165: Chapter 165, Level 3 Passed

Lin Xuan raised his head and looked into the deepest part of the Stone Chamber.

The third Puppet had not moved yet.

From the beginning of the battle until now, it had remained standing in its original spot; those two dark purple points of light had been locked onto Lin Xuan, but its body had not moved a single inch.

This Puppet's physique was slightly smaller than the previous two, and the Thunder Spiritual Energy on its body was purer—not purple-white, but purple-gold.

That color made Lin Xuan's heart sink; it was the same color as the thunder seed inside his Dantian after it had been filtered and tempered countless times by the thunder-attracting vine.

The thunder light of the first two Puppets was purple-white, indicating that the purity of their spiritual energy was insufficient; they were simply relying on having a cultivation level one stage higher than his to brute-force the fight.

The thunder light of this one was purple-gold, meaning its spiritual energy purity was at least equal to his.

Lin Xuan took a deep breath and switched the startling thunder whip to his left hand.

The muscles in his right arm, from forearm to shoulder, were still spasming slightly, making it impossible to hold the whip steadily.

The grip strength of his left hand was weaker than his right, but its advantage was that the arm was uninjured and the bones were intact.

He gripped the whip handle tightly and rotated his wrist twice, letting the whip body coil around his arm to build momentum.

The thunder seed in his Dantian pulsed once, then again, and then suddenly jolted—the spiritual energy in his Meridians, which had already begun to weaken, seemed to be reignited, surging out from his Dantian and rushing into his limbs.

The trembling in his arm gradually lessened under the infusion of spiritual energy, changing from a spasm to a slight shake, and finally stabilizing.

The hairline fracture on his bone was wrapped by the Thunder Spiritual Energy, which formed a thin protective layer over the surface of the crack, temporarily stabilizing it so it would not expand further.

The third Puppet did not charge.

It raised its right hand and spread its five fingers.

It was different from the previous two—the movements of the first two had a mechanical stiffness, with a very brief pause in the current at the joints whenever they switched actions.

But this one's movements were as fluid as a real Cultivator. During the process of spreading its fingers, every knuckle was micro-adjusting its angle, and the order of opening from thumb to little finger was not simultaneous, but sequential.

The thunder ball condensing in its palm was not the size of a fist—it started as the size of a chicken egg, then spun rapidly, shrinking from the size of a chicken egg to the size of a quail egg, then expanding from the size of a quail egg to the size of a bowl.

Each contraction and expansion caused the temperature of the surrounding air to rise sharply. Even from three zhang away, Lin Xuan could feel the heat wave rushing toward his face, and his hair was blown backward by the hot wind.

Then, it did not throw the thunder ball. It pressed the thunder ball onto the ground.

A web of thunder suddenly lit up on the floor of the Stone Chamber.

The purple-gold current began to spread from the soles of the Puppet's feet in all directions, instantly covering the entire floor of the Stone Chamber.

The current spread along the grain of the stone slabs, like a giant spider web instantly covering the entire area.

Lin Xuan had jumped up the instant before it pressed the ball—he had seen the action of its knees slightly bending and the trend of its center of gravity sinking.

But the Stone Chamber was too small, and the coverage of the ground thunder web had no blind spots.

At the same time he jumped, his soles had already been struck by the current, and the numbness that surged in from his Yongquan acupoints crawled up his legs.

The speed at which the current passed through the soles of his shoes was much faster than he had anticipated; the rubber of the soles had virtually no insulating effect against the current.

His calf muscles involuntarily twitched violently under the impact of the current; he felt as if his calves had been fiercely twisted from the inside, and all the muscles had spasmed into a ball.

His knees went weak, and he nearly collapsed to his knees as he landed.

He gritted his teeth, his teeth making a crisp click as they clamped together.

The moment his soles touched the stone slab, he tapped the ground with his toes—he did not land standing, but tapped like a dragonfly skimming water and immediately sprang up, then tapped the stone wall with his toes again to use the force to flip his body.

The interval between the two taps was less than half a breath. When his soles pressed against the stone wall while his calves were paralyzed, the sensation was dull, as if separated by a thick layer of leather, but the force was still there.

As his body flipped in the air, the startling thunder whip had already been lashed out.

The tip of the whip went straight for the Puppet's face, leaving a purple arc in the air—but the third Puppet was much faster than the previous two.

It turned sideways, its entire body shifting half a foot to the right with minimal movement, and the whip tip flew past the ball of light on its head.

