Transmigrating Into a Fantasy World: Signing in During Pregnancy, Reaching the Summit with My Childhood Sweetheart

216: Chapter 216: The Leyline Rupture and the First Awakening of the Star CoreA terrifying roar from deep within the earth’s Core, like the bellow of a primordial beast, instantly shook the entire Ancient Fire Path! Following closely behind was a physical shockwave of destructive energy!

Rumble—!!!

It was no longer just a heatwave, but a viscous, nearly liquid torrent of flame imbued with endless rage and a localized will of madness, surging out from the depths of the mine! Wherever it passed, the hard rock walls melted and vaporized like candle wax, and the space itself was warped and distorted by the extreme heat!

This was no longer a trial; it was a natural disaster! It was a terrifying venting of the violent power that the Primordial Fire Eye had accumulated over countless ages!

“Full defense!”

Nangong Xuan’s pupils constricted. He gave a sharp shout, holding nothing back! The Nirvana Sword Domain instantly expanded to its limit, and the grey Sword Intent condensed with unprecedented intensity, forming an indestructible barrier across the front of the trio! Within the Sword Intent, the chaotic crimson glow produced after devouring a massive amount of Fire Fiend Qi circulated wildly, attempting to annihilate and decompose the oncoming destructive energy.

Su Muxue’s face turned pale. She bit the tip of her tongue and sprayed essence blood onto the moon wheel! The moon wheel let out a clear, mournful cry as the cold lunar radiance surged, transforming into a thick ice wall condensed with countless frost runes, reinforcing the Nirvana Sword Domain layer by layer! This was the ultimate manifestation of Taiyin Star Power, the strongest defense she could muster at this moment!

Zi Linger let out a scream, not of fear, but of determination! She slammed her hands onto the scorching ground, ignoring the violent backlash of the surging geothermal Fire Fiend Qi against her Wood Spirit Origin, and poured all of her Life Force into the ground without reservation! The emerald light briefly eclipsed the crimson as countless ancient plant roots, long dead and calcined for ten thousand years, were forcibly awakened. Letting out a final wail, they burst through the rock layers and frantically wove together into a massive wooden shield burning with the flame of life, bracing at the very front!

The triple defense was completed in an instant!

The next moment, the destructive torrent of flames arrived with a crash!

The first to make contact was the Life Shield! Sss—!!! Like a red-hot iron plunged into ice water, a piercing vaporization sound rang out! The incredibly tough wooden shield lasted for less than half a breath before it charred, carbonized, and disintegrated at a visible rate! Zi Linger felt as if she had been hit by a heavy blow and spat out a large mouthful of blood, which evaporated before hitting the ground. She collapsed, her Life Force instantly dimming!

The torrent of flames did not pause, slamming hard against the Taiyin ice wall! Boom!!! Extreme cold and extreme heat collided violently! A deafening roar and a destructive turbulence of energy erupted! The ice wall shook violently, and countless runes flickered in and out of existence. Large sections of ice vaporized instantly, only to be constantly repaired and reinforced by the Taiyin Star Power Su Muxue desperately outputted! Her face was as white as paper, blood seeping from her seven orifices, and her body swayed—she had clearly reached her limit!

The momentum of the flame torrent was finally slowed slightly, but its Core—the part as viscous as pulp and imbued with a mad will—penetrated the weakened ice wall and slammed hard into the final Nirvana Sword Domain!

Buzz—!!!

Nangong Xuan’s body shook violently, as if he had been hit head-on by a billion-pound hammer! The Nirvana Sword Domain groaned under the strain, and the grey Sword Intent circulated wildly, annihilating the incoming energy, but the power was too vast and violent, far exceeding the limit of what he could annihilate!

The Sword Domain was pushed back until it was almost pressed against the three of them! Nangong Xuan held on desperately, the skin between his thumb and forefinger splitting as blood stained the sword hilt. The Meridians in his body felt as if they were being scorched by fire, and the four star keys rotated wildly at an unprecedented speed, even emitting faint cracking sounds! The nirvana true seal fragment vibrated violently, barely maintaining the integrity of the Domain!

The chaos star core in his arms was finally thoroughly disturbed by this extreme energy impact and Nangong Xuan’s near-limit state!

It was no longer satisfied with passive feedback and silent transformation. A more ancient, deeper consciousness that seemed to have slept for eternity appeared to be provoked by this kindred yet malicious fire power, and a sliver of it slowly awakened!

Buzz...!

The star Core floated out of Nangong Xuan’s arms of its own accord, hovering above his head. It no longer emitted suction; instead, it radiated a hazy, greyish halo that contained supreme majesty.

