164: Chapter 164 War

The Puppet lost its balance.

Its right leg was completely severed at the knee, with only a few hair-thin strands of current barely connecting the lower leg to the thigh, and its body toppled to the right.

It tried to stand up using its left leg; the Thunder Spiritual Energy on its left leg flared up, and its foot pushed off the stone floor—but the current circuit at the knee was broken, cutting off the spiritual energy supply to the entire right leg, so it could not stand.

Lin Xuan's startling thunder whip had already been lashed out.

The tip of the whip traced a very narrow arc in the air, wrapping around the Puppet's neck area.

The Puppet did not have a real neck, but that position was the current channel between the head's orb of light and its torso—Lin Xuan had observed it for a long time before confirming this.

The Thunder Spirit Puppet's head orb was its control core, the torso was its energy core, and the channel connecting the two was the necessary path for all current to flow back and forth.

It was thinner than an arm and thicker than a finger, just enough for the whip tip to wrap around twice.

The moment the whip tip wrapped around it, the body of the whip lit up with blinding thunder light.

The startling thunder whip could conduct Thunder Spiritual Energy itself; the Thunder Spiritual Energy within the whip body and the energy he poured into it met at the whip tip, directly detonating a dense field of electric arcs.

The electric arcs spread from the whip tip toward the Puppet's head orb, and visible purple electric snakes drilled backward along those tiny current circuits into the interior of the orb.

Tighten.

He yanked his wrist back violently, and as the whip body tightened, it emitted the harsh sound of leather rubbing.

Under the strangulation of the whip tip, the Puppet's head orb flickered violently, changing from purple-white to dark purple, and then from dark purple to nearly black.

The tiny electric arcs inside the orb began to lose control—no longer flickering rhythmically, but darting around wildly; some arcs pierced out from the surface of the orb, striking the nearby stone wall and leaving fine scorch marks.

The orb exploded.

There was no loud noise when it exploded, but a very short, sharp sizzling sound, like someone pouring a whole pot of water onto a red-hot iron plate.

The purple-white thunder light shot out in all directions, hitting the stone wall and bouncing back, rebounding several times in the narrow Stone Chamber before dissipating.

The Puppet's torso lost all support the moment the orb exploded, collapsing from a humanoid shape into a pile of scattered thunder light fragments; the fragments rolled a few times on the stone floor, growing dimmer and dimmer, until finally turning into a few pieces of grayish-white residue.

The first Puppet, resolved.

Before Lin Xuan could catch his breath, the second Puppet had already moved.

This Puppet was similar in size to the first, but its position was further back, and its speed upon activation was faster.

It did not engage in any probing or observation—the moment the first Puppet's head orb exploded, the five fingers of its right hand opened simultaneously, and the ball of thunder light in its palm, which had been constantly compressing and stretching, suddenly deformed, pulling from an irregular sphere into a zhang-long thunder spear.

The spear body was entirely purple-white, a size thinner than a real spear, but the spear tip was exceptionally sharp, and the light at the tip was so condensed it was almost solid.

The thunder spear took less than half a breath to form, and then it was thrown directly at him.

As the thunder spear grazed through the air, it left behind a purple trail—not a ribbon of light, but the ionization marks left by the electric arcs on the spear as they constantly pierced through the air.

The spear body rotated at high speed, and the air, torn open by the rotating spear, emitted a low buzzing sound.

Lin Xuan's startling thunder whip was still retracting—the whip tip had just been pulled back from the remains of the first Puppet, and the whip body had not fully returned in mid-air—when the thunder spear arrived at his chest.

He twisted his body violently.

His spine made a crisp crack sound as he turned, and his entire upper body bent to the right, using his waist as an axis.

The thunder spear grazed past his chest, and the electric arcs on the spear splashed onto his robe, scorching a blackened burn mark across the front from his left chest to his right chest.

The sensation of the fabric charring came through the robe—it wasn't pain, but a wave of heat rushing toward him, so hot that the skin on his chest instinctively tightened at that moment.

Even through the robe, he could feel the burning pain, as if someone had pressed a branding iron against his clothes.

Two-handed Puppet.

The first one was close-quarters combat with fists and kicks, only knowing how to attack up close.

This one was a mid-range projectile attacker that could create thunder spears.

Lin Xuan silently adjusted his response plan in his mind—he could not wait for it to throw a second thunder spear.

This Stone Chamber was too small; at the speed of the thunder spear, the distance of ten zhang could be covered in less than a breath, and keeping his distance was equivalent to being a living target.

The only way was to press forward.

