Lord of Prayer

In a pristine, remote valley, a tranquil hot spring lay shrouded in a thin mist, exuding an ethereal, otherworldly aura.

But in the next second, the air let out a sharp whistle as a shell descended from the sky and plunged into the hot spring.

BOOM!

Accompanied by a deafening explosion, tons of spring water erupted skyward, shattering the peaceful, serene environment in an instant.

SPLASH! A heavily battered Mecha burst from the hot spring. With a single leap covering several meters, it bypassed the encirclement and scrambled away wretchedly toward the depths of the snowy valley.

“Found it! Over there!”

On a distant hillside, someone pointed at the fleeing Mecha and shouted. Dozens of figures immediately grabbed their weapons and resumed the chase, bombarding it with all sorts of ranged attacks.

“Chasing him like this isn’t going to work…” Akina Mountain Car God said, scratching his head in frustration. That kid, Zhou Chen, was just too fast. Even with their numbers, they had been chasing him for nearly an hour, and he had almost slipped away several times. ’If we didn’t outnumber him, he’d have escaped long ago.’

“Then let’s just finish him from a distance.”

The Dragon-Eyed Boy took a Golden Great Bow engraved with complex Alchemy Runes from his back. With a low shout, he drew the bowstring. The runes covering the bow’s body lit up with a golden glow, peeling off layer by layer to gather at his fingertips and coalesce into a golden Light Arrow.

Disposable Alchemy Tool – Sanction Bow!

Artifact Effect: Perfect accuracy within 2,000 meters. Leaves a tracking mark on the target.

SWOOSH!

The air parted, rolling back in a shockwave. The brilliant Light Arrow tore through the sky, leaving a straight, conspicuous trail. It whistled across a distance of 1,483 meters, piercing through layer after layer of armor with irresistible force. It struck the Defender Armor Vest dead center and exited through the chest.

The bow in Invincible Tyrannosaurus War God’s hands lost its luster and Spirituality, crumbling into fine metallic shards that streamed through his fingers like quicksand. His expression, however, changed abruptly.

“Something’s not right!”

“What’s wrong?” Akina Mountain Car God asked hurriedly.

“There’s no feedback from the mark… That arrow didn’t hit a person!” Invincible Tyrannosaurus War God said in a low voice.

“But you hit… Fuck!” Akina Mountain Car God realized what had happened. ’The arrow hit the Mecha, sure, but who ever said there had to be someone inside?’

’An autopilot system is standard issue for this type of War Mecha!’

“Get after it! See if that kid Zhou Chen is actually in the Mecha!” Sun Shiheng roared over the comms channel from nearby.

A short while later, a rocket slammed into the Defender Mecha. Already riddled with holes, the Mecha could no longer stay upright and collapsed to the ground.

Li Chengtian rushed over. With a flick of his spear’s tip, he flipped the Mecha over. He then brought the spear smashing down, completely obliterating the fragmented metal shell into countless pieces and revealing an empty cockpit.

Nothing at all!

Only a BEEP BEEP BEEP sound, growing more and more rapid…

“Run! It’s the self-destruct sequence!”

Li Chengtian roared and retreated rapidly, but the others couldn’t react or move as quickly as he could.

BOOM! The Mecha exploded. Countless fragments, propelled by the shockwave, shot outwards like a rain of steel, scattering death in every direction.

Even the tough-as-nails Li Chengtian was struck by several pieces of shrapnel, to say nothing of the others whose physical conditioning was far inferior to his. Blood splattered as the surrounding contestants’ bodies were torn apart by gruesome wounds from the shrapnel. Quite a few were eliminated from the competition on the spot.

“Damn it!” In a distant command center, Philis angrily ripped off her headset and smashed it on the ground.

Zhou Chen had escaped! Vanished!

’Just when did he…’

After a long moment, Philis picked up her headset and issued a command through gritted teeth. “Search that hot spring from before, and the spot where the Mecha disappeared! I don’t care if you have to tear the place apart, find him!”

The group returned to the hot spring that had been bombarded and sent a few divers into the water to search.

“This place is deep… over twenty meters…”

A contestant in diving gear reached the bottom of the hot spring, the searchlight on his helmet sweeping around as he moved his head.

Soon, he spotted a flash of crimson in the rock beneath his feet and moved closer to inspect it.

“This is… Fire Essence Ore? No wonder there’s a hot spring here.”

Fire Essence Ore only appeared in geothermal areas. It was a type of Ore rich in the Fire Element and could also be used as an Energy Stone, making it a relatively precious mineral resource.

“Worry about mining it later. Have you seen any sign of Zhou Chen?” Philis asked.

“Nothing yet…”

“I’ve got something.” Another diver was positioned by a rock wall ten meters down. The rock here jutted out, forming a natural overhang. As his searchlight swept across it, he revealed a man-made tunnel dug out beneath a particular outcropping.

“Zhou Chen must have escaped through here. Should we give chase?”

“…Don’t. He’s long gone by now, and he’s definitely set traps along the way. We need to rethink our approach.” Philis ground her teeth. ’So many people hunting one man, and Zhou Chen still got away. What a complete humiliation!’

“Then we’ll head ba—”

The voice on the comms was suddenly cut off, drowned out by a massive explosion.

Deep beneath the hot spring, a long-hidden High-Explosive Alchemy Bomb was detonated with a single thought. The violent blast triggered the Fire Essence Ore, setting off a stunning chain reaction of explosions.

Tons upon tons of spring water surged upward, rushing toward the heavens like a monstrous tidal wave.

Fortunately, the force of the blast was mostly absorbed by the spring water, so no one at the edge was injured. The divers, however, were not so lucky. They never surfaced, eliminated from the competition in the blast.