Chapter 204: Lava Hunters and Shadow Devourer

The cold sense of crisis coiled around every heart like vines in an instant. Ahead lay the Lava-Armored Beast radiating high heat and ferocious aura; behind, the silent, all-consuming eerie black mud! They were caught in the middle!

"Zero, analyze the priority levels and weaknesses of the two threats!" Lin Mo's voice was pressed very low, his body already entering combat state, Star Dust power quietly circulating within, a faint, almost imperceptible milky-white halo rising on his skin. He had to make the fastest judgment.

"Lava-Armored Beast: silicon-based organism, extremely high physical defense, presumed to specialize in close combat and high-temperature spit attacks. Energy core is the crystal cluster on its back, providing it with power and a defensive energy field. Weakness: possibly sensitive to extreme cold or energy neutralization effects. Threat level: high, but behavioral pattern is predictable, and it seems to be in a lethargic state." "Unknown black corrosive substance: energy signature partially matches the Abyss Corrosion and Devouring Realm Throat derivatives recorded in the database. Properties: devours energy, corrodes matter, highly proliferative. Weakness: unknown. Threat level: extremely high, recommend prioritizing evasion or elimination." Zero's scan and analysis were completed almost in an instant.

The priority order was obvious! That mud-like corrosive substance was stranger and more dangerous; it had to be dealt with first!

And at this moment, those few leading crystal-cluster creatures were showing even more panic than they were! Toward the direction of the Lava-Armored Beast they only emitted wary clicking sounds, but facing the black mud spreading from behind, their halos instantly turned a glaring pale white, emitting extremely shrill, terror-filled shrieks, desperately hiding behind Lin Mo and Xiang Lingna as if encountering a natural enemy, even recklessly trying to climb up their trouser legs!

Their fear confirmed Zero's judgment!

"Xiang Lingna, can you sense that thing's core? Or what it fears?" Lin Mo asked quickly, his gaze locked dead on the writhing, spreading black mud. Though its speed was not fast, everywhere it passed even light seemed to be absorbed by it, growing ever darker.

Xiang Lingna forcibly suppressed the instinctive revulsion and throbbing toward that black mud coming from her right arm, focusing her mind to sense. "It… has no fixed core… like a puddle of conscious sludge… it's absorbing all energy… including… including the faint residual electricity in the walls… it seems… really hates… hates the aura of life…" she described in broken phrases, cold sweat seeping from her temples. The emerald veins within the crystal on her right arm flared brightly, producing a strong rejection reaction toward that power filled with deathly, devouring meaning.

The aura of life? Lin Mo immediately looked at the warm Star Dust light in his own palm, then at the emerald glow on Xiang Lingna's right arm Originating from the World Tree sapling. His Star Dust power contained order and vitality!

"Try this!" Lin Mo did not hesitate, condensing a stream of pure Star Dust power at his fingertip into a marble-sized energy pellet radiating warm white light, flicked it with a finger, precisely shooting it toward the center of the spreading black mud!

Hiss——!!!

Like a red-hot branding iron plunged into ice water! The instant the Star Dust energy pellet sank into the black mud, that viscous black substance violently churned! Emitting a series of extremely faint but teeth-grinding hissing sounds! A small patch of the black mud actually rapidly dissolved and receded as if evaporated, exposing the pitted, corroded metal wall beneath! Effective!

But soon, more black mud surged up from the surroundings to fill the gap, only its spreading speed noticeably lagging for a moment, seeming full of wariness toward that Star Dust energy.

However, the energy fluctuation here also startled the three lethargic Lava-Armored Beasts in the pipe node room ahead!

Roar——!!!

A low, threatening growl sounded from within the room! Accompanied by heavy footsteps, a Lava-Armored Beast suddenly thrust its head covered in thick armor out from the breach! Its eyes, like balls of lava, instantly locked onto the uninvited guests in the corridor—especially the Star Dust radiance not yet fully faded on Lin Mo and the emerald glow on Xiang Lingna's right arm! In its simple cognition, this was undoubtedly a signal of provocation and territorial dispute!

Crap! Both sides startled at once!

"Xiang Lingna, use your power to drive back the black mud! Hold it off for as long as you can!" Lin Mo shouted urgently, simultaneously turning to face the charging Lava-Armored Beast. "Zero, disrupt it! Attack the crystal cluster on its back!"

"Understood!" Xiang Lingna clenched her teeth, suppressing her fear. She concentrated her will, striving to mobilize the emerald life energy Originating from the World Tree within the crystal on her right arm. Although the Chaos power was dominant, this wisp of Order power now became her reliance. Emerald light shone through the cracks, forming a thin, constantly swaying green light screen before her, like a wall of newborn vines, spanning the middle of the corridor, blocking the spreading black mud.

Hiss hiss hiss… The black mud contacted the life light screen, again emitting burning-like sounds, its advance temporarily blocked, but they kept surging, the light screen visibly dimming, Xiang Lingna's face growing paler, the strain extremely difficult.

On the other side, that Lava-Armored Beast had already charged over roaring! Its massive body nearly filled the narrow maintenance corridor, its thick limbs pounding the ground with dull thunderous booms, its gaping maw spewing scorching air currents and scattered sparks!

