Three people stood at the edge of a massive vertical shaft over fifty feet in diater, peering downward.
Dark green accumulated water greedily absorbed the light from the lanterns they held.
Beneath the water's surface lay hidden a gateway to hell, steeped in despair and death for nearly a century.
Above their heads, a colossal vortex ford from the resentnt of over forty miners was visibly accelerating its rotation.
Gray-black streams of fear aura spiraled through the air, chasing and tangling with each other, before plunging resolutely into the darkness below, becoming an endless source of nourishnt for the ancient UMA.
The concentration of fear here had grown so dense it was on the verge of materializing.
The protective field emitted by Lin Jie's Serene Heart was suppressed to a radius of less than half a foot around his body.
Even William's iron will showed visible strain on his face when confronting this amalgamation of deathbed terror from dozens of souls.
Ethan's voice beca calm and focused: "Its 'Projection' could burst out of that well at any mont."
His two ornate Lovers, Morning Star and Evening Star, were held in both hands, their barrels aid at the unnervingly calm water below.
"Once it appears, we won't have many opportunities to attack."
"If we can't seriously injure it the mont it breaks the surface, then in this domain that serves as its 'ho ground,' we'll be exhausted to death by its endless fear energy."
He spoke the truth—this was the UMA's throne room.
Here, it could mobilize the fear accumulated throughout the entire mine over nearly a century.
The three of them were challengers who had ventured deep alone, their physical and ntal strength pushed to the brink.
A war of attrition would be tantamount to suicide for them.
Lin Jie's voice ca from beside them: "It won't co out easily."
Unlike Ethan, he didn't focus all his attention on the shaft below but instead warily scanned the entrances of several mine tunnels leading to this chamber.
"Although our earlier chase was chaotic, it also exposed its greatest weakness."
Lin Jie rapidly analyzed the situation.
"It's cautious, almost cowardly."
"From start to finish, it never chose to confront us head-on in a true battle."
"Whether it was the earlier 'Fear Aura' or the later 'living mine,' all its attacks leaned toward using the environnt for attrition and ambushes."
"This indicates that while its 'core entity' is powerful, it's also extrely fragile!"
Lin Jie reached a bold conclusion: "So it must still be hiding in the safest spot underwater, absorbing the miners' resentnt to repair the damage from Ethan's earlier shot while waiting for us to make a mistake out of fear or impatience."
Lin Jie's gaze sharpened: "Then let's give it a 'mistake' it can't refuse!"
He looked at Ethan and said: "Mr. Ethan, do you still have any Solar Wheel Explosive Traps left?"
Ethan paused briefly, then nodded: "There's one last one."
A slight smile touched Lin Jie's lips: "Good. Now I need you to throw that last trap directly into the shaft."
Ethan's eyes showed disbelief: "What?! Are you insane?! Throw it directly in?"
"That would be like tossing a small stone into the ocean—at most it would create a tiny ripple in that massive negative spiritual field, impossible to cause substantial damage to its main body!"
"This would completely waste my most powerful area attack weapon!"
Lin Jie shook his head: "No, I'm not trying to damage it. I'm trying to force it out."
Lin Jie's gaze locked onto the water surface: "If we don't take action against it, it might never co out voluntarily. The mont it appears is our opportunity to actively choose the battlefield!"
Ethan looked at Lin Jie and said quietly: "What a perfect provocation tactic."
He imdiately retrieved the last silver disc engraved with sacred solar patterns from his backpack.
He activated the alchemical switch on it, and soon the center of the disc lit up with a blinding golden light like a miniature sun.
Ethan shouted to alert the other two: "Everyone, get ready!"
Then he hurled the "Sunwheel Trap" fiercely into the massive vertical shaft!
A soft sound: "Plop—"
The deadly sun was rcilessly swallowed by the dark green water.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Nothing happened. The water surface remained calm, as if an ordinary stone had been thrown in.
Ethan's brow furrowed tightly: "That shouldn't be…"
Before he could finish his sentence.
"BOOM!!"
An incredibly deep roar ca from the depths of the shaft.
The accumulated water in the entire shaft suddenly lit up from within!
A fierce golden purification fla erupted underwater!
The flas made the icy water sizzle and boil, sending up large clouds of white steam filled with the scents of sulfur and ozone!
The "fear vortex" ford from the miners' resentnt hovering above the shaft was vaporized and purified in large swathes when touched by this suprely masculine "pure yang fla"!
