Steel torrents pioneering a different world

Chapter 113 Life Sacrifice! Is this magic?! (Five chapters combined, including a bonus chapter, please subscribe)

The drone flew for another ten minutes or so.

The scene in the camera began to change; the snowstorm ahead suddenly intensified, as if someone had abruptly pulled a white curtain over the lens.

Almost simultaneously, the electromagnetic detector on the control panel suddenly burst into a piercing beep, and the pointer trembled wildly as if in a seizure.

"Captain, strong electromagnetic interference! This heavy snow is also strange; the source of the interference is inside, and the level is too high! If the drone is released again, it will probably be damaged."

Miao Dadong's voice was filled with heartache.

Zhao Chong stared intently at the screen, the sudden blizzard sending chills down his spine.

There's definitely something wrong with that.

"That's it!" Zhao Chong's voice was laced with ruthlessness. "Get closer! Even if it's ruined, you have to see clearly what's hidden in there!"

"Yes!"

"Zhao Dezhu! Tell the brothers to get the equipment ready and get the feast going!"

"Wang Kang! Where is Wang Kang!?"

Wang Kang, with a bandage wrapped around his forehead, ran over quickly; it was indeed Wang Kang.

He ran so fast that he stumbled.

"Here! Captain. What's up?"

"Enough talk!" Zhao Chong pointed to the coordinates on the tactical tablet. "Notify headquarters immediately. This location is under highest clearance for reconnaissance! Tell them there's a necromancer here. We'll report the location later, then we'll use heavy artillery to clear the area!"

"Alright!" Wang Kang accepted the order and immediately went to contact headquarters.

Zhao Chong's temples throbbed, and that deadly sense of crisis surged into his heart once again.

His intuition told him that what was in the snowstorm was absolutely terrifying!
The fiber optic drone flew shakily, almost skimming the snow-covered ground as it squeezed its way into the blizzard.

The screen shook violently, but soon, a bizarre scene unfolded before everyone's eyes.

Wild beasts, herbivores and carnivores, huddled together, their eyes vacant and numb, slowly making their way in the same direction—the mountaintop.

There is no conflict between herbivorous beasts and carnivorous predators; it's as if their souls have been ripped out.

“This…” Miao Dadong stared wide-eyed, while Zhao Chong next to him frowned deeply.

"Fly up the mountain," Zhao Chong said in a deep voice.

"okay!"

The drone's microphone was filled with the howling wind and intermittent, sharp, and piercing noises, like someone frantically scratching a blackboard with their fingernails, making one's teeth ache and one's heart pound.

As the drone struggled to climb, the camera panned over a rocky outcrop.

A huge wolf head rolled down the mountain and came to a stop not far in front of the drone.

It's a giant ice wolf! Its unseeing eyes are staring straight at the camera.

Miao Dadong swallowed hard.

"Captain, doesn't this thing look like it's been beheaded?"

Zhao Chong stared intently at the wolf's head: "Stop talking nonsense, keep flying!"

Miao Dadong continued to control the drone as it flew.

The drone's camera wobbled, avoiding the wolf's head that stared blankly at the dead, and continued upward.

The piercing noise grew clearer, like countless steel needles scraping against everyone's eardrums, mixed with some kind of low, eerie chanting, making people extremely irritable.

Miao Dadong felt a throbbing pain in his temples after hearing the sound.

Immediately afterwards, more bodies rolled down the hillside.

A massive tiger with a smooth cut on its neck, the blood still flowing from its cavity.

A massive, crimson python, as thick as a water bucket, was severed in half at the waist, and the cut was still twitching slightly.

Thick, dark red blood gushed down from the mountaintop, carving shocking ravines into the white snow.

The rising heat seemed particularly eerie in this icy and snowy landscape.

"Holy crap..." Zhao Dezhu, who was on duty waiting for the shelling, couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "Is this some kind of blood sacrifice?"

Miao Dadong didn't have time to pay attention to him; his energy was entirely focused on maintaining the stable flight of the drone.

