Chapter 230: Trap

Two cultivators flew off into the distance to escape. In the blink of an eye, they disappeared into the sky. The burly man sat astride the tiger and coldly looked at them as they departed. It seemed he didn’t want to pursue them at all!

Hiding in the clouds, Han Li felt a bit bewildered. A moment ago, it seemed this person was vicious and merciless. There was no way he would let them off so easily, unless......could he have something up his sleeve?

As Han Li was casually making a few guesses, he suddenly heard the ice cold voice of the burly man. “Your esteemed self, you’ve been watching this scene for quite a long time. Are you waiting for an opportunity to dispose of this elderly man?”

When Han Li heard this, he was greatly startled.

“Could it be that although I was hiding at such a high altitude, he was still able to see me?”

With this thought, Han Li couldn’t help but gulp. He felt his heart beating in his throat.

After witnessing the ferocity of these mechanical puppets, Han Li did not wish to suffer the same fate as the other cultivators and become a target of the huge tiger’s attacks.

The speed of that transcendent light beam was far too fast, and its might was frightening! According to Han Li’s estimates, if he were to directly face it, apart from fleeing with the utmost speed on his Divine Wind Boat, he would truly have no other method to safely escape the light beam attack.

After slight consideration, Han Li couldn’t help but want to escape far away through the sky and avoid provoking fatal disaster! But after he took a look at the burly man’s actions, all thoughts of this immediately disappeared.

That was because the direction the puppets pointed their weapons was not toward him in the sky. Instead, they were pointed toward a small mound of earth not far away.

Han Li was so startled he nearly bit his own tongue!

There was actually a third person here, yet Han Li hadn’t noticed him in the slightest.

Crash.

The sound of earth shifting drifted over from the small earth mound. A single eccentric wearing a gray hood on his head emerged, standing opposite of the burly man.

“So it really was you!”

“Who in the world are you? It seems as if you know a bit about the secrets of this mechanical puppet!”

The burly man looked at him with a bone-chilling glare, viciously staring at this eccentric.

“Huang Long, I haven’t seen you for so many years. It seems your fiery temperament hasn’t changed!” After a moment of silence from the hooded eccentric, he said a few words that caused the burly man and Han Li to feel great amazement.

“How do you know who I am! Are you an acquaintance of this one named Huang!”

Having heard the other party speak out his name, the burly man could not help but reveal an expression of shock. However, since his identity was already exposed, his disguise was worthless. He then bluntly tore off his cloak and threw it to the floor.

A fierce-looking man with a short sallow hair was revealed.

“You’ve properly abandoned being your Thousand Bamboo School’s Great Protector; now you are five thousand kilometers away doing what? Could it be because you wanted to conceal the half-complete Great Development Technique in your puppet beast?” The eccentric ignored the burly man’s actions and asked this leisurely.

“You’re still not revealing your identity? Don’t blame me for being impolite!” Having heard the other party attack his greatest secrets, Huang Long’s expression changed as he hastily berated back with a stern voice.

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten? I, the one who originally taught you the first layer chant of the Great Development Technique in secret?

After a moment of hesitation, the eccentric eventually divulged this, causing the other party’s face to greatly change. Huan Long stepped back several times.

“You’re Senior Martial Brother Lin?... Impossible. Senior Martial Brother Lin passed away many years ago. You dare to play with me!? I will take your life!” After a moment of shock, he immediately yelled back furiously. Then with a vicious appearance, he waved his hand. The hundreds of puppets immediately stepped forward to surround the eccentric from afar.

“It seems that Junior Martial Brother Huang still hasn’t forgotten his feelings from old times. This makes Brother very happy!” The eccentric’s eyes suddenly grew soft, and he tore off the hood on his head, revealing his true identity.

“Senior Martial Brother Lin!”

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

“Martial Uncle Lin!”

The large man and Han Li, who had been paying attention this entire time, nearly shouted at the same time. However, while the large man actually shouted out loud, Han Li mere cried out in his mind.

This eccentric was the old man named Lin who liked carving. Han Li had seen him in that stone room the day he entered Yellow Maple Valley. Because the small monkey he was carving at the time was extremely adorable and lifelike, the old man had left a deep impression on Han Li, so Han Li was thus able to recognize his present appearance.

“It truly is Senior Brother Lin. Why does Senior Brother have such an aged appearance? Furthermore, you haven’t already...” Although the large man yelled this, he still went through a moment of disbelief before grabbing the Senior Martial Brother Lin in front of him with both hands, wearing an expression of great emotion.

