Xia Ruofei walked to the back of the tree and saw a clear Eight Trigrams pattern. However, the pattern was dim and lifeless.
Elder Zhen Yang walked over and said with a smile, "Mr. Xia, I've already restrained the puppets. They won't come within three feet of this place, so you can talk to me without worry. Otherwise, the puppets would've been here a long time ago."
Xia Ruofei scanned the area with his power of the Will and found that it was true. One of the puppets was very close, but it seemed to have run into a wall. It then turned around and left.
"Thank you very much, Daoist." Xia Ruofei said, "But what is the purpose of Daoist telling me this?"
Elder Zhen Yang laughed and said, "Mr. Xia, you're an interesting person. I noticed that you didn't seem to believe me, so I went through a lot of trouble to find this passage to verify my words. I don't want to see you waste any more time, so I decided to come out and explain myself. I also hope that you can show your true abilities and kill the puppets as soon as possible so that you can enter the second level of the trial tower. I might as well tell Patron Xia that the record for passing the first level of the Tower of Trials is two hours. Patron Xia has already wasted a quarter of an hour. If you want to break the record, Patron Xia will have to work harder! "
Xia Ruofei's expression turned serious. He quickly asked, "Mr. Xia, did anyone else enter the tower today? Are their lives in danger? "
Daoist Zhen Yang's words revealed an important piece of information. There had been people who had passed the Puppet Trial of the Tower of Trials and entered the second level, and there had been more than one. The fastest person had taken two hours to pass, which was why Xia Ruofei immediately thought of the other exploration team members, especially Ling Qingxue.
Elder Zhen Yang smiled and said, "Mr. Xia, what you need to do now is focus on completing your own trial. Everyone has their own path to walk. You can't influence the path of others, and you can't help everyone …"
"Daoist priest, I have a very important friend who entered this Secret Realm with me, and then we got separated. I'm really worried about her safety. If you know anything, please tell me!" Xia Ruofei said anxiously.
Everyone had entered the dungeon at about the same time, but Xia Ruofei had not encountered a single member of the exploration team. If everyone had been lured into the Trial Tower by some mysterious force, then it was very likely that there was more than one Trial Tower. Old Taoist Zhen Yang, who stood before him, obviously knew about the others' situation.
Xia Ruofei even began to doubt his previous judgment. The more he looked at Old Daoist Zhen Yang, the less he looked like a puppet. He looked more like a real human. Moreover, he was an expert whose cultivation base Xia Ruofei could not see through.
However, Xia Ruofei could still sense that Old Taoist Zhen Yang was different from a real human. Something felt off.
However, now was not the time to be thinking about this. Xia Ruofei urgently wanted to know about Ling Qingxue's situation.
Old Taoist Zhen Yang looked at Xia Ruofei. After a moment of hesitation, he said, "Mr. Xia, according to the rules, I can't tell you anything. However, since you care so much about your partner, I'll tell you something! That little girl is safe for now. That's all I can say. Don't ask anymore … "
Xia Ruofei was overjoyed. He quickly said, "Thank you, Daoist priest! Thank you, Daoist priest! "
Old Taoist Zhen Yang waved his hand and said, "Mr. Xia, you should think of a way to pass the Trial of Puppets as soon as possible! I'll take my leave now! "
With that, Old Taoist Zhen Yang cupped his hands at Xia Ruofei. Then, his body flashed and disappeared from the spot. When he reappeared, he was already at the entrance of True Yang Temple. It was as if he had teleported.
Xia Ruofei could not help but be speechless. With his strength, he could tell that Old Taoist Zhen Yang had not teleported. It was just that his speed was so fast that by the time his shadow disappeared, he was already dozens of meters away.
However, even if he had not teleported, his speed was still frightening.
Xia Ruofei could not help but mutter to himself, "Just what cultivation level is this Daoist Zhen Yang at?"
However, he did not have much time to think about it. After Old Taoist Zhen Yang left, the Puppets were no longer restricted. Soon, one of the Puppets found the area where Xia Ruofei was.
Xia Ruofei scanned the area with his mind power and found that it was the peddler who had attacked him first at the center of the mini town. At this moment, the peddler was walking toward Xia Ruofei with an iron pole on his shoulder.
If it had been a moment ago, Xia Ruofei would have dove into the Ring-Tu space. Now that he understood the situation, he could not hide anymore. There was no point in doing so. He would only be trapped on the first level forever and never be able to enter the second level.
