Chapter 201: Stardust Sea Embers, Ark Wreckage

There was no sound, no light, not even the sensation of weightlessness. Only a terrifying tearing feeling, as if gripped by an invisible giant hand and then hurled out with brutal force. Xiang Lingna's consciousness, caught in the violent spatial turbulence, was like a lone boat in a raging sea—torn, compressed, spun around—sustained only by a single stubborn obsession with protecting her companions.

Time lost all meaning. It felt as if eons had passed, yet also as if only an instant.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

A heavy impact and a biting cold jolted Xiang Lingna awake from the chaos. She felt as if her body had been taken apart and reassembled; every bone was groaning, and a heart-piercing agony shot from the crystal in her right arm—the cracks seemed to have deepened. She struggled to pry open her heavy eyelids.

Before her eyes was no longer the cold metallic ruins of the Prism Hub, but a… strange heaven and earth, shrouded in the faint glow of stardust.

The sky was a deep ink-blue, with no sun, moon, or stars—only countless fine particles of dust drifting through it, emitting a soft milky-white radiance, like a frozen river of stars, the signature sight of the Stardust Sea. The faint light illuminated the earth below—a barren plain strewn with massive metallic wreckage and crystallized rock. The cold wind howled, sweeping up icy sand and grit laced with radioactive dust.

She was lying on a relatively flat stretch of ground covered in black sand and gravel. Not far away, Sister Ai Li was kneeling on one knee, coughing violently; the fresh blood she coughed up stood out starkly against the black sand, and the shadow-erosion wounds on her ribs and shoulder looked even more grotesque under the faint stardust glow. Priestess Liyana lay quietly beside Sister Ai Li, still unconscious, but her complexion was no longer ashen, and the crystals on her forehead and chest had fallen silent, as if the spatial storm just now had also severed the Doctor's remote suppression.

Lin Mo stood not far away, his back to them, gazing up at this unfamiliar starry sky. The intense radiance that had erupted from him due to the stardust crystallization had now been drawn inward, but his tall, upright figure still radiated a powerful stardust pressure, like a stabilizing needle pinning down a raging sea. Zero's console floated at his side, its pale-blue scanning beam sweeping continuously over the surroundings, emitting a faint hum.

"Where… are we?" Xiang Lingna struggled to sit up, her voice hoarse and dry.

"Stardust Sea… Wandering Starfield… X-7 Resource Star…" Lin Mo turned around. His complexion was still somewhat pale, but his gaze was deep and sharp, as if it held a sea of stars within. "The spatial jump… succeeded… but also… came apart." He pointed at the scattered metal fragments around them—pieces from the Prism Hub's core hall. The largest one lay a few dozen meters away, still bearing the traces of the chamber's gate.

"The cost…" Zero's electronic voice rang out, carrying a faint tremor of having narrowly escaped death. "Spatial collapse… consumed… 97% of energy… Hub fragments… completely annihilated… coordinates… Stardust Sea X-7… confirmed… but… planetary environment… scan results… harsh… atmosphere… low oxygen content… radiation… moderate… unknown… life signals… weak… detected."

A harsh environment, unknown life signals… Xiang Lingna's heart rose into her throat. Although they had escaped the Doctor's clutches, crashing in this unfamiliar starfield meant their future was uncertain.

"Brother Lin Mo… your power…" Xiang Lingna looked at Lin Mo, then down at the crystal on her own right arm, covered in cracks.

"Temporarily stabilized." Lin Mo walked to Xiang Lingna's side, crouched down, and his warm palm gently brushed over the cracks on her crystal right arm. A stream of pure, gentle stardust power flowed in; a cool, soothing sensation spread through the cracked area, and the sharp pain eased slightly. "The power of stardust crystallization is immense, but it also needs time to digest. You… did very well, Lingna." His eyes were filled with approval and… a barely perceptible trace of heartache.

Xiang Lingna's nose stung, and tears nearly fell. She looked at Sister Ai Li: "Sister Ai Li… your wounds…"

"Won't die from them." Sister Ai Li gritted her teeth, tightly binding the wound on her ribs with a strip of torn cloth, trying to stop the oozing black blood, but the shadow erosion, like a living thing, was still slowly spreading. She looked up at Lin Mo, her cold eyes questioning: "Next step?"

Lin Mo stood up, his gaze directed toward the depths of the wasteland. "The weak life signals Zero detected… and also…" He raised his hand, pointing toward the distant horizon, "there… intense… energy residue… and… massive… metallic structures… characteristics… highly similar to… ancient elven Ark engines!"

Everyone followed his gaze. On the horizon, illuminated by the faint stardust glow, the faint outline of something immensely vast, like a continuous mountain range, was barely visible! That was absolutely no naturally formed mountain range—it was the wreckage of some enormous creation! Its style was identical to the thorn-metal engine wreckage found deep within the elven Wang Ting ruins!

"Could it be… a complete… Ark wreckage?" Zero's electronic voice carried a faint tremor.

Hope! New hope! If intact ancient elven technology could be found there, perhaps they could find a way to treat Priestess Liyana, purge Sister Ai Li's shadow erosion, and even repair Xiang Lingna's right arm! There might also be clues to leaving this place!

Just then, Zero's console suddenly emitted an urgent alarm: "Warning! Detected… high-energy… spatial fluctuation… source… near-planetary orbit! Signature code… matches… Doctor's fleet… advance reconnaissance craft!"

The color drained instantly from Xiang Lingna's and Sister Ai Li's faces! Already?! The Doctor's pursuers had actually arrived too?!

Lin Mo's gaze instantly sharpened, stardust power circulating within his body. "Prepare to fight… or… infiltrate!" He looked toward the dark silhouette of the massive Ark wreckage on the horizon. "Head there! That is our… only… chance!"

The group forced their weary, wounded bodies upright, supporting one another as they stood. Sister Ai Li shouldered Priestess Liyana, Lin Mo steadied the weakened Xiang Lingna, and the console floated on alert. Under the faint stardust glow, their figures cast long shadows across the desolate black plain—like four tiny ants—trudging laboriously toward the distant Ark wreckage, which loomed like a slumbering primordial beast.

On the horizon behind them, an ominous dark-purple light, like the eye of death, appeared in the stardust-shrouded heavens—and was… rapidly growing larger!

At this moment of tense despair, the emerald veins within Xiang Lingna's cracked right-arm crystal—originating from the elven sapling—suddenly flickered extremely faintly as she faced the direction of the Ark wreckage. At the same time, an extremely vague, seemingly ancient electronic synthesized voice, broken and intermittent, rang out deep within her consciousness:

【... Detected... key... signature code... and... damaged... Guardian... unit...】

【... Ark... wreckage... 'New Oasis'...】

【... Welcome... home...】