He is the leader of the Tantric sect in Chagdu.

Chapter 89 Hey, I haven't voted yet!

boom--

The defense team and the assault team have arrived at the scene one after another. The silent field and the cognitive filter are deployed simultaneously, and the encirclement is gradually taking shape. A giant net made of steel is trapping the powerful prey within it.

The hunt is about to begin.

On the other side, at the edge of the street.

"Unlike a normal living being—that monster."

Having separated from most of the enemy and hiding behind a collapsed wall, Ronan cautiously peeked out and looked at the battlefield not far away—every ten seconds or so, an armor-piercing bullet would spin and tear through the night sky, hurtling towards him from beyond his line of sight.

"She's deliberately avoiding it," Ronan said softly.

Whether it was a manifestation of consciousness or instinct, unlike its previous arrogance, after targeting her abdomen, the snake god suddenly changed its mode of action. Its originally haughty posture turned into a low stance, and with its agile body, it moved and hid in the streets and alleys.

In order to continue to suppress her movement, the remote support team began to frequently change positions, and the frequency of attacks began to decrease.

But Ronan wasn't in a hurry; on the contrary, he was quite excited.

"As expected, her abdomen is more like her weak point than her head—in any case, the place the enemy wants to protect is our target."

"In short, it's definitely a good idea to focus your attention there."

Mia observed the silhouette crawling on the ground and narrowed her eyes: "Let's focus on attrition for now. If all goes well, we won't even need to launch an attack."

"Let's take a look first—" Ronan held his breath.

As the team responsible for clearing mines, the Logistics Department imprinted mysterious runes on the standard power armor worn by the defense team using the technology of "Ritual Instruments" to create a small "impact filtering environment" inside the armor, and also equipped the original weapon module with a portable "silence generator".

In this way, as long as they hide under this steel tortoise shell, they can gain basic mystic resistance. With the added strength and mass of the power armor itself, they can usually suppress a single target.

At this moment, the defense team and the snake have already made their first contact.

"hiss"

Although it was the half-body of a petite young girl, the lower half of her serpentine body still added to her terrifying majesty—the cleaners, who were generally nearly two meters tall, appeared tiny in front of this four-meter-long giant snake.

The incredibly sharp vertical pupils now exuded a frenzied hostility, while the commander's calm whisper came through the channel used to clear people: "Control."

In the sequence of implanted chips, the commander's orders took precedence over everything else—completely ignoring the strange, contracting and expanding tendrils that were coiling around him like blood vessels, the four cleanup crew members directly lunged at the snake-like body.

A hissing sound, like ice being thrown into boiling oil, rang out from the point of contact. Even steel began to melt and deform. Corrosion spots appeared on the power armor wrapped in scarlet veins, and then a layer of viscous liquid, like wax, began to drip slowly.

Trait Record: Corrosive Toxin

The silence generator, powered by its highest output, forcefully bypassed the obstacles of those blood vessels and advanced to the snake's vicinity—as the fluctuations of the red liquid in the area were suppressed, she let out a furious hiss.

"hiss!"

Without any attempt to retreat, she took the initiative and plunged almost her entire body into the silent environment. Her lower snake body suddenly wrapped around the waist of a cleaner who couldn't dodge in time, tightening it once more.

With a cracking sound, the already corroded power armor shattered layer by layer under the unreasonable force. In just a few seconds, a pool of blood, whose shape was no longer discernible, gushed out from the gap in the snake's tail, and bone fragments and minced flesh dripped down the smooth scales in streams.

"Cleaner 14, signal lost."

Trait Record: Great Strength

"An expected ability—"

Ronan took a deep breath, his eyes gleaming. The scene before him was not beyond his judgment. Strength was an innate advantage of the living body, and the serpent god before him was a creature driven by pure life force. Even the Cleansers would find it difficult to contend with it.

"Get out of her range of physical attacks and wait for the assault team's firepower to suppress her—unless she comes up with something new."

Ronan sneered, "We'll wear him down."

The next moment, a series of sounds came from all directions.

The snake's lower body, with its densely packed scales, was surprisingly sturdy. Even .45 caliber bullets could only be deflected. However, in the barrage of bullets, the snake could not protect its entire body. It only hid its abdomen in the scales, and the exposed half of its body was still rapidly "evaporating" in the storm of bullets. Although it would be replaced by the regenerated flesh in the next second, it still caused considerable damage to it.

