Chapter 63

The terrifying pressure from the Rotclaw projection faded, leaving behind a heavy silence of survival in the depression. The winding, deep-blue crack on the Jade Bastion resembled a grotesque scar, silently recounting the brutality just endured. The withered scent lingering in the air left Xiang Lingna’s plants limp and drooping, and the orange-red pulses within the earth fissures dimmed noticeably.

Lin Mo leaned on the Earth Mai Arbiter, kneeling on one knee as he gasped for breath. Forcing the Anchor of Order to reinforce the bastion, coupled with the corrupted mark’s violent backlash, had drained nearly all his strength. Deep within his soul, the Anchor’s blue light, though dimmed, still firmly suppressed the lurking violet mass—but the prickling sense of weakness refused to vanish. He could clearly sense that the sanctuary core sustaining the Order link deep beneath the earth had sunk into deep “sleep,” retaining only its most basic sensory functions.

“Boss! Are you okay?” Wrench rushed over first, wanting to help but afraid to touch him.

“Not dead yet.” Lin Mo waved him off, voice hoarse. He stared at the crack on the bastion, brow furrowed. Though the Order energy had forcibly sealed the physical structure, the life force and earth vein connection in that region had clearly been corrupted—now fragile and resistant, like necrotic tissue.

“Bastion structural integrity down to less than seventy percent,” Tong Xu’s mechanical ocular scanned the crack, data streams scrolling across its lens. “That ‘scar’ was patched on hard—its internal energy pathways have been corroded by decay forces, making it the weakest point. Another attack like that one? It’ll shatter right here.”

Ai Li stepped before the crack, Ningju a faint sliver of lunar radiance at her fingertip and probed it cautiously. Hiss! The silver glow barely touched the You blue repair edge before being repelled by a lingering, chilling resistance—and a trace of faint purple energy snaked back along the moonlight! She grunted, her fingertip stinging, and hastily withdrew her power. “No good,” she said, face grim. “Purification energy can’t penetrate. The residual decay willpower resists—even… contaminates my power.”

Lingna tried nurturing the soil around the crack with the emerald heart’s vitality. The golden-star moss seedlings struggled to sprout from the charred earth, but their leaf edges quickly turned sickly gray, growth painfully slow. “The soil… is sick…” she said, heartbroken.

“The sanctuary’s energy is asleep. We’re on our own.” Lin Mo stood, his gaze sweeping over the worried faces, finally settling on the earth furnace still spewing flame and smoke, and the mountain of dark red Fire Wen Steel ingots beside it. His voice was absolute: “Reinforce it! With the power we control! Master Tong Xu—I need stronger walls! Walls that resist decay!”

The dwarf craftsman snorted heavily, soot still clinging to his beard. “Don’t need you to tell me! Watch me!” He strode toward the furnace, seized a freshly cooled Fire Wen Steel ingot in his mechanical hand, weighed it, then stared at the You blue crack—his eyes blazing. “Fire Wen Steel’s hard enough, but it’s not enough against that kind of decay force! Need to add something… special!”

He pointed sharply at Lingna: “Girl! Get me the most ‘vibrant’ soil from your emerald nursery! And as much star-moss sap as you can squeeze out!” Then he turned to Wrench: “Bring me one of those blue plates we pulled from the iron coffin (sanctuary)! The smallest one!”

Though confused, Wrench moved swiftly. Lingna dashed back to the nursery, carefully gathering soil saturated with the emerald heart’s aura and squeezing out thick emerald sap.

Tong Xu tossed the Fire Wen Steel ingot back into the furnace; the orange-red earth fire swallowed it again. He manually pulled the bellows (a modified mechanical pressure device), raising the furnace temperature to a terrifying level—the steel melted into a churning lava. At that moment, he roared: “Now!”

Lingna poured the bowl of richly vital soil and emerald sap into a specially heat-resistant crucible. Wrench, using insulated tongs, carefully lowered a palm-sized, edge-cut deep-blue crystal plate into the molten steel!

Hiss—!!!

