Success

"Phew..." Guan Ya exhaled in relief at the sight of the Puppet Storage Box. This had been within her expectations. Back during the arena tournament, Zhao Chenghuang had relied on this very item and nearly defeated Yuanshi to become the champion. How could he not bring such a powerful item into the killing trial? Even though the bronze puppets had been utterly demolished by Yuanshi back then, as Elder Zhao's great-grandson, he possessed more than enough wealth to repair a Transcendent-stage item. "Haha, I knew you were keeping this treasure tucked away, boy!" Jiang Jingwei shed her momentum and snuffed out the flames on her body, beaming from a distance. Asano Ryo was unfamiliar with the Puppet Storage Box's terrifying power, but seeing Guan Ya and Jiang Jingwei brighten up, she guessed it had to be a formidable item. "Hmph!" Brandishing a dagger, the Bewitching Demon All Under Heaven Is White dashed forward, slipping right up to the flank of a bronze puppet. His blade, sharp enough to cleave gold and sever jade, slashed viciously toward its neck. *Clang!* Sparks flashed, leaving nothing more than a faint white scratch on the puppet's rust-pocked neck. These puppets were incredibly tough; not even a Bewitching Demon specializing in armor penetration could easily damage them. *Crack!* The struck puppet twisted its stiff neck, its blank, ugly face fixing a grim stare upon All Under Heaven Is White. In the next second, the puppet swung its rust-encrusted warblade, executing an unadorned downward cleave. All Under Heaven Is White brought his dagger up horizontally to parry. With a crisp *clang*, blinding sparks burst out. The webbing between his thumb and forefinger instantly tore open, blood streaming down the dagger as he personally experienced what Zhang Yuanqing had felt back then. *Crack, crack, crack...* One after another, the sounds of twisting necks rang out. Brandishing their warblades, three bronze puppets advanced with aberrant, bizarre gaits, closing in to encircle him. His expression shifted drastically. Kicking out, he sent the heavy bronze puppet before him flying and retreated decisively. The kicked puppet crashed and tumbled with a clatter, a deep footprint sunken into its rigid chest. "Careful! These puppets possess immense strength and are impervious to blades and spears. Their only weakness is that they're not agile enough!" Having tested their caliber, he warned his companions with a grave look. Looking at the thirty bronze puppets, the members of the Mountain Ghost faction grew far more wary and astonished. If even a Bewitching Demon specializing in armor penetration couldn't harm these bronze puppets, what chance did the rest of them have? Naturally, given the bronze puppets' speed, they posed little threat of actually striking them down, but an entire thirty puppets would have no trouble pinning them in place. Factor in Guan Ya, Jiang Jingwei, and two lurking yin corpses, and the situation was exceedingly dire. Swirling vortexes surfaced deep within Hongwei's eyes. She scrutinized the bronze puppets for a moment before shifting her gaze to Zhao Chenghuang. In her sight, she clearly saw an illusory figure clad in a tattered robe drifting behind him. Hovering in midair with arms outstretched like the Grim Reaper of myth, its ten fingers extended fine, spectral black threads, their ends tied to the backs of the bronze puppets' heads. Her heart stirred, and she shouted, "Don't clash head-on with them! The real controller of these bronze puppets is the spirit servant behind Zhao Chenghuang! Take it down!" With that, she retrieved a brass mirror carved with dragons and phoenixes from her inventory, aiming its face behind Zhao Chenghuang. At the same time, the Witch Doctor Trampling the Firmament, draped in a ragged coat, dropped to his knees before Zhao Chenghuang, muttering incantations under his breath. Fortune Diminishment! Weakening Zhao Chenghuang's fortune to ensure his comrade's attack would strike the spirit servant behind him without fail. The fingers of the tattered-robed, reaper-like spirit servant twitched, and a bronze puppet leaped up to intercept the golden mirror light. Trampling the Firmament's Fortune Diminishment failed to take effect. Back when Zhang Yuanqing used Commandery Princess Yinyao's Ghost Mirror to craft a massive illusion and vanish from the Mountain Ghost faction's sight, he had already used the Demon-Subduing Pestle to grant every teammate a round of purification. The goal had been precisely to preempt hard crowd-control from Illusionists and Bewitching Demons. At this moment, apart from Zhang Yuanqing, who was locked in brutal hand-to-hand combat with the mountain ghost in the distance, Jiang Jingwei, Guan Ya, and Asano Ryo—along with Blood Rose and the Level 4 yin corpse—gathered around Zhao Chenghuang to protect him. The experts of both factions faced off from a distance, separated by thirty bronze puppets. Suddenly, a jade-green pillar of light soared into the sky in the distance, dyeing the heavens an emerald green. Everyone looked up; that direction was the abandoned station. The second array had been activated. "The next one to activate is the abandoned mall. As expected, there's a restriction on activating the arrays. The activations between the Bank Building and the abandoned station were separated by roughly nine minutes. If the mall's array activates nine minutes from now, the restriction isn't the sequence, but time..." The little fatty retracted his gaze and whispered, "Find a way to create an opening for me and My Fate Is Mine Not the Heavens. If we don't break Zhao Chenghuang's item, we won't be able to break through to the Blood