It all happened in a matter of seconds. Only then did the left hand that Sukra had severed from Su Zhou's arm begin to spin as it fell from the air, hitting the ground. By that point, the tables had completely turned. Even with a Life Force that surpassed ordinary humans, Sukra was now struggling on the ground, trying to get back up. But without a doubt, he had already lost any chance of victory.
"Damn you… Damn you!!!"
"If only… the New Era… had arrived… my Naga Heavenly Dragon Body…"
Muddled syllables, wrapped in bone-chilling resentment, escaped his lips. At this moment, Sukra's life was indeed fading fast. One could see scales beginning to appear on the tall Zhu Country man's body, only to flake off and turn to dust on the ground.
Sukra's eyes faintly transformed into those of a Dragon Serpent, beginning to coalesce into a substance resembling a Treasure Pearl.
He was unreconciled, truly and utterly unreconciled… In the "Old Era," before the New Era had arrived and before the Extraordinary had awakened, even practicing a Celestial Human Supreme Technique like the "Eight-Headed Naga Celestial Dragon Body" would fail to achieve the "Extraordinary" state without the nourishment of abundant Spiritual Energy. If the world's Spiritual Qi had been just a little bit denser, he could have condensed Celestial Snake Scale Armor over his vitals, enough to block a bullet.
But his resentment was useless. On the eve of the Awakening, even someone who had cultivated the Undying Golden Body and attained Bodhi would have met the same end.
Su Zhou didn't understand the Zhu Language either. He only knew the man was dying and was probably cursing him, so he simply aimed at Sukra's head and fired another shot, giving him a quick death. Then he immediately turned to leave, which stunned the Bedouin Leader, who had just witnessed Sukra's ultimate failure and death and was preparing to strengthen the shield.
'He's retreating because his hand is gone and he knows he can't stop the ritual? Decisive, but pointless.'
The third-generation leader of the Holy Snake Spirit Prayer Association could sense that the members of the distant "Reconnaissance Team" were rushing back. Though those dozen or so elites lacked sufficient Spiritual Energy, their unarmed martial prowess was not much weaker than Sukra's. Furthermore, they were accompanied by a "Snake Spirit." That young punk would never escape!
But in the next instant, the white-haired Bedouin elder's eyes flew wide open. His bloodshot, serpentine pupils betrayed pure shock and terror.
Because Su Zhou, with only one hand and most of his other arm, was now at the entrance of the Prayer Hall, shouldering a long black tube and aiming it right at him!
An RPG!
He had left the RPG outside!
Using the stump of his still-bleeding left arm to brace the RPG launcher, Su Zhou endured the searing pain to steady his aim. His face was a mask of insanity, a grin of grim pleasure. Without wasting any words, he decisively pressed the launch button.
BOOM! A flash of fire lit up the hall. A searing tail of flame shot from the back of the launcher, instantly consuming the oxygen in the cramped cavern. Although the backblast was quickly dispelled by the refreshing wind generated by the Ouroboros phantom, the rocket had already ignited and shot forth, accelerating in mid-air!
"Madman, madman! You want to take me down with you?!"
"In your dreams!"
Seeing Su Zhou fire an RPG at him even after losing a hand, the Bedouin Leader, who had remained calm until now, felt an inexplicable terror at this insane act. He lost his composure and roared, his hands flashing through a Secret Seal as he brandished his Snake Bone Staff.
"Om! Devour my flesh and blood!"
Chanting the Secret Spell, the Bedouin Leader bit off the tip of his tongue. A surge of Spiritual Power, mixed with his own blood and flesh, instantly transformed into a poison, coalescing before him into a grayish-green cloud of mist!
"Poisonous Abyss Miasma!"
The moment the blood-forged miasma appeared, it began to corrode everything around it except the old man. Whether it was the ten-meter-long remains of the Two-headed Serpent or the corpses of other Continuous Prayer Meeting members, their surfaces began to bubble with a foul, bloody ooze. Even the rock walls began to react, emitting a dark gray smoke!
