Chapter 211: The Awakening Glimmer and the Whisper of Corruption

Priestess Liyana's faint moan, nearly drowned out by the tense atmosphere within the cavern, exploded like a thunderclap beside the ears of Lin Mo, Sister Ai Li, and Xiang Lingna. The three of them turned almost simultaneously, their gazes snapping to focus on the warm crimson crystal beside her.

Priestess Liyana was still lying there, eyes tightly shut, but her brows were knitted together as though she were trapped in an unbearably painful nightmare. Her long silver lashes trembled violently, fine beads of cold sweat seeped from her forehead, and her lips, pale as paper, had been bitten until the last trace of color was gone. Most chilling of all, the dark purple crystal on her brow—silent for so long—was flickering with extreme instability! The light was no longer the blinding, sinister flare of its earlier eruption; it had grown faint and chaotic, like a candle guttering in the wind, sometimes flashing a thread of eerie purple radiance, sometimes being pressed down by some invisible force and going dim.

The emerald World Tree seed beside her seemed to be under a powerful pull; the life-glow it emitted was no longer steady, but pulsed on and off like breathing, forming an unsettling tug-of-war with the flickering of the dark purple crystal.

"Sister Liyana!" Xiang Lingna cried out and tried to rush forward, but Lin Mo seized her and held her back.

"Don't get close!" Lin Mo's face was Heavy and Solemn beyond measure. His perception was far keener than Xiang Lingna's; he could clearly sense that, centered on Priestess Liyana, two forces of utterly opposite nature yet equally tremendous power were locked in a terrifyingly dangerous clash within her body! One was icy, deathly still, brimming with a hunger to devour; the other, though faint, carried the thorn-like tenacity and indomitable will of life! It was the remnant power of her own Moon Priestess bloodline and the vitality brought by the World Tree seed, fighting against the erosion of the Annihilation Spores!

To approach rashly at this moment was to risk being swept into that out-of-control energy vortex, or interfering with her own struggle.

"Ugh… ah…" Priestess Liyana let out another pained moan, her body beginning to twitch faintly, her hands clenching unconsciously at the dust beneath her, her knuckles white from the force. A thread of dark purple, living-seeming markings crept out from beneath the brow crystal, slithering like a venomous snake across her temple, yet as though blocked by some force, advancing extremely slowly.

At the same time, outside the cavern, the multiple spatial disturbance points Zero had warned of grew ever more violent!

Sssliiit—!

In a region on the cavern's left side where clusters of ghostly-blue crystals grew, the shadows tore open like a curtain. Two pitch-black Shadow Stalkers slid out in utter silence, their crimson electronic eyes instantly locking onto Priestess Liyana, where the energy fluctuation was most abnormal! Without a moment's hesitation, their forms blurred, becoming two streaks of black smoke racing along the ground, charging straight toward her!

Almost at the same moment, similar sounds of energy tearing came from the right and from behind! At least three more Shadow Stalkers had broken through the cavern's energy shielding, launching attacks from different directions! Their tactics were crystal clear—using their numbers to pin down Lin Mo and the others simultaneously, their target aimed squarely at Priestess Liyana, who was locked in her struggle against the erosion within her body and utterly defenseless!

"Intercept them!" Lin Mo snarled, and his Star Dust power erupted with a roar, no longer held in reserve! He cupped his hands in the air, condensing two blazing light-swords; the moment his body moved, he took the initiative to meet the two fastest Shadow Stalkers on the left! As the light-swords swept through the air, they trailed pure-white arcs, making the cavern flicker between bright and dark. The natural suppression of Star Dust power over corrupted energy forced those two Stalkers to let out wary hisses; they had no choice but to slow down, swinging their energy claws to parry and block, tangling into a melee!

Sister Ai Li, like a she-cat defending her territory, held her ground directly in front of Priestess Liyana, facing the enemies attacking from the right. She pushed her speed to the absolute limit, her alloy short blades becoming precise, lethal silver lines; every block and slash intercepted the Shadow Stalkers' attacks along their exact trajectories, sparks flying, the hiss of clashing energy unending! But she was, after all, already wounded; facing the frenzied assault of two Shadow Stalkers working in perfect concert, she could only barely hold on for the moment, retreating step by step, drawing ever closer to Priestess Liyana!

Xiang Lingna was frantic with worry. Her power was effective against the Shadow Stalkers, but the enemy was too fast for her to lock onto a target. She tried to channel emerald radiance for an area suppression, but the effect was minimal; instead, because her attention was divided, a Shadow Stalker that had quietly circled around from behind seized on her opening!

A pitch-black energy spike stabbed soundlessly toward the back of Xiang Lingna's heart!

At that hairsbreadth instant—

Hmm…!

The eroded milky-white crystal tree suddenly, without any warning, trembled faintly! The black corruption coiled around its roots seemed to be stimulated by something, churning violently! An even thicker, icier aura of deathly stillness spread out!

This aura seemed to greatly stimulate Priestess Liyana, who was locked in her struggle against the erosion within her!

She snapped her eyes open!

What eyes they were! Her originally clear emerald pupils had now turned an eerie pale violet! Her gaze was hollow, bewildered, yet deep within lurked endless agony and a trace of… icy strangeness! As though another consciousness were awakening within her body!

