Chapter 137: Steps to Godhood

The faint screams were so strong that Xiao Jian quickly recalled some bad memories.

It was the same sound he heard when he killed the giant octopus's tentacles and picked up the [Orlitio's Torture Pillar] it dropped.

Yes, it was the wooden stake with endless wailing and direction!

When Xiao Jian touched the stump, he heard endless wailing and screaming.

That sound was almost the same as the screams he heard now.

The screams of countless men and women lingered in Xiao Jian's ears, as if countless painful experiences were replayed in his mind...

If you accidentally immerse yourself in it, even your body will have phantom pain!

Yes, it's here.

Xiao Jian became more and more certain that the place indicated by [Steel Thorns] was behind this cliff.

"Hoohoo..."

The clone flapped its wings vigorously and soared upward. Finally, Xiao Jian's sight passed the cliff-like high wall and got a glimpse of the whole picture of the South Five Fortress...

Inside the high wall, the complex barricades were like dense spider webs, crisscrossing and closely connected.

At first glance, it seemed that the surrounding building structures were in disarray, but a closer look would reveal that these barricades were not just simple piles, but each one played an unparalleled tactical role.

After Xiao Jian took a little step inside, he immediately found that no matter where he was in the fortress, he would be deeply trapped in the coverage of crossfire...

Every wall here has been carefully calculated and designed, and the bunkers, barricades, and trenches are connected to each other, forming a maze-like structure with twists and turns.

Every node may be a deadly trap for the enemy, and every corner may hide a deadly murderous intent...

The entire battlefield was divided into countless fragmented areas by these barricades and bunkers.

Once the enemy is deeply trapped, they will be forced to face the dense firepower network in these narrow spaces...

The more Xiao Jian observed, the more frightened he became...Obviously, the person responsible for all this was definitely a master.

But as long as the line of sight extends a little further forward, you can see a "plain".

Bunkers, barricades, trenches...everything, like a shattered shortbread, turned into powder under some powerful force.

All the delicate structures and all the extreme calculations are ultimately worthless in the face of absolute power.

And such traces of violent cracking can be seen everywhere in the fortress.

Then, Xiao Jian finally saw the source of the screams.

In the center of the South Fifth Fortress, on a "square" that was pressed extremely flat, countless thick wooden stakes stood on the ground.

And on the stumps, the bodies that were tortured beyond human form were tied into a cross by steel thorns.

One by one, pale red souls poked out half of their bodies from the corpses, wailing non-stop at the sky...

"Ah————"

"Ahhh——"

"Woo——"

"Kill kill kill kill——"

"No——No!!"

"..."

Man, woman, countless shrill screams and roars, overlapping, lingering, converging, and annihilating.

Some voices are like the howling of wild beasts.

Some voices carry endless anger and struggle.

Some voices reveal an indescribable despair and fear.

However, all the voices of people overlapped together to form an invisible force, lingering and circling in the air, and constantly impacting the giant statue in the center of the "square".

The upper part of the statue is semicircular, and the lower part is composed of countless long tentacles that are as fine as bristles.

These bristle-like tentacles are carved lifelike. Although they are static sculptures, they look as elegant as floating in the sea.

With the help of his clone's eyes, Xiao Jian realized immediately when he first saw the statue that it was the core of the "ritual":

[The Great Statue of Orlit]

The torch of divine fire, the steps to the gods, when completed, the throne is raised high.

(Completion... 97%)

Just as Xiao Jian blinked, the completion suddenly jumped again!

(Completion... 96%)

"......?"

Xiao Jian rubbed his eyes in confusion, looked carefully, and confirmed again that it was 96 instead of 98.

How could it jump back?

Just when Xiao Jian was confused, the progress bar jumped to 97% again.

Endless wailing filled Xiao Jian's ears, and he would even feel phantom pain if he listened to it for a long time.

However...

At this moment, Xiao Jian suddenly had a glimmer of enlightenment.

From 96% to 97%, it was Orlit's persistence.

And from 97% to 96%, it was the resistance of those heroes.

Although those corpses had suffered inhuman tortures during their lifetime, and although their souls were still tied to the [Orlit's Torture Pillar] and tortured in every possible way...

...but, they still guarded this land.

They still struggled and resisted with all their might, so that Orlit's godhood ceremony could not be advanced.

Xiao Jian looked up at the sky.

At this time, due to the constant squeezing of the boundary wall, Orlit had to extend more tentacles to resist, and the sky was torn into more fragments as it continued to invade.

A large area of ​​darkness was directly exposed, and with the barely detectable light, Xiao Jian could even observe the huge eyes hidden in the depths of the darkness.

Although Xiao Jian still couldn't directly observe the attribute bar or the character card, he knew very well... the giant in the dark was Orlit's real body.

"So... this is the key."

Xiao Jian looked thoughtfully at the wooden stakes wrapped with corpses on the "square", and suddenly stretched out his hand, as if to receive something.

On the other side, in Xiao Jian's courtyard, his real body handed a fire axe to the void.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Jian, who was in the clone in the South Five Fortress, stretched out his hand and received the fire axe from the void.

This is another function of the faith channel.

After teleporting his clone once, Xiao Jian has become very proficient in using the faith channel.

The clone who picked up the axe flew directly to the outermost wooden stake, and then chopped down at the stump!

"Duh..."

"Zhi————"

The wooden stake suddenly screamed, and dense buds emerged from the connection between the steel thorns and the wooden stake, waving at Xiao Jian like a living thing, as if trying to attack him.

However, Xiao Jian ignored these little things that would make people with trypophobia faint, and still swung the axe and chopped it down again.

"Duh!"

"Crack..."

With just two axe strokes, the wooden stake was completely cut off!

Although the clone can only inherit 30% of the attributes of the original body, the problem is that Xiao Jian's original body now has an attack power of 33 points!

Only 30% is enough to make the fire axe in his hand extremely sharp.

Although it only took two strikes to cut a complete relic into two pieces, Xiao Jian still felt that the efficiency was too low.

Then, he used all the attribute cards that could increase attack from N7183.

Attack power 33→59!

"Huh..."

Xiao Jian took a deep breath, and then chopped it down with an axe...

"Duh!"

The wooden stake was broken with a sound.

...