Chapter 20: Heavenly Puppet Sect, Shu Tianhe!

With a sword, he beheaded the puppet in front of him, erasing the mark on it. Chen Guan leaned against the dim wall, gasping for breath.

On the ground lay the remnants of a dozen dark puppets. Chen Guan glanced warily at the inner chamber and took out a bottle of medicine. He poured out a pill and swallowed it with a tinge of reluctance.

The Qi-restoring pill was a third-grade elixir that could quickly restore one's fighting spirit. Even he only had five of them.

Reluctant as he was, he had no choice. The second-grade recovery pills on his body had been exhausted. After seven days of continuous battles, Chen Guan had noticed a pattern: every time he destroyed a puppet, he would have half an hour of rest and adjustment.

The next puppet would undoubtedly be even stronger, so he had to stay in good condition.

Let's rewind time to seven days ago.

That day, with excitement in his heart, Chen Guan pushed open the stone door at the bottom of the lake and, with a casual swing of his sword, ended the surprise attack from the Crimson Ice Snake King lurking in the shadows.

He had given it a chance but didn't know how to seize it. Chen Guan wasn't going to hold back anymore. Besides, he was more curious about the opportunities here. He didn't have the time to waste with the snake king.

The interior of the stone door was pitch black. He took out several moonlight stones for illumination and tossed them into various corners. Although it was still dim, he could see the interior clearly.

Inside was an empty chamber, not very large, about the size of half a football field. It looked like an empty tomb. A quick scan revealed an empty space, except for a stone table on the right side. It held various bottles and jars, materials and components whose purpose he couldn't understand, and several magic cores that had lost their effectiveness.

With a light touch of his long sword, the material components that were still intact shattered into ashes. It was evident that this "tomb" had been around for a long time.

Several bottles of pills had lost their efficacy and become useless. Only the largest jar contained a spiritual substance, a semi-filled jar of murky liquid that had a poor appearance and emitted a strong cold aura. It was just missing the words "poisonous" written on it.

Chen Guan sensed a familiar presence from it, similar to the venom spewed by the Crimson Ice Snake King. He had a vague idea of the reason behind the snake king's mutation.

Nine times out of ten, it was related to this substance.

Unable to recognize what it was and not wanting to dwell on it, he packed it into his storage ring.

Immediately, Chen Guan arrived in front of the inner chamber door and was thinking about how to open it when the door opened on its own. Accompanying it was a black shadow that launched an attack.

Chen Guan's expression changed. It wasn't that the shadow posed a significant threat to him, but because he heard the sound of the outer stone door closing completely.

With a sword strike, he repelled the shadow. Chen Guan turned to check the stone door, which was tightly locked. It didn't budge even when he pushed with both palms.

"Dismantle all the testing puppets to have a chance to leave."

A barely audible voice reached Chen Guan's ears from inside.

"They're not even afraid of suffocating me alive," he grumbled inwardly. However, Chen Guan calmed down and roughly understood his situation.

This was indeed an opportunity, and whether he could obtain it would depend on his abilities. The level of danger was unknown, but it should not threaten his life.

Unable to resist, Chen Guan had no choice but to accept the arrangement.

His gaze shifted to the opposite shadow, a humanoid puppet made from an unknown material. From the brief encounter, he felt that the puppet's strength was roughly equivalent to that of an early-stage Dou Grandmaster. Besides being slightly tougher, it didn't pose a threat to him.

As he had expected, within the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had dismantled the puppet, revealing a completely ineffective magic core.

This puppet was powered by a magic core.

Half an hour later, another puppet emerged from the inner chamber. Its strength was noticeably stronger, but Chen Guan still didn't feel any pressure.

The third one, the fourth one...

After a pile of wreckage accumulated, just when Chen Guan was beginning to doubt their abilities, a puppet roughly at the level of a five or six-star Dou Grandmaster appeared.

Unlike the previous puppets, even with its head severed, it continued to move and didn't have such rigid movements. It seemed to possess a bit more "intelligence."

As he fought and explored, Chen Guan discovered the key: he had to erase the imprints within the puppets to completely destroy them.

Starting from this puppet, Chen Guan fell into a tedious and exhausting battle, consuming both his mental and physical energy.

Until today, he had used up several bottles of second-grade recovery pills on himself.

The consumption of Qi was a minor issue. Even without the pills, he could continue with the recovery from his Profound-rank cultivation technique. What worried him the most was the mental exhaustion.

After swallowing a Qi-restoring pill, his internal Qi quickly recovered and became replenished. However, he still felt very tired. This was a manifestation of excessive mental fatigue, and Chen Guan was somewhat concerned about the next battle.

After all, the previous puppet had already reached the level of a Dou Grandmaster. If it had consciousness, he would have had to use all his cards.

The next puppet would probably be at the true level of a Dou Grandmaster, and Chen Guan was worried about his current condition.

Half an hour quickly passed, and Chen Guan stood up, waiting for the appearance of his opponent.

With a loud rumble, the inner chamber door opened. However, despite waiting for a long time, no puppet came out.

Just as he was puzzled, a strange light suddenly appeared in the dark chamber. The braziers on the walls were mysteriously lit.

"Come in, young man."

It was that voice again!

This time, it was even clearer, and Chen Guan could sense that the speaker was very old.

After hesitating for a moment, Chen Guan stepped inside.

The inner chamber was even smaller than the outer area, and a stone bed indicated that this was merely a resting place.

The layout was extremely simple, and after circling around, Chen Guan didn't find anything peculiar. Everything seemed ordinary.

On the stone bed sat a cross-legged skeleton, wearing a deep blue ring on its left hand. That was probably the only remarkable thing.

While Chen Guan was silently observing, an incredibly ethereal "ghost" emerged from the ring. It was indeed an old man with white hair and a dignified appearance, reminding him of a movie called "Mount Shu." The old man resembled the character Bai Mei.

Surprisingly, perhaps because he didn't sense any malice, Chen Guan didn't feel fear at this moment. On the contrary, he had an intense urge to make sarcastic remarks.

Grandpa Yao Chen was the old man hidden in the ring. And now this was the low-quality version of the grandpa in the ring.

So, he was getting another one?

Is the continent full of grandpas staying in ring ?

"Your mental energy consumption is not small. Let us restore you first, then we can discuss other matters," the old man said. With a flick, an invisible light yellow dust flew from the ring towards the young man's forehead.

Chen Guan felt a slight coolness on his forehead. His fatigued mind was like a long drought meeting refreshing rain, greedily absorbing the nourishment. His mental energy rapidly recovered at a terrifying speed.

After half an incense stick's worth of time, Chen Guan's sense of fatigue completely disappeared.

Not only that, he also realized that his condition had reached an unprecedented level of excellence. His vision seemed clearer, and he felt as if he were immersed in a comfortable hot spring, feeling extremely good.

"This is..."

"It was just a small benefit given by the sect I once belonged to. It's not worth mentioning," the old man replied calmly.

If Chen Guan hadn't seen the corners of his mouth curling upwards, he would almost have believed it.

"Young man, let's get acquainted. I am Shu Tianhe, from the Heavenly Puppet Sect."

(End of this chapter)

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