Dou Sheng Remains
"Xiao Ming, what are you looking at?"
Just as Xiao Ming was examining the medicine cauldron, Zi Yan's voice suddenly rang out behind him.
Turning around, I saw Zi Yan curiously looking around the room.
"Why did you suddenly come here? Aren't you playing with that Pill Beast anymore?"
"Hmph, that guy only knows how to cower in Xiao Yi Xian's arms!" Zi Yan said angrily upon hearing this.
If you don't drool over it, it'll probably still be happy to snuggle in your arms.
Xiao Ming glanced at her, but didn't say anything. Instead, he pointed to the cauldron in front of him and said...
"This is the Spirit of the Deep Sea, renowned on the Heaven Cauldron Ranking!"
"The Spirit of the Deep Sea?" Zi Yan tilted her head, glanced at it curiously, then stopped paying attention and began searching the Alchemy Room.
Zi Yan was only interested in pills and medicinal herbs; she didn't care about the pill-making cauldron.
Xiao Ming stored the Spirit of the Deep Sea in his Na Ring, and then searched with Zi Yan.
The fact that this Alchemy Room possessed the Spirit of the Deep Sea already foreshadowed its extraordinary nature. Inside, the two found a place that resembled a study, which must have been the former owner of the ruins, where he once studied Pill Formulas.
Xiao Ming took the wooden boxes down from the bookshelf one by one. The boxes were covered in dust, but the boxes themselves were still largely intact. He opened them one by one.
After waving away the dust, Xiao Ming discovered many Ancient Pill Formulas, manuscripts, and annotations among them—these were the fruits of the ruins' owner's labor.
Xiao Ming even saw the Pill Formula for a Grade 9 precious pill among them.
These items were, of course, taken away by Xiao Ming without any hesitation, greatly enriching his collection.
The group cleaned up the Pill Hall and then left again.
Over the next few days, following the Pill Hall, Xiao Ming led the group to thoroughly search all the remaining places in the ruins, including the Dou Technique Hall, the Cultivation Technique Hall, and so on.
Throughout the entire ruins, Xiao Ming dared not say that nothing was missed, but he dared to say that most of the valuable treasures fell into their hands.
How rich can the collection of a Dou Sheng Expert be!
All the items filled more than a dozen Na Rings that Xiao Ming had prepared, each with a considerable capacity. With this enormous wealth, supporting a top-tier power would be a piece of cake.
After looting the side halls, they finally arrived at the main hall.
The main hall is entirely bronze in color; countless years have deepened this bronze hue, giving it an ancient Aura that emanates from beneath every stone slab, allowing one to sense the vicissitudes of countless years of silence.
The main hall was extremely vast; a person standing within it would appear as small as an ant. In the center of the hall, there were ten enormous orbs of light, suspended in mid-air. Within their dazzling light, one could vaguely discern something resembling a scroll.
The moment Xiao Yi Xian, Medusa, and the others saw these orbs of light, their hearts pounded violently. Xiao Ming had told them that there should be Heaven Rank Dou Techniques here. Could these be the so-called Heaven Rank Dou Techniques?
Xiao Ming's gaze swept across the orbs of light that emanated a strange pressure, and finally settled on the center of the ten orbs. There, on the stone seat, sat a skeleton with a body entirely white as jade, its hands forming a hand seal, its legs crossed.
The Dou Sheng Skeleton!
Unbeknownst to him, a fiery passion had already crept into Xiao Ming's eyes. This thing, whether in its intrinsic value or in its value as a Heaven Rank Dou Technique, was something that aroused desire in everyone. Those orbs of light were merely a smokescreen.
And these Dou Sheng Skeleton are the key to his next breakthrough to Dou Zun, and to his rapid breakthrough within Dou Zun!
Xiao Yi Xian and the others also saw the oppressive Dou Sheng Skeleton in the center of the ball of light. However, their experiences over the past few days made them realize that there were many dangers in this ruin, so they looked around to see what threats might be present.
Around the towering stone seat, a dozen or so figures sat cross-legged. These figures were all gray in color, and from a distance they looked like stone carvings. Their eyes were closed, and it was unknown how many years they had been preserved in this posture.
"Puppet?"
Upon seeing these lifeless, stone-like figures, Xiao Yi Xian murmured in surprise.
"Hmm... and they're quite high-level puppets. They feel similar to the Heaven Demon Puppet. If I'm not mistaken, these dozen or so puppets should all possess the strength of Dou Zun."
Xiao Ming said softly, "Although these puppets are not moving at the moment, it's only because they haven't been activated yet. You can imagine that once these puppets are activated, if they are not prepared, it will definitely be a fierce and brutal battle."
"This is Ancient Human Puppet. It is made by extracting the soul of a powerful person from their body using special methods and then sealing it into the puppet's body. Puppets created in this way not only possess intelligence but can also use Dou Skill, making them far more troublesome than ordinary puppets," Venerable Tian Huo added from the side.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Yi Xian and the others changed color slightly. A lineup of more than a dozen Dou Zun Expert could easily wipe out several forces like the Four Points Pavilion in the outside world.
"So what should we do next? Should I break the Space Seal in front of us?"
Zi Yan touched the transparent yet sturdy Space Barrier that appeared before her eyes.
"Wait a mininute."
With a wave of his hand, Xiao Ming summoned more than twenty golden puppets of varying shades of color before the crowd. Upon closer inspection, there were actually twenty-seven of them.
"There are so many Heaven Demon Puppets!" Xiao Ming hadn't told anyone about the creation of these puppets. Apart from Zi Yan, the others knew that Xiao Ming was creating Heaven Demon Puppets, but they didn't know there were so many. Everyone showed surprise on their faces.
After the initial surprise, excitement returned to her face.
With these puppets, the threat posed by those Ancient Human Puppets was reduced to a minimum.
"I'll control these Heaven Demon Puppets to hold off those Ancient Human Puppets. You all go and collect those orbs of light. After you've collected them, cooperate with me to destroy those Ancient Human Puppets. There's something strange about that Dou Sheng remains, so don't touch it," Xiao Ming instructed solemnly.
Upon hearing this, the experienced Venerable Tian Huo was the first to react, and his expression turned somewhat grim.
"You mean that thing might still be alive?"
The soul of the Venerable Tian Huo can survive for countless years beneath magma, relying on the Heavenly Flames. The soul of Dou Sheng can do the same. Some Dou Sheng can even directly possess another's body by relying on the spiritual imprints they leave behind.
"Don't panic. The Dou Sheng Skeleton are just a trace of the Soul Seal left behind by that powerful figure before his death. It's not a true Dou Sheng. Defeating it is not impossible, but the prerequisite is that we don't wake him up before we deal with the Ancient Human Puppet. Otherwise, the consequences are hard to predict," Xiao Ming said solemnly.