Chapter 57: Whispers of the Moon Scar, the Earth Ye Mai's Pulse, and the Dust-Sealed Door

The Thorn Moonlight Shield at Sister Ai Li's fingertips shuddered violently, its silvery-white radiance like ice on the verge of shattering. That cold, insidious whisper scraped again and again in the marrow of her skull:

"Guardianship… how laughable… the elves' sacrifice… is merely nourishment for the blighted earth…"

"Embrace withering… let the moonlight… be stained with eternal violet…"

"Shut up!" Sister Ai Li forced a snarl through clenched teeth, silver light surging in her pupils! The shield collapsed with a roar, the runaway moonlight transforming into hundreds of razor-sharp silver threads, bursting outward like an enraged porcupine! Hissing sounds rang without end as the scorched earth around her was carved with crisscrossing deep gouges, and several scrap metal plates were pierced through in an instant. The backlash of agony sent her staggering back; the silver scar on her chest burned like a brand, and a wisp of faint violet qi seeped silently from the scar's edge.

"Ai Li!" Lin Mo stepped forward, driving the hilt of the "Earth Ye Mai Arbiter" into the ground. Hum! Dark-gold thorn roots burst from the soil, weaving into a ring-shaped barrier that blocked every splashing silver thread of moonlight. A verdant halo of life flowed along the roots, attempting to soothe the churning energy within her.

"It… is speaking to me…" Sister Ai Li dropped to one knee, her right hand clamped hard against her temple, nails nearly digging into the skin. "The Rot Claw… it's tempting… no, it's mocking! Mocking Priestess Liyana's sacrifice, mocking our bastion…" She jerked her head up, her eyes holding a cold, razor-sharp edge that pain could not drown. "It says… the Heart of Thorns shall return to rot!"

Lin Mo's heart lurched violently. The Rot Claw's whisper could pierce the guardian will of the Emerald Bastion? This was no simple spiritual contamination! He instinctively looked inward at the 【Seed of Life】; the dark-violet patterns along the edge of its orange-red core were now flickering like breathing, their rhythm faintly synchronized with the whisper waves Ai Li had described!

"Steady your mind!" Lin Mo barked, channeling a stream of purer Earth Ye Mai power through the root domain into Sister Ai Li's body. "Treat it as a whetstone for tempering your will! Moonlight power was born to purify—how could it tolerate such filth!" His gaze swept toward the towering firelight and hammering thunder from the furnace district. "Look at the home we are building! This steel, this bastion—that is the finest answer!"

Sister Ai Li drew a deep breath; the wasteland's freezing air mingled with the furnace's searing heat flooded her lungs. She closed her eyes, forcibly casting out the churning malice in her mind, and silver light gathered once more at her fingertips. This time she did not chase form, but sank her intent into the silver scar at her chest, feeling the lingering chill and guardianship within—the remnant of Priestess Liyana's moonlight shard. The silver light was no longer violent; it coiled around her fingertips like a trickling stream, faint yet unusually condensed.

In the furnace district, the steel bastion had begun to take shape. A five-meter-tall wall of dark-red steel rose along the edge of the depression, its rough rivets and weld marks proclaiming the dwarven iron-blood style. Copperbeard's mechanical prosthetic hand spewed blue welding flame as he fitted the last steel brick—engraved with the furnace and thorn emblem—into the reserved slot.

"Energy core, connect!" Copperbeard's voice rang like a bell. A wrench rapidly tightened the last few arm-thick copper energy conduits on the inner side of the wall. The other ends of the conduits plunged deep into the earth, linking to the energy nodes wrapped in roots within the Earth Ye Mai fissure.

Lin Mo's mind stirred. Hum—! Across the entire newly completed bastion wall, orange-red magma patterns flared to life at once! A searing aura spread outward, the air shimmering faintly in the heat. A thin yet solid film of orange-red light coated the steel wall's surface, instantly melting a scrap iron block tossed against it into glowing red molten iron!

"Bedrock Bastion, energy shield activated!" Wrench excitedly slapped the instrument panel. "Instant defense rating: Class A! Sustained output stability… wait, energy fluctuation has an abnormal ripple?" He turned a suspicious eye toward the Earth Ye Mai fissure.

Lin Mo sensed it too. At the very instant the bastion shield activated, the heartbeat of the Earth Ye Mai Heart had developed an extremely subtle irregularity. Not overconsumption—more like… interference from some same-frequency vibration? Without a flicker of expression, he sank more awareness into the Earth Ye Mai core, while the Emerald Heart shard beside it rotated slowly, releasing a gentle green glow to harmonize.

