Chapter 1415: Leaving

The young woman in the white dress conjured an egg-sized white orb, which emitted a vast expanse of white light, enveloping an area thirty zhang in radius.

The area enveloped by the white light instantly froze, forming an ice layer several feet thick. When the blue flames touched the white chill, white smoke immediately billowed, accompanied by a muffled sizzling sound.

Outside the exit lay a secluded courtyard, paved with blue stone slabs, and nothing else.

She released a swarm of white spirit bees, which flew into the exit without encountering any abnormalities.

With a flick of her jade-like hand, a white light flashed, and a small, exquisite white cauldron appeared. She cast an incantation into it, causing dense white threads to fly out, weaving into a white net over ten zhang wide, which then enveloped the humanoid puppet beast.

The humanoid puppet beast wielded the golden zhanmadao in its hand and swung it upwards. A golden light flew out, striking the white net with a muffled thud.

Just then, another anomaly occurred.

The floorboards suddenly rose up, isolating Wang Qingshan and Huang Fugui in a space over ten zhang wide. In this confined area, the two fourth-tier puppet beasts were able to exert even greater power.

The humanoid puppet beast darted forward, appearing before Wang Qingshan, and swung its golden zhanmadao at him.

A yellow light suddenly shot out from Wang Qingshan's sleeve, revealing an ancient-looking yellow mirror—the Xuanhuang Mirror.

The surface of the Xuanhuang Mirror glowed with countless yellow runes, suddenly brightening intensely and emitting a vast expanse of yellow light that enveloped the humanoid puppet beast. The puppet beast's body instantly petrified. The nine Azure Glaze Swords, as if cutting through butter, then shattered the petrified humanoid puppet beast into pieces.

The spider puppet beast was held down by a yellow hand over ten zhang in size, which was clearly composed of dense yellow sand.

Wang Qingshan repeated the trick: the Xuanhuang Mirror emitted a swath of yellow light that enveloped the spider puppet beast. The spider puppet beast rapidly petrified and was shattered into pieces by the Azure Glaze Swords.

"Are fourth-tier puppet beasts this easy to deal with?"

Wang Qingshan found it somewhat unbelievable. While the Xuanhuang Mirror possessed petrification abilities, nothing was truly absolute.

If the Xuanhuang Mirror was truly that powerful, True Lord Huanglong wouldn't have died.

A flash of insight struck him: the remnants of the puppet beasts suddenly transformed into two talismans, each about a foot long. On their surfaces were drawings of a human figure and a spider.

"These are paper puppets," Huang Fugui explained with sudden realization, "somewhat similar to talisman soldiers but also distinct. Talisman soldiers usually excel at spells, but their bodies aren't durable. Paper puppets are easier to refine than regular puppet beasts, and like them, they are very resilient. They rely on brute force attacks and are impervious to blades, spears, water, and fire. No wonder there are so many fourth-tier puppet beasts in the Myriad Puppet Palace; most of them are probably paper puppets."

Wang Qingshan gazed at the sealed stone chamber, his brows tightly furrowed. This was the first time he had encountered such a situation, and he had no idea how to leave.

He released his spiritual sense to probe, but it was blocked by some restriction, preventing him from investigating the area.

Was he truly to sit here and await death? This feeling of powerlessness made Wang Qingshan very uncomfortable.

After a brief thought, he cast an incantation, and the Xuanhuang Mirror immediately burst forth with dazzling yellow light, shooting towards the surrounding stone walls.

The stone walls rapidly petrified, with a thick layer of stone covering them.

Wang Qingshan cast a sword incantation, and the nine Azure Glaze Swords immediately glowed intensely with blue light, transforming into nine streaks that struck the surroundings.

A thunderous rumble!

After a loud bang, the stone layer shattered into pieces, and dust flew everywhere.

The ground began to shake violently, and countless golden runes suddenly emerged from the floor beneath them, vaguely forming a magical array.

"Oh no, it's a formation!"

Wang Qingshan inwardly cursed. Before he could react, a golden light flashed, and a thick golden beam of light rose from beneath their feet, engulfing both of them.

When they regained their senses, they suddenly found themselves in a grand hall spanning over ten mu.

True Lord White Wolf lay in a pool of blood, with a bowl-sized hole in his chest and his heart missing. His eyes were wide open, as if he had witnessed something unbelievable.

When Huang Fugui saw True Lord White Wolf's corpse, he was startled at first, but then quickly broke into a joyful expression. He loved profiting from the dead.

He released an ape puppet beast, walked over, and searched the corpse, finding a string of white storage beads. He even stripped off the magic robes from the body and then burned the corpse.

"Heh heh, it wasn't a wasted trip after all."

Huang Fugui chuckled and took out everything from the storage beads.

True Lord White Wolf was a rogue cultivator, and his possessions mainly consisted of demonic beast materials and refining materials. There were three magic treasures: a blue jade ruyi, a blue halberd half a zhang long, and a white orb the size of a dragon's eye, along with many miscellaneous materials.

"True Lord White Wolf's innate magic treasure is missing," Huang Fugui mused. "And there isn't much blood on the ground, nor any signs of a struggle. He probably rushed to the very end and triggered a restriction. His death was well-deserved."

Huang Fugui hummed softly, his gaze falling on the materials on the ground. He said with a smile, "Fellow Daoist Wang, finders keepers! Let's divide these things. Our trip wasn't in vain after all."

Wang Qingshan didn't stand on ceremony. Besides the white orb, he also took dozens of jade slips of various colors. He didn't have time to examine them closely and hastily put them away. Since the magic treasures and refining materials weren't particularly rare, Wang Qingshan yielded them to Huang Fugui as a reward for not abandoning him earlier.

Wang Qingshan gazed at the empty hall, his brows tightly furrowed.

He unleashed his spiritual sense, attempting to quickly find a way out.

Suddenly, Wang Qingshan's eyes lit up, and his gaze fell on the upper left corner of the hall. His spiritual sense detected faint fluctuations of a restriction there. Rather than sit and wait for death, it was better to take a chance!

He cast a sword incantation, and the nine Azure Glaze Swords immediately glowed intensely with blue light, emitting a vast expanse of blue sword energy. They transformed into a towering great sword over a hundred zhang long, which slashed towards the upper left corner.

The towering great sword struck the upper left corner as if hitting an impenetrable wall, producing a metallic clang.

The surrounding void twisted and distorted, and a powerful spatial force surged from all directions, seemingly intent on crushing his body.

Wang Qingshan's expression turned grim. He gritted his teeth, and an astonishing sword intent burst forth from him. The nine Azure Glaze Swords merged into one, forming a blue great sword over ten zhang long, emitting an aura of world-destroying power.

"Man and Sword as One!"

Wang Qingshan let out a low cry, transforming into a blue long rainbow and merging into the blue great sword. The blue great sword's glow intensified as it slashed towards the upper left corner.

Boom!

After a deafening roar erupted, the blue great sword suddenly appeared above a vast black desert.

A blue light flashed, and Wang Qingshan separated from the Azure Glaze Sword. He looked at the black desert below and breathed a sigh of relief. Huang Fugui was nowhere to be seen, and the Myriad Puppet Palace had vanished. He didn't know where he was, but at least he had finally left the Myriad Puppet Palace.