Chapter 1 Metallic Clatter

“Clatter… clatter… clatter…”

The sound of metal armor scraping together echoed from all directions. The enclosed, winding passageways of the underground palace amplified the noise, making it impossible to determine the enemies' exact location or number. Hao Ren and his two companions retreated while fighting, pursued by countless undead knights. They had been running through the astonishingly large underground palace for over ten minutes without spotting an exit to the surface. If the data terminal hadn't confidently assured them that their route was correct, Hao Ren would have resigned himself to dying in this place.

Humans are strange creatures. Sometimes they are shockingly weak, but others can unleash boundless power in desperate situations. Hao Ren thought that “boundless” was a bit of an exaggeration, as he was panting like a dog after all this running, but he had indeed found more courage and brute strength than he knew he possessed. Normally a mild-mannered city dweller, he was now facing swarms of undead without fear. In fact, he was almost enjoying himself. Despite the undead wielding swords, they were probably newly awakened, as they moved slowly and weren't very bright. They only knew to run forward, weapons in hand, seemingly forgetting how to use them. Hao Ren took advantage of his agility to kick the tin cans that got too close, and aside from sore legs, he hadn't been injured yet.

He felt more motivated than ever, but he was obviously no match for the real powerhouse of the team: Lily, relying on her sheer brute strength, charged ahead of the trio, still wielding her “warhammer.” One particularly unlucky undead knight must have really offended someone. Barely awake and not even knowing what year it was, he was being swung around by Lily from tomb to tunnel, then from tunnel to the next tomb, smashing over a hundred tin cans in the process. By now, he was a pile of flattened scrap metal, long past struggling…

“How much further?!” Vivian was the most elegant and relaxed of the three. The combat experience of a high-level vampire and her varied blood magic finally proved useful against hordes of minions. She flew along the ceiling of the underground palace, relying on endless waves of chilling shockwaves and crimson blades to kill enemies several meters away (any further and she couldn't control them, potentially collapsing the whole palace). She left behind countless enemies torn to pieces or frozen into ice, and deep marks on the palace walls. But like Hao Ren, she was frustrated because she felt like her great abilities were being wasted. “Is your radar even reliable? This is so frustrating, I can only fly one meter… Ouch, hit my head again!”

All of Vivian's injuries so far had been self-inflicted from flying too high and hitting the ceiling.

“Only halfway there!” Hao Ren snapped. “We ran too fast earlier and missed a turn, so now we have to go through the middle of the palace. Lily, I'm talking to you! Watch where you're going!”

Hao Ren was only answered by an unintelligible roar. After fighting for so long, Lily seemed to have gone into a frenzy.

“Is she going to lose it?” Hao Ren was worried about Lily's condition. “Werewolves are supposed to go berserk easily.”

“Don't worry, I saw her pull a piece of bread out of her pocket and eat it while running. She can't go berserk like that.”

The tunnel ended again, leading to another hall. Hao Ren prayed that this wasn't another tomb, otherwise, he didn't know if he could hold on if there were several times more undead knights. Luckily, this time his prayers worked. When the three of them rushed into the hall, they were met with an empty space. There were no wandering undead knights, and no coffins to make their hearts race.

“Seal the passage!” Hao Ren dodged a heavy shield knight lunging at him (he was too tired to kick it five meters), and leaped… well, stumbled and crawled into the hall, then shouted at Vivian in the air.

The vampire girl was already preparing a powerful spell. After the three of them rushed into the hall, her entire body suddenly burst into a swarm of bats. The bats then split into two groups, rapidly spinning in the air to form two cone-shaped vortexes. The tips of the cones faced the tunnel entrance. Accompanied by an ear-piercing sound of tearing air, bright blue lightning rapidly gathered in front of the two cone-shaped vortexes. After two seconds of charging, the two swarms of bats charged towards the stone door of the hall. With a thunderous crash, the entire door, along with half the tunnel behind it, was blasted into rubble by the lightning strike.

The explosion echoed throughout the entire hall and even the entire palace. Countless sand and gravel fell from the ceiling. Hao Ren covered his head and yelled, “Is this place going to collapse?!”

Vivian's voice came from all directions, “Don't worry, I'm controlling the power!”

The swarm of bats that had been blown everywhere by the explosion quickly reformed into Vivian. She jumped down from the air, looking pleased. “I finally found an open space to use my big move! Wasn't that awesome? Ever since I consulted with Faraday, I turned that lightning strike into two electrodes…”

Hao Ren: “……”

Even though the enemies chasing them had been cut off, the three of them weren't completely safe. Besides Vivian and Lily, a few more agile sword knights had also rushed in with Hao Ren. These tin cans seemed to be getting more flexible and "smart" after warming up on the way. The knights had taken cover in the corner during the explosion. Now, they were swaying as they stood up, raising their longswords and charging towards the intruders.

“How many people are buried in this palace?” Hao Ren gasped. “The last lord of Yoford wouldn't have buried his entire army down here, would he? Is this the English version of the Qin Emperor and his terracotta army?”

“Do you know why there are still so many of them after fighting for so long?” Vivian suddenly realized the secret of these knight-cans, pointing at a sword knight who had just been swept away by Lily. “You can't kill them like that!”

The sword knight, swept away by the werewolf girl's brute force, crashed into the palace wall, instantly shattering into pieces. The arm guards, leg guards, chest armor, helmet, and other components that made up his full-body armor were scattered all over the ground. However, just a few seconds later, these metal parts reassembled themselves with a clattering sound! An almost completely undamaged undead knight charged at the intruders again!

“It looks like these things are empty inside?” Hao Ren hadn't had time to take a good look at these guys, but now he finally noticed the shocking truth. “Are we fighting a bunch of suits of armor?”

“They’re suits of armor possessed by souls, high-end models,” Vivian blasted a wave of ice, finally freezing the last few “empty shell knights” into dust. Armor shattered like that was completely unable to revive. “Unless you completely shatter them, or repeatedly break them apart a dozen times, you can't kill these guys. And since this is underground, they revive very quickly.”

Lily had finally recovered from her frenzy. She looked at the “warhammer” in her hand, which was completely dead and only had one leg left. The werewolf girl picked up the leg armor and shook it. “It really is empty… I wasted my energy? I should have used more force. I thought they'd be done for after being smashed apart.”

“This… is the magic of the demon hunters?” Hao Ren approached Lily and cautiously poked the empty piece of armor. “There's a soul inside?”

“Not anymore. The soul is naturally released after the armor is destroyed,” Vivian said dismissively. “In life, they were all fanatics, willing to be sacrificed alive into this kind of armor, given the nice name of 'heroic spirits' by later generations. But the truth is that they’re just another kind of resentful spirit. Their obsession is no different from the obsession of ordinary resentful spirits. Don't be too surprised, there are even more amazing things than this, can you even be surprised by everything?”

Hao Ren chuckled, then noticed that it was too quiet around them. “Strange, it looks like there are no more enemies ahead?”

The entire hall was quiet, and the sound of armor scraping had disappeared.