Because he was so focused, his palms were covered in cold sweat as he maneuvered the drone uphill in the increasingly fierce wind and snow, little by little, until he finally crossed the edge of the mountaintop.

The next second, everyone in front of the control panel held their breath.

Zhao Chong felt a chill run from his tailbone straight up to the top of his head.

It was a huge pool of blood transformed from a volcano, churning with viscous blood and bits of flesh, with countless severed limbs of wild beasts floating in it.

Beside the blood pool, two tall figures clad in ice crystal armor and wielding frost longswords were mechanically repeating the same action.

A giant bear with lifeless eyes was driven in front of him. He raised his sword and brought the huge bear head up into the sky.

There was no blood splattering.

Two skeleton soldiers immediately stepped forward, skillfully tearing open the bear's neck with their bone claws, hanging the carcass upside down on a rack, and began to bleed it.

Around the pool of blood, even more wild beasts stood numbly in line, waiting to be slaughtered.

This was a massacre carried out like an assembly line.

"They really did have a backup plan!"

Zhao Chong forced out a few words through gritted teeth, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

However, what came next was even more terrifying.

The drone's camera zoomed out to the center of the blood pool.

Two men, who had removed their armor and green robes and were clearly of different races, stood in the pool of blood, their expressions fanatical and twisted.

Each of them held a sword of a different style and thrust it fiercely into the other's body!
They didn't dodge or scream; instead, after injuring each other, they emitted a soul-chilling, inhuman chanting sound from their throats.

They are the source of that piercing noise!
"hiss……"

Upon hearing this, Miao Dadong suddenly felt a tightness in his bladder, almost uncontrollable.

The sense of danger and trembling that came from the depths of his soul caused his body to react in a way that was out of control.

Just then, the necromancer by the blood pool seemed to sense something, his movements suddenly stopped, and he slowly raised his head.

The ice-blue eyes pierced through the wind and snow, precisely locking onto the drone's direction!

"Get away!"

Zhao Chong's roar exploded.

Miao Dadong, almost relying on his honed instincts, suddenly pushed the joystick to the right!

"call out!"

An ice spear tore through the air with a shriek, flying off almost grazing the drone's rotor blades.

Miao Dadong was still in shock when he saw several necromancers pull out an ice spear from the void and aim it at them. He instinctively pulled the lifting lever sharply.

He needed to increase the distance and get out of the danger zone.

The action itself was not wrong, but in this eerie snowstorm, it was deadly.

The drone suddenly rose into the air, instantly caught in the violent airflow, its fuselage shaking violently and completely losing its balance.

The scene on the screen began to spin.

The screen eventually turned black and red!
The drone's excellent waterproofing prevented damage to the aircraft and camera, but with no one to rescue it, it likely wouldn't last more than a few minutes before the signal was lost due to being soaked in blood.

The device crashed!
The drone operation area at the B5 logistics base was deathly silent.

Miao Dadong stared at the black screen, feeling the cold sweat on his body rapidly cooling down.

His precious camera, along with its high-definition camera and thermal imaging module, became ingredients in the pool of blood.

Even if they manage to salvage it, it's probably beyond repair!

"Damn it..." he muttered under his breath, his voice hoarse.

"coordinate!"

Zhao Chong's voice was like a slap in the face, pulling Miao Dadong back from the heartache of the equipment loss.

"Was the location recorded?!"

"It's recorded! The signal wasn't completely lost a second before the drone fell in!" Miao Dadong snapped back to reality, his fingers tapping on the keyboard to bring up the data link.

In one corner of the screen, a progress bar is jumping slowly at an unsettling pace, with the label "Data being transmitted" next to it.

Just as the progress bar jumped to "100%", the green indicator light, which represented the signal connection, turned into a glaring red with a snap.

The connection has been completely lost.

Miao Dadong's face darkened as he watched the drone lose its signal.

"Alright, stop looking." Zhao Chong slapped him hard on the shoulder. "Send the coordinates to headquarters!"

His voice suppressed a barely contained rage, but his eyes were as cold as the ice and snow outside.

