Chapter 1242 Command System

While the data terminal was flying in the air for reconnaissance, Hao Ren began to pay attention to the movements of the "Stone Statue Legion." Even as the data terminal was still flying high, the movements of these black giants were entirely presented before his eyes, like chess pieces on a chessboard. During the observation, Hao Ren discovered something:

The ancient city was full of temples, large and small. Almost every one had a stone statue legion gathering and mobilizing outside. However, the great temple in the center of the ancient city was calm and tranquil. Moreover, the stone statue legion gathering from the other end of the city seemed to intentionally avoid the great temple in the center as they surrounded this area—they wouldn't even step onto the giant stone steps leading to the great temple.

Could the great temple be a kind of "forbidden area" for these stone statues?

Although he didn't know if these stone statue soldiers would continue to abide by this "restriction" after invaders broke into the great temple, at least for the moment, the area around the great temple was the only safe place in the entire ancient city.

To get there, they first had to pass through the increasingly dense blockade of stone statue soldiers around the great temple.

Hao Ren told the others about his discovery. With almost no discussion, everyone reached a consensus: head to the great temple!

The data terminal hovered in the sky above the city, constantly sending overhead views of the road ahead to the holographic projection in front of Hao Ren, like a reconnaissance satellite. A "best path" that could avoid most of the giant statue soldiers was clearly marked on the projection. Although it was still impossible to avoid encountering small groups of enemies, at least they could minimize the embarrassment of being surrounded by guards before reaching the great temple.

The team began to move towards the great temple.

Vivian flew several meters above the ground. Two groups of dark bats formed two huge horizontal vortexes, rotating behind her on both sides like a pair of giant wings. Sizzling sparks of electricity burst and jumped in the bat swarms, generating a terrifyingly powerful electric field. She was charging up for the next wave of magnetic storms, and this powerful swarm of bats could also release lightning strikes at any time to deal with the stone statue soldiers that appeared alone.

"Two hundred meters ahead, turn left. Twelve stone statue soldiers are gathering, impossible to bypass—blast them, partner!"

The data terminal's navigation prompt sounded in Hao Ren's mind. The first half of the sentence was professional and precise, while the second half was extremely crude. However, Hao Ren had no time to argue with this PDA about its wording, because he had already seen the gathering black statues in the distance.

The old granite buildings on both sides of the street collapsed with a crash. One after another, huge black statues, like Titan giants climbing Mount Olympus, stepped onto the streets over the broken stone slabs and pillars. The moment they appeared, two dazzling arcs of electricity fell from the sky, simultaneously striking the chest of the first giant statue.

The black shell on the chest of the stone statue guard shattered into countless fragments, and the giant's massive body swayed violently backward—but the next second, it stood up straight again.

A terrifying crack had been opened in the chest of this stone statue, but the protective shell in the core position had not been completely penetrated.

It seemed that simple lightning could not produce good results against these stone statues. Their shells had excellent insulation capabilities.

The stone statue raised its head, and a pair of blood-red lights lit up in its crocodile-like head. It seemed to let out a silent roar, and then raised the iron staff in its hand towards Vivian, who was flying in mid-air. An dazzling ball of energy quickly condensed at the end of the staff.

But before the energy ball could be fired, a blue beam of light suddenly hit the stone statue guard's body. The beam itself was only the thickness of a thumb, but it exploded violently after touching the target. Amidst the overflowing light, the giant statue shattered with a bang, turning into a cloud of blue crystalline dust.

Hao Ren raised his pistol and aimed at the trunk of another stone statue, while pressing the combination safety button on the magnetic oscillation bomb in his other hand. At the same time as he threw the grenade with force, he shouted loudly, "Be careful! There are guys who can use magic among the stone statue soldiers!"

Hesperides opened a pair of bat wings behind her and flew into the air. The blood-red long whip in her hand constantly dripped corrosive blood droplets that were enough to dissolve metal. She waved the whip to entangle the spear in the hand of a giant statue, and with a hard pull, the spear broke in two amidst a hissing cloud of smoke. The little bat spirit looked up and took the time to shout loudly below, "It seems like more giants are running over from other streets!"

The data terminal also timely transmitted a processed overhead view of the battlefield. A clear street model was presented on the holographic projection floating beside Hao Ren. A large number of red dots were moving between the streets, rushing towards the place where everyone was fighting.

"Sure enough... these guys have unified command!" Izhaks saw the clues in the overhead view at a glance. "And they are blocking the path we chose before... Are we being monitored all the time?"

