Chapter 393

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Protagonist:

Lin En

Lena

Over a thousand believers, all uniformly dressed in loose cyan gowns, tall and straight in figure, clean bald heads all around, gleaming with a jade-like luster under the blue light.

Everyone maintained a meditation posture, spines straight, hands forming seals resting before their knees, motionless, their breathing so faint it was nearly imperceptible.

After a round of scanning, the instrument readings showed they were all still alive, but their life signs were absurdly low, as if they had fallen into a deep slumber in an extremely low-energy-consumption manner.

From afar, they didn't look like living people, but rather rows upon rows of meticulously carved ice statues, accompanying this great hall in slumber for thousands of years.

At the very front of the great hall, directly facing the position of the Ice Lotus, stood a dragon-shaped ice sculpture towering ten meters high.

The statue's form was fluid and graceful, wings spread, dragon head raised slightly, assuming a posture of facing the storm head-on; scales, claw tips, wing details all vivid and lifelike.

Clearly a static ice sculpture, yet it carried a suffocating pressure, as if it would beat its wings and soar the next second, stirring up a sky full of wind and snow.

Even having never seen the form of a Frost Dragon, Dominic was still certain.

This, absolutely a Frost Dragon!

He gazed at that statue, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly.

Dominic had seen almost all known massive units in the Imperial archives.

The Tyranid Hive Tyrants, the Necron Tomb Sentinels, the Ork Gargants, the Chaos Hell Engines.

Yet not a single one matched the form of the statue before his eyes.

It was too "perfect."

Perfect to the point of not resembling a naturally evolved creature.

Elegant lines, proportionate structure, even the curvature of the wings carried a deliberate aesthetic.

More like... a divine image deliberately sculpted according to human aesthetics.

But an absurd thought still surged up uncontrollably.

It wasn't a true dragon; it merely disguised itself in the shape of a dragon.

But if not a dragon, then what was it?

Dominic's gaze shifted downward, landing on the area directly beneath the dragon-shaped statue.

There sat another figure.

He was far taller than the surrounding slumberers, a nearly three-meter frame wrapped in a deep cyan gown.

Likewise bald, likewise in a meditation posture.

But different was that the arms hanging at his sides — there were actually four of them.

Two arms rested naturally on his knees, the other two formed seals at his chest, a posture solemn like a temple idol.

In the dim blue firelight, the shadows of the four arms cast upon the ice wall, exuding an indescribable strangeness.

Four arms...

Dominic's heart sank fiercely.

In the Bottom City Purification Sect, those high-ranking Gene Thief Bishops also had four arms.

The force field around Kasaduo trembled faintly; she gripped the power sword at her waist, her eyes full of vigilance.

The psyker aura here overlapped with the Purification Sect's far too much, so much it made her instinctively feel danger.

Over a thousand slumbering believers, a Dragon God statue, and a four-armed "Divine Envoy."

The answer was practically on the tip of the tongue, yet Dominic dared not believe it.

If these were all Gene Thieves, if the so-called Frost Dragon Kin Cold Soldiers were actually Tyranid vanguard organisms...

Then what exactly was Keli Feng doing?

He not only raised a Gene Thief Cult in the Bottom City, but also hid an even larger "Cold Soldier" legion on the Ice Plains?

Had he gone mad?

Dominic suppressed his surging thoughts, his footsteps subconsciously stepping forward a few paces, wanting to get closer to see the facial features of these slumberers clearly.

If he could collect a bit of skin flakes or hair samples, take them back for gene testing, all mysteries would be solved.

He carefully circled past the front-row slumberers, walking to the believer nearest to himself.

The other party looked young, handsome features, skin pale to near transparency, long eyelashes drooping, breathing steady, as if merely asleep.

Dominic slowly extended his hand, fingers pinching a sampling needle, intending to take a cell sample from the other's exposed neck.

The needle tip was less than one centimeter from the skin.

Right then, a sudden change erupted.

That slumberer with closed eyes — his head actually began to rotate without any warning.

Not the body turning with it, but the skull alone, in a manner defying human structure, rotating clockwise one hundred eighty degrees.

The face originally facing forward turned to the direct rear, now facing Dominic squarely.

His eyes snapped open.

Those were a pair of cyan pupils completely lacking whites, like two pieces of cold jade, devoid of any emotion, staring fixedly at Dominic at point-blank range.

"!"

Dominic's every hair stood on end; he instinctively recoiled a step backward.

But it was already too late.

Rustling sounds rose and fell in succession throughout the entire ice hall.

Just as spring returns to the earth and ice and snow melt, life that had slept for a thousand years awakened one after another.

Over a thousand blue-robed sleepers opened their eyes at the same time.

Over a thousand pairs of blue pupils turned neatly toward Dominic and the other two.

No roars, no shouts, only a cold, emotionless gaze.

Ghostly blue fire flickered in the depths of their eyes, and the temperature of the entire Ice Hall seemed to drop another dozen degrees.

"Careful!"

Kasaduo let out a low cry, instantly stepping in front of Dominic, her power sword humming as its energy blade extended, and a pale silver Untouchable Force Field unfolding at full strength.

The believer closest to them had already stood up.

His movements were smooth without the slightest sluggishness of just waking, his arm raised at a strange angle, his fist carrying a biting wind as it slammed straight toward Dominic's face.

The fist was so fast it left a residual image, and the air actually rang with an explosive sound of breaking wind.

The force of this punch was absolutely no less than that of an Ogryn powerhouse warrior.

"Clang!"

Another Silent Sister stepped in sideways to meet him, her power fist slamming down hard, colliding head-on with the believer's fist.

A tremendous sound like gold and iron striking exploded, and ice shards fell from the dome.

The Sister grunted, retreated half a step, and the hand beneath her power fist went somewhat numb.

But the believer's arm twisted at an unnatural angle, his bones clearly shattered.

Yet there was not the slightest expression of pain on his face, his blue pupils still ice cold, and his other hand had already transformed into a claw, slashing toward the Sister's throat.

【Looking for Death!】

The Sister's gaze turned sharp, she sidestepped the claw, and her power sword swept across in turn.

A pale silver sword light flashed, the believer's head flew high into the air, and the blood spurting from his neck was pale purple, splashing onto the ice and quickly congealing into strange ice crystals.

Solving one was of no use at all.

Over a thousand sleepers had all stood up.

Their movements were neat and uniform, as if controlled by the same will, their blue robes fluttering, as they surrounded the three.

The believers in the front row began to mutate, their arms lengthening, sharp claw blades shooting from their fingertips, muscles bulging on their backs, with bone spurs faintly bursting through their bodies.

The characteristics of the Gene Thief were rapidly appearing on them.

The Ice Hall was dead silent, only the crisp sound of footsteps on the ice, and the slight crackling of bones mutating.

This silent charge was more scalp-numbing than hysterical roars.

"Retreat! Fall back to the doorway!"

Dominic ordered sternly, his laser pistol firing in rapid bursts, high energy beams precisely penetrating the heads of several believers in the front row.

But those behind stepped on their companions' corpses and continued to approach, without the slightest pause, numb like a group of machines.

Just then, a low voice sounded from the depths of the Ice Hall.

The voice was not loud, but carried a strange penetrating power, clearly landing in everyone's ears.

"Intruders!"