Chapter 220

The escape route was completely sealed by wildly surging thorn vines; the once serene and peaceful spirit silhouettes now had twisted faces, their chants transformed into shrieks of rejection and malice, their icy gazes locked firmly on Lingna, whose arm was pressed into the depression on the door! The entire thorn corridor’s atmosphere instantly plunged from sacred solemnity into eerie peril!

“Fuck! Knew something bad was coming!” Groana roared, reacting with lightning speed; her massive battle axe slashed through the air with a howling wind, crashing down on the thorn wall behind her! Yet the seemingly plant-like vines proved astonishingly resilient—the axe blade sparked violently upon impact, leaving only a shallow groove, and instead provoked even fiercer retaliation, as countless thorned tendrils lashed out like venomous snakes!

Ding-dong-ding! Groana swung her axe to parry, her powered armor sparking with every strike; she was forced to step back, shielding Ali and Lingna behind her. “This damn thing’s absurdly hard!”

Ali gritted her teeth against her injuries, trying to cut the vines with her short blade—the effect was negligible. Zero’s console fired energy beams that could temporarily scorch a small patch, but the vines’ growth rate far outpaced their destruction!

Ahead, the massive thorn door trembled as Lingna’s arm pressed into the depression, emitting a grating, teeth-chilling creak as it slowly swung inward! But the light leaking from the crack was no longer pure emerald—it was tainted by a nauseating, writhing shadow! The faint aura of annihilation pollution grew clearer, even attempting to creep upward along Lingna’s crystal arm!

Lingna felt a bone-chilling cold and needle-like agony in her right arm—not physical injury, but a spiritual and energetic corruption! The door’s defense mechanism had indeed been tainted; it no longer distinguished protectors, but attacked any being attempting to approach!

“Lingna! Hold on!” Ali cried, seeing Lingna’s pained expression and the faint black threads beginning to creep across her arm—she was desperate to help, but couldn’t get near the door as the surrounding vines and spirit shadows intensified their assault!

“Zero! Analyze the source of pollution! Find a way to disrupt it!” Groana roared, struggling to fend off the vines. Though the vines and spirit shadows attacked ferociously, their patterns seemed rigid, as if executing a fixed program.

Zero’s console dodged through the dense assault, its scanning beams locking onto the opening door. “Pollution source locked: core within the door, deeply entangled with the guardian energy… conventional methods cannot separate them… attempting reverse-engineering of guardian protocol… searching for priority override command…”

As Zero strained to compute, Lingna, in excruciating pain, felt her consciousness deepen its connection with the ancient energy of the door. Amid the piercing rejection noises, fragments of broken, sorrowful, and desperate thoughts emerged—the final cries of the spirits who left their marks!

【…Stop it… don’t let it pollute the ‘Heart Lock’…】【…The legacy must remain pure… or it will be a new disaster…】【…With blood, with soul… reinforce the seal…】【…Descendant… beware… the shadow… within the light…】

Heart Lock? Legacy? Shadow within the light?

Lingna suddenly lifted her head, staring at the area around the palm depression on the door—the ancient elven inscriptions and World Tree emblems. Under the mixed light, she suddenly noticed: certain lines of those emblems seemed… to form another, more obscure pattern—like thorns entwining a blade! This pattern stirred a strange familiarity within her… resonating faintly with the most primal thorn-order marks embedded deep within her right arm’s crystal, bestowed by Liyana!

Could it be… the true authorization wasn’t merely World Tree energy, but a specific imprint carrying the will of the Thorn Order?

This thought flashed through her mind like lightning! She immediately tried—not merely activating the emerald energy from the World Tree’s young branch within her arm, but focusing all her will to communicate, to summon the hidden, unique imprint deep within the crystal: the mark of Liyana, the Moon Priestess and Thorn Guardian!

The process was excruciating—her mental energy nearly drained, her head pounding, the agony in her arm surging like a tide against her consciousness. But she gritted her teeth, clinging to the memory of Liyana’s gentle yet unwavering face, recalling how she had wielded thorns to purify pollution!

Gradually, the light emanating from Lingna’s crystal arm changed! No longer pure emerald—it now shimmered with clear, sharp, silver-thorn patterns like blades of light! These silver thorn lines interwove with the emerald glow, radiating a distinctly different, sharper, tougher, and more resolute aura of order—filled with protective and purifying intent!

