Martial Peak

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When beset by crisis on all sides, the most fearful thing was being unable to see any hope of survival; but now, after listening to Yang Kai, both Cai He’s and Du Si Si’s spirits rose because, if he was right, the three of them may have a chance to disable the puppet.

The haze which had covered the two young Array Masters’ faces was swept away and, after exchanging a competitive glance, they became very enthusiastic.

Without further ado, the three got to work. Because of Yang Kai’s previous probe, all of them knew the puppet’s exact range of movement so standing at a distance of just over a hundred metres, Cai He and Du Si Si began taking out a number of tools and materials from their Space Rings, infusing them with their Saint Qi and arranging them in specific patterns on the ground nearby.

As soon as these tools fell to the ground, they disappeared without a trace; even Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was unable to detect them.

While these two arranged their respective Spirit Arrays, Yang Kai’s eyes lingered on the puppet’s head, chest, abdomen, and a few others vital positions. These were the spots he felt the Soul Wisp, which was driving this puppet, might be located while he was fighting it earlier, but had been unable to confirm.

As long as he could identify the exact location this Soul Wisp was hiding and destroy it, the puppet should stop moving.

Yang Kai went over his plan again and again and ultimately felt that there was nothing wrong with it.

A short time later, both Cai He and Du Si Si nodded to one another, clapped their palms together, and let out a shout, “Start!”

The next moment, their Saint Qi seemed to form a kind of resonance with something in their surroundings which in turn harmonized with the World Energy within a several-hundred-metre radius around the humanoid puppet before quickly returning to normal.

Yang Kai looked around but was unable to see the slightest anomaly; however, that didn’t mean nothing had changed. Many Spirit Arrays, even when activated, couldn’t be detected from the outside. Only by entering such an array would one be able to see its effects.

“Brother Yang. Si Si and I are ready, you can begin at any time!” Cai He shouted.

Yang Kai gently nodded and said with a serious expression, “Then I’ll be troubling you two.”

“Brother Yang need not act so polite, you are the one responsible for the actual battle. Be careful, Si Si and I can only operate our Spirit Arrays to cooperate with your actions!”

“Don’t take this opportunity to run away,” Du Si Si’s expression changed a few times, clearly somewhat worried about how Yang Kai would act. If Yang Kai suddenly fled from this place while they used their Spirit Arrays to suppress the puppet’s speed, all her and Cai He’s efforts would go to waste.

Facing her mistrust, Yang Kai didn’t get angry; after all, she wasn’t familiar with him in the slightest, so it was only natural to have such concerns. Now that they were forced to work together, any disagreement or conflict may lead to unimaginable consequences, so he simply said lightly, “Rest assured, since I’ve decided to work together with you, I naturally won’t just ignore your wellbeing.”

Receiving this commitment from Yang Kai, Du Si Si smiled widely and said perfunctorily, “I was just joking.”

Yang Kai did not say anymore, instead taking a deep breath and staring at the unmoving giant puppet in front of him, his expression becoming solemn and dignified as his figure flickered and he charged forward.

In the blink of an eye, Yang Kai rushed into the large array arranged by Cai He and Du Si Si and found the scene before him suddenly distort. From Yang Kai’s perspective, he was now standing atop a shimmering clear lake, one that perfectly reflected his figure, but from its surface, he felt an invisible suction that seemed to be trying to restrain his actions.

Not only that, another invisible pressure was weighing down on him from all directions, similarly restricting his freedom.

The lake illusion at his feet was obviously an effect created by Cai He’s Mirror Lake Clay Dragon Array while the invisible pressure he felt from the air should be the Painting Earth Prison Array arranged by Du Si Si.

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[Seems these two have some good methods after all!]

Neither of these two Spirit Arrays were deliberately aiming at Yang Kai, but even so, the moment he stepped into them, Yang Kai felt his movements become sluggish. If these two Spirit Arrays were to be aimed at him, the suppression he felt would clearly be far greater.

Thinking this, Yang Kai’s mouth curled into a smile. For him, the greater the power of Cai He’s and Du Si Si’s Spirit Arrays the better since it meant the puppet he was facing would be even more constrained.

Moments after he stepped into these Spirit Arrays, the two Array Masters changed their hand seals as they adjusted the Saint Qi they were pouring into the barriers at the bottom of their feet. Suddenly, Yang Kai felt the suction force and pressure disappear and his freedom restored.

With the two Array Masters personally driving the Mirror Lake Clay Dragon Array and Painting Earth Prison Array, they naturally would not allow them to affect Yang Kai.

Yang Kai took another step forward, his foot-falls causing ripples to spread out on the reflective lake surface, while at the same time, the giant puppet, which had not been moving, suddenly flashed its red eyes and opened its mouth, spitting out a beam of red light straight towards Yang Kai in the next moment.

Yang Kai’s expression did not show any surprise as he quickly kicked off the lake and disappeared.

When he had been probing the puppet’s abilities before, he had witnessed it use this attack many times, so he was easily able to avoid it.

*Hong…*

The crimson energy beam hit the lake surface, but aside from a huge splash and some large ripples, the Mirror Lake Clay Dragon Array remained unaffected, allowing Yang Kai to relax slightly.

