A Summoning Sensation, Devouring Puppets

On a solitary mountain peak, Xiao Yan buried the remains of the person suspected to the Life Profound Realm expert.

Although he was not a senior figure in the Dou Qi Continent, he still deserved some respect for those who perished in the great battle against the Alien Demon.

With this matter settled, Xiao Yan didn't linger and waste any more time. He directly led Queen Medusa and Zi Yan, flying deeper into the ruins.

He could vaguely sense that something was calling to him; it was a magical vibration that touched his soul.

What could it be?

After flying for almost half a day, Xiao Yan and his group finally entered the depths of the ruins, demonstrating the vastness of this space.

Perhaps because he entered this place early, Xiao Yan did not encounter any powerful figures from other empires along the way. However, after entering deeper into the area, Old Yao reminded him that although there were no people from the Soul Hall here, there was the aura of the Soul Hall.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yan had no choice but to slow down and focus more on detecting the soul power.

Is this the place?

Gazing at the majestic mountain peak so close at hand, Xiao Yan murmured to himself.

On this mountain peak stand numerous ancient pagodas, grand in scale, resembling some kind of place for cultivation.

Upon approaching, Xiao Yan discovered that this mountain peak was sheer and rugged, with strange rocks everywhere. A dense and terrifying amount of energy, or rather, a mixture of Yuan Power and Dou Qi, was gathering here, and it even seemed to be gathering into a misty state.

The energy is so concentrated that it's practically liquefied...

Xiao Yan's eyes were a little red.

If he could cultivate in a place like this for three to five years, he felt he could directly reach the threshold of becoming Dou Sheng!

Once we're out of customs, we can go anywhere with ease, right?

Xiao Yan suddenly had a strong urge to go to the Tianxuan Continent.

In his mind, a powerhouse of the level of the Eight Ancient Masters was definitely capable of defeating Nine-Star Dou Saint!

After all, it took Xiao Yan over a decade of cultivation to leave the Dou Qi Continent. While the insufficient energy of the Dou Qi Continent Xiao Yan Xiao Yan certainly contributed to his slow progress, given his talent, his improvement over those years wouldn't have been insignificant. Yet, even so, when faced with Lin Dong, who had only advanced to the Ancestor Realm for a year and immediately traveled from the Tianxuan Continent to the Great Thousand World, Xiao Yan's reaction was: he felt the other party was very powerful.

Therefore, it seems that the Ancestor Realm is definitely greater than the Dou Emperor.

In that case, the Eight Ancient Masters may not necessarily be equal to Dou Emperor, but the Half-Ancestor Realm that Ying Huanhuan can reach is probably not much worse than Dou Emperor, and may even be stronger.

Xiao Yan was very confident in himself. With his current extraordinary talent, he only needed to reach the level of the Triple Reincarnation Tribulation to be able to beat up the Hun Tian Di.

After all, he has always been above average in terms of combat power.

The only problem now is how he can reach that level.

There's definitely no hope in the Dou Qi Continent.

Perhaps we can use this space to pinpoint our location back to the Tianxuan Continent.

However, with his current strength being at most comparable to the Nirvana Realm, if his Heavenly Flames were exposed on the Tianxuan Continent, his situation would probably not be good.

Besides, judging by the time, he's not even fifteen years old yet. Lin Dong probably hasn't even been born yet, so there's no fun to be had there. There's no rush for now.

Composing themselves, Xiao Yan and his companions landed on the mountain peak filled with stone towers and ventured deeper into the mountains.

Zi Yan Queen Medusa seemed to sense some of the fluctuations in Xiao Yan's Xiao Yan, so they didn't ask him why he came here. They simply followed him silently, showing him through their actions that they had always been there for him.

A faint mist of energy swirled in the mountains, obstructing the three's vision. In addition, many ferocious demonic beasts lurked deep within the mountains. An ordinary person would certainly not dare to venture so recklessly, but for Xiao Yan, who was accompanied by two female companions whose true forms were the Ancient Void Dragon and the Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python, this was obviously not a problem.

After traveling for about half an hour, Xiao Yan and his companions arrived outside a huge stone gate.

The stone gate is as tall and magnificent as if it reaches the sky, covered with moss, and an ancient aura wafts towards you.

There were once extremely complex runes on that stone gate, but with the passage of time or other reasons, those runes have faded and are no longer visible. However, Xiao Yan can still vaguely sense the powerful remnants of those runes.

