Chapter 188 Mad Stone Soldiers

Almost as soon as Hao Ren and his group stepped onto the ramp leading to the Great Temple, all the wandering stone giants froze at the same time. Then, the surface of the enormous, jellyfish-like spiritual entity in the sky rippled with light. The electromagnetic shield created by Vivian began to crackle, and in the intense energy clash, it disintegrated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The giant legion instantly regained its coordination. As if enraged by the invaders' desecration, they began to charge madly towards the Great Temple. Standing on the ramp and looking around, all that could be seen were countless swaying, enormous figures destroying everything in their path with devastating force. Countless ancient houses and towers were overturned, and the solid stone ground was crushed into powder. The footsteps of the giant legion swept across the entire city like rolling thunder, and even the entire high ground where the Great Temple was located shook slightly.

"The stone legion is going crazy!" Lily's fur stood on end, and she jumped behind Hao Ren in a flash. "Landlord! Are you sure these guys won't get close to the Great Temple?"

Hao Ren didn't say anything for a moment, because he wasn't 100% sure about his guess. He just pulled the slightly dazed Loli Sha and Hessiana beside him when he saw the stone figures swarming over. "Retreat into the Great Temple first. At least the building looks very solid. Even if the stone figures continue to advance, we can rely on the walls of the Great Temple to fight them for a while."

Hessiana didn't have much experience dealing with this kind of situation, and she seemed particularly nervous at this time. "Are you sure about this? If you're wrong, Vivian is taking a risk with you!"

"Don't worry, I've dealt with things more dangerous than these," Hao Ren smiled nonchalantly. "And even if we can't stop so many stone figures, I have a way to get you all out of this alien space safely. Nothing in this world can stop an inspector."

"Tch... you sound pretty cocky..." Hessiana muttered to herself, but still obediently followed Hao Ren up the ramp towards the Great Temple.

The entire central temple was built on a high platform above the city. Several pyramid-shaped main buildings and rectangular palaces scattered between the pyramids together formed this magnificent ancient architectural complex. The high platform they were on was not a "natural terrain" at all, but a bone plate on top of the giant beast E'tos' head—in this city built on the head of a giant beast, there was no such thing as "natural terrain."

This terrain also resulted in a long ramp around the Great Temple. The countless steps on this ramp were a striking boundary separating the temple area from the surrounding ordinary urban areas.

The giant legion stopped in front of the ramp, just as Hao Ren had expected.

They gathered more and more at the foot of the Great Temple. The stone guards who had gathered from all over the city almost formed a dark sea below the ramp. These "golems," which supposedly had no emotions, were now raging like furious creatures. They jostled, swayed, and even demolished nearby buildings to "vent their anger," but in the end, not a single stone figure crossed even the lowest step of the temple.

"Phew... you guessed right," Hessiana finally breathed a sigh of relief. She wiped the fine beads of sweat from her face and looked at "Gun" on Hao Ren's back. "How's the cat?"

"She suffered internal injuries from being kicked by a stone figure earlier, but I gave her some biscuits I got from the goddess. Her injuries have healed, but she's a little listless," Hao Ren said, turning his head to look. The silly face of the cat girl was lying on his shoulder, her furry ears drooping against his face, looking peaceful and tired. When he shook his head slightly, he felt a tickle on his face. This girl was always making a fuss when she was awake, but she was quite quiet after she fell asleep. "Well... it seems the 'medicine' has kicked in, she's sound asleep."

"Landlord," Lily tugged at Hao Ren's arm, "what do you think is in that Great Temple?"

Hao Ren looked up. The sand-yellow pyramid at the end of the ramp stood tall above, its top pointing straight at a huge vortex on the border of the alien space, as if it had attracted the destruction of this lost city.

"I don't know," he shook his head, "but we're here, so we have to investigate the most important place. This city seems to have been destroyed by the red moon, but Vivian doesn't remember what happened here, so our investigation may be the only hope to help Vivian regain this memory."

"Awoo," Lily nodded, looking at Vivian flying in the air, "bats are really troublesome..."

Without the disturbance of the giant legion, Hao Ren and his group quickly arrived at the gate of the central pyramid of the Great Temple.

