Chapter 174: Symbol Puppet
As he gazed at the leaving figures of Wang Pan and the rest, in his heart, Lin Dong slowly sighed in relief. He was not afraid of them, with his current strength, it was not difficult to defeat a perfect Yuan Dan stage practitioner. As for the rest of those guys, although they were somewhat strong, they were at the level of Lin Chen or Lin Feng, practically unable to threaten Lin Dong.
Lin Dong slowly landed on the ground, ignoring Lin Chen’s and the rest’s longing gazes as he casually kept the Ancient Heavenly Scales Halberd in his Qiankun bag. After which, he clasped his hands together at Lin Ke-er and said: “Many thanks.”
“You were really slow in reaching this place, we even waited a while for you when we first entered.” Lin Ke-er also kept the two Soul Treasures, which floated in front of her, as she smiled and replied.
“I’m accustomed to being alone.” Lin Dong chuckled and said.
“I truly did not expect that your would actually be so powerful, that you could snatch the Soul Treasure from Wang Pan. No wonder he seemed like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.” Lin Ke-er did not mind as she sweetly smiled and said.
“I was just lucky.” Lin Dong laughed as he replied. Soon after, he chose not to linger on this topic for too long, instead, he gazed towards another exit of the huge hall. That was the entrance to the deeper parts of the old tomb, and also the direction Wang Pan and the rest had headed in. Looks like they were still not ready to give up on finding more treasures in this place.
“Big brother Lin Langtian and the rest have most likely already reached the center of the old tomb. For them, the Soul Treasures here are not of much interest.” Lin Ke-er said.
Lin Dong lightly nodded his head. Given Lin Langtian’s, Wang Yan’s and the rest’s status in their respective clans, a mere midgrade Soul Treasure was indeed unable to cause them to pause in their step. After all, there might even more precious treasures in the deeper parts of the old tomb.
“We plan to rest and reorganize here for a while before entering the later areas. What about you? Do you want to come with us?” To one side, old man Tao chuckled as he asked.
Upon hearing these words, Lin Dong took a look at this large hall. Due to the fact that the struggle for the Soul Treasures had already ended, most people were already rushing towards the deeper part of the old tomb without skipping a beat. Furthermore, the hearts of those who had arrived after the battle for the Soul Treasures had ended, was filled with regret. Since they did not reap any rewards, they naturally were not willing for things to end this way. Thus, without the slightest hesitation, they charged towards the deeper parts of the tomb. For a time, this area seemed to become just another tunnel to pass through.
“I’ll enter first to take a look around, if I’m really unable to find anything else, I’ll just forget about it.”
Upon seeing this scene, Lin Dong chuckled. Although he had already obtained quite a harvest this time, he had yet to find the so-called ‘Extreme Yin Dragon Saliva’. This was one of the goals he had set for himself for this trip to the old tomb this time. If he was unable to find it, Qingtan’s situation would be extremely perilous.
Therefore, he could not withdraw at this time.
As for once again grouping up with Lin Ke-er and the rest, Lin Dong was somewhat reluctant in his heart. Perhaps, he may still be able to trust old man Tao and Lin Ke-er, but, with regards to Lin Chen and the rest, and especially Lin Feng, Lin Dong could not possible travel with them. In fact, just a while back, Lin Feng had purposely said those words in hopes of making Wang Pan attack Lin Dong.
With these thoughts in mind, Lin Dong calmly looked at Lin Feng, who was behind old man Tao, as a cold murderous intent surfaced in the depths of his eyes. Lin Feng also seemed to be aware of this, as his face turned a little rigid, and his body shrunk to hide behind old man Tao.
Lin Ke-er was also rather clever, when she saw Lin Dong’s expression, she knew that the latter hated Lin Feng and the rest quite a bit. Thus, she could only softly sigh as she said: “Since you are determined to do so, go ahead. Also, be extra careful.”
Lin Dong slightly smiled as he nodded his head. He clasped his hands together at old man Tao and Lin Ke-er, before whistling out. Nearby, Little Flame quickly flashed to his side, as he leapt onto the tiger’s back. Together, they transformed into a gale as the directly rushed towards the passageway leading to the deeper part of the old tomb.
“This kid is becoming more and more arrogant…” As he gazed at Lin Dong’s leaving figure, Lin Feng could not help but sneer in a low voice.
“Shut up!”
As his words sounded out, Lin Ke-er suddenly turned her head an sternly said: “Given Lin Dong’s strength, he would definitely achieve great things at the clan gathering two years later. At that time, his prospects would be limitless, you will truly be asking for it if you provoke him again!”
After being berated by Lin Ke-er, Lin Feng’s expression alternated between green and white. However, due to Lin Ke-er’s identity and power, he did not dare to rebut and could only resentfully shut his mouth.
Lin Dong knew nothing of Lin Ke-er scolding Lin Feng and the rest. After he entered that passageway, the scene before him widened once again as an extremely spacious area appeared before his eyes. This huge area was filled with numerous gigantic wooden poles, and these poles seemed to soar towards the heavens as they stood closely together, creating numerous paths lined with wooden poles which curved and meandered. No one knew where these paths led to.
Lin Dong was also taken aback by this change in scenery. As he took two steps forward, he suddenly discovered that there were some black limb-like objects on the ground. He picked one up and inspected it, it seemed to be a human’s broken limb, however, this broken limb was entirely black and was exceedingly heavy. Evidently, it was cast from high quality metal, and one the surface of the broken limb, there seemed to be some mysterious symbols.
