Chapter 87: The Awakening of Moonlight, the Whisper of the Sapling, and the Fall of the Starry Sky

The bastion groaned in agony under the bombardment of the annihilation beams. The newly risen orange-red light barrier flickered violently against the withering torrent, like a dying candle in a gale. The vine protective net and thorny root barrier Xiang Lingna had constructed withered and crumbled rapidly after deflecting the fatal strike, leaving burning wreckage and molten thorn fragments scattered across the ground. The little girl herself collapsed to the ground once more, her face paler than before, her breathing faint, and the light of the Emerald Heart shard on her chest dimmed to its absolute lowest. The new sprout at the tip of the World Tree sapling had curled up completely, its emerald glow nearly extinguished.

"Xiang Lingna!" Copper Beard saw Xiang Lingna fall, his heart splitting with terror, but he could not leave his command position. He could only transform his fury and worry into a roar: "Hold! Hold for me! Furnace energy at full! Don't stop the bombardment!"

The surviving hive turrets spat sparse pulse-nets, and the iron thorn wheels ground and slashed with difficulty through the piles of monster corpses. The refugee warriors fired desperately with modified gunpowder rifles and crude energy weapons, beating back the withering monsters climbing the bastion. Every explosion, every roar, came with the passing of lives and the trembling of the bastion. The crystal cluster on the back of the Corrupted Scorpion Turret lit up once more, destructive purple light beginning to gather, the shadow of death looming again.

In the midst of this desperate grinding battle, beside the ley line fissure, Sister Ai Li—who had been slumbering all this while—her body suddenly trembled ever so slightly.

Her consciousness was sinking into a dark abyss woven of cold and searing pain. Deep within the wound on her left arm, the forcibly compressed dark-purple tumor pulsed like a living thing, emanating a sinister, corrosive chill, attempting to devour her remaining will. Chaotic whispers echoed in her ears, filled with the seduction of depravity and destruction.

【……Give up……resist……】

【……Embrace……annihilation……gain……rebirth……】

【……Thorns……shackles……break them……】

At the instant her consciousness was about to be dragged completely into the abyss, a wisp of extremely faint yet unusually pure emerald-green light, like a ray of sunlight piercing through heavy clouds, illuminated a corner of the darkness. The source of the light seemed to be connected to the Outside, connected to a faint yet resilient will reaching out to her.

【……Sister Ai Li……sister……wake up……】

【……Homeland……danger……need……you……】

It was Xiang Lingna! It was the call transmitted by that child at the cost of her very last strength!

Immediately after, another fragment of will, even fainter yet carrying the breath of an ancient forest and the clear radiance of moonlight, also slipped quietly along this emerald channel into the depths of her consciousness. It was the broken, intermittent murmur from the World Tree sapling:

【……Moon Goddess……priestess……inheritance……】

【……Purifying……blade……sever……decay……】

【……With……moonlight……as guide……with……life……as oath……】

These fragmented thoughts, like pebbles cast into a pool of dead water, stirred ripples in Sister Ai Li's dormant consciousness. Xiang Lingna's call ignited her obsession to protect, and the sapling's murmur awakened the ancient inheritance belonging to the Moon Goddess's priestess deep within her soul!

"Ugh—!"

Inside the medical tent, Sister Ai Li's eyes snapped open! Her ice-blue pupils were no longer lost, but burned with a bone-piercing silver flame! A terrifying aura, far purer and more condensed than before, carrying the majestic presence of ancient moonlight, erupted explosively from within her! The silver scar on her chest was no longer a wound, but had transformed into a silver emblem flowing with moonlight and thorn patterns!

She did not even glance at the wound on her left arm where the purple tumor still remained embedded. Her body, like a weightless phantom, vanished from the spot in an instant! When she reappeared, she stood proudly atop the highest battlement of the bastion! The gale whipped her bloodstained silver hair, and beneath her damaged light armor, the newly born silver emblem shone brilliantly!

The annihilation beam of the Corrupted Scorpion Turret was poised to fire!

Sister Ai Li's gaze was icy. Ignoring the surging monster tide below and the rotting wyverns diving from the sky, she slowly raised her intact right arm, five fingers spread, aiming at the massive crystal cluster on the back of one of the scorpion turrets!

No complicated incantations, no elaborate hand seals. Only the simplest, most direct drive of will!

"Moonlight—Purifying Eclipse!"

Hum!

A silver light spear, condensed to the extreme, as if forged from moonlight itself, instantly took shape in her palm! The spear was not solid, but composed of countless flowing moonlight runes with thorn-like barbs! The spearhead emanated a soul-freezing purifying chill!

Hiss——!!!

The silver light spear ignored the distance of space, instantly piercing through the massive purple crystal cluster on the back of that Corrupted Scorpion Turret!

Crack!

The core of the pierced crystal cluster instantly became covered in web-like fractures! The violent decay energy within lost its restraint!

Boom——!!!

An explosion far more violent than before rose within the monster tide! That massive scorpion turret, along with the large swath of withering monsters around it, was utterly torn apart in the out-of-control purple-black energy storm!

One strike! Just one strike! And a terrifying scorpion turret was destroyed!

This earth-shattering scene caused even the frenzied monster tide to falter for a moment! Even the gathering light of the other two scorpion turrets showed a momentary disturbance!

Copper Beard and the refugee warriors stared dumbfounded, then erupted into thunderous cheers!

"Big Sister Ai Li!" "The Moon Goddess bless us!"

Sister Ai Li did not pause. Her icy eyes locked onto the second scorpion turret! Her right arm rose once more!

However, at the very instant she condensed the second light spear—

Boom!!!

A muffled, earth-shaking roar that did not come from the battlefield, as if from deep within the earth, as if from the highest heavens, slammed brutally into everyone's heart! The entire wasteland world trembled violently from this roar!

Everyone instinctively looked up!

They saw that above the eternally gray wasteland sky, a massive pitch-black rift spanning the horizon had torn open without warning! Deep within the rift was not void, but a churning chaotic-colored sea of stardust! And within that turbulent flow, a broken figure burning with chaotic energy flames, trailing a long tail, like a falling star, was slamming toward the earth from that rift!

The direction was precisely the bastion of the Thorn Heart!

"That is……" Copper Beard's mechanical eye instantly locked onto that burning figure, capturing the familiar outline beneath the broken armor and the dark-gold war blade still gripped tightly!

"Boss!!!" Wrench's heart-wrenching, tear-choked scream rang across the entire battlefield!

Lin Mo! He had returned! In the manner of a falling meteor!

At the same time, inside the bastion, beside the ley line fissure. At the tip of that section of World Tree sapling, that completely curled and withered emerald sprout, at the instant the stardust sea rift opened, upon sensing the familiar soul fluctuation within that burning figure and the faint yet pure stardust aura it carried, suddenly burst forth with one last, deathbed-like intense emerald radiance!