Chapter 226: Why are they here?

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Wengg!!

Duan Li stepped out from the bronze vortex with an exhale of relief. Truthfully, he felt quite scared with that previous trial. Fighting against an endless amounts of puppet? Sure! But who could have thought that his spiritual Qi would be sealed like that?

Not only was his fighting prowess fell to the rock bottom, leaving him with only his martial arts skill to fend for himself, but he also has no chance to recover himself at all!

The thing that had him curious though, was in the last moment before he fainted, he seemed to remember that the puppets had rose to life once more, but when he opened his eyes at the next instant, they were still laying down on the floor.. could it be just a hallucination?

Shaking his head, Duan Li decided to not think about the matter any further as he had already cleared it. Looking around, there was only three statues left, with the bronze statue in a flexing pose from before reduced to dust!

"Eh? The bronze symbol on the stone tablet is shining.. maybe.." he pondered for a while and came up with a possible theory as he nodded.

'Maybe, once I cleared the other three trials from their respective statues, their corresponding symbols on the stone tablet would light up to eventually unveil something in the end?

"I just hope that it won't be like the trial from the bronze statue.. at least let me keep the ability to use my skills and techniques.." Duan Li sighed out.

But if it was still the case, then there was nothing he could do.

He then went on to the gazebo once more and pressed at another symbol - this time, one with a cultivator symbol draped in a copper robe.

He reckoned that, each of the symbol colors depicted the difficulty of the trial. The grander the color, the harder the trial would be! Following that logic, since he had already cleared the bronze trial, the next should be copper!

Press!

Wongg!!

A ray of copper color shone from the stone tablet to the copper statue that was dressed in a cultivator's robe, as if this copper color was charging it up.

Brrrr!

The copper statue then trembled before it abruptly turned alive. Next, clenching its right fist, it made a swift punch straight to the East direction, toring a vortex that was copper in color!

Wengg!!

"Perhaps this time the trial has something to do with the control technique?" he said inwardly, seeing that the statue was dressed as such, with the fist art it just showed had further solidified this line of thinking of his.

If its something like that.. I guess I won't fare too badly in it?

Again, as long as my dantians were not sealed..

Tap!

Stepping into the copper vortex, Duan Li felt a little bit disoriented, before founding himself emerging out into another Crafted Space. Like before, this space appeared to be massive and endless, but he knew that those were just illusions.

Using his previous experience, since this Crafted Space was part of the Compounded Space, the total area should be about 500 meters square too!

However, contrary to the orange and desolate land from the first trial, this land was grey in color like the ashes from volcanoes and were filled with innumerable amounts of massive holes! Each were about 3 meters in diameter, and they seemed to be bottomless judging from their dark shade that did not reflect back light!

Seeing all these holes laying around, The little sword on his right earlobe instinctively shuddered as he seemed to realized what they were.

T-This..!!

He was about to say something before Duan Li beat him to it first.

"Little sword, Do I have to choose the correct hole and enter the ground?" he said in bewilderment with a frown.

Is this a treasure hunt trial?

Cough! Cough!

The little sword choked hard before replying, "No young master! If we were to dive down into any of these holes right now.. we would probably die.."

Hearing this, Duan Li shot up his brows, "We will die? Is there something down there?" he asked while letting out curious gaze onto one of the holes as he cupped his chin and walked around it.

The little sword swiftly answered, "If I am not mistaken, these grey soil and the sizes of these holes.. below us.. should lay a giant nest of.. Killerworms!"

Killerworms?

"You mean.. the giant worms with sharp teeth and insect wings? They are down there?" Duan Li said in astonishment.

Its not like he didn't know what kind of monster that was.

According to the stories he heard back in the Xuan village, travelling merchants would sometimes encounter these Killerworms in the desert and everytime, rarely there will ever be survivors!

These Killerworms were ferocious creatures, and they travelled along with their nest which was hidden underground by its queen!

This was why travelling merchants would prefer to avoid travelling through the deserts because it was the home ground of these wretched creatures!

Just that, this place was not the desert, so why were the Killerworms was located under these holes? How would the nest even move in solid soil?!

ROAR!!

As he thought of this, the ground under him began to shook intensely, and seething sounds of shouts or roars started to come out from those holes!

BRRR!!

"Here they come! Young master, run away first!" the little sword said in panic. He had a little phobia against fighting insects and slimey monsters!

'Run away? Where will I even go in this place?' Duan Li shook his head.

Furthermore, this place is a trial room! So it should be obvious that I have to do something about the Killerworms, such as beating them to death for example!

Readying himself in a counter-attacking stance, Duan Li was prepared to slap anything that came out from those holes, and he was also ready to deploy his martial arts just in case his dantians were suddenly sealed later on!

As long as I have spiritual Qi to work on, I will be able to..

Whooshh!!

A large, elongated monster with the size of 6 meters in length leaped out from the hole. Duan Li almost puked out in disgust when he saw the appearance of this Killerworms the first time!

Dark brown, slimey, hairy with many sharp tooth and protruding bones in several places.. it was hideous!

BAM!!

He immediately let out a slap against the Killerworm that just came out. However, the next moment had his mouth opened in agape!

Zzuzuzuz!!

This..!!

It's absorbing the spiritual Qi of my slap attack!!

...