Chapter 64

Although the Wood Puppet Ghost's body had grown larger, its appearance still maintained the likeness of Luo Feng.

The screams and roars not only did not make Xia Hong retreat, but instead increased the force with which he inserted the torch; at the same time, the other five also came over holding torches.

The five did not go to use their weapons to hack out wounds again, but went straight to Xia Hong's side and stuffed all the ignited torches in their hands into the crack Xia Hong had cut earlier.

Originally, the black smoke burned out by one torch was already quite a lot. After the five torches behind were stuffed in, the fire instantly rose three or four meters, and the black smoke above it formed a column, spreading crazily toward the sky.

The black energy lingering around the Wood Puppet Ghost's body gave people an extremely evil feeling.

And the black smoke burned out by the torches carried a foul stench, just like the decaying smell emitted after filth was purified.

"Ah..."

The Wood Puppet Ghost's screams became even more hysterical.

But even so, it still did not want to open its eyes, and the resentful words inside its body that could affect the mind did not stop.

"The ghost is Soul-Absorbing and Spirit-Gathering; it will be promoted once successful. It doesn't want to give up the chance for promotion. Big Brother, we cannot let it succeed!"

Except for Yang Ning, the five, including Xia Hong, were confused by the four words "Soul-Absorbing and Spirit-Gathering," but they could still understand the words that followed, and their expressions suddenly became tense again.

Six torches were indeed useful and had caused huge damage to the Wood Puppet Ghost.

But it had to be said that compared to the Condensing Fire Oil from just now, it was still too big a difference.

Whether it was because the Wood Puppet Ghost's body was too large or its strength was much stronger than the Giant Wood Puppet from just now, the fire burned by the six torches could not even cover its legs; it only burned up less than five meters before stopping.

Xia Hong was naturally the first to discover this, and Luo Ming was the second.

Discovering that the torches could not continue to burn through the Wood Puppet Ghost, Luo Ming even turned his head to look at Xia Hong, a glimmer of hope appearing in his eyes.

"There is no more. If there were, I wouldn't have saved it until now!"

Xia Hong naturally knew what Luo Ming meant and shook his head slightly to answer him.

"Everyone move aside, I'll do it!"

Just at this moment, Yang Ning moved.

In fact, at this moment, only he could cause damage to the Wood Puppet Ghost.

Yang Ning shouted the five away in one word, stepped onto the Wood Puppet Ghost's lower limbs, and galloped upward along its torso.

His speed and strength were incomparably astonishing. Borrowing inertia and force, he continuously borrowed strength from the Wood Puppet Ghost's body joints, and in the blink of an eye, he actually rushed all the way to the Wood Puppet Ghost's shoulder position.

Seeing that the Wood Puppet Ghost was still keeping its eyes closed, a ferocious look appeared on Yang Ning's face. He raised his silver longsword high and thrust it suddenly toward its left eye.

The sword edge hissed, driving the air along the way and almost condensing into fluorescence, shining in the night sky—one could see the force of Yang Ning's strike.

In the gap just before the sword reached the eye, the Wood Puppet Ghost, in addition to its tightly closed eyes, immediately shot out a large number of transparent white threads from its five orifices, wanting to block it.

If he didn't force it to open its eyes and destroy its promotion process, there would be only a dead end.

Yang Ning only had this thought in his mind; he directly ignored the countless white threads sprayed from the five orifices and raised his sword to thrust straight ahead without any hesitation, without the slightest doubt.

Sss...

Those white threads simply could not block that silver longsword.

Countless white threads were cut, sparking thousands of fire stars, incomparably brilliant.

The longsword was like a stream of light, forcing its way straight to the Wood Puppet Ghost's left pupil.

Just an inch away, the Wood Puppet Ghost, however, suddenly opened its eyes at this moment.

"Roar..."

The Wood Puppet Ghost let out a heaven-shaking roar.

Whether it was Yang Ning in front of it or Xia Hong and the others on the ground, they could all feel the Wood Puppet Ghost's endless anger and madness from this roar.

"This should be that the promotion was interrupted, which is why it is so angry!"

This thought flashed through Xia Hong's mind. Just as he wanted to look up, a terrifying sense of oppression came from overhead. He was shocked in his heart and hurriedly retreated backward.

That Wood Puppet Ghost—the three-inch small blade originally in its hand had somehow turned into a ten-meter-long black blade, the blade edge lingering with a layer of black energy, emitting boundless power, terrifying to the extreme.

With a body size of over twenty meters, holding that terrifying-looking large blade, the Wood Puppet Ghost at this moment was like a demon god in the world, making people shudder.

