Chapter 79: Twinborn Alarm: The Warning of Purple Blood and the Choice of Thorns

The respite behind the Bouldwark Bulwark was brief and precious. The foul blood of the insect tide was scoured away by high-pressure water jets, pooling into the scorched earth and leaving a piercing, fishy stench. Pale-gold purification vines greedily drank in the lingering breath of the World Tree sapling from the air, leaves unfurling, motes of light flickering, laboring to mend the corroded scars on the Bulwark's armor. Copper Whisk and his smiths moved like busy worker ants, the clang of hammers never ceasing, resharpening the spikes on the Iron Thorn carousel dulled by insect ichor and reinforcing the thorn-steel base of the energy shield core. The air reeked of rust, scorched char, and a faint, fresh green scent drifting from the direction of the ley-line fissure.

Sister Ai Li sat propped in the shadow of the Bulwark's inner wall, the bandage on her left arm freshly changed. The ointment specially made by Xiang Lingna, soaked in concentrated emerald juice, gave off a cool fragrance, temporarily suppressing the pigeon-egg-sized, faintly pulsing dark-purple tumor deep in the wound. Purple-black corrosive veins, like poisonous vines, coiled around her forearm, a horrifying sight. She refused to rest, her cold gaze fixed on the center of the training ground—several crude humanoid targets lashed together from scrap metal and irradiated beast-hide. Her fingertip twitched, and a wisp of moon-silver filament, condensed like a needle, shot out soundlessly, piercing precisely into the target's brow and leaving a tiny scorched hole. Her control of power was far from what it once was; every time she drew on the power of Moon Essence, the tumor deep in her left arm sent a needle-like throb that tugged at the burning mark on Lin Mo's right arm, forming a disturbing resonance.

Lin Mo sat cross-legged at the edge of the platform near the ley-line fissure, eyes closed, spirit focused. He was not resting, but conducting a dangerous act of "inner vision." His will sank deep into his soul, carefully guiding a thread of faint ley-line energy like a probe, stabbing toward the Dark Purple Mark wrapped in the blue light of the Order Anchor. Every contact brought soul-rending agony and a cold, rotting whisper:

*"Release… devour her… merge as one…"*

The blue light of the Order Anchor flared wildly, pressing down with all its might. Through the pain he tracked the flow of the Mark's power, trying to find the vulnerable node at its core. The dark-purple glow on the sword-guard emblem flickered on and off, lighting his pale face and tightly drawn brows.

Suddenly—

Wooo—! Wooo—!

A shrill, off-key alarm tore without warning into the territory's brief calm! Utterly unlike the sharp buzz of past insect tides or withered-beast attacks, this alarm carried a broken, strange frequency, like the whimper of a dying man!

"What's happening?!" Copper Whisk's roar came from the forge area, edged with the grating echo of grinding metal.

Wrench scrambled out from behind his workbench on hands and knees, the Abyss Probe clutched to his chest. The screen no longer showed a steady scanning interface, but was being torn apart and overwritten by two wildly different energy waveforms! One waveform showed steady, rapid blue pulses, carrying the order-frequency signature of the Sanctuary Core; the other was a cold, dead purple flatline, like a tombstone!

"It's the Sanctuary Core! Boss!" Wrench's voice cracked with a sob as he pointed at the struggling blue pulse. "It's… calling for help! The signal's very weak! It's being suppressed! And… and this!" He pointed in terror at the side of the dead purple flatline, where a set of crimson, constantly jumping countdown digits glowed—【Annihilation Seed Activation Countdown: 00:14:59】!

The Doctor's countdown! Like a death knell, it seared itself directly into everyone's consciousness!

"A distress call? A countdown?" Copper Whisk lunged to the screen, his mechanical eye flashing wildly. "Location? Source?"

"The source… the sources are overlapping!" Wrench's fingers flew across the screen, trying to separate the signals. "The distress signal and the countdown signal… come from the same coordinates! Right below us! Deep in the ley lines! Near the Sanctuary Core itself!"

As if to confirm his words, a tremor ran through the ground beneath their feet—faint, yet carrying an intense sense of agony and urgency! Like the spasm of a sleeping giant's heart being pierced!

Lin Mo's eyes snapped open, his pupils contracting! The Sanctuary Core's distress signal! The Doctor's activated Annihilation Seed countdown! Both aimed straight at the very foundation of the Thornheart! In an instant he understood—this was the Doctor's double kill: either sit by and watch the Sanctuary Core be destroyed, robbing the territory of its last barrier of order and its source of energy; or walk straight into the tiger's den, right into the lethal trap planted beside the Core!

