Chapter 91: Falling Star, Furnace-Burning City, and the Watch of Thorns

The burning figure tore through the ashen sky, wrapped in the chaotic turbulence left behind from the Sea of Stardust, plunging toward the earth like a divine spear of punishment! On the rampart, Copperbeard's mechanical cybernetic eye flashed with a burst of blue light, instantly locking onto the familiar silhouette beneath the shattered armor—it was Lin Mo! But at this moment, he was like a piece of charcoal scorched by hellfire, his life aura as faint as a candle guttering in the wind.

"Catch him——!!!" Copperbeard's roar drowned out the battlefield's thunder. The dwarf's massive mechanical prosthetic hand slammed viciously onto a concealed valve in the Furnace Zone.

Boom—!

On the western side of the rampart, a relatively intact Thornsteel armor plate suddenly flipped downward, revealing a pre-prepared buffer net woven from multiple layers of resilient vines beneath it. An orange-red glow, forcefully channeled from the Geothermal Furnace, flowed across the vines' surface. This was an emergency device Copperbeard had crafted after Lin Mo's departure, combining the purifying vines Sister Ai Li had urged into growth with the furnace's waste heat—the "Earthfire Vine Cradle."

Lin Mo's burning, broken body slammed viciously into the vine cradle!

Sizzle—!

The instant the high-temperature body made contact with the energy vines, a piercing sizzling sound rang out as copious white smoke billowed upward! The orange-red glow on the vines' surface flickered madly, straining to absorb the impact force and the residual chaotic energy. The tremendous impact made the entire rampart shudder violently once more; the vine cradle caved in deeply, and the anchor bolts at its edges groaned under the unbearable strain, nearly snapping!

"Boss!" Wrench scrambled and tumbled down the rampart.

Copperbeard's heart leaped to his throat. At the center of the vine cradle, Lin Mo's body was charred black; the Thornsteel armor had long since melted away and fallen off, exposing carbonized skin and gaping wounds beneath. The most horrifying sight was his tightly clenched right fist—between the fingers, a stubborn, inextinguishable, snow-white pure glow shone through! That light formed a tragic contrast with the Dark Purple Mark on his right arm, which pulsed like a living thing and exuded a greedy aura.

"Stardust... pure stardust!" Wrench rushed forward, his probe scanning frantically, his voice thick with tears. "Vital signs... too weak! The mark... is eroding madly! The Boss can't hold on much longer!"

Outside the rampart, the Rotclaw tide had not stalled because of this sudden "falling star." The crystal clusters on the backs of the remaining two Corrupted Giant Scorpion artillery platforms lit up once more with destructive purple light! A sky-darkening swarm of rotting wyverns dove downward, their acid-rot breath pouring onto the rampart like a torrential downpour!

Sister Ai Li stood atop the battlements, her silver hair whipping wildly, her ice-blue pupils locked onto the second Giant Scorpion artillery platform. She raised her right arm once more; Moonlight power gathered frantically, and thorny patterns spread across the silver emblem. However, this time, the speed of condensation was noticeably slower. Forcibly driving the "Moonlight Purifying Eclipse" beyond its limits, combined with the stirring of the temporarily suppressed Dark Purple tumor deep within her left arm's wound, caused her body to issue warnings of unbearable strain.

"Copperbeard! The shield can't withstand another volley!" the refugee warrior in charge of energy monitoring cried in a hoarse voice. The temporary shield, under the sustained onslaught of the monster flood, was now glowing like a candle guttering in the wind.

Copperbeard's eyes were bloodshot, his gaze sweeping rapidly between Lin Mo's charred body, the crumbling rampart, and the destructive beams lighting up once more. On the dwarf's rough face, veins bulged like earthworms. The furnace's roar thundered in his ears, and the cold touch of the forging hammer transmitted from his palm.

"Little Xiang Lingna..." he snapped his head toward the Geothermal Rift. Xiang Lingna was still unconscious, her small body curled up, her breathing faint, the light of the Emerald Heart shard on her chest dim. The new sprout at the tip of that Cut-Off World tree sapling was curled, retaining only a thread of barely perceptible emerald, as if it would be completely extinguished the next moment.

Despair, like a cold tide, sought to drown this final bastion.

"No!!!" Copperbeard let out a beast-at-bay roar from the depths of his throat. This roar drowned out the furnace's thunder, drowned out the monsters' howls, like a dwarf's final declaration before the collapse of mountains!

