Chapter 76: The Bloodthorn Path Home, the Bastion

The annihilating shockwave, like an invisible colossal wall, swept forward, carrying searing radiation dust and fragments of the withered forest, crashing over everything like a tidal wave! Where it passed, the already sparse radiation grass was uprooted, exposed rocks were scraped bare, and the air filled with the acrid stench of sulfur, ozone, and an even thicker reek of decay.

“Down!” Lin Mo barked, simultaneously unleashing the last remnants of the Order Anchor’s blue light, mingling it with the Thorns’ will, to forge a semi-transparent energy shield before them, its surface swirling with phantom thorn shadows.

BOOM—!!!

The dust wave slammed into the shield! The shield flickered violently, emitting a grating groan, its surface instantly crawling with fine cracks! The immense force hurled the three of them backward again, like leaves caught in a gale. Lin Mo clutched the metal box to his chest, his back crashing hard against a bare black rock; his throat turned sweet, blood oozing once more.

Ali and Wrench were equally battered, rolling far across the charred earth before finally stopping.

Dust slowly settled, vision clearing again. A vast stretch of the withered forest’s edge had been flattened, leaving utter devastation. In the distance, the purple-black mushroom cloud rose and slowly dissipated, marking the final end of the Upside-Down Ark’s wreckage.

“Cough… pah! That bastard Doctor… damn ruthless!” Wrench struggled to his feet, slapping radiation dust off his body, staring at the several completely extinguished indicator lights on the probe case, tears welling in his eyes.

Ali also rose, her left arm wound fully split open by the impact, blood staining half her body; the purple mist writhed like a living thing along the wound’s edge, eroding the silver radiance. Her face was as pale as gold paper, her body trembling slightly, held upright only by sheer will.

Lin Mo wiped blood from his lips, enduring the agony in his organs, his gaze sweeping over the two before settling on Ali’s wound—his heart sank. The corruption from the Rotclaw’s origin was worse than he’d feared. “Get back to the Bastion!” he rasped, his tone leaving no room for argument.

The return journey was anything but calm. The annihilation of the withered forest seemed to stir the monsters on the perimeter. Twisted, frenzied withered beasts sporadically emerged from the charred earth and rubble, charging without fear. Lin Mo’s strength was nearly spent; the summoning of thorn roots grew slow and weak. Ali, gritting her teeth against the pain, used only one hand to manipulate sparse threads of lunar light for pinpoint strikes—each spell tugged at her wound, making the purple mist surge stronger. Wrench swung a metal pipe he’d salvaged from the ruins, yelling as he smashed weaker monsters, but mostly relied on Lin Mo and Ali’s cover.

The Duanduanjigonglidelucheng ， Zoudeyichangjiannan 。 Dangpanshibileinaanhongyulanlvweiguangjiaozhidepangdashenyingzhongyuqingxichuxianzaishiyezhongshi ， Sanrenjihuyoujindengku 。

[11] The short few kilometers felt like an eternity. When the massive silhouette of Stone Bastion, its dark red and blue-green lights interwoven, finally came clearly into view, all three were nearly drained to the last drop.

“Open the gate! It’s the Lord!” the nomad warrior on the Bastion’s ramparts cried out in relief.

The heavy alloy gate, armored with thornsteel, groaned as it slowly rose on grinding gears. Inside, Tong Xu’s short, sturdy figure charged out first, his forge hammer still streaked with grease. Xiang Lingna followed close behind, her small face filled with worry—when she saw Ali’s bloodied arm and the writhing purple mist, her emerald eyes instantly filled with tears.

“Boss! Ali! You…!” Tong Xu rushed forward, taking in their battered state and Ali’s horrific wound; his thick eyebrows knotted into a frown. “Quick! Get inside! Lingna, bring your best medicine!”

Inside the Bastion, in the makeshift medical tent beside the furnace zone. Lingna carefully treated Ali’s wound with purified bandages soaked in concentrated emerald sap. When the emerald liquid touched the writhing purple mist, it hissed violently like water dropped into hot oil—the purple mist surged back in furious retaliation! Ali clenched her teeth, veins bulging on her forehead, sweat pouring down.

