Chapter 291: The Final Trial

Assessment space.

"Boom—"

After the sound of a violent explosion, a voice echoed in the space once more: "Second round of assessment passed, evaluation: Excellent!"

"In half a day, the third stage will begin!"

Xiao Han looked at the parts scattered all over the ground and shook his head with regret; what a good henchman, to have been scrapped just like that.

However, he immediately revealed a look of joy as he looked at Puppet Saint No. 2; wasn't there one left? That was not bad either.

Afterwards, Xiao Han furrowed his brows. For some reason, he felt that there might be some complications in the third stage, but he quickly dismissed the thought. Having already come this far, he could only meet force with force and water with earth.

At this moment, in another assessment space.

The Puppet in Jiang Yu's hands, along with Xiao Han's, had finished off the Puppet formation of the second stage, and he was likewise sitting and waiting for the third stage to begin.

Jiang Yu's eyes gazed forward, a light of unknown meaning flickering within them, and he murmured, "You shouldn't let this seat down, right!"

Half a day passed in a flash while Xiao Han was cultivating.

Amidst the trembling of the space, the scene before Xiao Han changed rapidly.

In just an instant, an old man with white hair and grey robes came into Xiao Han's view.

A prompt sounded in his ears: "Third stage, defeat the assessor to pass. Those whose evaluation reaches Excellent may participate in the final trial!"

"Oh?" Xiao Han subconsciously raised his guard, casting an inquisitive gaze at the old man in front of him. If it were as the assessment space said, then defeating the assessor was certainly not the only goal this time.

Was it the faster one finished the opponent, the better? Or...

Was there some other trick to it?

Xiao Han first tentatively erupted with Dou Qi, only to see the old man's eyes light up and his figure instantly vanish.

Xiao Han's gaze sharpened, cold air permeated his hands, and an ice spear took form; without a second thought, he thrust it toward the space in front of him.

"Clang!"

The sound of metal colliding rang through the space. The old man suddenly appeared ten feet in front of Xiao Han, his fist confronting the tip of the spear.

"As expected, another Puppet?" Xiao Han understood in his heart.

This Puppet's strength was merely average, only a Seven-Star Dou Saint. It seemed the situation of the Wan Kui Sect back then was indeed very urgent; the strongest being in a secret treasure left for descendants to make a comeback was only a Nine-Star Dou Sheng Puppet.

Compared to the sect's past peak, where the strongest was a Peak Dou Sheng, this was truly somewhat lacking.

Since he had tested the Puppet's strength, Xiao Han proceeded to measure various data of the latter during the battle, unhurriedly.

Under Xiao Han's formidable strength, the Puppet's attacks, which would have made ordinary experts turn pale, were completely painless and ineffective.

Suddenly, a trace of anomaly appeared in Xiao Han's eyes; the Puppet's right leg seemed somewhat unusual.

"Forget it!" Xiao Han shook his head and chuckled, "I won't keep playing with you!"

The long spear in his hand brightened slightly, and biting cold air erupted, instantly piercing into the Puppet's chest.

"Spear Settles, No Mountain!"

The awe-inspiring cold air erupted, and the countless parts inside the Puppet were all covered in white frost; its originally lightning-fast attacks also slowed down, becoming as sluggish as a crawling tortoise.

Xiao Han flashed a white light seal in his hand, and with a slight lift, his palm gently pressed onto the calf the Puppet had swept over.

"Seal!"

Xiao Han gave a low shout, and countless runes instantly crawled onto the Puppet's leg; within a breath's time, the Puppet was motionless.

Xiao Han stepped back a few paces, looking at this scene with indifference.

At this moment...

"Task of defeating the Puppet completed, Puppet damage level less than one-tenth, evaluation: Excellent!"

"Permission to enter the final trial granted!"

"Please wait, assessor!"

Xiao Han felt a sense of relief. His guess was indeed correct; although the third stage was an assessment of strength, this was the Wan Kui Sect, a sect famous for its Puppets.

There were many ways to defeat a Puppet, and the most foolish one was to dismantle every part of the Puppet's body.

But this method was intolerable to the Wan Kui Sect, which was why they had set such an evaluation standard regarding the degree of damage to the Puppet.

Stopping the Puppet while causing as little damage as possible was the "hidden rule" of this assessment!

And Xiao Han had directly found the Puppet's core and sealed it, which had almost no impact on the Puppet; once the seal was lifted, the Puppet could even continue to fight, perfectly meeting the requirements.

