# 1312
Chapter 1313
Snipe
Two minutes earlier.
Human Enclosure, North Side.
A figure carrying a heavy black case sprinted through the vast Vast Desert.
Beads of sweat rolled down Leng Xuan's face, flying sand clinging to his eyelashes, his eyes involuntarily squinting, yet his pace showed no signs of slowing.
"That old fox..." Leng Xuan murmured to himself.
During this time, Leng Xuan had been searching throughout the Human Enclosure for the location of Loki's mass grave sites, but even after interrogating nearly all the church bishops, he had only managed to locate two of them.
Based on Leng Xuan's count, a city-state that originally had around forty thousand inhabitants now had only a few thousand survivors clinging to life. In other words, ten thousand people had vanished without a trace.
Leng Xuan could guess the reason—most likely because Loki didn't trust these church bishops. After having them complete the two grave sites, he had secretly taken another ten thousand people and secretly constructed a third mass grave site!
Leng Xuan had searched nearly every corner of the Human Enclosure and finally found some clues at the edge of the northern wasteland.
As Leng Xuan pressed forward, several black specks appeared faintly visible at the end of the Vast Desert.
He raised his binoculars to see a stone city ruin almost buried beneath the yellow sand, standing proudly amid the howling wind and sand, desolate yet magnificent.
"Found it..."
...
The Abandoned Stone City.
Black crows circled above the ruins half-submerged in yellow sand, their harsh cries seeming to tear through human eardrums.
Countless rotting bones and corpses were piled high like small mountains, the stench of decay mingling with the scent of blood, permeating every corner of the stone city.
At the very top of this mountain of corpses, the body of a four or five-year-old boy had been pecked beyond recognition by crows. Suddenly, a cold, eerie wind swept past, and the boy's body tumbled down from the peak of the corpse mountain. A blood-stained, bizarre stone altar was now exposed to the air.
Mysterious black threads of silk were drawn across the top of the corpse mountain, forming a complex pattern. As the wind howled mournfully, this pattern gradually lit up, and a chilling, sinister aura spread throughout the entire stone city.
Black silk threads extended from the pattern, frantically devouring the flesh and blood from the surrounding corpses. The enormous pile of over ten thousand corpses visibly withered and shrank. At the same time, a man's figure rapidly materialized from the emptiness above the corpse mountain!
Waves of heat rolled forth, and the corpse mountain was reduced to scattered dust in the span of a breath, dissipating into nothing. The man emerging from the void had already restored most of his form.
Loki's pale face was filled with coldness and cruelty, murderous intent swirling in his eyes as he spoke in a low, solemn voice:
"Xiaonan... Hehe..."
His upper body had been restored, countless threads beginning to weave his legs. Just as he was about to descend to the ground, change struck!
A brilliant crimson Signal Flare screamed into the clouds. Dozens of kilometers away, a figure pulled the trigger.
Bang—!!
A thunderous explosion echoed from the edge of the stone city ruins!
A deep, dull bullet pierced through space, instantly teleporting from dozens of kilometers away to before Loki. A powerful surge of divine power erupted from the bullet's tip.
Centering on the bullet, space within a hundred-meter radius was torn apart, creating an extremely fine, razor-sharp vortex that instantly ground the surrounding sand and ruins into powder... and the very tip of that vortex was aimed directly at Loki!
Loki's pupils constricted sharply!
This bullet was too fast. The resurrected form was not yet complete, and he had no time to mobilize his divine power to weave "Trickery."
The bullet tore through space, whistling past Loki's unfinished body, forcefully boring a massive hole through the body that had been restored only to the knees. All flesh and blood below his neck was instantly shattered into blood mist, scattering into the air!
Loki, with only a head remaining, glared with wide eyes, staring in a certain direction through the swirling sand.
"Is that you?!" he roared.
Dozens of kilometers away, a dark red heavy sniper rifle weighing over two hundred pounds was mounted like a cannon on the highest peak of the ruins. The glow of divine power on its surface receded like an ebbing tide. From within the pitch-black barrel, a pungent, scorching red smoke rose slowly.
Click—!
The bolt was pulled back, and a dark golden spent casing was flung high from the scorching barrel.
In the sunlight's reflection on the smooth casing, a calm, stern face was visible, buried behind the scope, motionless as stone.
A soft rustling sound was heard as the casing fell into the thick sand, its scorching surface sending up wisps of white smoke.
"Caught you... Loki."
Leng Xuan's fingertip hooked around the trigger. Gazing through the scope at that fragmented figure locked within his sight, he murmured.
Loki, with only his head remaining, floated in mid-air, his eyes fixed死死地盯着Leng Xuan's direction. Threads of flesh and blood凝聚而出 from the void, slowly reshaping his body.
Though this sniper rifle, crafted by the God of Forging, fired bullets each equivalent to a Chief God-level artifact, it carried no laws within. Even if the bullets could blast Loki's body to pieces and cause it to splatter about, they could never truly kill him.
Loki's recovery was merely a matter of time.
"No wonder there had been no news of you for so long... So, you had actually been hiding inside the Human Enclosure this whole time?" Loki said coldly. "Are you also part of Si Xiaonan's plan?"
Loki's voice was not loud, yet it seemed capable of penetrating space, falling clearly into Leng Xuan's ears.
Leng Xuan offered no response. His eyes narrowed slightly as he pulled the trigger once more!
Bang—!!
Thunderous gunfire erupted. The next moment, Loki's half-restored body shattered once more. The "Trickery" threads he had been secretly weaving behind him were reduced to countless fragments, scattering across the yellow sand.
Seeing his woven "Trickery" exposed and destroyed by Leng Xuan, an angry expression surfaced on Loki's face:
"Leng Xuan, do you truly believe that doing this can change anything?
That gun alone cannot kill me... If I'm not mistaken, you only have seven bullets in total, correct?
After those bullets are spent, what will you use to stop me?"
Leng Xuan pulled back the bolt, ejecting another scorching shell. His expression unchanged, he pressed his eye against the scope, watching Loki's every move.
He could see Loki's body gradually returning to its original state. His finger on the trigger slowly applied pressure, yet he始终did not fire the third bullet.
Loki's flesh reformed once more, composing half of a face. A fierce glint flashed in his eyes. Instead of weaving "Trickery" once more, he directly propelled his half-restored, mutilated body forward, charging toward Leng Xuan in the distance like a狰狞fierce demon!