Chapter 200: Thorns Bloom, Star Dust Path

“The Devouring Maw’s… juvenile avatar?!” Zero’s electronic voice surged with an unprecedented data storm, instantly parsing Lin Mo’s transmitted information: “Spatial rift… repair key… nutrient… database… top secret… matches! Alert! Alert! Annihilation-level threat!”

Xiang Lingna and Ali’s pupils shrank sharply! The doctor’s cataclysmic strike targeted the Star Dust Crystals and the sapling inside the sealed chamber! They were the key to repairing the rift—and the nutrient for that terrifying calamity! If seized or destroyed, not only would they die without doubt, but the entire dimension might accelerate toward annihilation!

Despair hardened into colder ice—but also ignited the final spark of desperate resistance! Even if they died, they would not let the doctor succeed!

The dark purple energy hand, spanning the ceiling, exuding the breath of universal annihilation, slowly descended! Space shattered like fragile glass, shard by shard! The metal structure of the core hall groaned in piercing distortion, collapsing en masse! The sealed chamber’s gate tore open like paper before absolute force!

Annihilation came in the next second!

“Lingna! The crystal! The sapling!” Ali shrieked, unleashing her last reserves of power and flinging herself recklessly toward the center of the chamber! She would intercept the hand—even with her own body!

Lingna moved too! Her right arm’s crystal was riddled with cracks, its power exhausted—but her will burned to its peak! She did not rush toward the crystal; she lunged for the emerald sapling! Lin Mo’s Star Dust core had emitted its final message, its light rapidly dimming, nearly extinguished. The sapling was the key to stabilizing Liyana’s order, the hope of repairing space! She would protect it!

But how could human speed outpace the hand that covered the heavens?

The dark purple shadow instantly swallowed the entire chamber! Lingna and Ali vanished beneath it! Zero’s console flickered wildly in the chaotic energy storm, on the verge of overload and collapse!

At this critical, all-but-inevitable moment—

Hum—!!!

An indescribable, vast, ancient, infinitely compassionate and protective emerald radiance erupted from the sapling’s roots where Lingna had thrown herself!

It was the sapling! It was the emerald soil!

Beneath the shadow of annihilation, the sapling’s leaves did not wither—they became translucent as jade! The thorned crescent patterns on the leaves blazed with unprecedented brilliance! In an instant, the sapling surged upward, unfurled, transforming into a colossal, towering, ethereal shadow of a thorned ancient tree, composed entirely of pure emerald light!

The tree’s roots plunged deep into the soil—no, into the spatial foundation of this fragment of the Prism Nexus! Countless emerald light-roots spread like a network across every corner of the fragment space! Its canopy slammed like an unbreakable wall against the descending dark purple hand!

Boom—!!!!!

An indescribable roar—not an energy explosion, but a collision of spatial laws! Annihilation versus creation! Destruction versus protection!

The emerald tree-shadow trembled violently, its light rapidly dimming, countless light-branches and leaves shattering and dissolving in the impact! Yet—it had… actually held back the world-ending hand! The dark purple hand was forcibly blocked beyond the canopy, unable to advance an inch!

“Wang Ting… the final… World Tree… imprint…” Zero, amid the energy chaos, caught the information: “Using… the sapling as catalyst… the fragment’s spatial origin as root… forcibly manifested…”

The cost was immense! The sapling’s own light plunged drastically; its leaves began curling! It was burning its remaining roots and the last vitality of this space fragment to buy them precious time!

“Lingna! The crystal!” Ali screamed through the violent tremors! The hand was blocked—this was their final chance!

Lingna instantly understood! She no longer tried to protect the sapling itself (that was meaningless now)—she spun and lunged for the floating Star Dust Crystal! Her target was Lin Mo!

She seized the crystal radiating warm light—it was not cold, but a vast, warm pulse of life! With all her strength, she rushed to the corner where Lin Mo lay barely breathing, and slammed the Star Dust Crystal against the fading core on his chest!

“Brother Lin Mo! Wake up!!!”

Hum—!!!

The instant the high-purity Star Dust Crystal touched Lin Mo’s faint core, it ignited like a spark in dry tinder! The crystal dissolved instantly, becoming a torrent of milky-white, warm, boundless energy that surged wildly into Lin Mo’s body!

