Chapter 947: A Second Key?

"If everyone's ready, then let's go in," Chen Yang said.

"I can deal with those puppets just fine, but if we encounter more of those talisman spirits, then I'll have to count on you, Fellow Daoist Li," Sun Tu said with a smile.

"Rest assured, City Lord Sun, I'll be sure to do my part," Han Li replied.

Sun Tu nodded in response, then turned to give Fang Chan a look, and the latter immediately pushed the stone gate open before stepping inside, followed by everyone else.

By the time everyone had gone through, Sun Tu swept a sleeve through the air, releasing a burst of tremendous force to close the gate again.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he took a glance at the gate, then swept his gaze across the hall that he had just stepped into.

All of a sudden, all of the giant braziers hanging from the walls and the ceiling of the hall were set alight in unison, illuminating the entire hall with their bright flames.

There was a small basin at the center of the hall, and a strange-looking copper tree was situated there. There were close to twenty branches extending from the trunk of the tree, all of which were riddled with star runes.

What was even more peculiar was that there was a statue clad in a full suit of copper armor hanging from the end of each branch, looking much like a series of bodies that had died by hanging.

Han Li's brows were tightly furrowed as his gaze roamed up the copper tree, and he discovered a bright pillar of white light at the top of the tree, within which was another crimson key.

Shi Chuankong immediately turned to Han Li with a surprised expression upon seeing this, and Han Li shook his head ever so slightly in response, indicating for him not to say anything.

However, right at this moment, the crimson key on the copper tree suddenly began to glow brightly, and Han Li felt a scorching sensation in front of his chest.

The burning heat caught him completely off guard, and he couldn't help but give a muffled groan.

"What's wrong, Fellow Daoist Li?" Chen Yang asked with a puzzled expression, and everyone else immediately turned to him as well.

"I suffered some internal injuries on the way here, and my chest suddenly began throbbing a little, but I'm fine," Han Li explained.

Thankfully, the scorching sensation only lasted for an instant before fading away, and the key that was hidden in his robe didn't release any light, so it didn't attract any extra attention.

"We seem to be relatively safe for now, so why don't you sit down and take a rest, Fellow Daoist Li?" Chen Yang suggested. "If you don't attend to your injuries, they could come back to bite you later."

"That's a good idea," Han Li replied with a nod, then strode over to a corner of the hall before sitting down with his legs crossed.

Shi Chuankong hesitated momentarily upon seeing this, then strode over to his side before sitting down as well.

Meanwhile, Chen Yang turned his gaze to the crimson key on top of the copper tree with a solemn look in his eyes.

"This must be the key that you were referring to earlier, Fellow Daoist Chen. It seems that by some stroke of fortune, we were forced here by the puppets that we encountered," Sun Tu said with a smile.

"Indeed, our efforts have finally paid off," Chen Yang replied with a smile of his own.

"There's only one key here, so..."

Sun Tu's voice trailed off here, but it was quite clear what he was implying.

"According to my knowledge, there's more than one of these crimson keys in the Great Ruins, so there's no point in trying to claim any single one of these keys. It would be best if we can find others with the same key and work with them to reap more spoils," Chen Yang said with a smile.

Han Li was pretending to meditate with his eyes closed, and he sneered internally as he listened to the conversation between two the city lords.

Not only had Chen Yang and Sun Tu refrained from mentioning this crimson key to him prior to this, it was clear that Sun Tu was trying to claim the key for himself by leveraging what he perceived to be his and Fang Chan's superior powers over everyone else. However, he was forced to reconsider after hearing what Chen Yang had to say.

Right at this moment, Xuanyuan Xing suddenly interjected, "It looks like the things hanging from this tree are also puppets, so it most likely won't be so easy to acquire the key."

"Indeed, so let's all work together to obtain the key first," Sun Tu said, suddenly agreeable to the idea of working with everyone again.

"Alright, let's get started then," Chen Yang said with a nod, then sprang up toward the copper tree.

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Sun Tu's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he gave Fang Chan a subtle look, upon which the latter immediately set off for the tree as well.

The two of them each landed on a different branch of the tree, and as soon as Chen Yang set foot on the branch, he immediately felt a burst of tremendous suction force act upon him from below, locking him firmly into place.

