Chapter 97 – The Thousand Mechanism Battle

The silver puppet vanished after shattering the stone statue, reappearing inside its original box.

Li Guanqi stood with his head lowered and his eyes bloodshot. He now understood that the statues were likely tied to his life. The pain of destroying one far surpassed the agony of his first medicinal bath, but he had learned how to control the puppet below.

No longer bothering to restrain his wounds, he let his blood flow freely, trickling down the thorns and soaking into the platform.

Blood activated the mechanism, and divine consciousness guided the puppet. Li Guanqi sank his mind into the Thousand-Mechanism Array, and in an instant, a flood of information surged into his mind.

The corners of his lips curled up into a vicious smile as he took out a jade token with the carving of a sword and slammed it into the ground. Countless light patterns on the ground gathered on the token, which lit up with blinding light.

A sword materialized in the puppet’s left hand. Now wielding a blade in each hand, it charged forward. As soon as it stepped from its box into the first of its opponent’s, the other man suddenly twitched, as if he was moving something.

Li Guanqi made his puppet step back quickly, just in time to dodge a treacherous bobby trap.

The box the puppet was going to step on suddenly cracked open, dividing it into two halves. Countless metal thorns shot out of the opening, and the two halves snapped shut like a clapping book.

Thud!

If not for his quick reaction, the puppet would have been crushed. The puppet sprang forward, lunging toward the other statues. The jet-black puppet struck with blades in both hands, but the silver puppet caught the blow with its own sword.

Li Guanqi made his puppet circle behind and plunged its sword through the silver puppet’s head from the back. The puppet disappeared into motes of spirit light, and the statue behind also exploded.

“Ahhh! Ahh!!!”

A blood-curdling scream tore through the air as the opposing man clutched his head and dropped to his knees, pounding the ground with both fists.

Li Guanqi’s eyes were veined with blood, his gaze merciless. He refused to waste a single second.

“I’ll kill you while you’re down!”

Boom!

To his surprise, the puppet wouldn’t budge, as if rooted to the spot.

The man suddenly looked up, his hair wildly disheveled. Though they stood a hundred zhang apart, Li Guanqi could see blood leaking from every orifice on his head.

The man slammed a jade token on the ground and roared, “Die! I want you dead!”

The array’s blue lines surged forward—five rows in an instant. Li Guanqi only had ten horizontal rows. Losing five meant losing a hundred boxes.

The silver-armored puppet charged and arrived on the purple tiles almost immediately, nearing the statues at the base of Li Guanqi’s tall platform.

Suddenly, a special console rose in front of Li Guanqi, displaying a miniature model of the entire array. Several indentations lined its surface, alongside jade tokens meant to be placed in specific slots.

Li Guanqi rested his palm on the array model, and a large wave of information entered his mind. He took it in as quickly as he could.

The silver puppet was now just one box away from his own statues.

The crowd watching him felt their hearts in their throats as they shouted! “Junior Brother! Careful!”

“Move! Why isn’t the black puppet moving?!”

The man in black robes sneered. Behind him, the other black-robed people burst out laughing. “

Hahaha!

Those idiots still don’t realize that the array is turn-based.”

“It looks like we’ll open the fourteenth floor for sure this time!”

While the scarred man was slightly surprised to see the console rising in front of Li Guanqi, it was clearly too late. His puppet only needed one more step to destroy the second statue.

The silver puppet took a large step forward and raised its sword. The sight made everyone’s hearts quicken.

Then, Li Guanqi quickly inserted the mountain jade token into the array model.

Boom!

A massive mountain instantly appeared on the board, taking up the last row of boxes. The puppet’s blade slammed into it instead of the statue.

Boom!

There was a loud boom, but it just made the mountain tremble slightly.

Li Guanqi quickly inserted another jade token into the model. This jade token was engraved with a rectangle.

The man’s face darkened, and he cursed to himself.

Damn it! He has the Mountain Protector token!

The silver puppet started to run, traversing several boxes horizontally to get around the mountain and attack the black puppet.

Li Guanqi smirked. When the silver puppet stepped on a certain box, it was immediately sent three steps backward!

The scar-faced man’s eyes widened, and he cried, “What’s going on?! Why was the puppet moved back behind the boundary?!”

Then, the man looked at Li Guanqi and muttered, “That’s not right... What is that console in front of him?”

Li Guanqi didn’t give him time to think. When it was his puppet’s turn, he sent it sprinting forward. He had to kill the man before he could figure out the rules of the array.

The black puppet dragged both swords along the ground as it ran, making sparks fly with every step.

The man’s pupils trembled slightly. He injected spirit force into the platform, and finally, an identical console rose.

However, the black puppet was moving too fast.

Wiping the blood that blurred his vision, the man slammed his only jade token into the model. Amidst his panic, he saw engravings of hidden weapons across it.

Buzz!

Li Guanqi, eyes closed, suddenly frowned and quickly pulled his puppet back.

Various tiles all across the field began sinking into the ground. Then, eight large bows emerged from the ground, each topped with a long wooden box holding thirty arrows. The arrowheads gleamed coldly.

When Li Guanqi saw the two-finger-thick arrows, he made the puppet retreat without hesitation. At the same time, he inserted his own hidden weapon jade token into the model.

As the eight bows mounted themselves with arrows, another twelve boxes sank behind the black puppet.

Twelve metal pillars rose, each as thick as a water bucket, aligning themselves to target the opponent. The outer shells of the pillars cracked open, splitting into sixty-six smaller cylinders.