Chapter 37: The Phantom of Moon Shadow Lake, the Emerald's Call, and the Doctor's Fortress

The "Scavenger" the Viper had summoned hung over them like the Sword of Damocles. The air at Hope Outpost was heavy and solemn as lead. Wrench had entered an unprecedented "workaholic" state—his green-bean eyes bloodshot, half a charred piece of lizard meat dangling from his mouth—frantically using the Black Scorpion wreckage and every material he could scrounge from the basin to lay down lethal traps.

He welded fragments of the assault platform's main armor into massive, barbed "mine plates," burying beneath them unstable explosives mixed from energy-core residue and gunpowder, then covered them with loose dirt for camouflage. At the basin's entrance, he erected "punishing abatis" of thick steel pipe and springs, coated with a neurotoxin extracted from mutated plants. He even scaled up the principle behind his earlier "blind-the-dog flashbang," cobbling together several oversized "magnetic-storm concussion bombs," claiming they could make the Scavenger's electronics dance.

Sister Ai Li became a ghost on the wasteland. Using the thin light of dawn and dusk, dressed in camouflage she had stitched together from grey cloth and metal scraps, she slipped silently into the eastern ruins, searching for the routes the Scavenger might take and scouting the Black Scorpions' movements. Her tracking and counter-tracking skills were pushed to the limit; she passed within a hair's breadth of several Black Scorpion recon squads without being spotted. The intelligence she brought back was chilling: the road east toward the Black Scorpions' main operating zone had been cleared on a massive scale—clearly to pave the way for the Scavenger.

Xiang Lingna poured all her energy into those few 'Starlight Moss' plants and the core potato seedlings. The otherworldly purified water was spent, so she could only carefully water them with sediment-filtered basin sewage. The pale-gold leaves of the 'Starlight Moss' grew slowly, their faint but steady natural aura purifying a small patch of soil around them. The core potato seedlings, meanwhile, showed tenacious vitality, sprouting new branches and leaves from the scorched earth, and even bearing a few thumbnail-sized, unripe potatoes at the tips. The energy reserves of the territory core 【Seed of Life】, under the weak agricultural cycle and the feedback from the 'Starlight Moss', had slowly recovered to 15%.

Lin Mo's injuries healed quickly—the nourishment from 【Seed of Life】 deserved much of the credit—though a hideous burn scar was left across his chest. Every day, besides helping Wrench set up defenses, he maintained contact with Priestess Liyana through the stabilized thorn corridor to discuss countermeasures.

Priestess Liyana's condition fluctuated. Receiving the continuous, if faint, life-energy feedback from Lin Mo's territory, along with the spatial stability brought by the secured corridor, the silver pure-land beneath her feet was just barely sustained—even those few patches of silver moss had regained a sliver of vitality. But the Withered Mark continued its slow spread: the purple stain on her silver hair crept upward another short stretch, and the vine-like patterns on her wrist deepened in color. Every time she resisted the mist's erosion and purified the water source, it left her more exhausted.

"Moon Shadow Lake… in the forest's northwest… guarded by the 'Corrupted Treants' legion… Emerald Woodland… in the southeast… is the territory of the 'Spore Mother Nest'…" Priestess Liyana transmitted the information, her thoughts heavy with helplessness. "Without the Moon Goddess Priestess's power… I cannot pass through… those areas…"

Lin Mo stared at the images Priestess Liyana had transmitted—of Moonlight Crystal and several sacred natural artifacts—his brows tightly furrowed. These items were all deep in the death zone; in Priestess Liyana's current state, retrieving them was simply impossible.

"Perhaps… I could come over and help you?" Lin Mo proposed again. With the corridor's stability improved, perhaps it could withstand material transfer?

"The risk… is still enormous…" Priestess Liyana's thoughts carried worry. "Your body… couldn't withstand the spatial tearing… and… the corridor can only hold… for an extremely short time…"

Just as the two were at a loss, Xiang Lingna, while tending the 'Starlight Moss', made an unexpected discovery. One of the best-growing 'Starlight Moss' plants—its pale-gold veins on the leaves, under the first sliver of dawn light—flickered ever so faintly, and projected onto the leaf's surface an extremely blurry, distorted image—the outline of a dead, silent lake ringed by black withered trees! At the lake's center, there seemed to be a faint point of silver light sunk at the bottom!

"Moon Shadow Lake!" Lin Mo recognized it the instant he saw the image Xiang Lingna transmitted! It was the Moon Shadow Lake Priestess Liyana had described! The 'Starlight Moss' could actually sense and project landmarks of the elven world?!

Immediately after, another 'Starlight Moss' plant flickered at noon as well, projecting a woodland region shrouded in thick purple fog, where faint glimmers of emerald-green light could just barely be seen—Emerald Woodland!

"Are they… showing us the way?" Xiang Lingna asked timidly.

A storm of astonishment surged in Lin Mo's heart! These plants from the elven world could not only survive on the wasteland, they had even retained a faint sense of their homeland—could even serve as a cross-planar "compass"!

"Priestess Liyana! Xiang Lingna's 'Starlight Moss' can sense the locations of Moon Shadow Lake and Emerald Woodland! Perhaps… I can use the images they project as spatial coordinates to perform an ultra-short-range precision-locator teleportation! Teleport directly to the target's vicinity!" Lin Mo transmitted his thoughts through their link.

"Cross-planar… precision-locator teleportation?!" Priestess Liyana's thoughts were filled with shock, but were then ignited by hope. "If… it can succeed… perhaps… it's feasible! But the time… must be extremely short! The force of spatial tearing… and the erosion of the Withering Mist… you'll need the strongest protection!"

A glimmer of hope appeared in the plan! But the risk was still terrifyingly high! Lin Mo needed a means of protection that could, for a short time, withstand spatial tearing and withering erosion! At the same time, he had to hurry, because the Black Scorpions' "Scavenger" could arrive at any moment!

Just then, Sister Ai Li, who was in charge of reconnaissance, brought back the latest—and worst—news:

"East… fifty li out… the 'Scavenger'… is coming."

She described a terrifying construct like a moving mountain of steel: ten meters tall, nearly twenty meters wide, treads like city walls, its entire body sheathed in thick armor that gleamed with an energy sheen. On top sat a triple-mounted heavy plasma turret; on both flanks were multi-tube rocket pods and automatic defense machine-gun clusters. Most despair-inducing of all, it was enveloped in a pale-blue energy force-field shield!

"It's… very slow… but… unstoppable." Sister Ai Li's voice carried an unprecedented heaviness and solemnity.

The Black Scorpions' ultimate weapon had finally bared its fangs! The destruction countdown for Hope Outpost had begun!

Lin Mo looked at the dust haze faintly rising on the eastern horizon, then at the faintly glowing 'Starlight Moss' in Xiang Lingna's hand, and finally toward the direction of the elven world. Attacked from front and rear, time was running out!

"Wrench! All traps activated! Prepare to receive the 'Scavenger'!"

"Sister Ai Li! Come with me! We need… to prepare the final 'armor' for the cross-planar operation!"

The wasteland lord's gaze turned toward the depths of the basin, toward the ley-line fissure still radiating residual heat. The violent geo-fire energy had been drawn out, but there—perhaps—still lingered a high temperature capable of forging miracles… and… some possibility.