Puff! Puff! Puff!
Amid flying pottery shards, dozens of grotesque demonic root tentacles covered in Dark Gold Cuticle, as thick as thighs and ending in flower-like gaping maws, suddenly burst from the shattered bodies of the terracotta warriors! Broken pottery and rusted bronze fragments clung to their surfaces, while their mouths opened and closed, dripping viscous dark gold saliva!
The demonic root tentacles writhed madly, carrying the savagery and hunger of new life. Like a pack of sharks scenting blood, they lashed toward the closest intact terracotta warriors!
"Aah—!" The Mausoleum Guards at the edge of the pit let out desperate screams!
The sturdy clay warriors were like mud sculptures beneath the immense force of the demonic root tentacles' coils! They were crushed to pieces in an instant! The tentacles' mouths opened, swallowing like Giant Pythons, sucking shattered pottery, broken bronze weapons, and even the filling inside the warriors... all of it into their bottomless throats!
Even more terrifyingly, as the number of terracotta warriors they devoured increased, the Dark Gold Cuticle on those demonic root tentacles thickened and hardened at a rate visible to the naked eye. Their edges even began to take on a cold, metallic gleam! Especially after devouring the bronze weapons in the warriors' hands, their mouths produced teeth-grating sounds of metal being chewed and smelted! Sharp barbs and ridged spikes, glinting with dim metallic cold light, slowly began to form at the tips of the tentacles!
They were devouring bronze essence and evolving themselves! They were transforming from mere demonic root tentacles into weapons of slaughter!
"Run... run!" someone shouted. The desperate Mausoleum Guards finally broke down, turning and fleeing desperately toward the passage outside!
Wang Wu did not run. He stared fixedly at the dozens of dark gold Demonic Tentacles at the bottom of the pit as they danced madly, devouring and evolving like a horde of demons. Nothing but boundless chill remained in his eyes. He suddenly blew the bronze whistle arrow in his hand!
Whoosh—crack!!!
The shrill, piercing alarm tore through the deathly silent passageways of the imperial mausoleum, carrying endless fear and despair as it raced toward the surface, toward Xianyang Palace!
Stone Cavern · Crisis of the Snapped String
The terrifying pressure of the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit was like tangible shackles, tightly imprisoning the stone cavern. Cheng Xi was gasping for breath, Dark Gold blood constantly flowing from the corner of his mouth, and the Turbid Fiendish Meridians beneath his skin once again became scorching and glaring. The dormant gray glimmer between his brows flickered unsteadily beneath the Ancestor Dragon Pressure, like a wick about to burn out.
The veins on Meng Tian's arm bulged as he held the command token, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. He was using all his strength to resist the pressure leaking from the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit, attempting to maintain the infusion of dragon energy. But before the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit, the token's glow was like fireflies, and the flow of dragon energy became extraordinarily difficult and obscure.
Great King... the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit has awakened... Lord Chang'an is in danger! Meng Tian roared in his heart, yet he could not even open his mouth.
Just as the critical moment arrived—
Hum!
A strange, faint fluctuation carrying some kind of rhythm once again seeped from the nearly extinguished gray glimmer between Cheng Xi's brows! This time, it was not an active deduction, but an instinctive resonance in a desperate situation!
The fluctuation pierced the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit's pressure blockade. Like a stone cast into a deep pool, it instantly reestablished a connection with the Dragon Source Water in the stone pool and with the uncorrupted pulse deep within Mount Li's earth veins...
What horrified Meng Tian even more was that this fluctuation seemed to have caught... the energy rhythm of the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit itself, which had just awakened deep within the imperial mausoleum and was enraged by the Chaos Aura inside Cheng Xi!
Like a dying tuner, the gray glimmer used itself as a medium to forcibly bring the three forces into its "perception":
The earth-vein dragon source that nourished him (gentle, inclusive, vital).
The Ancestor Dragon True Spirit that suppressed in fury (overbearing, majestic, commanding).
The Chaos Origin Point within him, on the verge of collapse (chaotic, unpredictable, driven by survival instinct).
Deduce! At death's edge, carry out the final bit of deduction beyond all limits! Seek the one-in-billions possibility of coexistence!
The gray glimmer flashed madly, its light faint yet filled with the resolve to burn away everything! Countless Data Streams reorganized before annihilation! Rejection models... energy properties... frequency differences... weaknesses in the Ancestor Dragon's Will...
It found it!
The gray glimmer erupted with its last bit of faint light! A composite-frequency shockwave, weaker than before yet far more precise and profound, suddenly burst from Cheng Xi's dantian!
