Chapter 82: The Coordinates of Star Dust, the Doctor

The shattered nebula pattern rotated slowly on the probe screen, like a giant eye opening in the abyss of the cosmos. A virtual shadow of the Ark-7 wreckage, simulated by Thornsteel energy, hovered within it—cracks jagged, radiating an aura of death and ruin. The twisted garbled text, like a curse, was seared onto Lin Mo’s retinas—【Ark-7 Core… Star Dust Sea… Annihilation… Key】.

Wrench’s fingers froze midair, his pea-sized eyes filled with terror: “L-Lord! It… it popped out by itself! I hadn’t finished analyzing it! This… this damn thing is contacting us on its own? Or… has the Doctor’s trap been activated?”

Lin Mo forcibly suppressed the lingering searing pain and dizziness from the mark on his right arm, stepping forward to the workbench. The star map coordinates on the screen were no longer incomplete—they were startlingly clear, pointing to a strange void above an unknown region deep within the Withered Forest, far from the wasteland: the “Star Dust Sea.” The virtual shadow of Ark-7 stood like a glaring landmark, nailed dead center on the coordinates.

“Not a trap activated,” Lin Mo’s voice was cold, laced with the chill of seeing through a conspiracy. “It’s the Doctor’s invitation.” He pointed at the garbled text. “‘Key’… he’s using the very thing the Rotclaw seeks as bait! He knows we’ve taken the World Tree’s tender shoot. He knows we need pure Star Dust. This coordinate… is his final arena, prepared just for me and the Rotclaw.”

Copperbeard slammed his forge hammer onto the ground, sparks flying: “Then we smash his arena! Who cares about the Doctor or the Rotclaw—if they stick out a claw, we chop it off!”

“It’s not that simple,” Lin Mo’s gaze swept over the unconscious Ellie and Lingna, over the withered World Tree shoot, then returned to the lifeless Ark-7 shadow on the screen. “The Star Dust Sea… the Old World archives mention it—a relatively calm zone within the dimensional energy turbulence, but brimming with unknown dangers. The Doctor chose it for a deeper reason. And…” He paused, his tone heavy. “Ellie’s contamination is only temporarily suppressed. Lingna and the shoot are both severely drained. The territory needs time to recover—and someone to guard it.”

Copperbeard understood Lin Mo’s concerns, his bushy brows knotted: “You want to go alone? No! Too dangerous! That place is alien ground—the Doctor and the Rotclaw must have laid a net of traps!”

“I must go.” Lin Mo’s voice was ironclad, resolute beyond doubt. “Pure Star Dust is the only hope to heal Ellie, suppress the mark, and perhaps even repair the Sanctuary’s core. The World Tree shoot’s power has proven it—only high-purity order-born substances like Star Dust can restore it. This isn’t just for now—it’s for the future of Thornheart!” The mark on his right arm seemed to sense his resolve, throbbing again with a searing pulse—silent urging and threat.

Wrench stared at the clear coordinates on the screen, then at Lin Mo’s pale face. His pea-sized eyes flickered with struggle, then he gritted his teeth: “Lord, I’m going with you! This damn probe’s been tampered with by the Doctor, but the core Thornsteel energy circuit? I rewired it myself! I can disable its signal transmission—still works fine as a sensor! In that hellhole, Star Dust Sea, you won’t take a single step without my sensor!”

Lin Mo looked into Wrench’s eyes—brimming with desperate courage—and nodded. “Good.”

“Master Copperbeard,” Lin Mo turned to the dwarf. “I entrust the territory to you. Repair the ramparts, guard Ellie and Lingna, protect the shoot and the Sanctuary core. If I… don’t return, you are Thornheart’s next guardian.”

Copperbeard’s mechanical eye flared violently blue, then faded into a heavy sigh. He slammed his fist against his chest. “Rest easy! As long as I draw breath, the territory stands! You… come back alive, you hear me!”

