In Star Dome Calendar year 72, as the Forgefire Embryo Starship passed through the Andromeda Nebula, Chen Feng felt a sudden, woody vibration emanating from the Cold Pool Water Ripple in his palm. Outside the porthole, the Forgefire Symbiotic Tree, a million light-years in diameter, was twisting and deforming. Its bronze-colored trunk was covered in festering wounds, and every leaf was shedding into fine, light-emitting Forging-Pattern shards. At the roots, the projection of the Cold Pool was being strangled by twelve black, root-like tendrils of anti-forging energy.
"Chen Feng! The tree's symbiotic frequency is collapsing," Su Yuhan said, pointing to her monitor where dots representing various star systems were detaching from the network. "The fluctuations of these roots... they match the pollution index from Earth’s Industrial Revolution exactly, yet they are laced with the echoes of the String Breakers' Entropy Annihilation Core!"
Liu Ruyan patched in a distress signal composed of the sounds of flowing sap. A translucent tree spirit known as "Nianlun" manifested; her body was woven from Forging-Pattern light, and embedded in her chest was a "Symbiotic Nianlun Core" derived from the same bark as the Thirteenth Egg. "The String Breakers have injected 'Civilization Corrosive' into the roots. The tree's memories are being decomposed into chaotic code..." She traced her fingertips across the trunk, revealing the tampered Cold Pool Water Ripple beneath.
Chapter 57