He stepped out with Thunder Flash Step.

In an extremely short amount of time, he poured Thunder Spiritual Energy into his legs and then exploded it, using the thrust of the thunder power to launch his body forward.

With the two speeds superimposed, his figure dragged out three afterimages in the Stone Chamber—one to the front left, one to the front right, and one in the center.

The three afterimages appeared in three locations at the same time, and the Puppet's head orb flared brightly, the dark purple light flickering rapidly several times, as if it were judging which one to attack.

Three thunder spears shot out from its hands.

The first one pierced through the chest of the front-left afterimage, and the afterimage shattered.

The second one pierced through the head of the front-right afterimage, and the afterimage shattered.

The third one pierced through the lower abdomen of the center afterimage—but Lin Xuan was no longer in the position of any of the afterimages.

He had rushed to within five feet of the Puppet.

The Palm Thunder in his left hand had charged to its limit.

Palm Thunder was not a crude Spell that just involved blasting spiritual energy out; it required compressing a thunder ball in the palm first, and the smaller and denser it was compressed, the greater the power.

Lin Xuan began charging the moment he pushed off the ground with Thunder Flash Step; he charged for two breaths, and the thunder ball in his palm compressed from the size of a fist to the size of an egg, and then from the size of an egg to the size of a quail egg—he could not compress it any further; the Meridians in his palm had already begun to swell, and if he pressed any further, the skin on his palm would burst first.

He slapped his palm onto the Puppet's chest.

The light of the exploding Palm Thunder was even brighter than when the first Puppet's head exploded just moments ago.

The entire Stone Chamber was illuminated in a stark white by the purple light, and every sword mark, every pit, and every scorched pattern on the stone walls was revealed in vivid detail.

The Puppet's torso flew backward in the thunder light, crashing into the stone wall—a humanoid indentation was smashed into the stone wall, and seven or eight cracks radiated from the edge of the indentation, extending several feet outward.

The Puppet's torso was embedded in the indentation, the thunder light on its chest in disarray, a chaotic mess; those current strands woven into muscle textures were all blasted apart, like a tangled ball of yarn.

Before it could climb up, Lin Xuan's right fist had already smashed into its head orb from the side.

He didn't use his knuckles—he swung his entire fist into it; the moment his fist tip made contact with the orb, he heard the harsh, discordant sound of sizzling current, like sticking a steel ruler into the blades of a running electric fan.

The electric arcs inside the orb wrapped around his fist, and the fine hairs on the back of his hand were scorched in an instant; he could smell a faint, acrid odor of burnt hair.

But he didn't let go; his fist tip continued to press inward until his entire fist had pierced through the orb.

The orb exploded, and the fragments splattered onto his face, cool, with a hint of subtle static stinging.

Puppet fragments scattered all over the floor.

The remains slid down from the stone wall, hitting the stone floor with a clattering sound, finally turning into a few pieces of grayish-white residue, mixing with the remains of the first one.

Two consecutive battles.

Lin Xuan's breathing was ragged.

It wasn't that he couldn't catch his breath—his chest was still heaving, air was still flowing in and out—but the rhythm was completely different from before the battle started.

Before, he could control the depth and duration of every breath, but now his breathing had become short and rapid gasps, each breath forced out after only reaching his chest.

His arm was trembling slightly; it wasn't the trembling of fear, but the limit of fatigue in his forearm muscles.

Just now, when he blocked the second Puppet's attack, his forearm's ulna bore most of the impact force, and now there was a tiny crack on the bone—not a fracture, the bone wasn't broken, but a small stress crack on the surface of the bone cortex; it wasn't fatal, but it was painful.

Every time he clenched his fist, a dull pain came from the crack, as if someone had gently pinched the bone with pliers.

He looked down at his arm.

His sleeve had been completely shattered, leaving it bare from wrist to shoulder; the layer of pale purple thunder light on the surface of his skin was still there, but it was much fainter than before the start.

There was a distinct red mark on the inside of his forearm; it wasn't an external wound, but a red patch formed under the skin from severe vascular congestion, turning white when pressed with a finger, and turning red again when released.

The Stone Chamber was filled with a strong, acrid smell of burning and the scent of ozone, mixing together to be terribly pungent.

The remains of the two Puppets were scattered on the ground, the grayish-white residue still emitting faint wisps of blue smoke on the stone floor.

There were a dozen new, fresh marks on the stone walls—most were pits left by the explosions of the thunder spears thrown by the second Puppet, and a few were footprints left by Lin Xuan himself when he pushed off the wall while dodging.