Chapter 198 Stone Statue

Hanhan walked step by step to the stone statue. This statue was twenty meters tall. She looked up at it, her expression changing from relaxed to doubtful, and finally she spread her hands and said, "It's just an ordinary stone statue... What's so special about it?"

Li Tianran had been watching this scene. As expected, this stone statue still couldn't exert any form of suppression on Hanhan. Not to mention fear and unease, she didn't even seem uncomfortable!

The originally terrified Xiao Hei and White Cat now proactively ran to Hanhan's side and started yelling at the stone statue, completely lacking their previous cowardice...

It was quite the "dog taking advantage of its master's power" feeling!

"Do you recognize these characters?" Li Tianran pointed to the writing on the base of the stone statue and asked softly.

Hanhan narrowed her eyes and took a few more steps forward.

Xiao Hei and White Cat were still barking wildly, having completely shed their earlier fear, and even seemed a little triumphant.

"Be quiet!" Hanhan shouted at them, a little annoyed.

Xiao Hei and White Cat immediately stopped barking and squatted beside Hanhan, wagging their tails.

"..." Hanhan looked for a full five minutes, and finally sighed and said, "I don't recognize any of the words on here."

Li Tianran stroked his chin, then smiled and said, "Okay, it's nothing, go play!"

"Yay, playtime!" Hanhan cheered and ran off, wiggling her little butt.

As soon as Hanhan ran away, the previously calm Xiao Hei and White Cat freaked out again, tucked their tails between their legs, and chased after Hanhan like the wind.

"Did you figure anything out?" Yuan Wen stood beside Li Tianran and asked softly.

Li Tianran shook his head.

He hadn't discovered any new clues.

"Seal the stone statue in the warehouse," Li Tianran said, patting Lu Chi's shoulder next to him. "Don't open it without my order!"

...

Late at night.

Li Tianran was preparing for the human counterattack planned for two days later, and everyone else had fallen asleep.

Inside Hanhan's room, Xiao Hei and White Cat curled up, pressed tightly against Hanhan's little bed.

Their posture was no longer like guards, but like little brothers hiding behind their big brother after being frightened.

Snoring...

Snoring...

White Cat made heavy breathing sounds. Even in its sleep, it would occasionally tremble all over, suddenly puffing up its fur. Every time it was awakened, it would stare wide-eyed at Hanhan, who was sleeping peacefully in the bed, and then seemed to relax, closing its eyes and returning to sleep.

...

Xiao Hei and White Cat found themselves in a vast wilderness, the surrounding land covered in sand and gravel. The wind swept across the land, and the sky was low, seeming to press down with a gloomy weight. They ran desperately, but found they could never escape this endless wasteland.

They knew they were in a "dream." As Beast Kings, they understood some human information and knowledge. To intelligent beings, dreams were commonplace.

But this dream seemed difficult to escape. They couldn't wake themselves up, and the fact that two different individuals were now in the same dream clearly indicated that the dream was being controlled not by them, but by someone else...

Xiao Hei roared furiously. Its memories began to return. It remembered that once, it and White Cat had also entered such a dream, seeing a large number of stone statues that filled them with fear, and seeing Hanhan slowly walking towards a golden base that had no statue on it.

At the last moment, as Hanhan reached the golden base, Xiao Hei and White Cat suppressed their inner fear and let out a deafening roar.

They didn't know why they had roared back then, but they felt that if Hanhan touched that golden pedestal, something bad would happen, as if she would leave them forever.

At the last moment, they had succeeded in stopping Hanhan.

But what about this time?

They hadn't even seen Hanhan anywhere!

"Awoo!" Xiao Hei howled to the sky, like a giant wolf, running wildly in one direction. Golden light shone through the clouds in that direction, and behind the clouds, a terrifying behemoth was slowly moving - it was the giant warship from last time.

It remembered very clearly that the group of stone statues had been beneath the darkest shadows of those clouds.

It ran, unceasingly.

One shouldn't feel tired in a dream, but for some reason, Xiao Hei felt a little out of breath, and its pace slowed down.

Its mental strength was being consumed in large quantities.

In the distance, the huge stone statues finally appeared, vaguely.

But it wasn't a group of stone statues that appeared, but just one - a humanoid stone statue!

It was the three-eyed humanoid stone statue that Li Tianran had salvaged today!

At this moment, Hanhan was standing in front of the statue, looking at its face with a slightly dazed expression.

"What are you?"

In the wind, Xiao Hei heard Hanhan's voice, filled with deep confusion.

"What are you?" Hanhan stood beneath the stone statue and asked softly.

She remembered this stone statue; it was the strange thing that Li Tianran had shown her today. But now, in her dream, this statue seemed different from how it had appeared during the day. It seemed more animated, as if... it had gained a soul.

"I am... a guard." A voice like the tolling of a bell echoed through this world, emanating from the stone statue.

"But you're clearly just a rock..." Hanhan frowned.

"Please release me..." the stone statue said again.

"..." Hanhan scratched her head and asked, "What do I need to do?"

"Please release me..." the stone statue didn't answer, but simply repeated this sentence.

Hanhan felt a little irritated. She squatted down to look at the writing on the statue. Strangely, the characters she couldn't recognize during the day could now be deciphered in her dream!

"On the evening when red flames erupt from the sea and the surface of the earth, dust will cover the entire sky. After receiving permission from the highest sequence, the guard will awaken within the triangular tower in the great dusty land!"

Hanhan didn't understand the meaning of these words, but she wanted to try her best to memorize them and convey them to Li Tianran.

"Please release me..." the stone statue continued to speak.

A strong desire to touch the statue suddenly welled up in Hanhan's heart. She reached out and pressed her hand against the statue. The moment her fingertips touched the statue, countless rays of light, like little snakes, appeared inside the statue. At the same time, the humanoid stone statue sealed in the warehouse began to shake violently.

But in the dream, after those serpentine lights shone brightly, they quickly dimmed and eventually fell into silence.

"Sequence correct, but the timing is wrong..." the stone statue vibrated.

Hanhan was startled. She asked again, "When will the timing be right?"

The stone statue was silent for a long time, then spoke one last time.

"Eighteen Earth rotations later..."

...

There will be another chapter at 10 PM.

...

At the same time, Li Tianran opened the system screen. A line of blood-red words was prominently displayed:

"Eighteen days remain until the fourth Age of Destruction!"