Chapter 30: Multiversal Anchoring, Thorned Portal, and the Doctor

Vast natural will and the life energy of the Seed of Life violently converged and merged above the depression! Emerald and deep purple radiance intertwined, forming a pillar of light that pierced from earth to sky, striking straight into the heart of the withered forest's phantom!

【New Territory Anchoring: 85%... 90%... 95%... 100%!】

【Anchoring Successful! 'World Fragment - Elven Sorrow (ID: Mistwood)' has been incorporated into the Multiverse Sandbox!】

【Primordial Channel (Temporary) Establishing... Insufficient Energy! Channel Highly Unstable! Only Supports Single, Short-Duration, Low-Quality Matter/Energy Transmission!】

【Warning! Target Territory on Verge of Collapse! Primordial Core (Wilted World Tree Sapling) Extremely Weak! Host, Proceed with Caution!】

Cold system alerts exploded in Lin Mo’s mind! Success! Second territory! The elf’s world!

Simultaneously, at the core where emerald and violet light interwove, space twisted and stretched like a torn painting! An unstable elliptical portal, formed of wildly growing, thorned dark-green thorns, slowly took shape in the center of the depression! Inside the portal, the wasteland vanished—replaced by the silent, withered forest shrouded in purple mist! An oppressive, suffocating aura of decay surged forth!

Thorned Portal! A temporary bridge between two worlds!

“No! Stop it! That’s the ‘stable spatial rift’ sample the Doctor wants! Seize it at all costs!” From the crippled assault platform, the cold electronic voice shrieked hysterically!

The remaining nine assault platforms seemed to forcibly suppress part of the interference; engines roared with overload, treads churned again, and turret-mounted machine guns laboriously lifted, recharging once more! Their targets: the newly formed Thorned Portal and Xiang Lingna before it!

“Lingna! Get away from there!” Lin Mo roared, raising his hunting rifle and firing wildly at the nearest assault platform—but bullets barely scratched the armor! Ai Li’s crossbow bolts struck the platform’s observation window and bounced off the thick bulletproof glass!

Lingna remained unconscious, bathed in violet light, chanting the ethereal, mournful elven dirge toward the Thorned Portal, as if communicating with the world beyond.

Charging complete! Nine deathly muzzles locked onto the Thorned Portal!

A matter of moments!

A figure shot out from the side like lightning, throwing itself between the Thorned Portal and Lingna—it was Ai Li!

Her eyes held no hesitation, only icy resolve! She aimed her short crossbow at the withered forest within the portal, poured every ounce of strength into firing the last of her three bolts—the one whose tip glowed with the deepest, most intense azure light—into the Thorned Portal!

The bolt vanished into the portal’s ripples, its destination unknown.

Immediately after, Ai Li opened her arms, embracing death itself, charging toward the impending metal storm! She sought to buy the final moments for Lina and the passage!

“Ai Li! No—!” Lin Mo’s roar carried despair!

At that moment!

Sudden transformation!

Deep within the dead, withered forest inside the Thorned Portal, near the point where Ai Li’s bolt struck, a single, impossibly ancient black tree trunk—long dead and colossal—suddenly glowed with an extremely faint, candle-flame-like silver light! The glow was weak, yet carried a pure, utterly distinct aura, untouched by the surrounding decay!

Simultaneously, the two saplings in Lingna’s arms blazed with maximum violet radiance! Two leaves, veined with purple, tore free from their stems and became streaks of light, instantly shooting into the Thorned Portal, striking the tree that now glowed silver!

“Hum—!”

The entire Thorned Portal shuddered violently! The thorns growing wildly along its edges surged thicker and sharper, as if infused with new power! A stronger, richer natural aura erupted from within—not merely decay, but now laced with a faint thread of life, like a final, desperate resurgence! This aura swept across the depression!

The nine assault platforms, fully charged and ready to fire, froze as if paused! Charging lights died, engines fell silent; every electronic screen inside burst into static, spewing thick black smoke—as if crushed, overloaded, and destroyed by an invisible, higher-dimensional force!

“No—!!!” Desperate, incredulous roars erupted from within the assault platforms! Then came several muffled explosions from inside! The nine steel titans became nothing but smoking heaps of scrap metal!

The crisis ended in an unimaginable way!

The Thorned Portal, after its final burst of light, began flickering violently, shrinking, growing unstable—on the verge of collapse and disappearance!

The violet light faded from Lingna’s body; she collapsed limply into Lin Mo’s arms. The two saplings in her grasp, now that their leaves had detached, withered rapidly to ash, as if exhausting their final essence of life.

Ai Li stood before the portal, gazing into the withered world within, then at the smoking steel wreckage on the ground. Her cold face showed no expression, only a flicker of something indescribable in her eyes. That arrow she fired... had it triggered something?

“The channel... is closing,” Lin Mo said, watching the increasingly unstable Thorned Portal, then at the unconscious Lingna in his arms, the wounded Banchi beside him, and this wasteland territory—just ravaged, yet ripe for rebirth.

Go? Or stay?

The elven world’s lament still echoed in his ears. That silver-glowing tree. Those two flying leaves... they seemed to carry a final hope.

But the threat of Black Scorpion remained. The “Doctor” had witnessed all this—he would only grow more insane!

“Ai Li...” Lin Mo turned to his companion.

Ai Li’s gaze left the Thorned Portal, settled on Lin Mo’s face, swept over the unconscious Lingna and the wounded Banchi, then turned eastward—to the direction of Black Scorpion. Her left hand hung limp; her right gripped the empty short crossbow.

“This... is home,” she said, voice still cold, yet unshakably firm. “But the debt... must be repaid.” Her eyes fixed on the east, toward Black Scorpion.

Lin Mo understood. The wasteland was the foundation, the home—must be defended. The elven world was the responsibility, the new hope—must be answered. But not now. Now, they needed rest, healing, strength!

He cast one final glance at the fading Thorned Portal, as if etching the image of the withered forest into his mind. Within, it seemed—just for an instant—a pair of silver eyes, filled with sorrow and pleading, met his gaze.

“I will return,” Lin Mo whispered in his heart.

The Thorned Portal emitted a sigh-like hum, then shrank and vanished into thin air, leaving only a few rapidly withered thorn vines as proof it had ever existed.

The celestial anomalies slowly subsided; the leaden-gray wasteland sky once again blanketed the earth.

Within the depression, smoke hung thick, ruins lay everywhere—but the core shelter, the water purifier, and that stubborn patch of potato field had miraculously survived. The steam-powered crossbow emitted white steam, utterly destroyed. Banchi lay groaning on the ground. Lingna remained unconscious. Ai Li’s back wound had split open again, blood soaking through the bandages.

Hope Outpost, after the shock of multiversal convergence and the storm of steel, lay scarred—but still standing.

Lin Mo supported Ai Li, cradled Lingna, looked at the wounded Banchi, then turned his gaze eastward toward where Black Scorpion had retreated. His eyes were weary, yet utterly resolute.

The Lord of the Wasteland had stood firm in blood and fire—and now bore the promise spanning the multiverse. A new journey began quietly atop the ruins. And the Black Scorpion’s “Doctor,” in some dark base, watched the final fading spatial fluctuation data and that fleeting glimpse of the elven phantom, his eyes burning with greed hotter and wilder than before.

“Spatial anchor point... life purification... and... an alien higher lifeform... perfect sample! Perfect experimental ground! At all costs... find them! Control that channel!”