The sudden flash of a blade startled the nine people who were fleeing for their lives.
But Shi Shan was the first to react, because the flash of the blade was all too familiar.
"Could it be that person?"
Shi Shan's eyes lit up; if they had really encountered that person, then they would be safe.
laugh...
The next instant, the blade grazed their bodies. When they turned around, they found that the dozen or so Sin Beast closest to them were lying in pools of blood, lifeless.
He Changshan and the other two were startled, and for a moment they didn't realize what had happened.
The Sin Beast were equally alarmed and quickly retreated, daring not to advance any further.
Who is it!
The Platinum Sixth Grade Red-Scaled Beast roared angrily, while also becoming wary.
He killed more than ten subordinates with a single strike. Although these subordinates were only Platinum 2 or 3, it was still quite impressive.
"Captain, is that him?"
One of them looked warily at the Sin Beast and asked a question.
"It should be. This blade light looks a lot like that one's, and only that one could kill so many Sin Beast with a single strike," Shi Shan said.
Upon hearing this, the members of the Shi Shan team became excited, while He Changshan and his two companions looked bewildered.
"Brother Shi, who is this person you're talking about?" He Changshan couldn't help but ask.
"That person..."
As Shi Shan was speaking, a smile suddenly appeared on his face. "That person has arrived."
Following Shi Shan's gaze, He Changshan and the other two saw a handsome young man walking slowly towards them with a smile.
Upon seeing the other person's face clearly, He Changshan and the other two froze in shock.
"Lin, Lin An?"
None of the three of them expected that the person Shi Shan was talking about was actually Lin An.
"You actually know Brother Lin?"
Shi Shan was surprised, but he didn't ask any questions. Instead, he quickly led the rest of his team to greet Lin An, saying, "Brother Lin, thank you for saving us."
"No need to be so polite, I didn't expect to run into you here either," Lin An said with a smile.
"Well, it's a long story."
Just as Shi Shan was about to continue, he suddenly remembered something, "Oh right, those Sin Beast..."
This is not the time for chatting; there are still nearly a hundred Sin Beast behind us.
However, when he turned his head to look, he froze on the spot.
But the nearly one hundred Sin Beast that had been chasing and killing them were now all lying dead on the ground.
Even the Platinum Sixth Grade Red-Scaled Beast had lost its life.
Beside these corpses of the Sin Beast, figures were collecting valuable materials.
"Dead... dead?"
The others stared in disbelief at the scene. In just a short while, without even hearing a sound, all the Sin Beast had died.
"Those are all my puppets, don't worry. Now you can continue," Lin An said with a smile.
After he made one slash, he suddenly remembered that he now had his own thugs.
He immediately released the puppet.
These puppets were comparable to Diamond Fifth Grade, and dealing with the strongest was only Platinum Sixth Grade. Since there were fewer than a hundred Sin Beast, it was a piece of cake, and they were dealt with without even making a sound.
"Puppet?"
Shi Shan and the others were all dumbfounded.
They were aware of the puppets, of course, but the exchange hall refused to allow them to exchange them.
Otherwise, a Gold Realm cultivator with a Diamond Tier puppet would be invincible, and the competition would be pointless.
But they didn't expect Lin An to have puppets, a total of nine, and each puppet's aura was quite strong, probably already at the Diamond Tier.
"Brother Lin, where did you get this puppet?"
Shi Shan couldn't help but ask in a low voice, already guessing in his heart whether Lin An had some powerful background that allowed the Heavenly Vault Army to give him special treatment.
Lin An shook his head. "The exchange hall doesn't have them. These puppets were all made by myself."
"What? You made it yourself?"
"Brother Lin, if I'm not mistaken, these puppets have all reached the Diamond Tier, right?"
"That's right."
"You can actually create Diamond Tier puppets!"
Shi Shan couldn't believe it.
Among the more than two thousand people in this competition, there were puppeteers, but they were only at the Platinum Rank, and the puppets they created were also at the Platinum Rank.
Moreover, puppeteers themselves are generally not very strong in combat, since they spend most of their time researching puppets.
Unlike Lin An, who not only possesses incredible combat power but is also a Diamond Tier puppeteer.
"A prodigy, this is too prodigy!" Shi Shan was shocked. Compared to this person, they, these so-called prodigies, were nothing at all.
He Changshan and the other two were also stunned, their eyes filled with astonishment as they looked at Lin An.
They were well aware of Lin An's situation during this period; for the past two months, he had stayed in his residence at Heavenly Vault Pass and had not left the house at all.
Although they later ventured out, they felt the other party wasn't very strong. They believed that once they learned of the power of the Sin Beast within the Sin Abyss, they would join their group.
But after waiting for several days without seeing the other party contact them, they assumed that the other party intended to give up on the competition.
I never expected to run into them here, and they even saved them.
What's even more unexpected is that Lin An, who is only Platinum Second Grade, is actually a Diamond Tier puppeteer.
"No wonder he wasn't in a hurry before. He stayed at his residence for two months; he was probably busy making puppets."
Thinking back on their previous thoughts, He Changshan and the other two couldn't help but feel embarrassed.
A Diamond Tier puppeteer wouldn't need to join them; the fact that the other party was willing to let them latch onto their coattails is already a stroke of good luck for them.
"What's going on here? How did you manage to provoke so many Sin Beast?" Lin An asked.
"Sigh, it's our bad luck. We entered this Great Ridge Mountain yesterday, killed some Sin Beast, and found a place to rest for the night."
"This morning, we planned to continue hunting the Sin Beast, and things were going smoothly at first. But then that Red-Scaled Beast went crazy and led a group of Sin Beast on a patrol of the mountains, which we just happened to run into."
"And that's how it turned out," Shi Shan said helplessly.
Lin An nodded; these guys were indeed quite unlucky.
Generally, each Sin Beast has its own territory, and at most, it will patrol within its own territory. It is rare for a large number of Sin Beast to patrol the mountain together.
"I reckon that Red-Scaled Beast didn't have any territory at all, and then it found a group of other territoryless Sin Beast to roam around in the Great Ridge Mountain," Shi Shan said after thinking for a moment.
Lin An smiled. "This is just a street thug."
"So what are your plans next?" Lin An asked.
Shi Shan originally wanted to say that he was going to leave Great Ridge Mountain, since everyone had been injured earlier.
But then he realized that since this big shot was here, it meant another massacre was about to begin.
Although they weren't strong in combat, they could still help collect the corpses without any problem.
"Brother Lin, why don't we stay and help you collect the corpses of those Sin Beast?" Shi Shan hesitated for a moment before asking.