PFC Chapter 473 The Lone Warrior (Page 12)
Chapter 473 The Lone Warrior (Page 12)
Si Xiaonan bit her already bloodied lower lip, using the excruciating pain to keep herself conscious.
Her mental energy was like a candle flickering in the wind, yet she still desperately extended and sensed her surroundings, searching for any abnormal energy fluctuations that might be related to Loki.
The Human Circle... this cage that Loki considers his backyard and testing ground, imprisoning countless humans... where is the most suitable place to hide this evil altar that requires a huge amount of life energy to drive?
Is it that black cathedral, echoing with eerie prayers day and night, drawing power from faith? Or that sacrificial canyon buried deep underground, flowing with a tributary of the River Styx? Or perhaps…
Her senses, like tentacles, swept across the desolate areas. Waves of dizziness from the excessive consumption of her mental energy washed over her, and her vision began to darken.
Just when she was about to give up—
north!
A strange fluctuation, extremely faint yet strangely familiar, carrying the aura of Luo Ji's origin, mixed with overwhelming bloody resentment, suddenly rippled outwards like a stone thrown into a calm lake!
Although it was only a fleeting moment, as if it were being desperately concealed by some force, Si Xiaonan was all too familiar with this aura!
That was a curse and a bond that had penetrated deep into the soul!
She suddenly raised her head, her unfocused gaze instantly sharpening as she stared intently in that direction!
Through the broken walls of the church, she could almost see a faint, yet dazzlingly red, blood-red light flashing and disappearing from beneath a distant hill!
"So...it was hidden there?!" Her voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping, carrying a chilling killing intent that seemed to suddenly become clear.
Lost in Stone City!
What appears to be merely a desolate spot on the edge of a human community is actually a burial ground for countless failed or worthless "consumables" from experiments.
The overwhelming resentment and the fact that it kept strangers away perfectly masked the aura of the substitute altar deep within, which required a massive amount of negative energy to operate!
What a clever tactic! Loki is indeed cunning!
We must find him and destroy him completely before he fully recovers using the power of the altar!
Otherwise, once he recovers, all the previous sacrifices and risks will have been in vain!
This thought acted like a shot of adrenaline, instantly injecting into Si Xiaonan's already collapsing body.
She didn't know where the strength came from, but she suddenly used her hands to push herself up and stood up unsteadily.
My legs felt like they were filled with lead; every step was incredibly heavy, making a "rustling" sound as I stepped on the dusty ground, which was especially clear in the deathly silent church.
"Cough..." Another mouthful of blood welled up in her throat, but she forced it back down.
She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, her eyes filled with fierce determination, and stumbled out of the dilapidated church doors.
Outside the door, the sky above the crowd is perpetually gray and gloomy, so oppressive that it's hard to breathe.
On the barren land, there are scattered dead trees and ruins of abandoned buildings, and the wind sounds like the wailing of dead souls.
Si Xiaonan determined the direction and took difficult steps toward the mass grave hill where the bloody light had flashed and disappeared.
She moved very slowly, her body swaying precariously, as if she might collapse at any moment.
The backlash from the "Ghostly Guidance" was like countless red-hot files, frantically scraping and destroying every inch of her meridians and every cell in her body, bringing continuous and maddening pain.
But she didn't stop. Her will was like steel, supporting this broken body.
Only one thought echoed wildly in his mind: Find him! Kill him! End all of this once and for all!
Along the way, some wandering low-level mysterious and twisted experimental subjects seemed to have smelled the weakness and blood emanating from her, and they gathered around her eagerly, letting out greedy roars.
Si Xiaonan's eyes turned cold. Without even stopping, she simply raised her hand with difficulty.
A faint yet still sharp chill gathered at her fingertips, transforming into several ice spikes that precisely pierced the heads of the nearest monsters, instantly freezing them into ice sculptures before shattering them into ice shards on the ground.
The remaining monsters, intimidated by this ruthless method, whimpered and retreated back into the shadows.
She continued walking, leaving a bloody footprint on the ground with each step.
His face was deathly pale, his breathing was rapid and shallow, and his vision was beginning to blur and double.
The distance... is getting closer and closer...
She could clearly sense that deep within the hill ahead, shrouded in a thick aura of death and resentment, a familiar, nauseating fluctuation of the soul was beating like a heart... weakly, yet continuously!
Loki... he's right there!
They are using the power of the altar to reshape the divine soul and body!
A final, hysterical ruthlessness flashed in Si Xiaonan's eyes. She recklessly squeezed out the last bit of power from her body, even at the cost of burning her already dwindling life force.
Its speed suddenly increased, transforming into a staggering yet determined afterimage.
Charge towards that final battlefield!
Under the gloomy sky, her lonely and resolute figure resembled an arrow, burned out and aimed at its ultimate destruction.
...
The human circle, on the north side.
This land seemed to have been abandoned by the gods and cursed by demons. The sky was always leaden gray, hanging low as if it would crush one's spine; there was no sun, moon, or stars, only an unchanging, suffocating darkness.
The earth cracked, revealing bottomless black fissures from which cold, sulfurous mist seeped.
The withered and twisted strange trees, like dying skeletons, are scattered across the wasteland. The wind blows through their branches, making a mournful howl, as if countless dead souls are crying softly.
