Chapter 119 The Magnetic Storm

The violent release of electricity caused a regional magnetic storm, and the power of magic amplified this magnetic storm dozens, even hundreds, of times. Thousands of bats formed a massive, super-powered electromagnet in the air. The magnetic field generated by their rotation swept across the entire temple corridor like countless invisible sharp arrows. In that instant, everyone felt a strong sense of dizziness.

The strong magnetic field even caused large areas of strange black patches to appear in the corridor: a sign that space itself was being distorted.

Amidst the sweeping magnetic field and electric currents, fine sparks erupted from the bodies of the golem soldiers, then they collapsed, shuddering. The heavy stone statues fell, causing the entire pyramid to shake. Hao Ren squinted, trying to ascertain the situation outside in the midst of the chaotic electromagnetic storm. He vaguely saw the surfaces of the fallen golem soldiers dimming, the runes and lines gradually extinguishing, which should be a sign of a complete "shutdown."

And some faint, translucent shadows emerged from the bodies of those golem soldiers, one end connected to the stone statues' "hearts," and the other extending into the void. Swept by the electromagnetic field, these shadows quickly retreated from the corridor, like the tentacles of some invisible creature.

Hao Ren blinked, unsure if what he had just seen was an illusion.

The electromagnetic storm lasted only a few minutes, then slowly subsided. All that was left was a pile of stone statue guards still trembling, and a husky that had been electrocuted until its fur was standing on end.

Lily, with her silver fur standing on end, pounced on Vivian, a half-black, half-white tail standing angrily erect behind her: "Did that guy named Auston happen to tell you that magnetism can also generate electricity?! Did he tell you that too much current can kill people!!"

Seeing the situation, Hesperiana quickly stepped forward to shield Vivian: "Lady Vivian, step back! I'll hold back this mad dog!"

Hao Ren also quickly stepped forward to mediate: "Hesperiana, calm down, this isn't the first time these two have done this. Lily, you calm down too. Auston was studying electromagnetism, Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, and the lightning Vivian just released wasn't generated by electromagnetic induction..."

Elizabeth hugged Izhaks' head, whispering in his ear: "Sometimes I really don't know what's the point of Uncle Ren giving people advice..."

However, for an enraged husky, the specific content of the mediation didn't matter much. Lily calmed down after a few struggles, muttering while tidying her hair: "Of course I know that after graduating from Peking University four times... I'm just annoyed that this bat still doesn't know how to control her lightning storm..."

Vivian glared at Lily: "I did control it! And the landlord even put up a barrier to protect everyone. Who told you to rush forward and get hit by my accidental AoE! You should be glad that I mainly released a magnetic field shock this time. If it had been pure lightning, your dog head would be cooked!"

Lily: "..."

Only then did Gung cautiously crawl out from behind Hao Ren. When this silly cat first saw the golem soldiers, she had bravely gone up to fight, even using her sharp teeth and claws to take down the head of one golem soldier. But after seeing the number of enemies in the corridor, she immediately meowed and retreated, only daring to peek out now. She tugged at Hao Ren's sleeve: "Big cat, is it safe now?"

"At least the enemies in the temple are definitely all dead. Vivian's magnetic field was enough to cover the entire pyramid area," Hao Ren frowned, stepping forward. "In any case, let's get out of here quickly. I have a bad feeling. I'm afraid we've disturbed something."

After the previous breakthrough, they had approached the exit of the pyramid temple. Now, without the golem soldiers blocking their way, it didn't take long for them to pass the incapacitated stone lumps and arrive at the plaza in front of the pyramid. The first thing Hao Ren saw was a dozen stone statues lying on the open space.

Those stone statues were larger than the ones inside the temple. They were obviously the guards on both sides of the pyramid walkway. In fact, some of these stone statues had already rushed into the pyramid temple and fallen in the corridor that Hao Ren and his group had broken through. The guards left on the plaza were probably specifically lying in wait: in case the guards in the temple failed to eliminate the intruders, these golems guarding the exit could deliver a fatal blow when the intruders broke through and became careless—although Hao Ren doubted whether these golems had that level of intelligence, it was possible that the creators of these guards had left similar defense programs in their stone heads.

However, the power of Vivian's magnetic field storm was beyond imagination. Not only were the guards inside the pyramid temple instantly eliminated, but even the golems on the plaza outside were deprived of their combat power.

