# Chapter 17: Hell is Empty 7200
"It seems this farming zone is indeed resisting something."
Facing the rapidly shifting dome, the air pollution was severe enough to reach the point of contamination, though the bacteria levels were still within normal range. However, the dim, murky light severely affected visibility.
At this moment, he seriously surveyed his surroundings, observing the world beyond the garden.
Between the farming zone and the garden zone, there was an invisible boundary line. Within this approximately five-hundred-meter-long border zone, there was nothing—no obstacles or barriers whatsoever, completely blank. No one could cross this boundary line without attracting attention. Beyond the boundary line, lush vegetation and crops swayed in the hot wind, as if long accustomed to such an environment.
Joshua adjusted the focus of his mechanical eye. He could see patch after patch of land, each neatly arranged and planned, perfectly square. Every few plots of such land, a murky canal could be seen, spreading like a spiderweb through every piece of land.
Every plot of land was identical—at least in Joshua's eyes, their length and width were nearly perfectly consistent. Even the people working on the land were the same... The warrior could see, on the plots closest to the garden zone, figures patrolling the fields, seemingly fertilizing them. Though these male Siberia people had different faces, their walking patterns and movements were almost completely identical. Their expressions were dull and numb, and they all wore the same gray-brown clothes, equally simple in style.
Joshua did not linger. He lifted his steps and walked forward along the canal. He noticed that even though a violent explosion had occurred at the edge of the eastern farming zone, these working Siberia people showed no reaction. They didn't even react to Joshua's arrival. Everyone worked in perfect unison, like mechanical dolls imitating one another. Joshua saw that behind the farmland, there were rows of square houses, all identical in construction. Inside each house, a female Siberia person was handling miscellaneous tasks, carrying and organizing harvested crops. The only difference was that occasionally, some houses had young children, and the women with children would care for them instead of working.
Too uniform.
This was Joshua's only impression.
Identical land, identical canals, identical clothes, identical houses... Even the male-to-female ratio was evenly distributed—one man matched with one woman. Everyone was equally numb, their eyes equally dull and hollow, like walking corpses.
The farming zone was exceptionally vast. Besides growing plants, there were also pastures—the only fortunate thing was that Joshua did not see the human pastures he had feared. Behind the wooden fences were fat, six-legged animals that looked like hippos. Though the herders were also Siberia people devoid of any human aura (qìxī), at least this wasn't the worst sight. Whether intentionally or not, the Soul Puppet and the existence behind it had not treated the Siberia people as a source of meat, which allowed Joshua, who had prepared for the worst, to breathe a sigh of relief.
Of course, perhaps the reason was simply that Siberia people didn't have much meat, weren't nutritious, and didn't taste good—nothing more.
By now, the glow of magical energy could be heard from afar. At this point, Joshua stopped observing the farming zone. He steadied the carbon-based puppet on his shoulder, cast a protective barrier for it, and then strode forward—the ground sank, water splashed, and with the explosive sound of air being torn apart, the square farmland flew past Joshua in a blur. In just a few minutes, the warrior had arrived at the edge of the battlefield.
This was the edge of the farming zone. A black, magnificent wall about twenty meters high extended to the horizon, enclosing the entire farming zone, appearing indestructible. But such an indestructible wall had now been blasted open with a breach over thirty meters wide. Molten rock melted by high temperatures was still flowing.
Visible inside and outside the wall were numerous defensive fortifications, but all of them had been destroyed. Joshua could already hear the intense sounds of battle. He looked up toward the direction of the fighting and immediately saw a dense formation of Soul Puppets, along with a small squad of unusual Siberia people.
The Soul Puppet formation numbered over five hundred. Each puppet stood nearly two meters tall, armed to the teeth, equipped with thick metal armor. Some puppets even carried sturdy anti-shock shields. These puppets held various weapons—those in front had shields and metal swords, while those in the rear carried magical equipment resembling furnace ray emitters. Their movements were perfectly synchronized, whether attacking or defending, advancing or retreating with discipline.
Without a doubt, if these puppets' combat power were placed in the Mycroft World, they would be comparable to the alchemical puppet armies of the Church of the Seven Gods. But now, such a puppet formation was completely held in check by a squad of only seven Siberia people, barely managing to avoid being broken through!
