Chapter 216: Heartbeat Reboot and the Price

The instant the entrance to the leyline energy well burst open, hope and destruction—like interwoven light and shadow—simultaneously reached their apex! The pure, vast, milky-white radiance of energy surged forth like a warm tide, instantly dispelling the cavern's chill and deathly stillness, even granting Xiang Lingna and Sister Ai Li's wounds a fleeting moment of relief, while the depleted star-dust power within Lin Mo, like parched earth meeting sweet rain, began to recover of its own accord at an accelerating pace.

Yet, hot on its heels came an even more frenzied black flood! The swelling corrosive matter from the Devouring Realm's maw sensed the lure of the core energy, let out an almost gleeful, piercing shriek, abandoned every secondary target, and transformed into a sky-covering black tide that surged madly toward the cracked entrance! Gro Na's tall, powered-armor-clad figure was swallowed whole in an instant by that terrifying black tide; all that could be seen was her violent blood-colored battle-aura erupting and flickering within it, like a lamp struggling in a storm—clearly locked in an extremely dangerous, bitter fight!

And Priestess Liyana, having broken free, fixed her icy purple gaze on the entrance, her form becoming a destructive streak of purple light that ignored every obstacle and shot straight in! Wherever she passed, even the milky-white leyline energy was stained with an ominous gray.

Above, the orbital cannon fire of the Doctor's capital ship gathered once more; the blinding energy beams, like swords of Damocles, descended with world-shattering might! The target was no longer random bombardment but precisely aimed at the newly opened, utterly unprotected entrance to the energy well! Several heavy drones, like moths diving into flame, strafed the area before the entrance with dense fire as they dove, sealing it off!

Internal woes and external threats converged upon this tiny patch of ground in an instant! Life and death hung on a single breath!

"Zero!! Maximum power interference on the orbital fire! Whatever angle you can deflect, do it!" Lin Mo bellowed hoarsely; he knew this was a near-impossible task, but they had no choice! At the same time, the sliver of star-dust power just recovered within him erupted without reserve—no longer for attack or defense, but poured entirely into the earth beneath his feet, into the power that shared its origin with the leyline energy!

"Xiang Lingna! Sister Ai Li! Follow me in! That's our only chance!" He grabbed the gravely wounded Xiang Lingna with one hand and the barely-standing Sister Ai Li with the other, and like moths diving into flame, charged without hesitation toward the entrance shrouded by the black tide, the purple streak, and deadly cannon fire!

Zero's console channeled every ounce of energy—even overdrawing its own core processing power—into an incomparably condensed deep-blue beam that shot upward against the heavens, striking precisely at the flank of that lethal orbital blast! Like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, the deep-blue beam shattered instantly; Zero's console sent up plumes of blue smoke, its glow dimming completely before crashing to the ground like a stone. But that orbital blast was, in the end, deflected by a hair's breadth of angle by this self-sacrificing strike!

BOOM—!!!!

The lethal cannon fire grazed the backs of Lin Mo's trio and slammed brutally into the edge of the entrance! The terrifying energy blast shattered great swathes of energy-crystal rock wall; the violent shockwave sent the three of them flying like fallen leaves, tumbling inward through the entrance! The blast's energy clashed violently with the leaking leyline energy, forming a region of utterly chaotic energy turbulence!

And the black tide and the purple light that was Priestess Liyana also plunged into the entrance at nearly the same instant!

Within the entrance, there was no well-shaped structure as imagined, but an incomparably vast, boundless underground cavity composed entirely of pure milky-white energy crystals! At the cavity's center floated a heart—impossible to describe in words for its enormity—slowly pulsing, as if formed of liquid light and flawless crystal!

The core of the leyline energy well! With each pulse, it set the entire cavity's energy rising and falling like tides, radiating a life-giving vitality and a majestic power sufficient to shake the very stars!

Yet at this moment, this magnificent "heart" appeared somewhat dim, and in certain regions one could even see faint black specks like vascular blockages—traces of long-existing, dormant corrosion! Clearly, the pollution of the Devouring Realm's maw had long since seeped in silently.

The black tide and Priestess Liyana, upon entering here, were like drops of water merging into an ocean—but a sea of lethal poison! The black tide lunged madly at the enormous energy heart, attempting to pollute and devour it utterly! And Priestess Liyana hovered in midair, the crystal on her brow blazing with boundless light; she spread her arms, seemingly trying to forcibly siphon the heart's core energy for the annihilation spores within her to absorb!