"Tell headquarters we've located the enemy's altar, and they're conducting a massive blood sacrifice. Request indiscriminate saturation bombardment with heavy weapons! Pour as much explosive as you can into that dormant volcano! If necessary, request the use of Truth!"

"Yes!" Miao Dadong immediately carried out the order, packaging and encrypting the coordinate data that had just been transmitted back and sending it.

"Zhao Dezhu!"

"To!"

"Don't you treasure those mortars under your command like they're your wives? Drag them out and fire at that hilltop!"

"Alright!" Zhao Dezhu's eyes lit up, he slapped his thigh, turned around and rushed out, his roar carrying far through the wind and snow, "Artillery platoon! Everyone, get the feast started!"

Zhao Chong then turned to the communications soldier: "Except for the necessary guards on the watchtower, everyone, get on the vehicles within five minutes! Start our infantry fighting vehicles too! Fire at that hilltop."
-
While Zhao Chong was working diligently, the blood pool inside the dormant volcano was not calming down.

Beside the pool of blood, the leading ice-armored necromancer watched as the drone, representing a technological creation from another world, plunged into the viscous blood pool, his icy blue eyes fixed on the spot where the drone disappeared.

Beneath the water's surface, a faint indicator light seemed to be flashing before it went out completely.

No explosion!
Call ~
The necromancer breathed a sigh of relief, a relaxed, anthropomorphic expression appearing on his wrinkled, withered face.

The necromancer opened his mouth and spoke in a language that humans could not understand.

The sound was like two pieces of ice rock rubbing together, sharp and piercing, devoid of any organic emotion.

As soon as he finished speaking, his men suddenly increased the speed at which they wielded their weapons, and more twisted sacrificial offerings were thrown into the blood pool, causing the blood to surge and almost overflow the edge of the pool.

On the other side of the blood pool, however, the atmosphere was completely different.

A tall, pointed-eared creature draped in a green robe and wearing a mask stood beside a magnificent unicorn, coldly watching the necromancers' masterpiece.

What did the companion next to him say?

Upon hearing this, he raised his hand and delivered a resounding slap to the other person's face.

He spoke a few words, and the other person's language was very different from the modern world. Listening carefully, it was similar to Portuguese!

The slender figure glanced at the monster still wielding its butcher's knife beside her, wiped away the tears under her mask, then mounted the pure white unicorn and charged down the ridge without a care in the world.

The other party quickly disappeared into the snowstorm.

The humanoid creature, draped in a green robe, wearing a mask, and with pointed ears, finally turned its gaze back to the center of the blood pool, its green eyes filled with anxiety.

The necromancer, who was chanting the final incantation, turned a deaf ear to the farce unfolding here.

His spirit was completely absorbed in this grand blood sacrifice. As the number of offerings increased, the temperature of the entire crater seemed to rise, and the energy in the air distorted even the wind and snow.

As the leading necromancer watched all this, the icy blue in his eyes gradually burned like flames!
"call out--"

A sharp, otherworldly howl, growing louder as it approached, tore through the wind, snow, and chanting.

Then came the second sound, the third sound...

Like the scythe of death slicing through the sky, it descends from the heavens with an unstoppable will!

A mortar shell landed right at the feet of the creature who had slapped someone else.

Boom!

The unlucky guy in the green robe was blown away on the spot.

The necromancer stared at the unfortunate leader merging into the pool of blood, and for the first time, astonishment appeared in his icy blue eyes.
-
Pioneers Headquarters!

Inside the command center, Su Mingjin and others were reviewing the combat report.

"Report!" A communications officer jumped to his feet, his voice trembling with urgency. "Emergency communication from Zhao Chong Squadron! A large enemy altar has been discovered 19 kilometers northwest of our unit. They are suspected of engaging in some evil summoning activities!"

Su Mingjin's eyes narrowed: "Coordinates!"

"Received! Attached is a last transmitted video clip!" The dispatcher's hands flew across the keyboard, immediately projecting the data onto the main screen.

Upon seeing the coordinates, Brigade Commander Fu, without saying a word, grabbed the communicator and started yelling.

