23: Chapter 23: The First Team to Be Dragd Down

When the war bell rang, the entire light barrier of Qinglan City lit up.

Eight Live Broadcast Mirror Platforms hung high in the sky, making every detail of the battleground clear. As Lu Jin's screen was projected, Shenmen Plaza first erupted in laughter.

The surface Sacrificial Point was severely damaged.

Half a circle of black stones, three broken flags, two crooked lamp bones, and several boxes of rotten bones and scrap iron piled beside the Sacrificial Altar, as if they hadn't been moved in time. A few Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats huddled behind the Sacrificial Point, their eyes red, but their bodies thin, looking like a group of remnant soldiers cornered.

"This is called a main altar?"

"I thought there would be something formidable, but it's just this much."

"Yue Zhenshan's draw this time is truly a freebie."

A yellowish-brown battle flag slowly rose from the opposite side.

Yue Zhenshan stood behind the flag, broad-shouldered and thick-backed, with a whole piece of black rock armor pattern on his chest. The team arrayed behind him was even more imposing; just one look made people feel breathless.

Three Iron-Backed Mountain Rhinos led the charge, their foreheads covered with black iron ramming horns, white steam snorting from their nostrils. Sixteen Rock-Hammer Armored Warriors stood in two wings, each holding a short-handled rock-breaking hammer, their leg armor as thick as stone piers. Twenty City Shield Slaves held half-human-tall square shields, which, when linked, immediately formed a slowly advancing black wall.

As the light barrier magnified, even the ground seemed to shrink a bit.

Yue Zhenshan raised his hand and pressed down, his voice as deep as a stone hitting the ground.

"Mountain Rhinos clear the way."

"Shield Slaves hold the line."

"Hammer Team, follow me and tear up the ground."

"Flatten that altar."

He didn't mention Lu Jin.

In his eyes, that dilapidated altar on the surface wasn't even worth warming up for.

Lu Jin stood behind the fake Sacrificial Point, still covered in dust from digging the night before. Grey Pupil clung to his left side, his grey eyes unblinkingly fixed on the three Mountain Rhinos opposite.

"When the front row crashes in, the ground will collapse three inches."

"They'll think we can't hold on."

Lu Jin lightly tapped his bone clacker.

"Let him think so."

With the first tap of the bone clacker, the Ambush Rats on the surface immediately retreated, burrowing into two shallow holes along the edge of the broken flag cloth, leaving only a string of hurried claw prints. Two Bone-Wheeled Carts slowly rolled out from behind the Sacrificial Point, laden with empty boxes and broken bones, moving quickly as if rushing to transport belongings to the main altar.

As this scene appeared, the laughter in the plaza grew louder.

"They ran!"

"Lu Jin doesn't even dare to take the first hit!"

Yue Zhenshan also saw it.

He curled his lips and waved his palm downwards.

The foremost Iron-Backed Mountain Rhino suddenly stomped the ground, its entire body like a black battering ram, charging straight for the Sacrificial Point. The square shield wall followed closely, its shields lowered, protecting the Hammer Team as they advanced step by step. The Rock-Hammer Armored Warriors didn't walk fast, each step heavy, clearly testing the ground.

Bang!

The first impact landed on the outer edge of the black stone circle.

Half a black stone shattered instantly, a wave of earth rolled up, and several Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats that hadn't retreated in time were flung away. The live camera followed closely, even the dust on the rat fur was clearly visible.

The second impact was even fiercer.

The Iron-Backed Mountain Rhino's black iron ramming horn plunged into the edge of the Sacrificial Point, sending a lamp bone flying high. The City Shield Slaves pressed forward, and with a push of the black wall, the shallow ditch in front of the Sacrificial Point was immediately filled.

Yue Zhenshan looked down at the ground cracks and said coldly, "Just this small pit."

"Hammer Team, open a hole."

Eight Rock-Hammer Armored Warriors stepped forward simultaneously, their rock-breaking hammers striking the ground in front of the Sacrificial Point. Muffled thuds echoed one after another from the ground, the shallow topsoil was smashed and overturned everywhere, revealing several fake cave entrances buried within.

Empty.

Aside from two nests of startled young rats and a few broken bones, there was nothing.

Another burst of laughter erupted outside the light barrier.

