Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Puppet of the Imperial Court

  Yesterday this chapter was leaked over 1,000 words, today I heard the brothers in the group remind me early, now I'm making up for it, sorry.

  The body fell into the water, icy and piercing to the bone. Hurriedly, the spiritual energy inside the body rose up to form a thin protective shield, keeping the water out of the body.

  Only to see the body of the Spirit Devouring Beast in front also rising a cover, the cover is extremely small and barely protects the body of Chi Yan Fuxi Spirit Devouring Beast. The cover emits a faint, obscure red glow that becomes increasingly obscure as it flows forward.

  Chi Yan Fu Xi swallowed the Ling Beast and looked back at Zhang Hao with a glance, his body rapidly sliding forward.

  Zhang Hao saw that the spiritual energy shield around him had a faint glow, and in this river, it attracted many fish and shrimp to gather around. He quickly manipulated his spiritual energy to extinguish the glow on the shield.

  The scarlet flame engulfed the spirit beast, which slowly sank to the riverbed. The river bottom was covered with aquatic plants and fish, but there was no muddy sediment or sand. Where it landed was a hard, dark grey slate rock.

  On the bluestone floated a greenish-blue moss, Zhang Hao's divine sense felt a strong grassy scent on it, quietly operating the Small Azure Wood True Classic, a small emerald-green bead condensed in his hand.

  I don't know how long I've been walking at the bottom of the river, but in the distance, a dazzling light appeared on the riverbed, and it should be the southeast side of the Unnamed Gorge.

  Sunlight penetrates the water surface and reflects downwards, a string of bubbles rises from the riverbed, light and shadow ripple and slant onto the water's surface, revealing a kaleidoscope of colors, the aquatic plants sway gently, as if it were a beautiful underwater painting.

  The crimson flame that was advancing suddenly stopped, and the Fowling Beast's body abruptly changed direction, hiding under a huge boulder. The surrounding aquatic plants completely blocked its figure from view.

  Zhang Hao's mind tightened, and he quickly flashed under the giant stone.

  Only in front of them, a team of shrimp soldiers with guns lined up on the riverbed, led by a black-faced Yaksha wearing a golden helmet, walked over from the river path not far from the two men.

  "Yasha, shrimp soldiers, aren't these aquatic creatures only found in the Dragon Palace? How can they appear in this unnamed abyssal river?" Just as he was thinking to himself, he saw Chi Yan Fuxi's body shrink and transform into a strange shell, drifting up and down with the waves, like a dead object.

  Zhang Hao hastily bowed his head and hid among the water algae, his entire body's energy was retracted, not moving a single bit. These aquatic shrimp soldiers and yaksha couldn't see the difference in cultivation levels, making him dare not make any slight movement.

  The shrimp soldiers and yaksha slowly retreated into the distance.

  The red flame engulfed the spirit beast as it flew rapidly forward once again.

  Xiao suddenly had a divine thought and transmitted his voice: "This place is very strange, the unnamed abyss and the cold air in the Tianyuan Grand Canyon are extremely similar!"

  Was this place originally a sea area?

  "It's not surprising if this place was once a sea area, as cultivators with powerful magic can move mountains and fill seas with just a wave of their hand. However, moving mountains and filling in the sea would affect the world's energy and veins, so ordinary cultivators wouldn't do such a thing easily. There must be a reason for this!" Xun Yi transmitted his voice to remind Zhang Hao, while observing their surroundings intently.

  Zhang Hao was deep in thought, pondering what had just been said, when he saw a round water ball hurtling towards him and hastily used his spiritual energy to dissolve it with his hand.

  Looking up, I saw a huge deep pit in front of me. The bottom of the pit was covered with coral and many unknown aquatic trees stood among them.

  The deep pit is about 100 meters deep, and it's surprisingly clear to the bottom, without any dark feeling. On the strange trees at the river bottom, there are weird white glowing objects that illuminate everything inside with an extraordinary brightness.

  The crimson flames engulfed the Fow Xie's soul beast as it slowly sank into the deep abyss.

  Zhang Hao took a few steps forward and also sank down, the pressure on the water surface increased as he went deeper. In just tens of meters, he felt an overwhelming pressure from all sides squeezing in, so he quickly circulated his internal spiritual energy to make the spiritual shield outside his body more solid.

  It fell for about thirty zhang, as if it had entered another world. The water pressure around it suddenly disappeared, and the speed of the red flame's descent became extremely fast, like a cannonball that had been launched, shooting straight down into the depths of the abyss.

