Lord of Prayer - Chapter 258 - 185: A Second Blooming (Part 2)

Chapter 258: Chapter 185: A Second Blooming (Part 2)

’No, no, no, no…’

’What is happening?!’

’Why? WHY!!!’

’Why is something going wrong again???!!!’

’Didn’t they say this thing was working properly now?!’

The Killing Doll, Alice, leaped from Pansi’s palm, grabbed his clothes, and hung from him with some effort. Then, she reached out a small hand and pulled Pansi’s heart right out of his chest.

Pansi’s face was ashen, drained of all color. He instinctively took two steps back.

“What a wonderful heart… Huh… Alice thinks she’s eaten this heart before. Alice remembers this heart was delicious. Alice likes it a lot. Alice wants to eat it again!”

The Killing Doll, Alice, cheered happily. Her small mouth opened and closed, and a chunk was bitten out of the still-beating heart as if by magic.

A searing pain originating from his Soul shot through him. Pansi’s vision went dark. In his mind, he furiously cursed that Blood Count and eighteen generations of his ancestors. ’This is what you call “no abnormalities”?!’

’How tragic,’ Zhou Chen couldn’t help but shake his head at the sight. ’I don’t even know what to say. This guy is probably going to be seriously traumatized by Cursed Dolls, huh?’

’Of course, he wouldn’t mind helping Pansi erase that trauma for free… After all, if you’re dead, you can’t have trauma, right?’

Zhou Chen’s expression turned cold. He charged forward with his Silver Blade, attempting to kill Pansi with lightning speed. The situation no longer allowed him to waste any more time.

Without using his Extraordinary Abilities or Forbidden Objects, killing a Blood Race Saint Child was extremely difficult. But with Pansi currently saddled with a Cursed Doll eating his flesh and soul, the difficulty of killing him had plummeted.

Pansi also knew he was at a disadvantage, so he chose the most perfect plan—turn tail and run!

He split into hundreds of bats, which flapped their wings and fled in three separate directions.

Zhou Chen paused for a moment, then immediately gave chase. All he had to do was follow the Cursed Doll that was eating the heart amidst the swarm of bats.

After a short pursuit, Zhou Chen slammed to a halt. Ahead of him was a reinforced blast door. A conspicuous sign hung on the wall of the corridor: “Research Restricted Area. No Entry.”

’This is the research lab!’

The lab’s door was currently open a crack. Pansi’s swarm of bats poured through it. A chilling, dark aura seeped out from behind the blast door, carrying with it a bone-deep killing intent.

Vaguely, a pair of bloodthirsty red eyes could be seen, ferocious as a wild beast’s, conveying a clear warning.

A Blood Count was guarding the research lab.

Zhou Chen turned and left without hesitation, abandoning his plan to infiltrate the research lab and find clues about the Eternal Life Project.

A member of the Blood Race who could be ennobled as a Count had to be at least Tier Three. He was no match. It would be dangerous if there were other masters inside the lab.

’This time, I successfully pitted the Crimson Sect and the Blood Race against each other. It’s weakened both sides to a great extent, but it’s not enough. Their high-level combatants haven’t suffered any casualties yet. I need to get a few more of them killed to make this worthwhile…’ Zhou Chen ran through the corridor, deciding to add more fuel to the fire and stir up some real trouble.

’This underground stronghold must have a Barrier Array. As long as I disable the Barrier, the Star Association will be able to detect the combat fluctuations erupting here. Then I can let the Star Association reap the rewards, taking out both of these evil factions…’

’…Why am I still working such miserable overtime after transmigrating? I was supposed to be on vacation, taking a break to watch a lingerie show in Hong City…’

Zhou Chen complained silently to himself as he ran, soon arriving at his destination.

The central control room.

“I wish to divine whether there will be danger upon entering the central control room…”

Zhou Chen summoned the Crystal Ball he had used for divination earlier from the Round Table Hall. He performed the divination cautiously, and slowly, the word “No” appeared within the pure, brilliant Crystal Ball.

’Good.’

Putting away the Crystal Ball, Zhou Chen walked up to the keypad lock and thought, ’I wish for the door to open.’

BEEP!

Verification successful.

The door to the central control room slowly opened.

Inside the control room were numerous pieces of equipment and instruments. The most striking was a massive monitoring Matrix composed of dozens of screens, but they had long since filled with static due to the high-Status Extraordinary battle.

There were several members of the Blood Race inside, holding firearms. They began shooting frantically the moment the door opened.

