Chapter 76: The Blood Thorns of the Return Journey, the Faint Light of the Bastion, and the Throbbing of Slumber

The annihilating shockwave surged forward like an invisible colossal wall, carrying scorching waves of radioactive dust and fragments of the withered forest, sweeping over everything in its path like a landslide! Where it passed, the already sparse radiation grass was torn up by the roots, a layer was scraped off the exposed rock, and the air reeked of acrid sulfur, ozone, and an even thicker stench of decay.

"Get down!" Lin Mo barked sharply, simultaneously pouring out the remaining blue light of the Order Anchor within his body, mixing it with the power of the Thorn Will, to construct a semi-transparent energy shield flickering with phantom thorns in front of the three of them!

Boom——!!!

The dust wave slammed viciously against the shield! The shield flickered violently, emitting a teeth-grinding groan, its surface instantly crawling with fine, dense cracks! The tremendous impact sent the three of them flying once again, like leaves in a gale. Lin Mo clutched the metal case tightly to his chest, his back slamming heavily against an exposed black rock; a sweet taste rose in his throat, and fresh blood overflowed once more.

Sister Ai Li and Wrench were equally wretched, tumbling across the scorched earth for a great distance before finally coming to a stop.

The dust slowly settled, and the view cleared once more. The edge of the withered forest had been forcibly flattened over a large stretch, leaving a scene of utter devastation. In the distance, the rising purple-black mushroom cloud was slowly dissipating, declaring the complete end of the Inverted Ark's wreckage.

"Cough, cough... puh! That bastard of a Doctor... sure plays dirty!" Wrench struggled to his feet, brushing the radioactive dust off his body, and looked at the several indicator lights on the probe box that had completely gone out, on the verge of tears.

Sister Ai Li also stood up. The wound on her left arm had completely ruptured under the impact, blood dyeing half her body red, and that wisp of purple qi writhed at the edge of the wound like a living thing, corroding the silver radiance. Her face was deathly pale, her body swaying slightly, held up only by sheer will.

Lin Mo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, endured the searing pain in his viscera, his gaze swept over the two of them, and finally settled on Sister Ai Li's wound, his heart sinking. The pollution from the source of the Rotclaw was more troublesome than anticipated. "Back to the Bastion first!" His voice was hoarse, brooking no argument.

The return journey was far from peaceful. The annihilation of the withered forest seemed to have stimulated the monsters on the outskirts. Scattered, even more twisted and frenzied withered beasts kept burrowing out of the scorched earth and rubble, throwing themselves at them without fear of death. Lin Mo's power was greatly depleted, and the summoning of thorn roots had become sluggish and feeble. Sister Ai Li endured the searing pain, operating the sparse Moonlight threads with only one hand for point-kills; every spell she cast tugged at her wound, letting the purple qi grow stronger by a fraction. Wrench, meanwhile, swung a metal pipe he had picked up from the ruins, yelling as he smashed the weaker monsters that drew near, relying more often on the cover provided by Lin Mo and Sister Ai Li.

A journey of just a few kilometers was traversed with extraordinary difficulty. When the massive silhouette of the Stone Bastion, woven from dark red and blue-green faint lights, finally came clearly into view, the three of them were nearly spent.

"Open the gate! It's the Lord!" The refugee warriors on watch atop the Bastion cried out in delighted surprise.

The heavy alloy gate, clad in thorn-steel armor, slowly rose amid the roar of gears. From within, Copperbeard's short, stout, solid figure charged out at the forefront, his forging hammer still smeared with grease. Sister Xiang Lingna followed close behind, her little face full of worry; the moment she saw Sister Ai Li's bloodstained arm and the churning purple qi, her emerald-green eyes instantly welled up with tears.

"Boss! Sister Ai Li! You guys..." Copperbeard rushed forward, saw the wretched state of the three of them and Sister Ai Li's terrifying wound, and his thick brows instantly knotted into a frown. "Quick! Get inside! Sister Xiang Lingna, prepare your best medicine!"

Inside the Bastion, in a makeshift medical shed beside the furnace district, Sister Xiang Lingna carefully treated Sister Ai Li's wound with purified bandages soaked in concentrated emerald juice. When the emerald-green juice came into contact with the churning purple qi, it was like cold water dripping into boiling oil, producing a violent hissing sound, and the purple qi counterattacked frantically! Sister Ai Li clenched her teeth tightly, veins bulging on her forehead, cold sweat streaming down.