“This… this damn thing!” Tong Xu watched in horror—he’d never seen such stubborn corruption.

Lin Mo channeled the Order Anchor’s blue light again into the edge of Ali’s wound, combining it with Lingna’s emerald power, barely forcing the purple mist back into the wound’s depths, stabilizing it—for now. But both knew it was only a temporary fix. The corruption from the Rotclaw’s origin was like a bone-deep plague; if not eradicated, it would eventually consume Ali entirely.

“What… happened out there?” Tong Xu asked, his voice low, his gaze sweeping over the “Geopulse Arbiter” behind Lin Mo, its surface scarred with spatial tears, and the metal box he clutched tightly.

Lin Mo did not answer immediately. He walked to the geopulse fissure. The orange-red heart of the geopulse pulsed warmly, familiar and comforting. He carefully placed the metal box beside the emerald shards. The moment the box opened, the severed young branch of the World Tree, sealed by lunar vine, revealed itself—its faint but pure emerald glow mingled with the emerald shards’ radiance, a fresh breath of life quietly spreading, even the murky air of the furnace zone seeming to clear slightly.

Lingna was instantly drawn to it. She ran over, staring at the young branch, her eyes filled with affection and curiosity. She cautiously extended her small hand, her fingertips glowing faintly with emerald light, gently approaching the seal on the branch’s surface.

Hum…

The branch seemed to sense the same origin. The droplet of crystalline emerald sap at its broken end trembled slightly. The silver lunar seal coiled around it—the surface riddled with cracks—flickered with the faintest glow. Lingna’s emerald light, drawn as if magnetized, seeped thread by thread into the seal’s cracks, as if slowly repairing them.

“This is…” Tong Xu leaned in, his mechanical eye scanning the branch. “Such pure life energy! And this seal… is this an elf’s work?”

Only then did Lin Mo briefly recount his experience with the Annihilation Coordinates: the Doctor’s spatial trap, the corruption nest, Lyana’s desperate mutterings, the stitched corpse, and finally the annihilating explosion. He omitted the abnormal pulsing of his own corruption mark, focusing instead on the discovery of the World Tree branch and the severity of Ali’s wound.

“...So this branch likely came from the elf-guarded core, similar to the Emerald Heart. The Rotclaw’s target was that so-called ‘key.’ Lyana… was the last priestess guarding it.” Lin Mo concluded, his gaze fixed deeply on the faintly glowing branch beside the emerald shards. “The Doctor’s trap destroyed the coordinates—but it also brought us this. It could be hope. Or it could be a greater problem.”

Tong Xu stroked his beard, his face grim. “An elf’s sacred relic… the Rotclaw’s target… this mess runs deeper than I thought. Ali’s wound…” He glanced worriedly toward the medical tent.

At that moment, Wrench rushed over, clutching his barely repaired probe case, panting, his face lit with suppressed excitement: “Boss! Got something! While sorting through the residual data fragments pulled from the spatial chaos, I found an encrypted star map coordinate! It’s badly fragmented, but the energy signature… it’s almost identical to our Sanctuary core! And the location… it’s not on the Wasteland, not deep in the forest—it’s… in the sky?” He pointed to a twisted, faint line on the screen, pointing toward the deep stars.

Star map? Ark relic? Lin Mo’s mind stirred—he recalled Kane’s journal mentioning other Arks. Was this the Doctor’s next target? Or… another place of hope?

But before he could think further—

Hum!

An extremely faint, yet intensely urgent, energy pulse erupted without warning from deep beneath the earth—the slumbering Sanctuary Core! The pulse carried fragmented, urgent warnings:

【…Rotclaw…mark…active…】

【…Order link…pressure…rising…】

【…Corruption…backlash…possible…】

Lin Mo’s face turned pale! He snapped his gaze to his right arm! Beneath the sleeve, where the Order Anchor suppressed the dark purple mark, a searing, heartbeat-like pulsation throbbed—something was awakening, through an unknown link, from the ashes of annihilation, and screaming for it!