Chapter 65: It

"Hehehehehehe..."

The Wood Puppet Ghost peered into the gully and discovered Xia Hong's fur garment lying quietly at the bottom, surrounded by bloodstains. Its laughter grew increasingly sinister and rampant, even carrying a hint of satisfaction.

Whoosh...

It even lowered its head with great interest and blew a breath toward the gully. The airflow turned into a breeze, blowing the fur garment open, clearly wanting to see Xia Hong's corpse clearly.

But with this one blow, its expression changed abruptly.

Beneath the fur garment, it was empty, with only a patch of blood.

Where was Xia Hong's corpse?

As the Wood Puppet Ghost's expression shifted in shock, it turned its head abruptly to look at the great blade slung over its right shoulder, its pair of crimson pupils suddenly constricting.

That blade strike just now had been too heavy, kicking up quite a bit of mud from the ground, which the Wood Puppet Ghost hadn't paid any attention to at all. It never imagined that Xia Hong had actually dodged that strike, hidden himself in the mud, and kept clinging to the blade, being lifted up along with it.

Bang...

Xia Hong, who had been clinging to the blade edge the whole time, suddenly burst out from a clump of mud like a cannonball leaving the chamber, diving forward along the blade's body.

The great blade was already slung over the Wood Puppet Ghost's shoulder; in just an instant, Xia Hong rushed to its right shoulder, raised the great blade, and aimed it at the Wood Puppet Ghost's skull.

This sudden, shocking scene not only left the Wood Puppet Ghost's mind in great shock but also stunned everyone else present.

Xia Hong had actually dodged that strike just now.

But since he had dodged it, why pretend to be dead?

And why cling to the great blade to get close to the Wood Puppet Ghost's head?

The Wood Puppet Ghost seemed to realize something; a look of horror suddenly surfaced in its constricted crimson pupils. It frantically twisted its head and swung the great blade in its hand, wanting to drive Xia Hong off its shoulder.

But at this moment, the distance between the two was simply too close, far too close!

As Xia Hong raised the blade to strike down, he threw a fist-sized block of black ink toward his front. His face suddenly turned ferocious, and he brought the blade down.

Puchi...

This strike from Xia Hong, which gathered nearly all his strength, hacked into the Wood Puppet Ghost's temple along with the ink block, burying almost the entire blade body inside, leaving only the hilt outside.

The moment the Wood Puppet Ghost saw that black ink block, the horror in its pupils had already turned entirely into fear.

And when Xia Hong hacked the great blade along with the ink block into its right temple, those ink blocks turned into countless black fire oils, infecting the skull.

The white silk threads inside the wound were ignited the instant they touched the fire oil.

And that entire mass of ink blocks spilled out far too much fire oil; furthermore, after Xia Hong's strike, the fire oil splashed everywhere, almost staining its entire head.

Sss...

Even the face that touched a little fire oil emitted a burst of thick, pitch-black smoke; inside the skull, where most of the fire oil had entered, flames shot everywhere, spreading instantly.

The Wood Puppet Ghost's entire head was almost burning with raging flames from the inside out.

"Ah... ah... ah..."

The intense pain coming from within caused it to let out a shrill, miserable scream immediately.

"You little bastard, you tricked me... you tricked me... ah... ah..."

The Wood Puppet Ghost's legs had been injured by the torch earlier and couldn't move, but the pain from its head made it struggle and roar incessantly. The great blade slashed hysterically at the ground indiscriminately, the target naturally being Xia Hong, who had long since been flung away.

Bang... bang... bang...

It slashed frantically toward Xia Hong, each strike making the entire valley floor tremble. At the same time, it kept letting out painful, venomous roars:

"Tricked me... you little bastard, you actually dared to trick me... ah..."

The air waves created by the ten-meter-long great blade almost plowed through the entire valley floor. Although its target was only Xia Hong, everyone else—whether it was Yang Ning and Li Hu, the four people from Luo Ming's group, or even Watching Yue Feng, Yuan Cheng, and the others who were far away—were all frantically scattering to dodge.

If the others were like this, it went without saying for Xia Hong, who was being targeted.

Xia Hong's figure stumbled as he fled. Although he didn't dare look back at the Wood Puppet Ghost, he noticed that the force of the opponent's blade strikes was becoming weaker and weaker. A cold sneer immediately curled onto his slightly pale face.

