The genius who counterattacked the mainland

Xu Tiancai reached out and gently brushed away the dust from the mural. The ancient lines and colors gradually became clearer beneath his fingertips, as if telling a story lost in the dust of time. Agang watched his surroundings warily, his battle axe poised to respond to any danger. Lin crouched down, carefully examining the patterns on the floor of the ruins, searching for clues to the murals. Meanwhile, the mysterious figure and the Ice Princess were each studying these enigmatic ruins.

"These murals seem to contain important information, perhaps related to the secret of this place." Xu Tiancai said softly, his eyes fixed on the ancient people surrounding the hourglass in the murals. Their expressions were solemn and pious, as if they were performing a ceremony concerning life and death.

Suddenly, a low humming sound came from the depths of the ruins. The sound was like the sound of an ancient machine running, or the groaning of some huge creature. It echoed among the silent sand dunes, making people feel uneasy.

"Did you hear that?" Agang gripped his battle axe tightly, his muscles tense.

"This sound is not right. Let's go and take a look." Xu Tiancai said, leading the way towards the source of the sound.

They carefully moved between the broken walls and pillars, the sand beneath their feet occasionally collapsing slightly with their footsteps, raising a small cloud of dust. As they went deeper into the ruins, the buzzing sound grew louder and the air around them seemed to become more solemn.

At the center of the ruins, they discovered a vast circular plaza. The ground was covered in intricate runes and patterns, centered around an object in its center—a massive hourglass several feet tall. The upper half of the hourglass was filled with golden sand, which slowly flowed, emitting a brilliant light that illuminated the entire plaza. The lower half was pitch black, like an endless abyss of darkness.

"This is the hourglass on the mural!" Lin said in surprise.

Surrounding the hourglass, something resembling a mechanical puppet patrolled. These puppets were tall, constructed from a mixture of metal and sandstone. Their joints shone with an eerie blue light, and each step left a deep footprint on the ground. They wielded massive weapons, some spears, others giant axes, and they looked incredibly powerful.

"These puppets are not easy to deal with, we have to be careful." The mysterious figure warned.

At that moment, the puppets seemed to sense their presence. They stopped patrolling and slowly turned their heads, blue light flickering in their hollow eye sockets. Then, without hesitation, they rushed towards Xu Tiancai and the others. The heavy footsteps sounded like war drums, sounding the prelude to battle.

Agang was the first to charge forward. He roared, swung his battle axe, and chopped at a puppet. The axe collided with the puppet's spear, sending up a shower of sparks. Agang felt a tremendous force radiating from the axe, numbing his arm. But he gritted his teeth, steadied himself, and attacked again.

Lin cast a powerful wind spell, sending a howling gust of wind whistling towards the puppets. The strong wind slowed the puppets' movements, and some were even blown back a few steps. However, the puppets were too heavy, and the wind spell couldn't completely stop them.

Xu Tiancai fused the power of the stars, the phoenix, and the guardian pearl together, forming chains of light shimmering with a rainbow of colors. With a wave of his hands, the chains of light swung toward the puppets, tightly wrapping around their limbs. The light from the chains flickered continuously, burning the puppets' bodies and making their movements even more rigid.

The mysterious figure muttered something, his hands drawing complex runes in the air. As he moved, bolts of black lightning struck the puppets with unerring precision. The puppets twitched, their blue light flickering, yet they continued to charge towards them tenaciously.

The Ice Princess also joined the battle. With a wave of her hands, countless sharp ice cones emerged from the ground and shot towards the puppets. The ice cones rained down on the puppets, and some of them successfully penetrated the joints of the puppets, hindering their movements.

Under their combined attack, the puppets' offensive momentum was temporarily curbed. However, these puppets did not suffer much damage and were still looking for opportunities to attack.

"We have to find the weaknesses of these puppets so that we can defeat them completely." Xu Tiancai shouted.

During the intervals of the battle, he carefully observed the puppet and found that there was a blue core in the puppet's head. The core's light was constantly flickering, which seemed to be the key to controlling the puppet's actions.

"Attack their head core!" Xu Tiancai shouted loudly.

They changed their attack strategy and began to focus their efforts on the puppet's head core. Lin cast a precise spell, condensing the flames into sharp flaming arrows and shooting them at the puppet's head. After the flaming arrows hit the core of the puppet's head, the core began to flicker, and the puppet's movements became sluggish.

Agang and the mysterious figure also attacked the cores of the puppets' heads. Agang's battle axe always struck the key points of the puppets' heads accurately, and the mysterious figure's lightning continuously bombarded the same area. Under their combined attack, the cores of some puppets' heads were destroyed, and the puppets fell to the ground with a loud bang, unable to move.

After a hard fight, they finally defeated all the puppets, but at this point they had also consumed a lot of physical strength and magic power, and everyone was panting.

"We have to hurry up and study this hourglass. We don't know what dangers are waiting for us." Xu Tiancai said.