  At this moment, Zhang Hao also felt that the scene around him was changing unpredictably, and his descending speed was uncontrollably accelerating.

  All I could hear was the gentle gurgling of flowing water, but my vision was a vast expanse of white mist.

  The ocean, dragon king, shrimp soldiers, yaksha, and a strange woman with a human upper body and a snake lower body.

  Various scenes and scenarios intertwined without end, each emerging one after another.

  After an unknown period of time, it finally sank to the bottom of the river.

  Zhang Hao looked up.

  Only in front of him appeared a huge crystal palace.

  The palace is about thirty or forty feet high, with thirty-nine enormous dragon pillars supporting a roof that resembles the shell of a black turtle. In front of the roof is an enormous head of a black turtle, and in its open mouth, a golden dragon about ten feet long is struggling painfully.

  The head of the Black Tortoise is vividly lifelike, and the painful expression of the Golden Dragon is even more extraordinarily realistic.

  The entire palace exuded an air of ancient solemnity, making Zhang Hao feel involuntarily small, as if he were a tiny speck of dust.

  Underfoot was yellow sand, like gold, bright and dazzling. His foot moved casually, and the sand particles floated up with the waves, accompanied by a faint rustling sound, and layers of golden light rippled and sank.

  Under the head of the Xuanwu at the palace, several irregularly-shaped gold objects the size of a palm fan were emitting a cold golden light. There were seven such objects in total, scattered randomly beneath the mud and sand of the palace.

  "Dragon scales! Dragon scales! You stinky little brat! These are dragon scales!"

  Zhang Hao felt a surge of joy, took big strides forward and grabbed a piece of dragon scales. On the surface of the dragon scales, dense golden patterns emerged, the patterns seemed irregular yet intricate and beautiful, revealing a mysterious and ancient aura of the heavens.

  The right hand exerted a slight force, the mud and sand floated, the water waves naturally flew to both sides, a fine humming sound shook up layer upon layer of fine golden ripples.

  "This is the scale of the Golden Dragon from the seabed, its temperament is slightly more gentle. Although it doesn't have the domineering nature of the Heavenly Dragons in ancient times, it's still an extremely proud divine creature. How could it fall here?! And this place seems to be where that little thing brought you, there were no obstacles along the way. This matter is very suspicious!"

  Zhang Hao picked up a piece of dragon scales and looked around cautiously before transmitting his voice quietly: "It should not have any malicious intentions!"

  "I hope so!" Yan said, finishing his sentence and seeing Zhang Hao staring blankly at Long Lin, he reminded him:

  "Hurry up and put these scales into the tower, as long as you find suitable materials, I can make a suit of ancient armor for you."

  Zhang Hao stroked these ancient and exquisite dragon scales with his hand, and then put them into the Tongtian Tower.

  It was only then that he suddenly discovered that the Red Flame Fow Xie had unknowingly disappeared, and the surroundings were eerily silent. Only the tens of meters high gate of this palace stood silently open, like a gaping mouth of a ferocious beast, making one's heart feel somewhat uneasy.

  It's too quiet!

  Zhang Hao concentrated his mind and held the Liulong Sword with his right hand in a reverse grip.

  Striding towards the gate of the palace.

  At a distance of about one zhang from the palace gate, the mud and sand at the bottom of the riverbed suddenly churned up, and a column of black smoke rose from the water, as if a drop of thick ink was swirling and transforming in the water.

  A warrior with a black helmet on his head and a large halberd in hand stood abruptly at the gate of the palace.

  This warrior who suddenly appeared, holding a halberd in his right hand and standing with his feet apart, stood proudly like a spear. His sudden appearance was devoid of any human aura, as if he were an inanimate object. If you hadn't seen him with your own eyes, you wouldn't have been able to sense his existence with your spiritual awareness.

  When Zhang Hao's divine sense locked onto him, he felt that his entire body was devoid of any vitality, just like a lifeless rock.

  This warrior who suddenly appeared is extremely similar to the Miao descendant who was tracking himself at the entrance of Tian Huang last time. Last time, he was in a desperate situation when being hunted down by that tattooed and eccentric Miao descendant, this time it's payback from you, only this warrior can't tell high or low boundaries.