Fang Chan was also in the same situation, and the two of them were suddenly bound to the tree.

Right at this moment, a series of star runes lit up over the tree, following which bursts of white light began to spread over all of its branches.

Han Li opened his eyes upon sensing this change, just in time to see all of the puppets hanging from the tree beginning to sway from side to side.

Shortly thereafter, they began to fall from the branches of the tree like ripe fruits, and in the instant that they landed on the ground, specks of red light appeared in their eye sockets as each of them drew a saber that was strapped to their backs.

The sabers had no star acupoints, but they were etched with star runes that were giving off layers of white starlight.

The puppets spread themselves out into a line, and aside for the two that had jumped back onto the tree to confront Chen Yang and Fang Chan, the rest were all rushing directly at Han Li and the others.

Han Li heaved a faint sigh upon seeing this, then rose to his feet, and another battle ensued.

Two of the puppets were rushing directly at Han Li at an astonishing speed, attacking him from both the left and the right as they slashed their sabers through the air.

Han Li drew his white scimitar, and his Star Moon Boots lit up, instantly elevating his speed to its peak. In the blink of an eye, he dodged the pair of oncoming sabers before hacking his scimitar against the legs of one of the puppets.

A sharp screeching sound rang out as a large flurry of bright sparks erupted from the puppet's body, and even though Han Li's scimitar strike was able to leave a pronounced white mark on the puppet's armor, it hadn't actually been damaged in the slightest.

Han Li was quite surprised by how resilient the suit of armor was, and he stomped a foot down onto the ground while channeling his Titan Vajra Arts.

All of the profound acupoints on his arms lit up, and he grabbed tightly onto the hilt of his scimitar before unleashing another almighty blow.

A thin layer of starlight appeared over the scimitar, and in response, the puppet raised its saber above its head to block Han Li's attack.

A loud crack rang out as the puppet's saber was snapped into two, following which the white scimitar crashed down onto its shoulder.

Unfortunately, much of the scimitar's power had already been expended in the process of shattering the puppet's saber, so it was ultimately only able to slice around an inch into its armor, inflicting no substantial damage.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he attempted to withdraw his scimitar, only to discover that a burst of immense suction force had surged out of the puppet's armor, locking the scimitar firmly into place.

At the same time, the other puppet was already rushing at Han Li while swinging its saber at Han Li's lower abdomen, so he was forced to abandon his scimitar and dart back in retreat.

Meanwhile, Chen Yang and Fang Chan were still stuck firmly to the copper tree, so they could only battle their puppet assailants with their feet completely rooted to the spot. Initially, they were doing just fine, but as two more puppets entered the fray, they began to struggle.

In particular, Fang Chan had already been struck close to twenty times by his two puppet assailants, and his entire body was drenched in blood.

However, there was no pain in his expression at all, and his battle intent only seemed to be growing more and more fierce with each passing wound that he sustained.

Right as one of the puppet's plunged its saber directly at his heart, he abruptly opened his mouth to let loose an animalistic shriek, releasing bursts of semi-transparent soundwaves that were visible even to the naked eye.

As soon as the puppet's saber pierced into the oncoming soundwaves, it was instantly slowed down to a crawl, as if it had been plunged into a wall of wet sand.

At the same time, the entire tree began trembling violently from the soundwaves, and he and Chen Yang were finally able to free themselves.

Fang Chan stepped forward and plunged his hand straight through the soundwaves unleashed by his own roar, then grabbed onto the puppet's neck before tightening his grip with all his might.

A dull thump rang out as the puppet's neck exploded in his crushing grip, and its head fell onto the ground.

At the same time, a thin and intricate white bone spike shot out of Chen Yang's sleeve, then pierced into one of the puppet's through a gap in its armor.

Immediately thereafter, the puppet exploded from the inside with a resounding boom.

Things progressed relatively smoothly from there onward, and it didn't take long before all of the puppets were vanquished.

Fang Chan had sustained around a dozen light external injuries, while Xuanyuan Xing had been stabbed through the stomach by one of the puppets, but aside from that, everyone else remained virtually completely unscathed.

Sun Tu took some time to treat Fang Chan's injuries, then turned to Chen Yang as he asked, "Who's going to take the key?"