Just as Xiao Han was pondering, the space changed once again into that empty state, and a vortex appeared before his eyes.

After a moment of confusion, Xiao Han stepped inside.

As soon as he entered, Xiao Han saw the middle-aged man in hemp robes from the beginning, and at the same time, Jiang Yu's figure also appeared from the vortex opposite.

Upon seeing Xiao Han, Jiang Yu was clearly stunned for a moment, then smiled and greeted him, and Xiao Han likewise nodded in acknowledgment.

Subsequently, the two turned their gazes toward that figure who had remained silent all along.

"Task: Kill the assessor!" The middle-aged man's mechanical voice rang out. This sentence was so blunt that the expressions of both Xiao Han and Jiang Yu changed; they had no time to think about the implications, and the Dou Qi in their bodies erupted instantly.

"Frost Mirror Image!" The moment the words fell, Xiao Han's figure shifted and swapped, flashing hundreds of feet away.

Jiang Yu was not so lucky; his body became a pile of scrap in the blink of an eye. Then, with a dark expression, he revealed his figure from a hidden corner, "Damn it!"

A Puppet capable of being mistaken for the real thing had been scrapped just like that; no matter how good his temper was, he could not remain indifferent.

"Attack together!" Xiao Han shouted sharply toward the former's direction.

Jiang Yu did not refuse; this Puppet was somewhat tricky, and he really had no way to take it down alone.

Xiao Han moved, the cold-air-emitting spear tip piercing through space and appearing in front of the middle-aged Puppet, only to be instantly repelled by a single finger from the latter.

"Puppet Control Technique, Bind!" Jiang Yu's voice rang out behind Xiao Han. The latter tilted his body slightly, and countless fluorescent green threads grazed his body and shot toward the middle-aged man's limbs and bones, wrapping him into a large cocoon in the blink of an eye.

Xiao Han naturally would not let such a good opportunity pass. Crystal-blue armor condensed on his body, and a massive long spear phantom condensed behind him; then, the hundred-foot spear shadow thrust out, bringing with it a pitch-black crack.

"Spear Fixation, Dark Sun!"

The hundred-foot spear shadow instantly pierced the center of the large cocoon, passing through without any obstruction.

Both of their expressions changed drastically, "Ice Shield, appear!"

"Puppet Control Technique, Heavenly Puppet Descend!" An incomparably massive shield and a puppet several dozen zhang in size appeared before the two of them.

"Boom—"

The ice shield and the puppet shattered abruptly, with no more than a single breath of time between them.

Xiao Han frowned; during the battle just now, he had sensed that this puppet did not truly intend to take their lives, merely erupting with the strength of an Eight-Star Dou Saint, so this battle should only be a test.

However, even so, it was still somewhat troublesome.

Then, Jiang Yu's voice pulled Xiao Han out of his thoughts, "Puppet Control Technique, Puppet Fusion!"

They saw Jiang Yu's Storage Ring flash slightly, and several puppets with auras reaching the Dou Saint level appeared within this space; subsequently, the former formed a few hand seals, several beams of light connected together, and immediately the strength of the foremost puppet soared, reaching the level of a Seven-Star Dou Saint.

Jiang Yu shouted in a deep voice: "Stop hiding your strength; I do not believe that the Ice Saint only has this much capability."

"Heh..." Xiao Han felt a bit awkward; this guy had caught him slacking off on the spot, which was a bit embarrassing!

"I was only hiding a tiny bit!"

As he spoke, Xiao Han slightly increased the limit on his Dou Qi.

"Swish!"

Seven-Star Dou Saint peak!

This suddenly soaring cultivation base left even Jiang Yu stunned, and he immediately had a face full of black lines; you hid way too much of your cultivation—were you planning to catch him off guard and kill him, staging a double-cross?

However, he no longer had the time to hold Xiao Han accountable; neither of them was better than the other, as both had hidden their strength, and if anyone claimed they had good intentions while hiding it, only a ghost would believe them!

"Attack!" He immediately charged forward first. Jiang Yu did not believe that Xiao Han would sabotage him at such a life-or-death moment, otherwise, neither of them would survive.

Counting Jiang Yu's puppets, there were a total of three powerhouses on the field who had reached the Seven-Star Dou Saint level, barely enough to cope with one Eight-Star Dou Sheng.

Just like that, an earth-shattering battle erupted once again within the space.