Serpent Ancestor

Bai Luo watched as the figure of the corpse puppet in front of him continuously split apart, countless smaller corpse puppets emerging from the "mother" body.

Two, three... five... ten...

Bai Luo felt a buzzing in his mind, his scalp tingling.

What was even more terrifying was that all these corpse puppets had reached the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment Stage, nearing the False Core, just like him.

"What kind of monster is this?"

Bai Luo's face turned pale, his breath caught.

Suddenly, he thought of the ninth-ranked evil entity on the danger list, the Butcher. The description of the Butcher seemed eerily similar to the monster before him.

The many corpse puppets turned their gaze and charged at Bai Luo with bared fangs and claws.

These newly born corpse puppets had no shrouds, revealing their true forms, with copper skin and iron bones, bodies like black iron. Each punch and claw emitted a thunderous roar, and corpse Qi permeated the air. A single hit would leave him severely injured, if not dead.

Bai Luo unleashed another wave of chaos, causing the corpse puppets to lose their sense of direction and move erratically.

But the mother body seemed stimulated, its entire mass of tumors trembling violently, and more corpse puppets emerged from within it. The number exceeded twenty, and the stone chamber was filled with a thick corpse Qi.

This made Bai Luo's heart sink. He quickly put away the ancient mirror, not daring to use it recklessly again.

As the corpse Qi spread, Bai Luo's skin turned green, with blue and purple spots appearing—signs of corpse poison.

"Damn it! This is trouble. The chaos wave can't be used; it's clearly countering me!"

Bai Luo swallowed an antidote pill and erected a light shield to block the corpse Qi, only to see the mother body's arm suddenly expand by several dozen meters, reaching for him.

"Entangle!!"

Bai Luo released a willow branch, which grew in the wind, wrapping around the arm. But from the Butcher's hand, a serrated weapon emerged, spinning with a mechanical roar, slicing through all the willow branches.

Bai Luo then summoned a copper bell, which was also slashed open by the weapon, the blade heading straight for his face.

With no choice, Bai Luo used a teleportation talisman to instantly dodge the attack.

...

In the second chamber.

Xu Hei had reached the last three grids of the Nine Palaces Formation. These three formations were clearly different from the previous six, more than ten times as complex.

Just a glance made Xu Hei feel dizzy.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, Xu Hei felt a faint sensation from the first chamber.

"Is the Butcher stirring?"

Xu Hei frowned. He had always maintained a connection with the Butcher, and although it was blocked by distance and divine sense, the feeling was unmistakable.

This led Xu Hei to suspect that someone had entered the first chamber, disturbing the Butcher.

"Looks like I need to speed up."

Xu Hei took a deep breath, swallowed an Awakening Pill, and focused all his efforts on studying the next formation.

As soon as Xu Hei entered, flames erupted from the ground, raising the temperature and distorting the space. The fire released toxic gas, trying to invade his body.

"A fire poison formation, containing two elements, cleverly combined. No wonder the complexity skyrockets," Xu Hei mused.

...

In the blink of an eye, two more days passed.

In the first chamber, about twenty corpse puppets wandered aimlessly in the empty stone room, while the Butcher's mother body stood still, the dozen or so eyes on its head looking blank.

Corpse Qi from the heavens and earth gathered, flowing into the Butcher's body, where a corpse pill seemed to be forming in its dantian.

Two stiff corpse puppets lay on the ground, having lost their spiritual power.

As for Bai Luo, he was nowhere to be found.

At this moment, an ancient painting was affixed to the ceiling of the stone chamber, depicting a courtyard.

Inside the painting was a space filled with mist, lush green trees, and a quaint courtyard, like a paradise. Bai Luo sat cross-legged within, performing breathing exercises to recover from his injuries.

It took him a full day to completely expel the corpse Qi from his body, and the corpse spots disappeared.

"Thankfully, I had the paradise painting from my Grandmaster, or I wouldn't have survived. The difficulty of this first chamber isn't meant for someone like me; it requires Core Formation Stage cultivation to pass!"

Bai Luo's expression was grim. Although he could unleash all his abilities to fight against the Core Formation Stage, this was only the first chamber. If he used all his trump cards, what would he do for the later stages?

Facing more troublesome dangers without those magical treasures might leave him without even a chance to escape.

Therefore, he decided to act cautiously.

Using the special space of the paradise painting, he would slowly wear down the corpse puppets, engaging in a war of attrition, taking out one or two at a time before retreating.

Eventually, he would be able to eliminate all the corpse puppets here.

Fortunately, these corpse puppets had not developed intelligence and acted only on instinct, unable to recognize the paradise painting, allowing him to use this tactic.

"Is this Butcher really left by the third-generation ancestor? Why do I feel something is off?"

The more Bai Luo thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Initially confident, he now had a sense of foreboding.

Fortunately, he was well-prepared. As long as nothing unexpected happened, there shouldn't be any major issues.

...

Xu Hei took three days to break the fire poison formation and another two days to dismantle the ice thunder killing formation.

The final Five Elements Killing Formation was extremely tricky. The moment Xu Hei triggered it, he nearly lost his life.

Luckily, he managed to hide inside the Black Dragon Pagoda just in time, barely surviving.

From within the Black Dragon Pagoda, he observed the outside, where winds howled, thunder roared, earth fire surged, the ground froze, and sandstorms raged. The five elements converged, forming a cycle that seemed eternal.

Xu Hei fell into deep thought.

"The five elements rotate endlessly. I need to create a breach to disrupt the cycle," Xu Hei pondered.

Ultimately, it took five days to fully analyze this formation.

Xu Hei set up a force-dissipating formation, creating a gap in the five elements, stopping their cycle, and gradually weakening them until they dissipated.

The door to the next chamber opened at this moment.

Xu Hei let out a long breath, mentally exhausted.

"This formation is too dangerous. To enhance it with my abilities would require at least fifty thousand spirit stones and might still fail, taking a minimum of three days. During that time, the opponent could enter at any moment..."

After silently calculating, Xu Hei shook his head.

"Better not, but..."

Xu Hei's eyes gleamed.

He took out spirit stones, constructing bridges of spiritual Qi, embedding them into the formation base, linking this formation with the other eight, creating eight connections.

Triggering the Five Elements Killing Formation would activate the other eight formations simultaneously, reactivating the previously solved formations.

With all nine formations activated, even a Great Golden Immortal would meet their end!

Xu Hei smirked coldly. This design was more reasonable and challenging; the tomb owner's previous design was too simple.

It was merely a test, giving people a chance to learn formations, which was quite dull. Now, it was a life-and-death trial at every step.

"They should be coming soon; I need to leave."

Xu Hei sensed the Butcher's condition, glanced at the dark exit, hoisted the cat corpse, and with a flash, dashed inside.

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