They walked towards the hourglass, and as they approached it, they could feel a powerful energy fluctuation. Ancient characters were engraved on the hourglass, similar to those on the walls of the surrounding ruins, but more complex.

"These words... I seem to have seen them somewhere." The mysterious figure said with a frown. He walked forward and looked at the words carefully.

Xu Tiancai and the others gathered around, examining the text and attempting to decipher its meaning. After some effort, a flicker of surprise crossed the mysterious figure's eyes. "I understand! These words mention the function of an hourglass. This hourglass is a temporal device that controls the flow of time. The golden sand in the upper half represents normal time, while the dark lower half represents suspended or distorted time."

"Then how do we use this hourglass?" Lin asked.

"We need to find the hourglass's control device, it should be nearby." said the mysterious figure.

They searched around the hourglass for controls, and at the bottom they found a small console with buttons and levers. The buttons were engraved with different symbols, and the levers were different colors.

"This should be the control device, but we don't know how to operate it," said Agang.

They began studying the symbols and levers on the console, and on one side they found some simple instructions. The instructions were represented by an ancient pattern, and after some deciphering, they roughly understood the operation method.

"We need to press buttons and pull levers in a specific order to activate the special functions of the hourglass," said Xu Tiancai.

They followed the instructions and began to operate the console, first pressing a button engraved with a sun pattern, then pulling a red lever. As they operated, the light on the hourglass grew stronger, and the golden sand began to flow faster.

"Next, press the button with the moon pattern and then pull the green lever." said the mysterious figure.

They continued to operate, and when they completed a series of operations, the hourglass emitted a strong light that enveloped the entire square. Then, they saw some space-time distortions appear around the hourglass, like ripples on the water, constantly fluctuating.

"What's going on?" Lin asked in surprise.

"We seem to have activated the time-space travel function of the hourglass, but we don't know where we will be teleported to." Xu Tiancai said.

Just as they were about to investigate further, the space-time distortion suddenly expanded, and a powerful suction force emerged from the hourglass, sucking them all in. Amidst a shimmer of light and chaos, they felt as if their bodies were being torn apart and reassembled, their consciousness becoming blurred.

After an unknown amount of time, they finally regained some consciousness. When they opened their eyes, they found themselves in a completely unfamiliar world. The sky was blood-red, thick with dark clouds. Lightning flashed through the clouds like a savage dragon. The ground was a barren, scorched earth, emitting a pungent odor and devoid of any sign of life. In the distance, massive black mountains blazed with raging fires, billowing thick smoke.

"What is this place? Have we really traveled through time and space?" Agang looked around with shock on his face.

"It feels like this place is filled with the atmosphere of death and destruction. We have to be careful," said the Ice Princess.

They walked carefully on the scorched earth, feeling the heat from the ground under their feet with every step. Suddenly, they heard a huge roar, which seemed to come from the depths of hell, making their eardrums hurt.

"Something is coming!" Xu Tiancai shouted.

They looked toward the source of the roar and saw a massive demon flying from the direction of the Black Mountains. The demon's body was immense, with massive wings and sharp claws. Its head resembled a ferocious ram, its eyes burning with green flames. Its body was covered in black scales, which flowed with magma, emitting a high temperature.

"It's the Fire Demon. This kind of demon is very powerful. Everyone, be careful!" The mysterious figure warned loudly.

The Balrog flew towards them, its maw opened wide and a massive stream of flames erupted. The flames swept towards them like surging waves, instantly melting the scorched earth wherever they passed, forming massive craters of magma.

Xu Tiancai and the others quickly dodged. Ah Gang dug a large hole in the ground with his battle axe and jumped in, blocking some of the flames with his axe. Lin cast a water shield, which trembled under the impact of the flames, but still managed to block the flames. The mysterious figure and the Ice Princess each cast magic to resist the flames.

"We have to find a way to attack it. We can't just passively take the beating!" Xu Tiancai shouted.

He fused the power of the stars and the power of the phoenix together, forming a massive blade of light. He flung it at the Balrog, and it grew larger as it flew, slashing towards the Balrog. The blade struck the Balrog's wing, leaving a deep wound there, and the Balrog roared in pain.

Agang jumped out of the pit, waving his battle axe and charging at the Balrog. He raised the axe high and chopped at the Balrog's legs with all his strength. The axe struck the Balrog's scales, splashing a burst of lava but leaving only a shallow mark on the scales.

Lin cast a powerful ice spell, attempting to freeze the Balrog. A large amount of ice burst from her hands, flying towards the Balrog. The ice landed on the Balrog, slowing its movements, but soon, the heat from its body melted the ice.

The mysterious figure and the Ice Princess also launched an attack. The mysterious figure cast a dark magic, which shot towards the eyes of the Balrog, trying to temporarily blind the Balrog. The Ice Princess cast an ice storm, and a powerful ice storm swept towards the Balrog, lowering the temperature around the Balrog.

Under their combined attack, the Balrog's offensive momentum was temporarily curbed. However, the Balrog's power was too strong, and it quickly recovered from their attack and launched an even more fierce attack on them again.