Chapter 48: The Domain of Root Tendrils: Collapsing Space and the Core of Flowing Light

An obsidian-gold war-blade prototype, imbued with Lin Mo's full strength and Priestess Liyana's inherited will to protect, plummeted like a falling star and slammed into the violently trembling, charred earth beneath his feet!

Plop!

There was no earth-shattering roar. The blade sank as if into a vast, elastic mass of flesh, emitting a muffled, wet thud. The dark golden thorn runes blazing at the guard surged wildly down the blade and into the ground!

Hum—!!!

An indescribable ripple erupted from the point of impact, spreading rapidly like water waves! This ripple was not destruction—it carried an ancient, resilient, ever-renewing will! It ignored the space-lock field deployed by the Doctor, piercing straight through and sinking deep into the earth vein!

A miracle occurred!

Deep within the earth vein's fissure, the violently swirling, conflicting mass of orange-red and dark-purple energy—on the verge of explosion—suddenly stuttered under the impact of the thorn-marked protective will! The wild, expanding threads of dark-purple corruption were bound as if by invisible vines, their erosion instantly slowed!

Simultaneously, from the point of blade impact, dozens of meters around, countless fine cracks—glowing faintly with dark golden light—spilled across the blackened ground! These cracks were not the fractures of death, but resembled… the rapid growth of some colossal root system beneath the soil!

Crack! Crack!

The ground heaved! Thick, pure-energy "roots," forged from solidified magma entwined with thorned vines, erupted from the earth! These energy roots were not physical, yet radiated the heavy aura of the earth and an unyielding protective will—they moved as if alive, frantically driving into the depths of the fissure, targeting the temporarily restrained orange-red glow—the embryonic earth-vein seed!

【Item: Unnamed War-Blade (Prototype) Activated Special Ability — 'Thorn Root Domain'!】

【Effect: Using the war-blade as a medium, forcibly communicate with and channel earth-vein energy to form an energy-root domain. Within the domain, defense and life recovery are greatly enhanced, and earth-affinity abilities are strongly amplified. Additionally, attempt to 'take root' and stabilize the earth-vein energy source (high risk).】

"What?!" The Doctor's projection shrieked in disbelief! He could not comprehend how an unfinished weapon could generate such a domain—violating energy laws, bordering on divine miracle! It shattered his entire understanding!

"Stop those roots! Detonate the core!" The Doctor went utterly mad, waving his projection's hands as the remaining space-lock field blazed brighter, attempting to strangle the emerging dark-gold roots!

Yet the thorn-marked will of Priestess Liyana seemed naturally penetrative to space fields! The dark-gold roots ignored the blue grid of force, like dragons diving into water, racing one another into the fissure!

Hssss—!

Countless dark-gold roots wrapped around the pulsing orange-red glow—like a mother embracing her child! Vast, thorn-marked earth-vein energy surged into it! The orange light flared violently, forcing the encircling dark-purple threads into retreat! The earth-vein seed's violent fluctuations calmed visibly, its energy becoming gentle and stable, beginning to resonate mysteriously with Lin Mo's war-blade and his internal 【Life Seed】!

"No—!!!" The Doctor's projection twisted and contorted, roaring in fury! His plan to detonate the earth-vein core had been utterly shattered by these sudden thorn roots!

"Wrench! Xiang Lingna! Take Sister Ai Li behind the roots!" Lin Mo, sensing the earth-vein seed was preliminarily stabilized, breathed easier and roared. He maintained the blade's insertion, continuously channeling power to sustain the 'Thorn Root Domain,' unable to act elsewhere.

Wrench snapped to attention, scrambling and crawling toward Xiang Lingna and Sister Ai Li. Xiang Lingna also strained to drag Sister Ai Li's body toward the nearest erupting, serpent-like dark-gold energy root, which arched over the ground like a natural barrier, radiating warm heat and unyielding resolve.

Yet the Doctor's madness exceeded all imagination!

