Chapter 28: The Withered Elves, the Otherworldly Aura, and the Black Scorpion's General Assault

The construction of the steam ballista was in full swing. With the thick steel plates, hefty alloy pipes, and high-strength bolts salvaged from the dismantled armored personnel carrier, Wrench's wild vision was taking shape step by step.

A massive boiler, refitted from the APC's fuel tank, was anchored beside the workshop, its smokestack belching black smoke. Thick alloy bow-arms were mounted on a heavy steel ballista bed. The intricate steam piping and piston assembly took shape under Wrench's hammering—crooked and lopsided it might look, brimming with a goblin-esque crudeness, but the ferocious air of a steel beast was already beginning to show.

Lin Mo assisted Wrench as he went—hauling heavy parts, drilling and grinding with the tools Wrench provided—yet his mind was far from settled. The burning sensation from the Seed of Life on his chest had not faded; instead, with the passage of time, it pulsed like a heartbeat, transmitting a certain restless, uneasy emotion. On the system interface, the progress bar for 【New Territory Anchoring】 stubbornly remained stuck at 5%, flashing a warning red.

Dense natural energy, chaotic laws, on the verge of collapse… what kind of world was this? Elves? A forest? Or something else entirely? He was desperate to know, but he was all too aware that until the steam ballista was finished, until Sister Ai Li's wounds had healed, until the Black Scorpion threat was dealt with, he could not afford to be distracted.

Sister Ai Li's injuries recovered faster than expected under Xiang Lingna's attentive care and the nourishment of purified water. Though her left hand still could not exert force, the wound on her back had scabbed over, and some color had returned to her cheeks. She spent most of her time silently wiping down and maintaining her hand crossbow, or guiding Xiang Lingna in light-crossbow practice; the coldness in her eyes had settled, condensing into a more restrained killing intent. The mechanical hound attack had utterly ignited her resolve to destroy the Black Scorpion.

Apart from caring for Sister Ai Li and the potato field, Xiang Lingna devoted most of her energy to those two mysterious seedlings. She watered them with the purest purified water, and even tried "talking" to them. The purple veins on the seedlings were indeed slowly regaining their luster, and on the smallest leaf, a tiny, extremely faint new sprout had even emerged at the tip! This delighted her immensely.

Beneath the calm, undercurrents surged. On the territory resource panel, the stock of "Metal Scraps" had surged thanks to dismantling the APC, but "Food" still read "Low"—the potatoes were growing well, but harvest was still some time away. What troubled Lin Mo even more was that, through his perception via the resource panel, he detected light points representing "unnatural metal" and "faint energy reactions" on the outer eastern edge of the basin, slowly and methodically moving and gathering! Like a closing net!

The Black Scorpion! They were marshaling their forces! The mechanical hounds had only been scouts; the true general assault was about to begin!

"Wrench! How much longer?" Lin Mo asked anxiously, eyeing the steel beast that had taken rough shape but still lacked its critical steam valves and pressure gauge.

"Almost there! Almost there! Stop rushing! A great invention needs time!" Wrench was drenched in sweat, using a self-made, pliers-like tool to forcefully tighten a thick steam pipe joint. "Just the last few valves and… the pressure test! Wrench-daddy guarantees, one shot and the Black Scorpion's turtle shell will go flying!"

Just then, Xiang Lingna, who had been keeping watch atop the watchtower base, suddenly let out a terrified scream: "Brother Lin Mo! Sister Ai Li! Look at the sky!"

Lin Mo and Sister Ai Li snapped their heads up!

There, in the leaden-gray sky directly above the basin, a patch of distorted light and shadow had appeared without warning! Like a stone dropped into a still pond, ripples spread outward in concentric rings! At the center of the ripples, the scene shifted eerily: no longer the gray wasteland, but a… dead, silent forest shrouded in a pale purple miasma of decay! Twisted, withered giant trees stood like the bones of dying titans; the ground was carpeted in gray-white fungal mats; and the air seemed to drift with a soundless elegy.

A thick, suffocating scent of decay—mingling rotting vegetation with a strange floral fragrance—seeped through the distorted light and shadow into the wasteland basin! This scent clashed utterly with the wasteland's irradiated dust, carrying a heart-palpitating bleakness and despair from another world!

"It's… it's that world!" Lin Mo realized in an instant! This was the fragment of the new world on the verge of collapse that the system had sensed! It was so unstable that the spatial fluctuation had manifested directly above his territory!

The instant this otherworldly aura descended, chain reactions erupted within the basin as well!

The two mysterious seedlings Xiang Lingna was guarding blazed with unprecedented, dazzling light from their purple veins! As if in resonance, the seedlings stirred without wind, pointing toward the phantom of the withered forest in the sky! Xiang Lingna clutched her chest, her small face a mix of pain and bewilderment, as if drawn by an invisible force.

And the Seed of Life on Lin Mo's chest burned like fire! Emerald light pierced through his clothing! The 【New Territory Anchoring】 progress bar, as if injected with adrenaline, leapt from 5% to 10%! 15%!

But then, disaster struck!

On the outer eastern edge of the basin, those "unnatural metal" light points that had been lurking and moving—upon sensing the sky's anomaly and the dense otherworldly aura—accelerated instantly, like sharks scenting blood! The roar of engines drew near from afar, shattering the dead silence!

"Alert! Alert! High-energy reaction approaching! Identified as hostile targets! Quantity: ten! Equipment: heavy-class!" The crude alarm Wrench had rigged on the watchtower—jury-rigged from mechanical hound sensors—let out a piercing shriek!

Lin Mo peered through the gaps in the unfinished wooden palisade and saw, amid the eastern ruins, ten even more ferocious, larger tracked mechanical units rumbling over the debris, charging at full speed toward the basin! Several times the size of the mechanical hounds, they were like mobile steel fortresses; thick armor plates were emblazoned with black scorpion totems, and atop their rotating turrets, dark multi-barrel autocannons were slowly rising, aiming at the basin!

The Black Scorpion's heavy assault platforms! True killing machines! Clearly drawn by the sky's anomaly and that dense "abnormal energy," they had abandoned stealth and launched their general assault!

"Damn it!" Lin Mo cursed! Trouble never comes alone! The otherworldly fluctuation had drawn the Black Scorpion's main force!

"Wrench! The ballista!" Lin Mo roared, simultaneously raising his hunting rifle. Sister Ai Li instantly entered combat mode, stringing her hand crossbow, her icy gaze locking onto the assault platform at the vanguard.

"Almost! Almost! Just a little more!" Wrench hopped with anxiety, frantically tightening the last bolt.

In the sky, the phantom of the withered forest twisted and rippled, an otherworldly aura permeating the air.

On the ground, the Black Scorpion's heavy steel tide bore down with the thunder of destruction.

Hope Outpost faced the deadliest storm since its founding! Will the steam ballista roar at the last moment? Is the otherworldly summoning an opportunity—or a grave that buries everything?