Wood Puppet Grotesque

The sound was like heavenly music to Shi Qing and the others, who were desperately fleeing.

As the voice entered their ears, a stunning sword light also flashed before their eyes.

Though the sword light was dozens of meters away, it arrived in an instant, showcasing its speed.

The sword light cut through the air with a sharp hiss, demonstrating its sharpness.

Hearing and seeing it all happened in a single moment.

The sword light, like a silver ribbon, suddenly arrived, also in just an instant.

The sword was too fast. It was so fast that before Shi Qing and the others could even see clearly, two of the thirteen people who had been chasing them had their heads severed by the sword light.

Although it was night, they were on the outskirts of Redwood Ridge. The trees weren't as dense as in the inner layers, and combined with the white light reflected from the snow-covered ground, Shi Qing and the others' vision was not significantly affected.

The sword light stopped, and the person behind the sword light was naturally seen by Shi Qing and the others.

Upon seeing him, including Shi Qing, their leader, Everyone's first reaction was a sense of inferiority.

The person looked to be only in his early twenties, wearing a brown fur coat; a soft white fur neck guard, clearly made from a Frost Beast's tail, was wrapped around his neck; and he wore a pair of shiny black fur boots.

Shi Qing and the others' feeling of inferiority was not without reason.

The five of them were only wearing animal skin skirts, and those were tattered, hole-ridden skirts.

Yet, even with these animal skin skirts, less than fifty out of the more than three hundred people in Big Stone Camp could afford to wear them.

The vast majority of others wore dried leaf clothing.

Dried leaf clothing was made by drying larger leaves collected and then piecing them together to form clothes.

Of course, it wasn't just Big Stone Camp.

Around Redwood Ridge, except for Rogue Camp, which was slightly better off, all other camps were in the same situation.

There was no other way; a complete animal skin was proof of strength in itself.

Even Rogue Camp couldn't guarantee they wouldn't damage the prey's fur during a hunt, let alone these smaller camps.

Therefore, the complete set of clothes the young man wore at that moment was enough to make them feel ashamed.

Not to mention the gleaming silver longsword in his hand, which had instantly eliminated two Grotesques.

While Shi Qing and the others were still in shock, the young man moved again.

He swung his sword as if dancing. In a flash of lightning, his cold blade cut through the darkness, leaving seven or eight sword lights in the air. With a speed akin to slicing through melons and vegetables, he beheaded the remaining ten Grotesques behind "Xia Ding."

Recalling their own pathetic escape from the Grotesques, and then witnessing the young man's effortless dispatch of the monsters, the stark contrast intensified the sense of inferiority in Shi Qing and the other four.

After beheading the ten Grotesques, the young man didn't immediately attack Xia Ding. He simply looked at him calmly and slowly said, "These things you made..."

Whoosh...

Before the young man could finish speaking, that familiar sound suddenly rang out again.

Shi Qing's expression changed drastically, and he quickly shouted a warning.

"Be careful, sir!"

But his warning was clearly a bit late.

Before he could speak, the young man had already turned his head to look behind him. His ears twitched slightly, and he quickly turned his gaze, locking onto the top of a large tree on the left side of the dense forest.

"On the tree! Li Hu, Luo Ming, go together!"

He shouted loudly, and two more figures from the right side dashed over, quickly rushing towards the tree he was looking at.

At the same time, the young man no longer paid attention to "Xia Ding." He pushed off the ground and charged towards the tree.

The three moved with incredible speed. Shi Qing didn't even have time to see clearly before the tree was cut in half by the young man.

The entire upper part of the tree crashed to the ground.

This scene caused the expressions on the faces of Shi Qing and the other four to freeze instantly.

Especially when they discovered that the tree, broken in half, revealed gold inside.

The five of them widened their eyes in shock and swallowed in unison.

"The hardest Golden Scale Tree, cut down with a single sword?"

They only chose Crimson Frost Trees for logging.

