286: Chapter 286 I'll burn this field, and I'll take the Lin family identity myself.

The black spots crossed the fire line and burrowed into the soil of the Small World.

Three rows of wheat seedlings collapsed simultaneously.

The roots Ma Chao had buried beneath the ridge began to twitch.

The black spots split into several streams along the irrigation ditch, heading straight for the Mother Seed Repository.

Wang Xue pressed her temples.

The space gate shook, and its frame twisted inward by half a foot.

"Close the entrance!"

As Lin Yuan's voice fell, the engineering personnel dropped their equipment and evacuated along the field ridges.

Su Xiaonuan took over the control console.

"Material anchoring equipment shut down."

"Personnel headcount."

"Phase I farmland, Ma Chao node, and Mother Seed Repository, partition isolation."

Three alloy partition walls rose from the wasteland.

As soon as the first wall hit the ground, vines pushed through the soil and wrapped around the bottom edge of the wall.

The black spots crawled along the vine skin, and several tender vines probed toward the ventilation of the Mother Seed Repository.

Su Muxue sealed the source of the disease into a detection box.

"It is absorbing the circulating energy of the Small World."

Xia Qingqiu cut off the growth-promoting equipment. The cultivation lights went out row by row, yet the crop vitality continued to decline.

Wang Xue held down the edge of the space.

With every patch of soil lost, her shoulders and back sank a little lower.

"It has already connected to my spiritual sea."

"If it continues to spread, the entire space will become a petri dish."

A sound of metal snapping echoed from the center of the wasteland.

Vines pierced through the nutrient tank and drove backward into Ma Chao's waist and abdomen. Nutrient solution flowed into the soil along the cracks, dragging his upper body toward the ground.

"Save me!"

Ma Chao braced his arms against the edge of the tank, his shoe soles digging two furrows in the soil ditch.

More roots surged from beneath him, crashing into the second partition wall.

Tang Qiqi activated the space anchor point.

Just as the positioning pillar lit up, vines coiled around the device base. The rack overturned, and the transported supply crates deviated from their coordinates, crashing into the edge of the field.

"Anchor point offline!"

"Qiqi, get out."

Su Xiaonuan locked the device permissions.

The medical team stopped outside the isolation line. Vines covered the open space in between, and the stretchers could not get close.

Wang Xue raised her hand to close the space gate.

The entrance shrank to two meters.

The root system beneath the field tightened, and several black lines immediately appeared at the edge of the space.

The contamination burrowed outward along her connection with the Small World.

The mental load crossed the warning threshold.

A crack was also pried open in the outer wall of the Mother Seed Repository.

Jiang Yun took off her coat and wrapped it around her mouth and nose.

The Green Lotus Fire rose along her arms.

"Housekeeper Su, open the isolation door."

Su Xiaonuan looked at Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan nodded.

The first partition wall rose by half a meter.

Wang Xue reached out to stop her daughter.

"Even I cannot suppress what is inside."

Jiang Yun sidestepped her and fastened her burn-resistant arm guards.

"Mom, you guard the entrance."

"I will guard the inside."

She stepped over the wall, her shoe soles landing in the soil ditch covered by black spots.

"In the ten years you were gone, your daughter has already grown up."

The Green Lotus Fire descended onto the field ridge.

The fire line did not bypass the mature crops.

Wheat seedlings, cultivation racks, and irrigation pipes were all swallowed by the flames.

The yield of the Phase I farmland dropped from forty-two percent to zero.

Su Xiaonuan stared at the screen and deleted the command to rescue the farmland.

"Transfer all energy to the Green Lotus Fire channel."

"Farmland can be rebuilt, but the Mother Seed must not be lost."

The green fire crawled across the wasteland along the geothermal pipes.

The black spots did not disappear, but having lost the energy supply from the crops, they began to gather toward Ma Chao's main root.

Jiang Yun stepped over the collapsed cultivation racks and split the blocking vines with an axe.

The green fire on the axe blade severed the root system, and the black spots remained at the cut, not continuing to advance.

She looked down for two seconds.

"Fire cannot kill the spores."

"But it can sever its connection to the living body."

Jiang Yun looked at Ma Chao through the wall of fire.

"Retract your roots!"