Leng Xuan walked alone in this desolate and lifeless place.
He carried a huge black metal box on his back, almost as tall as himself, the box made of a special matte alloy.
Its surface has no superfluous patterns, only deep and cold reinforced ridges, making it appear incredibly heavy and solid, completely out of place in this despairing land.
The box was incredibly heavy; with each step he took, the hard, dry ground beneath his feet would sink slightly, leaving a clear, deep footprint.
But even with it on his back, his posture remained as upright as a pine tree, and his steps were steady and firm, as if the astonishing weight did not exist.
His face was expressionless, as if covered with a layer of frost.
Only those sharp, hawk-like eyes were constantly scanning the surroundings, not missing a single suspicious trace.
He was searching, searching for the most insidious contingency plan Loki might have laid out—an altar for the blood sacrifice of ten thousand people.
In the past few days, he had traversed almost every corner on the north side of the human realm where evil might lurk. He found the church bishops scattered throughout the area, gathering faith for Loki and carrying out his orders.
The process was unpleasant. He didn't waste words, only the most direct and effective means—crushing them with absolute force, and then using chilling interrogation to pry open their mouths.
Those scenes are not worth remembering.
The dark confessional, the luxurious yet decaying bishop's bedroom, and even the public prayer hall... were all briefly transformed into interrogation rooms.
Leng Xuan's methods were efficient and cruel; the power of eternal night transformed into the most precise instruments of torture, striking directly at the most vulnerable points of the soul. He obtained a great deal of information, piecing together two possible locations for a mass blood sacrifice.
He went.
All that could be seen were ruins, and beneath those ruins, a terrifying magic circle deeply embedded in the earth, soaked in dried, blackened blood.
The mountain of pale bones piled up in the center of the magic circle silently tells the story of the past tragedy.
The intense resentment was so strong that it almost formed a solid black mist that lingered above the ruins, unmoved even by the wind.
Two altars and twenty thousand lives became the reserve fuel for Loki's resurrection.
But Leng Xuan's brows furrowed even more deeply.
He had accessed population statistics records secretly controlled by Loki's forces.
Records show that the largest settlement on the north side, "Greystone City-State," should theoretically still have 40,000 people alive at the moment.
Two mass blood sacrifices, each involving ten thousand people, could at most consume twenty thousand people. So, what happened to the remaining twenty thousand?
The numbers on the record were cold and clear, but the reality was that when he infiltrated the city-state of Graystone, only about ten thousand people remained, terrified and emaciated.
The city-state appeared unusually deserted, with many houses abandoned, and a sense of despair and a deeper fear permeated the streets, a feeling of having lost loved ones.
The numbers don't match.
Where did the 10,000 people who vanished into thin air go?
The answer is almost obvious.
Loki, the cunning god of mischief, would never place all his hopes for resurrection on just two visible altars.
He must have secretly prepared a third altar!
Use the last ten thousand people as materials for a blood sacrifice!
This place is probably unknown even to his most trusted bishops; only he himself knows about it.
"A cunning rabbit has three burrows... This treacherous and disgusting thing!" Leng Xuan's voice was low and cold, filled with undisguised disgust and murderous intent.
He stopped and gently lowered the huge box on his back, the bottom of the box making a dull "thud" as it touched the ground.
He looked around, his gaze like a sharp blade, scraping across every inch of the land.
Where is it?
This vast northern wasteland is so vast that hiding a meticulously concealed altar for thousands of people is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Where will Loki choose? Where can he satisfy the energy needs of a large-scale blood sacrifice while remaining extremely hidden, avoiding everyone's sight?
He shouldered the giant box again and began to patrol more slowly and with greater sensitivity.
His mental power was like the most sophisticated radar, spreading outwards in a fan shape from himself.
Carefully sensing the energy flow underground, the subtle anomalies in space, and... the most nauseating, lingering stench of blood and resentment.
Time passes little by little.
The leaden sky remained unchanged, making one lose all sense of time. The only sounds on the wasteland were his solitary footsteps and the occasional soft scraping of the box against the ground.
He examined the dried-up riverbed, sensed the bottomless cracks, and even ventured into several abandoned mines, but to no avail. The third altar seemed to have never existed.
Just as his mental energy began to tire from the sustained high intensity of perception, and his thoughts trembled slightly like a taut bowstring—
suddenly!
His toe kicked a piece of gravel that was half-buried in the dust.
The rubble tumbled aside, revealing a faint, almost indistinguishable dark red color beneath, almost blending into the soil.
That wasn't the color of the soil itself, but rather a kind of...stained, dried, blackened... scab?
Leng Xuan's body froze instantly, all his scattered mental energy concentrating in a fraction of a second, focusing on that one point like a searchlight!
Not just there!
Centered on that point, his spiritual power seeped in like mercury, instantly sensing the depths of this seemingly ordinary, barren land beneath his feet, indistinguishable from any other place.
About ten meters below,
Buried beneath is a vast, chilling expanse of cold and death!
It was a deathly stillness forcibly sealed and concealed by a powerful force.
But beneath that heavy seal lies a volcanic turmoil of resentment, despair, and... the lingering, fresh stench of blood!
This aura was so well concealed that if he hadn't been highly focused and happened to spot that tiny trace, he wouldn't have been able to detect it at all! Loki's concealment methods were terrifyingly sophisticated!