After the final judgment was issued, the ten Ascendants who had already completed their combat preparations began their tactical advance.

Their joints of the semi-fused "living exoskeletons" with flesh and blood emitted sounds of bone and carapace grinding against each other.

Pale white steam rose from arms grafted with sharp claws and bone blades.

Lizard-like vertical pupils drew ten red trails carrying pure killing intent in the darkness.

They weren't rushing to attack, but rather savoring the trembling deep within their prey's soul when enveloped by absolute power and fear.

For these "new humans" who had already abandoned their humanity, this was a high-level form of enjoyment.

Sergeant William frowned deeply. He could face death with iron will, but under the oppressive aura of ten monsters whose strength far exceeded his own, he couldn't find any chance of counterattack.

Julian had already tightly gripped his alchemical potion that could induce brief "mass hallucination" in his hand.

Yet under this heavy pressure, Lin Jie's face showed no fear or despair.

A trace of pity even hung at the corner of his mouth.

He was pitying these pathetic creations before him who thought they had evolved into "gods," yet remained completely unaware of the fatal "hidden dangers" within their own bodies, and might pay a terrible price for it.

"William." Lin Jie's voice was calm. "Do you remember how you evaluated these cult members back in Scotland?"

William was slightly stunned. He didn't understand why Lin Jie would suddenly ask such a seemingly unrelated question at this critical life-or-death moment, but out of absolute trust, he answered based on memory: "...A bunch of arrogant and reckless madmen."

"Correct." Lin Jie's smile grew brighter yet colder.

He raised his right hand and pointed with his finger toward a very inconspicuous corner of the distant altar, saying: "And when dealing with madmen, the best method isn't to defeat them with 'power,' but with a kind of 'madness' that's even more insane than they are!"

William and Julian simultaneously followed the direction of his pointing finger.

They saw that on the bloody black altar, a white-robed scholar who had just completed the previous round of "Ascension" surgery was collecting the waste blood that had turned dark purple due to rejection reactions, flowing from a failed Ascendant's wound during surgery, into several metal basins specifically used for holding waste materials.

Those basins of waste blood were emitting an aura of negative spirituality.

To normal people, it would just appear as medical waste about to be disposed of as garbage after the ritual concluded.

But on Lin Jie's massive "tactical chessboard" that had calculated all variables, this was the perfect spark that could ignite their entire arsenal!

He looked at Julian and said: "It's time to verify your conclusion."

"William!" Lin Jie was no longer asking, but directly issuing an order.

"Use your gun! Don't worry about those approaching Ascendants! Don't mind the bishop standing on the altar! Shoot those basins!"

This order was so absurd.

Facing a desperate situation with ten elite attackers surrounding them, their only ace marksman's task was actually not to shoot any of the enemies, but to attack garbage basins dozens of meters away that posed no threat?

Any normal operative hearing such an order would probably think Lin Jie had been driven mad by the immense pressure.

But William was no normal operative.

This legendary veteran's combat intuition had long made him develop absolute trust in the "divine inspirations" that his young partner occasionally produced.

He didn't hesitate or question!

His left hand holding the Winchester rifle quickly lifted upward, using the hard metal stock to block a massive bone claw attacking head-on!

Amid the piercing sound of metal clashing and sparks flying, his right hand that had been hidden at his side already drew the Colt single-action revolver representing "precision" and "death" from his waist like a phantom!

He didn't perform any form of aiming preparation!

His hawk-like eyes, the inconspicuous metal basins in the distance, and the direction Lin Jie pointed instantly completed the three-point ballistic alignment!

Three bullets mixed with silver powder drew straight silver trajectories through the air with unstoppable momentum!

They precisely passed through the narrow gaps between the Ascendant guards, through the turbid air filled with the mingled scents of blood and medicinal reagents, and finally...

"Clang! Clang! Clang—!"

Three pleasant sounds of metal being pierced by bullets rang out!

Those metal basins containing waste blood were shot through from the center.

Large amounts of dark purple waste blood carrying "rejection" and "pollution" aura, having lost container restraint and detonated by the bullets' massive kinetic energy, instantly transformed into a "toxic rain" carrying foul odors and negative spirituality!

And after this "toxic rain" traced scattered parabolic arcs through the air, part of it splashed toward the amber cage at the rear imprisoning the Catacomb Nightingale!

"Wait!!"

The Golden-Faced Bishop on the altar who had maintained composure and elegance until now, when he saw this scene, the face hidden beneath his mask transformed into uncontrollable panic.

He finally understood what that damned cunning Easterner was trying to accomplish.

But his realization came too late.

When that "alchemical blood" carrying severe rejection reactions splashed onto the crystal cage imprisoning the spiritual creature like the most vicious concentrated sulfuric acid—

"EEEEEEEEEEEE————!!!"

A mental shriek mixed with pain, disgust, rage, and madness erupted from the core of the amber cage with geometrically amplified terrifying power, its intensity making the ancient Roman aqueduct tremble!

The imprisoned Catacomb Nightingale was like a patient tortured by mysophobia for centuries, having a whole bucket of swill mixed with excrement and rotting corpses poured over their head in their own "sterile ward"!

It went insane.

Violent spiritual rejection drove it into madness.

Its song that originally carried only "sorrow" transformed into chaotic "white noise of the soul"!

"Bzzzzzz—Bzz—Bzz!!"

The invisible mental storm no longer had targets or direction, but like explosive shockwaves centered around that amber cage, it launched equally cruel indiscriminate saturation attacks toward every corner of the entire cavern!

The first to bear the brunt weren't Lin Jie's trio dozens of meters away.

But those ten Ascendant guards who were "connected by blood" to it and much closer!

The spiritual tissues from the Catacomb Nightingale within their bodies that were already at the critical point of "rejection," under the intense resonance of this homologous "mental shriek," instantly began "boiling" from within!

"Rooooaar!!"

Piercing roars simultaneously erupted from within those ten sturdy "living exoskeletons"!

Their lizard-like vertical pupils were quickly overwhelmed by bloodshot redness.

Their arms grafted with UMA tissues also began to spasmodically mutate uncontrollably.

Some guards even had their armor torn on their backs, growing insect-like distorted limbs!

The fragile balance forcibly maintained by drugs was shattered by Lin Jie's intelligent "critical shot"!

They all lost their sanity in that instant.

And these biological weapons that had lost reason, retaining only killing instincts, their targets became the other Ascendants closest to them!

This "internal cleansing" personally ignited by Lin Jie's trio opened its magnificent prelude amid the painful and mad background vocals of that Catacomb Nightingale!