  "This is the Temple Warrior Puppet, a guardian warrior of the underwater Dragon Palace clan, a strong practitioner of Tao Wu dual cultivation. It has some connection with the ancient witchcraft Wu Yi, but you don't need to show mercy. If you die, it will absorb your soul and become even stronger. This kind of Temple Warrior Puppet is like a devouring beast, every time it kills an enemy, it devours the person's soul and flesh, not only making its qi and blood stronger, but also its divine soul. It can also plunder people's memories to become smarter. However, I see that there is no human aura on its body at all, it must have been dormant for hundreds of years without being awakened, and its realm has fallen a lot!"

  Shang finished speaking and hid inside Tongtian Tower, never to appear again.

  The dragon sword suddenly emerged from its scabbard, with a wave of water vapor rising up. A cold and icy sword aura burst forth from the blade's edge, sweeping towards the warrior in front.

  The warrior, who had originally closed his eyes tightly, suddenly opened them and slightly moved his left hand. With just a light wave of the large halberd in his hand, he parried this sword.

  A shocking aura suddenly burst out from the warrior's body, this was a warrior's fighting spirit, he was issuing a challenge to Zhang Hao.

  Zhang Hao sneered and slowly said, "Good." He didn't care whether the warrior understood or not. With a wave of his hand, the dragon-shaped sword unfolded, its blade shimmering like silk, stirring up the surrounding water into turbulent waves.

  A fierce murderous intent was released from his body.

  A fierce sword edge descended like a mountain, pressing down violently.

  The warrior's icy eyes looked up at the top, his feet did not move, and his hands tightly grasped the halberd, fiercely rotating the surrounding water waves. The water waves were rotated by the spiritual power in his body, like a rapidly rotating flying dragon, rotating towards Zhang Hao's sword edge to strangle him.

  Two forces collided violently.

  The sword blade shattered and dispersed.

  Ripples on the water.

  Both of them took a big step back.

  Zhang Hao fought more and more fiercely, but also with increasing trepidation. No matter how fierce the attack was, this guy could always dissolve it lightly.

  Standing with sword in hand, the spiritual power within the body is greatly enhanced.

  Both eyes stared fixedly at the puppet guarding the door.

  The majestic sword aura surged forth from his body, and the waves of water rapidly gathered around him. His eyes shone with an unyielding determination to fight, and a refusal to accept defeat after countless setbacks.

  "A dead Temple Warrior? I don't believe it!" He let out a loud shout and charged forward again.

  Kongdunshu, jianci.

  Translation: Empty escape technique, sword pierces.

  One strike to break through the sky.

  The mighty sword intent, swift and fierce, cuts down from the sky with a crushing blow.

  The warrior puppet at the gate stood still, holding a spear with an air of calmness. When the mighty spirit stirred up the mud and sand under its feet, it raised its long spear from below and thrust it backhandedly towards Zhang Hao.

  This spear initially had a fine golden light covering the tip of the big spear.

  In the middle of the journey, it's like an open umbrella that covers all the dangers around itself.

  A single sword and a large halberd had yet to clash, but in front of the palace, a lingering sound of metal clashing echoed out.

  It was originally an attack where two strands of spiritual energy converged and collided with each other first.

  The sound had barely faded when Zhang Hao burst forth again, his body like a swimming dragon as he descended upon the scene. The tip of his sword flashed with a foot-long white glow, aiming straight for the warrior's head.

  The big halberd slants to one side, with a golden tassel floating at its tip.

  Temple Warrior Puppet, one challenge, one stab.

  Zhang Hao's sword was immediately stuck by a strong force, and the sword tip was lifted. His lower abdomen felt as if it had been pierced by a thin needle, and he knew that this was the warrior's spiritual power piercing through his body, stimulating the pain all over his body.

  Hurriedly turning the sword's edge, he parried this thrust.

  Dian Wu's puppet retreated one step, raised its giant halberd with both hands, and swept forward like a massive python swallowing the sky.

  All I heard was a loud rumbling sound, huge waves surged, and golden sand filled the sky.

  Zhang Hao was blown away by the Temple Warrior's puppet for three zhang, drifting and sinking in the water before falling into a patch of golden sand. His breath stopped momentarily, resuming only after a few gasps. He suppressed the churning blood in his chest and glanced at the Temple Warrior, who stood expressionless and unmoving, not pursuing him. Zhang Hao's will to fight grew even stronger.

  Starting next Monday, Sanjiang Potential List Recommendation will begin. The duration is one week. New and old book friends, remember to vote for recommendation votes to support this book.