The ranged attack puppets in the rear simultaneously raised their ray emitters. Beams of various colors shot forth—golden-red furnace rays, ice-blue freezing rays, and even sickly green disintegration rays. These devastating ray attacks, coordinated with exquisite precision by over three hundred Soul Puppets, came in an unending stream, almost without interruption. However, when a young girl from the Siberia squad stepped forward and raised her hands, all the ray attacks were blocked by a shield shimmering with white light.
The entire squad was enveloped in a semicircular white shield. Various ray attacks fell upon it without even causing a ripple. The residual effects spread, melting, freezing, or completely disintegrating the surrounding ground, but the squad remained unharmed.
Puppets were not affected by ineffective attacks. Seeing this, the ranged puppets stopped firing, while the melee puppets in front drew their weapons, preparing to charge. At the same time, with a fluctuation in the shield, a tall, white-haired Siberia elder stepped out from the white protective barrier. He appeared old, but his body was covered in muscle, enveloped in a faint golden glow. The old man's body moved slightly, and he appeared beside a leading Soul Puppet. He reached out and precisely tapped the puppet's chest, piercing through the thick armor and extinguishing its soul core.
Whoosh! Countless swords, spears, axes, and halberds descended simultaneously, mixed with high-energy rays fired opportunistically. The puppets' reaction speed far exceeded that of humans. Just as the old man began his attack, they counterattacked—countless puppets swarmed forward, forming a steel mountain, surrounding the old man.
But the next instant, with a booming explosion, the old man, burning with a golden aura, blasted away all the surrounding puppets and walked out. His fists became blurs, sending five nearby puppets flying, their chest armor shattered and soul cores extinguished.
"Supernatural ability—energy level approaching Gold-rank."
At the edge of the battlefield, Joshua, observing this scene, raised an eyebrow. He could tell that these Siberia people were all Transcendents who possessed the authority of Steel and had gained supernatural power. They had normal intelligence and formidable strength. Ordinary puppets were just scrap metal to them... But how could Soul Puppets only have this much capability?
On the other side, seeing that the white-haired elder had single-handedly held off almost all the melee puppets' charge, and the ranged puppets could barely break through the white shield's defense, confirming that the puppet formation was clearly outmatched, several special puppets that had been standing at the edge from the beginning, different from the others, began to move.
"Unit SNova-11, Harvest Type, requesting Superpower Unit loading—"
"Unit SNova-27, Suppression Type, requesting Superpower Unit loading—"
"Unit SNova-31, Purge Type, requesting Superpower Unit loading—"
"Request approved. Superpower Unit loading initiated. Loading successful."
"Beginning 'Non-Conformist' elimination operations."
Accompanied by faint electromagnetic signals and soul fluctuations audible only to puppet bodies, three specially numbered Soul Puppets began to undergo various mutations—it could be seen that the lead unit, Number 11, ignored gravity and floated into the air. Intense pale blue light flickered around it. With the sound of rock cracking, the Siberia squad protected by the white shield was shocked to find that the ground beneath their feet was torn apart by a tremendous force, becoming a floating island. This island flipped violently, carrying everyone toward the ground!
At the same time, Unit 27 took a step forward. As if casually removing a piece of clothing, it calmly tore open the protective armor on its chest. With the armor falling away, everyone present could see a blazing golden-red fireball appear before Unit 27's soul core. Terrifying heat surged, and surrounding dust turned into sparks drifting in the air. After approximately one percent of a second of aiming time, this fireball howled directly toward the overturned Siberia squad!
Unit 31 initially showed no astonishing mutation, but as the Superpower Unit was loaded, its original steel body began to vibrate wildly. At this moment, Unit 31 seemed to blur. As time passed, violent winds began to swirl and coil around it, until finally, Unit 31 was completely enveloped in rapidly rotating, vibrating storms. At that moment, it charged toward the white-haired Siberia elder who had been suppressing almost all the melee puppets. In an instant, they were locked in combat, producing sonic booms with each clash. Terrifying shockwaves erupted and spread between them.
The two primarily melee Transcendent combatants exchanged blows back and forth across the ground. Wherever they passed, farmland churned and the earth cracked. Countless mud, sand, and dust mixed with sewage from the canals rose into the air, creating a rain of mud. But strangely and puzzlingly, even with such intense fighting, the Siberia people working in the surrounding farmland and pastures acted as if they saw nothing, continuing their work—even as blood flowed from their ears and their eardrums were shattered by the terrifying booms.