"Artillery battalion! Listen up! Target coordinates XXX, XXX! All 155mm howitzers, adjust firing data within one minute! On my command, prepare for salvo!"

As soon as the order was given, the last footage that Miao Dadong captured, obtained at the cost of his beloved drone's life, was clearly presented to everyone.

In a blizzard, at the crater of a dormant volcano, lies a pool of blood as thick as syrup.

At the edge of the pool, hundreds upon hundreds of headless otherworldly beast corpses were piled up like mountains.

The necromancer, with his icy blue sword, was frantically throwing living sacrifices into the pool of blood.

On the other side, several pointed-eared creatures dressed in green robes and riding magnificent unicorns were prominently featured!
Inside the command center, a collective gasp filled the air.

"It's them... the necromancers who attacked us, and what are those intelligent creatures we've never seen before? Their ears are so sharp!"

"This is definitely some kind of evil ritual! We must stop it!"

Su Mingjin clenched her fists instantly, her knuckles turning white.

"Quickly, mobilize the weapons and blow them up!"

Commander Fu put down the communicator, his eyes bloodshot, like an enraged lion: "It's all made contact, the fire support will arrive soon."

"Use incendiary bombs and high-explosive bombs! Burn that damn pool dry! We can't let those guys become a medium."

"Yes!"

"Wait!" Commander Man seemed to feel that wasn't enough. He pointed to the red dot on the map, his voice sounding like it was being squeezed out from between his teeth, "Move in three more Dongfeng missiles with conventional warheads! Let's make that hill disappear from the map completely!"

"Brigade Commander, using a Dongfeng missile to hit targets at 19 kilometers... isn't that like using a cannon to kill a mosquito? How about we just use a 10,000-ton Xiaozhen?" the staff officer next to him whispered.

"Waste?" Commander Man's eyes widened. "Have you lost your mind? That's a high-value mining area. Do you think we'll even continue mining after we've destroyed it?"

"Yes!"

Orders were issued layer by layer, and the war machine began to operate with terrifying efficiency.

The first to be ready were more than twenty Type 181 155mm vehicle-mounted howitzers.

They raised their menacing cannons and fired at maximum angles, unleashing a deafening roar!

One by one, the shells were propelled by immense kinetic energy, tracing deadly arcs through the air. These shells had no fancy guidance systems, only the purest weight and kinetic energy.

Simple, crude, but effective!

Immediately afterwards, the reloaded rocket launcher roared.

Countless rockets, trailing long plumes of flame, resembled a swarm of bloodthirsty steel locusts, following the trajectory of the artillery shells and rushing toward the same target.

A torrential downpour of steel, spanning 19 kilometers, roared and crashed against the dormant volcano.

Intense artillery fire landed, and deadly shrapnel and shockwaves ravaged the area.

About two minutes later, the blizzard that had been condensing into a wall suddenly changed dramatically.

boo——

A soft sound.

In the footage from the backup drone that was urgently dispatched, the dense blizzard looked like a giant soap bubble that had been punctured by a needle, visibly thinning and dissipating.

In just a few dozen seconds, the blizzard that had been so intense that it was impossible to open one's eyes had dissipated by several levels!

The world gradually became clear.

The incendiary bombs, still burning, shot into the sky, turning half the sky red.

Looking at the mountaintop turned into a sea of ​​fire on the screen, Su Mingjin's tense nerves relaxed slightly.

"Two more rounds of bombing!"

Hundreds more shells landed, plowing up the blood-stained, gruesome place.

Only when they saw that the place was completely ruined did everyone feel satisfied.

"The drone can be pushed forward now! I want to see every single detail inside!"

"Yes!"

Braving the scorching heat, the drone cautiously approached the target area.

On the big screen, the image gradually became clear.

The former pool of blood is now just a huge, charred pit, surrounded by mangled limbs and severed animal carcasses crackling in the flames.

The entire hilltop seemed to have been flattened.

"Well done!" someone in the command center couldn't help but cheer.

"Shouldn't they all be dead by now?"

Seeing this apocalyptic scene, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

Su Mingjin remained staring intently at the screen, without uttering a word.

