pjbooks Chapter 52 We will win!
Chapter 52 We will win!
In the live stream, three people stood side by side in the snow, with snow-capped mountains behind them and the Black Apostle Hall in front of them.
They knew, of course, that this was a live broadcast to all of humanity, so before going in, Ye Wuhen quietly said something to the camera.
"We will win."
At that moment, he carried the hopes of humanity.
Immediately, the doors of the Apostles' Temple burst open.
The world turned upside down the moment the three stepped into the entrance to the Thirteenth Apostle's Hall.
It wasn't a metaphor. The snow-capped mountains beneath his feet, the sky above his head, everything behind him—the instant he crossed that black doorway, it was as if an invisible hand had crushed, turned over, and reassembled him. Ye Wuhen felt as if he were simultaneously falling and rising, with the whistling of the wind in his ears, yet it also felt like nothing was there at all.
When the sole of his boot touched solid matter again, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar world.
The Hall of the Thirteenth Apostle, First Floor.
This was a vast, circular hall. Its dome rose immeasurably high, shrouded in a hazy, gray mist. The walls were made of dark gray stone bricks, each engraved with obscure runes that emitted a faint, eerie blue glow in the darkness, like countless blinking eyes. The floor was a single, smooth black stone slab, reflecting the blurry figures of the three people.
In the very center of the hall stood a "person".
Calling it a "person" isn't entirely accurate. The creature was about two meters tall, walked upright, and had four limbs and a torso, but its skin was dark purple, hairless, and covered with fine, scale-like patterns. Its head had no ears or nose, only a wide, open slit across its face, revealing a dense array of needle-like teeth. Its eyes were located at its temples, one on each side, with vertical pupils; the golden pupils resembled two will-o'-the-wisps in the dim light.
apostle.
It wasn't a mass-produced gray monster like the Apostle Vanguard, but a true, low-ranking Apostle individual. It didn't possess the cold, mechanical aura of the Apostle Vanguard, but rather a more primal, wild sense of oppression—like a beast, but more instinctively terrifying than any beast.
Zhou Tianze whistled: "This is the Apostle? He's quite ugly."
Luo Qinghe didn't speak, but she turned slightly to the side, and a wisp of icy blue light had already gathered at the fingertips of her right hand. Her left arm remained motionless at her side, but her posture changed from relaxed to a fighting stance—her center of gravity lowered, her feet shoulder-width apart, ready to move forward or to the side at any moment.
Ye Wuhen did not draw his sword. He looked at the apostle with a calm gaze, as if he were looking at a stone.
Three seconds later, a voice came from the dome of the hall. It didn't come from any direction, but from the entire space itself, deep, resonant, and devoid of any emotion, like an ancient stone statue speaking.
"The first level is guarded by the Dark Devourer Apostle. Defeat it to enter the second level."
After the sound dissipated, the dark purple apostle moved.
Its speed far exceeded the impression given by its size. One moment it was standing motionless in the center of the hall, and the next moment it was in front of Zhou Tianze, the crack across its face fully opened, revealing countless rows of needle-like teeth, biting towards Zhou Tianze's neck!
Zhou Tianze did not even retreat.
With a casual flick of his right hand, a silvery-white arc of electricity shot from his fingertip, striking the Dark Devourer Apostle precisely in the face. The moment the arc exploded, the apostle's head snapped back, its entire body flying backward several meters before crashing heavily into the hall's wall. The runes on the wall flickered violently, absorbing and dissipating the impact without leaving a single crack.
The Dark Devourer slid off the wall, landing on all fours, its golden vertical pupils fixed on Zhou Tianze. The spot on its face where the electric arc had struck was charred black, several teeth were broken at the edge of the crack, and black liquid seeped from the wound, dripping onto the ground and corroding small, smoky pits.
But its aura didn't diminish much.
Zhou Tianze raised an eyebrow: "They're pretty durable."
He stepped forward, arcs of electricity leaping around him, making his short, silvery-white hair look like electrified metal wires. He hadn't used his full strength; that last strike was merely a test—he wanted to know just how strong this so-called "Apostle's" defenses and regenerative abilities were.
The Dark Devourer pounced again, this time faster and not in a straight line, but zigzagging left and right, trying to confuse Zhou Tiance's vision. Its sharp claws scraped the ground with a piercing sound, sparks flying everywhere.
Zhou Tianze smiled.
"Fancy and overly complicated."
He raised his left hand, fingers spread, palm facing the apostle.
"Lightning Bind".
A silvery-white arc of electricity shot out from his palm, not in a single beam, but in countless fine, hair-like strands. These strands intertwined, spread, and wove in the air, like a giant spider web, instantly enveloping the space within a ten-meter radius around the Dark Devourer. The apostle's zigzag movement became meaningless the moment it touched the strands—the strands were invisible, or rather, they were omnipresent. Each time the apostle collided with a strand, its body stiffened, and its speed decreased drastically. After colliding with three or four strands in succession, its movements completely ceased, entangled in a silvery-white cocoon by the strands.
A hoarse, piercing scream came from inside the cocoon. Black liquid seeped out from the gaps in the electric wires and dripped onto the ground, but the electric wires did not move at all. Instead, they tightened more and more.
Zhou Tianze clenched his fist tightly.
The electric filaments contracted and strangled in an instant. The screams from within the cocoon ceased abruptly. After the silvery-white filaments dissipated, only a pile of black, charred remnants remained on the ground, along with a fist-sized, dark purple crystal core. The crystal core glowed faintly within the remnants, like a dim star.
The first gatekeeper dies.
It took eleven seconds.
In just eleven seconds, it amazed everyone!
"Eleven seconds!!! Eleven seconds!!! Zhou Tianze killed the Apostle in just eleven seconds!!!"
"That wasn't just an Apostle Vanguard, that was a true Apostle! Even if it was the lowest rank, it was still an Apostle!"
"Did you all see that lightning binding strike clearly? The electric wires wove into a net, so precise that every single one hit a vital spot!"
"Zhou Tianze didn't even use his full strength! That last move wasn't even a warm-up!"
"Is this the Thunder Emperor??? This is terrifying!!!"
"Ye Wuhen and Luo Qinghe didn't move an inch from beginning to end! They didn't need to make a move at all!"
"Three people can easily take down the first level; they're not even in the same league."
"Don't rush, this is only the first floor. There are still ninety-nine floors to go, and the difficulty will increase accordingly."
"I know, but seeing the apostle get instantly killed just feels so good!!!"
The apostles had all sorts of strange appearances, like monsters. Some had the body of a lion and the face of a human, while others roared like werewolves, but their bodies were similar to those of humans.
After that, they kept climbing to higher and higher floors.
The fifth floor, the tenth floor, the fifteenth floor.
All the way, it was crushed.