Such differences were not unusual in the martial world.
Many people practiced the same martial art, yet because of differences in aptitude, comprehension, and circumstance, the results they achieved were often completely different.
Some became powerful, some weak; some upright and honorable, others sinister and ghostly.
Take the Nine Yin Divine Claws, for example. Mei Chaofeng and Chen Xuanfeng had cultivated it into the Nine Yin White Bone Claws, clearly straying onto an unorthodox path.
But that did not mean the martial art had no redeeming qualities. Though it was wicked, its power was indeed immense.
Meng Zhao pondered that the master who had arranged all this likely believed in seeking common ground while preserving differences. Only then could he tolerate the martial art displayed by the Masked Man and deem him to have passed.
If Meng Zhao went down and demonstrated the Puppet Martial Arts he had deduced, he would likely achieve the same result.
Still, he did not believe the three of them could easily break through the Puppet Array, for besides the puppets, there stood giant stone statues, each more than a zhang tall.
Those Stone Giants could not merely be decorations, could they?
Sure enough, once the puppets returned to their positions and no longer threatened the three Masked Men, even fiercer tremors arose. The towering Stone Giants were lifting their feet and stomping upon the earth.
Meng Zhao counted them. Compared with the numerous Puppet Guards, the Stone Giants were few in number—only thirty-six in total. Yet each possessed an imposing majesty, with cold hues, hard angular edges, and an overwhelming sense of strength.
The Stone Giants moved far more slowly than the nimble Puppet Guards, like old men practicing tai chi in a park at dawn. At first glance, they did not seem particularly