Chapter 59: The Giant Wooden Puppet

Boom…………

In the valley, without warning, a hundred-meter-tall wooden puppet giant had appeared.

Its body was extremely small, with limbs accounting for nearly eight-tenths of its total size.

Its legs resembled twin pillars holding up the sky; each step shook the valley floor, making surrounding grass and trees sway precariously.

Its arms were long and narrow, stretching forty to fifty meters—nearly half its body length. Though its hands showed no fingers, they were clenched into fists like two meteor hammers over ten meters in diameter, wildly smashing down at the people on the ground.

The valley stretched only three to four hundred meters across; with the wooden giant standing in the center, there was barely any room to dodge. All sixty people who had remained outside moments earlier were now scrambling in panic.

There had been fifty-four people left outside.

Xia Hong stepped out of the wooden hut, glanced briefly, and counted over ten missing. His face tightened instantly as he frantically scanned the fleeing figures for Yuan Cheng, Yue Feng, and others.

“Leader, we’re here!”

Yuan Cheng’s voice came from the left. Xia Hong turned his head and relief flickered across his face.

On the rocky cliff to the right of the valley, Yuan Cheng, Yue Feng, and the other six were all present.

But Xia Hong’s relief vanished the moment he saw their situation.

The six were trapped in a narrow crack in the rock.

Outside the crack, the wooden puppet giant’s massive right fist was hammering furiously. Though the crack was one or two meters thick, it was now riddled with cracks from the relentless blows—clearly unable to withstand a few more strikes before shattering completely.

The wooden puppet had no fingers and could not reach in to pull them out, so it relied solely on brute force, striking only at the crack’s single exit, each blow faster than the last—clearly determined to prevent Yuan Cheng’s group from escaping.

Worse still, the puppet was multitasking: only its right arm attacked the six, while its legs and left arm simultaneously targeted three other groups totaling over forty people across the valley.

“Xia Leader, catch the blade!”

“Thank you.”

Xia Hong charged without hesitation toward the six, and behind him, Luo Ming hurled a great sword. He didn’t turn—he reached out and caught it mid-air, then sprinted toward the crack where the six were trapped.

With each thunderous strike of the puppet’s limbs, the ground trembled. Xia Hong’s running form wobbled, his expression growing ever more grim.

The ground in this world was not ordinary—Digging Realm wasn’t just a saying.

To shake the earth this violently, the puppet’s strength must far exceed imagination. Not even Luo Ming could withstand it, let alone himself.

As he thought, Xia Hong reached the crack’s edge. As the giant swung another crushing blow, he leapt off the cliff wall for momentum, raised his great sword, and slashed down at the hammer-like fist.

Unsurprisingly, the puppet had formed from the other four wooden huts in the camp, likely carved from Jinlin trees. Bare-handed, Xia Hong couldn’t guarantee he’d cut through it—but with a blade in hand, he had no doubt.

Crack…………

The blade cleaved the wooden fist. As expected, the metal’s sharpness left no doubt—it carved a crack over a meter long.

But Xia Hong froze as he stared directly at the cut.

Beneath the fissure, a dense layer of transparent white threads was woven throughout.

Before he could react, the puppet’s right fist rose as if untouched, ignoring him entirely, and resumed its furious pounding on the crack where Yuan Cheng’s group hid.

Boom… Boom… Boom…………

The crack sheltering Yuan Cheng’s six was already small; after over a dozen blows, it teetered on collapse. Yue Feng and Yuan Cheng, standing at the front, were crushed by falling rocks, blood trickling from their lips.

If the puppet kept striking like this, the six would die!

Xia Hong looked up and saw the crack he’d made on the puppet’s fist slowly healing. No more hesitation—he pulled the block of Congealed Fire Oil from his robe and smeared it directly onto his blade’s edge.

The puppet’s right fist was over ten meters in diameter. That first slash had never been meant to kill—it was only meant to draw its attention and relieve pressure on Yuan Cheng’s group. But the puppet hadn’t taken the bait.

Xia Hong gripped his long blade, waited for the next downward strike, then leapt upward, driving the blade deep into the puppet’s right arm. He clamped both arms onto the hilt.

As the puppet lifted its right arm, Xia Hong was dragged upward with it.

The moment the blade pierced the puppet’s arm, the Congealed Fire Oil ignited. The white threads woven through the wood burst into flame and spread rapidly in all directions.

It worked!

Xia Hong silently cheered, his face just beginning to relax—then his expression shattered in shock.

The blade he’d plunged into the puppet’s arm was slipping free.

No—it wasn’t the blade slipping. It was the part of the arm he’d cut—and precisely where the Congealed Fire Oil had burned—that was detaching.

The puppet had deliberately severed the portion of its own fist that had been burned by the oil.

Xia Hong realized he was about to fall with that detached section. He gritted his teeth, yanked the blade free, then leapt upward, scaling the puppet’s right fist and racing along its slender arm.

The fist was enormous, but the arm was long and narrow—like a hammer’s handle to its head. As he climbed, he smeared another layer of Congealed Fire Oil onto his blade. When he reached the thinnest part of the arm, he raised his long sword, face twisted in fury, and brought it down in one final slash.

The puppet’s target had always been Yuan Cheng’s six. It assumed Xia Hong climbing its arm was merely a distraction—and kept hammering the crack where they hid.

Xia Hong poured every ounce of strength into this strike.

He had no choice. Even the thinnest part of the puppet’s arm looked two or three meters thick. Without full force, he feared he couldn’t cut through.

Rip…………

Fortunately—this slash worked!

Though it didn’t sever the arm completely, it carved over two meters deep. The white threads coated in Congealed Fire Oil ignited instantly; the remaining few centimeters, now aflame, snapped clean.

Boom…………

The massive inertia of the detached fist still slammed onto the crack above Yuan Cheng’s group—but without the puppet’s control, its impact was now negligible.

Crash… Crack…

Even so, the crack sheltering Yuan Cheng’s six finally shattered.

Pushing aside the rocks, Yuan Cheng, Yue Feng, and the other six emerged, their faces etched with the relief of barely escaping death.

Had Xia Hong not severed the puppet’s arm, that final blow would have crushed them all into pulp.

Seeing them free, Xia Hong glanced at the Congealed Fire Oil in his hand, then looked up at the puppet’s other three limbs still attacking Luo Ming and the others. His face twisted in conflict. Finally, he gritted his teeth and hurled the oil block toward Luo Ming.

“Luo Leader, catch it—this is the last piece. Cut its arms!”

(End of Chapter)