This shockwave was no longer a single frequency, but consisted of countless extremely fine, overlapping fluctuations! Like the most intricate key, it acted upon the three forces simultaneously!
Applied to the dragon source: it guided its vitality, forming a gentle buffer layer.
Applied to the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit: in an exceedingly subtle manner, it simulated a trace of "fatigue" and "sluggishness" within its majestic rhythm, soothing and guiding it in reverse!
Applied to the Chaos Origin Point itself: it forcibly adjusted the remaining Chaos Aura, making its fluctuations infinitely close to... the frequency of the earth-vein dragon source!
Hum—!
That strange resonance appeared again!
The furious pressure of the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit suddenly stalled! The mountain-like force suppressing the gray glimmer seemed disturbed by this sudden fluctuation, which carried a trace of familiar earth-vein aura and subtle pacification. For an extremely brief, nearly imperceptible moment, it showed... confusion and hesitation!
That momentary sluggishness was enough!
Guided by the shockwave, the gentle power of the dragon source flowed into the gaps in the pressure like lubricant! The residual aura of the Chaos Origin Point seized the opportunity to adjust its frequency, drawing infinitely close to the dragon source and disguising itself as part of the earth veins!
The Ancestor Dragon True Spirit's pressure had not completely dissipated, but its intent to lock onto the Chaos Origin Point and destroy it without rest was forcibly disrupted and blurred by this exquisite "frequency-tuning disguise"! Its suppressive force remained, yet like something that had lost its clear target, it became scattered and sluggish!
Cheng Xi spit out another mouthful of blood, But the pulsating Dark Gold Turbid Fiendish Meridians beneath his skin stopped worsening! The gray glimmer between his brows was dim and nearly extinguished, yet it stubbornly maintained its last bit of light, like someone clutching a floating straw amid stormy waves!
Meng Tian felt the pressure on the command token in hand suddenly lessen! The infusion of dragon energy became smooth again! Looking at this glimmer of hope amid a desperate situation, he was shaken beyond words! Lord Chang'an... had actually stolen A glimmer of hope before the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit in such a way?!
However, this fragile balance was like tightrope-walking over a bottomless cliff!
Heavy footsteps shattered the stone cavern's deathly silence.
Ying Zheng appeared at the entrance to the stone cavern. He wore a Mysterious Black Dragon Robe and a twelve-tasseled crown, his expression as calm as water. Only those deep dragon eyes reflected the milky glow of the stone pool, Cheng Xi dying atop the Ink Jade Platform, and Meng Tian struggling to hold the token. An invisible yet heavy Imperial Pressure spread outward, faintly contending with the Ancestor Dragon Pressure deep within the cavern!
"Great King!" Meng Tian wanted to bow, but Ying Zheng stopped him with a raised hand.
Ying Zheng's gaze, like a tangible probe, instantly locked onto the faint gray glimmer between Cheng Xi's brows. He clearly sensed the unimaginable "frequency tuning" being carried out by that glimmer, sensed its interference with the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit's pressure, and sensed even more clearly... the trace of anger at being deceived emanating from the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit deep within the mausoleum.
"Using yourself as a string to pluck the earth veins and confuse the Ancestor Spirit..." Ying Zheng's voice was calm, yet cold with all-seeing insight. "Cheng Xi, your methods truly are... unfathomable even to ghosts and gods."
He stepped forward slowly, each step seeming to land upon a node in space. The heavy pressure nearly suffocated Meng Tian. Ying Zheng did not use Ancestor Dragon True Power. He merely extended a finger, its tip wreathed in the pure will of human imperial authority, and slowly pointed it toward Cheng Xi's brow—toward that gray Chaos glimmer maintaining the fragile balance!
"I am very curious..." Dark Gold flowed in the depths of Ying Zheng's dragon eyes like abyssal whirlpools. "This trace of 'chaos' within you... is it a blade to break the deadlock, or... a calamity that will overturn all?"
Before his fingertip arrived, that pure will of human imperial authority had already become invisible shackles, instantly imprisoning the space around Cheng Xi! The fluctuations of the gray Chaos glimmer suddenly stalled! The subtle balance that had just been established was like fragile glass before the absolute will of human imperial authority, instantly riddled with cracks!
The Dragon Source Water in the stone pool churned violently! Deep within the cavern, the Ancestor Dragon True Spirit's pressure also became more restless and chaotic due to the intervention of this foreign imperial will!
The string was about to snap!
Before you continue