Serpent Ancestor

Chapter 173: Mechanism Formation, profound and myriad

Xu Hei cast the Spirit Body Thread, attempting to control the cat corpse, but unexpectedly discovered that his Spirit Body Thread would disintegrate upon contact.

"Impossible to control!" Xu Hei was astonished.

Every type of puppet he had encountered could be manipulated with the Spirit Body Thread, but this corpse puppet was an exception.

Xu Hei probed it with his Divine Sense and found a black sphere in the dantian position of the cat corpse, resembling a Golden Core.

"A Corpse Core?"

Xu Hei's heart skipped a beat.

The Corpse Core, containing Yin Sha Qi, was the core of the corpse puppet.

If a Corpse Core was cultivated, it meant the corpse puppet had developed intelligence, could cultivate on its own, and possessed at least the strength of the Core Formation Stage.

However, the strength of the corpse puppet before him was clearly suppressed, maintained at about the late Foundation Establishment stage.

With this, the first challenge posed no pressure for Xu Hei, as his strength couldn't be measured by his apparent cultivation level.

Although the corpse puppet's strength was suppressed, controlling it was still a futile dream for Xu Hei.

Xu Hei manipulated the butcher to open the coffin lid, revealing a roll of white cloth inside, similar to what was on the cat corpse.

This was a Magical Treasure.

Xu Hei probed it with his Divine Sense but received no information, though he could sense a strong fluctuation of Spiritual Power.

"Let's test its effect."

With a thought, Xu Hei wrapped the butcher with the shroud, and the butcher immediately entered an invisible state.

"It can make one invisible, even undetectable by Divine Sense. How amazing!" Xu Hei marveled.

He controlled the butcher to move back and forth without making any sound. The invisibility effect was no less impressive than Hei Huang's Invisibility Talisman.

However, he suddenly felt the Yin Qi within the butcher intensifying, with Yin Qi continuously rising from the ground, rushing into the butcher's body, gathering at the center of the abdomen, seemingly about to condense into a point.

"Is it going to..."

Xu Hei's pupils contracted.

But at that moment, the butcher's body suddenly moved uncontrollably, crawling into the coffin.

"Stop!"

Xu Hei's face changed drastically, exerting all his control, but the shroud's power was too strong, directly pulling the butcher into the coffin, even closing the lid automatically.

This sudden change left Xu Hei dumbfounded.

He hurriedly tried to move the lid, using dragon scales to pry it open, but no matter what, he couldn't budge it, as if it was locked.

"Crack, crack, crack..."

A door opened behind the stone wall, leading to the next challenge.

Xu Hei stood there, staring at the immovable coffin lid, feeling both angry and embarrassed.

"Boom!!"

He slammed his tail hard on the coffin, but it only made a faint sound, to no avail.

"Damn it! This Magical Treasure tricked me!" Xu Hei cursed.

He had only used the butcher to test the Magical Treasure, yet such a change occurred.

Fortunately, it was the butcher wrapped in it. If it had been his true self, Xu Hei couldn't imagine the consequences.

Now, he still had a faint connection with the butcher, but the coffin blocked him from controlling it further.

This made Xu Hei extremely frustrated; not only did he fail to obtain the treasure, but he also lost a puppet.

Xu Hei's gaze shifted to the cat corpse on the ground.

He hoisted the cat corpse onto his back and crawled toward the second challenge.

He couldn't abandon the butcher, but knowing nothing about this pyramid, he couldn't just stand there foolishly; he had to move forward.

After a while, Xu Hei crawled into a new passage, where another stone tablet stood ahead, with inscriptions that seemed to be from the same hand.

"The first challenge requires defeating the Cat King and placing it in the coffin to pass."

"I have modified the Cat King to suppress its strength to match the challenger's. If you pass, you will be rewarded with a Magical Treasure scroll, which can enhance corpse puppets or render one invisible, but it has strong side effects. Prolonged use will lead to corpse Qi erosion, gradually losing one's mind and becoming a true corpse."

"For the subsequent challenges, this treasure might come in handy."

After reading the inscription, Xu Hei realized that the Cat King didn't enter the coffin, but the butcher did, which also worked. This rule had a loophole.