Pool. *Sigh,* we still underestimated Zhao Chenghuang." Although they had never looked down on the crown prince of the Taiyi Sect, Yuanshi Tianzun's performance in the first two stages had been too prominent. During the two hours of safe time, all their discussions had revolved around how to avoid being trapped by Yuanshi Tianzun's water and fire arrays and how to counter the functions of his boots. The attention given to Zhao Chenghuang and the others had inevitably lessened. Who could have thought the kid was hiding such a formidable trump card, one he hadn't even used when facing the desiccated corpse? "No need for all that trouble!" the expressionless A-Yi said flatly. His belly suddenly swelled, expanding like a balloon until it looked as if he were pregnant with decaplets. Next, his throat bulged as a spherical object surged from his abdomen into his throat, stretching his windpipe. *Blegh—* A-Yi regurgitated a meatball the size of a porcelain plate. It pulsed like a heart, coated in wet, glistening fluid. A delicate little claw pushed out against the surface of the meatball. Like the young of some beast breaking out of its egg, it stretched the fleshy wall bit by bit until the claw punctured through, wriggling out from within. An ugly little monster appeared before everyone's eyes. It bore a striking resemblance to A-Yi's gu form, possessing a long tail, thick hind legs, razor-sharp claws, and cold, beast-like slit pupils. The only difference was that its body was tender pink, the armor on its surface had yet to harden, and it lacked elytra on its back, rendering it incapable of flight. *Blegh, blegh, blegh—* A-Yi regurgitated meatball after meatball, fifteen in total. From each ball emerged a tender pink little monster, emitting shrill, high-pitched shrieks. After vomiting up these meatballs, A-Yi's aura plummeted rapidly, sinking into a weakened state. He quietly crouched down, picked up the torn scraps of flesh from the ground, and began devouring them. These scraps could rapidly replenish his stamina. "Gestating gu within his own body... Truly worthy of a natural-born gu beast," Trampling the Firmament, a fellow Witch Doctor, murmured in admiration. Ordinary Witch Doctors nurtured gu insects in their bodies and nourished them with essence blood until they could fuse with them, gaining superhuman strength, speed, and toxins. Yet humans were ultimately humans, and gu were ultimately gu. Though they could merge briefly, they remained two entirely different species. A-Yi was different. Not only could he switch among three gu beast forms, but this stunt of his had even achieved something akin to reproduction. It was hard to say whether he was currently human or gu. "Holy shit, are you cosplaying Cell?!" Seeing this from afar, the black-furred giant ape hollered a barb, only to be immediately knocked flat by a punch from the mountain ghost. The two Saint-stage behemoths resumed their fierce brawl. By now, the first monster to hatch had turned from tender pink to deep black, the cuticle across its body gleaming with a metallic sheen, its eyes as vicious and cold as a crocodile's. "Eee-yah—!" Shrieking, it charged a bronze puppet and slammed its heavy, armor-encased head straight into the puppet's body. *Thud!* The clumsy bronze puppet staggered back. The little monster, moving as swift as a shadow, sprang onto the puppet's shoulders. Wrapping its short, muscular arms around the puppet's head, it kicked against the shoulders with both feet. *Skrrrtch—* Amidst a teeth-grinding crunch, the bronze puppet's head was wrenched clean off. "Eee-yah, eee-yah!" The little monster held up the severed head, shrieking in excitement. The next second, several rust-covered warblades descended from above, hacking it into mincemeat. Seeing their companion slaughtered, the other little monsters showed not the slightest hint of fear. Amidst a wave of shrill shrieks, they plunged into the swarm of bronze puppets in wild melee combat. Though diminutive, their speed was blinding. They repeatedly slipped through the bronze puppets' encirclement and coordinated with one another to snap heads or rip off arms. One bronze puppet after another was disabled. The bronze puppets could only cut them down one by one during the brief openings when the little monsters were busy destroying their "companions." The Mountain Ghost faction rejoiced. Whether A-Yi's little gu beasts or Zhao Chenghuang's bronze puppets prevailed mattered little; at this juncture, buying time was of the essence. Seeing the puppets tied down by the little monsters, everyone except A-Yi bypassed the battlefield and rushed toward the depths of the park. "Don't you run!" Furious, Jiang Jingwei turned into a streak of fire and chased after them. Guan Ya swiftly retrieved a rifle and said to Asano Ryo beside her, "Know how to shoot?" Asano Ryo nodded nervously. "Yes! My family arranged a firearms instructor for me. I can handle most firearms. I... I've even flown helicopters and shot them down..." "Oh?" Guan Ya said admiringly. "Impressive girl—good with a gun and knows how to shoot down a chopper. Far better than me... You use this rifle. It's extremely powerful, but it comes with a fatal catch: it lowers the wielder's luck. Being saddled with misfortune on a battlefield is deadly." The dirty-minded veteran reined in her teasing grin and grew solemn. "Yet we have no choice. In a trial, if we must die, we die. There's nothing to fear." With that, she tossed the rifle to Asano Ryo and strode forward on her long legs, pursuing the Mountain Ghost faction members. Clutching the rifle, Asano Ryo suddenly felt an intense admiration for this big sister from another