Once more the same hidden door opened, and another group of puppet beasts emerged.
Yun Lie beckoned with one hand. Without even looking at them, he collected the puppets and crystal tablet, then stood still and waited.
The surroundings soon changed, and the second trial began.
Yun Lie flicked a finger. Several streams of sword intent shot out, blasting the puppet beasts to pieces.
The third and fourth trials followed. In each, Yun Lie hardly needed to move. Merely releasing a little sword intent was enough to shred every puppet beast!
After the ancient voice questioned him, Yun Lie proceeded to the fifth trial as well.
Before him stood two identical young men.
Their appearances were ordinary. There was not the slightest fluctuation in their auras, nor could anyone sense a trace of true essence within them.
They looked like two common mortals obstructing his path.
Yun Lie remained expressionless, icy killing intent circling his body.
These two human puppets were far more formidable than any of the puppet beasts he had just faced.
But they still were not worth drawing his sword for.
Just then, the puppets moved!
They were astonishingly fast, little more than two illusory shadows. In almost the blink of an eye, they closed in on Yun Lie from both sides.
Yun Lie was faster still. At the instant their hands formed blades and stabbed viciously toward him, he had already vanished several steps away!
Their hand-blades struck nothing but his afterimage.
Both human puppets possessed cultivation equivalent to the peak of late Golden Core. Their movement techniques were bizarre, resembling two vicious ghosts, both savage and cunning.
Yun Lie turned slightly. Huge holes appeared in both puppets’ chests. Yet they seemed not to notice at all. They attacked faster and struck even harder!
He had chosen the wrong location. Unless a puppet’s core was destroyed, it felt no pain.
Naturally Yun Lie understood this. He had survived countless battles and would never have wasted time exchanging blows with the puppets unless he was searching for their cores.
Next he shattered their arms, abdomens, shoulders, even their heads, but each attempt was fruitless.
Most of their inner workings now lay exposed. Countless tiny mechanisms were interlinked and interwoven into an elaborate assembly. Only such marvelous craftsmanship could make them move exactly like real people. Yet nowhere within that intricate web could he see a core.
Where was it hidden?
After so many tests, Yun Lie stopped prolonging the fight and smashed their bodies apart piece by piece. At last, after breaking open the right leg of one puppet, he found a recess near the hip containing a middle-grade spirit stone. The other puppet had the same arrangement.
Thus the fifth trial was cleared.
No reward appeared afterward. Yun Lie continued forward, but after he had walked only several zhang, several more human figures charged at him!
These figures were faster than the previous ones!
Yun Lie condensed sword intent into a tangible form and gripped it in his hand. His body shot forward like an arrow, piercing straight through their encirclement!
At the same instant, the puppets’ right legs shattered, and they all fell to the ground. But unexpectedly, they did not stop. Pushing off with their left legs, they sprang upright again.
Their cores were no longer in their right legs!
Meanwhile, Xu Ziqing gazed at the two white-clad human puppets before him and frowned slightly.
He could not discern their cultivation. How should he respond?
Well, he would have to wait for them to move before he could judge their capabilities.
Instead, Xu Ziqing took the initiative, scattering seeds to produce numerous plants along both sides.
The plants transformed into several fierce beasts.
For the moment, each beast had middle Golden Core strength.
“Go,” Xu Ziqing commanded.
Wind rose beneath the green beasts’ feet as they charged at the two puppets!
But this battle was nothing like the first four trials. The green beasts had not even reached their opponents when the two human puppets surged forward more quickly. The instant they made contact, the puppets twisted their arms and tore apart the two leading beasts.
Several more green beasts hurriedly attacked together, only to be smashed to pieces almost immediately.
The puppets rushed forward even faster and were about to reach Xu Ziqing himself!
When they were barely three chi away, several thick, long vines shot out and struck their waists with tremendous force, flinging them aside.
The puppets bent their legs and sprang back once more!
As Xu Ziqing directed the vines to knock them away repeatedly, he noticed that their movements were growing more flexible. They seemed almost to be adapting to the vines and finding gaps between the attacks. He knew perfectly well that the puppets possessed no intelligence and were incapable of thought, yet he could not help admiring the extraordinary ingenuity of their creator. The man had refined puppets capable of adapting to combat to this astonishing degree!
He could not win with the vines alone. Dozens of trees sprouted around him in rapid succession and transformed into fierce beasts, almost all with strength equivalent to late Golden Core. Roaring, they charged at the puppets together!
Xu Ziqing had abundant reserves, and thanks to his legendary cultivation art his true essence exceeded that of ordinary Golden Core cultivators. But after creating so many beasts of slightly lower cultivation, he had depleted ninety-nine percent of his reserves. Almost nothing remained in his dantian.
He dared not delay and immediately swallowed several pills to replenish his true essence. Meanwhile, he observed that although the green beasts could fight the puppets, they had to bite the same spot several times before breaking through their outer shells. The puppets were extremely tricky. If a beast failed to withdraw quickly after biting, their arms would close around it, and in the next instant it would be smashed into scattered branches and leaves.