A wolf-headed, human-bodied stone statue located at the edge of the plaza had not been completely destroyed. The rocky outer shell of its entire body had peeled off, revealing a black, obsidian-like inner core. Intermittent runes and lines flickered on its surface, allowing the golem to struggle to maintain a kneeling posture. Noticing that the intruders had emerged from the temple unscathed, the last golem soldier raised its head, raised its arm, and pointed in Hao Ren's direction.

Lily, who had been suppressing her anger, roared and charged forward, leaving a series of large pits in the stone slab road. The golem soldier was overturned head-on by her missile-like impact, collapsing with a earth-shattering crash. Then, Lily raised her fist and rained blows on the golem's chest.

After a moment, the stone statue stopped moving.

Hao Ren sighed: "A dog-headed person killed a dog-headed person..."

Vivian's face was a little embarrassed: "She does seem angry."

"Of course! She cherishes her tail the most. Look at what her tail looks like now—like it's been roasted."

"Should I apologize to her?"

"No need, huskies have bad memories, she'll forget about it in a moment."

Vivian: "..."

"These stone statues are strange," Izhaks said in a muffled voice from the side. "I feel like they have a unified command. You can tell from their coordination—very few autonomous constructs can do this, and I didn't notice these stone statues having much independent thinking ability during the battle."

Hao Ren nodded, just about to say something, when he suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet tremble slightly.

"What the hell is it now?!"

Hesperiana couldn't help but change her expression. The previous battle had already made her quite nervous, and the tremor she felt now gave her a very bad feeling.

"Meow?" Gung looked around, then quickly climbed onto a nearby pillar. The cat-girl hugged the pillar and stretched her neck to look into the distance, then jumped down: "Big cat! Not good! More stone people are running over from all directions!"

Hearing this, Hao Ren immediately had the data terminal fly into the air to provide reconnaissance. The images that were transmitted back caused everyone to gasp:

Dust and smoke filled the lost ancient city. Whirlwinds of sand rose from every avenue. Countless black, beast-headed human figures, like an army walking out of mythology, strode between temples and palaces. On every avenue that could be seen, these giant golems were crowded!

They were undoubtedly coming this way!

"Holy crap... We've stirred up a nest of stones!" Hao Ren couldn't help but click his tongue, then quickly looked at everyone around him:

The divine shields on everyone were still shining, protecting them from the ubiquitous red moonlight in the ancient city, and also providing an extra layer of defense. However, the main function of this shield was to resist negative energy—in other words, it was a magic resistance shield rather than a physical shield, and its effectiveness in the battle against the golem soldiers was not as great as one might imagine.

Vivian's electromagnetic storm was devastating to the golem soldiers. Izhaks and Lily were strong enough to fight more than ten stone statues at the same time. Hao Ren's own guns and cannons were not a problem to deal with one or two golem units. As for the others, even Gung, who was the weakest, could fight a single stone statue without being defeated...

However, if an entire city of golems surged over, they would have to consider retreat.

Even Vivian's electromagnetic storm consumed magic!

Lily also knew what was happening at this time. She ran over quickly: "Landlord! What do we do? Keep fighting? I feel like there are a lot of them!!"

"The situation is bad, let's leave this place first!" Hao Ren quickly made a decision. "The stone statues don't move fast, so hit-and-run tactics are good for us, but once we're surrounded, it'll be troublesome. Vivian's electromagnetic storm isn't unlimited either."

Vivian nodded, affirming Hao Ren's statement: "I need at least thirty minutes to adjust before I can create another electromagnetic storm."

Hao Ren had already put away the plasma lance, replacing it with an Inspector's sidearm and a magnetic resonance bomb. The magnetic resonance bomb was extremely effective against these golems without magnetic shielding protection, and the Inspector's sidearm could definitely kill enemies of this size with a single shot. Because of the limitations of the battlefield environment in the temple, he couldn't find a chance to use the psionic pistol, but in this open ancient city street, he no longer had to worry about accidentally hurting friendly forces.

"Terminal! Provide navigation!" he shouted to the data terminal.

"Where to?"

"The Great Temple in the center of the city!"

"Still going to the Great Temple?" Lily was stunned. "The stone statues are the guardians of the temple. Shouldn't the Great Temple in the center of the city be their lair?"

"No, I'm afraid it's the opposite..."