Lord of Prayer - Chapter 256 - 184: Simple and Brutal Unboxing (Part 2)
Chapter 256: Chapter 184: Simple and Brutal Unboxing (Part 2)
The Puppet Master coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood. He suddenly clenched his fist. Lucius’s thoughts and movements immediately stalled, like a rusty, jammed gear. He quickly realized that while he was under the effect of Mind Deprivation, the Puppet Master had wound his Puppet Threads around him!
BOOM! A clap of thunder. A thick bolt of lightning descended, striking Lucius from head to toe. His hair stood on end and his skin was scorched black. For the Blood Race, violent thunderbolts were a major fatal weakness.
Blood flames ignited on his body once more. He broke free of the Puppet Threads and, with a flash, appeared before the Puppet Master, deciding to engage in close-quarters combat. With his powerful Undying Body, he held an absolute advantage.
The Puppet Master was naturally aware of this. He swapped places with a bronze-skinned giant and simultaneously took out an ancient horn, blowing into it. Eerie green Spirit Body flames rose from the ground, transforming into a troop of sturdily-built Minotaur soldiers in antiquated clothing.
There were twenty-four of them in total, wielding an assortment of cold weapons like blades, spears, halberds, bows, and shields. To the solemn sound of the horn, they charged, joining forces with the bronze-skinned giant to fight off Lucius.
The great battle continued, or rather, had just begun.
Zhou Chen was bleeding from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth from the shockwaves of the high-tier power, and his ears were ringing. He had already maneuvered the Curse-Bound Soldier he was fighting to the edge of the battlefield, which he had done on purpose.
’A horn that can summon Ancient Warriors… The Puppet Master is really pulling out all the stops. Does he actually intend to hunt a Blood Royal Prince and turn him into a puppet?’
’Lucius seems a bit weak, like he just advanced to Tier Four not long ago. If the Puppet Master came prepared, he might actually get hunted down.’
’The time is about right. I need to make my move…’
As the thoughts flashed through Zhou Chen’s mind, he dodged the Resentful Soul Heavy Hammer swinging at him. His silver-plated longsword struck the Jet Black Armor again, but with a sharp CRACK, the sword broke. He stumbled backward in a sorry state, abruptly crashing into a hard wall.
“Die!”
The Curse-Bound Soldier roared, swinging the Resentful Soul Heavy Hammer down in a fury.
RUMBLE!
A violent explosion. Zhou Chen dodged just in time. The wall behind him blew apart, sending countless fragments flying as dust and smoke billowed up. A gaping hole could be faintly seen where the wall had been.
The battlefield was too chaotic for such a commotion to attract any attention. Zhou Chen slipped through the hole and found himself in a trashed rest area.
The Curse-Bound Soldier charged in right after him. With another loud bang, it swung its Resentful Soul Heavy Hammer—intentionally lured by Zhou Chen—and smashed through the rest area’s far wall, sending dust flying.
Behind the rest area was another rest area.
Zhou Chen smashed through the door into a hallway and sprinted desperately deeper into the stronghold. The Curse-Bound Soldier followed close behind, its heavy iron boots stomping the ground, shattering the floor tiles and setting off a series of explosions.
’I wish for a map of the stronghold!’
Zhou Chen made the wish as he ran. The next second, a complex map appeared in his Spiritual World, marking the names of all the rooms in the stronghold.
’Cafeteria… Dormitories… Warehouse… Research Lab…’
After confirming his position, Zhou Chen stopped abruptly. The pursuing Curse-Bound Soldier couldn’t brake in time due to its powerful momentum. It decisively accelerated, intending to crush Zhou Chen with its own weight.
It was like a dump truck hurtling forward, its driver having mistaken the gas pedal for the brake.
In the nick of time, Zhou Chen bent his knees and sprang up like a coil, deftly leaping onto the ceiling to avoid the impact. After landing, he rushed behind the Curse-Bound Soldier as it tried to turn, clenched his fist, and punched its helmet.
BANG!
The jet black metal helmet instantly caved in and deformed. The Strange Power hidden within his Rock-Breaking Force seeped into the helmet, cleanly shattering the Blood Race member’s skull and brain. The impact churned them into a thick, viscous paste.
