Chapter 1310 Stone Guardian

Lili hunched slightly, looking back towards the corridor from whence they came, her pointed canine ears perked up on her head, constantly and alertly turning in all directions. She had been giving warning for several seconds now. Though the enemy had not yet appeared, she still emitted a low growl from her throat, the kind a beast makes when threatening, "Hoo..."

"Stay alert!" Hao Ren had already drawn his spear, diligently searching the surroundings for blind spots where the enemy might attack. Then his gaze suddenly fell on the ancient stone statues that served as "decoration".

A doubt suddenly emerged: the entire city was crumbling under the erosion of wind, sand, and time, so why were these stone statues almost entirely intact? Not even a single statue outside the temple, exposed to the elements, had collapsed!

Almost the instant this doubt turned into an ominous premonition, he suddenly heard a whooshing sound directly above him. Prepared, he immediately dodged to the side, simultaneously swinging his spear around, horizontally sweeping in the direction of the sound!

A tingling vibration ran through his hand. The sound of stone cracking under high heat and strong impact came from behind him. Hao Ren twisted around after landing, just in time to see a giant statue with the head of a lion and the body of a man stepping down from a wall niche!

"These stone statues are alive!" The little demon girl sitting on Izhaks' shoulders shrieked loudly, then waved a green fel fire ball the size of a car wheel and smashed it towards the stone statue. "The stone statues in the outer passage are all alive too!"

Cracking sounds of stone fragments peeling off echoed from all directions. The bizarre guardian statues composed of human and animal parts that lined the corridor "revived" one after another. Millennia of accumulated dust fell from their stone shells in a rustling shower, stirring up clouds of smoke in the temple corridor. The heavy footsteps of the statues as they stepped down from their platforms made the entire ground tremble. In a few breaths, the entire corridor was completely blocked off by these awakened "stone statues". They paused for a moment, then strode towards them.

Looking at the motley assortment of weapons in their hands, it was clear that these stone lumps weren't here to discuss the construction of a socialist spiritual civilization.

The first stone statue to attack was sent flying a dozen meters away after being hit by Elizabeth's huge fireball, smashing through a partition wall in the temple. But a few seconds later, it struggled out of a pile of rubble. One of the lion-headed, human-bodied statue's arms had been severed by Hao Ren's plasma spear, and its entire right side was covered in cracks from the fel fireball. Yellowish-brown stone fragments clattered off the statue's body, revealing a dark, metallic-looking core. Various runes and lines flickered with faint light on the black substance.

"What is that? Obsidian?" The little demon Elizabeth was startled by the statue's tenacity. It was the first time she had seen a "stone" that couldn't be smashed even at such close range by her fel fireball—as for why her method of using the fireball was "smashing," that would have to wait.

"It's some kind of metal-containing material; obsidian isn't this hard," the data terminal, having instantly scanned the composition of some of the shattered fragments, said urgently, "Attention, more stone statues are awakening! The stone guardians outside the temple are also starting to move. We're in danger of being surrounded!"

Hao Ren dodged a stone statue's thrusting war blade and severed another statue's right leg with his plasma spear, then pointed towards the temple exit: "Break out of here first!"

Everyone present, except for Roll, was experienced in combat—even one-and-a-half-year-old Lolita had a wealth of practical combat memories inherited from the Mage Emperor. Thus, they could clearly judge that being trapped inside the temple by these heavy stone lumps would put them in a very passive situation. So, before Hao Ren could finish speaking, they had already begun to break through towards the passage. Hao Ren glanced back at the murals, "Terminal, have you scanned and saved the patterns of these murals?"

The terminal zoomed past Hao Ren's ear, shouting, "Of course! You can trust this machine to get the job done!"

Hao Ren: "..."

Damn, a data terminal was actually running faster than him!

Everything happened in a flash. As the group dashed towards the passage exit, the stone guardian whose leg had been severed by Hao Ren's plasma blade was just staggering backward. Due to its heavy body and perhaps limited intelligence, the stone guardian struggled for a long time without being able to get up after losing a leg. But seeing the intruders about to run into the passage, the stone monster's eyes suddenly emitted a red light. Then it suddenly raised an arm and pointed it in the direction of the retreating intruders.

With a loud bang, the statue's arm exploded in mid-air, and the rock-made fist, like a rocket, flew towards the passage propelled by a beam of white light. The extreme speed even distorted the air around it.

Lili instinctively sensed the danger coming from behind. She turned around abruptly, the stone slab beneath her feet immediately cracking into a large area. At this moment, the stone fist had already flown to a place close at hand.

Without thinking, Lili raised her hand and punched it.