Even as the rocket's warhead plunged into the cloud, it was rapidly corroded. In a mere instant, its outer metal casing was eaten away—but it was simply too fast. Before the corrosion could reach the critical components, the warhead slammed into the green Spirit Light Shield that was swirling like a liquid, protecting the entire altar!
BOOM!
Under the shroud of the Poisonous Abyss Miasma, a flash of fire, much smaller than a typical grenade explosion, appeared and then shattered the Spirit Light Shield.
The Bedouin elder coughed up a mouthful of blood and was sent flying by the remaining shockwave into a pile of corpses.
Su Zhou fared no better. He was blasted backward by the impact, slamming into the main doors of the Prayer Hall. He spat out a gout of blood, mixed with fragments of his internal organs.
It was a pyrrhic victory—one might even call it mutually assured destruction. In a few more minutes, there would likely be no one left alive in the Prayer Hall.
But, something had been completed.
WHOOSH—WHOOSH—
In the windless subterranean hall, a fresh and holy wind began to stir.
The Ouroboros phantom, suspended in mid-air, had finally reached preliminary Perfection after absorbing the blood sacrifice of dozens of spiritually-rich Continuous Prayer Meeting members and the Soul of an Awakener… Accompanied by a terrifying Spiritual Pressure that suddenly intensified by ten, dozens, even a hundredfold, the massive phantom began to solidify. A trace of red within it started to coalesce like a blood-red Gemstone. At the same time, a sliver of Divine Intent from beyond the Void, from the distant Other Side of the Void, was projecting itself, descending upon this place!
"Hahahaha! The ritual is a success! The Void Orbit is a success!"
At this sight, the Bedouin elder, despite being gravely injured and near death, disregarded his pain and let out a maniacal laugh. He fixed his hateful, venomous gaze on the astonished Su Zhou and shouted in the Saracen Language, "The Great Being from the Void has descended! You vile, insignificant, insane mortal! Await your fate—an eternal, unending fall, never to die, one with the mud and blood!"
"And not just you! This world, this cosmos, will all be destroyed in the 'New Era' to come! Only we, only we who are sheltered by the Holy Snake Spirit, will exist forever in the distant Holy Sanctuary! Hahahaha!"
"What's this dumbass monkey screeching about? Get the hell outta here!"
After spitting out a curse laced with local dialect, Su Zhou couldn't be bothered with him—not just because he didn't understand the Saracen Language. The young man who had spent a decade thirsting for the 'abnormal,' pursuing 'Anomalies and Kaidan,' stared, transfixed, at the giant, self-devouring serpent rotating at the top of the hall, stirring up a massive vortex of Spiritual Energy.
Ah… so beautiful… so wondrous… This scene, which transcended the Mortal World, which could be called 'Extraordinary,' a 'Divine Descent,' or even a 'Miracle'—wasn't this exactly what he had always wanted to see, to obtain?
Greedily, he watched the ever-solidifying serpent phantom. Due to excessive blood loss and internal injuries, everything before Su Zhou's eyes began to blur and dim.
At that very moment, the great Holy Snake, the great circular serpent devouring its own tail, began to 'inhale.' All the ownerless Spiritual Energy within the Kachin Mountain Area could be seen being drawn toward the Holy Snake like fireflies to a Black Hole, transforming into points of light.
The first to be drawn in were the 'Spiritual Objects' stored next to the Prayer Hall, sent from various chapters of the Holy Snake Spirit Prayer Association!
Among them were grapes that were like Gemstones and would not rot, and fruits as red as fire, with a lustrous, vermilion sheen. Under the Holy Snake's 'swallowing' motion, the Spiritual Energy contained within these Spiritual Objects was stripped away, devoured, and the objects themselves turned to ash. Other various small Spiritual Objects, like jewelry and gemstones, simultaneously crumbled into fragments and dust.
Of course, the Spiritual Energy of a 'Holy Artifact' was harder to strip away than that of rare fruits and small trinkets.