Just as Hao Ren was about to speak, he heard a "meow—" scream from the side. Immediately afterward, a petite body crashed into his back. "Roll" had been caught off guard while fighting a giant statue and was kicked over.

The cat girl's injuries were not serious, but she probably wouldn't be able to continue fighting for a while.

And Hao Ren saw again those almost transparent phantoms escaping from the bodies of the fallen stone statue soldiers.

Souls? Or something else?

"Did you guys see those shadows?" Hao Ren pointed to a stone statue that had just been smashed into pieces by Lily's fists and kicks. "Some shadows will float out of their bodies when the stone statues fall!"

Izhaks widened his eyes: "Shadows? What shadows?"

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment: only he could see them?

But he quickly put the matter behind him: anyway, there were countless inexplicable and unique phenomena that had happened to him, so he didn't care about having another open eye situation. He just loudly said his guess: "I can see that after every stone statue falls, something like a soul floats out of their bodies. The things that float out seem to be connected as one in the 'farther distance'. That thing is probably the reason why these stone statue soldiers can act in a unified way!"

"High-level souls? Golem groups controlled by a superior spiritual network?" The little demon girl sitting on Izhaks' shoulder instantly thought of her familiar field. "Uncle Ren, can you see where those floating things are gathering?"

"Boom!"

A deafening explosion came from nearby. A huge arc of electricity shot out from the two increasingly bright "lightning turbines" behind Vivian. This level of arc finally directly penetrated the insulating shell of a stone statue soldier, blasting it into pieces.

And Hao Ren captured the transparent phantom that escaped from the stone statue soldier's body at the first moment.

It floated up into the air, drifting towards the temple in the center of the city. As it drifted further and further away, it became more and more transparent and illusory. Soon, even Hao Ren couldn't see its trace clearly. But before that, Hao Ren could roughly determine that the "shadow" did indeed merge with a larger transparent phantom when it rose to about four or five hundred meters in the air.

This scene was like an invisible "jellyfish" floating in the air, and that jellyfish was retracting its tentacles.

"That direction!" Hao Ren raised his hand and pointed to the location where the transparent phantom finally disappeared. "There's something there! It's floating in the sky above the city, covering at least a third of the city!"

Elizabeth nodded, and then carefully observed the distribution of the giant statue legion on the overhead view transmitted by the data terminal, as well as the movement patterns of the giant statue legion on the nearby streets, and began to calculate rapidly in her mind.

Lily rushed over with a smell of stone chips all over her body, and wiped her face in front of Hao Ren: "Landlord, what is Elizabeth doing?"

"She seems to be able to figure out the operating rules of these stone statue soldiers," Hao Ren said. "The stone statue soldiers should have a higher-level command system. We have to find a way to interfere with this system."

"Then it's best to hurry up," Lily said as she grabbed a half-ton stone slab from the side and slammed it **** at a black giant statue not far away. "It seems like another wave of stone men is coming! Our progress is getting slower and slower!"

"Don't worry," Hao Ren had great confidence in Elizabeth. "She's an expert in golems."

Rumble—

A building nearby suddenly collapsed violently. A high wall made of granite collapsed, and a huge stone hand protruded from behind. Immediately afterward, one after another giant statue soldiers climbed over the high wall and landed on the street.

The bat swarms behind Vivian made a piercing sound, and an increasingly strong electromagnetic vortex began to rotate in the two storms. Everyone on the scene felt a slight tingling in their skin: a new electromagnetic storm was ready.

At this moment, Elizabeth finally completed her calculations. She raised her hand and pointed to a certain position in the sky: "Towards that direction! Throw the electromagnetic storm in that direction!"

Vivian did not hesitate at all. The electromagnetic vortex generated by the two groups of bats had turned into an dazzling stream of light that seemed almost tangible. This was even more terrifying than the electromagnetic explosion she had created in the temple before. In the instant before these two rotating electric fields were about to lose control, she drove her magic to throw them directly in the direction specified by Elizabeth.

Lightning and strong magnetic fields erupted in the high altitude at the same time—this was definitely a peerless EMP.

The giant statue legion had extremely strong resistance to simple electric shocks, but the oscillating electric field generated a strong magnetic field, which was enough to make those stone men lose their ability to move.

And at the same time as the large-scale electromagnetic storm completely erupted in the high altitude, something that had been hidden before finally appeared in front of everyone.