“Go!” Yang Kai shouted and the Firebird Artifact Spirit immediately appeared, spreading its wings several dozen metres wide as it rushed towards the giant puppet.

The giant jet black stick in the puppet’s hand immediately rose and smashed against the Artifact Spirit. As the giant stick passed through the air, it seemed to distort space itself and released a crushing pressure like an oncoming landslide, making its way pale.

In a single hit, the Artifact Spirit’s body collapsed, but the Artifact Spirit didn’t have a true physical form, so such an attack actually didn’t pose any threat to it. The scattered flames coalesced quickly and the Firebird soon reappeared, opening its mouth and spitting out a giant fireball that struck the puppet with astonishing might.

A violent bang resounded as the puppet was hit by this fireball, its giant body pushed back slightly.

After taking such a blow, the puppet seemed to become irritated as the red glow of its eyes deepened somewhat. Staring at the Firebird, it began waving the giant stick in its hand, immediately engaging in a fierce struggle with it. In an instant, a scene of giant stick after-images, beams of crimson energy, and scorching fireballs filled the sky.

These two strange beings fought wildly with one another, and while the Artifact Spirit didn’t fear the puppet’s giant jet-black stick, it did have to worry about the red energy beams it shot from its mouth. Once the puppet released these beam attacks, the Firebird had no choice but to dodge while looking for opportunities to counterattack.

Yang Kai was overjoyed to see this. When he had been probing the puppet before, his Artifact Spirit had also participated and now it seemed this puppet was holding a grudge against it. At this moment, the puppet was ignoring Yang Kai, focusing all its attacks on the Artifact Spirit. This lined up with Yang Kai’s intentions.

Seizing this opportunity, a golden thread shot out from Yang Kai’s hand straight towards the puppet’s left eye.

With a loud ringing sound, the indestructible Golden Thread hit the puppet’s left eye accurately, but after a few sparks, the Golden Thread was easily bounced back.

Yang Kai frowned slightly at this sight, but at that exact moment, a shout rang in his ear, “Brother Yang, watch out!”

As soon as he heard this, Yang Kai saw the puppet wave its giant stick and smash it down towards him. The murderous intent pulsing from this giant stick was so thick it almost solidified the entire space.

Yang Kai’s eyes shrank, but just as he was about to dodge, he suddenly noticed that the mirror lake beneath his feet began releasing a strange energy fluctuation. Immediately, the calm, crystal clear lake’s surface became muddy and turbid. This mud rapidly gathered and transformed into a dragon’s shape which flew up and intercepted the giant stick.

At the same time, small wisps of light began appearing all around Yang Kai, like fireflies. At first, there were only a few of these wisps, but in the blink of an eye, they had covered the entire sky, like a swarm of locusts. These wisps of light then shot towards the giant stick, like maggots drawn to rotten meat.

Before Yang Kai’s eyes, the speed of the giant stick noticeably decreased.

The mud dragon rushing out of the lake hit the giant stick and was instantly scattered, but it succeeded in blunting the force of its attack in the process.

Yang Kai saw this and smiled happily.

What happened just now was obviously a result of the two Spirit Arrays, causing Yang Kai’s evaluation of the Mirror Lake Clay Dragon Array and Painting Earth Prison Array to rise once more along with his confidence in killing this puppet.

As long as Cai He and Du Si Si cooperated closely with him, the chances of them being able to escape this place increased greatly.

The giant stick was still crashing down towards Yang Kai, but with the hindrance of the two Spirit Arrays, he was able to dodge it without much effort. Commanding the Firebird with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai had the Artifact Spirit transform into a great blaze of fire that engulfed the puppet’s body and go all out to burn it down.

Yang Kai did not really expect the Artifact Spirit to be able to burn this puppet of course. Whatever material this puppet was refined from was impervious to fire and water, and swords and spears. Even though the Artifact Spirit had refined some of the Sun’s True Fire, its current firepower was still not enough to melt this puppet.

Yang Kai’s goal here was to use this special form of the Artifact Spirit to find the place where the Soul Wisp controlling the puppet was hiding.

The Artifact Spirit’s fire raged but the giant puppet remained completely unaffected; instead, without the Artifact Spirit to distract it anymore, it immediately began moving to target Yang Kai.

After just two steps though, the lake beneath the puppet’s body transformed into a great vortex, sucking in one of its feet, causing it to lose its balance and nearly fall over.

Yang Kai did not miss this opportunity and immediately pushed his Saint Qi violently, sending out a Heaven Covering Hand to strike the puppet’s head and further knock it off balance.

Cai He’s and Du Si Si’s two Spirit Arrays were greatly helping Yang Kai. Before, when he fought the puppet alone, he had constantly been in life threatening danger, but with the three of them cooperating now, Yang Kai no longer felt as much of a burden when fighting this statue.

As long as this situation continued, Yang Kai just needed to avoid the puppet’s attacks while using his Divine Sense in concert with the Artifact Spirit to find the hidden Soul Wisp. As long as he found it, Yang Kai could launch an all-out attack towards it and disable this puppet once and for all.