"So this is where it all started. The mastermind behind the Terracotta Army incident is definitely the History Devil," Arata muttered. "I didn't expect this guy to show up so soon. If I absorb him, it'll be like gaining a summoner skill."
Arata walked over to the mud pit. He kicked the Terracotta Warrior that had just climbed out right back down, then tossed a glow stick into the mud as a bullseye. Taking a step back, he leaped into the air, aimed his mouth at the glow stick's light, and blasted out an ultrasonic wave.
"Ahhhhh!!!!"
Boom!!! The very next second, the ultrasonic wave slammed into the mud pit, splattering massive amounts of dirt everywhere. The blast triggered a significant tremor, filling the entire underground space with deafening echoes.
After landing, Arata shined his flashlight back toward the mud pit. The pit had now been blown into a deep trench, with chunks of flesh scattered all around the edges. Some of the meat was still twitching under the beam of light, but most importantly, the Terracotta Warriors had stopped crawling out from the ground.
"Ah!!" A bloodcurdling scream suddenly rang out, the deafening sound filling the entire tomb.
"Damn it, kill him!!!"
"My heart!!!" The furious roars echoed through the vicinity.
Thud!!! Thud!!!
A massive stampede of footsteps immediately followed, sounding as if tens of thousands of people were charging toward this exact spot. Because it was pitch black all around, Arata couldn't see what was happening just relying on his flashlight. He could only tell from the shifting air currents that a massive horde of Terracotta Warriors was converging on him.
To avoid getting trampled, he had no choice but to take to the air again.
"Kill him!!!" The thunderous roars echoed over and over again, pounding like war drums to incite the soldiers.
Swish, swish, swish!!
Hovering in the air, Arata heard something flying toward him. He reached out and snatched the object right before it shot into his face, realizing upon closer inspection that it was an arrow. Swish!! The sound of more incoming arrows filled the air. The archers below seemed to be able to sense Arata's exact position, every single shot aimed directly at him.
As the sound of arrows multiplied, Arata quickly gathered wind in front of him to form a barrier. He used the wind wall to catch the incoming volley. In no time at all, the wind wall was densely packed with arrows, looking a lot like a scene of borrowing arrows with straw boats from the Three Kingdoms.
Whoosh~ Arata gave a backhand wave.
The wind wall burst apart, violently firing all the caught arrows back down below. Swish!!! Swish!!! Whoosh!!! Whoosh!!! Every single arrow was now infused with the wind element, making them fly faster and hit harder. It was more than enough to turn the Terracotta Warriors below into a hornet's nest.
After that barrage, the sound of flying arrows completely died down. But the constant chants of "Kill!! Kill!! Kill!!" continued to echo all around. Clack clack clack!! The sound of galloping horse hooves rang out from the darkness.
Swoosh!!! Something else came flying in.
Arata placed his hands in front of him to control the wind, stopping all the incoming objects half a meter away from his body. This time, it wasn't arrows flying at him, but long spears.
Swoosh!! Countless unseen spears shot into the sky. This time, they weren't just coming from the front; spears were flying at him from behind as well. It was a nearly omnidirectional barrage.
Moving at extreme speed, Arata formed a sphere of wind around his body, creating a 360-degree, dead-angle-free defense. The spears all plunged into the wind sphere, instantly turning it into a giant hedgehog ball. Arata spun his body, and the wind sphere rotated in place along with him, violently flinging all the embedded spears back out.
Just then, a burly Terracotta Warrior launched itself at Arata. The Guandao in its hands heavily cleaved right through the wind sphere, the blade sinking deep as it chopped straight toward Arata. Swish!!! Thankfully, Arata had fast reflexes. He hurriedly twisted to the side to dodge the strike.
The Terracotta Warrior wielding the Guandao had already landed back on the ground. It couldn't fly; it must have either been thrown up there or possessed insane jumping power.
Swish!! Arata could feel three more Terracotta Warriors launching themselves into the air. The weapons in their hands struck out simultaneously. Arata fired up his speed and shot higher into the sky, causing the three Terracotta Warriors below to violently crash into each other.
The environment was currently too dark, making combat highly inconvenient. On top of that, fighting them pointlessly like this held no meaning. So Arata took a deep breath and unleashed a fully charged ultrasonic wave straight down.