The energy heart seemed to sense this ultimate threat; its pulse suddenly accelerated, radiating intense repulsion waves, the milky-white energy tides crashing toward the black tide and Priestess Liyana like an angry tsunami!

The black tide was battered into constant retreat and dissipation, yet replenished endlessly. The dark-purple energy around Priestess Liyana was also continuously purified and dissolved, but she stubbornly continued to siphon thread after thread of pure energy; the crystal on her brow grew ever brighter, and the aura of annihilation about her grew ever stronger!

Lin Mo, Xiang Lingna, and Sister Ai Li crashed heavily onto the smooth energy-crystal floor, their wounds aggravated once more. Lin Mo struggled to raise his head, saw this despairing scene, and his heart sank to the abyss. Even the leyline energy well itself, it seemed, could not entirely purge this pollution that had already taken such deep root!

Was there truly no way?

Just as he was on the verge of giving up, his gaze snapped to the dormant black specks on the surface of the energy heart, then to the black tide and Priestess Liyana locked in their frenzied struggle against the energy tides—and once again, a mad, near-suicidal notion surged up within him!

Purification! A stronger, internally born purifying force was needed! And the most powerful purifying force here was the leyline energy itself! But it was blocked by those dormant stains!

"Get me… over there! To the heart!" Lin Mo roared at Xiang Lingna and Sister Ai Li, who were supporting him, his eyes flashing with the light of absolute resolve.

"Brother Lin Mo! What are you going to do?!" Xiang Lingna had an ominous premonition.

"No time to explain! Trust me!" Lin Mo's tone brooked no argument.

Sister Ai Li looked deeply at Lin Mo for a moment, wasted no words, and with the last of her strength, together with Xiang Lingna, supported Lin Mo as they charged with agonizing difficulty toward the cavity's center—the region where the energy conflict raged most violently! The energy tides battered them without cease; every step forward was exceptionally hard.

Gro Na also fought her way in through the entrance at this moment; her powered armor was badly damaged and smeared with black slime, but her fighting spirit remained high, and she roared as she charged the black tide, sharing the pressure for Lin Mo and the others.

At last, they broke through to the area beneath the energy heart! Here, the oppressive weight of the energy made breathing nearly impossible.

Lin Mo raised his head, gazing up at that magnificent heart—slowly pulsing yet covered in scars—and a storm of complex emotions flashed through his eyes: awe, grief, and above all, absolute resolve!

He wrenched free of Xiang Lingna and Sister Ai Li's support, summoned the last of his strength, and leaped—plunging himself into the most violent surge of milky-white energy that pulsed up from the energy heart!

"In the name of star-dust… draw forth the light of myriad worlds… aid you… in washing away the dust!" Lin Mo let out his final cry; his body seemed on the verge of melting within the tide, countless fissures appearing across his skin, the blood that seeped out instantly purified by the energy! Yet he cast aside all defense, using himself as a conduit, pouring the star-dust power within him—fused from many primal sources and imbued with a touch of creation's essence—backward into the energy heart without reserve!

He would use his own power as kindling to ignite the dormant purifying force of the leyline energy well! Even if the process would first burn him to ash!

HUMM——!!!

The entire energy cavity shuddered violently! The energy heart, as if injected with the strongest stimulant, ceased pulsing for an instant—then began to beat with an unprecedented, frenzied frequency!

THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

Like war drums rolling! Like stars exploding!

An incomparably resplendent milky-white radiance, tinged with a thread of pale gold, erupted from within the heart! Like a supernova, it instantly swept across the entire cavity!

Those dormant black specks, bathed in this ultimate purifying radiance imbued with star-dust's essence, melted away rapidly like snow under sunlight!

The surging black tide let out a wail of utter agony, like oil thrown into a steel-making furnace, evaporating and purifying in great swathes!

Even Priestess Liyana was hurled backward by this sudden, indiscriminate ultimate purifying radiance; the dark-purple energy around her was purified in an instant, and she let out a scream of agony, the light of the crystal on her brow dimming, the icy purple in her eyes forcibly suppressed—flickering instead with a brief, familiar emerald green and a look of blank confusion!

The purifying light swept away all before it!

And Lin Mo, used as the energy fuse and conduit, at the very core of this radiance's eruption, felt his consciousness, his soul, every single cell being torn apart, decomposed, and purified by this terrifying energy…

The price… is finally to be paid, is it…

That was the last thought before he lost consciousness.