The relaxed atmosphere in the command center did not affect the other side.

"Xiao Su, don't be so tense! The snowstorm has subsided, and those guys are probably all dead by now."

Commander Fu lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled smoke that carried a sense of relief.

"Even if that thing is made of iron, it should have melted into molten iron by now."

"Yeah," Commander Man echoed gruffly, plopping down in his chair with a thud, "More than twenty 155mm heavy guns, plus a rocket artillery battalion dropping thermite bombs, three rounds of bombardment—if that doesn't kill them, I'll eat the gun barrels!"

The staff officer next to him laughed and said, "Brigade Commander, take it easy. The gun barrels are hard to digest."

Amidst the laughter, Su Mingjin shook her head, her eyes never leaving the large screen. Her intuition told her something was wrong.

Something big seems to be about to happen!

She said in a deep voice, "Operator, fly the drone directly above the crater to get a close look at the damage."

Once the command is issued, the operator executes it immediately.

The drone's camera quickly climbed up, then turned around, displaying the charred crater in its entirety in the center of the screen.

"Zoom in, aim at the center of the crater, zoom in to the maximum!" Su Mingjin's voice carried an undeniable urgency.

The camera zooms in continuously, with scorched earth, wreckage, and still-burning flames flashing by.

A crater caught Su Mingjin's attention.

"Stop! Aim at that blue thing!"

The pilot quickly retreated.

Then, a piece of ice, a solid piece of ice that still emitted a faint blue light even at temperatures high enough to melt steel, appeared on the big screen.

It's like a blue nail driven into a fiery hell, landing in a crater, looking eerie and abrupt.

The laughter in the command center stopped abruptly.

"What...what is this?!"

"Ice? Are you kidding me? How could there be ice at this temperature!"

"It's magic! The enemy's ice magic! This thing can actually withstand cannonballs?"

Commander Man's heart, which had just been at ease, jumped into his throat again. He stood up abruptly, causing the table to shake as he slammed it: "You son of a bitch, you're not quite dead yet!"

"Artillery positions!" Su Mingjin's voice was already tinged with coldness. "Cover them again! Blast that block of ice to smithereens!"

"Drone!" Su Ming ordered again, "Zoom in again! I need to see clearly what's inside!"

"Yes!"

The drone's 50x zoom was increased again, and the ice block in the single pit appeared.

Through the translucent ice layer, the outline of a curled-up figure gradually became clear.

It was that group of ice-armored necromancers who orchestrated numerous attacks, causing enormous property damage to humanity!

That guy is still alive!

Just then, the guy seemed to notice the cessation of the artillery fire, or perhaps he sensed the spying from above.

click-

A crack appeared in the ice.

Immediately afterwards, the ice shards exploded with a roar, turning into a sky full of ice crystals.

The necromancer slowly stood up. Its ice armor was tattered, and one of its arms was missing, revealing its withered body underneath, but it didn't care at all.

It raised its head, and from a distance of several hundred meters, its eyes, burning with blue flames, precisely locked onto the drone's camera.

There was no anger, no roaring.

There was only a deathly silence, a resentment and...unwillingness that seemed to freeze one's soul.

Those in the command center who witnessed this scene felt a chill run from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads, as if they themselves were being watched, not the drone.

"Quick! Are the shells ready yet?!" Brigade Commander Man roared into the communicator.

"It's launched! But it will still be flying for a while."

Su Mingjin watched as the necromancer suddenly let out a low growl of unknown meaning. The sound was unlike any known language; it was sharp and piercing, like fingernails scraping against glass.

The next second, it made a move that caught everyone off guard.

It raised its withered, pale right hand, its five fingers forming a claw, and without hesitation plunged it into its own chest, forcefully pulling out an ice crystal heart that was still pulsating slightly but radiating black chill!
It held its heart high, and the incantation suddenly rose in pitch!
"What is it doing?" Su Mingjin's heart skipped a beat.

As the necromancer's scream ended, he and his heart shattered from the inside out.

His body exploded silently, like shards of glass, or a burst of ice-crystal-colored fireworks, before merging into the air.

