Chapter 1699
1699 Testing the Strength
Dodd carefully inspected the hole several times and then took out his flashlight, shining it into the opening.
The stone door appeared ordinary on the surface.
However, upon closer inspection, it became clear that there was a transparent barrier attached to the stone door.
...“Mr. Fang, both the stone wall and the door have a special spatial energy structure defense layer. Any slight touch might trigger a defense alarm,” Dodd quickly reported to Fang Heng about their current findings.
“Furthermore, we’ve confirmed that the hole is a unique locking structure of the dependents. We’ve seen similar structures on the spaceship.”
“Is there a way to break through it?”
Dodd looked serious and nodded. “We will find a way, but it will take some time.”
Fana’s heart sank as they couldn’t afford to lose more time.
“Alright, let me take a look,” Fang Heng said as he approached the door, trying to gauge the thickness of the stone wall. If the wall wasn’t too thick, could he use his zombie clone to dig a passage through it? Instead of digging from the front, he could find an entry point from the side.
After all, digging tunnels was something he was quite familiar with.
As Fang Heng was deep in thought, he had taken a few steps forward when suddenly his brow furrowed, and he stopped in his tracks.
“Fang Heng, what’s wrong?”
“Shh…”
Fang Heng wore a serious expression and raised a finger to his lips, gesturing for everyone to speak quietly.
From all around, they heard rustling sounds, as if something was rapidly gathering in their direction.
Not good!
Everyone immediately pointed their flashlights toward the walls surrounding them.
Pairs of crimson eyes emerged from the crevices in the walls.
The bodies of the Void Stalkers gradually materialized from the uneven wall surfaces.
It was more like they were emerging from within the rock walls!
“It’s Void Stalkers!”
Fana watched the creatures with a sense of shock and confusion. What was going on? Why were the Void Stalkers attacking without them triggering the stone door?
“Retreat! Follow me!”
Without pondering this question further, while the Void Stalkers were moving through spatial manipulation, which was extremely slow, Fana immediately ordered her team to protect Dodd’s research team and retreat.
There were researchers in their team, and they were not suited for direct combat!
Dodd’s team immediately followed the Black Castle group and ran back along the same path to escape.
Fang Heng didn’t join the retreat but immediately controlled a group of Lickers to move forward and confront the Void Stalkers.
Perfect timing!
He wanted to test the strength of the Void Stalkers.
The cave was narrow, and the fusion Tyrant form couldn’t be deployed effectively, so the Lickers became the main force. Fang Heng chose to act as a rearguard and gather information.
The Void Stalkers were smaller in size than the Lickers, with small heads and large abdominal cavities, using their limbs to rapidly crawl on the walls.
From their appearance, they looked more like mutated crawling spiders.
The Lickers pounced on them immediately!
The Void Stalkers didn’t show any weakness and swung their sharp-bladed limbs in retaliation.
In just a few brief clashes, the Lickers found themselves at a disadvantage.
The Void Stalkers had formidable melee abilities. Besides using their bladed limbs to attack, they could also eject a corrosive fluid from their mouths as their main offensive method, which caused high corrosion damage and impact.
[Hint: Your zombie clone (Licker) has been attacked by the corrosive venom of the half-mechanical Void Stalkers, causing your zombie clone to enter a state of severe poisoning and armor corrosion.]
[Hint: Your zombie clone…]
After a brief exchange, the group of Lickers began to retreat.
The Void Stalkers, after undergoing half-mechanical transformation, had equally strong defensive abilities.
The effectiveness of the Lickers’ attacks was limited.
“Whoosh!”
In the blink of an eye, several scorching red beams flashed in front of Fang Heng.
This was bad!
Fang Heng’s pupils contracted as he realized the trouble.
Beam weapons!
After half-mechanical transformation, the Void Stalkers possessed beam weapons.
These beams could ultimately inflict fire damage.
It meant that they could deal fatal damage to the Lickers!
However…
Although the Void Stalkers had a significant advantage in numbers, the actual combat situation was manageable.
Using beam attacks consumed a tremendous amount of energy, so the attack frequency of the beam weapons was very low.
Moreover, due to the Lickers’ powerful life regeneration effect, they were able to withstand the attacks from the Void Stalkers!
Before Fang Heng could think about his next move, a denser “Whoosh, Whoosh” sound echoed from all directions.
Fang Heng looked around and realized that Void Stalkers were gradually appearing from all sides of the large cave.
A dense, sprawling mass of them!
This was infuriating!
There were so many of them!
Fana wasn’t exaggerating when she said there were thousands!
Fang Heng muttered to himself that this was bad.
If they continued like this, he would be overwhelmed!
He needed to run!
Fang Heng sensed that the situation was dire and immediately headed back toward the entrance of the passage behind him.
The Lickers also retreated and blocked the entrance of the cave, forming a gathering at the cave’s entrance.
The number of Void Stalkers was skyrocketing!
There were at least three to four thousand of them!
And there was no sign of them stopping. They continued to increase in number, crawling out continuously from the walls.
Huh?
What was this?
Suddenly, there was another special change on the battlefield.
From one of the Void Stalkers’ mouths, it spewed out white, thread-like substances that firmly immobilized one of the Lickers in place.
After being controlled, the Licker was wrapped round and round by layer upon layer of spider silk and, in just a few seconds, was encased in a white cocoon!
[Hint: Your zombie clone (Licker) has been affected by the binding effect.]
Chi!
In the blink of an eye, the white cocoon was hanging upside down in mid-air.
Fang Heng was shocked by this scene.
What the hell!
This special binding effect rendered the Licker unable to break free, and it was suspended in mid-air without being declared dead. It couldn’t even attempt to be reborn.
What was even more troublesome was that the Void Stalkers gathered in the cave seemed to have a learning ability. Seeing that their companions used this move to effectively restrain the Lickers, they followed suit, changing their battle patterns and using spider silk for attacks!
For a moment, the Lickers that blocked the path ahead were wrapped in spider silk one after another and suspended in mid-air continuously.
The number of Lickers that Fang Heng brought into the cave this time was not large to begin with, and now their numbers were greatly reduced. He dared not stay any longer and immediately led the remaining group of Lickers to retreat.
Outside the mausoleum, taking advantage of the time Fang Heng and the Lickers bought for them by acting as rearguards, Fana’s team, along with Dodd and the others, quickly escaped from the mausoleum’s entrance.
They waited outside the mausoleum for a moment, and soon they saw Fang Heng emerging from the passage below.
Fang Heng was a bit surprised to see the group gathered outside the mausoleum.
Why hadn’t they run away yet?
“The Void Stalkers prefer cave environments and generally won’t leave their habitats. In the past, they never chased us out from below the mausoleum,” Fana explained when she saw Fang Heng’s confusion. “We’ll wait outside for a few hours, and by then, the monsters’ aggro should reset.”
“Alright,” Fang Heng nodded.
However, before everyone could completely relax, the “chi, chi, chi” sounds came from below the passage again.
