People fight and become emperors in advance

Chapter 192 The Puppet Enters the Trial Grounds
Three days ago, two girls led Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor to the Holy City.

Three days later, on this same avenue, they saw the two off.

Goodbye, big brother and big sister~

Xingyao waved her little hand, and Qinghuan watched her go quietly.

Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor waved with smiles, took a few steps, and disappeared from the two women's sight.

...

Starting from the Holy City and heading west, Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor moved very fast in order to reach Tinglan City before the cold night arrived.

In this state, it only took the two of them an hour to traverse thousands of mountains and rivers and arrive at the outskirts of Tinglan City as shown on the map.

Compared to the grandeur of the Holy City, Tinglan City appears rather ordinary, its size being only about the same as Zixiao City in the Black Corner Region.

The most striking feature here is a towering stone monument outside the city. It stands over a hundred feet tall, reaching straight into the sky, and is entirely black, resembling a tightly locked gate to an abyss.

At the foot of the stone tablet, a large crowd had gathered, all gazing up at the seemingly miraculous monument.

Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor quietly landed in the crowd. Their gazes moved upwards, and they discovered that the stone tablet was engraved with a dense array of names.

Yu Yuhan, Lu Chen, Zhang Xinghan, Qiao Lingyun…

Adorned with names, this enormous stone tablet exudes a solemn and dignified aura.

"What do these names mean?" Chen Xiao frowned and muttered to himself.

"They were all predecessors who died fighting for the Dream Realm in the past." Not far from the two, a middle-aged man heard Chen Xiao's mutterings and sighed as he explained.

This person only possessed the strength of a peak Douhuang, which Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor had already noticed, but they paid no attention to it.

The fact that the other party spoke up surprised the two of them.

Upon closer reflection, the High Priest of the Holy City is only a Dou Zong, while this person is at the peak of Dou Huang. His status in Tinglan City is probably not low.

"I am Bai Heng, the city lord of Tinglan City, and also the adopted son of the high priest of the Holy City. This morning I received a message from the Holy City a few days ago, saying that two distinguished guests might come to Tinglan City. I did not expect that the two distinguished guests would arrive so quickly," the middle-aged man introduced himself.

The news that came from the Holy City a few days ago has just arrived this morning.

The two who had just set off from the Holy City that morning had already arrived in Tinglan City; the difference in speed was enormous.

Chen Xiao nodded slightly to indicate that he understood. This city lord's strength was average, but his identity was somewhat unexpected.

"The High Priest's adopted son?"

"My two honored guests need not be surprised. I am not the only adopted son of the High Priest. All the High Priests in the past had no children. In order to cultivate the next successor, they would adopt a group of children as adopted sons when they were young, and nurture them with all their might. Once they had achieved some success, they would be sent to various places to gain experience. When the High Priest's time came, the strongest among these adopted sons would go to the Holy City to succeed him as High Priest," Bai Heng explained.

Chen Xiao nodded slightly, offering no comment on this method of inheritance.

He was more interested in the stone tablet in front of him.

"The city lord just said that all the people up here died fighting for the Dream Realm. Could there be a hidden crisis in the Dream Realm? Why didn't we hear about it when we were in the Holy City?"

"There is no truly peaceful place in this world. You two honored guests have not heard of this only because these crises are not fatal at the moment."

Bai Heng shook his head slightly and continued, "The Dream Realm is peaceful and tranquil, a picture of harmony. However, this is only on the surface. In fact, a crisis has been brewing since ten thousand years ago."

"Where to begin?"

"The crisis stems from the stone tablet you two are seeing now. More than 10,000 years ago, this stone tablet began to have problems. From time to time, puppets would emerge from it. They had no mind and only knew how to kill. In order to prevent the situation from getting worse, the forces stationed in Tinglan City are the strongest among all the cities."

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor were stunned.

They could all sense that there were several Dou Huang powerhouses and dozens of Dou Wang powerhouses in this city.

From their current perspective, these people's strength is nothing to worry about.

But after hearing what Bai Heng said, the two realized that the power gathered here was indeed stronger than that of the cities they had passed through on the way.

"You said the crisis wasn't fatal, could it be that those puppets weren't very strong?" Little Fairy Doctor asked.

"Indeed, according to the records, the first puppet that appeared was only at the Dou Ling level, and it was easy to deal with. But since then, every three to five years, or even ten years, a new batch of puppets will appear. Their strength is getting stronger and stronger, and their numbers are also increasing. Under such circumstances, the casualties are also increasing dramatically. The last time the puppets appeared, the leaders were already four Dou Huang level."

Their strength is growing and their numbers are increasing; if this continues, this place will fall sooner or later.

