Chapter 53: The Emerald's Whisper, the Purifying Bottle's Miracle, and the Thorns' Choice

The will of the Rot Claw surged like a freezing tide of poison, madly crashing against Lin Mo's mind. Countless illusions of destruction and decay tore at his nerves; the power maintaining the Thorn Prison fluctuated violently, and Sister Ai Li within the prison grew ever more frenzied under the stimulation of the Rot Claw's will—the shockwave of interwoven moonlight and purple qi nearly tearing the dark-gold roots apart!

"Get out!" Lin Mo's eyes blazed crimson as he let out a beast-like growl! The power of the Seed of Life roared and surged within his body, and deep within its core, that wisp of orange-red light fused with the ley-line fragment erupted into searing flames, stubbornly resisting the erosion of the Rot Claw's will! Sensing their lord's peril, the Thorn Root Domain sent more energy roots bursting from the earth, standing guard around Lin Mo like loyal sentinels, radiating a tenacious will to protect, weakening the Rot Claw's assault to some degree.

Yet this was only treating the symptom, not the root! The Rot Claw's will clung like a bone-deep ulcer, an endless stream, while Sister Ai Li's condition was deteriorating rapidly!

"Sister Ai Li…" Xiang Lingna's sobs reached his ears. She gazed at the once cold but reliable figure within the Thorn Prison, now writhing in agony as if possessed by a demon, her little face filled with sorrow and resolve. She clutched tightly the crude shard of the Purifying Bottle at her chest; the water stains along its edge had long since dried, but now, spurred by her pure worry and will to protect, the seed-like speck of green at the shard's center blazed to life!

Hum!

A wisp of natural aura, exceedingly faint yet pure to the extreme, like the first breath of spring breeze after the melting snow, swept across the entire Thorn Heart territory in an instant! This aura brimmed with vibrant vitality and a soul-soothing power; though faint, it miraculously pierced the walls of the Thorn Prison and gently brushed over Sister Ai Li's body!

Sister Ai Li's frenzied struggles abruptly stalled! The violently clashing moonlight power and withering corruption within her, under the soothing of this pure natural aura, showed a momentary… stagnation! Like a drop of clear spring water falling into a cauldron of boiling oil! Within her silver-white pupils, that eerie hint of purple receded for an instant, revealing a pained and bewildered true hue!

"Hm?!" Lin Mo, Bronze Beard, and Wrench sensed this peculiar natural aura at the same time! Lin Mo perceived it even more clearly—this aura shared its origin with Priestess Liyana's power of nature, yet was purer, closer to… the source? As if… that first touch of green when the world was born!

"Girl Xiang Lingna? You…" Bronze Beard's bean-sized eyes went wide as he stared in disbelief at the shard radiating faint green light in Xiang Lingna's hand.

Xiang Lingna herself was stunned; she looked at the glowing shard in her hand, then at Sister Ai Li who had temporarily calmed within the prison, and a thought flashed through her mind like lightning: "The bottle… once held… water from the Elven World… and… leaves of Star Radiance Moss…"

Purified water from the Elven World! Residue of Star Radiance Moss leaves! Lingering within the shard of the Purifying Bottle, awakened by Xiang Lingna's pure intent and protective heart, it had stirred a wisp of… miraculous power drawn from the source of life itself!

"Brother Lin Mo! This… it works!" Xiang Lingna, as if clutching at a lifeline, held the green-glowing shard high and shouted toward Lin Mo.

Lin Mo understood instantly! In the final thought Priestess Liyana had transmitted, she had mentioned the Emerald Woods! She had mentioned natural sacred objects imbued with powerful vitality! The wisp of aura Xiang Lingna had inadvertently drawn out from the lingering elven objects, though faint, was precisely the key catalyst to purify the withering and soothe the moonlight!

"Send it… in!" Lin Mo decided on the spot, enduring the assault of the Rot Claw's will, and manipulated the Thorn Prison to open a narrow gap!

Without hesitation, Xiang Lingna mustered all her strength and hurled the shard of the Purifying Bottle, shining with pure green light, through the gap in the prison toward Sister Ai Li!

The shard traced a faint green arc through the air, precisely slipping through the gap and landing on Sister Ai Li's violently heaving chest!

Hiss—!

Like a red-hot branding iron plunged into water! The instant the shard touched Sister Ai Li's body, that pure green light erupted explosively! Transforming into countless fine, jade-like motes of light that instantly merged into Sister Ai Li's body!

"Ugh—ah—!" Sister Ai Li let out a high, sharp cry mingled with agony and release! The moonlight power within her, as if guided by the purest force, instantly became tame and restrained, no longer raging wildly! And that deep-purple withering corruption, like snow exposed to a blazing sun, emitted a piercing sizzling as it visibly melted and retreated! The purple patterns surfacing on Sister Ai Li's body rapidly faded and vanished!