"Someone has already gone in."

Looking at the stone door with a crack and then at the footprints on the ground, Xiao Yan frowned deeply. The fluctuations he had sensed suddenly became somewhat faint.

It looks like things aren't looking good!

"Hopefully we won't run into the Soul Hall Dou Zun, otherwise it'll be a huge problem."

Shaking his head somewhat helplessly, Xiao Yan communicated with Old Yao, asking him to conceal the auras of the three of them. Then, he put his arm around Queen Medusa's sexy waist, carried the little loli Zi Yan on his back, and his figure transformed into a silver-gray shadow, darting into the cave behind the stone gate.

Upon entering the stone gate, the light became much dimmer, and Xiao Yan hurried along the road.

The interior of this cave dwelling is also extremely spacious, feeling no smaller than the Misty Cloud Sect.

Hmm, very good, Misty Cloud Sect has become a unit of area.

After carefully sensing the faint fluctuations, Xiao Yan determined the direction to proceed and sped down a passage towards the underground.

A few minutes later, Xiao Yan suddenly stopped. At this moment, the view in front of him had opened up.

But something about what I saw didn't seem quite right.

It was an extremely large, yet circular black hole, resembling a honeycomb.

"This is?"

Xiao Yan stared in astonishment at the enormous circular black hole, which seemed to extend deep into the earth. Around the black hole were countless caves, and one could vaguely see some severed limbs scattered about, which was quite gruesome.

Xiao Yan pondered for a moment, then used his soul power to grab some severed limbs and examined them carefully.

These are not human limbs, but rather things cast from metal materials, resembling puppets.

Or rather...

Symbol Puppet?

Xiao Yan felt somewhat fortunate, although he couldn't possibly remember everything about "Martial Universe," and in fact, he had forgotten a lot of it over the years.

However, he still knew a little about many key pieces of information.

Judging from the appearance, this should be a place where Symbol Puppet gather.

Could it be that the aura he sensed was that of a Symbol Puppet?

If that's the case, then it's rather disappointing.

Xiao Yan wouldn't even glance at ordinary Symbol Puppet.

But if... if it's the Devouring Heavenly Corpse that I just saw in the mental remnant, then Xiao Yan is really a little envious.

With that thing, what's there to fear from the Soul Hall?

They just exploded at them!

"Be careful, there are people from the Soul Hall deep inside this lair."

The voice of the Old Yao resounded in Xiao Yan's heart.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yan's expression hardened, and with a wave of his hand, his Dou Qi condensed into three sets of black robes, which appeared on the three of them.

"Let's go take a look."

Xiao Yan transmitted his voice to Queen Medusa and Zi Yan, and then led the two of them silently into the interior of the Puppet Nest.

Surprisingly, the interior of the Puppet Nest contained a fairly large space.

Ten Dou Zong- level auras echoed in this space!

Xiao Yan's gaze swept over them and he discovered that these guys were all Soul Hall Protector dressed in black robes, emitting black smoke...

The leader among them even possessed the aura of Peak Dou Zong!

Clearly, this time, the Soul Hall's branch in the Tianxin Empire has mobilized its entire force!

Their opponents, however, were a group of Symbol Puppet that looked like they had been hastily put together. Judging from the cracks on their bodies, each of these ten Symbol Puppet was like a patchwork garment. The best one was made up of eight parts, while the worst one looked like a pile of broken pieces, making it almost unbearable to look at.

Even so, the ten guardians of the Soul Hall seemed unable to do anything about them.

"Teacher, Venerable Skyfire, what's going on?"

This was the first time Xiao Yan had ever seen such a bizarre puppet. It looked like something cobbled together, yet it possessed the power of Dou Zong, or even a Nirvana Realm expert?

If the people of the Tianxuan Continent knew this, they would probably be quite surprised, right?

"Something's not right. This thing wasn't crafted at all; it's a combat puppet that's been brought together by some kind of force."

The voice of Venerable Skyfire sounded somewhat heavily.

This thing is beyond his comprehension.

He had encountered some experts who could create Dou Zun Puppet in the past, but those people could not possibly refine a pile of shattered corpses into a puppet that could be used for combat.

In the Dou Qi Continent, the integrity of the corpse material is quite important when creating puppets.

With more ingredients, you can refine it a bit more; without enough ingredients, it's impossible to refine anything. As for a pile of dismembered corpses? What's the point of refining then? Extracting essence blood directly is more reasonable than refining puppets.