It could even endanger the entire Dream Realm.

The seriousness of this matter is quite obvious.

However, Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor were extremely confused.

Over tens of thousands of years, the strength of those puppets has changed by only a tiny bit?

This is obviously not in line with common sense.

Chen Xiao even suspected that those puppets might be controlled by someone, such as the two saintesses in the Trial Grounds, who felt that the Dream Realm was too comfortable and deliberately created puppets to generate a sense of crisis, thereby changing the cultivation atmosphere of the Dream Realm...

Although this speculation is baseless, it is not impossible.

After all, for cultivators, a lack of motivation is a terrible thing.

Just as Chen Xiao was pondering, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that in front of the stone tablet, a young man who had just entered the Dou Wang realm bit his index finger and stained the stone tablet with blood.

In an instant, the material on the surface of the stone tablet began to flow as if it had turned into mud and sand, but the young man walked towards the stone tablet without hesitation. In a flash, he was swallowed up by the stone tablet and disappeared from everyone's sight.

"Within this stone tablet lies the legacy left by a very powerful predecessor. To obtain the legacy, one must enter and pass the test. In the Dream Realm, everyone above the Dou Wang level knows about this, and only those above the Dou Wang level can enter this place. Unfortunately, over the years, countless people have entered, but not a single one has come out, including generation after generation of Holy Maidens."

Bai Heng's eyes were filled with sorrow. He wanted to stop this tragedy, but he was powerless to do so, and had no reason to do so.

Because there is too little competition in the Dream Realm, the cultivation atmosphere is not strong. Only a small number of people strive to be the best and hope to become stronger every day.

This kind of serendipitous place is exactly what they've been dreaming of.

The three stared at the tall stone tablet. After the young man stepped into it, the surface, which had been surging like quicksand, did not stop but became more and more rapid. Gradually, a spatial portal, about several meters in size, took shape on the stone tablet.

While Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor were still wondering, Bai Heng's expression changed drastically, and he quickly took to the air.

"Everyone below the rank of Dou Wang, leave immediately!"

"Assemble!"

Bai Heng shouted loudly, and the spacious field immediately descended into chaos as the weaker individuals scrambled to escape, leaving only a handful of survivors.

At the same time, figures flew rapidly from the city not far away, each with a serious expression, as if facing a formidable enemy.

"Could it be... such a coincidence?"

Seeing Bai Heng's actions, Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor guessed the reason. Most likely, the killing puppet that the other party mentioned was about to reappear.

Upon realizing this, the two exchanged glances and both sensed something unusual.

The puppet appeared at the exact moment they arrived, not earlier, not later. Rather than believing it was a coincidence, they preferred to believe it was deliberately orchestrated. Whoosh!
Just then, a whooshing sound rang out, and a humanoid puppet, completely black and disfigured, flew out from the spatial portal.

boom!
The overwhelming barrage of combat techniques struck instantly. Before the puppet could even mount a counterattack, it was beaten to death by the mob, leaving nothing but a dazzling 'firework' in its wake.

After quickly eliminating one puppet, Bai Heng and the others in the sky did not relax for a moment. Their eyes, like those of hawks, were fixed on the spatial portal.

Under the watchful eyes of many tense individuals, a rapid whooshing sound came from the spatial portal, followed by dozens of puppets leaping out from it.

When they sensed the imposing aura emanating from the two leading puppets, Bai Heng and his group's expressions changed drastically.

"A Dou Zong-level puppet!"

"Most of them are ordinary puppets, probably controlled by some secret technique or other means. The two leading ones are Heavenly Demon Puppets, and they are no worse than mine."

Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor were stunned as they looked at the large group of puppets.

The person behind it all has really stopped pretending.

For countless years, no puppet of this level has appeared. Puppets that the people of the Dream Realm could deal with by paying a certain price each time have suddenly appeared today, with two puppets at the Dou Zong level.

If Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor don't intervene, even if the High Priest of the Holy City personally came, the Dream Realm, with its apparent strength, would be unable to deal with these puppets.

"Aren't they afraid of rivers of blood?"

Chen Xiao let out a long breath, feeling extremely disgusted with the instigator.

boom! boom!
A chaotic battle has already broken out in the sky.

Led by the two Heavenly Demon Puppets, the group of Dou Wang and Dou Huang led by Bai Heng suffered repeated defeats, and every now and then a Dou Wang or Dou Huang could be seen bleeding and falling from the sky.

Bai Heng was only at the peak of the Dou Huang realm. In order to reduce the pressure on the others, he faced the two Heavenly Demon Puppets alone with the determination to die.

However, the difference between a Dou Huang and a Dou Zong, though only one realm apart, is worlds apart.

