Infinite terror invades all heavens

"Everyone, prepare for battle!" he roared. "If that mark attracts any ghosts or spirits, focus fire and eliminate them immediately! Do your best to save these four pigs! If things go wrong!"

His gaze swept over all the veterans: "Evacuate immediately! The Supreme God has removed the distance restrictions; we're heading straight back to Cairo! Blackjack, have you completed your preparations in Cairo?"

The voice beneath the Black Jack mask carried a hint of joy, “It’s all ready. As long as the Ten Calamities descend, and enough people die in Cairo, creating enough wronged souls and despair, my ritual can be activated at any time. Then, the entire city of Cairo will become our home ground!”

Shiva Ganden nodded, and was about to give some more instructions when suddenly, everyone smelled a certain odor.

The water smelled fishy and rotten.

The two flavors mingled together, wafting in from the hot desert winds, growing stronger and stronger.

"Be on guard!" Shiva Ganten shouted sharply, his body radiating a brilliant crimson Buddhist light, and twisted swastika symbols appeared and spun in the air.

Arrot's figure blurred instantly, and seven or eight indistinguishable clones appeared in different locations. Manavia gritted her teeth and strengthened the output of the barrier, making the pale green light shield more solid. Xue Nai raised her mental shield, while Muhammad took a futuristic-looking pulse rifle from his back, and the muzzle began to charge.

"Gurgle...gurgle gurgle..."

The eerie sound of bubbles bursting came from deep within the sand beneath their feet.

Immediately afterwards, to everyone's astonishment, a patch of sand less than ten meters from the barrier began to "seep" out a black liquid, viscous like crude oil, which quickly expanded into a puddle about two meters in diameter.

Ripples spread across the center of the water stain.

A hand wearing a tattered hockey mask and holding a rusty chainsaw suddenly emerged from beneath the "water" and grabbed the edge.

Jason Warhurst, the nightmare of Crystal Lake, crawled out of a pool of "water" that shouldn't exist in the desert.

His body crawled out of the water, murky droplets dripping down his tattered overalls and hissing as they evaporated on the scorching sand. The chainsaw wasn't started; it was simply dragged along his side, its dark red rust on the teeth resembling dried blood.

The empty eye sockets behind the mask "looked" at the four newlyweds inside the barrier, or more precisely, at the cursed marks from Crystal Lake that clung to them.

"Fire!" Shiva Ganten did not hesitate for a moment.

Muhammad's pulse rifle fired a blue-white energy beam first, accurately hitting Jason in the chest. The beam pierced through the seemingly broken body and blasted a crater in the sand behind him.

But Jason just swayed and continued walking forward.

Arot's several clones leaped out simultaneously, their hands wielding dark blue energy daggers, stabbing at Jason's neck, heart, and joints from different angles. The daggers pierced easily, but Jason's movements did not falter in the slightest.

“Physical attacks have limited effectiveness!” Arrot’s true form appeared in the distance, his expression grave. “His body is not made of flesh and blood; it’s more like a manifestation of some kind of special spirit!”

Shiva Ganden's eyes sharpened, his hands formed a mudra, and a burst of crimson Buddhist light erupted from his body: "Then purify with energy! Vajra Subduing Demons!"

Dozens of swastika marks transformed into streams of light, wrapping around Jason's body like chains. The Buddhist light collided violently with the black water vapor permeating Jason's body, producing a sizzling corrosion sound.

Jason's steps finally came to a halt, and his body began to smoke and disintegrate under the scorching light of the Buddha.

Three seconds later, his tall body completely turned into a pool of black water and merged into the sand.

"Resolved?" Xue Nai breathed a sigh of relief.

“No.” Agrava suddenly spoke, a flash of understanding in the ascetic’s eyes. “He is immortal. I sense that the source of that ‘water’ still exists. As long as the cursed mark exists, he can regenerate indefinitely—”

Before the words were even finished, less than two meters from where the puddle of water had disappeared, a new black puddle of water seeped out again.

Jason's figure reappeared as if rewinding a tape.

The chainsaw roared hoarsely this time.

"Roar--!"

From all directions of the desert, from the void came a low growl filled with resentment.

Jason started the chainsaw, dragging it with a piercing roar, and strode forward again. His target was crystal clear: the barrier, and the newcomer marked with the curse within it.