This halo was not dazzling, yet it seemed to be the absolute monarch of all energy!

The moment the violently surging flame torrent touched this greyish halo, it was as if a subject had encountered an emperor. The mad will at its Core was seized by an invisible giant hand and let out a silent wail! The momentum of the torrent suddenly stalled, and the terrifying energy it contained seemed to lose the command of its ’Soul,’ becoming chaotic and sluggish!

Though still massive, it was no longer so concentrated and full of destructiveness!

The pressure plummeted!

Nangong Xuan felt the pressure ease and immediately seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With a great roar, he pushed his Nirvana Sword Intent to an unprecedented Peak, even drawing upon that sliver of chaotic majesty from the star Core!

“Nirvana! All Things Return to Void!”

He gripped his sword with both hands and slashed forward fiercely!

A massive Sword Gang—no longer grey and silent, but showing a chaotic color that seemed capable of decomposing all things and redefining the elements—tore through space and slashed hard into the sluggish torrent of flames!

Sizzle—!!!

There was no explosion, no roar. The moment the terrifying flame torrent was struck by the chaotic Sword Gang, it was like snow thrown into a furnace, silently melting and decomposing into the purest, most docile energy particles, dissipating into the air!

The power of a single sword strike had actually reached such a level!

The remaining flame torrent lost its momentum and turned into a sky full of scattered fire rain, which was blocked by the tattered ice wall Su Muxue struggled to maintain.

The crisis was temporarily averted.

The passage was a mess; the rock walls had melted and then solidified, forming strange, glass-like lumps. The air was filled with pure but exceptionally restless fire spirit particles.

Thud! Su Muxue could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground, the moon wheel flying back into her body with its light dimmed. Zi Linger had long since lost consciousness, her breathing faint, her Wood Spirit Origin severely damaged.

Nangong Xuan also knelt on one knee, leaning on his sword for support as he panted heavily. The Meridians throughout his body throbbed with tearing pain; that sword strike just now had drained most of his Sword Essence and Divine Soul power. But he didn’t care about himself and immediately checked the injuries of the two women.

He quickly fed fragments of the Life Source Fruit to Su Muxue and Zi Linger, using pure Sword Essence to help them dissolve the medicinal power. Seeing their breathing gradually stabilize, Nangong Xuan breathed a small sigh of relief, though his heart remained heavy. Zi Linger’s Origin injury was definitely not something that could be recovered from in a short time.

He looked up, his gaze incredibly solemn as he stared at the chaos star core hovering above his head.

The star Core was different now. The dark-gold crimson patterns on its surface seemed to have come alive, flowing slowly, and that speck of black lightning flickered like a pupil. It no longer emitted suction or fed back energy; it just hovered quietly, radiating that chaotic and majestic halo, easily smoothing out and organizing the scattered, restless fire spirit particles around it.

It seemed to be... guarding?

Moreover, Nangong Xuan clearly felt that inside the star Core, the consciousness belonging to Lin Mo that had been asleep for who knows how long had become clearer and more concentrated due to the extreme external stimulation and the star Core’s own violent changes!

Though he had not yet awakened, he was like a sleeping person whose eyelids were fluttering, about to wake up!

The suppression of the flame torrent’s mad will just now was definitely not as simple as the star Core’s instinct; it must have involved a sliver of interference from Lin Mo’s sleeping consciousness!

“Moer...” Nangong Xuan murmured in his heart, filled with both hope and worry. Whether the changes in the star Core and Lin Mo were for better or worse remained to be seen.

Just then, the connection to the fire star key from the deepest part of the mine became clear once again! And it was stronger than ever before!

After the terrifying geothermal riot, the obstacles ahead seemed to have been cleared away, and the calling became unobstructed.

He could even vaguely feel that within that call, besides the heat and longing of the fire star key itself, there was a hint of... weakness and pain? As if it were enduring great torment.

Nangong Xuan took a deep breath, suppressing his internal injuries and exhaustion, his eyes becoming resolutely firm once more.

He picked up the still-unconscious Zi Linger and helped up the extremely weak Su Muxue.

“Let’s go, the answer is just ahead.”

He glanced at the hovering star Core. The star Core seemed to understand his intent; its greyish halo flickered slightly like a guide, and it took the lead, drifting slowly toward the depths of the mine.

The three people and the Core, dragging their injured bodies, stepped onto the glass-like ground that had melted and then solidified, moving steadfastly toward the source of the disaster and the place of hope from which the clear call originated.