Moreover, from what Old Taoist Zhen Yang had said, it seemed that the faster he entered the second level, the more benefits he would gain. Otherwise, he would not have set a record.
The fastest person to enter the second level took two hours.
In two hours, this person had killed a hundred Puppets with cultivation levels equal to or even higher than his. He had also found the entrance to the second level.
If Xia Ruofei wanted to break this record, he would have to end this quickly.
He had one advantage, and that was the Sensory Mirror. Thus, he did not need to spend time looking for the entrance to the second level. After completing the mission, he could directly rush to the tree. This would save him a lot of time.
Xia Ruofei took a deep breath and quietly crouched down in the grass. Even if he wanted to complete the mission as quickly as possible, he could not act rashly. He had to do his best to avoid alerting the other Puppets. Otherwise, they would gang up on him, and Xia Ruofei would not be able to take it.
Thus, assassination was naturally his first choice.
Although the peddler had the strength of a Golden Core cultivator, he did not seem to have as strong a sense of perception as a human cultivator. Thus, even when he was about ten meters away, he still did not sense Xia Ruofei's presence.
Xia Ruofei had already held his breath. His divine power was locked onto the peddler the entire time. Beside him, the Curved Frost Sword silently hovered an inch above the ground. It was ready to deliver a fatal blow at any moment.
Xia Ruofei had just come from the center of the mini town and hid all the way to the entrance to the second level. Although it seemed like he had done nothing, he had actually gained something. First of all, he had distanced himself from the area where the Puppets were concentrated. He could assassinate the Puppets that had strayed from the periphery. The difficulty would definitely be much lower than killing his way through the center. Secondly, during this process, he had become much more familiar with the Curved Frost Sword's sword manipulation technique. Now, he could control this flying sword much more easily than before.
The peddler approached the area of weeds where Xia Ruofei was hiding. The grass here was very tall, so he took down the shoulder pole from his shoulder and used it to sweep away the weeds. It seemed like he was going to search around the large tree at the entrance to the second level.
However, this was exactly what Xia Ruofei wanted, because the peddler's path just so happened to be heading in his direction.
Eight meters, seven meters, six meters, five meters, four meters …
The peddler approached Xia Ruofei step by step. When the two were only three meters apart, Xia Ruofei suddenly stood up. A sword light stabbed towards the peddler's chest.
The peddler reacted quickly. The moment Xia Ruofei appeared, his entire body tensed. Just as he was about to swing his shoulder pole at Xia Ruofei, the sword light appeared.
The peddler immediately dodged to his left. Then, he knocked his shoulder pole forward and accurately touched the sword light.
His shoulder pole looked like it was made of iron, but in reality, the material was not simple. After it touched the sword light, a string of sparks appeared on the pole, but it was undamaged. The sword light had completely deviated from its path due to the heavy blow.
Yet, the true killing intent only appeared now.
Just as the peddler took a step to the left, a flying sword silently flew out from the grass.
The peddler had just blocked the sword light with his shoulder pole when the silent flying sword suddenly sped up and circled around the peddler's neck.
The peddler's movements immediately froze. The shoulder pole in his hand fell to the ground with a clang. Then, a thin red line appeared on his neck …
Slowly, the red line began to spray blood. The peddler's expression was blank. He futilely covered his neck with his hands. It would have been better if he didn't move. The moment he moved, his head fell off and a large amount of blood sprayed out.
The peddler was naturally deader than dead.
Xia Ruofei muttered, "It's quite realistic …"
However, he didn't dare delay. With a thought, he put away the two flying swords and quickly moved.
Although the peddler's death was silent, Xia Ruofei couldn't guarantee that the puppets wouldn't discover it.
In the army, the most important rule for a sniper was to ensure the safety of their sniping position. If there was a possibility of their position being exposed, they had to decisively change positions.
Xia Ruofei naturally understood this principle.
Thus, after he killed the peddler, he left without another word.
The peddler's strength was actually about the same as Xia Ruofei's. He knew that he was slightly stronger than Xia Ruofei.
The reason why Xia Ruofei was able to kill him so cleanly was because he had used a flexible tactic.
He jumped out three meters away from the peddler and shot out a flying sword. All of this was to attract the peddler's attention.