It could no longer be found in the same spot.

Just seconds after it disappeared.

boom--! ! !
A new round of shells finally arrived, precisely covering the spot where it had just stood, ruthlessly ploughing the scorched earth downwards and blasting out an even deeper crater.

You can only hit air.

Inside the command center, there was a deathly silence.

After a long while, a young staff officer finally asked the question that was on everyone's mind, his voice trembling.

"What...what did he just do? That must have been suicide, right?"

"Is it some kind of magical curse?"

"curse?"

No one answered this question.

They simply couldn't understand what the other person was doing!
Just then, a strong electromagnetic interference occurred. The drone model immediately lost signal.

Then, a very faint tremor began to emanate outwards from the site of the blood sacrifice...
-
Two kilometers away from the headquarters, Deng Dakang was chatting and laughing with Master Chen and others when a dull tremor suddenly came from the ground beneath his feet.

He looked up at the distant sky and saw another wave of dense rockets, trailing plumes of fire, accurately striking the same area.

"Goodness, who did this guy grudge against that he had to be ground to dust before he was satisfied?"

Deng Dakang muttered something, then threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out.

Just then, his heart clenched as if gripped by an invisible hand, and the intense pain caused him to bend over instantly.

Something is wrong!
It wasn't a heart attack; it was a cold, throbbing sensation that pierced to the bone.

Immediately afterwards, his mind began to buzz, and countless chaotic whispers appeared out of nowhere, like a radio with a very poor signal, yet clearly penetrating the depths of his consciousness.

Those voices... some of them were very familiar to him.

"Dakang, we're home..."

It was her mother who died of cancer.

"You brat, where are you running wild again?"

He was an elderly father who always had a stern face but would secretly slip him money, but who passed away because of the mask issue.

Soon after, his wife, his children, his grandchildren... all the most important people in his life were calling out to him.

Deng Dakang shook his head violently, trying to shake off the auditory hallucinations, but the scene in front of him began to distort and spin.

When I opened my eyes again, everything around me had changed.

He was standing under a giant tree.

He recognized the tree; it was a red-leaved, white-barked tree. The leaves were as red as blood, while the trunk and roots were eerily white. He had seen it in informational materials before; this kind of tree possessed a weak electromagnetic field that could influence a person's mind.

Why is he here?

"My child, my child!"

"Come to me!"

"Son!"

Deng Dakang turned his head stiffly and saw two figures standing under the tree, just like his parents in his memory.

But their faces were bloodless, their eyes were empty, and they mechanically repeated the calls.

A chill ran from Deng Dakang's tailbone to the top of his head.

A hallucination! It's a psychological attack from the enemy!
Deng Dakang's breathing suddenly became heavy. Without the slightest hesitation, he raised his hands and slapped his face from both sides.

Snapped!Snapped!
The crisp sound of a slap echoed through the empty forest.

The excruciating pain and humiliation cleared his mind for a moment, and the hallucinations before his eyes flickered violently, the figures of his parents twisting into two distorted beams of light.

effective!
With a determined heart, Deng Dakang opened his mouth and bit down hard on the tip of his tongue!
"hiss--"

The strong taste of blood exploded in my mouth, and a sharp pain cleaved through the chaos in my mind like a lightning bolt.

The illusion before my eyes shattered like broken glass.

However, before he could catch his breath, the scene changed again.

This time, he was lying on a soft, large bed, surrounded by his familiar bedroom.

Hmm, how did I end up in the barracks bedroom of the reclamation team?
A younger couple approached, their faces adorned with kind smiles.

It was his parents, what they looked like before they were tormented by illness.

"My son, your mother has been waiting for you for so long..."

The young mother bent down, opened her arms, and hugged him tightly.

Deng Dakang tried to struggle, but found himself powerless.

The embrace was unbelievably warm, carrying the faint, sweet fragrance unique to his mother from his memories, almost eroding all his vigilance and willpower.

Deng Dakang's body froze completely.

He could clearly feel his consciousness sinking rapidly, and that warmth was like a bottomless vortex, threatening to completely devour and assimilate his soul.