"This won't work!"
Inside the floating island that had been lifted and overturned by invisible telekinesis, within the squad protected by the white shield, an impatient male voice rang out: "This plantation has too many puppet reserves. We eliminated several SNova-type Superpower Puppets last time, but now three more have appeared!"
"Not just three. Look to the side—there's another Superpower Puppet overseeing the battle... Huh?"
"The captain's ability can't last more than an hour. We've been fighting for about half an hour... Considering the plantation puppets' pursuit, we should retreat now."
"But retreat empty-handed? We finally blasted through the outer iron wall. If we can't rescue a few compatriots from the garden zone, the losses will be too great!"
"Then we'll just have to grit our teeth and bear it!"
Boom! The lava fireball struck the white shield. The young girl supporting the shield took a step back, her brow furrowed, her body trembling, blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, but she didn't say a word. Seeing this, the voices calling for retreat grew louder: "'Iron Wall' is overloaded. She's our only defender. Even if the losses are heavy, we must retreat!"
Though reluctant, with things having come to this point, the opposing voices mostly fell silent. As the decision was made, the white-haired elder, who should have been the captain, suddenly erupted, punching the storm puppet hundreds of meters away, breaking free from its entanglement and returning to the white shield. At the same time, a cold, merciless voice came from within: "We must deplete this plantation's effective strength... We can't have come for nothing."
"Make your move, 'Magic Arrow.'"
This suggestion was almost unanimously approved. As a thin boy in the squad emitted a pale green light from his eyes, the entire white shield also floated into the air. The next moment, this Siberia squad flew rapidly toward the surviving farmland and pastures nearby. Another long-haired woman in the squad extended her right hand, and gray light gathered at her five fingertips before shooting out. Instantly, hundreds of light arrows fell from the sky, landing precisely on—all the Siberia people still working numbly!
In an instant, hundreds of Siberia people died on the spot, their heads or hearts pierced by the gray corrosive light arrows. The white shield continued flying at high speed toward other areas, killing all the Siberia people they could see in what was nearly a massacre. By the time the three Superpower Puppets adjusted their formation and prepared to pursue their enemies again, this Siberia squad had already killed several thousand people and was now rapidly returning to the breach in the wall, preparing to break out.
"The losses this time are severe. We can only hope the army commander won't punish..."
Sighs came from within the white shield. The squad preparing to retreat was about to pass through the breach. They were currently troubled by their unfinished mission and the enemy's tight defenses, pondering how to defeat those powerful Superpower Puppets next time, bypass the puppet formation, and reach their destination—the core garden at the center of the farming zone.
But at that moment, a suppressed, deep, cold, and clear low shout rang in all their ears.
"Stop."
This voice seemed to come from the underworld, or from the highest heavens. Incomparable majesty mixed with a terrifying, despair-inducing spiritual pressure spread. Instantly, all squad members felt their brains twist and become chaotic, completely unable to think. The white shield flickered a few times before disappearing entirely. The power supporting the shield wavered, finally allowing them only a relatively gentle landing.
"Damn! A Dominion-type... Soul Puppet!"
In the squad, only a rather spirited young woman had a strong soul and remained relatively clear-headed. Her eyes were filled with disbelief and despair... How could this be? The most powerful Dominion and Command-type Soul Puppets should only be stationed in plantations around the Spiral Tower at the center of the world. What were they doing here? In a remote, nameless little plantation?!
Those Superpower Puppets are going to catch up... We're going to be torn apart, made into soul cores and superpower units...
In a daze, lying on the ground, she thought this. But what reached her ears was not the uniform marching steps of Soul Puppets, but the urgent sounds of steel collision and explosions. Vaguely, she could hear the noise of air being pierced, fireballs being scattered, and the crisp shattering of telekinetic barriers breaking... After a while, accompanied by heavy footsteps echoing in the silence, someone finally arrived before her.
The woman struggled to lift her head, looking upward. She saw a black-haired youth with an extremely cold gaze, and... behind him, the towering, ferocious giant puppet.
"Listen."
The woman felt her hair being roughly grabbed, half her body pulled up by a tremendous force. She could hear a suppressed, angry voice echoing in her ear: "Answer my question."
"Why did you kill those ordinary people?"