The black humus had originally resembled a pot of congealed grease.
Now, that grease had been boiled into a pot of scalding meat broth.
Meng Chao and the Wolf King both heard "glug glug, glug glug" sounds coming from within the "meat broth."
They could even see bubbles rising from the depths of the black humus, bursting, and vanishing.
As the bubbles burst, ripples spread across the surface of the black humus, forming intricate, crisscrossing patterns, like an enormous totem or magic array.
And as the black humus melted, Meng Chao and the Wolf King discovered that the legs of nearly every statue in the silent army before them, including "Fist" and the Stomachless King, were covered in countless winding black traces where they were submerged in the humus.
It was as though countless black slugs had once crawled out of the humus, climbed up the statues' legs, and burrowed into their bodies.
Just now, these traces had been dull and lusterless, blending into the statues so completely that neither of them had noticed them at first.
But now, as the black humus melted—or rather, regained its activity—the slug-like black patterns gradually began to glow with a demonic light, swelling bit by bit into eerie networks like blood vessels and nerves that coiled around the statues' bodies.
Thump, thump!
The sound, like footsteps and war drums, came again.
This time, it no longer came from deep within the formation.
It came from the center of the formation, not far from Meng Chao and the Wolf King.
And at last, Meng Chao and the Wolf King realized that compared with footsteps or war drums, that unceasing "thump, thump" sounded more like a powerful, vigorous heartbeat.
As the heartbeat grew heavier and more rapid, the black humus completely melted into a highly