"Sure enough, it was all just a scare."

"This nest of rats has nothing left."

Grey Pupil stared at the opened cavity in the ground, but his tail twitched slightly.

With the fake holes smashed open, the brittle topsoil beneath the heavy-armored team's feet had already begun to crack.

Lu Jin looked up at Yue Zhenshan.

"Let them advance two more steps."

The bone clacker tapped a second time.

The Cart-pulling Rats hidden behind the Sacrificial Point fiercely flung the two empty carts to the side, their wheels rolling over the ground, leaving two clear tracks. A few Ambush Rats emerged from behind the broken flag again, carrying scrap iron and medicine bottles, running into the shallow hole on the right, as panicked as if they were truly evacuating their last remaining possessions.

Yue Zhenshan's eyes lit up.

The hole on the right, close to the root of the Sacrificial Point, with cart tracks, supplies, and rat traces, all looked like the main tunnel.

"Shield wall, push right."

"Mountain Rhinos, charge in."

"Break open the entrance!"

At the command, the second Iron-Backed Mountain Rhino immediately turned, slamming its entire line of square shields into the right side of the earth. The ground under the Mountain Rhino's hooves suddenly softened, its front hooves sinking half a foot. It let out a low growl, but relied on brute force to pull its body up. Seeing this, the City Shield Slaves had no doubts, pushing forward with their shields, and the Hammer Team followed.

The place they stepped into was precisely the flag pit that Lu Jin had hollowed out in advance.

Only a layer of old mine skin remained on top.

Thin, hard, brittle.

With a crash and a smash, the cracking sound finally rang out.

Crack.

The first crack opened from the right side of the Sacrificial Point, like a line of white suddenly bursting on ice.

Yue Zhenshan's expression changed slightly, and he shouted, "Retreat half a step!"

He spoke very quickly.

Lu Jin was even faster.

"Reel it in."

Grey Pupil suddenly raised a claw.

The three bone ropes buried beneath the Sacrificial Point were pulled taut simultaneously, and the black stone wedges jammed under the old mine skin dislodged at the same time. The entire right side of the ground collapsed with a roar, as if a layer of its shell had been ripped off.

The front row of City Shield Slaves, shields and all, fell into the pit. The second Mountain Rhino plunged in halfway, and before its hind legs could find stable footing, the earth wall beneath its feet was dug through by Tunneling Rats, causing the entire massive creature to slide diagonally into an even deeper layer.

Screams erupted instantly.

"Pull me!"

"The shield is stuck!"

"There's something down there!"

Yes, many things.

The bottom of the pit was full of holes in all directions.

A grey tide surged out of the holes, biting at leg armor buckles, shield edge slots, and the softest muscles under the Mountain Rhino's belly. They didn't pounce on faces, but aimed directly at the places that would immobilize a person. A dozen Ambush Rats bit onto a City Shield Slave's ankle, dragging him backward along the collapsed slope, forcibly pulling a heavy-armored slave soldier weighing several hundred jin to the ground.

The live camera shook, and the entire city saw it.

A half-armored City Shield Slave, man and shield, was dragged into a hole by a grey-black tide of rats, only managing to extend one hand, his five fingers scratching several bloody marks in the dirt, before vanishing in an instant.

The sound in Shenmen Plaza came to an abrupt halt.

Yue Zhenshan roared, his Black Rock Divine Pattern lighting up on his body, his entire right arm instantly covered in thick stone armor, and his rock-breaking hammer smashed down at the edge of the pit.

Bang!

He smashed down an entire circle of earth wall, three Ambush Rats were instantly turned into mud, and the half-dragged Shield Slave in the pit was also shaken out. But as he pressed forward a step, the square shield wall on the left suddenly made a cracking sound as well.

That was the second layer of brittle skin.

From the very beginning, Lu Jin hadn't left him a way out.

"Warehouse Two, ignite."

Grey Pupil's claw struck down.

The oil drum by the drainage channel was ignited with a roar, and dark red flames shot along the pre-buried fuse, licking into the side hole at the bottom of the pit. Mushroom-skin oil pouches exploded one after another; the fire wasn't large, but it was incredibly sticky, clinging to shields and leg armor and refusing to be shaken off.