Zero's console instantly calculated the optimal interception plan! Several deep-blue, highly condensed energy beams shot out like surgical scalpels, not attacking the hard armor, but precisely bombarding those swaying orange-red crystal clusters on the Lava-Armored Beast's back!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The energy beams struck the crystal clusters, bursting into small balls of dazzling sparks! The Lava-Armored Beast's charge abruptly stalled, emitting a roar of pain and fury, the crystal clusters on its back visibly dimming, the invisible energy field on its surface also fluctuating! Zero's attack successfully disrupted its energy system and drew its aggro!

"Good chance!" A sharp glint flashed in Lin Mo's eyes! The instant the Lava-Armored Beast's movements lagged from the energy disruption, he moved! His body slid sideways like a ghost, narrowly dodging the charge capable of shattering steel, while his right hand formed a knife-hand, the warm Star Dust light highly condensed into a blazing light blade, not slashing at the thick armor, but lightning-quick stabbing toward the Lava-Armored Beast's relatively vulnerable eye!

Puchi!

The light blade precisely sank into that lava-like eyeball! Scalding, corrosive blood sprayed out!

Roar-woo——!!! The Lava-Armored Beast let out an earth-shattering wail, its massive body writhing madly from the intense pain, slamming hard into the metal wall beside it with a deafening crash, the entire corridor seeming to tremble!

The other two Lava-Armored Beasts were also startled by their companion's wail, charging out from the node room, sealing off the other end of the corridor! The situation instantly became critical to the extreme!

And on Xiang Lingna's side, the emerald light screen was already thin as a cicada's wing, the black mud surging forward again, less than two meters from her! That cold, hungry aura nearly washed over her!

At this critical moment—

Woo——Buzz——!!!

A low yet incomparably vast humming sound suddenly came from deep within the corridor, from deep within the metal structure of the entire Ark remains! As if some beast that had slept for eons had been thoroughly awakened by their battle, beginning to stretch its massive body!

This humming carried an indescribable, ancient and majestic will!

In an instant, whether the madly writhing Lava-Armored Beast, or the other two charging out from the room, or even the constantly spreading eerie black mud—all their movements abruptly stalled!

In the brutal lava eyes of the Lava-Armored Beasts, clear, instinctive fear actually appeared! They emitted a low, whimper-like hiss, no longer attacking Lin Mo, but panickedly turning tail, fleeing on all fours toward the depths of the node room, not even caring about the energy crystals at the broken pipe opening!

And the spreading black mud, as if encountering its bane, violently churned and contracted, rapidly retreating backward like a tide, shrinking back into the darkness of its origin, vanishing without a trace!

Almost simultaneously, the emerald veins within the crystal on Xiang Lingna's right arm, and the Star Dust power within Lin Mo, both resonated strongly with this sudden vast humming! A warmth, a familiarity, a sense of security like returning to the mother, welled up spontaneously.

Was it the "Gardener"? Or had some deeper mechanism of this Ark remains itself been activated?

The humming lasted over a dozen seconds before slowly subsiding. The corridor was left only with Lin Mo's Heavy Breathing, Xiang Lingna's coughing after exhaustion, and those few crystal-cluster creatures' faint, reverent clicking sounds after surviving a disaster.

The crisis… had actually been resolved in such an unexpected way?

Lin Mo and Xiang Lingna exchanged a glance, both seeing the doubt and shock in each other's eyes.

"Just… just now that was…" Xiang Lingna slumped to the ground, staring at the instantly emptied corridor, unable to believe it.

"Don't know…" Lin Mo shook his head, warily observing the surroundings, but that ancient humming had indeed vanished, as if it had never appeared. Only the impact dents left on the walls and the scorching bloodstains on the ground proved the reality of the battle just now.

Zero's console flickered: "Detected super-large-scale energy fluctuation sweeping past, attribute analysis… extremely high match with Ark core power source residual fluctuation. Fluctuation contains strong expulsion and purification intent. Hypothesis: some basic defense mechanism or residual consciousness of the Ark was activated by high-energy combat, performing indiscriminate suppression and expulsion of 'anomalies' and 'invasion' energy within range."

Indiscriminate? But what they felt was peace and resonance? Was it because their energy attributes had been recognized by the Ark?

Temporarily safe. Lin Mo cast his gaze into the node room, where at the broken pipe opening, several orange-red energy crystals quietly radiated an enticing glow.

He stepped forward, carefully wrapping his palm with Star Dust power, and took down those few still-warm crystals. Inside the crystals, lava seemed to flow, containing pure and stable thermal energy.

"These should sustain the 'Gardener' for a while." Lin Mo pocketed the crystals, his heart settling slightly.

However, when he looked back toward the deep darkness in the direction the black mud had retreated, his brow remained tightly furrowed. The erosion of the Devouring Realm Throat… had already seeped so deep into the Ark? The humming just now could temporarily drive it away, but could it cure it?

This Ark remains was both a sanctuary and seemed itself a massive trouble full of unknown dangers.