Within her silver-white pupils, the coldness and chaos receded, restoring their deep black, yet deep in her gaze lingered an indelible silver gleam, like a bright moon. She gasped violently, her body going limp from the immense exhaustion and the agony of purification, but her consciousness… had finally cleared!

It worked! Xiang Lingna's fortunate blunder—the aura of life's source drawn out from the lingering elven objects—had become the key to purifying the corruption within Sister Ai Li and soothing the moonlight power!

Lin Mo let out a long breath; the pressure from the Rot Claw's will seemed to ease slightly along with Sister Ai Li's stabilization. He immediately retracted the Thorn Prison, the roots transforming into gentle streams of energy that flowed back into the earth. Bronze Beard and Wrench hurried forward to support the exhausted Sister Ai Li.

"Xiang Lingna… thank you…" Sister Ai Li spoke weakly, her voice hoarse, her gaze toward Xiang Lingna filled with complex emotions—aftermath fear, gratitude, and a hint of… bewilderment at that out-of-control power.

Xiang Lingna threw herself beside Sister Ai Li, tears pattering down: "Sister Ai Li… as long as you're alright…"

Yet the crisis was not entirely over!

At the Thorn Passage node, though the Rot Claw's will had been temporarily repelled, it had not vanished! It seemed utterly enraged by that wisp of pure life-source aura Xiang Lingna had stirred! A more violent, more greedy will descended with a thunderous crash! This time, it was no longer a mere spiritual assault, but carried… tangible spatial-tearing power!

Crack! Crack-crack!

Around the stable Thorn Passage node, space began to fracture like fragile glass, black cracks spreading like a spiderweb! A withering aura thick to the extreme, mingled with the Rot Claw's nauseating will of decay, seeped through the cracks like viscous venom! A horrifying claw-shadow, covered in rotting bark, immensely huge, its fingertips dripping with purple slime, was slowly, inch by inch, squeezing out from the spatial rift!

"Damn! That thing… it wants to force its way through!" Bronze Beard's face changed drastically as he gripped his forging hammer tight!

Lin Mo's heart sank to the bottom! The Rot Claw was willing to pay any price to forcibly breach the planar barrier! With the Thorn Heart territory's current strength, there was simply no way to stop a being of this caliber from descending!

"Activate… Thorn Bulwark! Maximum power!" Lin Mo roared, madly channeling the power of the Seed of Life and the Ley-Line Heart into the Ley-Line Arbiter!

Hum! Hum! Hum!

Countless dark-gold thorn roots burst from the earth, layer upon layer, frantically constructing one thick bulwark after another before the passage node! The power of the Root Domain was pushed to its limit, the entire hollow bathed in a dark-gold halo!

Yet, facing that slowly emerging shadow of the corrupted giant claw, the Thorn Bulwarks were torn apart like paper! The spatial rift kept widening under the giant claw's force! More withering aura poured in, and the green moss just sprouting at the hollow's edge instantly withered to charred black!

Can't hold! Can't hold at all!

"Lin Mo! Use that!" Bronze Beard suddenly pointed at the orange-red Ley-Line Heart floating quietly deep within the ley-line fissure! "Detonate it! Blow up the passage! Bury the rift along with that damned claw!" This was the most direct, most brutal solution in a dwarf's eyes!

Detonate the Ley-Line Heart? That was the very foundation of the Thorn Heart! The source of hope! Xiang Lingna covered her mouth in terror. Sister Ai Li struggled to rise, her eyes filled with unwillingness.

Lin Mo looked at the Ley-Line Heart bearing Priestess Liyana's sacrifice and the territory's future, then at the Rot Claw's giant claw about to tear through space and descend, his eyes filled with agony and struggle. To detonate meant abandoning everything, returning to the wasteland of despair. Not to detonate meant the Rot Claw's descent, and certain death for all!

At this moment of life-and-death choice, at this hair's-breadth instant!

The shard of the Purifying Bottle at Xiang Lingna's chest, seemingly responding to the overwhelming withering aura and the tremors of tearing space, saw the faint green light at its center blaze once more! This time, the green light was no longer gentle, but carried a… fury? A primal fury of guarding one's home, of resisting invasion!

At the same time, the thorn runes on the crossguard of the Ley-Line Arbiter blade in Lin Mo's hand erupted with unprecedented resonance! A will—deep, tragic, rooted in the earth, resolved to defend to the end—awakened with a thunderous crash from deep within the blade!

The green light in Xiang Lingna's hand and the thorn runes on the blade, across the space between them, produced a powerful resonance! A faint light bridge, woven of pure green and dark-gold thorn patterns, instantly linked the two!

A vague thought, brimming with endless vitality and ancient majesty, passed through this light bridge and entered Lin Mo's mind directly:

"Root… in the earth… life… protect… thorns… are… the Boundary…"

"With the heart as guide… with the blade as key… open… the Emerald Gate…"