Shocking the Nine Heavens With My Sword
Chapter 435 - 419: Shut the Door and Beat the Dog (3/3)

Chapter 435: Chapter 419: Shut the Door and Beat the Dog (3/3)

A group of people followed the "Throat" to the "Chest" area, where there were three passages.

Two of them branched off to the left and right respectively, while the other one continued downward. Clearly, the two parallel paths led to the puppet’s shoulders, and the downward one led to its abdomen.

Since they were unfamiliar with the layout here, they casually walked downward, heading towards the puppet’s abdomen.

As they walked downward, they noticed a significant change in the surrounding environment. Even though it was still pitch black, it became more and more spacious, as if they were no longer inside a giant puppet, but had entered a new world.

Buildings began to appear all around, too numerous to see the end of them!

The interior of the giant puppet had actually turned into a town!

"Indeed, the people of Puppet Sect used to live inside this king-level puppet!" Mo Keyan said, his expression filled with admiration.

"Truly, as it thrived with the puppet, it was also ruined by it!" Zhou Heng reflected deeply. After the Puppet Sect had created this colossal king-level puppet, both its reputation and strength had peaked.

But it was also due to this king-level puppet consuming too many spirit stones that it single-handedly dragged down this superpower!

Pitiable and lamentable indeed!

This also proved one thing: martial artists could only truly rely on themselves; external forces were ultimately just that, external.

Black Donkey cheered and darted into a house. After a series of banging and crashing sounds, the donkey came out looking disheartened, then barged into the second and third houses, continuing through over a dozen houses, each search coming up empty until its face turned green and its tongue lolled out long.

Utterly fruitless!

Zhou Heng entered a house and saw that the furniture inside had been warped out of shape by some immense force, making it impossible to see anything intact. Evidently, when king-level puppets were powered by spirit stones, they could generate sufficient anti-gravity to allow people inside to move and live comfortably.

Once there were no more spirit stones to power the king-level puppet, the living conditions here became extremely dire, turning an indestructible moving fortress into a self-imprisoning trap.

Puppet Sect had indeed dug a hole and buried itself!

Zhou Heng casually demolished the houses one by one with a slap of his hand. While the exterior material of the puppet was robust, how could the interior houses possibly be made from such precious materials?

As he passed by, a mere glance was enough to determine whether there was anything valuable inside.

Puppet Sect, once the top sect in the world, naturally possessed a vast trove of resources, but their expenditures were enormous as well; each disciple had their own puppet, and depending on their strength and rank, the grade of puppets they received differed.

Regardless, a puppet would consume spirit stones, and over many thousands of years, the sect actually didn’t accumulate much wealth at all—it was all spent.

Thus, although these residences were once lived in by disciples of Puppet Sect, they could be best described as utterly empty, terribly impoverished! Not just that, while Puppet Sect declined, they were never annihilated; could the people living here be foolish enough to just wait for death?

They must have evacuated, and surely they cleared out the sect’s treasures when they left. Moreover, the puppets that used to be in these houses were likely numerous and only of Heaven-Opening grade, which they would have disdained.

—Where could there be so many spirit stones!

Thus, although this place was once the stronghold of a super sect from the ancient era, it was highly unlikely to find any treasures here!

Zhou Heng believed his judgment was correct since there were no corpses in each house, indicating that the disciples of Puppet Sect had indeed left on their own, rather than starving or dying of old age here.

As for this colossal king-level puppet?

They would have been unable to move it. When spirit stones were available, this puppet was an invincible superweapon, but without a supply of spirit stones, it was just a massive rock. Though still indestructible, it was impossible to dismantle and pack away, let alone move, so it was abandoned here.

It could be said that the most valuable treasure of Puppet Sect was this king-level puppet, the creation of cumulative efforts over multiple generations. If provided with enough spirit stones, this king-level puppet could even defeat the Great Eternal Emperor!

Because this puppet’s defense was truly of Divinity Transformation Realm grade, naturally making it unbeatable!

Unfortunately, this king-level puppet was too powerful, so strong that even the number one ancient sect couldn’t afford to use it, let alone in these latter days of the Martial Path where spirit stones are scarcer than in ancient times.

Think about it, even using a Divinity Transformation Realm Demon Beast with the Ten Refinement Diagram cost Zhou Heng a massive amount of upper-grade spirit stones. Such a huge puppet had never even crossed his mind as something to possess, but rather something to consume.

Half a day later, Shui Dongliu and his two brothers also arrived with their followers. Their faces looked much better than before, clearly having obtained a significant number of puppets, a priceless fortune for any nation.

Mo Keyan and the others felt itching frustration. Although they had arrived earlier, the capacity of their space artifacts was limited, and their haul couldn’t compare to that of Shui Dongliu and his group.

When Shui Dongliu and his men saw Zhou Heng and his group, they immediately dropped the smiles from their faces, glaring somberly at the young man they greatly dreaded.