Sighing softly, Xu Ziqing continued directing the green beasts. At the same time, a seedling emerged from his right palm and rapidly transformed into a long black sword.
It was ten-thousand-year Steelwood that had been tempered, and a sword technique he had not employed for a long time.
Perhaps he ought to give it another try.
This battle had revealed many flaws in his green beasts. Although he had absorbed a great deal of experience from battles between cultivators, his knowledge of battles between beasts was limited. He had gained some insights while fighting the puppet beasts, but clearly they were nowhere near enough.
The human puppets were far harder to deal with.
Without further hesitation, Xu Ziqing moved, drifting forward like willow fluff carried by the wind.
He raised his Steelwood sword and stabbed one puppet in the abdomen.
He held back none of his strength.
Like Yun Lie, Xu Ziqing understood that a human puppet could be defeated only by destroying the core that kept it operating.
But he had to guess where that core might be hidden.
Evidently he had guessed wrong.
Despite the huge hole in its abdomen, the puppet moved as nimbly as before.
Xu Ziqing swept his hand and scattered seeds, bringing forth a forest. Then he transformed into a streak of escaping light and darted freely through the trees.
The two puppets smashed every tree in their way, but whenever they did, an uncanny flash of sword light would strike from the forest behind them, piercing another part of their bodies and leaving holes of various sizes.
Just as Yun Lie had carved open many parts of the human puppets with sword intent, Xu Ziqing repeatedly pierced them with his sword light. Eventually he found a recess in their left legs containing middle-grade spirit stones.
After destroying the two puppets, Xu Ziqing recalled his seeds and moved forward.
Like his senior brother, he entered the sixth trial, where five human puppets, all with late Golden Core strength, attacked him together.
Xu Ziqing continued dodging with his escape techniques and striking by surprise with his sword, constantly moving.
But this trial was harder still. The puppets’ outer shells were exceptionally tough. Although his Steelwood sword had the sharpness of a magical treasure, every thrust consumed considerable true essence before it could pierce a hole. Worse, he discovered their cores were not all in the same place. He had to break each one apart completely to finish the battle.
Only after nearly exhausting his true essence again did Xu Ziqing narrowly pass the sixth trial.
In the seventh, all the human puppets possessed the peak strength of late Golden Core, the same realm as Xu Ziqing. Even if their cultivation reserves were not as deep as his, their ghostlike movement and ever-changing techniques made the battle extraordinarily difficult.
Xu Ziqing once again grew a large forest, but the eight human puppets destroyed its trees with frightening speed. He could barely respond, and his ability to produce new trees began to slow.
If this continued, he might fail.
Losing was one thing. But these puppets were not real people. Who knew whether they would truly stop attacking? Even if he shouted that he surrendered, would it do any good?
Xu Ziqing could not risk finding out. He had no choice but to use his last resort.
At a thought, enormous blood-red vines rose before him like countless crimson tentacles, writhing and spreading to protect his entire body.
When he had first entered the immortal path, Xu Ziqing had been wary of Rong Jin’s fierce aura. But after so many years, the vine had become inseparable from him, and now he felt nothing but affection for it.
Rong Jin was exceedingly attached to Xu Ziqing as well. Having been kept inside for so long, it danced with delight at finally being released.
“Mo… Mother! Kill, kill, kill!”
Xu Ziqing gave a rueful smile. Rong Jin had already matured, yet its intelligence seemed as childlike as ever, leaving him unsure whether to laugh or sigh.
But this was no time for affection. He sent a quick command through their bond. “Be good, Rong Jin. Smash these puppets!”
Rong Jin twisted its body, suddenly growing even thicker and several zhang longer.
It charged as though set loose to play, swaying wildly from side to side. In an instant, it surrounded every puppet, while keeping several vines behind to protect Xu Ziqing from harm.
Rong Jin had grown harder than ordinary magical treasures, approaching even superior-grade ones. Its strength was greater too. A single blow across one puppet’s waist produced several cracks! That was far easier than Xu Ziqing’s arduous struggle with his Steelwood sword.
Dozens of vines formed a curtain of whirling shadows and struck the puppets in succession, keeping them from approaching Xu Ziqing. If one blow failed to shatter a puppet, Rong Jin struck again and again until its limbs flew apart and it could no longer move.
One puppet was fast enough to evade many vines and nearly reach Xu Ziqing face-to-face.
But the instant it drew close, a vine near Xu Ziqing silently wrapped around it and hurled it back into the storm, where it was beaten to pieces.
Soon all eight puppets were battered and broken, almost entirely unable to move.
Rong Jin carefully inserted one vine into a puppet’s ruined chest cavity. After probing for a while, it withdrew unhappily.
“Mo… Mother… Nothing. Nothing to eat, eat…”