Bang...

It only raised the blade and swung it lightly, and it sent Yang Ning, who was thrusting toward its left eye, along with his longsword, flying over a hundred meters away, directly crashing into the stone wall on the left side of the valley.

Looking at that movement, it was estimated that Yang Ning was hit into the mountain body by more than five or six meters.

"Although the promotion failed, its strength has still become stronger!"

Xia Hong, who had already retreated more than ten meters away, had a trace of fear flash across his face. He turned his head to look at Watching Yue Feng, Yuan Cheng, and the others, gritted his teeth, and shouted: "Let's run!"

Luo Ming, Li Hu, and Yang Ning, who had just freed himself from the mountain wall, were all stunned the moment they heard these three words from Xia Hong.

In fact, not only them, but even the five, Yuan Cheng and Watching Yue Feng, did not react at the first moment.

The leader wants to take them and flee?

But very quickly, the unconditional trust in Xia Hong made the five, Yuan Cheng and the others, immediately discard the confusion in their minds, follow behind him, and run together toward the direction of the cave entrance.

"This cowardly piece of trash!"

Li Hu, who had the biggest opinion of Xia Hong, was extremely furious in his heart at this moment. If the timing hadn't been wrong, he would have loved to directly hack Xia Hong with his blade.

At such a critical moment, Xia Hong actually turned around and fled for his life.

It wasn't to say how much use Xia Hong had, but the key was that they had a total of seven Earth-Digging Realms; with one less, the remaining six naturally had more pressure.

"Little bastard, want to run?"

The Wood Puppet Ghost, which had never spoken, saw Xia Hong wanting to flee and actually broke the precedent by emitting a mocking sound. Seeing Xia Hong's figure fleeing in a panic, it seemed that even the anger from its promotion being destroyed just now had calmed down quite a bit.

Of course, mockery was mockery, but the Wood Puppet Ghost's movements were not slow at all.

It raised the ten-meter-long black blade in its hand and swung it fiercely at Xia Hong and his group. The black energy on the blade edge seemed to have life, turning into a black blade light. Before it even landed, just by relying on the pressure, it left a terrifying crack more than a meter deep on the ground.

"Dodge to the right!"

Sensing the blade light overhead coming, Xia Hong shouted a reminder to Yuan Cheng and the others beside him.

The five all dodged frantically to the right, while Xia Hong went to the left alone.

The Wood Puppet Ghost's blade light also followed him to the left; the target was clearly him.

Bang...

The powerful force carried by the black blade light slashed onto the ground, kicking up smoke and dust over a hundred meters high, instantly covering the entire valley. No one could see the situation inside clearly.

A full ten breaths passed before the smoke and dust slowly dissipated.

Seeing the situation inside, everyone's faces were suddenly filled with horror, and their pupils contracted sharply.

That strike had actually slashed out a gully seven or eight meters deep.

That gully was twenty or thirty meters long; just the blade energy extending forward had slashed open the pile of rubble at the cave entrance of the valley.

"Leader!"

"Leader..."

The five on the right, Yuan Cheng and Watching Yue Feng, had no mind to care about that gully. The five were all shouting in panic, hoping to get a response from Xia Hong.

It was a pity that they called out more than ten times in a row, but no one responded.

"Sigh..."

Luo Ming in the distance sighed lightly, a trace of regret crossing his face.

It was no exaggeration to say that from seeing Xia Hong at Red Wood Ridge until now, although it hadn't been a few hours, this young man's wit and decisiveness had already left a deep enough impression on him.

Looking at the camps around Red Wood Ridge, Luo Ming could be certain that an excellent young man like Xia Hong basically could not be found.

Who would have thought that such a talent would still be unable to withstand the fear of death.

The moment Xia Hong fled the battle, Luo Ming actually did not blame him, but was just a little disappointed in his heart.

Whether facing cold beasts or ghosts, once fear arises in the heart, it often means death. This was a common understanding for people like them who were leaders.

And on the other side, Li Hu had a smile of extreme satisfaction on his face.

Yang Ning also did not speak, just shook his head, a trace of disdain appearing in his eyes.

"Hehehehe..."

The happiest person in the whole scene was the Wood Puppet Ghost.

Seeming to realize that Xia Hong was dead, it emitted an incomparably creepy laughter.

While laughing, it also put away the black blade it had slashed onto the ground, carried it on its shoulder, and lowered its head to check the gully, wanting to see the miserable state of Xia Hong's corpse.

(End of this chapter)