"We pay our respects to the elders!"
"We pay our respects to the elders!"
Dong Fei, Zhu Jingming, and the others hurriedly cupped their hands.
"The Stone Man Secret Realm trial is over? Where are the others?"
Chi Zhenheng swept his gaze over them, his expression darkening as he asked.
Chi Zhenheng frowned, sensing something amiss.
There were far too few disciples before him!
Judging by the casualties in previous Stone Man Secret Realm trials, at least sixty or seventy people should have returned, even if they had failed to advance to the Inner Hall.
Yet the disciples before him were not only merely average by the standards of the Bronze Ranking, but all bore injuries, as though they had fought a vicious battle.
Not a single top talent from the top thirty of the Bronze Ranking was among them.
Most importantly, Chi Zhenheng sensed a powerful, eerie aura lingering on these disciples.
"Did you encounter a Stone Puppet King inside the Stone Man Secret Realm?"
Chi Zhenheng's heart sank, and a sense of foreboding welled up within him.
"Elder Chi, an extremely powerful Stone Puppet King appeared inside the Stone Man Secret Realm!"
A young man dressed in white robes, though thoroughly bedraggled, stepped forward and replied, "That Stone Puppet King was very strange. Not only was it immensely powerful, but it could also devour warriors' martial souls!"
"Devour martial souls?"
Surprise crossed Chi Zhenheng's face.
Xiahou Lie and the other elders were also slightly startled.
Devouring martial souls was exceedingly rare.
Even Chi Zhenheng, Xiahou Lie, and the others had only heard of such things in ancient books and rumors.
"That's right. There are probably still twenty-odd people inside the Stone Man Secret Realm. They're planning to join forces against the Stone Puppet King."
"That Stone Puppet King