A violent reaction erupted! The molten steel instantly boiled! The blue crystal plate did not melt—instead, it erupted with intense deep-blue light, countless fine energy patterns emerging and weaving through the molten metal. The emerald soil and sap dissolved into emerald specks, drawn irresistibly into the deep-blue veins! The essence of life and the cold Order energy fused miraculously within the searing steel!

Tong Xu’s mechanical hand remained steady as a rock, wielding the forging hammer with an ancient, mysterious rhythm. Ding! Ding! Ding! Each strike sent sparks that were no longer merely crimson, but flecked with tiny blue-green glimmers! Amid the metallic resonance, it seemed as if the pulse of life and the rhythm of Order were harmonizing!

New ingots emerged under Tong Xu’s hammer. Their base remained dark red, flowing with orange lava-like Wen , but upon close inspection, countless hair-thin blue-green networks—like capillaries—glowed faintly within the metal. They were still heavy, yet now carried a peculiar warmth and a restrained energy hum.

【Item: Thornsteel (Prototype）】

【Material: Fire Wen Steel base, fused with trace Order energy crystals (Sanctuary-derived), emerald life essence (Star-moss / soil)】

【Properties: High physical strength, excellent energy conductivity (especially Order/Life), partial resistance to withering/decay energy corruption (passively weakens and delays)】

“Done!” Tong Xu wiped sweat from his brow, gazing at the strangely luminous ingot with pride. “Call it ‘Thornsteel’! Use this to patch that ‘scar’—then coat the entire bastion’s outer layer! Let’s see how that damn claw bites now!”

Repair work began immediately. Under Tong Xu’s direction, Lin Mo manipulated thorn roots to carefully peel away the damaged old steel bricks from the worst-cracked zone. The newly forged Thornsteel ingots were heated and shaped; one by one, thick steel bricks glowing faintly blue-green were lifted by the roots and fitted seamlessly into the bastion’s wounds. When the final brick was set and sealed with a special metal melt infused with emerald sap, the entire crack zone was transformed.

The deep-blue Order repair traces were buried beneath the heavy Thornsteel, leaving only cold, hard iron and a subdued inner glow. When the bastion’s energy shield flowed over this area, the previous sluggish resistance vanished—replaced by smooth, stable flow. Even more remarkably, when Lingna attempted to plant star-moss around the repaired zone, though growth remained slow, the grayish decay signs had noticeably receded!

Thornheart now possessed its first shield against decay.

Wrench, clutching the remaining blue crystal plate and the massive data copied from the sanctuary’s control console (stored on several sturdy, pre-collapse physical memory blocks), plunged into the “lab” constructed from the wreckage of an assault platform beside the furnace. His beady eyes glinted with manic energy as he muttered to himself before a crude energy analyzer (core component from the “Clearer”) and a pile of circuit boards:

“Order energy map… stable… controllable…”

“Weapon system interface… compatibility test…”

“Bastion shield optimization algorithm… hehehe…”

“And this… ‘Hive’ point-defense system? Great! Take the ‘Clearer’s’ cannon, modify it—works fine!”

One after another, rough yet wildly imaginative blueprints took shape under his pen: bastion turrets forged from Thornsteel, firing small Order energy pulses; rotating point-defense winches bristling with spikes, powered by furnace waste heat (named “Iron Thorn”); even a prototype “Stone Field” generator converting earth vein energy into high-frequency oscillation waves to blanket the bastion’s perimeter!

Thornheart was transforming the relics of the old world into fangs and claws to defend its new home.

The main screen of the Doctor’s base clearly displayed the image of the bastion repaired with Thornsteel, alongside Wrench’s crude weapon blueprints in his makeshift lab.

【Detected target territory applying Order energy crystals (Sanctuary-derived material)…】

【Detected weapon system development direction (based on Sanctuary database)…】

【Threat model updated: Thornheart defense system upgrading… predicted threat level increase: 37%…】

【Execute countermeasure protocol: Activate dormant unit ‘Probe-07’, release ‘False Blueprint’ (embedded logic trap and energy overload backdoor) into target information repository.】

【Objective: Lure development path into error, trigger self-destruction at critical node.】

A miniature mechanical device, disguised as a common post-apocalyptic radiation beetle, quietly crawled out of the Doctor’s base ventilation duct, its wings vibrating, silently flying toward Thornheart.