It wasn't that they couldn't cut down Golden Scale Trees.

But the problem was, it would take them at least ten continuous hours of chopping to cut down one Golden Scale Tree.

But what had they just seen? A Golden Scale Tree cut down with one sword?

The way the five looked at the young man instantly filled with reverence.

As the Golden Scale Tree fell after being cut, a black figure leaped from the top like a ghost, heading towards the inner layers of Redwood Ridge.

But the young man and the other two reacted extremely quickly.

The three quickly positioned themselves in three directions, effectively surrounding the black figure.

"Trying to run? You're an early-stage Artisan Grotesque, I can't let you get away that easily."

"Don't get careless. This is a Wood Puppet Grotesque. The people I just killed were likely made by it using wood and corpses. It might have some tricks up its sleeve, so be careful."

Shi Qing reacted quickly. Hearing their conversation and glancing at the black figure that had been standing frozen since it appeared, he had a general understanding.

Artisan Grotesque, Wood Puppet Grotesque – they both referred to that black figure.

Xia Ding and those Lumber Team members were clearly being controlled by it.

Moreover, of the two names the young man had just called out, Shi Qing knew one of them and recognized the person.

Luo Ming, the current Leader of Rogue Camp and the son of the former Leader Luo Feng.

Indeed, as Shi Qing looked closer.

Of the three people, the tall, slender middle-aged man on the far right, with narrowed eyes and holding a long spear, was indeed Luo Ming, whom he had met a few times.

The one on the left, Li Hu, was powerfully built. His clothes were similar to the young man's, and he held a gleaming Goose Feather Saber, glaring at the black figure in the center.

Shi Qing also got a clear look at the thing the two men called a Wood Puppet Grotesque.

The Wood Puppet Grotesque, on the surface, looked like a black-clothed old man with a decaying face and a slightly hunched posture.

He held a small three-inch knife in his left hand and a spool of white thread in his right. His pair of crimson pupils were filled with ferocity, and his gaze towards the three people surrounding him was also filled with a bloodthirsty desire.

"Ah…"

The Wood Puppet Grotesque suddenly let out a roar. The spool in its right hand shot out dozens of transparent threads, which seemed to completely blend into the darkness and vanished in an instant.

However, the three people surrounding it began to dodge frantically left and right.

Seeing this, Shi Qing understood. The transparent threads were likely what had killed his companions earlier, but they were too weak to even see them.

The three who could see them were constantly dodging in mid-air.

Of course, they weren't just dodging.

Within moments, the young man with the sword seemed to have found an opening. He twisted his waist and lunged towards the Wood Puppet Grotesque, his long sword clashing with the threads in the air, sparking several times.

The long sword could cut through those transparent threads.

The Wood Puppet Grotesque's expression suddenly turned grim upon seeing this. It stared intently at the silver long sword in the young man's hand, as if realizing something.

Luo Ming and Li Hu's weapons were clearly not as strong as the young man's sword. The two continued to dodge, and although they were also closing in on the Wood Puppet Grotesque, their speed was too slow.

The young man had already swung his sword at the Wood Puppet Grotesque, and the other two were still several meters away.

However, even though the two hadn't arrived yet.

The young man's strength seemed abnormally high.

The long sword slashed through the air, bringing with it a fierce sword light, almost touching the Wood Puppet Grotesque. Even though it had retreated extremely quickly, the storm-like sword momentum followed closely behind.

The young man's sword momentum was like an overwhelming tide, wave after wave, instantly forcing the Wood Puppet Grotesque back to a large tree.

At the same time, Li Hu and Luo Ming finally broke through the heavy blockade of threads and arrived behind the young man.

The three seized the opportunity and sealed off all escape routes for the Wood Puppet Grotesque from the upper, middle, and lower paths.

The long sword slashed horizontally from above, the sharp spear thrust from the middle, and the large saber chopped from below.

Under the three-pronged attack, the Wood Puppet Grotesque was left with no room to evade.