Chapter 702: Chapter 701: Spiritual Furnace

Orderly and heavy footsteps appeared at the end of the corridor, and then those familiar tall figures appeared in everyone’s view.

It was the hollow armor wielding force field swords.

"What the hell..."

The little puppet exclaimed on the spot, and before her cry landed, the swaying hollow armor had already turned their heads this way in unison—the next second, the seemingly heavy brass-armored figures suddenly accelerated and dashed toward Yu Sheng’s group like phantoms.

Fortunately, it wasn’t the first time the travel agency members faced these enemies. Before the brass knights could charge, Yu Sheng’s team had already taken action.

With the slight sound of the blood needle launcher, a dozen nearly invisible fine blood needles pierced through the air, drilling into the seams of the leading armor suits. The hit brass knights stiffened instantly, trembling as they collapsed to the ground amidst intense command conflicts. Taking the opportunity, Hu Li hugged her two large tails and targeted the enemies across the corridor with a burst from the Fox Radish Machine Gun: "Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—"

Almost simultaneously, Luna transformed into a blurred phantom, gracefully leaping across the corridor, and the next moment appeared behind the hollow armor.

With a flick of her Fingertip Blade, the knights’ shield and armor were as fragile as paper against the Artificial Saintess’s attack. Yu Sheng couldn’t even see Luna’s movements as the brass knights in the rear ranks had already fallen. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

However, at this moment, more heavy footsteps echoed from across the corridor. In the corner of his eye, Yu Sheng saw swaying hollow armor appearing in the dim emergency lighting.

Hu Li, still holding her large tail, unleashed another round of fire across the corridor, quickly twisting her head to warn Yu Sheng, "Savior! More enemies are coming from afar! There’s more on the other side of the corridor, too!"

As she spoke, a brass armor, under the cover of other knights, broke through the Fox Fire defense net. It charged toward Yu Sheng like a raging wind, raising the force field sword high.

Golden threads floated in the air, instantly piercing into the joints of this knight. Erin, with one hand holding her frying pan and the other gripping a golden thread, swung like a human Tarzan over Yu Sheng, knocking the knight to the ground with a whack, before quickly swinging back: "Yu Sheng! No way, there are more and more of them, did we poke a knight’s nest?!"

Yu Sheng was at that moment aiming with the blood needle launcher. Hearing the little puppet’s exclamation, he quickly glanced around, then clenched his teeth and made a swift decision: "Don’t drag it out, get inside! There’s an opening here!"

He pointed to not far away where the corridor wall had a large hole. The mountain structure, broken from orbital bombardment, ran through the facility, and beyond the gap seemed to be a large space where lights from other facility areas were visible in the distance.

Without a word, Hu Li pulled off the two tails she was holding and swung them towards the opposite corridor: "Whoosh whoosh—"

The two fox tails sprayed propulsion flames as they left, exploding with a bang among the brass knights, collapsing the corridor and temporarily blocking more brass knights behind a pile of debris.

Almost immediately, there came the sound of violent impacts and digging from the pile of debris.

But by this time, Yu Sheng and Hu Li’s group had already jumped into the gap in the corridor—before leaving, Yu Sheng even threw two blood grenades near the gap, letting a spreading blood mist permeate the entire corridor.

This way, even if those brass knights caught up, they’d at least be converted a few, or at worst, controlled for a few minutes.

The nerve-wracking clanking of armor gradually faded away, while the "pathway" beyond the gap became more tortuous and difficult.

Yu Sheng’s group navigated through these "secret paths" formed by the mountain collapse, from broken rock into a ruptured corridor, then through tilted, collapsed corridors, into functionally obscure machine rooms, halls, or warehouses.

In the midst of this, events still unfolded—they encountered several roving brass knights and were forced into skirmishes with two groups. Luckily, the numbers were not overwhelming, allowing timely escapes each time.

The further they ventured into the facility, the more Yu Sheng furrowed his brow.

Just like Erin said... did they poke a knight’s nest?

He had never seen so many brass knights at once—their numbers far exceeding that of the cultists inside the facility.

Moreover, speaking of those cultists...all along, aside from the occasional cloaked corpse he saw lying on the ground, he didn’t encounter any living cultists.

What exactly was this facility for?

After emerging from a connecting passage, the group entered a dimly lit hall. The lighting system here was malfunctioning; the main lights were all out, leaving only emergency lights providing basic illumination from various corners. The hazy light revealed the outlines of strange equipment, projecting an unsettling atmosphere.

