Chapter 356: Two Shards of Red Jade
The two stone puppets snapped their heads left and right, the crimson flames in their hollow sockets flaring frantically as they sought their lost target.
In the next microsecond, a sharp gust of displaced wind tore between them.
Shen Yu materialized directly behind the grounded puppet like an ethereal phantom, his pitch-black spear already thrusting forward in a lethal, concentrated strike.
The constructs’ combat runes flashed as they registered the spatial disturbance behind them, attempting to pivot, yet their petrified joints were far too slow.
CRACK— KABOOM!
The celestial Qi-infused spearhead drove straight through the puppet’s spinal column, obliterating the core matrix nestled between its shoulder blades.
The concentrated golden-pink energy detonated violently from the inside, sending cracks spider-webbing across its stone torso before the puppet could even complete its turn.
Instantly, the surviving puppet reacted with unyielding ferocity.
Abandoning all defense, it swung its colossal greatsword in a savage, sweeping roundhouse slash, the blood-soaked blade whistling through the air at point-blank range.
Shen Yu leaned back with breathtaking fluidity.
The rusted edge of the greatsword sheared past his chest, severing a single strand of his dark hair by a mere hair’s breadth.
Before the kinetic force of the swing could settle, Shen Yu tapped his lead foot against the obsidian floor and engaged Phantom Steps once more, dissolving into three shimmering afterimages that scattered in opposing directions.
The puppet’s greatsword struck empty air, shuddering under the momentum of its own wasted force.
Reappearing high above the construct’s blind spot, Shen Yu descended like a swooping predator.
He channeled the full weight of the Rising Swan Spear Technique into an inverted strike.
SHRRR— CRASH!
The glowing spear pierced the top of the puppet’s skull, driving downward until the blade erupted through its stone jaw.
Shen Yu twisted the shaft, sending a devastating pulse of Yin-Yang celestial Qi surging straight into its chest core.
BANG!
The second puppet’s torso blew apart into fragments, its dying crimson eye-flames extinguishing into dull smoke as both shattered constructs crumbled into twin mounds of dark, powdery dust.
Shen Yu landed with weightless grace upon the arena floor, the crimson-veined spear dissolving back into his spatial ring with a flick of his wrist.
Walking toward the mounds of ash, his golden eyes caught a familiar crimson glow.
Resting amidst the pulverized stone were two glowing shards of dark red jade, their jagged edges scorched with identical abyssal black marks.
With a wave of his hand, Shen Yu drew the fragments into his palm.
Sending his divine sense into the newly acquired pieces, he felt the chaotic stream of ancient text within his sea of consciousness begin to align, gradually assembling the broken foundation of an ancient high-tier cultivation manual.
A sharp, satisfied smirk curved Shen Yu’s lips as he stored the jade shards into his spatial ring.
Turning his gaze toward the far end of the cavern, he watched the heavy stone doorway grind open, revealing the next descending passage leading deeper into the subterranean trial.
Shen Yu pressed onward into the descending dark.
With every subterranean chamber he cleared, the trials escalated with brutal precision.
By the fourth cavern, the ambient gravity had mutated from a minor inconvenience into a suffocating shroud, equivalent to carrying several tons of dead iron across his marrow.
The stone monoliths multiplied, the runic arrays burned with increasingly vicious bloodlight, and the guardian puppets coordinated with terrifying, hive-mind perfection.
Now, inside the fifth cavern, the obsidian arena was painted in fresh crimson.
BANG!
Shen Yu was sent skidding backward across the shattered stone floor, his boots carving two deep furrows into the ground before he violently planted the butt of his spear to arrest his momentum.
A sharp cough escaped his lips, a thin trickle of dark golden-red blood staining the corner of his mouth.
Across his left shoulder and ribs, a jagged tear in his ruined robe revealed a deep, smoldering gash where the corrosive, blood-tinted sword Qi of an ancient construct had breached his defensive celestial barrier.
The wound throbbed with numbing, petrifying frost, fighting against his body’s natural regeneration.
Surrounding him in a merciless pentagonal slaughter formation were five stone puppets.
Unlike the earlier constructs, their stone armor was etched with pulsing, violet-crimson ancient runes, their eye sockets burning with sentient, bloodthirsty malice.
Each of them possessed the terrifying power of a Peak 9th Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, but moving under the chamber’s gravity, their combined assault was lethal enough to butcher a standard Half-Step Golden Core expert within three breaths.
Shen Yu wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand, his golden eyes narrowing into razor-sharp slits.
With a single thought, the crimson-veined spear dissolved from Shen Yu’s grasp, vanishing back into his spatial ring.
He rolled his injured shoulder, feeling the torn flesh knit under the violent surge of his internal vitality.
A deep, guttural chuckle rumbled in his throat, a sound far removed from the composed, elegant young master persona he presented to the world.
Slowly, the golden brilliance in his eyes receded, swallowed entirely by an intoxicating, abyssal crimson.
A manic, unhinged spark of pure joy ignited deep within his pupils.
For months, he had played the part of the refined, disciplined young master, meticulously burying his true nature beneath elegant spear arts and an orthodox celestial facade.
But facing five relentless killing machines under crushing gravitational pressure, the dormant demon within his soul shattered its chains.
"Hahaha..." Shen Yu chuckled softly, the sound rapidly escalating into a low, terrifying roar that reverberated violently off the cavern walls.
"It has been far too long since I bathed my bare hands in pure destruction!"
BOOM!
A monstrous, suffocating wave of pure, condensed killing intent erupted from his frame.
The bloodlust was so dense that the five stone puppets froze in their tracks for a fraction of a heartbeat, their ancient runic cores shuddering under the immense spiritual terror before violently snapping back into motion and charging forward once more.
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