The fanatical speech of the purple-robed mber, filled with apocalyptic prophecies, echoed endlessly through the massive underground workshop.
Lin Jie imdiately made the only reasonable decision under the circumstances: "We must leave here imdiately and report everything we've seen and heard to headquarters as quickly as possible. The scale of their mbership is far beyond what our small team can handle independently."
William and Julian imdiately agreed. With extre caution, they began their strategic retreat along their original path, each step taken as carefully as walking on thin ice.
However, fate seed unwilling to let them leave so easily.
Just as they were about to reach the main passage, a series of crisp, tallic "clack, clack" sounds accompanied by several flickering lights approached from the very path they had co from!
A squad of Eternal Serpent mbers was returning to their base at this exact mont!
There was no escape route.
Behind them stretched a long, straight corridor with only a few bone pile protrusions and no additional branching paths.
"Damn it!" Sergeant William cursed under his breath, imdiately positioning himself in front of Lin Jie and Julian. The barrel of his Winchester rifle was already aid at the corridor's bend!
The footsteps grew closer, but the sound was peculiar.
These weren't ordinary boots hitting the ground;
the sounds were heavier and more rhythmic, like machinery in operation.
"It's the cult's 'Purifier' squad!" Julian instantly identified the approaching forces just by the sounds. "They're the Eternal Serpent's internal security forces. Their equipnt... is completely different from the ordinary mbers inside!"
As Julian finished speaking, four figures clad in heavy black armor with bird-beak shaped tal masks appeared around the corridor's bend.
Their weapons weren't the steam guns they'd seen before, but rather bizarre-looking "alchemical repeating crossbows" that combined steampunk and gothic aesthetics!
The crossbow bodies were made of unknown black wood, but their core firing and loading chanisms consisted of intricate machinery composed of miniature gears, springs, and high-pressure steam pipes.
After each shot, the complex clockwork chanism would automatically load another bolt into the firing chamber.
This was essentially a nineteenth-century version of an automatic rifle!
"Get down!" William roared with all his strength!
The mont his shout echoed, the four Purifiers simultaneously raised their alchemical repeating crossbows and pulled the triggers, aiming at their confined area!
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!!"
A barrage of sharp, air-rending projectiles dense as raindrops!
Several alchemical bolts coated with deadly poison traced green trajectories of death through the corridor, thoroughly covering the area where the three had been standing monts before.
The hard rock walls proved exceptionally fragile against those seemingly slender bolts. Each bolt that struck the walls burst into green toxic clouds with sizzling corrosive sounds.
Lin Jie had no doubt that if any single bolt so much as grazed his skin, he would dissolve into pus within seconds.
"Suppressive fire! Their firepower is overwhelming!" William crouched behind a massive bone pile. His reliable Winchester was completely outmatched by this intensive covering fire;
he only managed to fire one shot before being suppressed by the storm of incoming bolts.
Julian was even more helpless. His various bottles and containers appeared utterly useless against such direct violence.
Lin Jie could hear the Purifiers' synchronized footsteps steadily approaching. They had at most ten seconds before being surrounded and turned into porcupines by those poisoned bolts!
His brain, stimulated by adrenaline, shifted into high gear. Thinking about the cult mbers' precision clockwork chanisms that made crisp "clacking" sounds, an idea exploded in his mind.
Clockwork... gears... precision machinery...
He imdiately raised his left arm, where the Cursebreaker Vambrace forged from Chaos Brass rested quietly against his arm, awaiting activation!
"Sergeant William! Mr. Julian!" Lin Jie called out. "Trust ! After I make my move, no matter what happens, charge toward them at your fastest speed!"
Before the two could process what he intended to do, Lin Jie had already channeled all his ntal energy into the vambrace on his left arm like a bursting dam!
"Bzzzzzt—bzz—bzz!"
The Chaos Brass disc serving as the core in his palm now emitted overload warnings, unable to withstand such massive ntal energy infusion.
The curse runes on its surface no longer flowed slowly but flickered at high frequencies visible to the naked eye!
A powerful "curse storm" containing chaotic and destructive information erupted from Lin Jie's left hand, violently expanding through the narrow corridor ahead!
"CRACK—!!"
A sound similar to a precision clock's mainspring snapping echoed simultaneously from the four Purifiers' alchemical repeating crossbows.
The "automatic loading" chanisms of the four terrifying weapons, driven by precision clockwork and interlocking gears during their rapid firing, suddenly behaved as if handfuls of sand had been jamd into them upon contacting the high-concentration chaotic field!
Tiny gears derailed from their proper tracks, taut springs underwent catastrophic reversals, and precision steam valves beca jamd by chaotic energy!
The four killing machines representing the pinnacle of the Eternal Serpent cult's alchemical craftsmanship collectively paralyzed in a ridiculous manner just before completing their next volley!
The suffocating arrow rain on the battlefield abruptly ceased.
The entire corridor fell into an eerie silence.
The four Purifiers were also stunned by this sudden "collective misfire," looking down in confusion at their beloved weapons that had turned into piles of scrap tal.
And William, this veteran skilled at seizing opportunities, would never miss this precious opening created by Lin Jie!
His body surged out from behind cover. After firing several blind shots, he didn't choose to reload but instead wielded his Winchester rifle like a heavy, brutal war hamr.
In the span of a single breath, he crossed those few ters. Before the four Purifiers could recover from the shock of their weapon malfunctions, the steel rifle butt carrying his fury smashed violently into the bird-beak mask of the foremost Purifier!
"CLANG!"
The sound of tal striking tal rang out. The seemingly sturdy alchemical mask crumpled like paper against William's unreasonable strength, instantly denting and deforming!
The Purifier collapsed stiffly backward like a marionette with cut strings without even managing to scream!
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