Chapter 92

The Stone Wall became a burning furnace-mountain, orange-red and blazing white light illuminating the wasteland’s horizon and turning the interior into a hellish glow. The heat warped the air; molten metal oozed slowly through the armor plates’ grooves, hissing. Refugee warriors crouched behind relatively intact cover, enduring the searing heat, their eyes filled with awe and solemnity as they watched the copper-bearded giant beside the furnace’s mouth.

On the western edge of the Wall, the edge of the “Earthfire Vine Cage” had been charred black and smoldering. Wrench knelt beside Lin Mo’s blackened body, cradling in both hands the star-dust crystal emitting pure, milky-white light—as if holding a sacred relic of salvation. The crystal’s glow was gentle yet resolute, dispelling some of the surrounding heat and chaos, yet Lin Mo’s condition had deteriorated to the worst possible state.

His body resembled a fully burned piece of charcoal; most of his skin had carbonized and cracked, revealing blackened muscle and bone beneath. His faint breath came with labored heaves of his chest, each one bringing up blood-tinged foam and the stench of charred flesh. Most terrifying was his right arm—the dark purple Mark of Decay pulsed and swelled like a living thing, its surface raised with countless fine, violet-black vascular patterns, frantically devouring the pure energy radiating from the star-dust crystal! Each sip strengthened the Mark’s glow and intensified its erosion of Lin Mo’s remaining life. The blue glow of the Anchor of Order, compressed to its limit within his soul, flickered like a candle about to be snuffed in a storm.

“Lingna girl! Wake up! Only you can save the boss!” Wrench screamed toward the earth-pulse fissure, his voice breaking with tears. He tried to bring the star-dust crystal closer to Lin Mo’s chest—but the moment its light touched the dark-purple Mark, it was like pouring oil on fire; the Mark’s pulsing intensified! He dared not move.

Beside the earth-pulse fissure, Xiang Lingna’s small body curled on the charred soil, her breath so faint it was nearly undetectable. The fragment of her jade heart glowed dimly, reduced to a hazy outline. The young branch of the World Tree lay quietly beside her hand, its curled tip bud nearly devoid of green, leaving only a faint, withered yellow glow, ready to vanish at any moment.

[...Sister Ellie...Brother Lin Mo...Thorn Heart...]

[...So tired...want to sleep so badly...]

[...Home...protect...]

Lingna’s fading consciousness drifted in darkness, heavy with exhaustion and reluctance. The World Tree branch’s presence was equally faint, reduced to fragmented whispers like sighs:

[...Star-dust...Order...resonance...]

[...Life...transmission...the last...light...]

At that moment, Wrench’s desperate scream pierced like an arrow through mist, striking deep into Lingna’s silent consciousness! Simultaneously, a faint yet utterly pure energy pulse—carrying hope and warmth—from the star-dust crystal touched her jade heart fragment through some invisible bond!

Hum—

The jade heart fragment jolted! Though its glow remained dim, the tremor was like the final heartbeat of a dying heart! Lingna’s closed eyelashes trembled violently!

“Ugh...” A whisper, as faint as a kitten’s mew, escaped her lips.

“Lingna! Lingna girl’s awake!” The elderly refugee woman beside her cried out in delight.

Lingna struggled to open her heavy eyelids. Before her eyes burned the blinding white light of the Wall, the smoke and vapor of molten metal, the roaring battle cry of Tong Xu, the stubborn silhouette of Sister Ellie on the rampart, still gathering moonlight despite her precarious stance... and beyond, within the vine cage, the charred form of Brother Lin Mo—and the grotesque, pulsing violet light on his right arm!

All her fatigue, all her weakness, shattered in an instant under an indescribable urgency and the resolve to protect! Lingna found strength she didn’t know she had and surged upright with her small body!

“Lin Mo... brother...” Her voice was hoarse, yet carried unprecedented determination.

She reached out her trembling hand and grasped the young branch again. The withered yellow glow at its tip flickered faintly, sensing her touch and the fierce, protective will within her heart.

“Help me...” Lingna whispered inwardly to the branch, pouring all her thoughts, all her longing into it, “Give... the star-dust... to Brother Lin Mo... heal him...”