The calm water surface exploded upward like an ignited volcano.
A water column composed of high-pressure water shot skyward, crashing against the impossibly high do of the chamber.
And within that soaring water column, a massive black figure surged out of the water, boiling with "fear" energy!
The "Black Dog" had finally been provoked, descending upon the world in its most complete form!
Its body was nearly twice as large as its previous projection, roughly the size of an adult elephant.
Its form, composed of pure black spirituality and thick smoke, was no longer semi-transparent but had condensed into a substance with physical texture.
The two burning eyes on its chest had turned into a blinding crimson-gold like molten lava.
It was out!
It had taken the bait!
Without needing Lin Jie's reminder, Ethan and William had already entered perfect combat readiness.
A cruel light flashed in Ethan's eyes.
His pair of ornate Lovers beca two silver lightning bolts in his hands.
The mont the Black Dog leaped from the water, during the brief stagnation as its body switched forms mid-air, he fired!
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Six consecutive shots with a deadly rhythm!
Using a difficult rapid-fire technique called "Fanning Shooting," belonging to Western cowboys, he emptied all six remaining alchemical bullets infused with "Saint Relics" from both pistols within one second!
Six silver streams of light ford a perfect crossfire net, completely enveloping the large black dog still in mid-air.
After being struck consecutively by the six "holy bullets," the Black Dog's solidified body cracked with dozens of shocking silver-white fissures!
Large amounts of spiritual energy, black as ink, wildly gushed and dissipated from those cracks.
It was severely wounded once again!
Even as these six bullets struck it, Ethan's movents didn't cease.
He holstered Evening Star and with his free left hand, drew a peculiarly shaped auxiliary Grotesque Armant from a special leather pouch at his waist.
It was a small round shield about one foot in diater, polished from impurity-free mithril.
On the back was a leather handle for easy grip, while the front center was inlaid with a strangely deep blue cat's eye stone.
"Deflection Malevolence Mirror"!
Ethan aid this small shield at the roaring black dog in agony.
Then he channeled his remaining ntal energy into the deep blue gem at the shield's center.
"Hum—"
The gemstone lit up accordingly.
A "deflection field" that could distort light enveloped the descending black dog.
The UMA's massive form stiffened!
It discovered that its connection to the surrounding "ocean of fear" was being interfered with and severed by this bizarre force field!
Its attempt to draw energy from the surrounding resentnt to repair its body was strangled at this mont—it was weakened, isolated.
And this brief state of "absolute weakness," created by Ethan exhausting his final prop, was precisely the opportunity Lin Jie had been waiting for to secure victory!
In this second, Lin Jie's mind, enhanced by the Serene Heart's Zen nature, entered a state similar to "bullet ti" where ti flow slowed multiple tis.
His vision contained no violently shaking chamber, no roaring attacking teammates.
His eyes saw only the black figure helplessly falling from mid-air, covered in silver cracks.
And the slightly vibrating Serene Heart in his hand.
After so many missions and life-or-death battles, Lin Jie's once sowhat awkward combat skills had been honed through nurous simulations and real fights into precise lethality.
He was no longer the "rookie" who needed William's cover to barely fire a shot.
He took a deep breath, and the diamond-shaped scale beneath the Serene Heart's barrel erupted with dazzlingly brilliant light.
He raised the gun, its muzzle steadily aid at the collapsing body of the black dog, targeting the core where all the cracks converged and energy was most unstable!
Then he pulled the trigger.
This shot made no sound.
This shot had no physical form.
Only a spiritual light representing "absolute order" and "Guardian Divinity" flashed from the muzzle, exactly like the shot against the Twisted Man.
This light instantly crossed the spatial distance.
It traveled in an absolute straight line into the Black Dog's cracked core.
Then.
Dead silence.
The ancient "Hell Hound" that had ravaged the Dartmoor Wilderness for centuries—its jet-black body showed no explosion or disintegration after being hit.
It simply hung quietly in mid-air.
Then, starting from its very core, it began turning inch by inch into insignificant gray-black dust.
The dust no longer held resentnt, no longer held fear.
The tornted souls it had consud for centuries finally found eternal rest and liberation under the illumination of this light bearing a "guardian" will.
Two attacks from different systems, different hunters, yet equally divine, converged and rged at this mont, ultimately completely erasing and shattering this "living legend" at the spiritual level.
Victory.
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