Ma Chao bit down on the nutrient tube, a low growl squeezing from his throat.

The roots scattered beneath the field began to coil back.

Each time a segment was dragged back, a black protrusion swelled beneath his waist and abdomen.

The vines withdrew from the partition wall, and the impact on the Mother Seed Repository weakened accordingly.

Jiang Yun laid out a circular fire belt around the cultivation tank.

The black spots were forced toward the main root.

Su Muxue watched the detection data.

"Contamination core concentration complete."

"Sever the main root, and we can save the Mother Seed."

Ma Chao grabbed the edge of the cultivation tank.

That main root was connected to his symbiotic tissue. After severing it, he would lose most of his plant body, and his Superpower Rank would also drop.

An engineering axe was handed to him.

Ma Chao did not take it.

Lin Yuan stood outside the space entrance.

"Save the Mother Seed, and your nutrient solution and crystal core will remain the same."

"If the Mother Seed is destroyed, you will be disposed of along with this field."

Ma Chao's teeth bit into the tube wall.

Leaking nutrient solution flowed down his chin.

He manipulated the vines to wrap around his own main root and pulled it tight upward.

"Young Miss Jiang."

"Cut."

The engineering axe fell.

The first axe blow cut through the root bark.

Black sap splashed into the fire, and spores crawled up along the axe handle.

The Green Lotus Fire pressed down on the axe blade, forcing them back to the cut.

The second axe blow hacked into the xylem layer.

The contaminated vines began to retreat underground.

A collision sound came from beneath the Mother Seed Repository.

The remaining roots abandoned Ma Chao and burrowed in patches toward the repository foundation.

The internal Mother Seed racks tilted to the left, and the spatial coordinates maintained by Wang Xue were also dragged toward the same position.

Tang Qiqi stared at the offset data.

"Something underground is pulling the coordinates!"

Jiang Yun did not rush toward the Mother Seed Repository.

She pushed the output of the Green Lotus Fire to the limit.

The remaining farmland, irrigation pipes, and the soil layer around the seed repository all caught fire.

The fire wall separated all active tissues.

Ma Chao used his remaining vines to hold the main root.

The third axe blow fell.

The main root severed.

The contaminated root system, along with a large area of scorched earth, was surrounded by the green fire.

The black spots crawled a few meters, but unable to find a new host, they stopped in the burned-out field ditch.

The Mother Seed racks stopped tilting.

Wang Xue braced herself against the door frame, and the weight pressing on her shoulders receded.

[Wang Xue's mental load has returned to the safety line.]

[Mother Seed Repository seal is intact.]

[Contamination zone activity has reached zero.]

Xia Qingqiu pushed in a spare nutrient tank and connected the pipelines for Ma Chao.

Su Muxue checked the vital data.

"He will live."

Ma Chao lay on the edge of the tank, a half-section of the tube still in his mouth.

"The crystal core... is it still given?"

Lin Yuan glanced at him.

"If the output meets the standard, it will be given."

Ma Chao released his teeth, and the remaining vines burrowed back into the soil.

The remaining personnel entered the wasteland to seal the scorched earth and take inventory of the equipment.

Phase I farmland has been reset to zero.

All Mother Seeds have been saved.

Lin Yuan took Jiang Yun's wristband and wrote the Small World defense permissions into it.

[Jiang Yun has obtained Level 2 Small World defense permissions.]

[Residence permissions changed: Tiangong No. 1 B1 Core Member Zone.]

Wang Xue looked at the permission list.

"She can live on the second floor."

"There should also be an independent resource quota."

Jiang Yun took off her burnt arm guards and placed them in front of her mother.

"This time, let me walk on my own."

She turned to Lin Yuan.

"feilong no. 3 gave me the chance to go to the battlefield."

"The laborers on the outer wall recognize me as the one who burns corpses."

"This field has also been burned by my own hands."

"I will stay, not relying on the identity of Adam's daughter, nor using the Small World as leverage."

Su Xiaonuan opened the core member agreement.

"Priority medical care, independent resource quota, wartime dispatch authority, and core zone residency rights."

"Accepting the permissions also means accepting Mr. Lin's orders."

Jiang Yun took the pen.

"I accept."