Both the 'Feathered Serpent God's sacrificial gold mask' from the American District and the 'Stone Ghost Mask' from Mexico were slowly lifted into the air by an unknown force. Golden light, like a Thunderbolt, and an inky-black sanguine light, like the dark of night, could be seen being pulled from these two Spiritual Objects, drawn bit by bit into the great circular vortex nearby.
Vast Spiritual Energy and Spiritual Power gathered. Aided by the ancient Spirit Vein of the 'Ancient Shann Seven-headed Snake God Sacrificial Site' and the Void Orbit, a small doorway to the 'Other Side of the Void' was opened. And perhaps because of this, the powers contained within the 'sacrificial gold mask' and the 'Stone Ghost Mask' were drained, and they turned to dust.
Faintly, a distant sigh could be heard, crossing eons of time and space.
[The Seal is broken.]
Following this holy voice, other, more powerful and dazzling Spiritual Objects were forcibly raised, their power plundered. Whether it was a plain-looking Holy Artifact that resembled a fragment of a Cross, or a fossil-like branch from a fruit tree, they all floated in mid-air, pure white light spilling from them!
Strangely, the light poured from the latter far faster than the former, as if the Holy Snake had some connection to it.
[At last, I shall return… O, mortal world, after myriad eons, the light of the cycle will descend once more.]
As the doorway grew larger, nearly all the Spiritual Objects in the storage room were stripped of their Spiritual Energy. Holy white light surged, and amidst the low chanting of Angels, the fruit tree branch had already turned to wood dust. Even the Cross fragment began to tremble, on the verge of shattering.
And that distant voice grew closer and closer, now audibly filled with joy.
[I have found the Dao Mark of Eternity and Truth!]
However, one could see that while almost every object was being pulled into the air and stripped of its Spiritual Energy, one unremarkable item lay quietly in its place, as if completely unaffected by the descent of the Great Being.
It was an ordinary, round Pocket Watch. The Pocket Watch was old, its hands long gone, and the numerals on its face were symbols from a language that had never existed. Its surface, which should have had a silver sheen, was now dull and covered in a layer of rust.
Among the crowd of Spiritual Objects, it was utterly inconspicuous. If not for its uncanny ability to block spiritual detection, it likely would never have been enshrined here by the members of the Continuous Prayer Meeting.
And just as the Void God communicating with the Continuous Prayer Meeting, the Great Being known as the 'Holy Snake Spirit,' was about to descend with its Divine Intent, the Cross fragment began to tremble violently. As if possessing a will of its own, it resisted being devoured by the Holy Snake Spirit.
Just as it was about to fail, to shatter completely and become boundless Spiritual Energy, the wooden fragment vibrated forcefully one last time. It carved an arc through the air and slammed into the 'Pocket Watch,' utterly disintegrating into a cloud of splinters!
At the same time, an incredibly dense amount of Spiritual Energy poured into the Pocket Watch, like the North Sea pouring into the Ruins.
This action was like flipping a switch or awakening something. The rust on the Pocket Watch began to flake off, bit by bit. The numerals began to light up, one by one. A sliver of an incomparably heavy aura seeped out, and then…
It began to glow.
BOOM!
Silver light burst from the Pocket Watch, shooting straight into the circular vortex. The still-spinning Ouroboros didn't even notice the light, letting it crash right in.
Time seemed to stop.
Then, a holy Spirit Sound suddenly receded, coming from the distant other side, mixed with shock, fury, terror, and an inexplicable, style-breaking frenzy.
[Wh-what is this thing?! Ah… It's you! The Legion… The Seal?!]
[Who?! Which bastard put this… put this thing next to my altar?!]
In an instant, the nearly corporeal snake-like Spirit Body shattered before the Bedouin elder's stunned gaze.
Berserk Spiritual Power swept through everything in the hall.
P.S. Why didn't he use the RPG from the start? The answer is simple: because Su Zhou was here to save people, not to slaughter them (just take my word for it).
In short, he still had to assess the situation; he wouldn't risk accidentally killing his friend by randomly using an RPG.