NOVPUBChapter 152: Chapter 151: The Altar
Chapter 152 -151: The Altar
Besta looked somewhat stunned into the interior of the Hammer Pellet.
Inside the vehicle was a complete mess, with several people lying haphazardly on the floor, their bodies no longer intact. Intestines and chunks of flesh hung around the seats and armrests, emitting an unpleasant burnt stench.
Only then did he realize that the streaks of light he had seen were actually molten metal fragments. These fragments not only penetrated the floor of the vehicle but also harmed those following alongside it.
What kind of weapon was this?
Even the rapid-fire cannons on ships couldn’t destroy an armored vehicle in such a short time, right? Even more chilling was that, from the outside, the Hammer Pellet didn’t seem to have any major damage—the enemy had aimed directly for the flesh and blood within the machine!
“Hey, boss…”
“Boss!”
The faint voices grew louder until they crashed into his mind—
“Boss!!”
This shout overpowered the ringing in his ears and allowed the noisy sounds around him to return to his attention. The silent world shattered, replaced by the cries for help from the mercenaries and the dense gunfire.
“Boss, what do we do next!” one of his subordinates roared at him.
Those mercenaries who had already rushed out were completely suppressed by bullets, lying flat on the ground, daring not to move, but even so, the dull sound of gunfire was still taking them away with precision.
Any further rush was tantamount to courting death.
Without any hesitation, he waved his hand backward, “We’re pulling back!”
Luckily, his team had been slower to advance and were now closest to the gate. Unluckily, even for just these ten-plus meters, they still had to crawl back, sticking to the ground; standing up for even a second would immediately draw a hail of bullets all around them.
Black Steel couldn’t win this.
Besta couldn’t help but think that this enemy was beyond what any mercenary company could handle. God knows which tough character they had provoked, and now they’d come knocking.
The plan that emerged in his mind within a few seconds was to flee back to camp, pull up the barbed wire, escape to Magnificent Castle from the southeast, and then say goodbye to this job once and for all—
As he passed by the boss’s carriage, Besta couldn’t resist shifting towards the wreckage of the carriage. It wasn’t that he was concerned about the boss’s safety; he instinctively felt that there might be some valuable items inside the carriage, and if anything had fallen out, picking it up wouldn’t count as stealing.
Moreover, Aibuvich had been out of sight for so long; he was either dead or had fled.
With this thought, his courage grew even more.
However, just then, as he was crawling, his line of sight swept across an eye—an eye that sat in the pitch-black shadow, seemingly also gazing at him.
He first thought it was a black cat hiding under the vehicle, but he quickly realized that with such an intense firefight at the entrance, what animal would dare stay put?
As the thought crossed his mind, that eye reached out from under the vehicle—using the flickering light of the flames, Besta finally saw the full form of this thing: it seemed like a shadow but did not cling to the ground, appearing like a black strip of cloth at first glance. The eye wasn’t growing on the strip of cloth; rather, a whole eyeball was just sticking to it, and now it slipped off.
“Motherfucker…”
Immense fear instantly broke through his psyche, causing him to swear uncontrollably.
Before Besta had a chance to turn around, the black strip slashed swiftly, slicing his entire being in two!
…
Chaoyang fumbled in front of the bookcase for a while and finally discovered a book that was deeply embedded in the second layer of the cabinet, which didn’t seem like it could be taken out at all.
“Found it.”
He grasped the spine of the book and pushed forcefully. As the faux book that acted as a secret mechanism was pushed into the cabinet, the entire bookshelf made a light clanging sound and then slid open to both sides like double doors, revealing the hidden room behind it.
Chaoyang let out a soft whistle.
It seemed all those puzzle games and movies weren’t just making things up—someone really did use a bookcase as a door to a secret room!
Of course, he wasn’t just searching blindly. Under the cover of the clear ring, he noticed that the outline of the bookcase inexplicably had several extra lines. This indicated that the cabinet was not made from one piece of wood but that each layer was at least pieced together with two planks of wood. It would be understandable for an ordinary household since long planks of solid wood are expensive, but rich people, being what they are, would definitely not use cut pieces if they could use whole ones; otherwise, it would barely be different from engineered wood.
The secret chamber was much smaller than the study, roughly only eleven or twelve square meters. The furnishings were quite simple: a chair, a birch wood long table, and a rope hanging from the ceiling; there was basically nothing else.
Chaoyang walked to the center of the secret room and looked up, immediately understanding the purpose of the rope.
There was actually a square deep hole in the ceiling, and it was impossible to see where the other end led to. One could only faintly discern the weak candlelight reflecting off the edges of the hole, indicating a very smooth surface. This was undoubtedly the escape route Aibuvich had left for himself. If one were to climb into the secret passage along the rope and then pull the rope up after, whoever came later, even if they discovered the passage immediately, would find it quite difficult to follow suit.
Xue Quan’s judgment was correct.
There indeed was a design within the Heigang Building; if they had attacked rashly, they probably would have only startled the snake in the grass.
Chaoyang approached the table and opened the drawer below it, which contained a bunch of letters, some of which seemed to have been there for quite some time, with envelopes that had faded.
He didn’t have the time to peruse them there, so he decided to imbue them all with the wishing power. After all, anything he touched and recorded could then be replicated any number of times later on.
He then opened another drawer.
Inside were gems the size of quail eggs, red ones clear and sparkling, green ones captivating and arresting. Even a layman could tell at a glance that these gems were of superior quality and extremely valuable.
There was no need to replicate these.
Chaoyang took out a pocket and planned to take them all.
Actually, Jeddy Brothers got one thing right, and that was that Gate of Destiny’s cash flow had nearly run dry and it could only continue operating with the aid of bank loans. But then again, why not use money borrowed fair and square? Using borrowed funds for rapid expansion was just a common business strategy for modern people.
Of course, it’s even better to pay off debts with someone else’s money.
After stowing away the gems, Chaoyang turned his attention to the red cloth in front of the table—it was roughly one meter long and half a meter wide, hanging on the wall like a decorative painting, yet devoid of any content.
The letters represented secrets, the jewels finances, both critically important when needing to make an escape, but what did the hanging of a cloth mean? Was there another passage hidden behind it?
Chaoyang reached out to lift it, but the moment he touched the cloth, it slid off the wall by itself.
Indeed, there was another mystery on the wall.
But it wasn’t what Chaoyang hoped to see.
Behind the cloth was a recessed dark cabinet in the wall, the cabinet split into two levels; the upper level held a bunch of dried wild roses, while the lower level contained a gold basin with a complete brain inside! In contrast to the withered flowers, the brain was so alive, its surface moist, the sulci clearly visible, as if just served.
What the fuck.
Chaoyang couldn’t help feeling queasy, which involuntarily made him think of the brain dishes ordered at hotpot restaurants. But here’s the problem, that was pig brain, whereas this was clearly a human brain!
Next to the gold basin there was also a pitch-black book that was unusually dark. The room’s candlelight was fairly bright, but not a gleam shone from its surface, as if all light was absorbed into its cover.
