While the MDT conducted the investigation in the air, Hao Ren observed the movements of the “statue corps.” The actions of the black statues lay perfectly before him, like pieces on a chessboard. In the process of observation, Hao Ren found one thing.
The ancient city was full of temples, large and small. There was an army of stone figures outside almost every temple, except for one. The grand temple in the middle of the city remained calm. And the colossi, massed from the other side of the city, seemingly bypassed the grand temple in the middle of the city as they moved toward Hao Ren. They did not even lay a foot on the giant stone steps that led to the grand temple.
Was the grand temple some kind of forbidden place for the colossi?
They did not know if the stone soldiers would continue to obey the ban after the invaders broke into the temple, but at least for now, the grand temple was the only safe place around the entire ancient city.
To get there, one had to first pass through the growing blockade of stone soldiers surrounding the grand temple.
Hao Ren told the others about his discovery, and almost without any discussion, they reached a consensus: go to the grand temple!
The MDT hovered over the city, sending the aerial view of the front to the holographic projection in front of Hao Ren. The ‘best path’ to avoid most colossi was clearly marked in the projection. While it was still inevitable to encounter a small group of enemies, it was at least possible to avoid being surrounded by the guards until they reached the grand temple.
They began to move in the direction of the grand temple.
Vivian was flying a few meters above the ground. Two swarms of dark bats formed two huge horizontal vortices, spinning behind her like a pair of giant wings, and hissing electric sparks shoot through the swarm, generating a powerful electric field that made one’s scalp tingle. She was powering up for the next wave of magnetic storms, and the powerful bats were ready to unleash thunderbolts to deal with the lone colossus.
“Two hundred meters ahead, turn left, there are twelve stone soldiers massed, unable to detour. Let’s fight!”
The MDT’s navigation tips sounded in Hao Ren’s mind and he saw the black figures assembling in the distance.
Old granite buildings crumbled on both sides of the street. Huge black colossi, one after another, trampled on the broken slabs and pillars and stepped onto the streets. As soon as they appeared, two dazzling electric arcs fall from the sky and bombarded the chest of the first colossus.
The black shell of the colossus’ chest burst into a thousand pieces, and his body jerked back wildly — but the next second it straightened itself up again.
The colossus’ chest had a terrifying crack, but the protective shell at its core had not been completely breached.
Lightning alone did not seem to work very well on these colossi. Their shells had excellent insulation.
The statue looked up, its crocodile-like head shining with a pair of blood-red lights, seemed to give out a silent roar. It then held up the iron rod pointed at Vivian in the air, and the end of the iron rod quickly condensed into a dazzling energy ball.
But before the energy ball could be launched, a blue beam of light suddenly struck the colossus’ body. The beam itself was only about the thickness of a thumb, but it exploded violently when it hit the target. In the glow, the colossus exploded into a blanket of blue crystalline dust.
Hao Ren raised the gun to aim at the torso of another statue and pressed the button of the Magnetic Concussion Bomb on his hand. As he hurled the grenade, he shouted, “Be careful! These statues can use magic!”
Hessiana was flying high in the air with a pair of wings spreading wide behind her. The blood-red scourge in her hand was dripping corrosive drops that would dissolve gold and iron. She wrapped her whip around the spear in the hands of one of the colossi and yanked it, breaking it open in a puff of smoke. She looked up and shouted, “There seem to be more colossi coming from the other streets!”
The MDT also sent in a processed aerial view of the battlefield. A clear street appeared on a holographic projection floating beside Hao Ren, showing a great mass of red light was moving between the streets, coming rapidly towards the place where they were fighting.
“Sure enough… These guys have a unified command!” said Y’zaks. “And they’re blocking the path we took before… Are we under constant surveillance?”
As Hao Ren was about to say something, he heard a cry of ‘meow, meow, meow’ coming from the side, and then a small body hit him on the back. Rollie got kicked while dodging a colossus.
Her injuries were not serious, but she could not fight on.
And again, Hao Ren saw those almost transparent apparitions escaped from the fallen stone soldiers.
Soul? Or something else?
“Did you see those shadows?” Hao Ren pointed to a statue that had just been smashed to pieces by Lily’s fists and feet. “When the statues fall, some shadows will float out of them!”
Y’zaks eyes widened. “Shadow? What shadow?”
Hao Ren was in a daze: only he could see it?
But he soon forgot about it. The list of unexplained peculiarities that had happened to him was endless and he just wanted to tell them what he thought. “I can see that after each of the statues fell, something like a soul floated out of them and seemed to be joined together farther away. That’s probably why these stone soldiers can act in unison!”
“High spirits? A mastermind network?” The demon girl sitting on Y’zaks’ shoulder was instantly reminded of her familiar territory. “Uncle Ren, can you see where the floating things are gathered?”
Boom!!
A deafening explosion was heard nearby. Behind Vivian, the two increasingly bright ‘lightning turbines’ cross and shoot a huge electric arc. The energy level of the arc finally directly broke through the insulating shell of a stone soldier, blasting it apart.
Hao Ren immediately captured the transparent phantom that escaped from the stone soldier.
It drifted up into the air, toward the temple in the center of the city. As it drifted away, it became more and more transparent and illusory, and soon even Hao Ren could not see its trace. But before that, Hao Ren could roughly confirm that the ‘shadow’ was indeed combined with a larger transparent virtual shadow when it rose to about four or five hundred meters in the air.
It was as if an invisible ‘jellyfish’ was floating in the air, and the jellyfish was pulling back its tentacles.
“There!” Hao Ren pointed to the position where the transparent shadow finally dissipated. “There’s something there! It’s floating over the city, probably covering at least a third of the city!”
Y’lisabet nodded, and then, observing the distribution of the colossus in the aerial view of the battlefield and the movement of the colossi in the street nearby, and then began a swift mental calculation.
Lily rushed toward Hao Ren with the smell of stone and asked, “Landlord, what is Y’lisabet doing?”
“She seems to understand how these stone soldiers work,” answered Hao Ren. “These statues should have a higher chain of command. We have to find a way to interfere with the system.”
“Better hurry up,” said Lily as she picked up a heavy slab from the side and smashed it into a black colossus not far away. “There seems to be another wave of stone people coming! We are moving slower and slower!”
“Don’t worry.” Hao Ren had great confidence in Y’lisabet. “She’s an expert on this.”
Boom–
A nearby building suddenly collapsed. The granite walls fell, a huge stone hand emerged from behind, and colossus after colossus climbed over the walls and fell into the street.
The bats behind Vivian made an ear-piercing sound, and the increasingly intense electromagnetic vortices swirled in two storms. Everyone at the scene felt a slight tingling in their skin: the new electromagnetic storm was ready.
Y’lisabet also finally finished her mental calculation. She pointed to a place in the sky and yelled, “In that direction! Throw the electromagnetic storm in that direction!”
Vivian did not hesitate. The electromagnetic vortices generated by two groups of bats had turned into a dazzling light stream. It was more terrifying than the electromagnetic explosion she had created in the temple. Just moments before the two spinning electric fields were about to spin out of control, she threw them straight in the direction Y’lisabet had indicated.
Lightning and a strong magnetic field erupted simultaneously at high altitude. This was definitely a powerful EMP.
The colossi were extremely resistant to simple electric shocks, but the oscillating electric field produced strong magnetism, which was enough to incapacitate the stone figures.
The same time the huge electromagnetic storm erupted completely, a previously hidden thing finally emerged in front of everyone.