"A trap! A barefaced scheme!" Copper Whisk's forging hammer slammed into the ground, sparks flying, his stocky frame trembling with rage.

"What do we do, Boss?" Wrench stared at the jumping crimson digits, his voice shaking. "Going down is suicide! If we don't go… the Sanctuary Core's done for, and so are we!"

Time crawled past in dead silence, every second hammering against taut nerves. 14:30… 14:29…

Just then, a stifled groan of pain rang out from the training ground!

Sister Ai Li was half-kneeling on the ground, her left arm trembling violently! She had just forcibly drawn on the power of Moon Essence to suppress the backlash from the tumor; a wisp of power slipped, and the moon-silver filament grazed her own arm, sending up a string of tiny blood beads! Worse still, a few drops of blood carrying the aura of purple-black contamination splashed onto the training dummy beside her!

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!

Where the purple blood struck the beast-hide and metal, green smoke instantly rose, as if scalded by strong acid! The tough hide rapidly turned ashen and rotted, while the metal became coated in a slick layer of purple-black mold! In mere seconds, the dummy showed signs of mild corruption!

The terrifying corrosiveness made every refugee warrior who saw it gasp! Even Copper Whisk's mechanical eye stalled for an instant.

Sister Ai Li pressed hard on the wound of her left arm, staring at the dummy polluted by her own blood. For the first time, a flicker of… fear crossed her cold eyes. Fear of the power inside her own body.

"Ai Li!" Lin Mo appeared at her side in an instant, channeling the blue light of the Order Anchor into her body to forcibly suppress the rampaging tumor and the spreading purple miasma. He looked at the rapidly rotting dummy, and the chill in his heart deepened. Ai Li's contamination had already become physically contagious! The moment she was gravely wounded in battle—or lost control…

The crimson countdown ticked remorselessly: 00:13:45…

The moment of choice had arrived. Lin Mo's gaze swept over the unconscious Xiang Lingna, the listless Tender Sprout, the panicked refugees, the furious Copper Whisk, and finally settled on Ai Li's pale but stubborn face.

"Wrench! Give me the detailed spectral signature of the countdown signal! Highest precision!" Lin Mo's voice was like quenched steel—cold and decisive.

Wrench froze for a beat, then threw himself at the workbench, his fingers blurring over the probe: "Working on it! Working on it! That bastard Doctor's signal encryption is weird, it's got periodic interference ripples…"

"Master Copper Whisk!" Lin Mo turned to the dwarf, speaking at top speed. "Activate the Bulwark's highest defense level, 'Thornwall'! All energy priority to the shield core and the Iron Thorn! Abandon the outer armor, contract the defense perimeter! Prepare the… furnace overload contingency!" The last few words came out unusually heavy. Furnace overload meant detonating the ley-line furnace core in a desperate last stand, perishing together with the enemy!

Copper Whisk's mechanical eye blazed with a piercing blue light as he nodded heavily: "Leave it to me! As long as I've got one breath left, the Bulwark stands!"

Lin Mo looked at Ai Li last, his gaze complex: "You stay. Hold the Bulwark. Suppress the contamination. Down below… is too dangerous."

Sister Ai Li jerked her head up, her cold eyes locking onto Lin Mo, a flame of absolute resolve burning within: "My blood… my contamination… I'm the only one who knows exactly how it reacts near the Core!" She pressed the pulsing tumor on her left arm, her voice trembling yet utterly firm: "I can be your 'probe'! Before it devours me completely… let me be useful!"

Lin Mo looked at the unshakeable resolve in her eyes, at the living purple tumor on her arm, and thought of the Sanctuary Core's plea and the Doctor's countdown… Time would not allow hesitation.

"…Stay close to me!" Lin Mo gritted his teeth, snatching up the Leyline Arbiter. Four-colored light flowed across the sword-guard emblem; the dark-purple portion flickered with unusual violence as it sensed the mingled aura of rot and order rising from the deep ley lines below.

"Wrench! Signal signature!"

"Got it! Boss! The countdown signal's core carrier wave has a unique 'buzz' gap, frequency is…" Wrench rattled off a string of complex data.

Lin Mo committed the data to memory, his gaze turning to the heavily guarded alloy gate that led down into the deep ley lines. Beyond the gate lay the slumbering Sanctuary Core—and the Doctor's death trap, the Annihilation Seed.

"Move!" Lin Mo barked low, his figure shooting toward the gate like lightning. Ai Li followed close behind, the pulsing rate of the purple tumor on her left arm suddenly accelerating, as if it had caught the scent of its own kind.

The crimson countdown flickered at the edge of vision: 【00:11:17】. The survival of the Thornheart hung upon this unknown abyss reaching into the planet's core.