"Thornheart—it's not yet time to kneel!" His massive mechanical prosthetic hand raised the forging hammer high, the hammerhead pointing directly at the furnace mouth where orange-red flames surged! "For me—burn! Burn through this iron frame! Burn through this damned apocalypse!"

Boom——!!!!

Copperbeard made a decision mad beyond reason! He no longer cared about the furnace's limits, no longer considered the risk of overloading the energy circuits! His mechanical prosthetic hand viciously smashed the furnace core's final safety valve! Feral geothermal energy, like an unbridled furious dragon, poured without reservation into the rampart's Thornsteel vein network!

Hum——!!!

The entire Boulder Rampart, at this moment, emitted a deafening metallic hum! The Thornsteel armor plates covering its surface instantly shifted from a dim blue-green to a blinding incandescent white! Terrifying heat radiated from every single armor plate, distorting the surrounding air in an instant! The vines clinging to it instantly turned to flying ash!

The rampart, at this moment, transformed into a blazing mountain of fire—a Furnace Mountain forged from Thornsteel!

Sizzle——!!!

The diving swarm of rotting wyverns bore the brunt! Before their acid-rot breath could even touch the rampart, their bodies were like striking red-hot branding irons; amid teeth-grinding sizzling sounds, they emitted rolling black smoke and fell wailing! The withered monsters approaching the rampart—whether giant tree-men or skeletal aggregates—instantly burst into orange-red flames on their surfaces, emitting shrill, miserable howls, twisting and carbonizing in the high heat!

Boom! Boom!

Two destructive beams slammed viciously into the incandescent-white rampart!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a blindingly intense energy-counterattack light! The purple-black rotting energy and the Thornsteel's incandescent furnace-light annihilated each other madly! In the struck areas of the rampart, the armor plates visibly melted and caved in, with incandescent red molten metal flowing down! But this time, the rampart did not retreat! It burned itself, stubbornly withstanding the impact of the destructive beams! The molten Thornsteel, like flowing lava, instead "welded" the bombardment points' rotting energy firmly in place, searing and purifying it!

"Roar——!" Copperbeard stood beside the furnace mouth, his beard and hair singed and curled by the heat waves, his skin flushed red, his mechanical cybernetic eye flickering with dangerous red light from overloading. Like a giant wielding wildfire, he used his flesh-and-blood body to guide this city-burning force! Every breath brought searing pain, but he stood firm, roaring: "Come on! Scum! Taste the fury of the dwarf furnace!"

The rampart was burning, was melting, and was also incinerating strong enemies!

Sister Ai Li's pressure suddenly eased. The incandescent-white rampart's high heat formed a barrier of death, temporarily blocking the ground monsters' assault, and the sky's wyvern swarm was also repelled by the high temperature. In her ice-blue pupils, the burning rampart and Copperbeard's fire-bathed figure were reflected; the speed of her right arm condensing the Moonlight light spear suddenly increased! A second silver light spear entwined with thorns, carrying a soul-freezing purifying chill, tore through the long sky and precisely pierced the core crystal cluster of the second Corrupted Giant Scorpion artillery platform!

Another moving mountain turned to ruins in a purple-black殉爆!

Wrench threw himself beside Lin Mo. Ignoring the high heat at the edge of the vine cradle, he used specially made heat-insulating pliers to carefully pry open Lin Mo's tightly clenched, charred right fist. At the center of the fist, a pigeon-egg-sized, perfectly round crystal radiating an ultimate pure milky-white brilliance was revealed—a high-purity pure stardust crystal! Within the crystal, a faint thread of dark-gold flowing light seemed to be swimming—that was the lingering aura of the "Geothermal Arbiter" battle blade.

"Stardust! It's really pure stardust!" Wrench was overjoyed, but then he saw the Dark Purple Mark on Lin Mo's right arm pulsing madly, greedily absorbing the faint light emanating from the stardust, and his face instantly went deathly pale. "No good! We must suppress the mark first! Little Xiang Lingna! Only Little Xiang Lingna can guide this power!"

His gaze turned toward the Geothermal Rift, toward that point of emerald glow about to be extinguished. Hope and destruction, upon the burning rampart, beside the charred body, before the withered new sprout, formed a tragic and heroic triangle.