"Stop him!" Shiva Ganten's face was ashen. He activated his Buddhist light again and roared, "Manavia, strengthen the barrier! Everyone else, unleash maximum firepower!"

A barrage of attacks poured forth once more. Energy beams, telekinetic shocks, poisoned throwing knives, and even a cloud of dark green plague released by Blackjack—Jason's body repeatedly crumbled into water under the onslaught, only to coalesce again nearby time and again.

After his fifth resurrection, Shiva Ganden finally changed his strategy.

"Trap him! Use the barrier!" He slammed his hands onto the sand, and the crimson Buddhist light, like living vines, surged wildly into the area beneath Jason's feet. The light transformed into a semi-transparent crimson cube, five meters in diameter and three meters high, sealing Jason and the black water seeping out around him within it.

"The Prajna Heart Circle!" Shiva Ganden's forehead veins bulged, clearly indicating that maintaining this barrier was extremely taxing. "I will use Buddhist light to refine this spirit! Be vigilant and prevent any other ghosts or accidents from appearing!"

Inside the barrier, the crimson Buddhist light, like flames in a furnace, continuously scorched Jason's body and the black liquid. Jason struggled silently in the Buddhist light, his body constantly melting and evaporating.

This time, it lasted for almost a minute.

When the last wisp of black energy within the barrier was purified by the Buddha's light, Shiva Ganden let out a long breath and removed the barrier. Only a charred mark remained on the sand, along with a faint, lingering smell of burning and water in the air.

"Did...it worked?" Xue Na asked nervously, standing next to Manavia.

Shiva Gande did not answer; his gaze was fixed on the inside of the barrier.

All eyes turned to that direction.

Then, they witnessed a scene that froze their souls.

Inside the barrier, at the feet of the four dazed newcomers, small, inconspicuous puddles of water had appeared at some point, but were rapidly expanding.

In the water, four identical hands reach out to each of the newlyweds simultaneously!

"No—!" Manavia screamed as she tried to shrink the barrier to seal off the water, but it was too late!

Four tall figures seemed to rise instantly from the water.

The roar of chainsaws echoed inside the cramped barrier.

Sweep.

Blood and flesh flew everywhere.

The four heads flew off almost simultaneously, their blank expressions turning into confusion, fear, and finally disbelief.

Inside the barrier, a brief but bloody rain began to fall.

[Current team battle score: Central Continent Team +4 points, Indian Continent Team -4 points.]

The cold, mechanical voice of the main god simultaneously echoed in the minds of all members of both teams.

"It's done!" Zheng Zha shouted, and the others also smiled.

Inside the mansion, Wang Yi was leisurely leaning on the sofa, observing the real-time situation in the direction of Hamunaptra through the probe crystal ball. Suddenly, he paused slightly, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up.

Immediately afterwards, the cold, mechanical, yet heavenly voice of the Supreme God rang out.

[Defeat four members of the Indian Team whose gene locks were not yet activated, earning 8000 reward points and four C-level side quests.]

…………

On the Indian team's side, there was complete silence.

Shiva Ganten's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, his lips trembling slightly with anger. Four newcomers, four negative scores, which meant that if they didn't take action, everyone in the team would have 8000 reward points deducted after the Central Continent team completed the main quest! The elimination penalty of returning with negative scores was like a sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's head.

“Damn it… Central Continent Team…” he squeezed out the words through gritted teeth.

Just then, the four Jason "corpses" inside the barrier, which were slowly turning into black water and dissipating, suddenly turned their heads in unison and "looked" at the veteran members of the Indian team outside the barrier.

From behind the hockey mask, a deep, hoarse, and malicious voice seemed to come.

"Goodbye."

The next moment, all four bodies exploded simultaneously!

It wasn't flesh and blood, but countless black water droplets, shooting out in all directions like shotgun pellets!

"Watch out!" Arot shouted sharply, his figure flashing to a distance of more than ten meters in an instant.

Shiva Ganden and Ram shone with a radiant light, repelling most of the water droplets.

However, Manavia, who was closest to the barrier and whose attention was mostly focused on maintaining it, was unable to completely evade it.