Then, its right hand had already condensed a second thunder spear—longer, thinner, and more solid than the one thrown by the second Puppet. The light at the tip of the spear was not purple-white, but pure purple, exactly the same color as Lin Xuan's own Palm Thunder when he unleashed a full-strength strike.

The thunder spear left its hand. The target was not Lin Xuan's body—it was the position where he was suspended in mid-air.

This Puppet was not just attacking him; it was predicting his landing spot.

Lin Xuan could not dodge in mid-air; his body was in the gap between the two bursts of force. There was nothing for his feet to push off of, and while spiritual energy could allow him to shift his body, the range was limited.

He reached his left hand into his robes, and his fingers touched three Talismans.

It wasn't by sight—he had stacked the three Talismans together. There were subtle differences in the thickness of the edges, the texture of the Talisman paper, and the raised feel of the cinnabar; a touch of his fingers told him which one was which.

He pinched out five Thunder Shield Talismans.

He injected spiritual energy. The Thunder Shield Talismans crumbled into powder in his palm, the array patterns within the Talisman paper were instantly activated, and five pale purple light shields appeared out of thin air on his left side.

The light shields were about three fingers thick. The thunder patterns on the shield surfaces were much cruder than those ancient runes on the stone gate, but the structure was very stable—he had drawn hundreds of Thunder Shield Talismans at the Hundred Talisman Hall, and he could feel the flow of spiritual energy in every single rune even with his eyes closed.

The thunder shields produced by the Thunder Shield Talismans could not compare to real Magical Artifact thunder shields; their durability was two tiers lower, but they could withstand an attack.

The moment the thunder spear collided with the light shield, the light shield vibrated violently.

It wasn't just a vibration—it was a shockwave. The spiritual energy patterns on the shield surface were dented inward by the penetrating power of the thunder spear. The center point of the indentation turned from pale purple to nearly white; that was the sign that the light shield was about to be pierced.

Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the shield surface, spreading from the point of impact in all directions, with the longest cracks already extending to the edge of the shield.

One layer of the light shield remained unbroken—but the impact force was transmitted through the light shield.

His body was pushed half a zhang sideways by the force.

When a person is in mid-air with nowhere to push off from, even if the light shield blocks the piercing damage, the momentum of that impact force will still push his entire body away.

He only stopped after his back hit the stone wall. A sharp pain radiated from his back; his spine made a cracking sound upon impact, his shoulder blade colliding hard with the protruding surface of the stone wall.

But the bone strength at the Peak of Body Refining Level 6 was completely different from that of a Mortal—that cracking sound was not a bone breaking, but the normal popping of spinal joints upon impact. The pain remained in the skin and muscle layers and did not drill deep into the internal organs or bones.

When he landed, the numbness in his soles had not yet completely faded.

Lin Xuan's legs wobbled the moment he landed, his left knee sinking half an inch before he managed to support himself again. His calf muscles were still twitching slightly, but it was no longer violent.

The sensation of pain was replacing the numbness—the pain was the soreness caused by lactic acid buildup after his calf muscles were electrocuted, along with a tearing sensation from the muscles being forcibly stretched after a spasm. But these were not irreversible injuries; a Mortal's body would have similar feelings after intense exercise.

He did not pause after landing. This Puppet was smarter—it could control distance, use Spells to cover the ground, and predict the opponent's landing spot.

It did not just brute-force attack like the first two; it had the ability to think and judge during battle.

Fighting a war of attrition with it was meaningless; it was a Puppet and had no stamina limit. The longer it dragged on, the more disadvantageous it was for it.

But it had one weakness.

Lin Xuan had noticed it during that last exchange.

When the Puppet released the ground thunder web, it needed to press the thunder ball in its palm onto the ground—that thunder ball was the release of highly pure Thunder Spiritual Energy all at once, allowing it to conduct along the ground.

That Thunder Spiritual Energy was not created out of thin air; it was drawn from the energy core within its body and then injected into the palm of its right hand.

The thunder web covering the entire Stone Chamber required a huge amount of spiritual energy to be released at once. After the release was completed, the thunder light in its palm needed to re-condense.

He had been staring at the Puppet's right hand when he took that thunder spear hit in mid-air—the ball of thunder light in its palm indeed disappeared after the ground thunder web dissipated, and then it took about three breaths to light up again.

Three breaths. From the exhaustion of spiritual energy to re-condensation, there was a three-breath gap in between. During these three breaths, its right arm was vulnerable.