170: Chapter 170 Activating the Golden Toad!

When Lu Cheng rushed back to the underground altar, the entire hall had become a chaotic mess.

The bald War General and the masked man reacted quickly indeed.

The commotion from Hei Ze being taken out in seconds reached them from above, and the two immediately judged that the newcomer meant trouble. One drew a blade, the other formed hand seals, and Source Power fluctuations exploded into two visible ripples above the altar.

But Lu Cheng didn't even look at them.

He bypassed the altar and charged straight toward the energy conduit in front of the door to the room on the far right.

"Stop him!"

The bald War General's roar exploded throughout the hall.

Several of the closest men in black instinctively lunged over; some condensed Source Power in their hands, while others drew short blades from their waists.

Then they discovered they couldn't keep up at all.

Lu Cheng stopped in front of the thickest main conduit and clenched his right fist.

The dragon scales of the Holy Dragon Armament spread from his collarbone down his entire arm, the gold-and-white armor plates reflecting a blinding light under the dim golden illumination.

Behind him, the phantom of the Radiant Dragon Soul simultaneously unfurled its wings, its dragon head lowered slightly, golden pupils locked onto the conduit on the ground.

One punch. He smashed it down.

"Boom!!"

The entire underground space shook.

The Source Array patterns on the walls flickered violently, a circle of golden ripples exploded on the surface of the conduit, and the metal emitted a piercing hum.

The men in black who had lunged over were blown away by the shockwave, hitting the wall and bouncing off, with some spitting up blood on the spot.

The conduit didn't break.

Lu Cheng frowned.

At the spot where his fist had landed, a circle of cracks had appeared on the surface of the metal conduit, and the dark golden sealing inscriptions were flashing madly, as if struggling to maintain the structure.

The cracks spread for two or three centimeters at a visible speed, then stopped.

This pipe is harder than a War General's head?

He looked at his fist again.

There was a bit of metal debris on the dragon-scale-covered knuckles; his fist was fine, but the rupture in the conduit was far from reaching his expectations.

Two auras of the War General Realm were already pressing in from behind.

A pitch-black horse-chopping saber, its blade wreathed in dark red Source Power, sliced through the air, heading straight for Lu Cheng's nape with a sharp whistling sound.

The masked man's technique was also complete; dozens of dark golden light spears fell from the sky, each with enough piercing power to penetrate steel plates.

Lu Cheng didn't even turn his head.

Ten Thousand Souls Prison Suppression.

Hundreds of pitch-black remnant souls exploded from his body, and the entire underground space instantly dimmed.

Soul pressure spread out like a tide; the men in black who had just climbed up from the ground had their knees buckle on the spot when hit by this pressure.

The light spears were struck by the soul pressure in mid-air, their speed dropping sharply, and the dark golden light on the spear tips was eroded layer by layer by the pitch-black soul power; by the time they fell onto Lu Cheng's head, they had dissipated into specks of light, like someone had sprinkled a handful of gold dust.

The bald man's horse-chopping saber did come down.

The blade cleaved through layers of soul power and did indeed hit... it hit the afterimage Lu Cheng had left in place.

Lu Cheng had already circled around to the second conduit from the other side.

The bald man's strike missed, the blade smashing into the ground, cutting a three-meter-long crack into the alloy floor and sending sparks flying.

He smashed his fist onto the cracks in the conduit.

"Bang!!"

The power of the Radiant Dragon Soul exploded at the point of impact, and a holy light shockwave pushed out in all directions with the conduit as the center, compressing the air into white ring-shaped ripples.

The few men in black who had just climbed up and tried to approach were blown away again, this time slamming directly into the stone platform at the edge of the altar, with some hitting their heads on the stone steps and losing consciousness on the spot.

The bald man and the masked man were also forced back half a step by the shockwave, leaving two deep drag marks on the alloy floor beneath their feet.

The cracks on the conduit began to spread rapidly.

Spreading from the point of impact toward both ends, every crack emitted a piercing metallic screech, and the dark golden sealing inscriptions flashed madly several times before extinguishing one after another like light bulbs.

