After roughly an incense stick's time, Luo Hong approached the location of that ruined palace.
At the foot of a pitch-black mountain that rose straight into the clouds like a black pillar of heaven stood a cluster of gray-black palace buildings.
It was enormous in scale, its full extent impossible to take in at a glance. Yet for some unknown reason, more than half of it had now collapsed.
Luo Hong did not hesitate. Picking a broad avenue, he walked into the palace complex.
But before he had explored very far, a series of heavy footsteps sounded from ahead.
Soon, a yellow puppet several zhang tall emerged from around a corner. Its bright yellow eyes continuously swept the surroundings, as if it were patrolling.
The puppet resembled a long-armed giant ape. It wore a heavy suit of armor, more than half of which had already been damaged, and carried a battered serrated saber that had clearly endured countless years of weathering.
Yet Luo Hong immediately noticed that both the armor and saber were still shrouded in white light, emanating faint fluctuations of the Power of Stars.
Clearly, they were both Star Artifacts!
The instant it spotted Luo Hong, the Giant Ape Puppet let out a low growl. Raising its saber, it slashed down at him from afar.
At once, a star blade beam shot forth, aimed directly at Luo Hong's neck.
Luo Hong remained utterly calm. With a casual palm strike through the air, he blasted out an invisible force that not only shattered the star blade beam, but also tore the Giant Ape Puppet apart on the spot.
Picking up the serrated saber that had fallen nearby, Luo Hong found that the runes on it were extremely similar to Madam Liu Hua's Star Restriction, though he was not surprised.