Others might not understand the Wood Puppet Ghost's madness, but he knew.

The Wood Puppet Ghost was talking about the Condensing Fire Oil!

First, from the moment he entered the valley, Xia Hong had realized that their every move was likely under the opponent's surveillance.

That was why he didn't take out the Condensing Fire Oil to fight immediately, but instead followed the three people from Luo Ming's group into the wooden house.

The events that happened in the wooden house later were exactly as he had expected: the Wood Puppet Ghost used those fake puppets mixed in with real people to deliberately exhaust his Condensing Fire Oil.

This undoubtedly further proved that the opponent was very afraid of the Condensing Fire Oil.

So at that time, Xia Hong deliberately hid the fact that he had actually brought four pieces of Condensing Fire Oil out this time. He had previously given one to Xia Chuan and still had three on him, but he told Luo Ming that he only had two pieces of Condensing Fire Oil.

In reality, these words were deliberately spoken for the Wood Puppet Ghost to hear.

And once they reached the outside, after the Giant Wood Puppet had exhausted those two pieces of Condensing Fire Oil, the Wood Puppet Ghost appeared. By this time, Xia Hong had already realized that the lie he had told earlier had already taken effect.

From the fact that the Wood Puppet Ghost could deal with all seven of them simultaneously later without losing the upper hand, one could see that the Wood Puppet Ghost had deliberately entangled itself with Yang Ning and Li Hu at the mountaintop. It wasn't afraid of Yang and Li; what it was afraid of was the Condensing Fire Oil.

But it had to be said, this Wood Puppet Ghost was indeed cautious to an excessive degree.

Even after appearing, it dared not be certain that Xia Hong truly had no more Condensing Fire Oil on him.

Therefore, when besieged by the seven people and driven into a desperate situation, it chose to break through from the side of Luo Ming and Li Hu's groups, rather than from Xia Hong's side.

But this also made Xia Hong even more certain of his previous thoughts.

The torch was Xia Hong's final test.

When approaching the Wood Puppet Ghost's legs, Xia Hong also didn't take out the Condensing Fire Oil because he knew the Wood Puppet Ghost could control any part of its body to detach. So he used the torch, aiming to make the Wood Puppet Ghost lower its guard.

Everything Xia Hong did was just to paralyze the Wood Puppet Ghost and win himself the chance to get close to its head.

The Wood Puppet Ghost used those transparent white threads to control other puppets, and the puppets they had faced before, including that Giant Wood Puppet, all had the densest silk threads at the head. Moreover, Luo Ming had completely solved that Giant Wood Puppet only after hitting the Condensing Fire Oil into its head.

Therefore, the head should be this Wood Puppet Ghost's fatal weakness.

"Ah... ah..."

As the flames on its head burned brighter and brighter, the Wood Puppet Ghost's screams grew louder, and the movements of the black blade slashing toward Xia Hong began to distort and even pause.

Xia Hong, who had been fleeing in a sorry state, finally had a chance to catch his breath.

Taking in the Wood Puppet Ghost's twisted, struggling appearance, then looking back at the huge blade mark on his own shoulder that had almost exposed the bone, a lingering fear still flashed in his eyes.

Dodging that strike just now, of course, hadn't been that simple.

Although he had completely avoided the black blade, the aftermath brought about when the black blade slashed down still hit him.

If that aftermath had shifted one inch closer to his neck, he would have truly lost his life just now.

Just as everyone thought they could sit and wait for the flames to burn the Wood Puppet Ghost to death, Yang Ning, over there, moved at this moment.

A flash of excitement crossed his eyes, and he shouted to Li Hu.

"Tiger, come with me, kill it!"

Li Hu, over there, was the same; a look of excitement also passed through his eyes, and he followed him to charge toward the Wood Puppet Ghost, which was covered in flames.

Seeing the two men's actions, Luo Ming's gaze flickered slightly, but he didn't say anything.

And Xia Hong, over here, also had a hint of impulse on his face, but touching the wound on his shoulder and looking at the five people—Yuan Cheng and Watching Yue Feng—beside him, he hesitated for a moment and still didn't move.

"It's a bargain for those two."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 66 =====