There were twenty-seven steps in total. When Snow Empress reached the bottom, the texture under her feet changed from rough stone steps to a smooth and flat Xuantie ground. She looked up and saw a scene that was almost suffocating.
The armory was even larger than the two floors combined, with a dome five zhang high. The walls were divided into five layers of iron frames from the ground to the dome, each layer neatly arranged with densely packed Puppet Armor. These were no longer parts or semi-finished products, but complete humanoid armors, cast entirely from black Xuantie, with crystal cores of flowing spiritual light embedded in their joints, and dark red crystals in their eye sockets like pupils that could open at any moment. Snow Empress glanced at it briefly and estimated that there were at least a hundred Puppet Armor on the five layers of iron frames, each in a standby state, waiting only for the activation command to open its eyes and take a step.
In the center of the armory was a stone platform about half a person's height, on which sat a black iron token identical to the one in Snow Empress Snow Empress's gaze.
Zhou Jing.
He wasn't surprised, as if he had expected someone to break in. He even slightly curved the corners of his mouth, a smile that was neither friendly nor menacing, but rather one of confident composure.
" Snow Empress." He called her name accurately, his voice not loud, but it echoed clearly throughout the armory, "She arrived faster than I expected. Liu Yanzhao is indeed unreliable."
Snow Empress did not answer, but the token in her hand had already been quietly activated. She could feel a faint Spiritual Power resonance between her token and the token on the stone platform, the two spiritual codes probing and locking onto each other. But at the same time, Zhou Jing's right hand had already placed on the token on the stone platform.
"You stole that token from Meng Qi, didn't you?" Zhou Jing's fingers slowly traced the surface of the token. "One token can only freeze the Spiritual Power circuits of the armory for the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. Do you think the time it takes to brew a cup of tea is enough for you to destroy hundreds of Xuantie puppets?"
Snow Empress remained silent. Her gaze swept past Zhou Jing, taking in the neatly arranged Puppet Armor within the armor storehouse, her mind racing with calculations. Zhou Jing was right; the time it takes to drink a cup of tea was indeed insufficient to destroy a hundred Puppet Armor one by one. However, she didn't need to destroy them individually; what she needed was to destroy the armor storehouse's Spiritual Power center. Once the center was paralyzed, all the Puppet Armor would become utterly useless iron shells.
The location of the Spiritual Power center is beneath the stone platform at Zhou Jing's feet.
"A cup of tea is enough." Snow Empress finally spoke, her voice as calm as ice, and the copper bell on her wrist gave a second, very soft tinkling sound in the stillness.
Zhou Jing's pupils suddenly contracted. He pressed his fingers on the token with sudden force, and the instant his Spiritual Power surged into the spiritual patterns on the token's surface, the eye sockets of all one hundred Puppet Armor in the armory simultaneously lit up with a dark red light, as if a hundred sleeping eyes had opened at the same time, illuminating the entire armory like a sea of blood.
The Snow Empress moved. Her figure was so fast that she almost left a blur in the air. Her white robe swept through the dark space like lightning, cleaving through the blood-red light curtain. The copper bell on her wrist rang continuously as she moved at high speed. The layers of bell sounds surged like a tide towards the surrounding Puppet Armor. The dark red pupils that had just opened were momentarily unfocused when touched by the bells, hesitating for three to five breaths.
Snow Empress seized the opportunity to leap to the stone platform within three to five breaths, slamming her left-hand token onto Zhou Jing's. The instant the two tokens collided head-on, their spirit runes simultaneously blazed brightly, unleashing a blinding white light that illuminated the entire armory as if it were daytime. Zhou Jing groaned as he was propelled several feet away by the Spiritual Power, his back slamming heavily against the iron body of a Puppet Armor, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
"The central Spiritual Power center... is three feet underground..." Mu Canglan's voice suddenly came from behind Snow Empress. He had followed her down the stone steps at some point and was now pressed against the shadows at the entrance of the armory, shouting loudly, "Back when we were mining, the spiritual energy centers of all the mines were three feet below the ground. You could see them by blasting open the surface with your Spiritual Power!"
Snow Empress had no time to respond. The three puppet Puppet Armor, temporarily pushed aside by the shockwave, had already begun to re-lock onto their target. Their dark red pupils turned towards her, and their iron-cast feet pounded heavily on the Xuantie ground, making a clattering sound. The first Puppet Armor swung its arm down at her head, the Xuantie arm whistling through the air. Snow Empress dodged to the side, her white robe grazed by the edge of the iron arm, adding another tear. She spun around, her right leg sweeping towards the Puppet Armor's knee joint. The Spiritual Power conduction lines at the Xuantie joints were the weakest points. She kicked it, and the Puppet Armor's left knee gave way, causing it to kneel on one knee. But in an instant, another Puppet Armor took its place.
"The Armored Depot is about to activate," Zhou Jing struggled to sit up in the corner, the blood still lingering at the corner of his mouth, a near-maniacal laugh spreading across his gloomy face. "You're too late, Snow Empress. Once the central control is activated, a hundred Puppet Armor will automatically open the gates, leave the mountains, head north, and rush straight into the imperial city... Even if you kill me, you can't stop them..."
Snow Empress responded by kicking him unconscious. Zhou Jing's body went limp and collapsed to the ground, motionless. But just as he had said, the Armor Warehouse Central Hub had been initially triggered. A dull tremor came from the ground, and the Puppet Armor moved faster and more in sync. The perception array, which had been interfered with by the bell, was gradually recovering.
Snow Empress bent down and slammed her fist into the ground beside the stone platform. The fist force, formed from Spiritual Power, pierced through the three-foot-thick layer of soil, and the Xuantie ground cracked in response, revealing a deep groove below. The groove was densely covered with spiritual runes, crisscrossing like the veins of some giant beast. That was the Spiritual Power center of the entire armory.
She turned the token upside down and used the sharp edge on its back to pierce the core node of the central circuit. The spirit runes on the token's surface clashed violently with the central circuit in an instant. The two Spiritual Power collided, erupting into dazzling purple sparks, and the scorching heat scorched a few strands of Snow Empress's hair. She gritted her teeth and continued to press the token inward until the entire black iron token was embedded in the central circuit. The light of the spirit rune circuit changed from bright white to dark red, then to gray, and finally went out completely.
All the Puppet Armor in the armory stopped moving at the same moment. Their dark red pupils went out one by one, their raised iron arms froze in mid-air, and their steps were frozen in the last step, like a painting that had been abruptly stopped. The armory fell into a deathly silence, with only Snow Empress's heavy breathing echoing in the empty space.