Chapter 171 The Heart of the Netherworld, It... is about to wake up
"Your Highness, deep within this mine, the core of the ritual is definitely here. We... have come to the right place."
"Very good." Xiao Yu sneered.
He slowly drew out the sword from his waist. In the dim light, the sword was emitting a heart-pounding cold light.
"Black Armor Army, listen to my orders!"
His voice was not loud, but it was clearly heard by every soldier.
"Today, there is an evil spirit at our feet, trying to devour the fate of our Great Yan nation and eat the people of our capital!"
"I don't care whether it's the Heart of the Underworld or a ghost or a demon. If you dare to open your mouth on the land of Great Yan, be prepared to have your teeth smashed!"
"In this battle, I am invincible!"
"I'm invincible!" The three thousand soldiers responded with extremely suppressed growls. The murderous aura that rushed into the sky even made the surrounding dark wind stagnate.
"Armor-piercing crossbows in front, forming a cone formation!" Xiao Yu pointed his sword forward, directly at the mine. "Target, straight ahead, crush them for me!"
"yes!"
With a military order, the formation changed instantly.
Hundreds of heavily armored infantrymen armed with heavy crossbows that could penetrate one person's armor quickly moved to the front of the team. The huge crossbows were strung with arrows flashing with cold light.
"go ahead!"
The torrent of steel began to slowly advance towards the huge dark mouth!
The closer we got to the mine, the colder the air grew. It wasn't a natural chill, but a chill that seemed to seep into our bones, carrying with it the stench of decay and death, making us nauseous.
"Squeak—squeak—"
Just when the team was less than fifty feet away from the cave entrance, a teeth-grinding sound, like bones rubbing against each other, came from the depths of the dark mine.
"Be on guard!" Xuan Yi shouted sternly.
All the soldiers' muscles tensed instantly.
Immediately afterwards, a series of dark shadows staggered out of the cave.
Their identities could still be vaguely identified from the tattered miners' clothes they were wearing.
They were once human.
But now, they can no longer be called human beings.
Their skin took on an ominous bluish-gray hue, blood vessels twisting and wriggling beneath their skin like black earthworms. Their eyes, devoid of pupils, burned with two balls of ghostly green will-o'-the-wisp fire. Their movements were stiff and swift, their nails growing long and black, and they uttered unconscious "ho-ho" sounds as they charged madly towards the army!
"They are miners who have been corroded by the Netherworld Energy!" Mo Li recognized them at a glance and warned loudly, "Your Highness, be careful! They feel no pain and have immense strength!"
"Just a bunch of zombies." There was not a single fluctuation in Xiao Yu's eyes.
"Heavy crossbows, fire!" he ordered coldly.
“Swish, swish, swish—”
A sharp sound of breaking through the air suddenly rang out!
Hundreds of armor-piercing crossbow arrows that were powerful enough to penetrate the city walls formed a rain of death that instantly covered the area of the charge!
“Puff, puff, puff—”
The sound of flesh being torn apart rang out frequently.
Those mutant miners were nailed to the ground by the huge force, and their bodies were shot through with blood holes as big as bowls.
However, a strange scene happened.
They...are not dead.
Even with their hearts pierced and half of their heads shot off, they still struggled, crawling on the ground with twisted limbs, trying to get closer to the army formation.
Xiao Yu snorted coldly, "Xuan Yi!"
"exist!"
"Let the brothers change the kerosene arrows and give them...purification."
"yes!"
The military order was passed down again, and the archers in the back row immediately changed to special kerosene arrows.
"put!"
Another rain of arrows, but this time, the arrows were pierced with dancing flames.
The rockets struck the zombies, instantly igniting the black grease oozing from their bodies. Blazing flames rose up, enveloping them.
“Ouch—”
Screams, too shrill to be human, finally emanated from the zombies. They twisted and struggled frantically in the flames, ultimately turning into piles of charred bones, emitting a pungent stench.
"The appetizer is over." Xiao Yu's tone was emotionless. "Let's move on."
The team walked through the mess on the ground and officially entered the mine.
Inside the cave, it was colder and damper than outside.
The walls were covered with strange signs of having been "gnawed". Sticky black liquid seeped out from the cracks in the stones, dripping onto the ground, making a "sizzling" corrosion sound.
After walking about half a mile, the passage ahead suddenly became wider and branched into three roads.
Every fork in the road was so dark that it seemed like the entrance to hell.
"Your Highness, we seem to be going in circles!" A scout in charge of exploring the route came running back quickly, a look of panic on his face. "I just entered the left passage and marked it, but after circling around, I came out from the right passage again!"
"Illusion array?" Xuan Yi frowned.
"Your Highness, please let me have a try." Mo Li volunteered.
"Yeah." Xiao Yu reined in his horse and signaled the team to stop.
Mo Li and several of his disciples immediately took action. They didn't rush around like headless flies, but instead took out various strange magical instruments.
Some disciples took out a small Bagua mirror and looked at the walls back and forth.
Some took out a stack of yellow talisman paper, muttered something, and then suddenly threw it into the air. The talisman paper spontaneously combusted without fire, turning into tiny wisps of green smoke that drifted in one direction.
Mo Li himself took out seven formation flags of different lengths and stuck them into the ground according to the directions of the Big Dipper.
"Your Highness, this is a variation of the 'Ghost Wall,' called the 'Three Yin Bewilderment Formation.'" Mo Li explained while rapidly making finger gestures. "It uses the remaining Yin energy within the earth's veins as a guide, distorting the spatial perception of this place. If you can't find the center of the formation, even if you walk until dawn, you'll just be going in circles."
"How long will it take?" Xiao Yu asked.
"Half an incense stick." Mo Li answered confidently, "The core of the formation must be hidden in a place where the Yin energy is the strongest, yet the most inconspicuous."
His eyes quickly scanned the surrounding stone walls.
Suddenly, his gaze stopped on an inconspicuous stalactite above everyone's heads.
That stalactite was darker than the surrounding ones, and had a thin layer of ice clinging to its surface.
“Found it!”
Mo Li sneered, pointed his finger like a sword, and shouted: "Break!"
A faint golden light shot out from his fingertips and hit the stalactite accurately!
“Crack!”
The stalactites shattered with a sound.
At the moment it shattered, the scene before everyone's eyes suddenly twisted and shook, as if the reflection in the water was disturbed.
The next second, the illusion shattered like glass!
Where are the three forks in the road?
In front of me, there is only a huge slope that goes straight down and has no bottom.
At the end of the slope, there were faint low and strange sounds coming from it, as if countless people were chanting scriptures together.
That voice, with its bewitching power, caused some soldiers with weak resolve to become confused.
"Heart Purification Mantra!" Mo Li shouted.
The disciples at the observatory immediately chanted in unison, and their clear voices turned into invisible barriers, isolating the evil sound outside.
Xiao Yu's expression turned even colder than the mine.
He heard it.
Beneath that voice, he heard another.
A faint but powerful "boom...boom..." heartbeat sound.
The heartbeat was slowly resonating with the entire mine, and even the entire capital's earth veins, at a strange frequency.
Heart of the Underworld.
It... is about to wake up.
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