Unlike the previous "small" temple, this central temple was obviously superior in the selection of building materials. Its gate still stood firmly and completely, blocking the crowd like a serious soldier, guarding all the secrets inside the Great Pyramid.

Vivian landed and first looked around, frowning slightly. "Why can't I see a single stone figure here..."

"Isn't it better not to see them," Lily's thinking was very simple, "and the landlord said before that the stone figures all ran out of the surrounding temples. This temple in the city center is a forbidden area for stone figures."

"Even without those stone figures that act as guards, there should be decorative sculptures here," Vivian shook her head. "That's the most basic equipment for a temple—at least according to the architectural style of this city, there must be sculptures in the temple."

"There are," Lily pointed to the top of a nearby palace, "look, there's a big dog head over there!"

Vivian glared at the husky girl. "I'm not talking about that! And that's clearly a wolf head, don't forcibly classify normal wolves into your side just because you've accepted that you're a dog!"

Lily: "..."

"Anyway, it's better not to see those stone guards than to be chased by them," Loli Sha saw that Lily and Vivian were getting further and further away from the topic, and quickly interrupted, "There seems to be magic reinforcement on this door, I might be able to try to crack it..."

Before Loli Sha could finish her words, a loud "boom" came from the side. Then, the bronze gate, which was reinforced with magic and looked indestructible, fell apart, surrounded by smoke and dust. Hao Ren came out, holding two unused explosive patches. "What did you say?"

Loli Sha: "..."

"Ahem, get used to it, the landlord's style of solving problems has always been like this," Lily patted Loli Sha on the shoulder. "If you blow up the problem, there's no problem."

Loli Sha continued: "..."

The gate had been perfectly cracked by Hao Ren's technical means, so everyone became vigilant and followed Hao Ren into this ancient temple that had been sealed for thousands of years.

The flickering fire made the dim temple passageway look particularly eerie, but other than this eerie feeling, Hao Ren and his group didn't see any enemies inside, or anything that looked like it might become an enemy.

The interior of the temple was magnificent, but the furnishings were simpler and more rustic than imagined.

This was the largest building complex in the city, with a magnificent shape and scale from the outside, but inside, it was as undecorated as a simple stone cave. There were no exquisite stone sculptures, no sacrificial items inlaid with gems and precious metals, and even the most ordinary daily utensils were rare—after passing through several rooms, there were only gray rock tables and chairs and wooden lampstands that had rotted for many years. Apart from these "furniture" that could be described as ascetic instruments, not even a metal utensil could be found in this temple.

Not to mention offering sacrifices to the gods, the monks living here probably had trouble even surviving normally.

However, this Great Temple was definitely not like this at first, because many rooms could be found in the temple that were obviously once used by monks to live in, and Hao Ren quickly found several "treasure vaults" that had been emptied.

The reason why it could be determined that they were "treasure vaults" used to store valuables was because the data terminal found a lot of precious metal dust and several gems that had been left behind on the ground and walls of those rooms.

This central temple was not so simple at first, it was emptied by someone.

So who emptied this place?

"The city was destroyed by the red moon, and the moonlight has not dissipated until today, so it is unlikely that there are any later tomb robbers," Izhaks began to analyze the strange situation in the Great Temple. "There are many rooms in the temple, and the structure is very complex. Based on the parts we have searched so far, it can be determined that it was emptied very thoroughly, so it should have been emptied by someone who was quite familiar with this place, and it was an organized and planned action. I think it was done by the residents of this city."

"A civilian rebellion?" Hessiana blinked. "The lower-level people rebelled against the upper-level priests and then robbed the entire temple?"

"It's unlikely, if that were the case, the damage to the temple would be much greater than what we see before us," Vivian shook her head. "And in the age of mythology, 'mortals' could not rebel against the upper-level priests at all. Even if the upper-level priests were just slaves of the old gods, the power they possessed was not something ordinary people could contend with."

"Who 'looted' this temple then?" Hao Ren frowned. "And only the central Great Temple was looted, and the smaller pyramids nearby didn't lose anything."

Vivian shrugged. "Who knows—"

Just as she finished speaking, she suddenly showed a puzzled expression and looked up at the end of the corridor.

"What's wrong?" Hao Ren asked curiously.

Vivian blinked. "I think I heard someone calling me again..."