Chapter 693: Heart

Right after calling out, she immediately shook her head, her pretty face flushing. She hastily shook her head, "How could that be..."

They had been fleeing and had already traveled several kilometers into the underground palace. Plus, there were so many puppets here, and that guy had even entered another underground palace. How could he possibly be here?

It must be an illusion!

Just when she had thought she wouldn't like that shameless guy, she imagined his voice and even thought he would come to save them... How utterly shameful!

"I just blurted out something casually. None of you heard it... Understand?" Yu Feier huffed, her pretty face hot.

"Cough, cough..."

Wu Zhen and the others exchanged glances. Unable to resist, they looked over. "Princess, it seems... we also heard someone speaking!"

"You heard it too?"

Yu Feier was stunned. She hastily looked left and right, but apart from two relentless puppets still furiously attacking the light barrier, there wasn't a single human figure around them.

"I heard it too. Since we all heard it, it shouldn't be an illusion then..."

Xing Yuan also nodded.

Although he really disliked Zhang Xuan, in the current situation, suddenly hearing the other party's voice still made him feel quite agitated.

"Alright, it's not an illusion. I am Zhang Xuan. I specifically came to save you. I'm using a secret technique to transmit my voice; my true body is still outside..."

Seeing that he had spoken yet the other party didn't believe him, Zhang Xuan helplessly shook his head and continued transmitting his voice.

He was currently a spirit soul; if he were to reveal himself, not only would he scare these people, but he would also certainly be attacked by the puppets. Therefore, he could only transmit his voice.

"He's outside, transmitting his voice from a thousand miles away?"

Xing Yuan and the others widened their eyes.

This ability to transmit sound over several kilometers with such clarity—even a Half-Sage Eight-Realm expert would find it difficult to achieve!

Could it be... Zhang Xuan already possessed such strength?

"How will you save us? Do you have a plan?"

Knowing that Zhang Xuan was aware of their situation and intended to save them, Yu Feier breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but ask.

Although this guy was quite annoying, he certainly had real abilities.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to repeatedly put her at a disadvantage and leave her helpless.

"I don't have a plan, that's why I'm consulting with you..." Zhang Xuan transmitted.

He truly had no clear solution.

This place wasn't large, but there were over twenty Saint Realm puppets. His spirit soul could still enter and exit stealthily, but if he were to truly take this group of people out, they would likely be surrounded before they got far and wouldn't even know how they died.

"Consult? If we could get out, we would have left long ago..."

Xing Yuan said.

He had thought Zhang Xuan had a solution, but unexpectedly, he was also clueless.

"How about this? Tell me the situation in detail, what you encountered since arriving here, so I can figure something out. Also, I just saw quite a few puppets. Normally, they should have come to besiege and kill you all at once. Why did they all leave, leaving only two to attack here?"

If so many puppets had attacked together, the light barrier would have long been broken, and these people would surely have died long ago. How could they still be alive now?

Although puppets had no intelligence, they would still attack. Like the one that had chased him earlier, which had wanted to tear him to shreds, why would they let them off so easily?

If he knew the reason and could make use of it, perhaps he could find a way to rescue them all.

"As soon as we entered here, we encountered those corpse puppets of the Otherworldly Demons. We fought as we retreated..."

Ye Qian recounted in detail what had happened earlier.

After they walked in from the stone steps, they saw this underground town. At first, they were somewhat excited, but unexpectedly, after not going far, they encountered the Otherworldly Demon puppets.

This should be the location where Zhang Xuan had seen traces of battle.

Here, they were besieged, and against Saint Realm puppets, they were naturally no match.

Fortunately, Xing Yuan and Princess Yu Feier had many treasures. They retreated while fighting, but even so, they all suffered severe injuries.

They kept fleeing until they reached here, found the corpse of Senior Wu Yangzi, and touched the mechanism he had left behind. Only then did they receive protection, which offered some respite.

In other words, this light barrier was actually left by Senior Wu Yangzi to protect his own corpse from being destroyed by the Otherworldly Demons. He just never expected that over two thousand years later, it would save a group of his juniors who came looking for him.

However, judging by the appearance of the light barrier, it could collapse at any moment. Even if they wanted to hold on, they couldn't last much longer.

"Who said those guys didn't besiege us?" Yu Feier huffed. "Just now, over twenty puppets were all attacking here, otherwise, the light barrier wouldn't have become so thin. It's just... we don't know why they left!"

Those big guys didn't not besiege them; they just couldn't break through the light barrier and left. And they didn't know when they would return!

As for them, once they left the light barrier, it would mean losing their protection. They had almost exhausted all their trump cards, and even with help, it would be difficult to escape!

"You mean they besieged you for a while and then left?"

Zhang Xuan frowned.

Logically, if these guys persisted, the light barrier should have already broken, and Yu Feier and the others would have been hard-pressed to survive. Why did so many puppets leave at the critical moment, leaving only two to continue?

The others nodded.

"Approximately when did they leave?"

