382: Chapter 382 Using Human Sacrifice? Severing Its Foundation!

The few corpses closest to the statue had completely withered away, their bone surfaces even showing fine cracks, turning into a handful of dust at the slightest touch.

How much life force of the Heze commoners must be drained to maintain the temple's Wind Wall, and even expand an even more powerful barrier to trap all living beings who intrude into the desert?

Lin Xiao gazed at the corpses kneeling on the grass, his heart filled with shock.

In this area alone, there were tens of thousands of remains.

If one were to count the entire outer perimeter of the temple, that is, the area covered by the four statues, it would be a number that makes one's scalp tingle.

But the most bizarre part was not the scale of the deaths.

It was that both the event card and the public event were ordering him to protect this temple.

Protect what?

Protect a bizarre temple that sacrifices tens of thousands of living people? Or protect those royals who treat commoners as offerings?

Lin Xiao looked up at the twelve-story pavilion, which still appeared majestic and solemn under the shroud of the light membrane.

The statues standing at the four corners were exquisitely carved and full of spirit.

Every detail told visitors that this place was sacred.

Yet, the so-called brilliance and the so-called magnificence were merely hypocritical.

If this is the last pure land of Heze, then this land truly deserves to be finished!

"Brother Xiao, should we destroy the statues?"

Tian Xiwei, who had also noticed the strangeness of the temple, asked out loud.

Lin Xiao withdrew his gaze and turned to walk towards the nearest statue.

Surrounded by water-like decorations, it looked like a Rain God statue.

The fungal mat spread upward from the base, having already climbed to the statue's calf.

He lifted his battle axe and swung it casually.

The axe blade cut a short arc through the moist air and slashed fiercely at the thickest part of the fungal mat.

The battle axe easily sliced off the fungal mat, but surprisingly, as the blade continued deeper and touched the statue, it was bounced back.

The recoil made the web of his hand numb, as if what he had just struck was not stone, but a piece of high-density alloy.

Pushing aside the fungal mat, he could see that the spot on the statue he had just struck was completely undamaged, not even leaving a white mark.

Lin Xiao, unwilling to give up, tried again.

This time he was a bit more serious, using seventy percent of his strength.

The battle axe blade carried heavy power, tearing through the air with a whistling sound, and then smashed into the statue's ankle.

Accompanied by a series of sparks, the result was exactly the same as before.

The gray stone that constructed the statue had received no damage at all.

The [terminator] is a Level 5 weapon, and its grade and characteristics already belong to the top tier in the current equipment system.

Something that even it cannot cut is either made of a material that exceeds the current damage judgment range, or it is protected by some kind of rule-based layer.

"Being able to maintain a triple defense mechanism and deploy a barrier covering the entire desert, these statues certainly won't be easily destroyed."

Lin Xiao withdrew his battle axe and concluded with a sigh of helplessness.

"A barrier?"

Jing Hua was quite surprised to hear these two words and looked up to observe the statue.

Come to think of it, she indeed did not know the purpose of this temple yet.

After all, she was not present when they met with the Insect Emperor yesterday.

Lin Xiao seeing this, briefly repeated what the Insect Emperor had said.

"To think there is such a powerful mechanism!"

After listening, Jing Hua reached out and lightly brushed over the surface of the base, sensing the rune structure inside.

She recalled carefully and then continued: "Master is right, these statues are not just stone carvings; they themselves are the core carriers of the Rune Array."

"If destroyed by force, it would not only require power far beyond conventional attack methods, but it would also be highly likely to trigger the countermeasure mechanism within the seal."

She withdrew her hand, her expression becoming stern: "When the Nail of the Cold Heavens is forced open, it releases all accumulated energy in the form of self-destruction. If these statues have the same design..."

"This entire oasis would be blown to the sky."

Lin Xiao took over her words.

He was silent for a few seconds.

He shifted his gaze away from the indestructible Wind God statue and back to the fungal mat beneath the base.

Since he couldn't smash the stone, he would cut off its supply of provisions.

Lin Xiao stepped back a few paces and found a fungal filament network extending from the bottom of the base, connecting to several remains.

He flipped the battle axe, blade facing down, aimed at the thickest section of the fungal filament, and brought the axe down fiercely.

This time, there was no recoil.

The fungal filament was instantly severed by the axe blade, emitting a muffled sound like tearing through dried vines.

The cross-section at the break squirmed slightly, oozing a few drops of gray liquid, then quickly withered, its color changing from gray-white to charred black.

At the same time, the mottled fungal mat on the surface of the nearest Rain God statue began to peel off in large patches, smashing onto the grass and shattering into dust.

The stone surface exposed after the fungal mat fell off was also more dilapidated than what he had seen before, and dense, web-like cracks gradually spread out.

Furthermore, the protective light membrane around the temple dimmed, and its coverage area was shrinking simultaneously.

It worked!

Lin Xiao immediately turned around and gestured to the Merfolk waiting behind him.

"Everyone, follow my method just now and cut off all the fungal filaments extending outward from the statue base."

"Attention, only cut the fungal filaments; do not touch the base itself."

He paused and issued a warning in the chat channel:

[07-01 Lin Xiao: The fungal filaments on the ground are abnormal. All personnel are forbidden from touching them. I repeat, do not touch them!]

While sending the message, Jing Hua and Princess Xiyao had already led the Merfolk to take action separately.

The tips of the double-bladed tridents precisely cut into the gaps between the fungal filaments and the grass, severing those gray veins one by one.

Each time a batch of fungal filaments was severed, the Rain God statue shed a section of the fungal mat, and the light membrane shrouding the temple dimmed by another notch.

"Is cutting the fungal filaments enough?"

Princess Xiyao wiped a smear of gray liquid from her wrist and turned to ask.

Jing Hua shook her head.

"To maintain such a massive defense mechanism and barrier, the fungal filaments on the surface are far from enough. At least half of the statues' energy intake network is buried deep underground, in places we cannot see or cut."

She crouched beside a cluster of freshly severed fungal filaments and extended two fingers, hovering about an inch above the broken surface.

Blue-purple rune light spilled from her fingertips, illuminating the part below the break.

Beneath the soil surface, the branches of the fungal filaments were far denser than what was visible on the surface.

Lin Xiao was also staring at the excavation in the grass.

He could clearly see that the fungal filaments buried underground were still slowly squirming.

Just as Jing Hua said, the surface filaments were only the tip of the iceberg, including those remains that had been drained of their life force.

No one knew if there were more buried skeletons of Heze commoners in the soil.

Judging from the way these filaments connected to the base, the core network must be buried deep underground.

However, now was not the time to dig three feet deep; every bit of weakening counted.

Just as Lin Xiao was preparing to have people continue cutting the remaining fungal filament networks, a shout came from the distance.

"Lin Xiao!"