Boom!!! The massive sonic blast heavily smashed into the ground below. Though he couldn't clearly see the effects, he could instinctively feel that at least a thousand Terracotta Warriors had been turned to dust.
Riding the recoil of the sonic wave, Arata flew upwards. He hugged the wall until he saw the faint light shining from above. The rats he had left behind at the start were still waiting for him, but Arata didn't bother with them. He phased his body right through the heavy gate and returned to the hall of the Heng and Ha Guardians.
By now, Heng and Ha were completely activated. The moment they saw Arata, they began slamming their massive fists down incessantly. Every single punch caused the entire grand hall to tremble.
"Useless!!" Arata shattered them one by one using his ultrasonic waves.
He quickly moved on to the hall of the Eighteen Arhats. The eighteen statues had completely stepped off the soil and were currently blocking the exit.
"Cheap tricks," Arata chuckled, directly blasting a path open with another ultrasonic wave.
"Jackie, there's a huge racket coming from inside!!" Waiting on the outside, Hak Foo and Jackie had both noticed the loud noises echoing from the tomb. They couldn't help but worry about Arata's safety.
"It's the Bat Devil's ultrasonic waves. Arata is very likely fighting a devil in there right now."
"What kind of devil lives in an underground tomb? Don't tell me that hopping zombie guy resurrected again? No one could kill him back then, he just disappeared on his own."
"Don't overthink it, Hak Foo. That devil was unstoppable at the time, but he's already been forgotten now. Don't think about him," Jackie said with a dead serious expression.
"Got it, Jackie, I won't. But with his abilities, he wouldn't need to unleash Terracotta Warriors anyway."
"Let's just drop it. We'll ask Arata when he gets out."
"He's not gonna die in there, is he?"
"Relax, Arata won't die. Even if he does, that guy who passed out earlier is the respawn point he set up."
Before Hak Foo could fully process what that meant... Whoosh~ A gust of wind blasted out from the tunnel entrance. A dust-covered Arata appeared just a short distance away.
"Arata, you're out!"
"Yeah, Jackie. I've already figured out where this massive army is coming from."
"That fast!" Hak Foo exclaimed in surprise.
"I only figured out the origin of the army, but I haven't completely destroyed the core yet."
"What exactly is going on? What kind of devil is living in that underground tomb?"
"Actually, Jackie, there is no underground tomb."
"No tomb?" The two of them looked completely lost. If there was no tomb, then where the hell had Arata just gone?
"The truth is, that underground tomb is actually the devil's main body. Good thing I found out early, otherwise World War III would have absolutely been triggered by these Terracotta Warriors."
"Terracotta Warriors triggering a World War?!!" Hak Foo and Jackie were getting more and more confused by the second. They couldn't connect Terracotta Warriors to a world war in the slightest.
But Arata had seen it with his own eyes, so he firmly believed that this was the History Devil's ultimate goal.
"Explain it a little more clearly, Arata," Hak Foo urged anxiously.
"He's a devil that specializes in unit-spamming progression. His body is essentially a massive barracks used to breed an army. Based on my guess, there are at least tens of millions of Terracotta soldiers inside that tomb, and that number is constantly increasing every single day. As for the generals, I only saw the three sworn brothers of the Peach Garden down there. But with an army this massive, there should be plenty of immortal generals like Bai Qi, Meng Tian, and Lu Bu waiting inside too."
"Once the History Devil has manufactured enough soldiers, he'll initiate a war. When that time comes, all of China will be plunged into massive conflict. Furthermore, the more people that die, the stronger the History Devil becomes. He can use the blood of the dead to endlessly churn out even more Terracotta Warriors. Not to mention, all of this will make the War Devil, wherever she is, increasingly overpowered."
"Hundreds of millions of Terracotta Warriors?!! This..." The two of them were completely terrified by the sheer numbers. Last time, a mere ten thousand Terracotta Warriors almost wiped out City P entirely. If hundreds of billions of them emerged, forget City S, the entire country would be thrust into a state of extreme emergency.
"Arata, so the devil down there is the Terracotta Warrior Devil?"
"Not quite. The Terracotta Warrior Devil wouldn't be this strong, because it wouldn't be able to manufacture famous generals. Plus, not that many people are actually afraid of Terracotta Warriors."
"Then what kind of devil is it exactly?" Both men stared at Arata with deeply curious eyes.
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