Three jet-black water droplets, as if alive, bypassed the small barrier she had hastily formed, attacking her left shoulder, right arm, and calf.

The moment the water droplets touched the skin, they immediately seeped in as if they were alive, leaving only three coin-sized, deep black marks.

"Ah!!" Manavia screamed in pain. She could feel a cold, viscous, and malicious force seeping into her body through the mark. "I'm cursed! Captain!"

Shiva Ganden appeared in a flash beside Manavia, his right hand covered in golden light, and pressed down hard on the mark on her shoulder.

"laugh--!"

The Buddha's light and the power of the curse clashed fiercely. Manavia was in excruciating pain, her face turning deathly pale and covered in cold sweat. A few seconds later, the two marks on her shoulder and arm dimmed temporarily under the suppression of the Buddha's light, but the one on her calf remained stubbornly visible, though slightly lighter in color.

“It can only be suppressed temporarily, not eradicated.” Shiva Ganten withdrew his hand with a grim expression, quickly took a string of 108 dark red wooden beads from his wrist, and put it around Manavia’s neck without saying a word. “This string of Blood Sandalwood Soul-Suppressing Beads can help you resist some of the curse’s corruption and buy you some time.”

He turned to look at Muhammad, who had already retrieved a flat-shaped aircraft from his storage space, and hissed, "Evacuate immediately! Return to Cairo as fast as possible! Xuena, activate mental scanning at full range! Issue an immediate warning for any disturbance!"

"What about that book?" Blackjack pointed deep into Hamunaptra. "The Book of the Dead, are we not taking it?"

"Get my ass!" Shiva Ganten interrupted rudely. "Going to get the book now is like waiting to be ambushed and annihilated by the Middle Continent team in their graves! Is your life more important than the book? Let's go!"

Without another word, the Indian team hastily boarded the aircraft. Muhammad piloted the low-altitude aircraft, pushing the power to its limit, kicking up a cloud of dust in the desert as they fled in disarray toward Cairo.

On the aircraft, Shiva Ganten, Arot, and Scheres, all veterans who had experienced that "nightmare team battle," looked back through the portholes at the direction from which the sniper bullets had first come—the seemingly empty desert horizon.

Their gazes were complex, containing anger, fear, and a hint of barely perceptible...despair.

“Zhongzhou Team… Zheng Zha…” Shiva Gantian murmured, his fists clenching so tightly they cracked.

Chapter 84 Arrangement

Meanwhile, at the Central Continent team's hidden position a few kilometers outside Hamnata.

Zero, whose Byakugan vision had penetrated multiple layers of disguise, calmly withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Chu Xuan.

"The Indian team has begun its withdrawal, heading towards Cairo, using aircraft. Shall we pursue them?" His voice was as concise as ever.

Chu Xuan pushed up his glasses: "No, let them go. Our primary objective at this stage is not the Indian team, or even this team fight itself. The longer it drags on, the better prepared we will be, and the greater our advantage will be."

As he spoke, he typed the last command on the virtual keyboard.

Beside him, the six already unfolded folding launch pads simultaneously trembled.

"Whoosh—whoosh whoosh whoosh—"

Several slender black streaks shot out at different angles and speeds. Three of them flew straight into the sky, their speed increasing as they gradually shrank until they disappeared beyond the atmosphere. The others sped towards Cairo and several surrounding cities, and even further afield, quickly disappearing from sight as well.

"What we just launched was a space satellite and reconnaissance equipment," Chu Xuan explained to his teammates who had gathered around. "Based on the intelligence Zero obtained from infiltrating this world's network, the background of this mission world is not as simple as the 1920s depicted in the original movie."

He brought up a screen displaying complex signal analysis diagrams and data streams.

"This world has a satellite network, and its technological level is equivalent to that of the late 20th century. At the same time, there are signs of unusual leaps in the military technology of major countries around the world, especially in biological and energy research. I suspect that, like the world of Ju-on, this place has also been infiltrated and contaminated by information from other worldviews, or that there are storylines from other worlds."

He turned off the light screen and glanced at everyone: "Therefore, our action plan needs to be adjusted, and we need to split up."

Chu Xuan took out a specially made food pouch from his waist and tossed it to Li Shuaixi.

"Li Shuaixi, Ming Yanwei, Xiao Jiuming." He called out the three names, "The three of you will form a temporary team and act independently."