With the fire, the bottom of the pit became even more chaotic.

The Mountain Rhino's nostrils filled with grey fire, and it thrashed its head in pain, its black iron ramming horn hitting the waist of a nearby Rock-Hammer Armored Warrior, sending the man and his armor flying. That warrior crashed into another thin layer, and the ground collapsed again, forcibly tearing the pit opening from three zhang to five zhang.

Lu Jin stood behind the Sacrificial Point, looking at the collapsed pit, his eyes frighteningly calm.

The bone clacker tapped for the third time.

"Drag."

This sound seemed to tap into the very bones of the rat swarm.

All the Transport Rats and Ambush Rats hidden in the second layer of the dragging trap exerted force together, bone ropes looped around shield edges, teeth biting firmly into armor seams, dragging them down the pre-dug slanted paths. Heavy-armored troops could push through cities on the surface, but falling into these narrow, crumbling holes, even standing upright was difficult. The City Shield Slaves' square shields became a burden, the Rock-Hammer Armored Warriors' long leg armor became a tripwire, and the more they struggled, the faster they fell.

Someone in front of the light barrier finally screamed themselves hoarse.

"They're really being dragged down!"

"The entire row is sinking!"

"Yue Zhenshan's front row is gone!"

The camera's overhead shot was extremely brutal.

In the pit, the entire front row of black shields and armored warriors seemed to be half-swallowed by the grey earth. The rat tide frantically scurried along their legs, waists, shield backs, and under the Mountain Rhinos' bellies, dragging the living into the network of holes bit by bit. Occasionally, someone would raise a hammer and smash down, killing a few rats, but in the next instant, a dozen more ferocious ones would emerge from nearby.

Yue Zhenshan finally realized something was wrong.

This wasn't a single pitfall.

The entire ground had come alive.

"Left flank retreat! Mountain Rhinos push back! Press the earth solid!"

He roared loudly, but the situation was no longer under his control. The remaining two Mountain Rhinos had just tried to push sideways when a muffled explosion came from the old cable trough. The third oil drum didn't explode with much force, but the entire cable trough was pushed up by the gas, and the iron sand and metal plates buried inside overturned, blinding the left flank's vision with a cloud of white.

Grey Pupil darted out, using the cover of the white ash.

It emerged from a hole near a Rock-Hammer Armored Warrior's foot, spun its body, and its shiny black claw precisely sliced across the leather buckle behind the warrior's knee. The warrior's leg armor loosened, and he half-knelt. Four Ambush Rats immediately pounced on his back, biting at his shoulder armor ropes. With a snap, half of his heavy armor came off, and he toppled into a pit crevice, fiercely grabbed by a dozen rat claws reaching out from below, and dragged into the darkness.

Yue Zhenshan's eyes turned red when he saw this scene.

"Lu Jin!"

He charged straight for the Sacrificial Point, hammer raised.

This attack unleashed the true power of the heavy-armored path, and the earth beneath his feet trembled. The two Ambush Rats in front of him were directly crushed, and his rock-breaking hammer slammed fiercely into the center of the fake Sacrificial Point.

Bang!

The black stone circle exploded, the broken flag flew, and half a lamp bone plunged into the ground.

The fake Sacrificial Point was smashed in half by his hammer.

Empty.

There was no main furnace, no altar root veins beneath, only a thin layer of grey earth and a few rotten bones deliberately placed.

Yue Zhenshan's face changed.

Lu Jin was three steps away from him, his voice faint.

"Found it?"

This sentence was like a knife carving into Yue Zhenshan's face.

The entire city saw it.

The main Sacrificial Point that the heavy-armored team had pushed and struggled to open for half a day was actually a fake one.

Yue Zhenshan roared, wanting to charge again, but the ground he had cracked himself finally couldn't hold. The honeycomb cavity that Lu Jin had buried directly beneath the Sacrificial Point collapsed, and he, along with the remaining five Shield Slaves behind him, plummeted downwards.

He reacted extremely quickly, plunging his rock-breaking hammer into the earth wall, managing to hang on with half his body. The five Shield Slaves didn't have such ability; they, along with their shields, fell heavily into the second layer of the dragging trap. As soon as they hit the bottom, they were met by several oil pouches thrown down by Throwing Rats.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the mushroom skin shattered, grey fire and animal fat smeared all over them. The tunnel was narrow, and they couldn't lift their shields, so the five Shield Slaves rolled and roared, their screams filling the entire tunnel.

