“It’s those who landed on the island before us!” another guard cried out.
A slightly older, more experienced guard stepped forward to inspect the corpses. His face darkened. “They’ve been dead no more than a month. Judging by these wounds… not caused by ordinary weapons or beasts. More like they were pierced clean through by an extremely fine, razor-sharp beam of energy.”
At that moment, Dustin suddenly looked up sharply, eyes narrowing toward a patch of ground ahead—behind the half-buried remains of what looked like a massive bronze cauldron.
“Be careful!”
Before he could finish, several faint “shhh” sounds sliced through the air. A few hair-thin, almost invisible grayish beams of energy shot out from behind the wreckage like vipers, streaking straight toward the guards who had just cried out!
Their speed far surpassed that of a crossbow bolt.
But Dustin moved even faster. The instant he sensed danger, his fingers came together like a sword, and an arc-shaped slash of sword energy leapt forth, intercepting the beams mid-flight.
Pfft, pfft, pfft…
Sword Qi collided with the beams, producing faint sounds like water droplets falling into flame. The gray beams were dispersed—but Dustin could feel it: within them lurked a cold, corrosive, alien power.
“What are those?!” The guards, still shaken, drew their weapons and stared nervously toward the bronze wreckage.
From behind it, the ground began to bulge, then burst open with soft pop sounds as three strange creatures crawled out.
Each was about half a man’s height, their bodies seemingly formed from dark brown earth and stone, covered in glowing blue circuit-like patterns that flickered with faint light.
They had no distinct heads—only a massive, crimson crystal-like eye sitting atop their torsos.
Beneath the eye hung several tentacle-like appendages that writhed and twitched. From the tips of these tendrils, the gray energy beams had been fired.
“Are these… mechanical puppets? Or some kind of spirit beasts?” Margaret gasped, astonished.
“Neither living nor dead,” Dustin said coldly. “They’re alchemical constructs fused with remnant souls—a type of ancient battlefield echo. The lingering resentment and half-functioning mechanisms of this place have reanimated them into these intruder-purging monsters.”
The three one-eyed creatures clearly regarded Dustin’s group as invaders. Their crimson eyes flared; the blue runes across their bodies pulsed brighter as their tendrils rose again—unleashing another torrential storm of gray beams!
At the same time, they began to move—awkwardly but swiftly—trying to surround the party from multiple directions.
“Form up! Protect the lady!” the guard captain roared.
Though terrified, the guards were disciplined. They raised their shields, forming a tight circle with Margaret in the center.
Clang, clang, clang!
The barrage struck their shields like relentless rain. The beams’ penetration was terrifying—steel shields dented under the impact, edges corroding as black marks spread like rot.
In the blink of an eye, Dustin moved. His figure blurred, reappearing before one of the creatures like a phantom.
The monster’s crimson eye flashed, and several beams fired point-blank toward his face.
Dustin didn’t dodge. His left hand shot out lightning-fast, faint green light swirling around his fingers. He seized the invisible beams directly—and crushed them. They vanished into nothing.
At the same time, his right fist shot forward, simple and clean—without flourish, yet carrying the force to shatter mountains.
Boom!
His punch struck dead center—right into the creature’s crimson eye.
The monster froze. The blue lines on its body dimmed and flickered out. A moment later, its stony body crumbled apart like loose sand, leaving only a cracked, dull red crystal eye rolling to the ground.
The other two monsters hesitated, their eyes flashing rapidly. Realizing Dustin’s power, they stopped attacking and began retreating—trying to burrow back underground.
“Trying to escape?”
Dustin snorted coldly. He flicked his foot, sending a piece of armor scrap flying. Infusing it with Qi, he snapped his wrist—
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two shards shot out like meteors, piercing both creatures’ crimson eyes.
The result was the same—their bodies collapsed into heaps of lifeless dirt and rubble.
The battle ended quickly, but as the guards looked at the pitted, corroded surfaces of their shields, lingering fear tightened their throats.
If these were only the “echoes” at the outer edge of the ruins… what horrors waited deeper within?
Dustin walked to the piles of rubble, picked up a cracked red crystal eye, and examined it closely.
“The energy structure is peculiar—not pure spiritual force nor Qi. More like a mix of resentment and geomantic energy. Whatever created these things… the source won’t be simple.”
His eyes turned toward the depths of the ruins.
After this skirmish, the group grew more cautious.
Following Dustin’s lead, they pressed on. Several more waves of similar “echo” creatures appeared—some like the one-eyed stone golems, others floating, shrieking spirits of raw energy. Yet under Dustin’s skill and the team’s coordination, they advanced without casualties.
The deeper they went, the fewer bones and shattered weapons they saw. In their place were fragments of exquisite jade-like architecture, dried spirit springs, and withered roots of bizarre ancient plants.
The air thickened with faint traces of serene spiritual energy—but the deathly miasma intertwined with it refused to fade.
Finally, after passing through a “stone forest” of countless broken white jade pillars, the view ahead opened.
Before them yawned a colossal chasm cleaving a mountain in two—as if split by an invisible blade. From within flowed a soft, luminous mist, hinting that a hidden realm lay beyond.
At the chasm’s mouth stood an enormous bronze gate, over thirty feet tall.
Though weathered and ancient, its carvings of stars, beasts, and flowing celestial runes remained vivid. Wilted dark-gold vines coiled tightly around its seams, sealing it shut.
Above the lintel, two grand ancient characters—still legible through the erosion of time—caught everyone’s eyes:
Hanging Garden (Xuánpǔ). - Marinien
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