"Hmm? What a strange power."

At this moment, the Old Yao suddenly spoke with a look of surprise and uncertainty.

"Teacher, what's wrong?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yan quickly asked.

"I just tried to use my soul power to disarm this puppet, but the moment my wisp of soul power approached it, the connection with me was severed, as if it had been erased?"

The Old Yao's voice was filled with deep doubt.

Erase?

Xiao Yan felt a chill run down his spine.

Such a bizarre operation?

After suppressing his many doubts, Xiao Yan carefully observed the battle between the Soul Hall protectors and the strange Symbol Puppet.

Most of the Soul Hall's methods have a strong special attack attribute against soul power. It is normal that they are not very effective against Symbol Puppet that have no soul and at most have a mental imprint.

However, Xiao Yan soon discovered that the Soul Hall Protector's Dou Qi attack, when it landed on the Symbol Puppet, seemed to disappear without a trace, as if it had vanished into thin air.

Um?

This feeling of déjà vu!

Xiao Yan's heart suddenly trembled.

This feeling... it's like Devouring Heavenly Corpse!

A look of astonishment appeared in Xiao Yan's eyes. He focused his attention on the strange Symbol Puppet again, carefully examining their pieced-together structure.

Three full minutes later, a glint of light appeared in Xiao Yan's eyes.

I see!

From a tiny fragment of these bizarre Symbol Puppet, Xiao Yan discovered something familiar.

That seemed to be a fragment of the Devouring Heavenly Corpse's body that Xiao Yan had seen before!

The reason these Symbol Puppet are so strange is that the Devouring Power contained in the fragments of the Devouring Heavenly Corpse is evenly distributed throughout their bodies. By devouring the attacks launched by these Soul Hall Protector, they maintain their combat energy and the stability of their form.

"That's really perverted!"

Xiao Yan couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Who could have imagined that merely a part of the Devouring Heavenly Corpse's body, after combining with the remaining limbs in this Puppet Nest, could unleash such power?

This is absolutely outrageous!

Etc!

Xiao Yan suddenly perked up.

Logically speaking, the Devouring Heavenly Corpse shouldn't have any consciousness, right?

It's already shattered like this, how could it possibly perform another super reassembly, transforming into these Devouring Puppet to obstruct the Soul Hall's forces here?

Unless...

There are still experts!

Upon realizing this, Xiao Yan felt a chill run down his spine.

The Master of Devouring is definitely dead.

The Devouring Heavenly Corpse contains the Devouring Ancestral Symbol's Devouring Power, which is not something an ordinary person can control.

Considering that these Devouring Puppet were super-assembled under the control of some kind of will to hinder the Soul Hall members.

So perhaps deeper within this Puppet Nest's lair lies not only what these Devouring Puppet are protecting, but also the answers Xiao Yan seeks.

With this thought in mind, Xiao Yan tightened his grip on Queen Medusa's waist slightly and gave her a look.

"Let's go down and take a look."

Queen Medusa nodded slightly. As for Zi Yan, who was using Xiao Yan as a mount, she didn't care where Xiao Yan was going at all. Just by sensing the change in Xiao Yan's muscle strength, she knew that he was about to set off, so she didn't have any other reaction. She just reached out and hooked her arm around Xiao Yan's shoulder.

Xiao Yan ignored the Soul Hall Protector who were locked in a fierce battle with the Devouring Puppet. He flashed away, using the shadows of the darkness to silently descend into the Puppet Nest, his figure landing at the bottom of the Puppet Nest.

The wind whistled in his ears, and Xiao Yan was also very surprised. As he descended, he finally realized how terrifying the scale of this Puppet Nest was. What they had seen above was just the Puppet Nest.

After descending for a full quarter of an hour, the monotonous scenery around him suddenly changed, and an enormous black altar slowly appeared in Xiao Yan's field of vision.

The altar is entirely black, as if it were cast from black iron.

Above the altar were numerous stone pillars, with an exceptionally large, jade-like black pillar standing at the very center. At the top of this Black Jade pillar was an ancient rune array that spread out and connected every stone pillar of the altar, clearly serving as the central hub of the altar.

Without a second thought, Xiao Yan's gaze fell directly on the very center of the altar, and his body suddenly stiffened.

Because at the very center of that Black Jade pillar array, a pitch-black ball of light, seemingly capable of swallowing even light itself, was suspended within it.

That is...