She no longer tried to draw power from the branch. Instead, she poured every last shred of her own life force, mixed with the final glow of her jade heart fragment, without reservation—reverse-injecting it into that withered bud! This was sacrifice! This was the transmission of life!

“Ughh—!” Agony convulsed Lingna’s small body; her already pale face turned translucent, blood seeping from her eyes, nose, and mouth! The jade heart fragment on her chest extinguished completely!

Yet, that withered bud, infused with Lingna’s life essence and unwavering protective will, erupted in one final, afterglow-like brilliance—a dazzling, Jizhicuilv light! This glow was no longer gentle; it carried the tragic, resolute fire of a life consumed!

Hum—

The branch floated up from Lingna’s hand! The brilliant green light at its tip, like a beacon, instantly resonated powerfully with the pure star-dust crystal in Wrench’s grasp!

The milky-white star-dust crystal, as if summoned, tore free from Wrench’s grip and shot like a streak of light to the branch’s side! The emerald glow and milky radiance intertwined, forming a pure, powerful bridge of life and order!

The branch’s emerald light guided the star-dust energy into a concentrated beam, ignoring spatial distance, striking precisely at Lin Mo’s blackened chest—the last stronghold of his soul, the Anchor of Order!

Simultaneously, a thread of emerald light diverged, gentle as a caress, shining upon the wildly pulsing dark-purple Mark on his right arm!

Hssss—!!!

Two utterly different reactions occurred at once!

When the star-dust beam struck his chest, Lin Mo’s blackened body jerked violently! Beneath the carbonized skin, impossibly faint new tissue buds struggled to sprout! The blue glow of the Anchor of Order, like land parched by drought, greedily absorbed this pure order energy, its light stabilizing and strengthening visibly!

But when the emerald light touched the dark-purple Mark, it was like boiling oil poured on snow! A piercing melting sound erupted! Purple-black smoke billowed from the Mark’s surface; its pulsing rhythm shattered, the swollen vascular patterns recoiled like startled venomous snakes! A wave of agonized, furious corruption surged back along the beam, striking the branch!

“Puh—!” Lingna could hold on no longer; she spat a gout of blood and collapsed backward like a cut kite, slipping into unconsciousness. The floating branch, its emerald glow having resisted the Mark’s counterattack, extinguished like a burned-out candle. The branch itself lost all luster, turning dry, gray, and lifeless, falling from the air to land beside Lingna on the charred soil—like a piece of utterly dead wood.

The star-dust beam vanished.

Within the vine cage, Lin Mo’s blackened body ceased trembling. On his chest, a faint, faintly living blue-white glow now pulsed steadily beneath the carbonized skin, like a guiding star in a cold night. His breath, though still weak, had steadied. Most noticeably, his right arm—the dark-purple Mark still remained, but the raised vascular patterns had flattened, its pulsing slowed to a faint, sluggish rhythm, temporarily suppressed beneath a thin, newly formed membrane of blue-white star-dust energy!

Star-dust redemption had, at the cost of Lingna’s complete unconsciousness and the branch’s withering, temporarily preserved Lin Mo’s life and suppressed the Mark of Decay!

Yet this brief calm was shattered by a more savage, more frenzied roar from beyond the Wall!

The last remaining corrupted giant scorpion cannon, seemingly enraged beyond reason by the branch’s final emerald burst and the star-dust aura, erupted with unprecedented blinding violet light from its crystal clusters—a terror greater than before was coalescing! Its target? Clearly fixed on the earth-pulse fissure—Lingna, unconscious, and the withered branch! It sought to erase this last source of hope, along with the land itself, from existence!

Meanwhile, within the Wall’s furnace, under Tong Xu’s desperate, all-out activation, the furnace’s glow finally reached its limit! The blazing thorn-steel armor plates began to soften and melt in large sections! Overload alarms shrieked throughout the Wall!

“Tong Xu! The furnace is going to explode!” The monitoring soldier screamed in despair.

Burning within the furnace, destroyed without by the giant cannon. The Thorn Heart entered its final ten-second countdown!