"Initiate… backup protocol! Extract… core sample!" The Doctor's projection's eyes flashed with icy cruelty. He abandoned detonation and settled for second best—forcibly extracting a portion of core energy from the earth-vein seed now wrapped in thorn roots!

Hum!

The blue glow of the space-lock field instantly shifted! From confinement—it became… cutting! Countless fine, high-frequency blue energy threads materialized, like laser scalpels, precisely slicing into the fissure, severing the dark-gold roots entwining the orange glow, targeting the core!

Ssshh! Ssshh!

The resilient dark-gold roots were effortlessly severed and dissolved by the space-cutting threads—like hot knives through butter! The Doctor's space technology possessed terrifying analytical and destructive power over energy structures!

"Damn it!" Lin Mo's spirit trembled violently! Maintaining the root domain already drained immense energy; now, under forced destruction, the backlash made his throat taste copper—he spat blood! He desperately pushed his war-blade and 【Life Seed】 to summon more roots, but their regeneration could not match the speed of the space-cutting threads' destruction!

The blue space-cutting net was mere inches from the orange glow's core!

At this critical moment!

"Cough… cough…" A weak cough came from behind the dark-gold root barrier. Sister Ai Li had opened her eyes again! Her gaze remained unfocused, but her right hand gripped tightly another, shorter fragment of corrupted wood spike! She seemed, by some combat instinct, to sense the space-cutting threads!

With her last ounce of strength, she flung the spike toward the densest cluster of space-cutting threads…

This time, there was no attraction from corrupted earth-vein energy. The spike's flight remained feeble.

But a miracle occurred again!

As the corrupted wood spike entered the network of space-cutting threads, the withering energy within it—originating from the Claw of Decay's essence—triggered a violent, unpredictable annihilation reaction with the Doctor's controlled space energy!

Sizzzz—BOOM!!!

Like cold water dropped into scorching oil, the space-cutting threads touched by the spike twisted, snapped, and went haywire! A chain reaction erupted! The entire precise blue network flickered violently, then collapsed into a shower of blue light particles!

"Puff!" The Doctor's projection shuddered violently, as if struck, becoming nearly transparent—clearly, the forced collapse of the space-cutting network inflicted massive backlash even upon his remote projection!

"Now!" Lin Mo's spirit surged! Ignoring the agony of backlash, he seized this once-in-a-lifetime opening and pushed his 【Life Seed】 and war-blade to their absolute limits!

"Stabilize—NOW!!!"

Boom!

Countless dark-gold roots surged like commanded, wrapping and encasing the orange-red glow! The thorn-marked power fully merged! The orange light suddenly condensed inward, solidifying—shrinking into a sphere roughly the size of a fist, perfectly round, like molten glass, its interior swirling with orange-lava veins—the Earth-Vein Heart!

【Item: Small Earth-Vein Heart (Stabilized State)】

【Status: Preliminarily bound by 'Thorn Root Domain,' energy stable (high purity, Earth/Fire affinity)】

【Can be absorbed to strengthen domain core / lord's self / special structures. Can slowly release energy to nourish the domain.】

Success! The earth-vein core had been stabilized and materialized!

Yet, just as Lin Mo's heart swelled with triumph, preparing to withdraw his blade and root domain—

Sudden transformation!

At the core of the newly formed, steadily glowing orange-red Earth-Vein Heart, a deep, abyss-like dark-purple spot—like a hidden tumor—suddenly flared! It was the core imprint of the Claw of Decay, transmitted by Priestess Liyana from the corrupted world's origin—never fully purified, merely suppressed!

Now, the instant the core solidified, this dark-purple spot exploded! An exquisitely pure, supremely corrupt and ravenous withering force—like black lightning—ripped through the surrounding orange-lava veins, becoming a streak of dark-purple light that shot toward the depression's edge, toward the Doctor's projection!

It sought to… escape! To find a new host—or… return to its origin!

And the Doctor's nearly transparent projection, upon seeing this dark-purple streak, his eyes blazed with incomprehensible light—mixing horror and ecstatic triumph! He recognized the nature of this power!

"Corruption… Origin?!!"