Breaking the Formation

A suffocating silence descended in the darkness, putting everyone on high alert.

Then came an even more grating sound, like rock being torn apart by force: "Creak, creak."

The statues, covered in darkness and purple lightning and now gleaming with a metallic sheen, began to move!

They were no longer ambushers relying on shadows in the darkness. Like evil spirits rising from a deep slumber, their pitch-black bodies twisted and stretched, while their joints made a teeth-grating sound of metal scraping against metal.

The Opportunity Stone's power let them ignore the stiffness of stone, transforming them into all kinds of bizarre, yet uniformly grotesque shapes. Some had arms that stretched several times their original length, becoming spiked whip-spears. Others had lower bodies that merged and swelled into massive battering rams. Some split open across the back, sprouting blade-like bone wings!

More deadly still, the purple arcs leaping across their bodies were no mere adornments. They had become weapons in their own right!

"Crack!"

Without warning, dozens of bolts of purple lightning, each as thick as a barrel, burst from different statues. Like frenzied serpents tearing through the night sky, they crossed the distance in an instant and struck hard.

"Ah!!"

Screams rang out almost simultaneously.

Even though they had been prepared and raised the light of their Suspended Lamps for defense, these frenzied attacks, augmented by the power of lightning, were simply beyond what the lamps could withstand.

The scarlet lotus flames of the Suspended Lamps caved inward, flickered, and grew faint!

The lamps of several Middle Root examinees on the perimeter burst like soap bubbles in the blink of an eye and went out. The lightning did not slow at all as it struck their defenseless bodies.

In an instant, the air filled with a mingled smell of charred