Zhang Xuan frowned.

"Just now, about ten-plus minutes ago!" Ye Qian said.

"Ten-plus minutes ago? At that time, Luo Qiqi and I had just emerged from that other underground palace..."

His eyebrows knitted into a knot. Suddenly realizing something, Zhang Xuan's expression darkened, "Could it be..."

Could it be... these guys knew he had broken into another underground palace and wanted to rush to assist?

Oh no!

If this were the case, and he was still sitting on the stone steps at the underground palace exit, once discovered, wouldn't he be directly torn to shreds?

"You all wait here, I'll think of something..."

His physical body was naturally more important than anyone else's; he absolutely couldn't afford to lose it.

Having said that, he could no longer bother with these people. He turned and flew back.

"Hey... hey!"

Seeing his voice disappear and then no further movement, Yu Feier hastily cried out. After calling a few times with no answer, she angrily slammed her palm on the ground, feeling like she was about to explode.

What was that about!

He said he came to save them, but before saving anyone, he vanished. What was he playing at?

Ignoring the other party's complaints, Zhang Xuan moved extremely fast, his figure like a wisp of wind.

Earlier, to prevent being discovered, he had flown very slowly. Now, fearing something might happen to his physical body, he flew at extreme speed and soon returned to the stone steps.

"No puppets came..."

On the stone steps, his physical body was still sitting cross-legged, not moving at all, with no traces of having been attacked.

"Could I have guessed wrong?"

He had thought that the many puppets knew he had broken into another underground palace and had gone to help, but unexpectedly, it wasn't like that at all. Zhang Xuan scratched his head, full of awkwardness.

"Clone!"

He released his clone. After thinking for a moment, he took out a ring and placed his physical body inside.

A physical body without a soul didn't need to breathe and wasn't considered alive, so it could be placed in a storage ring, just like the clone.

Placing it in the ring to be carried by the clone would make it much safer.

Although the clone wasn't entirely reliable and sometimes acted foolishly, the Nine-Heavens Lotus Embryo was no joke. No matter how powerful these puppets were, it would be very difficult for them to kill him.

With him looking after the main body, its safety could at least be guaranteed.

"You wait here. I'll go in and see what those puppets are up to, so I can prepare a response if anything happens..."

After instructing the clone, the spirit soul once again flew into the underground palace.

Since this group of puppets didn't go to the other underground palace, they must have something else to do. Otherwise, they wouldn't have stopped besieging Yu Feier and the others.

Then he would go and see what these guys were really up to!

After flying for a while, he once again saw the first wave of puppets he had encountered. At this moment, they had left the main path they were on and were walking towards a corner of the "town."

"What are they doing going there?"

The corner of the town wasn't illuminated by night-pearls, appearing somewhat dark. However, these puppets showed no sign of stopping, walking straight inward, and soon disappearing into the darkness.

"Eye of Insight!"

Patterns circulated within his eyes, and the Eye of Insight shone forth. The previously pitch-black area instantly became transparent.

The Eye of Insight could not only see through falsehoods but also wasn't obstructed by darkness.

Once again clearly seeing his surroundings, Zhang Xuan continued to follow.

This group of puppets soon walked out of the town and arrived before a river.

"That should be the river I saw above..."

After a glance, Zhang Xuan raised an eyebrow.

This river should be connected to the one above; he didn't expect it to wind and flow all the way here.

But why were they not besieging Yu Feier and the others and instead came to the river?

*Splash!*

While he was wondering, he saw a puppet enter the river first.

*Creak! Creak!*

As soon as the puppet entered, he heard the sound of a mechanism, and then a small circular platform slowly rose from the center of the river.

As the platform emerged, a fierce aura permeated the area.

A ferocious killing aura that made one feel as if falling into resistance surged forth, causing Zhang Xuan's body to involuntarily sink.

"It can even attack souls?"

His spirit soul hastily circulated the Heavenly Dao Cultivation Technique, only then did he recover, his pupils involuntarily contracting.

He was currently a spirit soul, formless and ethereal. He hadn't expected the platform to nearly make him fall; the ferocity of the malevolent aura within it was terrifying.

Compared to the living Otherworldly Demon that Master Hong had found earlier, it was simply nothing in comparison.

"What on earth is it?"

The patterns in his eyes proliferated as he continued to look towards the circular platform, and he immediately saw something amiss.

On the small circular platform, a watermelon-sized object was constantly wriggling and slowly pulsating, like muffled thunder.

"A heart?"

Zhang Xuan's body swayed.

At the very center of the stone platform, a fresh, red heart was actually enshrined!

How could there be a heart in this place? Most importantly... it was still beating!

While he was wondering, he saw the first puppet that had entered the water kneel before the circular platform.

*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!*

As the heart beat, the spiritual energy in the pool water was extracted and directly poured into the puppet's body. The puppet, which had looked somewhat listless moments ago, was full of energy and vigor moments later, regaining its power.

"This is... replenishing their power?"

Zhang Xuan's fist tightened.