In the days that followed, Thornheart entered its most intense state of wartime readiness. Copperbeard led all craftsmen to reinforce the ramparts, strengthening the energy shield core and installing additional physical traps at critical points. Wrench plunged into his workbench, frantically dismantling and reassembling the “Abyss Probe,” stripping away the Doctor’s backdoor programs, while using limited materials to hastily fabricate crude but vital space survival gear—sealed helmets (modified from assault platform hatches), a rudimentary oxygen recycler (relying on Lingna’s specially grown moss), and above all, a short-range propulsion backpack powered by a Thornsteel energy core.

Lin Mo sat cross-legged beside the earth vein fissure. He no longer tried to suppress the mark on his right arm; instead, he consciously guided the earth vein’s energy and the Thorn Will’s power, carefully stimulating it—like walking along a cliff’s edge, seeking to glimpse the Rotclaw’s operational patterns and weaknesses before it exploded. Each probe felt like a blade slicing his soul, bringing intense pain and brief risks of loss of control—but after each agony, his understanding of that decaying force deepened. The dark purple glow on the hilt emblem flickered unpredictably, like a coiled venomous serpent.

Simultaneously, he sank his consciousness into the faint, foundational link with the Sanctuary core. He made no demand for energy support, but combed through its dormant vast database like searching a dusty encyclopedia, hunting for fragments of information on “Star Dust Sea,” “Pure Star Dust,” and “Ark-7.” The data was fragmented, riddled with interference—like groping through thick fog—but he pieced together key insights: the Star Dust Sea’s spatial structure was wildly unstable, with natural “Star Dust Storms”; pure Star Dust formed only at the storm’s core. Ark-7 was not a war fortress, but a deep-space observation and research platform—its core database likely held the most complete Old World records on the “Wave of Annihilation” and the “Source Matrix” (the Rotclaw’s precursor)—and, repeatedly referenced with the highest clearance, an encrypted file: 【Project Key: Feasibility Report on Fusion of World Tree Origin and Ark Matrix】.

At dawn three days later, the rampart gate groaned open with heavy mechanical thunder.

Lin Mo and Wrench stood outside. Lin Mo wore a makeshift armor of Thornsteel scales and purified moss lining; behind him, the modified short-range propulsion backpack hummed. “Earth Verdict” was strapped to his back, its hilt emblem temporarily muted by a custom metal sheath infused with Lingna’s jade sap. His face remained pale, but his eyes were sharp as unsheathed blades.

Wrench carried his massive probe case, reinforced and fitted with extra thrusters, resembling a bloated metal turtle. His sealed helmet sat firmly on his head, the transparent visor fogged with condensation, his pea-sized eyes brimming with tension and excitement.

Copperbeard stood inside the gate, behind him silent refugee warriors. Ellie and Lingna remained unconscious, placed deep within the rampart beside the earth vein fissure.

“Come back alive,” Copperbeard’s voice was low and firm.

Lin Mo nodded, cast one final glance at his sleeping companions and the faint emerald glow within the rampart, then turned sharply: “Departure!”

The propulsion backpack spat out a tail of orange-red and blue-green flame, launching the two skyward, hurtling toward the depths of the Withered Forest, toward the unknown void marked by the star map—the Star Dust Sea. The wasteland wind howled past their ears; as they moved beyond the earth vein’s core, the mark on Lin Mo’s right arm throbbed with restless agitation, as if scenting the hunt.

Just as their figures vanished against the gray horizon—

Deep within Thornheart territory, beside the earth vein fissure—the withered tip of the World Tree shoot, its nearly extinguished emerald bud, faintly yet stubbornly, flickered once more. A barely perceptible, probing pulse of intent traveled along an invisible thread, quietly chasing Lin Mo’s departing path.

Deep in the Withered Forest, on a stretch of warped, charred earth twisted by spatial chaos—a tiny mechanical device disguised as a radiation beetle glowed red in its compound eye, compressing and encrypting the image of the two ascending figures into an invisible signal, shooting it toward the Star Dust Sea.

The Doctor’s cold voice echoed as if from the void: 【Prey engaged. Final Annihilation Protocol… synchronized. Countdown initiated…】