"Sis…ter Liyana?" Xiang Lingna's heart went cold at that look, and her movements slowed by half a beat.

Pssht! Though the energy spike of that ambush had been deflected a few degrees by the crystal tree's disturbance, it still grazed viciously across Xiang Lingna's shoulder, drawing a line of blood; the terrifying corrosive energy invaded instantly, making her cry out in pain as half her body went numb!

And Priestess Liyana—or rather, the strange consciousness that had taken control of her body—seemed to be stimulated by Xiang Lingna's fresh blood and pain; those pale violet eyes instantly locked onto her! A pale hand shot up, a wisp of chilling dark-purple Annihilation energy coiling around the fingertips, about to fire at Xiang Lingna!

"Liyana! Wake up!" Lin Mo saw this scene, his eyes nearly splitting with rage; he wanted to rush back to help but was held fast!

Sister Ai Li saw the shocking turn as well, but she was being pressed by two Shadow Stalkers and simply could not break free!

At the instant that wisp of Annihilation energy was about to leave her fingertips—

Priestess Liyana's body jerked violently! The dark purple crystal on her brow flickered madly, the hand she had raised trembled intensely, as though two consciousnesses were fiercely fighting for control! An expression of extreme agony and struggle surfaced on her face; within her hollow gaze, a familiar emerald sheen would flash through one moment, only to be covered by an icy pale violet the next.

"Can…not…hurt…" she ground out a few broken syllables from between her teeth; it was her own voice, filled with struggle and agony!

In the end, that wisp of Annihilation energy, on the verge of being fired, abruptly reversed direction and slammed viciously into the crimson crystal beside her!

Boom! The crystal was instantly corroded and disintegrated by the Annihilation energy, shattering into countless fragments!

And Priestess Liyana, as though she had exhausted every ounce of strength, closed her eyes and collapsed limply once more, falling unconscious; the light of the brow crystal dimmed to an extreme again, yet those spreading purple markings seemed to have burrowed a little deeper.

All of this happened in the span of a lightning flash!

Those few Shadow Stalkers also seemed thrown into some confusion by this sudden turn of events and the burst of Annihilation aura from Priestess Liyana that had flared and then died; their attacks faltered for an instant.

"Now!" Zero's electronic voice rang out sharply! It had been hovering above the battlefield the whole time—not idle, but devoting itself to calculating and analyzing the energy frequencies and shadow-leap patterns of these Shadow Stalkers!

Several extremely fine, nearly invisible threads of ghostly-blue energy shot out from Zero's control console like precise sniper rounds—not attacking the Stalkers themselves, but striking at several specific points in the space around them!

Hmm! Hmm! Hmm!

Those points suddenly burst open with small pockets of interference energy fields! The Shadow Stalkers, which had been in a shadow-leap state trying to adjust their positions for a new wave of attacks, seemed to have crashed into an invisible energy net; their short-range shadow-leap ability was forcibly interrupted and backlashed upon them! Their forms blurred and warped, they let out agonized, chaotic hisses, and their movements froze completely!

Chance!

How could Lin Mo and Sister Ai Li miss such a perfect opening!

"Die!" Lin Mo roared, and his twin light-swords merged into one, becoming a pure-white meteor that tore through everything, instantly piercing the two frozen Shadow Stalkers before him! Star Dust power erupted, utterly purifying them into flying ash!

Sister Ai Li, like a phantom, slid along the ground; her alloy short blades, carrying a cold killing intent, precisely sliced through the energy cores of the other two Stalkers! The blade-light flashed, the cores shattered, black smoke rose!

The last Stalker, already slowed by the burns from Xiang Lingna's life energy, still tried to struggle and flee into the shadows, but Zero finished it off with a precise energy ray, utterly shattering it.

The battle began in an instant, and ended in an instant.

Silence returned to the cavern, leaving only the Rough and Heavy panting of the few of them and the fearful clacking of the crystal clusters.

Xiang Lingna clutched her wounded shoulder, her face pale, and looked at Priestess Liyana, who had fallen unconscious again, her heart still trembling with lingering fear. The Priestess Liyana of that moment just now had been so strange as to be terrifying.

Lin Mo walked to Priestess Liyana's side and carefully examined her condition, his brows tightly furrowed. The situation was worse than he had imagined; the Annihilation Spores were not only eroding her body, they seemed to be trying to erode her consciousness as well!

Sister Ai Li silently flicked the black blood from her short blades clean and walked toward the cave entrance to stand guard; her back was still straight, but her faintly trembling fingers revealed the pressure she had just endured and the worsening of her injuries.

The glow of Zero's control console had dimmed considerably, clearly indicating that the precise interference just now had cost a great deal. "The Shadow-Leap Interference Protocol is effective, but the enemy may develop resistance. The next attack will be even more difficult."

And at this moment, beneath that eroded crystal tree, the black substance—seemingly having absorbed the Annihilation energy that had just leaked out and the negative emotions of the battle—had grown more active; the area it covered had expanded by another ring, and it had even begun to reach out black tendrils toward the nearest other small crystal clusters.

The crisis was temporarily resolved, but a greater shadow hung over everyone's heart. The threat within Priestess Liyana's body was far more terrifying than the enemies outside.