The first. The second. Then the entire section of the conduit.

"Crack!!"

Fragments exploded outward.

The golden liquid inside the conduit gushed out, splattering onto the floor, evaporating more than half the moment it touched the air and leaving behind a pungent, cloying, fishy-sweet smell.

The very second the conduit burst, one person among the researchers behind the altar stood up abruptly.

He stared at the burst conduit, watching the golden liquid flowing from it evaporate rapidly, the expression on his face quickly shifting from astonishment to a kind of extreme determination.

"Activate the Golden Toad."

He spoke, his voice hoarse but very steady.

Several researchers beside him turned their heads to look at him simultaneously, their expressions uniform... Are you fucking crazy?

"Team Leader Li, do you know what activating it now means?" the researcher closest to him lowered his voice, speaking at a rapid pace.

"The Golden Toad's seal hasn't been completely undone, and the extraction progress of the bloodline sacrifice is only at sixty-five percent.

If we force an awakening now, the mindless Golden Toad and these violent energies... don't you know how much of an impact there will be? Never mind the Qian Family members, everyone present will..."

"I know."

The researcher surnamed Li interrupted him. His hand was already pressed onto the activation key of the altar console, his fingertips turning white from the force.

"If we let that kid continue destroying the conduits, the connection to the Golden Toad's main body will be completely severed." He turned to glance in Lu Cheng's direction, his eyes full of bloodshot veins, "By then, what we lose won't just be the lives of one manor, but an entire ancient deity."

The other researchers fell silent. Then they all moved, returning to their respective stations, and began to switch the activation mode of the Source Array.

Fingers swiped rapidly across the light screens, commands were input, and the energy circuits around the altar began to turn from gold to dark red.

Every ancient deity is extremely precious.

On the entire Blue Star, the total number of ancient deity remains that could be found from the Era of Resurgence to the present day does not exceed ten.

How many years did Origin spend to obtain the location information of the Golden Toad, infiltrate the Qian Family, and set up this underground altar? How many resources were poured in? How many people died?

If it were destroyed... just thinking about the reaction of the people above made the backs of all the researchers present feel cold.

Dying here, at least it's dying at one's post, and family members can still receive a pension. But if the Golden Toad is gone, even if they return alive, they won't live for many more days.

The researcher surnamed Li exhaled tremblingly, then pressed the activation key without hesitation.

A countdown popped up on the light screen above the console. [00:00:30]

The entire altar shook violently.

The Golden Toad in the center of the Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes suddenly saw the golden bead in its mouth light up.

The light diffused outward from the core of the bead, pulse after pulse, at an extremely high frequency, like a heart pacemaker suddenly turned to maximum power.

The golden liquid in the pool began to boil, the sound of bubbles bursting becoming as dense as machine-gun fire.

Lu Cheng immediately opened Su Wan's call.

"Su Wan." Lu Cheng's voice was very low, "They are forcibly activating the Golden Toad. On your side..."

"I feel it."

Su Wan stood in the corner of the banquet hall, frowning slightly... that foul stench had become exceptionally intense.

At the same time. The main stage of the banquet hall.

Qian Congrong was exchanging pleasantries with several bigwigs from South District 7, a gentle smile hanging on the corners of his mouth.

Then an attendant walked quickly to his back and whispered a few words in his ear.

Qian Congrong's smile stiffened for a moment.

Then he picked up his wine glass, downed the half-glass of red wine, and turned to walk toward the Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes.

"Everyone."

His voice spread throughout the venue via the amplification Source Array.

All the guests turned their heads simultaneously, wine glasses suspended in mid-air, laughter gradually dying down.

Qian Congrong stood beside the Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes, hands behind his back.

"Thank you all for coming tonight to witness the Qian Family's century of good fortune." Qian Congrong began, his voice calm, "Now... please allow me to release this good fortune early, to every guest present."

After he finished speaking, he raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

The golden leaves in the hands of everyone below exploded simultaneously.

The Source Power and wishes that had been injected into the golden leaves were forcibly activated in this instant, each golden leaf turning into a fist-sized golden ball of light.