"Ahead, you can pass through," Luna raised her hand, stutteringly saying, "I think...I remember the route, but the scene...is different from my memory."

Looking at this place, the dim emergency lighting in her eyes seemed to transform into a veil, beyond which shattered and twisted memories wavered on the edge of reality.

She seemed to see a bright corridor, with priests in holy robes and knights in gleaming armor basking in sunlight streaming through side windows, sisters with swords approaching from the great hall, and the gentle gaze of a Holy Envoy falling through tall windows upon her.

Dim emergency lights sizzled slightly, with sparks from ruptured energy lines lighting up the corners. Yu Sheng walked over to see two cultists in short robes lying curled and hunched on the ground.

Hu Li cautiously kicked one of the bodies, revealing a charred and broken face—the corpse looked as if it had been burned from the inside out, charred into a piece of cracked coal.

"Strange, the corpses here are different from the cultist corpses we saw near the entrance," Erin muttered softly, "This looks like they burned themselves due to loss of control over their spiritual energy."

Luna slowly turned her head, looking at the side of the hall.

A whole dark wall stood there, cast in shadows by the emergency lights at the corner.

In a trance, she saw the sight from her memory again; she saw high narrow windows lined on one side, sunlight from the courtyard spilling into the corridor as newly promoted knight recruits marched through the training ground, the clanking of their armor mingling with cheerful banter in the wind.

She walked forward, cold metal fingers touching the dark wall.

The backup energy system kicked in, a slight buzzing suddenly emanating from the wall, and the surface of the dark wall instantly became transparent, the metallic substance turning glass-like.

The lights poured in from the opposite side, and Yu Sheng, not knowing what had happened, instinctively looked up.

On the other side of the wall was a production workshop; a paused assembly line facing this observation window, armor parts awaiting assembly hung on a transport track, and crystalline pipelines of unknown function crossed the roof, flickering with dim light.

"Wow..." Erin gasped softly, subconsciously gripping Yu Sheng’s hair tight, "It really is a knights’ den...?"

Yu Sheng immediately looked towards Luna’s direction: "Luna?"

"Further ahead," Luna raised her hand, speaking quietly, "A place to rest, to be received, for promotions."

She walked to a corner of the hall, where a door was stuck, but she easily tore it aside, throwing the twisted metal gate away.

Yu Sheng hastily followed; they passed through the hall, encountering several cultist corpses in the outside passage, their deaths similar to those in the hall, seemingly also due to spiritual energy backlash.

In the next room, they saw something familiar.

A dozen "Holy Coffins" arranged neatly.

They were the equipment used for the Artificial Saintess’ hibernation and maintenance—there’s a set on the Otherworld Inn.

"Hey, the C-type buckle," Erin immediately chirped, "Your iron coffin, your iron coffin!"

Yu Sheng is not as carefree as this little thing; he instantly tensed up, noticing maintenance lights flashing on most of the iron coffins’ surfaces, he immediately spoke quietly: "Luna, are they all..."

"All in maintenance state, except for three displaying signal loss, probably damaged already."

Luna spoke while slowly walking towards the end of the row of Holy Coffins.

The energy system here was still intact, light poured down from above, illuminating the hall’s magnificent statues and the Holy Coffins’ surfaces, blending fleetingly with scenes from memory.

Sisters would rest here, pray, share their experiences, summarize battle insights, awaiting orders to gather.

Occasionally, some sisters would be taken away, never to be seen again with their Guard Knight Order, priests said they were sent to other posts, while new sisters and Guard Knight Order would come here, guarding this...

Spiritual Furnace.

She raised her head, looking forward.

Promotional hall adorned with flowers on both sides—statues of the "Saints" line the dark steel paths.

Sisters’ chairs for resting and discussing bathed in light—the cold iron coffin surfaces flicker with system maintenance lights.

At the long hall’s end, the door to the Saint’s Secret Chamber remained shut, flanked by two Holy Statues from memory.

She saw two sets of heavy sentry cannons fixed on the ground but appeared to have stopped operating.

Yu Sheng suddenly felt a subtle presence again, the blood-established delicate connection whispered at the periphery of his perception, very near, very faint, as if a fragmented and feeble consciousness was gradually awakening and reshaping from chaos.

He heard a slight mechanical sound, the door protected by heavy sentry cannons at the hall’s end suddenly started operating.

As several lights flickered on, the heavy doors slowly retreated to either side.

The gentle, sacred light spilled out from the doors, with spiritual resonance gently chiming like wind chimes.