No...that's not right...

He tried to struggle, to bite his tongue again, but found he didn't even have the strength to lift his arm.

My vision began to blur, and my body started to feel strange.

The hands and feet seem to be shortening, and the bones are changing.

He was horrified to discover that he had turned into an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes.

"Giggle..." The young father picked him up and gently rubbed his cheek with his stubble-covered chin.

Warm, familiar, safe.

My memories are gradually becoming blurry...

who am I?
where am I?
I am Deng Dakang, a researcher in virology and medicine. I am a member of the Communist Party. I am... I want to go home... No, this is home...

Deng Dakang's consciousness was torn between two extremes.

Ultimately, the baby's instincts prevailed.

He was tired and sleepy.

Just as his consciousness was about to completely dissipate and he was utterly immersed in this false happiness.

Zhi——!
A sharp, stabbing pain suddenly shot through the back of his neck, accompanied by a strong feeling of numbness, instantly piercing through his entire spine.

This intense pain from the outside world was like a steel needle, piercing straight into a warm dream.

"what!"

The baby's cries turned into the roars of an adult man.

Deng Dakang suddenly opened his eyes.

The parents before me, the familiar bedroom—everything seemed to distort violently, like water rippled by a stone thrown in.

"No! This is an illusion!!"

He roared inwardly with all his might.

Zizzi——!
Another electric shock, this time even stronger, causing him to convulse in pain.

In the illusion, the parents' faces showed fear and reluctance, and their bodies began to become transparent, turning into specks of light.

"Son..."

"Don't go..."

Click——!
The world before my eyes was like a mirror shattered by a heavy hammer, collapsing into countless fragments.

"Fuck me..."

Deng Dakang suddenly sat up from the ground, panting heavily, covered in cold sweat, as if he had just been pulled out of the water.

All around were the anxious faces of Master Chen and several security personnel.

"The professor is awake! The professor is finally awake! Daoist, you are truly amazing!" Wang Hu exclaimed in surprise.

Master Chen helped the other person up and asked in a deep voice, "Professor Deng, how are you feeling?"

"Buzzing... It's still there..." Deng Dakang held his head, the whispers, though much weaker, still buzzing in his mind like flies.

He shoved Master Chen aside, his eyes bloodshot, and roared with all his might, "Helmet! Anti-psychological interference helmet! Give it to me now!"

A teammate next to him suddenly realized what was happening and immediately rummaged through his equipment box for a somewhat bulky helmet, handing it over in a flurry.

Deng Dakang snatched the helmet and roughly slammed it onto his own head.

The world is finally at peace.

"professor?"

"Damn! I just fell for their trick!"

Deng Dakang wiped his face, but what he touched wasn't cold sweat, but a sticky, wet nosebleed. His back, thighs, and arms—every muscle still felt numb and sore from the electric shock.

He shook his head and looked at the group of people surrounding him: "Did I just faint? How long was I unconscious?"

"It was only two minutes, Professor," Wang Hu said, still shaken. "You weren't unconscious; you just stood there like you'd lost your soul, your eyes wide open. We called you but you didn't respond. Later, it was Master Chen who..."

Wang Hu gestured to the side with his chin.

Deng Dakang followed his gaze and saw that Master Chen was stroking his goatee with one hand and holding an electric baton with the other, looking like a sage with an air of otherworldly wisdom. However, the undisguised smugness in his eyes made him seem a bit...down-to-earth.

"Thank you, Daoist Master." Deng Dakang's voice was a little hoarse, and the wound on the tip of his tongue was still throbbing. "How did you come up with the idea of ​​using electricity?"

"Mr. Deng, you're too kind."

Master Chen cleared his throat and explained in a serious tone: "Layman Deng, you once mentioned that Western medicine has hysteria and the like that can interfere with brain thinking. Taoists call this 'entering evil spirits.' I see that your spirit just left your body and your forehead turned black. It is obvious that you have been affected by evil spirits."

"Unfortunately, my cultivation is still shallow, and I'm afraid I won't have time to finish reciting the Heart-Cleansing Mantra. So I'll have to resort to scientific methods and use thunder magic to exorcise evil spirits and give you a physical wake-up."

