novelraw Chapter 224: Quality Trial
Chapter 224: Quality Trial
Lin Jie's gaze shifted between Yan Xilou and the towering jackal-headed deity statue behind him. With the assistance of the [Mental Staircase], his brain was rapidly analyzing the difficult problem before him.
Yan Xilou's intention was clear. He wanted to use those fanatical Eternal Serpent believers as "pathfinding stones" to verify the power and operational mechanics of the obsidian Anubis's so-called [Mass Judgment].
These elite warriors, usually so proud and arrogant, were no different from white mice used to test poison in a laboratory in his eyes. Their deaths would become the final, precious experimental data for Yan Xilou's path to the divine throne.
This cruelty, treating human lives as expendable costs, made Lin Jie feel a wave of nausea.
The cult members serving as the "cost" were unaware of their impending fate.
Or perhaps, having long ago offered their lives to that "Mentor" through fanatical indoctrination, death was for them a glorious ritual of returning to the "spiritual world."
"For the Mentor!"
A burly man closest to Yan Xilou, who served as the squad commander, shouted the slogan in a fanatical tone.
His voice echoed through the hall, igniting the emotions of all his companions.
"For Eternity!"The remaining nine warriors roared in unison, their voices perfectly synchronized.
They ignored Lin Jie's group, forming a standard diamond-shaped assault formation and charging toward the silent jackal-headed deity statue with precise tactical posture.
Their movements held no hesitation;
each person's eyes revealed the expression of a martyr.
"Rat-a-tat-tat!!"
Three soldiers positioned on the flanks of the formation opened fire first. The Mauser pistols in their hands unleashed three lines of intersecting fire. Dense bullets flew toward the statue's head and chest in a covering barrage, attempting to test the deity's hardness with physical kinetic energy.
Simultaneously, two assaulters in the center of the formation pulled ceramic grenades from their waists and threw them at the base of the statue, attempting to shake its foundation with explosions.
The squad commander serving as the "main attacker" gripped a Mauser 1871 rifle tightly with both hands. This gun had been modified through Alchemy and inscribed with silver runic symbols. He calmly knelt on one knee, locking onto the statue's hollow right eye through the scope, preparing to deliver a "core-breaking" strike when the grenades exploded.
This was a fluid, well-coordinated, three-dimensional assault plan.
It showcased the excellent military discipline and combat experience of the Eternal Serpent's elite.
Unfortunately, what they faced was not a defense structure known to mankind.
What happened next overturned everyone's understanding of physics and combat.
Those brass bullets flying at nearly twice the speed of sound began to decelerate drastically when they reached about ten meters from the statue, as if hindered by an invisible force.
Their speed visibly plummeted. The faint white air trails dragged by the bullets' tails became distorted and chaotic.
Finally, at about five meters from the statue, all the bullets exhausted their kinetic energy, falling powerlessly onto the obsidian floor with a clatter, failing to leave a single scratch.
Immediately after, the two incoming grenades met the same fate.
The arcs they traced through the air suddenly stopped, then plummeted vertically toward the ground.
"Boom! Boom!"
Fierce explosions erupted as expected. Flames and shockwaves swept out, countless sharp fragments flung in all directions by the immense energy.
However, these death fragments capable of easily tearing human flesh also encountered the obstruction of that invisible force as they rushed toward the statue.
They tumbled rapidly through the air, losing all momentum, ultimately scattering harmlessly and sparsely on the ground.
The entire grand, spectacular attack's final effect was merely to brush some dust off the statue's robes.
Everyone was shocked by this bizarre and incomprehensible scene.
The fanaticism on the faces of the cult members charging at the forefront turned into bewilderment and confusion.
They didn't understand why their attacks had failed.
There were no energy shields or fluctuations of spiritual force fields there. Everything happened very naturally. "Bullets cannot hit the target" itself seemed like an iron law inscribed upon this place.
As they fell into brief chaos, the obsidian Anubis, which had not moved at all, launched its counterattack.
Or rather, it didn't need to counterattack at all.
It was merely calmly executing the rules belonging to it.
The descent of Judgment was silent.
And absolute.
An indescribably heavy force suddenly enveloped the area where those nine charging cult members were.
It was a change that was non-physical in meaning and irresistible.
It was the "weight" of the air itself within that space being tampered with.
The nitrogen and oxygen, originally so light as to be negligible, were in that instant endowed with the density of lead or mercury.
Every speck of dust floating in the air became immensely heavy.
The expressions on the faces of those nine cult warriors in their charging postures quickly froze.
Their bodies were seized by an invisible, immense force, then pressed down violently.
The first to give way were the tibia bones in their legs.
The sounds of "Crack! Crack!" bone fractures echoed through the hall.
Their legs bent inward, causing them to kneel to the ground in unison.
But this was only the beginning.
That terrifying weight from all directions continued to increase.
Their spines began to be compressed and dislocated vertebra by vertebra, finally emitting crisp popping sounds before being broken.
Their ribs were squeezed inward by the heavy air, piercing their lungs and hearts. Torrents of blood gushed from their mouths and noses, but due to the heavy, viscous air, it flowed slowly.
"Urgh... Hrk..."
The squad commander wielding the 1871 rifle possessed the most tenacious will among them all.
He lay prone on the ground, using his already deformed arms to struggle and support his body, trying to lift his head, which was being pressed down as if to embed into his chest cavity.
The eyes that once held fanatical faith now held only incomprehensible fear and agony.
He died not understanding how he had been killed.
Finally, when the compression of that weight reached its peak.
"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
A series of dull, bursting sounds rang out one after another.
Nine well-trained elite warriors, along with their sturdy equipment and weapons, were crushed and flattened by that irresistible weight. They ultimately became indistinguishable, shapeless masses of bloody pulp mixed with metal fragments, shattered bones, and internal organs.
A silent massacre.
The entire process did not exceed half a minute.
When the dust settled, the towering jackal-headed deity statue still stood, as if nothing had happened.
Only now, at its feet, lay nine fresh offerings exuding a thick scent of blood.
"Hah... hah..."
Julian let out ragged gasps. His face was deathly pale, his stomach churning, wanting to vomit up last night's meal.
Even with his extensive experience, he had never seen such a bizarre and cruel method of death.
Lin Jie's expression was extremely grave. His back was already soaked with cold sweat.
He had finally witnessed with his own eyes the terror of what Yan Xilou called [Mass Judgment].
This wasn't combat. This was an inescapable erasure.
When Lin Jie's gaze turned to Yan Xilou, he found that the face of this instigator held no fear.
Quite the opposite.
Yan Xilou's eyes shimmered with an obsessed light. He was like a scientist who had verified a long-sought theory through a successful experiment.
He even took out a small notebook and began scribbling something rapidly with a pen.
"So that's how it is... So that's how it is..." he muttered to himself. "The trigger condition for the attack isn't 'hostility' or 'entering the range,' but rather 'initiating an attack action against the statue itself.'"
"The area of effect also isn't a fixed domain, but precisely locked onto the area where the attacker is located."
"And the most crucial point..." Yan Xilou lifted his head, his gaze meeting Lin Jie's. "This tampering has an upper limit and an interval. Did you notice?"
"Just after the Judgment ended, the air around the statue, for a brief moment, became 'lighter' than usual."