Several cracks split open on the metal helmet. Zhou Chen used Alchemy to fashion a Silver Longsword, aimed for a crack, and thrust it in with all his might, using the lethal silver to finish off the Curse-Bound Soldier for good.
A scorched gas escaped from the cracks. Without a second glance, Zhou Chen quickly departed.
’The Blood Race stronghold should be empty right now. All their fighting power is in the battle. I’ll swing by the warehouse first and look for a chance to loot it. It’d be a waste not to…’
Having made up his mind, Zhou Chen turned into a corridor and broke into a sprint. Before long, he arrived before a sealed alloy gate.
The Blood Race were old-fashioned in some ways, but they kept up with the times in others. For example, the warehouse door—they used an ultra-thick, explosion-proof alloy gate that couldn’t be blasted open even with a rocket launcher. A hidden Alchemy Matrix within it could resist attacks and corrosion from Extraordinary Power.
To open the door, one needed the password.
But looking at it another way, a short password was all it took to render such formidable defenses useless.
’I wish for the door to open.’
Zhou Chen used the simplest, most brutish method. The control panel flickered erratically, then began to automatically input the password, character by character.
Finally, with a BEEP, the verification was successful, and the heavy alloy gate slowly swung open.
Inside was the Blood Race’s warehouse.
Zhou Chen walked in, unable to wait.
As far as the eye could see, nearly half the warehouse was occupied by freezers. Inside were bags upon bags of refrigerated blood plasma, enough to last the Blood Race in the stronghold for a very long time.
Continuing deeper inside, he found cabinets filled with safes, each one locked by an Alchemy Matrix.
These alchemical locks were of a high level, and the matrices seemed to be of the Blood Race’s own creation. They could only be opened with a specific corresponding method.
So, Zhou Chen once again used a simple and brutish method of unlocking. He placed his hand on a safe, and with this medium of contact, activated the “Decomposition of All Things” ability of his Hammer of Forging!
First, he decomposed the alchemical lock, and then the safe itself.
However, these alchemical locks were high-level, and forcibly decomposing them consumed a great deal of Essence. By the time he had finished decomposing all the safes in the warehouse, Zhou Chen’s Essence had bottomed out.
He wished to restore his Essence while he inspected the contents of the safes:
A bloodshot eyeball floating in formaldehyde, containing a dense malevolence and Curse, currently in a sealed state.
A replica of the Blood Race Holy Artifact: Blood Chalice.
A large piece of lapis-colored rare metal. It contained immense power and was in a sealed state, preventing detailed inspection.
A small Cursed Puppet, also in a sealed state, but its eyes could still dart around to follow Zhou Chen’s movements. It was utterly bizarre.
Large quantities of rare Extraordinary Materials, such as Heart Moon Flower, Cold Gold Essence Sand, Soul Honey Wine…
Zhou Chen didn’t have a Storage Extraordinary Artifact like a “Player Backpack,” but he had something even better—the Round Table Hall.
As long as he enveloped an item with Essence, he could send real-world objects into the Round Table Hall. It was a bit troublesome to store and retrieve things, but it was still his own private storage warehouse.
’This eyeball is so weird. I feel like it’s a hell of a Cursed Object… A replica of the Blood Chalice, huh. Only the Blood Race can use this thing, so it’s useless to me, but I can find some time to reforge it. The materials are pretty good… This Cursed Puppet is so creepy. It can still stare at me even while it’s sealed. It’s probably just as sinister as the one Pansi uses…’
Zhou Chen muttered to himself while his hands kept moving. After bustling about for a while, he had sent everything in the warehouse to the Round Table Hall one by one.
’This whole operation… killing with a borrowed knife, redirecting the disaster, fishing in troubled waters, and plundering during a crisis…’
In short, it was pure profit!
He scanned the warehouse one more time to make sure he hadn’t missed any supplies, then turned and left.
’Next up is the research lab. The Blood Race has done some research on the Eternal Life Project. I have to go take a look. I might find Professor Charles’s whereabouts, or some other clues. I hope they keep fighting for a while longer…’
Zhou Chen followed the map in his mind and soon arrived at a corridor near the research lab. But there, he ran into a familiar face.
—The Blood Race Saint Son, Pansi!
