I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

For "Viper," all his combat experience in his life had taught him that death was approaching.

But he never imagined that the footsteps of death would be so...light.

The thunder that had been following them relentlessly finally stopped.

The seemingly inescapable "ghost wall" appeared to loosen slightly. The thick fog dissipated, revealing a wide expanse of gravel ahead.

"There's an exit!"

One of the team members shouted excitedly, "Boss, the radar is back! There's life activity 500 meters ahead!"

"Shut up! Keep formation!"

Viper slammed his hand down on the team member's head, pinning him tightly behind a boulder, his breathing rapid. "Idiot, look closely! Is that a life sign? That's... a high-energy reaction!"

Through the expensive quad-eye night vision goggles, the mercenaries witnessed a scene that shattered their worldview.

At the end of the gravel beach, there was no exit.

Instead, there were seven or eight... children standing in the shadows.

Yes, child.

The oldest looked to be in his early twenties, and the youngest was only fifteen or sixteen. They weren't wearing any Kevlar bulletproof vests, but rather uniform blue robes with auspicious cloud patterns embroidered on the cuffs, which fluttered in the cold wind.

In the dead of night on the Pamir Plateau at minus twenty degrees Celsius, these people, dressed in thin clothes, had rosy complexions and were even... chatting?

"Fatty, slow down! We're going to catch him alive, don't just sit on him and kill him."

A clear female voice rang out in the silent night sky. The mercenaries, who couldn't understand Chinese, found the voice strangely beautiful, like a lark in the mountains.

"Hehe, Little Deer, I was just afraid you'd steal the credit. These mortals are mine now. I just reached the second level of my 'Primordial Golden Bell Shield,' so I'll test its defensive capabilities."

As he spoke, a chubby little man pulled out a bag of potato chips from his pocket, crunching them as he swaggered toward the group of fully armed elite mercenaries.

……

"They are humiliating us."

The viper's eyes were bloodshot, filled with a mixture of shame, anger, and fear that fueled its murderous intent.

He's a former SAS ace, a demon crawled out of piles of corpses in the Middle East. When did it become the turn of a bunch of kids in period costumes to laugh at him?

And what's that fat guy holding? Potato chips? On the battlefield?

"Whether they are human or ghost..."

Viper pulled back the bolt, his finger on the trigger, his voice hoarse with extreme tension:

"Open fire freely!!"

"Shoot that fat guy through the roof!!"

"Da da da da da—!!"

The modified HK416 assault rifle simultaneously spewed fire.

At this distance, with such concentrated firepower, let alone a human, even an adult rhinoceros would be instantly turned into mincemeat.

The bullet tore through the air, whistling with death, and precisely struck the chubby boy who was eating potato chips.

"Die!" Grizzly, the heavy gunner, grinned maliciously, as if he could already see the scene of flesh and blood flying everywhere.

However, the next second, everyone's sneers froze on their faces.

"Buzz—"

Just as the first bullet was about to touch Fatty Wang's forehead, he didn't even dodge; he simply lazily raised a hand covered in potato chip crumbs.

The air suddenly vibrated.

A faint, golden, semi-transparent light, like an inverted bell, instantly enveloped his entire body.

[Technique: Primordial Golden Bell Shield]

[Effect: Releases spiritual energy, condensing it into a protective aura. Can withstand physical attacks from those below the Foundation Establishment stage.]

"Jingle bells..."

That was the sound of metal striking metal, crisp and melodious, like pearls falling onto a jade plate.

Those 5.56mm steel-core bullets, capable of penetrating light armor, struck the thin layer of golden light as if they had hit a diamond wall.

The high-speed spinning warhead deformed and flattened instantly, its kinetic energy completely dissipated by an invisible wave, and then fell helplessly to Wang Pangzi's feet.

In just three seconds, the ground was covered with deformed bullets.

Fatty Wang didn't even drop a single potato chip crumb.

He patted the golden light on his stomach and muttered with some dissatisfaction, "That's it? It's not even as powerful as a pebble that the elder casually flicked. Mortal weapons are really nothing special."

……

silence.

A deathly silence.

"Devil...they are devils..."

One of the mercenaries, whose mental fortitude was slightly weaker, completely broke down. He threw down his gun, turned, and ran.

This wasn't a battle; it was a massacre. It was a mockery between beings from different dimensions. It was like a primitive man trying to pierce a tank's armor with a spear.

"Hey, don't run away!"

The girl named "Little Deer" sighed and took out a blue talisman from her sleeve. "Senior brother, does this count as resisting arrest?"

Standing at the very back of the line, Chu Tian, ​​who had been standing with his hands behind his back and an indifferent expression, nodded slightly at this moment:

"Calculate."

Lin Xiaolu chuckled, her slender fingers pinching the talisman, drawing a graceful arc in the air as she softly exclaimed:

"Yi Wood - Entangling Technique!"

As she finished speaking, the permafrost beneath the feet of the fleeing mercenaries suddenly cracked open.

Countless thick vines, glowing with an eerie green light, burst forth from the earth like mutated pythons.

They defied all the laws of botanical growth, instantly catching up with the running soldiers, tightly wrapping around their ankles and waists, then suddenly tightening and lifting them upwards.

"ah!!"

The cracking sound of bones being squeezed is enough to make your teeth ache.

The twelve fully armed mercenaries were like a string of cured meat hanging from a tree, suspended upside down in mid-air by vines.

No matter how much they struggled, no matter how hard they tried to cut, the high-hardness tactical daggers in their hands couldn't even cut through the vines.

The battle is over.

Time taken: 45 seconds.

Consumption: Three bags of potato chips, one low-level talisman, and a small amount of spiritual energy.

……

The viper was bound upside down by vines like a rice dumpling, hanging three meters off the ground. His mind went blank, and the rush of blood made him dizzy.

His gun fell to the ground, shattering the glory and dignity he had been so proud of.

At that moment, a young face was reflected in his retina.

That was Chu Tian.

This young man, who looked like a college student, was actually... not touching the ground.

He hovered in mid-air, standing on a sheathed longsword that was not yet drawn, calmly watching the viper with the same gaze one would give a person looking at an endangered insect.

"Who are you..." Viper managed to squeeze out those three words in broken Chinese, "Military...secret weapon?"

Chu Tian tilted his head, seemingly pondering how to answer the question in a way that this mortal could understand.

After a moment, he said seriously:

"Kunlun University, Sword Cultivation Department, Chu Tian."

"By the way, you guys are too weak."

Chu Tian shook his head, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "They don't even qualify us to draw our swords. Is this the pinnacle of individual combat power in the mortal world?"

With a gentle wave of his hand, the vines seemed to understand the command, dragging the twelve "zongzi" (rice dumplings) up the mountain.

"Take it away."

Chu Tian turned around, mounted his sword, and left the viper with an unapproachable silhouette.

"The dean is still waiting for this batch of 'teaching aids.' Hopefully, they'll be a little durable."

The viper's last thought before losing consciousness was:

That intelligence chief Jonathan is a fraud. There are no mines here at all; this place is inhabited by a group of "gods" who possess extraordinary abilities.

Meanwhile, similar scenes were unfolding in many other places...