Everything is moving in a positive direction.

—If a mysterious life form in the second stage is really that easy to deal with—

"hiss"

The pain and humiliation of being constantly attacked, and the counterattack that erupted from anger and madness, all merged into a tearing and mournful scream.

Almost instantly, the silent field surrounding them was pierced through by a brutal force, creating a grotesque passage. An attack of unknown form surged forth like a raging tide, carrying the momentum to crush everything.

"Mia!"

The shockwave of the crimson liquid was the most powerful warning for the apprentices—almost simultaneously with the piercing scream that cut through the night, Ronan's roar, barely suppressed, began.

"Shut up--

—

From the very beginning, the magic circle that Mia drew on the spot was activated by a single thought. The ritual can act as a "lever" to drive the secret essence, and when fully prepared, it is enough to leverage power beyond the apprentice level.

The simple devices arranged in the designated positions act as "amplifiers," instantly activating the long-awaited defenses, and a secret technique unfolds silently.

"calm--"

The terrifying hiss was stopped several meters away by the red liquid surging in the same direction.

The principle behind "Instant Arcane Arts" is quite simple. It can be used temporarily in the rapidly changing environment of the battlefield, specifically to deal with attacks that use "sound" as a medium. When prepared, its defensive effect is more significant and intuitive than "Silence" as a skill.

Mia was panting heavily; her reaction was incredibly quick, otherwise she would have been in serious trouble.

"Did you see that? —" A soft murmur sounded from the side.

They successfully withstood the boss's burst of power, but their expressions were not good; in fact, they were extremely solemn.

Ronan's expression twisted, his tone one of utter disbelief.

"The power of standards".

"Why is it Qi?"

Mia rubbed her little tiger teeth and gritted her teeth, saying, "We're doomed."

Sound is a "spellcasting medium" that weakens significantly with distance. The two pure deer people were unaffected by the attack, but the combat groups entangled with snakes were not so lucky.

Not far away, the clearing crews who were fighting in the streets, except for a few lucky ones who hid behind cover, were mostly in a daze. With a ping-pong sound, the power armor of the assault team members closest to the snake god began to fall off neatly.

The steel connections were no longer strong, and they wailed as they separated from them.

The next instant, with a few tentacles emerging from the darkness, the unprotected "pilot" quickly turned into a puddle of pus.

The power armor used to clean people—to be precise—is the external limbs that the death row inmates inside have developed. They are a lifelong prison—they were originally impossible to separate. From the moment they were put into the metal cans, the Foundation did not make any plans for "the people inside to come out in the future." All parts were directly welded to it.

But the tin can was still opened.

That hiss just now was pure lawful power.

The Criterion of Revelation is indeed not adept at combat. Aside from its enhancement of reason and intellect, a large portion of its "power inclination" leans towards "revelation" and "prediction."

But that doesn't mean it's not dangerous.

"Enlightenment" is also: the principle of dissociation, the principle of penetrating.

All concepts related to "opening" are powers that it exercises.

Trait Record: The Code of Enlightenment

"How could a man-made, mysterious life form possibly master the power of the laws? It's utterly insane, that monster—"

The scene before him was utterly incomprehensible. Ronan clenched his fists tightly, first feeling a wave of exhaustion, then briefly closing his eyes to calm the agitation rising from the vessel.

The standard is a quality that only intelligent beings can study. As the basic container of mysterious power, if even the first step of understanding cannot be achieved, how can it be used by a lowly mind?

Given its life form and operating principles, an activated body shouldn't possess the power of criterion. Doesn't that snake look like a thinking "intelligent being"?

He rubbed his temples to relieve the burning sensation in his heart.

"What exactly did that Holy See produce?!"

Perhaps due to an underestimation of the enemy's strength, the situation began to deteriorate rapidly the moment the serpent god revealed some of its dangerous traits.

Apart from the defense teams equipped with resistance to mysticism, the rest of the assault troops have received new orders to focus on "preserving manpower"—firepower has clearly begun to decrease, and they are no longer able to organize large-scale barrage coverage.