Xu Hei could only shake his head and proceed to the second challenge, with the passage behind him automatically closing.

The stone chamber of the second challenge was empty, with the floor composed of nine large squares, each ten zhang wide.

Xu Hei hesitated for a moment, then threw the Cat King onto one of the squares, but nothing happened.

He climbed onto the first square himself.

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly, countless sharp wind blades whistled toward him, and Xu Hei immediately understood that this place was a killing formation, triggered by living beings.

"Clang, clang, clang..."

The dragon scales on Xu Hei were slashed, emitting crisp collision sounds. Xu Hei's gaze turned cold, and he slammed a Mountain Embrace Seal onto the center of the square, but the blades only increased in number and power.

Xu Hei used the Ever-changing Fish and Dragon to dodge, but the blades continued to multiply. He took out a Magical Treasure to block them, but it was the same.

After various attempts, he finally discovered that only by enduring them with his body would the power gradually weaken.

"I understand now, this formation requires me to endure it head-on," Xu Hei thought to himself.

Xu Hei stopped dodging, using his dragon scales to block the falling blades. Each strike made his whole body tremble, but the power slowly diminished, and the frequency decreased.

After a stick of incense's time.

The blades in this place completely subsided.

Xu Hei endured a series of formation strikes, exhausted, but thanks to his dragon scale body, any other cultivator might not have lasted a few rounds.

The difficulty of this second challenge was several times greater than the first, clearly designed for those with a perfect Foundation Establishment.

Xu Hei looked ahead, seeing eight more squares. Did he have to step on each one?

After the wind blades ended, the formation's foundation was revealed, consisting of countless intersecting lines.

Xu Hei's eyes flashed, and he began to study it.

"Since I'm here, I should gain something. I've never studied formations before, so I'll use this one as my introduction."

Xu Hei considered himself to have decent comprehension. With time and effort, he might unravel this formation.

Although his talisman crafting and artifact refining left much to be desired.

…………

Time slowly passed.

In the blink of an eye, three days later.

Xu Hei suddenly opened his eyes, revealing a strange light.

The first formation was a wind-based killing formation, enhancing the Wind Blade Technique within the formation, triggered by a medium. The principle was simple, but execution was extremely complex.

Especially concerning the assessment, the formation's power constantly changed, which was the challenging part.

With a thought, Xu Hei uttered an incantation, instantly forming the formation's foundation, and infused it with a destructive wave, with earth-element Spiritual Qi frantically gathering and merging into the formation.

It was the earth-element spell, Falling Stars.

"Success!" Xu Hei thought to himself.

After his modifications, the formation's power greatly increased, incorporating Xu Hei's own knowledge, transforming it from an assessment formation into a true killing formation.

Being able to modify the formation indicated that Xu Hei's understanding of it had reached a deep level.

"Continue!"

Xu Hei crawled into the second square.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

Countless earth spikes emerged from the ground, stabbing toward Xu Hei.

…………

No one knew how much time passed.

Outside the pyramid, three figures arrived at the location: Lei He, exuding a murderous aura; the elegant gentleman Bai Luo; and the cold-eyed Zhou Wendie.

As for Zhou Qingxuan, he was nowhere to be found.

The three appeared in poor condition, their faces pale, their auras weaker than before, and Lei He's cultivation was unstable, showing signs of decline due to excessive Golden Core burning.

It had taken them a week to reach this place, indicating the numerous life-and-death crises they had encountered.

Bai Luo looked at the pyramid before them, his eyes brightening, and said, "According to the sect's ancient records, this tower was obtained by the third-generation ancestor during his travels in the Western regions. I never expected it to be hidden in this Earth Path!"

"Oh?" Lei He frowned and asked, "Is there any danger here?"

He was only responsible for Bai Luo's safety, nothing else concerned him.

"The danger is determined by the intruder's cultivation level. For me, the danger here is negligible."

Bai Luo's lips curled into a cold smile, his eyes radiating strong confidence.

He had suppressed his cultivation for so long, still at the Foundation Establishment level, waiting for moments like this.