country. She seemed just like a swordsman from Japanese history—valiant, dashing, and indifferent to life and death. On the other side, All Under Heaven Is White, who was bringing up the rear, suddenly felt scorching wind rushing up behind him. He slammed on the brakes, twisted his waist, and threw a punch backward like a cannonball. At the same time, a twisted rune surfaced deep within his pupils. The flaming streak shot forward. Golden light flashed in Jiang Jingwei's eyes, purifying the enemy's Bewitchment skill. Ducking nimbly, she let his fist graze over her head, then kicked off the ground and crashed straight into All Under Heaven Is White's chest. The failure of his Bewitchment skill was entirely outside his expectations. Among Spirit Realm walkers of the Transcendent stage, only Illusionists could resist Bewitchment; he had never encountered anything like this. *Bang!* All Under Heaven Is White felt as if he had been struck by a battering ram. His chest caved in instantly, the skin charred in an instant, and he was flung backward like a kite with a broken string. Jiang Jingwei's tackle possessed strength surpassing the limits of the Transcendent stage; she had activated her bloodline talent—Rager. *Bang!* In the distance, Asano Ryo leaned against a tree trunk, took aim at the flying All Under Heaven Is White, and pulled the trigger. She might not have been confident hitting a high-speed target moving erratically, but right now, All Under Heaven Is White was in midair, his trajectory predictable and steady. This wasn't difficult for her; it was like shooting a moving target on a range. Yellow light flashed across All Under Heaven Is White's body before shattering. His neck snapped violently, erupting into a mist of blood. The bullet tore his neck to shreds and destroyed his cervical spine, leaving his head connected to his body by only a thin layer of flesh. Though Asano Ryo had aimed for his head, the outcome was the same. *I... I killed him?!* A surge of pleasant shock washed over Asano Ryo. That sister named Guan Ya was right; this rifle was terrifyingly powerful. Asano Ryo's score instantly soared into the top fifteen. Before she could process her joy, gale-force winds howled overhead, followed by Yuanshi Tianzun's roar exploding in her ears: "Get out of the way!" Asano Ryo looked up. A massive shadow blotted out her vision—a great tree two arm-spans thick, roots and mud still clinging to it, was hurtling down toward her. The one who had hurled the tree was the mountain ghost Taboo-Free. The death of All Under Heaven Is White had infuriated him, focusing all his aggro onto the young girl who fired the shot. Asano Ryo's pupils constricted. By the time she tried to dodge, it was already too late. The massive tree slammed into her body with thunderous momentum, splashing into streams of clear water. The trunk gouged a monstrous crater into the earth, rolling and crushing the surrounding woods. Meanwhile, Asano Ryo's body swiftly coalesced, reforming into human shape. Still shaken, she was just about to retreat when heavy footsteps thudded right beside her ear. The three-meter-tall mountain ghost roared and threw a fist at her. *Boom!* At the critical moment, the black-furred giant ape slammed in from the side, knocking the mountain ghost off balance. His punch veered off course, crashing down beside Asano Ryo. A ferocious shockwave surged, the earth collapsing inward. Asano Ryo was hurled into the distance along with huge chunks of soil and broken stone. Her legs were mangled and bloody, multiple bones broken throughout her body. The fair skin of her arms, waist, and abdomen was embedded with gravel and grit, blood seeping through. "Ugh... mmh..." Asano Ryo let out whimpering moans that sounded half like crying. She struggled several times, but failed to rise. She had only fired a single shot, yet had immediately run into a mortal crisis. The furious giant ape clamped his hands around the mountain ghost's neck, shoving him away into the distance, before raising his fists and raining blows down like a torrential storm. By now, the auras of both monsters had waned, dropping from the Saint stage down to the level of a weak Level 4. The energy granted by the item reward was nearly exhausted. In the distance, Trampling the Firmament, Hongwei, and the others had already spotted the six-meter-tall stone statue. It was identical to the one in the Mountain God Temple, standing in an overgrown clearing with head bowed slightly and hands held loosely clasped before its chest. Several tens of meters behind the stone statue lay a stagnant lake of blood, waves of heavy, coppery stench washing over them. Yet the tremendous commotion behind them still caught their attention. Turning back one after another, they witnessed All Under Heaven Is White's gruesome demise. At this moment, Guan Ya and the two yin corpses were still some distance away from them. Dropout Fish gritted his teeth and shouted, "Forget him! Quick, throw the blood jade into the Blood Pool!" *Bzzzt!* Spreading his wings, Trampling the Firmament took flight, skimming swiftly past the stone statue. Red light flashed in his palm as he gripped the blood jade, hurling it viciously toward the distant Blood Pool. The Ghost Bride, who had been watching from the sidelines for a long time, shot out swiftly, gliding toward the blood jade. Seeing this, Hongwei immediately pulled out the brass mirror and aimed it at the Ghost Bride. The golden beam of light struck the spirit servant directly, freezing her in midair. The blood jade passed right through the Ghost Bride's spectral body, sailing high through the air. With a *plop*, it fell into the Blood Pool.