"This... this damned thing!" Copperbeard watched, his heart pounding with dread; he had never seen such stubborn pollution.

Lin Mo channeled the blue light of the Order Anchor once more into the edge of Sister Ai Li's wound, joining forces with Sister Xiang Lingna's emerald power, and only just managed to press the purple qi back into the depths of the wound, stabilizing it for the time being. But both of them knew this was only a stopgap measure. The pollution from the source of the Rotclaw was like a maggot eating into the bone; if not eradicated, it would eventually devour Sister Ai Li completely.

"Out there... what happened?" Copperbeard asked in a heavy voice, his gaze sweeping over the "Ley Line Arbiter" behind Lin Mo, which was covered in spatial tear marks, and the metal case he held tightly to his chest.

Lin Mo did not answer immediately, but walked to the side of the ley line fissure. The orange-red Heart of the Ley Lines pulsed, bringing its familiar warmth. He carefully placed the metal case beside the emerald fragment. The instant the case opened, the severed World Tree sapling sealed by moonlight vines was revealed; its faint yet pure emerald light and the green hue of the emerald fragment complemented each other, and a fresh breath of life quietly spread, making even the murky air of the furnace district seem several degrees fresher.

Sister Xiang Lingna was instantly drawn over; she trotted over, looked at the sapling, her eyes filled with affection and curiosity. She tentatively extended her small hand, a faint emerald green wreathing her fingertips, and gently approached the seal on the surface of the sapling.

Hum...

The sapling seemed to sense the aura of the same source, and the crystalline drop of emerald juice at its broken end trembled slightly. The silver moonlight seal wrapped around it, its surface covered in cracks, also seemed to glow with an extremely faint thread of light. The green at Sister Xiang Lingna's fingertips, as if drawn to it, wove thread by thread into the cracks of the seal, as if performing some slow repair.

"This is..." Copperbeard also leaned over, his mechanical prosthetic eye scanning the sapling. "Such pure life energy! And this seal... is it the work of the elves?"

Only then did Lin Mo briefly recount the experience at the annihilation coordinates: the Doctor's spatial trap, the Corruption Nest, Priestess Liyana's desperate ravings, the stitched giant corpse, and the final devastating annihilation explosion. He concealed the abnormal throbbing of the Corruption Mark within his own body, focusing instead on the discovery of the World Tree sapling and the thorny nature of Sister Ai Li's wound.

"... So this sapling very likely comes from the source core similar to the Emerald Heart, guarded by the elves. The Rotclaw's target is that so-called 'Key.' Priestess Liyana... was the last priestess to guard it." Lin Mo concluded at last, his gaze falling deeply upon the sapling glowing faintly beside the emerald fragment. "The Doctor's trap destroyed the coordinates, but it also let us bring this back. It may be hope, or it may be an even greater trouble."

Copperbeard stroked his beard, his expression Heavy and Solemn: "A holy relic of the elves... the Rotclaw's target... it seems this muddy water is deeper than I imagined! Sister Ai Li's wound..." He looked worriedly toward the medical shed.

Just then, Wrench came running over, hugging his barely repaired probe box, panting, a hint of irrepressible excitement on his face: "Boss! A discovery! When I was sorting through the residual data fragments I grabbed from the spatial turbulence, I found a set of encrypted star chart coordinates! Although they're terribly incomplete, the energy signature... is very similar to our Sanctuary Core! And the location... it doesn't seem to be in the Wasteland, nor deep in the forest, it's... up in the sky?" He pointed at a distorted dashed trajectory on the screen pointing toward the deep starry sky.

A star chart? An Ark ruin? Lin Mo's heart stirred, recalling the other Arks mentioned in Cain's journal. Could this be the Doctor's next target, or... another place of hope?

However, before he could think it through—

Hum!

An extremely faint, yet urgently pressing energy fluctuation came without warning from deep underground! It was the slumbering Sanctuary Core! The information transmitted in the fluctuation was broken and intermittent, yet filled with warning:

【... Rotclaw... Mark... active...】

【... Order Link... pressure... surging...】

【... Pollution... backlash... possible...】

Lin Mo's face changed drastically! He whipped his gaze toward his own right arm! Beneath the sleeve, at the location of the Dark Purple Mark suppressed by the Order Anchor, a searing, heart-like throbbing was coming in waves! As if something, through some unknown connection, was awakening from the distant embers of that annihilation, and was calling out to it frantically!