Grey Pupil stood at the edge of the pit, looking down at Yue Zhenshan.

"Your men are gone."

Yue Zhenshan yanked off the Insignia rope from his waist, but instead of crushing it, he swung it at Grey Pupil. Grey Pupil dodged by tilting his head, and Yue Zhenshan's other hand had already gripped a black stone at the edge of the earth wall, trying to use it to climb up.

Lu Jin stepped on that stone.

Yue Zhenshan looked up, meeting Lu Jin's eyes.

There was no excitement in those eyes, only coldness.

Lu Jin leaned down, and the bone clacker in his hand lightly tapped the hammer handle Yue Zhenshan had stuck in the wall.

"Fall."

The hammer handle was already stuck in loose soil, and with that tap of the bone clacker, the loose soil cracked.

Yue Zhenshan plummeted downwards.

He was tough after all; even in mid-air, he crushed his Insignia. A white light enveloped him and half of his shattered rock-breaking hammer. But the five Shield Slaves, the Mountain Rhino at the bottom of the pit, and the front row that had been dragged into the network of holes earlier, no longer had that chance.

The battlefield suddenly fell silent.

Only the grey fire still burning in the collapsed pit remained, along with the faint sounds of the rat swarm gnawing on armor plates.

Three breaths.

The score light pillar in the sky crashed down with a roar.

[Lu Jin, victorious.]

[Opponent team, eliminated.]

The entire Qinglan City erupted.

"Yue Zhenshan got taken down?"

"The heavy armored front line was dragged down by rats, the whole row!"

"Was that scene just now recorded? Those Shield Slaves looked like they were swallowed by the earth!"

"Who still says the subterranean style is useless in the light? Once this thing finishes modifying the ground, whoever steps on it dies!"

In front of the light barrier, the previously one-sided jeers completely changed tone.

Some were still cursing it as evil, sinister, and dirty tactics. More people were no longer laughing, only staring at the collapsed pit still emitting grey fire, a chill creeping up their spines.

They understood for the first time.

Lu Jin won this match not because his rats were strong in combat.

He anticipated Yue Zhenshan's every move.

If you wanted to push, the ground beneath would collapse.

If you wanted to rescue, the fire warehouse would explode.

If you wanted to find the main altar, what you smashed open was just an empty shell.

If you wanted to force your way through, the entire ground was waiting to drag people down.

Lu Jin didn't look up to listen to the clamor in the city.

He had already jumped to the edge of the collapsed pit, and Grey Pupil led the Transport Team to quickly collect the spoils. Black rock heavy shields, rock-breaking hammerheads, Mountain Rhino ramming horns, half-melted leg armor plates, and sacrificial flagpoles not burned in the fire were all dragged underground one by one. A few Throwing Rats even carefully rolled the remaining unexploded oil pouches back onto the cart, their red eyes shining piercingly.

This group of creatures had fought a live broadcast battle, and their demeanor had changed.

Before, they hid from cameras, feared light, and feared being watched.

Now they would actively drag spoils of war, actively protect fire warehouses, and even when looking up at the sky, their teeth were grinding.

Grey Pupil finally dragged back a half-shattered yellowish-brown sacrificial flag.

The flag surface was curled from the fire, but the black rock emblem in the center was still there, with a circle of fine golden lines cracking at the edges. It dropped the flag at Lu Jin's feet, a glint in its grey eyes.

"Heavy armored main flag."

"Still alive."

Lu Jin looked down.

The black fragment on his chest gently warmed.

The wanji ember furnace in his Sea of Consciousness, as if starved for too long, suddenly trembled. The deep, dark red fire at the bottom of the well also surged upwards, as if this sacrificial flag had piqued its appetite.

Lu Jin bent down and picked up the half-flag.

From the corner of the flag, a palm-sized fragment of a sacrificial pattern silently fell off, landing right in his palm.

In the next instant, deep within the furnace wall, a line of dark red characters burned forth.

[High-affinity sacrificial flag fragment detected] [Troop type can be upgraded]