"Not bad!" Copperbeard wiped his sweat and slapped the scorching steel wall. "Next up, the gate and gun emplacements! Wrench, pull that old electromagnetic cannon off the chassis of the 'Wild Ox'! Xiang Lingna girl, purify another three barrels of condensate—we need it for quenching!"

"Mm!" Xiang Lingna nodded hard, hugged the special wooden bucket, and ran toward the water-purification unit. Passing through a relatively flat stretch on the western side of the depression, carpeted in Star Radiance Moss, her steps suddenly faltered. Several clumps of Star Radiance Moss near the rock wall had curled their normally spread pale-gold leaves inward for no apparent reason; the faint light flowing through their veins had grown dim and hurried, as if afraid of something.

She crouched down, her small hand gently brushing the leaves. "Don't be afraid…" she murmured softly, her pure natural affinity radiating outward. The leaves spread slightly under her soothing, but the flow of light within their veins stubbornly pointed toward an inconspicuous crack at the base of the rock wall. From within the crack, a faint draft seeped out, carrying a smell… of aged metal and dust—utterly unlike the wasteland's irradiated grit.

Xiang Lingna's curiosity was piqued. She fetched a scrap steel rod and carefully pried loose the rubble around the rock crevice. As the debris fell away and the gap widened, that aged scent grew stronger. She peered in; inside did not seem to be solid rock, but rather… the edge of some man-made structure? Cold, smooth, and coated in a thick layer of ash.

"Brother Lin Mo! Uncle Copperbeard! Here… there's something!" Xiang Lingna called back, her voice thin amid the furnace's roar yet carrying an undeniable note of discovery.

Lin Mo and Copperbeard hurried over at the sound. Sister Ai Li also suppressed the lingering turmoil within her and followed.

Copperbeard's mechanical eye shot out a blue beam, scanning the rock-wall crevice. "Not natural rock… metal structure! Thickness… astonishing! It's hollow behind!" His tone carried shock. "Buried this deep—this thing's older than the wasteland itself!"

Lin Mo crouched down, his fingers brushing the exposed cold metal surface. The texture was neither steel nor iron, but an unknown silver-gray alloy that, despite untold ages buried underground, remained mirror-smooth, coated only in an even layer of dust. He tried drawing the tip of the "Earth Ye Mai Arbiter" lightly across it—and left only a faint pale scratch!

"Could it be… an Chen Jiu World shelter?" Wrench squeezed in, guessing excitedly. "Or a secret armory? An energy core?"

Sister Ai Li's gaze, meanwhile, was drawn to an inconspicuous etched symbol on the metal's edge—an abstract mark formed by three intersecting arcs, simple yet exuding a certain cold technological feel. Her fingertip unconsciously gathered a wisp of faint moonlight and brushed lightly over the symbol.

Hum!

The symbol suddenly lit with a hair-thin line of blue light! Though it vanished in an instant, everyone saw it clearly!

At the same moment, the core of Lin Mo's 【Seed of Life】 gave a violent leap! That thread of dark-violet pattern, as if stimulated by the blue light, writhed sharply and transmitted a chaotic impulse tinged with greed and wariness! The Earth Ye Mai Heart's pulse became irregular in turn, and the bastion shield's light, just stabilized, flickered!

"Behind this door… there's something!" Lin Mo pressed a hand to his chest, his gaze sharp as a blade. "Something that can stir the Corruption Mark and interfere with the Earth Ye Mai… this is no good place! But it may also hold what we urgently need!" He looked toward that dust-sealed metal door, and the cold, ancient darkness seeping from deep within its crack.

Inside the Doctor's base's main control room, the surveillance image on the screen was locked onto the exposed metal door. Data streams scrolled madly:

【High-density unknown alloy structure detected (Code name: Omega-class). Age analysis: Super-Chen Jiu Era (pre-Annihilation civilization).】

【Faint energy reaction detected (Type: unknown; spectrum partially matches the "Seed of Annihilation" contingency database).】

【Target lord's energy core (Seed of Life) exhibiting high-activity interference signal (Corruption Mark)!】

【Warning: This structure may trigger unpredictable variables! "Seed of Annihilation" contingency preparation accelerating: 85%... 86%...】

The Doctor's cold fingertip hovered above a certain crimson virtual button, his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting the ghostly blue flood of data on the screen.

"The shadow behind the door… is it finally going to be revealed?" he murmured, his voice utterly flat. "Then… the experiment enters its next phase. Release the 'Catalyst.'"