When this mixed light—silver thorn and emerald—touched the depression on the door—

ZZZZMMM!!

The entire thorn door shuddered violently! The hidden thorn-and-blade pattern on the door blazed with brilliant silver light, like a awakened dragon!

The tainted shadows mingled within the light shrieked in piercing, terrified wails, retreating like a tide as they shrank and vanished! The black threads crawling up Lingna’s arm snapped and dissolved instantly!

Simultaneously, the violent vines and hostile spirit shadows froze mid-attack! Their twisted expressions softened slightly; their hollow eyes flickered with a faint trace of the ancient elves’ confusion. Their assaults slowed, grew chaotic. The shrieking noise now carried intermittent fragments of the original solemn chants.

It worked! The Thorn Order was one of the true highest authorizations here!

“Well done, girl!” Groana’s pressure eased; she seized the moment to cleave through a large patch of hesitant vines with one axe blow.

Zero also detected the change: “Guardian protocol priority altered! Pollution temporarily suppressed! Door opening in pure mode!”

Creak—BOOM!

The heavy thorn door finally swung fully open, revealing what lay beyond.

Behind the door was not a treasure-filled vault, but a small, circular, altar-like chamber. At its center stood a platform, also woven from thorns—empty, save for a clear imprint where a box had once rested—the exact shape of the box the priestess had placed the World Tree seed into in the earlier vision. But the box was gone.

Above the platform floated a soft, ever-shifting sphere of milky-white light, within which countless tiny elven characters flowed—a highly condensed information carrier.

Otherwise, the chamber held nothing. The so-called “legacy” seemed to be only this sphere of information.

Yet in the corner of the room, a small puddle of dried, blackened, tar-like residue remained on the floor, emitting a faint annihilation aura. Clearly, pollution had once reached here—and someone—or something—had arrived ahead of them and taken the box containing the World Tree seed!

The group cautiously entered the chamber. Behind them, the thorn door did not close; the vines and spirit shadows outside had ceased their attacks, falling silent once more—though their eyes remained hollow, as if bereft of purpose.

Lingna collapsed to the floor, exhausted; the pain in her arm lessened, but her mental strain was immense.

Zero’s console approached the milky-white information sphere and began attempting to read it.

A flood of data surged into Zero’s database—mostly fragmented logs, star charts, technical fragments. Finally, a relatively complete message, carrying the final will of the female priestess’s silhouette, was played by Zero:

【…Descendant, if you hear this, the ‘Thorn Heart Lock’ has recognized you—and it means ‘New Oasis’ has reached its most desperate hour…】【…The ‘Dawn Seed’ within the box has been stolen by ‘Shadow Eye’… He betrayed us, turned to darkness, believing only annihilation’s power can allow elves to ‘evolve’…】【…He took the seed and fled toward the ‘Shadow Engine’ at the bottom of the Ark, attempting to use its chaotic energies and rifts to corrupt the seed, forging a key to darkness…】【…Stop him! Do not let him succeed! Otherwise, the Ark’s last hope will be extinguished, and this star region will face true apocalypse…】【…The entrance to the ‘Shadow Engine’ lies… at the very bottom of the Energy Well… there, darkness has already swallowed all… proceed with extreme… caution…】

The message ended abruptly.

Shadow Eye? A traitorous ancient elf? Shadow Engine? The pollution at the bottom had a source! And the last World Tree seed had fallen into a traitor’s hands—being corrupted!

The faint hope they’d just glimpsed was instantly smothered by a heavier shadow.

And then, Zero suddenly blared an urgent alarm!

“Detecting high-intensity energy surge entering the Energy Well cavity! Source: Doctor’s flagship! They’re firing a non-destructive energy constraint device toward the Energy Well entrance! Attempting to seal and stabilize it!”

“Simultaneously detecting multiple high-energy signatures rapidly entering through the stabilized entrance! Energy signature identified: modified Scavengers… and… unknown high-tier unit!”

The Doctor hadn’t abandoned his plan! He’d seized the moment of the geothermal energy’s stabilization, attempting to forcibly seize control!

Ahead: a traitor and a corrupted seed. Behind: the Doctor’s army advancing!

They were now completely trapped inside this newly discovered altar chamber!