Dimensional Codex System I m really not a cultist

Chapter 64: Chapter 63: The Attacked Stronghold
 

“What’s wrong?”

Upon hearing the noise outside, Fang Zheng immediately spoke up. Of course, the carriage wasn’t equipped with the high-tech ability of autopilot—the coachman was a young lad sent by Clark named Garrison, quite a clever fellow. Because of his young age, he had not previously been on the frontline in battle but had instead been responsible for logistical work at the rear, thus he was uninjured. His clever nature and familiarity with the terrain made Clark choose him to take charge of driving the carriage.

“It’s like this, the outpost seems a bit… off…”

“The outpost?”

Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng raised his eyebrows, then he stepped out of the carriage and walked over to the coachman’s side. Seeing him approaching, the keen young man immediately nodded respectfully towards him, then pointed ahead.

“Master, you see…”

Following the direction of Garrison’s finger, Fang Zheng quickly saw the outpost not far down the hillside; according to Clark, this outpost was the safest place in the area, always manned with fifty soldiers and a Templar. It served as a link between the Order Fortress and the Northern Alliance’s rear, which made it usually very bustling and heavily guarded.

But now, it appeared in disrepair, with the once-solid outer walls missing several pieces, and black smoke was visible as it burned. This was not just a little off; no matter how one looked at it, something was very wrong.

“How is that possible? Has the outpost also been breached?”

Fang Zheng’s body, enhanced by Zerg genes, had vision ten times greater than that of an ordinary person, almost akin to carrying binoculars. Thus, he only glanced once and immediately understood the situation at the outpost. The young man, clearly lacking this ability, saw the outpost merely as a small black dot; if not for relying on experience to confirm that the black smoke was coming from the outpost, he wouldn’t have suspected anything wrong there.

But now, standing here staring at that distant little black dot, the lad felt increasingly uneasy.

“This shouldn’t be, even if there were a pack of black wolves, the outpost should have enough strength to withstand the attack, how could it…”

“I’ll go and check the situation.”

Fang Zheng cut off the young man’s muttering, patted his shoulder, then scanned the surroundings.

“You drive the carriage to a safe place, I’ll go investigate what happened there.”

“You’re going alone? Master, will you be alright…”

But before the young man could finish speaking, he suddenly heard a “swoosh” sound by his ear. When he turned his head back, he was shocked to discover that Fang Zheng, who should have been standing not far beside him, had vanished without a trace like a ghost.

“…This is really frightening.”

Looking at the empty ground, Garrison patted his chest. If it were not for witnessing Fang Zheng’s teleportation-like ability on the city walls, he might have thought he was encountering a mythical forest creature or a ghost…

Unaware of what was going through Garrison’s mind, Fang Zheng had already arrived in front of the great gates near the outpost, his expression grave as he scrutinized the outpost before him.

If earlier Fang Zheng had only been speculating, now he could almost be certain that the outpost had indeed fallen. The gates of the outpost were wide open; blood was splattered everywhere on the walls and the ground, with scattered weapons and charred corpses visible on the ground—clear evidence of an intense battle having taken place.

However, the reason Fang Zheng had such a serious expression on his face was not because the stronghold had been breached, but because he detected a faint scent of sulfur among those ashes burned to the ground. The black wolves could indeed breathe fire, but their flames, infused with magic power, were clean and odorless. In fact, there was only one type of flame that carried this unique sulfur scent.

It was the flame from Hell.

In Fang Zheng’s memory, on this continent, there was only one type of people who used this flame.

Cultists.

Specifically, the believers of the Doomsday Church. Their “Holy Scripture” detailed a prophecy that the world would ultimately be consumed and destroyed by flames. Therefore, the followers of the Doomsday Church particularly favored using the power of flames to demonstrate their power and authority, and the primitive, berserk nature of Hellfire, which could turn everything into ash, perfectly illustrated the cultists’ imagination of the flames of destruction. Hence, they had learned how to borrow this fiery power from Hell for combat. The more outstanding the cultist, the more skillful they were in harnessing this power.

As for how Fang Zheng knew all this? Quite simple, although he had changed bodies, Williams’s memory was still not forgotten in his brain! As a cultist, that guy was quite qualified. Even Fang Zheng dug up a little secret from his memories—the heavier the scent of Hellfire on a cultist, the stronger their power.

Fang Zheng also learned from Williams’s memories that some crazed high-tier believers would even completely infuse Hellfire into their bodies, using secret techniques to bind its power. This allowed these high-tier believers to use the extremely powerful Hellfire anytime, anywhere, and they could even self-detonate if they were losing…

The situation at this stronghold seemed a bit odd to Fang Zheng. From the outside, it looked like it had suffered a fierce attack. It was evident that this stronghold had faced a very fierce assault initially. However, the interior was relatively calm by comparison; most of the rooms were intact, though there were traces of having been searched. This meant that after the stronghold was breached, it quickly surrendered, and then everyone was taken away… Hm?

Just then, Fang Zheng’s ears twitched, he then turned his head and looked toward the wall next to him. Soon, Fang Zheng’s eyes began to change; his originally deep brown eyes rapidly turned golden, and his pupils transformed into vertical slits.

This too was a power Fang Zheng had inherited from the Zerg genes. With this ability, not only could he easily see in the dark, but he could also use a skill similar to “Infrared Detection” to scan for the presence of life forms. However, convenient as these abilities were, Fang Zheng could not use them at will. When deploying these skills, his eyes would inevitably transform into the Zerg form. This was naturally hard to explain to others, so unless he was alone or it was absolutely necessary, Fang Zheng was reluctant to reveal the abilities he had from the Zerg.

Soon, in Fang Zheng’s eyes, the world began to change, a vivid red enveloped everything and then dimmed. Right after, Fang Zheng saw a vivid red silhouette leaning against the door on the other side of the wall, taking a fighting stance—it was apparent that the person had sensed something and was planning to launch a surprise attack on him.

Was it a survivor? Or an invader?

Fang Zheng gripped his longsword, blinked his eyes, and shifted his gaze back. Then, Fang Zheng reached out his hand, grasped the longsword, and forcefully chopped down at that wall!

The dazzling sword light, like a battering ram, heavily smashed into the hard wall, causing the stone-constructed wall to cave in and burst. At the same time, the world before Fang Zheng’s eyes began to change again.

The flying stone fragments suddenly slowed down, turning leisurely in the air, drifting like snails across the sky. This resembled the bullet-time scenes during a raid in FPS games Fang Zheng had played in his previous life, and in fact, this was also the inspiration for his use of his Time Ability, one of the methods he had devised.

After all, in the games he played in his previous life, there were numerous ways to utilize time!

Fang Zheng leaped into the hole and quickly saw a figure scrambling back, clearly not expecting his adversary to break right through the wall instead of using the door. The person raised their longsword, trying to counterattack. Unfortunately for them, their movements were excruciatingly slow in Fang Zheng’s eyes, resembling a turtle’s crawl. Before they could even lift their longsword, Fang Zheng’s Sky-Cleaving Sword was already pressed against their neck.

At that moment, time resumed.

“Clatter…”

Scattered stones flew in every direction, dust spreading all around; the person struggled briefly, but before they could make a next move, Fang Zheng had clearly seen the face of the person in front of him, then he couldn’t help but pause.

“Knight Conan? Why is it you? What are you doing here?”