If it weren't for the support team in the distance still having the power to restrain the snake, limiting her movement to the narrow alleyways, the situation would probably have collapsed long ago.

But the situation is still precarious. Snake has clearly sensed the decrease in firepower and some of the restrictions have been lifted. Her activity level is rising directly. Even the defense team cannot completely resist her immense strength and corrosiveness. As soon as the front line falls, it will be an instantaneous game for them to lose.

"Ronan." Mia took a deep breath. "We haven't even begun, we've crossed two stages. If she remains like this, we won't even be able to break through her instinctive mystique."

As mysterious apprentices, they had prepared many backup plans to "end the battle"—but all of them were based on first exhausting the Serpent God to the limit—and now, the operation had been severely impacted before it even truly began.

"Shake to correct, or run."

She said in a deep voice, gently poking the waist of the person next to her, silently handing over the right to choose to Ronan.

As an apprentice, it is not shameful to ask for help—but the Foundation's reward and punishment mechanisms will not be lenient with them, after all, the ability to judge the difficulty of a task is one of the skills that apprentices need to develop.

The "correction" authority might solve the immediate crisis, but the subsequent debts would become a problem they would have to face.

Another option is to run.

Cleaners are expendable resources; even if they all die, it won't be a big loss—using them as human shields to block the way in front can certainly allow the two undiscovered individuals to escape safely, and the cost of this choice would be much smaller.

Ronan fell silent, while Mia held up two fingers: "Two minutes. I'll wait for your decision."

A gentle breeze ruffled the stray hairs on his forehead.

The secret essence module within the body supports a small-scale "wind-generating technique," transforming the location into a "counter-wind direction" and dispersing the ubiquitous "sweet and fishy smell" on the battlefield to the rear. These smells are also a kind of toxin; they are not a mysterious power and can ignore the shielding of the silent field. As a result, some of the cleanup personnel in the battle sequence have already gone offline.

"We—" Ronan managed to utter.

—If the problem isn't dealt with here, at least until the commission ends, this snake will become an out-of-control threat.

He made a decision: "We—"

"I haven't voted yet."

Suddenly, a faint voice rang in their ears, and for a moment even the fur on the hard antlers seemed to stand on end. Ronan turned his head almost instantly, drew his gun with his left hand, and condensed a ball of orange-red flame with his right hand. Mia, who was nearby, had also slammed her hand on the ground, and the surrounding array was gathering surging secret energy.

"Look closely, colleague!"

The dark figure that appeared silently behind the two quickly raised its hands above its head to indicate cooperation and immediately issued a think tank identity verification.

Upon seeing the familiar Foundation certificate, the two pure deer-people exchanged a glance, calmed their wildly beating hearts, and then almost collapsed back onto the ground.

"I hate this kind of entrance." Ronan looked coldly at his strange colleague.

A young man with black hair and gray eyes, dressed in what looked like casual clothes he wore at home—more like pajamas—with a cartoon fox pattern printed on his chest, and a friendly, innocent smile on his handsome face that seemed impossible to refuse.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Ellen, a full-time employee of the Countermeasures Bureau."

He gave a formulaic self-introduction, then looked at the battlefield in the distance: the snake that slithered through the streets had taken out nearly half of the cleanup crew in just a few minutes, leaving scraps of steel and flesh scattered all over the ground.

Faced with their obvious distress and doubts, he blinked.

"You look like you're in trouble—"

"As you can see," Ronan replied irritably. Although he couldn't bring himself to be hostile towards his colleague, he was still quite resentful at being frightened. "It's a huge problem—being here at this time. You might also be a competitor who took on that commission, but what you're seeing now shows that the risks here have exceeded expectations."

His eyes dimmed slightly, for defeat was inevitable.

"To prevent the crisis from spiraling out of control, we are prepared—"

"I think we can wait a little longer."

The mysterious young man, seemingly unconcerned about the situation, snapped his fingers with a grin.

He cast a silent gaze into the distance.

The silent and tranquil gaze, like a heavy, opaque curtain, enveloped everything within its field of vision.

A deathly silence descended upon the two pure deer-men in the night, staring in shock. Ai narrowed her eyes, the ever-present hissing being slowly swallowed by her silent gaze.

"Listen to me, we can still fight."

1