Zhou Heng, on the other hand, was unconcerned and continued forward with Black Donkey, even though he had guessed that there probably weren’t any benefits to be gained here. Still, he felt they should take a look around; perhaps they might find something overlooked?

Shui Dongliu and his men apparently held the same idea, and like Zhou Heng, they went along, destroying the houses one by one to see if any treasures had been left inside.

The battle power of both sides was similar, creating a delicate balance, and so neither side thought about attacking the other; they just went about their own business.

Black Donkey, however, was furious. It was here to make a fortune, but ended up with nothing, and couldn’t help but mutter complaints under its breath, sounding like thousands of crows cawing incessantly by one’s ear, prompting angry glances from Shui Dongliu’s men.

Faced with provocation, the donkey certainly wasn’t going to cower. It immediately started shaking its flowery-skirted donkey rump back and forth, full of disdain, angering many on the opposing side to the point of almost bleeding internally.

"If there’s anyone in this world who could anger a Nascent Soul Old Ancestor to death, it’s definitely you, this donkey!" Zhou Heng said.

"No big deal!" Black Donkey tossed its head arrogantly.

Although they weren’t moving fast, within two days, they had made a full round inside the puppet and didn’t find anything truly valuable.

"Zhou Heng, you can leave now!" Shui Dongliu said to Zhou Heng.

Although there were no extremely precious treasures here, the "brain" still housed a large number of puppets that hadn’t been taken, and though this King Level puppet no longer had any forces that could make use of it, if one could dismantle and melt it down, that would yield materials of the highest value in the Mortal Realm.

It still represented an indescribable fortune.

Zhou Heng laughed heartily and responded, "That’s what I should be saying to you!"

"Why is that?" Shui Dongliu asked.

"And why not?" Zhou Heng countered.

"Zhou Heng, don’t think we really can’t kill you!" Shui Qianjun interjected with a note of pride in his voice, obviously keeping some great trump cards up his sleeve.

"Do you think you’re the only ones with trump cards?" Zhou Heng said evenly, ready to stake it all if necessary, even if it meant bringing down a Venerable of the Divinity Transformation Realm!

After a while standoff, Shui Dongliu snorted and moved aside with his entourage, clearly intending to play for time. For them, the three brothers were just a step away from the Divinity Transformation Realm; just stepping into it would mean that even if one of them couldn’t subdue Zhou Heng alone, the trio together could even take down a Heavenly Venerate of the Divinity Transformation Realm!

They could totally afford to wait!

The King Level puppet was their most precious treasure, and they couldn’t afford to miss out, so if Zhou Heng wanted to play the waiting game, that suited them just fine. The child was merely at the second level of the Divine Infant Realm, far from reaching the Divinity Transformation Realm; whereas they needed only half a year, or even just a month or two to break through!

By then, this place would be a perfect prison, indefinitely trapping Zhou Heng to death!

With this plan, they retreated to the initial entrance, as there was only this single exit within the King Level puppet’s interior—guarding here was essentially shutting the door to beat the dog!

Once they achieved the Divinity Transformation Realm, they could eradicate this human prodigy, and even the Little Crown Prince wouldn’t escape this fate, killing two birds with one stone.

—They certainly didn’t know that the passage they entered through was actually opened by Zhou Heng, because this was material of the Divinity Transformation Realm, after all. If it could be breached by a mere Divine Infant Realm youngster, how could the Puppet Sect have been invincible in the old days?

The Shui brothers split into two groups, two of them aiming for the breakthrough into the Divinity Transformation Realm, while the remaining one guarded the entrance. Since the three brothers were of one mind, enlightenment for one meant enlightenment for all three, allowing them to break through simultaneously!

On the other side, Mo Keyan and his companions were glum and worried. Knowing the Shui brothers much better than Zhou Heng did, they understood that these three prodigies of the Sea Clan were merely inches away from the Divinity Transformation Realm, and now guarding the exit, they certainly harbored intentions of trapping their prey.

Fortunately, since Zhou Heng could open one passage, he could surely open another, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

But to their bewilderment, Zhou Heng seemed to have no intention of doing so; instead, he just sat down cross-legged, as if he intended to keep waiting like this indefinitely.

One day, two days, three days passed quietly; Zhou Heng seemed to have turned into a stone Buddha, never moving a finger, driving them nearly mad with impatience! With each passing day, Shui Dongliu and his men were a step closer to the Divinity Transformation Realm—they simply couldn’t afford to wait!

Black Donkey, privy to some of Zhou Heng’s secrets, was not worried at all. Everyone had gained a good boost previously after attending the Sea-Sky Feast, but even more benefits were hidden in their bodies.

It also sat down cross-legged like a human, regulating its Spiritual Power to release the medicinal effects within its body and elevate its Cultivation Level.