Zhou Chen’s reaction speed was already fast enough to dodge bullets. He activated Gale Step, displaying an astonishing burst of speed as he weaved through the gaps in the hail of bullets. He rushed into the control room, a powerful gust of wind in his wake. His Silver Blade rose and fell, its cold gleam sharp and deadly.

It wasn’t that there was no security here; their strength was just too weak compared to him. He dispatched all the Blood Race members inside within a few exchanges.

Calmly stepping over the corpses and pools of blood on the floor, Zhou Chen came to an isolation window. Inside the sealed room stood a stone altar suffused with an ancient, desolate aura. It was covered in strange, complex patterns that formed the main Matrix, while several other shining matrices floated around the altar. These were the sub-matrices.

A recess had been carved into the very center of the altar, and inside it lay a Yellow Crystal, which served as the Energy Source for the Barrier Array.

Zhou Chen quickly scanned the control room. Seeing no “big red button” that he shouldn’t press, he converted the metal round table in the room, forging it into a heavy iron hammer. Mustering all his brute strength, he smashed it against the isolation window.

THUD. A dull sound echoed. Unexpectedly, despite the brutal blow, the isolation window didn’t even crack.

’What kind of quality is this? Is this even glass?’ Zhou Chen was astonished. He had no choice but to reach out, touch the glass, and expend Essence to activate Decomposition of All Things.

The reinforced glass silently crumbled into fine dust.

To be safe, Zhou Chen didn’t rush into the isolation room. Instead, he threw the hammer at the stone altar. With a BANG, the hammer struck one of the sub-matrices rotating around the altar, but the sub-matrix didn’t budge.

’This Matrix is a very high Level. No wonder there aren’t many other protective measures. Even if a Puppet Master came here with their puppets, they probably couldn’t solve this in a short time…’

Zhou Chen frowned slightly, vaulted through the window into the isolation room, picked up the hammer, and began smashing away.

BANG, BANG, BANG… The hammer, filled with ferocious Power, struck again and again. But even after using all his strength, he couldn’t move the sub-matrix in the slightest.

These rotating sub-matrices were the toughest protective shell.

Zhou Chen paused briefly, then summoned the Cursed Blade, which overflowed with calamity, and stabbed it toward the Matrix.

A hard sensation traveled up the blade, as if he had stabbed solid metal. But as Zhou Chen applied more Power, the tip of the Cursed Blade actually began to sink into the sub-matrix, bit by bit.

Affected by the foreign Essence—one that carried a malevolent Curse and calamity—the light of that Matrix immediately became chaotic, tainted with streaks of black.

’It’s working!’

Zhou Chen increased the Power, gripping the Cursed Blade with both hands and putting the full force of his body into it. His face turned red from the effort.

CRACK!

After a long moment, accompanied by a crisp cracking sound, he felt the sensation of breaking through an obstruction. The Cursed Blade had shattered the sub-matrix. The dim Matrix, now completely corrupted by the calamitous Curse, broke into fragments and scattered across the floor.

Zhou Chen reached out, wanting to pry out the Yellow Crystal at the center of the altar to disable the Barrier. But it seemed that breaking just one sub-matrix wasn’t enough; some kind of invisible shield still protected the Barrier.

“I wish for the Barrier’s operation to stop for one second.”

Knowing time was of the essence and that any delay would be disadvantageous, Zhou Chen simply made a wish, forcing the Barrier to cease functioning for an instant. Then, faster than the eye could follow, he reached through the gap in the destroyed sub-matrix and forcefully pried out the Yellow Crystal that served as the Barrier’s Energy Source.

The next second, the Barrier covering the entire underground stronghold failed.

The immense, terrifying Energy fluctuations could no longer be concealed and were immediately captured by the Star Association’s detection devices.

Alarms blared throughout the Hong City Star Gathering headquarters, signaling the highest-level red alert.

“Report! The system has detected the Essence Fluctuation of a Tier Four creature, as well as a large number of Ascenders and Extraordinary Creatures!”

“Notify all members of the Special Operations Team to proceed to the incident location immediately!” roared Gong Su, the leader of the Special Operations Team.

With the Star Association joining the fray, the situation tonight was about to spiral into even greater chaos.

’Done. Time to scram.’

In the central control room, Zhou Chen put away the Yellow Crystal energy source. This thing was a rare and Advanced item.

He looked at the stronghold map in his mind, found the nearest Secret passage, and prepared to make his grand escape.