Serpent Ancestor

Zhou Wenjun’s face still bore traces of terror and bewilderment, seemingly unable to believe that Xu Hei dared to strike suddenly.

In the next second, a spatial ripple flashed, and Zhou Wenjun disappeared entirely, but her head was split open, leaving her fate uncertain.

Xu Hei looked at the blood and bone fragments left on the ground, his brows furrowed.

He had acted with the fastest speed possible, yet she still managed to escape.

This Zhou Wenjun, he had never even heard of her, yet she seemed so self-assured, clearly the type who had been pampered and never experienced the treachery of the human heart.

Xu Hei had simply copied the Thirteenth Ancestor of the Snake Catchers Sect’s tactics, learning and applying them on the spot.

Despite his poor acting skills and lack of sincerity, the other party still fell for it, showing how foolish she was.

”My attack just now had some issues.”

”These pampered daughters of heaven have many means of self-preservation. Next time, I need to adopt different methods, like poisoning, so even if she escapes, she still dies.”

Xu Hei pondered, summarizing the lessons from earlier.He continued forward, arriving at the place where Han Te had once discovered the mechanism box, only to find it had been thoroughly looted, leaving nothing behind.

”The first path ends here. Once I’ve refined the puppet, I’ll move on to the next path.”

Xu Hei sat cross-legged in the secret chamber, fully focused on refining the metal puppet.

…………

At the entrance of the three-pronged path, in the circular plaza.

Zhou Wenjun’s figure appeared, her head shattered, body covered in blood, limbs unable to move.

A jade stone on her chest automatically shattered, releasing a gentle medicinal power into her body, slowly healing her head wound.

This was the first time she had suffered such severe trauma.

Even her thoughts were scattered, and it took a long while before she remembered what had happened.

”I’ll remember you, no matter who you are, today I must kill you!”

Zhou Wenjun gritted her teeth in hatred.

She only acted alone to not fall behind her sister. If she had sought her family’s power, how could she have ended up so miserable? How could she have been severely injured by a nobody?

”Liu Ruyan, come pick me up immediately!” Zhou Wenjun took out a communication token.

…………

Two days passed.

The complexity of the metal puppet far exceeded Xu Hei’s expectations. It took him two days to barely refine it.

”What a complex structure, it’s almost as intricate as my Butcher!” Xu Hei thought to himself.

Controlling a finished product was already so difficult; he couldn’t imagine how much time it would take to create one from scratch.

Additionally, he made an unexpected discovery—

In the puppet’s abdomen, at the dantian position, there was an empty space, seemingly meant for storing something as an energy source.

Based on Xu Hei’s knowledge, this led him to a bold hypothesis.

”That empty space might be for storing a Golden Core. This is a Core Formation Stage puppet, but over time, the Golden Core dissipated, reducing its strength to the late Foundation Establishment Stage,” Xu Hei speculated.

He happened to have a Golden Core in his storage bag, belonging to Tie Xiong.

If he placed the Golden Core inside, would the puppet’s strength suddenly surge?

Xu Hei considered trying it but worried that once installed, he might lose control, causing the puppet to go berserk, so he dismissed the idea.

He then dismantled the puppet’s weapon, spending an hour installing it on his left arm.

”Activate!”

With a thought, the saw blade began to spin, emitting the roaring sound of machinery, and he couldn’t help but think of the word ”chainsaw,” which seemed very fitting.

”The exploration of the first path ends here, onto the second.”

Xu Hei left the secret chamber, retracing his steps back to the circular plaza, heading straight for the second path.

Passing through a faint membrane, the space suddenly transformed into a lush green area.

Ahead was a forest, the ground covered with green vegetation, some of which were medicinal herbs that had grown for countless years, but the area was heavily shrouded in yin energy, deterring ordinary people from picking them.

This place was also the most frequented by people, with pills scattered everywhere, but the danger lay in the Bewildering Forest, which could randomly cause one to fall unconscious, requiring companions to pass through safely.

Xu Hei observed briefly and then left.

The third path was filled with spiritual pools and ponds, a watery area.

As soon as Xu Hei entered, he saw the withered old man sitting in a pool, breathing in yin energy. His eyes suddenly opened, staring directly at Xu Hei—it was the Thirteenth Ancestor of the Snake Catchers Sect.

Xu Hei quickly retreated back to the plaza.

He landed far away, waited for a moment, and seeing that the Thirteenth Ancestor did not pursue, he breathed a sigh of relief.

That person was likely just cultivating and wouldn’t bother with others.

”Strange, why do I feel like there aren’t only three paths here?”

Xu Hei’s eyes flickered as he carefully observed the positions of the three paths, two on the left and one in the middle, but none on the right, only a stone wall.

He immediately moved to the stone wall on the right to explore.

Moments later, he found a small hole, like a keyhole, located at the center of the stone wall.

”A keyhole?”

Xu Hei’s pupils contracted as he recalled the key, which seemed to match this keyhole.

Could there be such a coincidence?

His key could open the mechanism box here, so could it also open this keyhole?

Xu Hei’s heartbeat gradually quickened. If it could indeed be opened, would a fourth path appear?

The benefits of the previous three paths had all been reaped, but if a fourth path appeared, what would it be like?

Xu Hei glanced back; there were quite a few people in the plaza, mostly sitting cross-legged healing, paying no attention to Xu Hei’s actions, as many had explored like him and discovered the small hole.

Their cultivation levels were all at the Foundation Establishment Stage, with over eighty percent of those entering the ruins being Foundation Establishment cultivators.

”Hehe, has this fellow Taoist also discovered something? It seems there might be another path on this stone wall?”

A white-bearded elder looked over, stroked his beard, and said with a smile.

Xu Hei pondered for a moment and calmly replied, ”What insights does this old gentleman have?”

The elder’s aura was around the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment Stage, yet he gave off an unfathomable feeling, making Xu Hei wary; this person might be concealing his true cultivation.

The elder pointed to the first path and said with a smile, ”Look at the first path, filled with magical treasures, mechanism puppets, and various metal hidden weapons, representing the metal element of the Five Elements.”

”The second path, covered in greenery and ancient pills, represents the wood element of the Five Elements.”

”And the third path, with many spiritual pools and ponds, represents the water element of the Five Elements.”

”Therefore, there must be paths for the fire and earth elements of the Five Elements, belonging to the other two undiscovered paths.”

Hearing the elder’s explanation, Xu Hei’s pupils contracted, feeling a sense of enlightenment.

The other scattered cultivators in the plaza also looked over, their faces showing a strange light.

”Hehe, this isn’t a secret; perhaps someone has already figured it out. I was just mentioning it casually, nothing worth noting,” the old Taoist said with a smile.

Xu Hei’s figure flashed as he continued to explore the stone wall, and indeed, he found a second keyhole in the distance.

According to the position, this was the earth element of the Five Elements.

”This elder is not simple, speaking such words openly, what is his intention?”

Xu Hei remained highly vigilant internally.