining track grinding with difficulty as he moved toward the wreckage of a destroyed console in a corner of the hall. Zero's data streams cascaded down like a waterfall, calculating the optimal route for energy transmission.

Xiang Lingna drew a deep breath and stepped into the sealed chamber. The warm, pure energy enveloped her, slightly easing the fatigue and pain in her body. Moving with great care, she avoided the seedling's fragile stems and leaves, and gently placed her crystallized right arm over the patch of vibrant emerald soil beneath the stardust crystal—the area where the seedling's roots were densest.

"Guide me… protect everyone…" Xiang Lingna whispered in her heart, no longer attempting to devour, but focusing her entire will on "channeling" and "resonance." The emerald veins in her right arm's crystal lit up with a faint glow, echoing the Thorn Crescent patterns on the seedling's leaves from afar. At the same time, she strained to recall the feeling when Liyana had channeled the power of the formation array in the Elven Wang Ting's stone hall—order, inclusiveness, endless vitality.

Hmm—!

The instant Xiang Lingna's will, the orderly veins within her crystal, and the ancient natural will contained within the seedling itself resonated together, a sudden change occurred!

The light of the stardust crystal suddenly became gentle and compliant! No longer dissipating, it was as if it had found an outlet, transforming into a condensed stream of milky-white light that flowed down along the seedling's emerald roots, gentle yet swift and fierce! The seedling's leaves swayed gently in the torrent of energy, far from being destroyed, instead radiating even greater vitality, the patterns on the leaves seeming to come alive, flickering with emerald brilliance!

The vast stardust energy, perfectly transformed through the seedling's roots and initially organized by the orderly veins in Xiang Lingna's right arm's crystal, became a relatively gentle yet immensely vast torrent of energy that flowed through Xiang Lingna's body toward her left arm! Xiang Lingna's left arm was instantly wrapped in milky-white light, and she felt as if her arm had become a pure energy conduit!

"Now! Xiang Lingna! Target… defense nodes!" Zero's electronic voice rang out!

Wrench had already used his battered mechanical arm to tear open the outer shell of the console wreckage with great difficulty, exposing several thick energy conduit interfaces inside that were broken but still barely connected. "…Here…!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Xiang Lingna thrust her left arm, wrapped in stardust light, viciously into the interface Wrench had indicated!

Boom—!!!

Like a river of stars bursting its banks! The vast stardust energy, passing through Xiang Lingna's body, transformed and organized by the seedling, then surged through the broken circuits into the long-paralyzed defense network of the Prism Hub!

Hmm! Hmm! Hmm!

The entire ruin seemed to come alive! The remaining energy nodes lit up one after another! Broken energy conduits erupted with blinding arcs of electricity! Several surviving emergency lights on the hall's dome burst forth with dazzling white light! Even more shocking was that at the edge of the ruins outside the hub's core area, several half-buried, long-twisted and deformed automatic turret wrecks, under the infusion of energy, emitted the groan of meshing gears, their barrels struggling to rise, their muzzles lighting up with the eerie blue glow of charging!

An energy barrier composed of wreckage, teetering on the verge of collapse, radiating stardust brilliance—like a giant cocoon of light riddled with holes—centered on the core hall, barely covering an area of several hundred meters around it! The barrier's light was unstable, flickering constantly, and in many places so thin it was nearly transparent, but it truly existed!

"Barrier… generated! Strength… Grade C… unstable… estimated… duration… less than… Doctor's arrival time…" Zero analyzed rapidly, a hint of helplessness in the data stream. This barrier could only delay, not stop.

Xiang Lingna's body swayed, the light on her left arm slowly fading. Channeling such vast energy, even with the seedling as a buffer, still left her mentally exhausted, with blackness swimming before her eyes. But as she looked at the faint yet existent stardust light screen outside the dome, and at the faint indicator light on Wrench's mechanical arm that signified the defense system was activated, a tragic warmth welled up in her heart. At least, they had bought a little time!

"Xiang Lingna!" Sister Ai Li's figure appeared like a ghost at the hall's entrance. She had several new wounds on her body, her face was pale, but her eyes remained sharp. "Lower hangar… escape ships… all destroyed! Only… discovered…" she pointed deep into the ruins, "one… severely damaged… but… engine core… appears… intact… small… stardust-powered… experimental platform! Codename… 'Spark'!"

Spark? Stardust-powered? Xiang Lingna and Zero's eyes lit up instantly! Could it be…

Sister Ai Li quickly added: "Platform… buried under… massive wreckage… cannot enter from outside… internal situation… unknown… energy… depleted…"

Hope! Another faint hope! But buried, energy depleted…

Xiang Lingna's gaze once again turned to the stardust crystal in the sealed chamber, which still radiated a gentle light. The crystal's light seemed to have dimmed slightly. The seedling also looked somewhat weary, its leaves drooping slightly.

"Energy…" Xiang Lingna's voice was hoarse. The barrier needed energy to maintain, and activating that "Spark" platform needed even more energy! How much longer could the stardust crystal last? Could the seedling withstand a second energy extraction?

Just as everyone was pondering how to allocate this precious energy—

Rumble—!!!

The entire Prism Hub fragment violently shook! As if struck hard by an invisible giant hammer! The stardust barrier that had just risen on the outer perimeter emitted a piercing groan, its light flickering violently, instantly becoming thin!

Zero's alarm rang shrilly: "Warning! Suffering… beyond-visual-range… energy bombardment! Barrier strength… plummeting to Grade D! Attack source… Doctor's flagship!"

"Detected… multiple… landing craft… separating from flagship… breaking through… atmosphere! Target… this area!"

"Estimated… ground contact… time… less than 10 standard hours!"

The Doctor's strike was faster and fiercer than expected! The final countdown had begun!