"The first step is to take the supersonic aircraft I provide to Bald Eagle territory and upload the files on the USB drive in the sac to the public network."

"The second step is to go to the Shanghai Museum in Xia Kingdom, obtain the Eye of Shangri-La, and then contact General Yang, the warlord. His intelligence and location will be updated in real time in the team channel. Use Evelyn's blood and the Eye of Shangri-La to awaken the Dragon Emperor."

Chu Xuan paused, then looked at Li Shuaixi: "After awakening the Dragon Emperor, activate the 3D holographic projection function of your combat suits. I will then speak directly with the awakened Dragon Emperor. Your mission is to escort and ensure the awakening of the Dragon Emperor. In three hours, the global satellite network deployment will be complete, and communication will no longer be restricted. Now, prepare to depart. Evelyn's blood sample will be delivered to you by drone after it is collected."

Li Shuaixi took the food pouch and nodded solemnly. Ming Yanwei tossed her long hair and smiled with anticipation. Xiao Jiuming silently examined his Tang sword and the dragon tooth bracelet in his hand that exuded a faint dragon's might.

Soon, a sleek, futuristic silver-gray supersonic aircraft emerged from Chu Xuan's zero-generation light. The three boarded, and with a deep hum, the aircraft took off vertically, then transformed into a silver streak and sped off towards the northeast.

"Alright, it's time for us to meet the main characters of this world." Chu Xuan turned to face the direction of Hamunaptra. "The Book of the Dead is still there, and Imhotep's resurrection also requires those sacrifices. At midnight, continue monitoring. Everyone, board the plane."

A surge of dark blue mechanical energy appeared, and a larger, heavier black anti-gravity transport plane emerged from the sand. The hatch slid open silently.

The group filed in. The cabin was spacious and furnished with simple fixed seats and tactical platforms.

Just as the transport plane was about to take off, Wang Yi stepped out of the mansion inside Mei's body and said excitedly to Chu Xuan.

"The marking was successful. Jason killed four rookies and then self-destructed, ostensibly marking the Barrier-Barrier Fruit user. Secretly..."

He paused, his smile becoming somewhat subtle: "Freddy has successfully infiltrated the depths of the opponent's psychic's dream. In order not to arouse suspicion, he is currently in a state of infiltration, neither transmitting information nor actively weaving illusions, but judging from the direction he senses, the Indian team is indeed heading towards Cairo."

"Freddy?!"

A slightly muffled question suddenly rang out.

Everyone looked over and saw that Zhang Jie's face was slightly pale, and his fingers holding the cigarette trembled imperceptibly. He realized his loss of composure, took a deep drag of his cigarette, and barely managed to suppress his emotions, but the fear in his eyes could not be concealed.

Wang Yi turned around and looked at Zhang Jie, a smile that Zhang Jie perceived as inexplicably malicious: "Yeah, Brother Zhang. You know the world of Ju-on, it's a real hodgepodge. Besides Japanese vengeful spirits like Kayako and Sadako, there are also a lot of 'specialties' from the United States, like Jason the Chainsaw Massacre, Bloody Mary, and Candy Man—mirror ghosts, and of course, the infamous nightmare of Elm Street, Freddy Kruger."

He shrugged, his tone relaxed: "Last time when we collectively returned to the Ju-on world to collect resources, we were lucky. By using Mei's home spirit's characteristics to suppress it, and with the team's cooperation, we successfully 'invited' a few unique 'residents' to settle in my Crystal Lake. Mr. Freddy was one of them. Although he was a bit mischievous, after communicating with him, he was quite 'reasonable'."

Zheng Zha then grabbed Zhang Jie's shoulder, patted him hard, and laughed, "Old Zhang, what are you afraid of! Our team is strong and well-equipped now. Your nightmare from back then is now our teammate's summoned beast! When we get back after this mission, Wang Yi will arrange for Freddy to perform a Yangko dance for you, or tell you a bedtime story. Fight fire with fire!"

Zhang Jie tugged at the corners of his mouth, revealing a smile that was more like a grimace. He took a few deep drags on his cigarette but didn't reply. However, his slightly trembling fingertips betrayed that his inner state was far from as calm as it appeared.