Chapter 72: The Inverted Ark, the Echo of Traps, and the Shattered Space

Purple-black withered mist clung to exposed skin like a living thing, thick and sticky, bringing a chilling sting and a nauseating sliminess. The stench of decay was so dense it seemed to solidify; every breath felt like swallowing poison. The wrench’s “Abyss Probe” blared a shrill overload alarm, its screen’s purple bar representing decay concentration pushed to its absolute limit.

“It’s no use! If we go further, the thorn-steel energy circuits in the probe’s core will corrode and collapse!” The wrench gripped the metal case tightly; its surface was coated in a slick layer of black dew, steadily eroding the armor plating.

Lin Mo stopped, gripping the “Earth Pulse Arbiter” in his hand. The four-colored emblem on the hilt glowed like a candle in the wind, its order-anchor’s blue light struggling to purge the filth within a few feet around him. He focused his perception on the faint emerald signal the probe had detected—it lay at the heart of the mist ahead, inside the inverted structure tightly entwined by countless thick, serpent-like vines oozing purple-black pus. The structure was shattered, like a fallen ark plunged sideways into the earth; its twisted metal frame still bore traces of old-world technology, but it was smothered in thick, pulsating mats of decayed fungal growth.

“The signal… it’s gone!” The wrench cried out in despair, “Just now! Like something… cut it off!”

In the instant the signal vanished, a sudden transformation erupted!

Hum—

A powerful, invisible pulling force surged from the direction of the inverted ark’s wreckage! Lin Mo and the others were dragged helplessly into an invisible quagmire, pulled toward the death-laden vines. Simultaneously, the surrounding mist churned violently; countless hidden withered monsters—half-human, half-plant corrupted treemen, slime-dripping bone aggregates, and other unnameable twisted abominations—emerged from shadows and decayed soil, shrieking with hunger, surging forward like sharks scenting blood!

“Trap!” Ai Li shouted, silver light exploding from her fingertips! The Thorn Moonlight Shield instantly coalesced before them, a thick silver barrier etched with thorn runes, forcibly holding back the immense pull. But the shield trembled violently under the dual assault of the monsters’ charges and the pulling force; its silver radiance rapidly dimmed!

“Not decay claws!” Lin Mo’s pupils contracted. His inner Order Anchor surged violently—he clearly sensed the core of the pulling force was not pure decay, but… a cold, precise, intensely technological energy field. Same origin as the Sanctuary’s order force, yet saturated with twisted malice. The Doctor’s work.

“Grab hold of me!” Tong Xu’s voice roared in his ears. Lin Mo acted instantly, channeling Thorn Will into the earth. Thick stone roots burst upward, coiling around their waists like ship anchors, driving deep into the ground to resist the pull!

“Wrench! Disrupt it!” Lin Mo roared.

“Got it!” The wrench’s face twisted with madness. He yanked open a side panel on the probe case, revealing the humming, orange-red-hot thorn-steel core inside. He pulled out several crude energy conduits, jammed them into the core’s interface, and connected the other ends to several spiked energy jammers ripped from the “Clearer.”

“Taste Wrench’s ‘noise’!” He slammed down a red button.

Uuuuugh—!!!

A piercing, chaotic, eardrum-shredding wave of energy noise erupted from the thorn-steel core in a fan-shaped blast! The invisible shockwave swept forward; the foremost withered monsters froze, staggered, and began tearing at each other as if struck by invisible hammers. The technological field binding the three flickered violently like a bad signal—the pull weakened sharply!

“Now!” Ai Li’s eyes flashed silver. The Moonlight Silk Net instantly contracted and condensed into a massive silver blade, radiating bone-chilling purifying cold, slashing down at the thickest of the vines binding the inverted ark’s wreckage!

Ssshhhh—

The silver blade cut through like a hot knife through oil. The struck vines shrieked in agony, spurting purple-black pus from their wounds, which was instantly frozen and purified by Moonlight energy, withering and snapping apart. The massive inverted ark, deprived of partial support, groaned with tortured metal, tilting violently to one side!

In the gap revealed beneath its tilted hull, a sealed alloy entrance—scarred with burn marks and broken pipes—suddenly appeared, hidden behind vines. Along its edge, a faintly glowing, faintly flickering blue device, geometrically similar to the Sanctuary’s core but riddled with cracks, projected a distorted light screen—on it, a blurred silhouette in a white lab coat stared coldly at them. The Doctor!

“Welcome… to the Annihilation Outpost.” A cold, emotionless electronic voice echoed directly into their minds through the screen.

Boom—!!!

The instant the Doctor’s image vanished, the blue device beneath the inverted ark’s wreckage erupted in blinding light! A spatial distortion field a hundred times stronger than before exploded outward! Within a hundred meters centered on the wreckage, space shattered like broken glass, instantly crisscrossed with countless black fissures. The earth tore open; ancient trees were shredded into dust by twisted spatial fragments; light bent wildly, forming a hallucinatory labyrinth of utter spatial disorientation—a death maze.

“Spatial chaos trap!” The wrench’s voice cracked with tears; his probe’s screen instantly flooded with static and garbled code.

Lin Mo felt the world spin. The ground beneath his feet vanished. The thorn roots wrapped around his waist were torn apart inch by inch by the violent spatial forces. He poured every ounce of strength into activating the Order Anchor’s blue light to shield himself, reaching desperately for Ai Li—the closest to him.

Chaotic spatial shards sliced like invisible blades against his protective blue glow. Just as his fingers neared Ai Li’s arm, a massive spatial rift yawned open between them like a ravenous maw—within it, a churning void of chaotic energy, utterly despairing.

“Lin Mo—!” Ai Li’s cry was swallowed by the raging spatial storm.

Lin Mo’s eyes burned with rage as he watched Ai Li’s figure swept away by another chaotic spatial vortex into the wreckage’s depths. His own body, shielded by the Order Anchor’s blue light, was flung in the opposite direction, crashing violently into a pile of twisted metal debris. Pain exploded through him—and darkness swallowed his vision.

In the chaos, Tong Xu’s terrified scream seemed to come from far away, then vanished beneath the roar of the spatial tide.