The puppet only knew how to obey orders and showed no mercy. With just one exchange of blows, Bai Heng was severely injured, coughing up blood and flying backward like a sack, his aura extremely weak.

In this state, if he were to take another punch, he would most likely not survive.

As two puppets attacked from the left and right, Bai Heng closed his eyes in despair and awaited death.

But to his surprise, quite a while passed, and the expected attack did not land on him.

Bai Heng opened his eyes and immediately saw a phantom hand firmly holding the two Heavenly Demon Puppets that could easily kill him in its palm. No matter how the puppets struggled, they could not break free of its control.

Apart from the two Heavenly Demon Puppets, the other puppets were strangely frozen in place, as if some force was trapping them firmly within that seven-foot space.

"Space strangulation!"

As Little Fairy Doctor uttered her words, the frozen puppets instantly turned to ashes. The terrifying scene caused everyone present to gasp in shock.

Chen Xiao changed the hand seals, and his soul hand immediately pulled the two Heavenly Demon Puppets to his front.

These two Heavenly Demon Puppets are no less powerful than five-star Dou Zong, but they have no silver color on them, which means they belong to the category of human-level Heavenly Demon Puppets.

"The foundation is good, and the materials used for refining it should be much better than mine, so it can be considered a gain."

Looking at the Heavenly Demon Puppet in front of him, Chen Xiao nodded slightly.

With a comment, Chen Xiao closed his eyes, and a vast amount of soul power poured out from between his brows, invading the bodies of the two Heavenly Demon Puppets.

Thanks to his thorough understanding of the Heavenly Demon Puppets, Chen Xiao soon found the soul imprints left by their masters inside their bodies.

Chen Xiao's heart stirred, and he immediately mobilized his soul power to erase the soul imprint.

He had assumed that if he tried to erase the soul imprint while his master was still alive, he would inevitably face fierce resistance.

Strangely, the process of erasing the soul imprint was unbelievably simple, without even encountering the slightest resistance.

It was as if the other party was controlling a puppet, allowing him to do whatever he wanted.

Releasing the restraints on the two Heavenly Demon Puppets, Chen Xiao's thought caused both puppets to kneel on one knee with a thud, now completely under his control.

Seeing this, Chen Xiao casually put them into his storage ring, then turned to look at the spatial portal that had never closed, but which no longer contained any puppets.

He seemed to understand what the other person meant.

These two Heavenly Demon Puppets are the reward for his and Little Fairy Doctor's help!

"What exactly does that Saintess Xuanyin want to do?"

Little Fairy Doctor had also heard Chen Xiao describe the scene at the Trial Grounds and knew of the existence of the two Holy Maidens. With the increasing amount of information she learned, she began to have a suspect in mind.

"Whether it's her or not is still uncertain..." Chen Xiao shook his head slightly, sorting out his thoughts.

The more you understand, the clearer the picture becomes.

He had a feeling that the truth would soon come out.

During their conversation, Bai Heng finally realized what was happening and led a dozen or so people, who looked rather disheveled, forward to express their gratitude.

"Thank you both for your help. Otherwise, we would have certainly died today. Two Dou Zong level puppets that only know how to kill would have been enough to cause a catastrophe in the Dream Realm."

The group of Dou Wang and Dou Huang behind Bai Heng also bowed and paid their respects, each of them still feeling lingering fear.

They had not expected that a puppet at the Dou Zong level would emerge this time. Although they had narrowly escaped the crisis, they dared not relax in the slightest and felt extremely heavy-hearted.

Based on the pattern of previous years, the number of puppets appearing will increase, and their strength will also increase.

This time we've already narrowly escaped death, but what about next time...?

Upon realizing this, an unprecedented sense of crisis immediately enveloped their hearts.

"You've already reached the peak of Dou Huang, just one step away from Dou Zong. Once you've recovered from your injuries, try to break through to Dou Zong. Xian'er and I can only help you this once."

Chen Xiao vaguely guessed that the two Heavenly Demon Puppets appeared because of his and Little Fairy Doctor's arrival, but he didn't reveal it. This sense of crisis was probably what the person in the shadows wanted.

Greater pressure is what drives motivation.

Bai Heng nodded emphatically, wanting to say something more, but Chen Xiao raised his hand to interrupt him.

"You go ahead with your work, don't worry about us. Xian'er and I will go in and participate in the test."

As soon as he finished speaking, without waiting for Bai Heng and the others to think, Chen Xiao and Little Fairy Doctor exchanged a glance and stepped into the spatial portal first.

Little Fairy Doctor smiled slightly and followed closely behind.

Just after the two stepped inside, the spatial portal that had been open for so long finally closed slowly.

(End of this chapter)