Lin Mo’s body jolted violently! A thick, solid-like radiance of milky-white Star Dust erupted from within him, instantly dispelling the surrounding darkness and annihilation aura! His closed eyes snapped open—his pupils no longer weak, but blazing with the deep, fierce light of a star-sea! A powerful, primordial-order pressure rose from him!

Lin Mo… awakened! Under the infusion of the Star Dust Crystal, his power surged instantly beyond his former peak!

He saw the dire situation at once—the burning sapling-shadow was crumbling under the annihilation hand! The doctor’s (the Devouring Maw’s avatar) cold will radiated shock and greed! Ali was mortally wounded! Lingna’s right arm was shattered! Liyana lay unconscious! Zero’s console glowed dimly!

No time to hesitate! Lin Mo’s gaze locked onto the burning sapling-shadow and the spatial origin beneath it. A clear, complete spatial coordinate—exactly the one Lingna had previously imprinted from the ancient engine—became unmistakably sharp in his revived Star Dust consciousness!

“Zero!” Lin Mo’s voice rang with unshakable authority, like rolling thunder, “Access the space fragment’s core! Channel all remaining energy! Lock the coordinate—Star Dust Sea, Drifting Starfield, X-7 Resource Planet! Prepare… forced spatial jump!”

Forced spatial jump? In this sealed space, on the verge of collapse?!

“Energy… insufficient! Spatial structure… extremely unstable! Jump… equivalent to… suicidal… spatial collapse!” Zero’s electronic voice delivered its cold, calculated conclusion.

“Then… let it collapse!” Lin Mo’s gaze sharpened like starlight. He looked at Lingna, at Ali, at Liyana, then at the thorned ancient tree-shadow that had protected them, now burning to its end. “Turn the collapse’s… energy… into the… initial thrust… of the jump! The target… is not escape… but… to fall… toward the coordinate!”

To be cast into death to be reborn! Use the destructive energy of spatial collapse as the jump engine’s “fuel,” forcibly breaking the seal with a doomed “death jump”—destination: the unknown Star Dust Sea coordinate!

Zero’s core data stream instantly grasped the plan’s feasibility—or rather, its sole possibility. No hesitation. “Command… confirmed! Accessing… space fragment core… energy channeling… initiating… coordinate… locked—Star Dust Sea X-7!”

Hum—!!!

All remaining energy of the Prism Nexus fragment—external turrets still firing sporadically, residual lighting in the core hall, even Zero’s console’s final stored power—was forcibly siphoned! Converted into blinding energy streams, they surged wildly into the roots of the burning thorned ancient tree-shadow—where it connected to the fragment’s core!

The thorned ancient tree-shadow’s light exploded! It was no longer merely defensive—it became the focal point of the entire fragment’s energy!

“No—!” Beyond the ceiling, the doctor’s (the Devouring Maw’s avatar) cold will erupted in clear shock and fury! He sensed the violent shift in spatial laws, sensed the nutrient about to slip from his grasp!

The dark purple hand unleashed even more terrifying power, slamming down! The thorned ancient tree-shadow let out its final cry; its emerald radiance shattered like broken glass, scattering in all directions! The sapling’s physical form withered completely, turning to ash!

But, at the very instant the tree-shadow shattered—

Boom—roar—roar—roar—!!!!!

Centered on the roots of the thorned ancient tree-shadow, the entire Prism Nexus fragment collapsed like a shattered mirror! Terrifying spatial currents surged forth like a dam bursting!

Under Zero’s precise guidance and Lin Mo’s Star Dust force, this destructive collapse energy did not spiral fully out of control—it became a violent, twisted, space-fragment-laden thrust, slamming against the relatively stable region of the core hall!

Hum—!!!

A violently twisted spatial vortex instantly swallowed everyone inside the core hall—Lin Mo, Lingna, Ali, Liyana—and Zero’s console!

In the final instant before the space was completely annihilated and the doctor’s hand seized them, this fragment of space—bearing countless battles and sacrifices—along with its last flicker of light, vanished utterly into the raging spatial chaos, leaving only a wildly spinning, all-consuming vortex of collapse!

The doctor’s (the Devouring Maw’s avatar) massive shadow hovered at the edge of the raging spatial currents, cold purple points fixed on the collapsing vortex, brimming with rage at being tricked by ants—and a sliver… of greed for that unknown coordinate.

【Star Dust Sea… X-7… find them! The Devouring Maw… needs… nutrient!】