With a deafening roar, the stone fist shattered into pieces in a earth-shattering explosion. The shockwave spread out, even forming visible layers of air waves. After punching the stone, Lili didn't even look back and ran, leaving the explosion far behind. As she darted past Hao Ren, she swung her arm and shouted, "Awoo, ouch, ouch, ouch..."

Achieving a perfect fusion of handsomeness and cowardice.

More and more stone statues appeared ahead.

All the guardians had awakened. These monsters, awakened from their slumber, were clearly the protectors of the ancient temple. The intrusion of Hao Ren's group had severely enraged these loyal guards. Even the stone statues outside the temple had stepped down from their platforms and were lumbering towards the pyramid temple. In fact, it wasn't just the guardians of this temple that had been awakened.

The entire lost city's temples were rumbling. Countless giants emerged from the collapsing and weathered ancient buildings, gathering in the streets and alleys like an army marching out of a mythical scroll, orderly beginning to surround the pyramid temple where Hao Ren's group was.

Inside the pyramid temple's passage, Lolita had once again transformed into the "holy flame avatar" form she had first shown in the experimental base. A ball of blazing silver-white flame danced in the air like a flame sprite, constantly merging, dispersing, and dashing, using various incredible ways to unleash the powerful destructive force of the holy flame.

Although the stone guardians had a solid outer shell and no obvious fatal weaknesses, they were clearly some kind of construct similar to golems. Constructs naturally had exploitable cracks: with constant activity, the yellowish-brown shells covering the surface of each stone statue had shattered and fallen off, revealing the dark real body inside. On that rune-covered body, one could see the seams of joints and openings resembling heat sinks. Lolita's holy flame avatar drilled into these tiny gaps, then disintegrated the stone statues from the inside.

The effect of doing so was significant, but it also seemed to consume a great deal of physical strength and energy.

The holy flame avatar suddenly solidified into Lolita's form next to Hao Ren. She gasped for breath: "These strange things have a very solid core, located slightly below the center of their chest. Apart from the core, destroying any other part makes it difficult to completely stop them. Also, that core is very resistant to high temperatures. It takes a lot of effort for me to melt them even with the holy flame."

"Knowing where the core is makes things easier!"

Izhaks said loudly next to him, then suddenly dashed forward a few steps, leaping up and pouncing on a black giant statue with the head of a wolf and the body of a man. The giant statue had already raised the iron staff in its hand when Izhaks pounced, but it was still a step slower. The great demon had already slammed a fist hard into the statue's chest. The huge impact nearly caused the giant statue to stumble and fall to the ground.

With a punch, fragments of the statue's chest flew out, and countless sparks burst out of the giant statue's body along with hissing and crackling noises. As the surface "stone slabs" were shattered by the punch, a glimmer of light appeared in front of Izhaks.

Izhaks raised his fist, and the second punch directly smashed through the protective shell of the giant statue's chest.

Then, a brassy, mechanical-looking object was forcibly pulled out of the giant statue's body by him.

The stone guardian trembled violently a few times, then slowly fell to the side. Izhaks maintained the posture of stepping on the stone statue's chest as he landed, and at the same time threw the mechanical sphere to Hao Ren: "Landlord! See how to deal with this thing quickly!"

Hao Ren took the basketball-sized "core". As soon as he got his hands on it, he felt that this thing was incredibly hot—if his physical fitness hadn't been enhanced, the temperature of this ball alone would have been enough to burn his hands.

The sphere was made of metal. Although it had a brassy luster, considering that this thing could withstand the scorching of the holy flame for a while, it was definitely not made of copper. There were many hollowed-out structures on its surface, and through the hollows, one could see countless exquisite mechanical gears and chains operating inside. The clicking mechanical sound kept coming from inside the sphere, like a living steel organ wriggling, giving people an extremely strange feeling.

At this moment, the exit of the temple had already appeared in front of them, but the light pouring in from the exit was blocked by countless swaying giant figures.

The data terminal quickly circled around the mechanical ball in Hao Ren's hand twice, quickly completing the analysis of this "primitive device", and then said quickly: "It's magneto-sensitive!"

"This thing is afraid of strong magnetic fields!" Hao Ren explained.

Vivian summoned a sky-covering swarm of bats the instant Hao Ren's voice fell. The bat swarm quickly formed two vortex-shaped rotating clusters in mid-air, and powerful currents began to flow in the bat swarm.

"Austen told me back then," Vivian spread her hands, and the strong light of the lightning storm surged behind her, "electricity generates magnetism!"

Hao Ren glanced at the electromagnetic storm about to form above the passage, and then looked at the magnetic oscillation bomb he had just taken out.

He felt that he didn't need the magnetic oscillation bomb.

He needed a Faraday cage.

Vivian's lightning storm always took away opponents and teammates in one fell swoop!