At this point, Master Chen sighed with regret: "Scientific lightning can indeed be simple and useful at times. I hope you will forgive what happened earlier."

"I'm so grateful to you!"

Deng Dakang was both amused and exasperated. He struggled to stand up, but Master Chen pressed him down.

"Don't move yet, wait a moment."

Deng Dakang nodded, no longer pressing the issue, and turned to look at Wang Hu beside him: "Wang Hu, how are you? Do you feel anything is wrong?"

"Me? I'm fine, I just felt like the sky was falling..." Wang Hu answered subconsciously, but he suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence, his eyes began to glaze over, and he slapped his forehead hard.

"No...no! Professor, I think...something's in my head too!"

"Helmet! Quickly!" Deng Dakang shouted sharply. "Wang Hu, put down the gun and hand it over to someone else!"

One of the team members immediately stepped forward and took the rifle from Wang Hu's stiff hands. Another person hurriedly put a spare helmet on Wang Hu's head.

Wang Hu shuddered, exhaled a long breath, and went limp.

"How are you feeling now?" Deng Dakang sat up straight, supporting himself on the ground, and stared into Wang Hu's eyes.

"It's clean... Professor, your mind... is clean."

Wang Hu was panting heavily, his eyes filled with lingering fear.

"Something really did just get into my head, not a sound, not a picture, just... a feeling, it was telling me, telling me..."

He seemed to have thought of something terrible, and his lips trembled as he couldn't continue speaking.

“I just saw something too.” Deng Dakang’s face was so dark it could drip water. “A very…real hallucination, a hallucination I couldn’t resist at all!”

He was about to recount his terrifying experience of seeing his parents to warn everyone when, without warning, a slight tremor came from the ground beneath his feet.

At first, it was just like a heavy truck passing by in the distance.

But soon, the trembling turned into violent shaking!
The trees in the forest swayed wildly like waves of wheat in a gale, and the ground beneath their feet seemed to come alive, tilting and swaying, making it impossible to stand steadily.

"Earthquake!" Deng Dakang had carried out missions in Sichuan and Chongqing and was all too familiar with this feeling; his face instantly turned ashen.

"Look over there!"

In the chaos, Master Chen, who had been facing northwest, suddenly raised his hand and pointed to the horizon, his voice changing tone.

Everyone instinctively looked in the direction he pointed.

In the distant sky, a thick, grayish-brown column of smoke tore through the heavens with an aggressive posture, shooting straight into the clouds.

Within the column of smoke, dark red light churned incessantly, like scalding blood continuously flowing from a wound on the earth.

Blinding lightning flashed wildly through the thick volcanic ash cloud. Although no sound had been heard yet, everyone instinctively guessed that there must be thunder and lightning, a scene of apocalypse.

The earth beneath their feet roared wildly, like a scene from the apocalypse unfolding before everyone's eyes without warning.

Master Chen swallowed hard, turned to look at Deng Dakang, and said in a hoarse voice, "Amitabha... Professor, this... this is a volcanic eruption?"

Deng Dakang stared intently at the towering column of smoke, gritting his teeth as he squeezed out a few words.

"I studied medicine, not geology! How would I know!"

Inside the command center, a few kilometers away.

"hiss--"

Commander Man's thermos clattered to the ground, spilling scalding hot tea everywhere. The cigarette in his hand was burning his fingers, but he was completely unaware.

Like everyone else, everyone's eyes were fixed on the huge main screen in the center of the command room.

Just a few dozen seconds ago, the area marked "Blood Summoning Sacrifice Site" was nothing but the ruins of an unfinished blood sacrifice!
However, now, shortly after that necromancer died.

First, strong electromagnetic interference appeared, followed by slight vibrations, and then the entire screen was filled with a glaring white and red.

That was the extremely high temperature reaction detected by the drone after it switched to an infrared camera!
The ultra-high temperature reaction came very abruptly, as if the whole world had begun to boil.

"What's going on?!"

"This... must be magic, right?"

(End of this chapter)