This flying sword was the Blue Traveling Immortal Sword that Xia Ruofei had used before. Because of the change in the rules, his original sword control technique couldn't control flying swords in the secret realm. He hadn't mastered the sword control technique of the Curved Frost Flying Sword yet. Controlling the Curved Frost Flying Sword wasn't a big problem, but controlling the Blue Traveling Immortal Sword wasn't too good. Thus, Xia Ruofei didn't use a sword technique. Instead, he used his spiritual power to directly grab the Blue Traveling Immortal Sword. Without any technique, he directly stabbed at the peddler.
As expected, the peddler fell for the trick. His attention was completely drawn.
But the real killing move was the Curved Frost Flying Sword hidden in the grass.
When the peddler stepped to dodge and used his iron pole to block the Blue Traveling Immortal Sword, the Curved Frost Flying Sword mysteriously flew out from the grass to the side.
At this time, the peddler had just used up all his strength and hadn't recovered. Even if he noticed the Curved Frost Flying Sword, his body was temporarily stiff. Moreover, he didn't notice the Curved Frost Flying Sword coming from the side. Naturally, his death wasn't unjustified at all.
Xia Ruofei quickly hid in a bush about 20 meters away from where the peddler had been killed. He spread out his spiritual power to search for lone puppets.
At this time, Xia Ruofei saw the number 1/100 appear in the Perceptive Mirror's field of vision. Beside this line of words, there was also a timer. It showed that the time was 17 minutes.
Clearly, the former was recording the number of puppets he had killed. The counter beside it was calculating the time he had spent since the start of the mission.
The more Xia Ruofei looked at it, the more he felt that the Perceptive Mirror didn't look like a magic treasure of the cultivation world. Instead, it looked more like a technological product.
Indeed, whether it was the map interface, the mission status display that had just appeared, or some other information, the interface was filled with a sense of technology. It gave Xia Ruofei the feeling that it was a large-scale game.
Xia Ruofei didn't have time to study the display interface of the Perceptive Mirror. His top priority was to race against time to kill as many puppets as possible.
If possible, he would definitely want to assassinate them one-on-one without entering the central area of the town.
However, he also knew very well that it might be possible at the beginning, but the puppets definitely wouldn't keep coming over to kill him. In the end, he would either have to go to the central area of the town to find new prey, or the puppets would come to search in groups and no longer act alone.
Considering that there were two puppets with the strength of the Nascent Soul stage, Xia Ruofei was very careful in all his actions. Fighting for time was necessary, but the prerequisite was to ensure his safety as much as possible.
For example, Xia Ruofei had just hidden himself when he discovered two puppets on the mountain path together. The information from the Perceptive Mirror showed that one of the two puppets had the strength of the early Golden Core stage, and the other had the strength of the middle Golden Core stage.
With Xia Ruofei's combat strength, he could deal with these two puppets at the same time.
However, it would definitely cause a big commotion. It was impossible to kill them silently like how he had dealt with the itinerant peddler just now.
In this way, it was bound to attract a large number of puppets.
Therefore, Xia Ruofei decisively chose to give up and directly let the two puppets go. He was still lying motionless in the bushes.
In fact, Xia Ruofei had also discovered that although the weakest of these puppets had the strength of the early Golden Core stage, whether it was the early Golden Core stage or the late Golden Core stage, they didn't have the keen perception of human cultivators of the same strength. Perhaps they didn't have mental strength at all. Therefore, even if Xia Ruofei was hiding very close to them, as long as Xia Ruofei hid well enough, the puppets wouldn't be able to discover him at all.
Xia Ruofei didn't know if the puppets with the strength of the Nascent Soul stage didn't have strong perception. If that was the case, then the difficulty of this task would be much lower.
After all, the space on the first level was so small. If each of the puppets had the strong perception of human cultivators, then he wouldn't be able to hide at all. Then the difficulty of this task would be too high, and there would be no possibility of completing it.
Xia Ruofei thought to himself as he continued to search with his mental strength.
Soon, his eyes lit up slightly.
Thirty meters ahead, an old man puppet was slowly approaching. The Perceptive Mirror showed that this was a puppet with the strength of the late Golden Core stage, and there were no other puppets nearby.
Xia Ruofei immediately became excited. He lay motionless in the bushes and held his breath.
Xia Ruofei stared unblinkingly at the old man puppet that was getting closer and closer. The Curved Frost Flying Sword and the Blue Traveling Immortal Sword appeared silently and floated quietly beside him …
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