After confirming that group of UMAs had retreated into the dark depths of the salt flat and would not return for a while, the four-person assault team composed of Lin Jie, William, Julian, and Yan Xilou crossed the dried-up salt lake and finally arrived beneath the massive salt block altar.
The dark entrance hidden behind the salt stalactites was larger than they had imagined. A cold wind, heavy with the sll of saltpeter and the unknown, fishy stench of creatures, continuously poured out from the cave mouth.
Led by William, the four n lit their high-brightness carbide lamps one after another and plunged into that light-devouring abyss.
Contrary to expectations, the passage beneath the entrance was not the narrow, oppressive, trap-laden tomb corridor they had imagined. The situation was precisely the opposite.
It was a broad cavern ford by a naturally occurring salt ore vein. The cavern's height exceeded fifty ters, and its width could allow a small cavalry unit to gallop freely.
The cavern's walls and ceiling were covered in enormous, naturally ford salt crystals that shimred with diamond-like brilliance. They refracted the weak lamplight from the group's hands into countless eerie, multi-colored light spots, pulling them into a world constructed of salt and light.
However, this beauty was replaced by a nauseating horror once everyone clearly saw the "decorations" on the cavern walls.
On the cavern walls, which rose high like the do of a cathedral, were densely packed with countless specins dried into salt mummies.
There were humans, cals, gazelles, fennec foxes, and even so extinct creatures they didn't recognize. Hundreds of corpses from different eras and species were fixed to the high salt walls in a taxidermy-like manner.
This constituted the world's largest and most terrifying "living mummy mural."
"We've found their 'main granary'," William said warily.
His [Church Holy Cannon] was already loaded, its muzzle steadily aid into the deep darkness ahead, ready to respond to any potential threat. Behind him, Lin Jie and Julian also held their breath, their hands instinctively moving to their respective weapons.
The entire team entered a state of stealth.
Just as everyone's attention was focused on any UMAs that might crawl out of the darkness, an extrely faint sound of tal friction rang out from a dark corner of the cavern ahead!
It was that unique, pleasant "click" sound made when a brass cartridge is pushed into a rifle chamber.
"Watch out!!!"
The hearing and combat intuition Lin Jie had honed through several life-and-death trials took over his body before his brain could make a logical judgnt. He didn't have ti to look back for the source of the sound. With a roar, he used all his strength to tackle Julian and Yan Xilou, who were closest to him and the least prepared, to the ground.
At the exact mont he tackled the two n, several points of murderous orange-red muzzle flash flickered without warning from the dark cavern corner ahead.
"Swish! Swish! Swish!"
The bullets tore through the dozens of ters of air between them, accurately shooting towards the spot where they had just been standing.
"Thud! Thud!"
Several salt crystals were shattered into a cloud of powder by the terrifying penetrating kinetic energy. If not for Lin Jie's extrely fast reaction, Julian and Yan Xilou's heads would likely have shattered like waterlons on the spot.
"It's an ambush!!"
William's furious roar rang out at the sa ti as the first bullet's shriek through the air. This wasn't UMAs. This was a preditated ambush.
"Take cover! Find cover!"
William's second roar restored combat order to the chaotic team. William himself charged forward, running behind a thick salt pillar. He aid his already loaded [Church Holy Cannon] at the direction of the muzzle flashes and unleashed a fierce and effective suppressive fire.
The roar of gunfire echoed in this salt temple that had been silent for millennia, as multiple mithril bullets blessed by the Holy Oak shot towards that dark area. Although this barrage didn't score precise hits on the enemy, it successfully suppressed their deadly sniping, buying Lin Jie and the others a chance to catch their breath.
Several Eternal Serpent combatants wearing uniforms emblazoned with the silver serpent-coiled-greatsword emblem erged from that dark corner. Their equipnt was more sophisticated and more lethal than the "Purifier" squads Lin Jie had encountered in the Paris catacombs!
These individuals were not only equipped with the latest model German rifles fitted with special scopes capable of precise shots at over a hundred ters, but more importantly, their black combat suits, made from alchemically-treated, flexible leather canvas, were coated with a strange layer composed of salt crystal powder and UMA mucus. This coating had a light-distorting effect.
While far from achieving optical camouflage, this coating made their forms blurry and difficult to lock onto with the naked eye in this dim cavern. They were like a group of translucent killing ghosts!
Lin Jie's pupils constricted sharply upon seeing the enemy appear.
The Eternal Serpent!
Why were those maniacs entrenched in the European continent here?!
According to prior intelligence, this operation targeting the [Tear of Apophis] and the [Scales of the Dead] should have been independently executed by the Egyptian local branch, the Descendants of Apophis. Could it be that the Descendants of Apophis had urgently requested support from their "main family" in Europe?
But now was not the ti to think about that. Regardless of who the enemy was, regardless of why they had co, survival was the only prerequisite!
"William, keep suppressing! Julian, analyze the weaknesses in their equipnt! Mr. Yan, protect yourself!"
Lin Jie imdiately took over battlefield command, entering a state of calm combat focus the mont the gunfire erupted. His body moved like an agile leopard, swiftly weaving and darting between the dense clusters of massive salt pillars.
His [Serene Heart] did not waste ammunition on futile wide-area suppressive fire;
each gunshot represented a precise targeted kill.
"Bang!"
A cult sniper hiding behind a salt block, attempting to snipe William, suddenly had a shower of sparks erupt from his sturdy Krupp steel helt. That sniper had no ti to retaliate before a bullet infused with the concept of ballistic stability struck his head. The bullet passed through the thick cover in front of him, entering his protective blind spot from an impossible angle.
This was the terror of "Absolute Straight Line." Under the ability of [Serene Heart], any cover was virtually useless.
However, the cult's elites were ultimately not UMAs that relied solely on brute force and instinct. Just as Lin Jie was preparing to relocate after his first kill, two cult mbers wielding strangely shaped devices resembling harpoon launchers predicted his [Action Trail].
They intended to use two intersecting steel nets to block all of Lin Jie's possible forward and retreat routes. At the sa mont, a burly cult assault mber, brandishing a massive UMA bone battle-axe, roared like a mad bull and charged towards Lin Jie, who was about to be ensnared by the steel nets.
This was a textbook encirclent and kill.
At the critical mont, Lin Jie's left arm swung violently.
[Cursebreaker Vambrace], Mode One, Curse Storm.
"Hummm—"
A powerful interference field imbued with the concepts of chaos and disorder erupted from the vambrace. The internal, precise chanical chanisms of the launchers in the hands of the two cult controllers could not withstand this curse field in the slightest, causing the launchers to imdiately fail.
The roaring charging assailant's "powered battle-axe" also turned into a heavy piece of scrap tal as its internal steam valve jamd.
The battle situation reversed in an instant.
Seizing this fleeting opportunity, Lin Jie's body, in a low-to-the-ground posture, narrowly slipped past the now-slowed giant axe that had lost its power. Then, his [Serene Heart] pressed against the unprotected chest of that assailant like the fangs of a venomous snake.
"Bang! Bang!" Two gunshots.
The assailant's body shuddered and collapsed to his knees, powerless.
Just as Lin Jie was preparing to capitalize on his success and eliminate the two controllers left helpless by their malfunctioning weapons, a wave of hair-raising, spine-chilling danger sense assaulted him from behind.
He had no ti to look back. Relying purely on instinct, he threw his body to the side with all his might.
"Shhhick!"
A pitch-black, crescent-moon-shaped, bizarre arc of light grazed past the top of his head, shattering the massive salt pillar behind him—thicker than a bucket—into pieces.
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