“This is a Symbol Puppet. Some practitioners like to create them for entertainment. They can be used to guard the house and are not bad at all…” While Lin Dong staring in a daze at this thing, the small marten’s voice sounded out in his mind.
“Symbol Puppet…” Lin Dong mumbled to himself.
“Simply put, there are three tiers of Symbol Puppets, upper, middle and lower. However, the broken limb from a Symbol Puppet in your hand is likely not even from a lower tier one, and can only be called a defective product. Furthermore, it is said that there some even higher grade Symbol Puppets above the upper tier ones, but, I’m do not know much about them.”
“Outside the Great Yan Empire, there are some special great sects that specialize in controlling such Symbol Puppets. These are the ones that are terrifying. I once saw a Nirvana stage practitioner being ripped apart by two of these Symbol Puppets…”
“Ripping a Nirvana stage practitioner apart…” Upon hearing these words, Lin Dong’s brain seemed to overload. What kind of Symbol Puppet was so terrifying? To think that it could kill even a Nirvana stage practitioner.
Lin Dong mulled about this for a time, but was still unable to imagine how terrifying such a Symbol Puppet was. He could only let out a bitter laugh as he shook his head. The world outside the Great Yan Empire was indeed strange and wondrous.
“If you want to look for elixirs, take the left path. There seems to be some elixir undulations there.” The small marten was clearly not very interested in these Symbol Puppets, thus, it pointed at a path after explaining.
“Okay.”
Lin Dong nodded his head, before patting Little Flame as the latter dashed forward like a ghost.
Swiftly sweeping into peculiar wooden pole formation, Lin Dong found quite a few broken Symbol Puppet limbs along the way. Furthermore, there were also traces of a fight, indicating that someone had done battle with the Symbol Puppets in this area.
As he travelled, Lin Dong also encountered some Symbol Puppets, however, when he saw these exasperatingly slow and rigid guys, he finally understood why there were broken limbs all over the area. This kind of Symbol Puppets was really too shabby, besides their huge strength, they seemed to be reduced to target practise.
After casually destroying a few Symbol Puppets, Lin Dong lost interest as he lightly patted Little Flame as their speed once again increased.
However, while Little Flame ran at full speed, they followed the wooden pathways for over a dozen minutes, yet, there seemed to be no exit to the path before their eyes.
“Something seems amiss…”
This situation once again lasted for another few minutes before Lin Dong finally allowed Little Flame to top. His expression was serious and he felt that they seemed to be going in circles. Moreover, while they travelled, they did not encounter anyone else, if it were not for the traces of a fight that remained, Lin Dong would believe that he was the only person here.
“This seems to be some kind of formation…” The little sable also sensed that something was wrong. It appeared on Lin Dong’s shoulder as its eyes swept across the surroundings, before it helplessly said: “Truly troublesome, I detest these annoying formations the most.”
“What should be do now?” Lin Dong scratched his head. They could not possibly continue this way right? Sooner or later, they would end up dead from fatigue.
“Let me probe about for a while, although I am not very adept at formations, they wooden pole formation should not be too profound.” The small marten spread out its claws before it closed its eyes. Next, an extremely tiny insulation spread outwards.
“Walk three hundred steps forward.”
This probe lasted for a moment before the little marten once again opened its eyes as its claws pointed forward.
Upon hearing this, Lin Dong was skeptical as he walked three hundred steps forward. After finding that there was still no exit before him, he spread his arms out and asked: “What now?”
“Don’t look forward, use your hand to push the eighth wooden pole to your left.” The small marten replied.
“Oh?”
Lin Dong was stunned for a while, soon after, a flash of realization hit him. It turned out that the true road was not to his front, but at the sides. The path before him was nothing more than a distraction…
When he recalled that he had actually followed the path for such a long time, Lin Dong could not help but roll his eyes. His palm pushed towards the eighth wooden pole.
“Rumble!”
As Lin Dong’s palm pushed, the wall of wooden poles before him suddenly moved, and a path appeared in front of him.
“Such an ingenious mechanism.”
Lin Dong secretly praised it as he strolled forward. Many wooden poles still formed the walls here, however, after his previous experience, Lin Dong no longer panicked. After once again pushing open several pathways, a spacious drilling field appeared before his eyes.
Upon seeing that they had finally left the wooden pole formation, Lin Dong sighed in relief. He walked forward and slightly paused, he had found that quite a number of Symbol Puppets were neatly lined up in this drilling field. From the looks of it, their numbers exceeded the hundreds.
“For this kind of useless Symbol Puppets, no matter how many there are, they will only be decorations…” Lin Dong took one look at them before he shook his head.
However, just as he smiled and was about to enter the drilling field, the small marten’s voice suddenly rang out.
“Foolish brat, these Symbol Puppets are all lower tier Symbol Puppets. Their individual battle power does not lose to a perfect Yuan Dan stage practitioner.”
Lin Dong’s body immediately froze, before his scalp suddenly turned numb. A perfect Yuan Dan stage Symbol Puppet? And there were even over a hundred of them?
“Oh my god, what the heck is this?”
Lin Dong’s scalp was numb as he slowly withdrew his foot and stared at the quiet drilling field.