Then these balls of light began to struggle free from the guests' hands.

"What..." "What's going on?!" "My Source Power! My Source Power is being drained!"

Panic spread in less than three seconds.

The first to notice something wrong were several guests at the peak of the Hua Hai Realm; they looked down at the golden leaves in their hands and discovered that the golden light was crawling up their arms, burrowing into their sleeves and sticking to their skin.

Then it was extracting something. Not Source Power. Something deeper than Source Power, something bound to their very lives.

Someone screamed, their voice cracking.

"What is this thing!! This isn't any good fortune at all!" The man's face twisted, "This is draining our lives!!"

The banquet hall erupted in chaos.

Some tried to shake off the golden leaves in their hands, but the golden leaves had already turned into balls of light, firmly stuck to their palms, impossible to shake off no matter what.

Some tried to circulate their Source Power to force them off, only to find that the Source meridians in their bodies seemed to be locked by something, the speed of their Source Power circulation slowing down by more than ten times.

Every time that suction force grew stronger, their faces grew paler, their fingers began to tremble, and their lips began to turn purple.

"Qian Congrong!!" A middle-aged man in a dark blue suit pushed aside the person in front of him, pointing his finger at Qian Congrong on the stage, his voice full of disbelief, mixed with anger and terror, "What the fuck have you done!!"

Qian Congrong stood on the stage, hands behind his back, the smile on his lips still gentle.

"President Wang, don't be so anxious! Being able to offer yourselves to the Golden Toad is your honor!"

He said it lightly, as if explaining that a dish hadn't been served yet.

President Wang's pupils contracted violently.

Several people nearby heard this and turned pale.

They finally realized that from the very beginning, the Qian Family never intended to share the Golden Toad's good fortune with anyone.

The crowd below was completely out of control.

"You Qian bastard!!" An old man with a white beard clutched his chest and crouched on the ground, his fingers gripping the carpet tightly, his voice trembling violently, "The Qian Family... all the top tycoons of South District 7 are here, you do this... you do this... the Federation will not let your Qian Family go!!"

Several people nearby joined in the shouting, their voices sharp and piercing, "Your Qian Family will be judged by the Federation! You will be torn to pieces!!"

Qian Congrong lowered his head, looking at a spot of red wine on his cuff.

He gently wiped away the wine stain with the fingertips of his other hand, then raised his head again.

The smile on his face disappeared.

"After today, no one will remember what happened at the Qian Family."

His tone was very light when he said this. As light as if he were talking about the weather being a bit cool today.

The expressions of the crowd below shifted from anger to fear.

Qian Congrong turned around and walked to the side of the Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes, reaching out to stroke the seal script inscriptions on the pool wall.

"The Qian Family... is also a victim."

After finishing, the aura on his body suddenly exploded.

War General Realm.

No. It wasn't a true War General Realm; the aura surging from Qian Congrong was different, like a bottle of cheap, fake perfume had been poured out...

He possessed pseudo-War General strength only by relying on the Golden Toad's blessing.

But fake or not, for the guests below who had already been drained limp by the golden leaves, it was enough.

Qian Congrong turned around, his gaze passing over everyone below, locking onto the three figures in the corner who had not participated in the blessing from beginning to end.

The three people from the Zhou Family.

"Take them."

Several Qian Family guards at the peak of the Hua Hai Realm filed in from the side door.

Zhou Jinan stepped back, his face turning a sickly, yellowish-brown.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, Sister Su Wan..." He turned his head, intending to ask the sister beside him to help.

But he didn't finish his sentence.

The muscular man beside him, who had been playing "Lu Cheng" the whole time, stepped forward.

He raised his hand. He tore off the disguise mask and muscle suit on his face... revealing the aura of a War General.

That sense of oppression instantly enveloped the entire venue.

The man grinned and looked at Fourth Master Qian, his tone carrying a hint of mockery.

"Fourth Master Qian, don't be in such a hurry."

Zhou Jinan's pupils contracted violently.

"Holy shit... Dad?"