“Hehe! Junior Martial Brother Huang, this brother only faked his death that day. That death was only... What are you doing!”

Han Li’s Martial Uncle Lin was saying this with a smile, but his expression immediately changed. He suddenly shook off the hands of this Junior Martial Brother Huang with fright. Two deep wounds as thin as chopsticks appeared on his wrists. Black blood freely bled from the wounds; there was clearly poison within them.

“It seems Senior Martial Brother Lin’s mind has spoiled during these many years of hiding. How could you be this careless and let your Junior Martial Brother injure your wrists? Tsk tsk! That was Black Thread Venom that I acquired from the Venomous Poison Sect with quite some difficulty. I’m afraid that it is quite hard to get rid of! This is Senior Martial Brother’s fault. Since you’re feigned your death, how could you want to form a relation with your previous subordinate and futilely try to steal the second half of the Great Development Technique? The current School Master Jin is very unhappy, so he sent this Junior Martial Brother to come and clear the weeds!” Huang Long coldly chuckled several times before mocking him.

“Good! Good! Truly my good Junior Martial Brother is passionate toward me!”

After a short moment of fury, Senior Martial Brother Lin quickly regained his calm. He hastily moved his hands as fast as the wind, forcing some of the poisonous blood out. He then took out a green jade bottle and poured all of the yellow medicine powder it contained down his throat. Rigidly staring at the large, yellow-haired man, he said with an ice-cold expression, “It seems the information that my good subordinate gave me was all false! The second half of the Great Development Technique simply does not reside within the puppet beast. This was all a trap to lure me in! But what baffles me is how the secret shop managed to cooperate with you in this manner.”

“Money moves people’s hearts. This proverb from the mortal world applies to the cultivation world all the same! So long as the school pays enough, nothing is impossible!” Huang Long said with a slanted mouth.

Then he turned his head, and yelled off to the forest at the side, “Come out! Everyone come and see the handsome and confident School Master Lin’s only son, the great Martial Brother Lin!”

“Hehe! Little Sister has heard of Senior Martial Brother Lin’s reputation for a long time. It is a pity that she had entered the sect late and didn’t get the chance to see your face!”

“Humph! What Senior Martial Brother Lin? I only see the corpse of an old dog!”

The voice of a dainty woman and the coarse voice of a jealous man came from the woods. A man and a woman then walked out side by side.

“Let me introduce Senior Martial Brother to these two. They are new Great Protectors of the school‒—”

Huang Long was currently thinking of willfully teasing him for a moment; this Senior Martial Brother Lin had pressured him from above during those past years. However, without even finishing his sentence, he already knew he had fallen into Senior Martial Brother Lin’s trap. Senior Martial Brother Lin’s figure suddenly whirled as he disorderly waved his hands without stopping. Black specks radiated in a large area, shooting out from his body in all directions.

Then, the countless radiant specks on the floor immediately flickered without end. One by one, small and fully-armed puppet soldiers emerged and grew in size. There were more than two hundred in the vicinity; it was an extremely marvelous sight.

“Be careful, this fellow has reached the third layer of the Great Development Technique and is able to control these many puppets! We must all tangle him down by any means or else he will escape. So long as the poison in his body flares up, even with his heavenly skill, he can only wait to be captured.” After Huang Long said this, he ordered his subordinates to attack.

After the man and woman glanced at each other, they also released two hundred puppets and began to attack.

Suddenly, a new wave of puppet attacks was launched. All kinds of light arrows and beams were shot out endlessly. At the same time, there were many armed puppet soldiers and puppet beasts tangled in combat! This scene caused Han Li, who was viewing this from above, to be dumbstruck.

Although he couldn’t see clearly what had happened towards the end, he was able to vaguely make out about seventy to eighty percent.

That Senior Martial Brother Lin whom he had met before formally entering the sect actually originated from the Thousand Bamboo School. Furthermore, he was the child of a school master! But it was clear he had already lost his influence when he chose to conceal himself at Yellow Maple Valley until now! But because he sought to acquire this Great Development Technique, Martial Uncle Lin had become the subject of the new school master’s wrath. Members of his former sect were sent to thoroughly exterminate him.

When Han Li clearly understood this relationship, he could not help but sigh.

Then he looked at the frenzy below. He knew that this wasn’t something an initial stage Foundation Establishment cultivator could opportunistically stick his hand into, but rather something he should escape from as best as he could out of fear that he could get himself caught up in it.

Clearly understanding his own interests, Han Li immediately put away the Azurefire Miasma, and moved his Divine Wind Boat with the greatest speed, immediately turning into a rainbow streak that cut through the sky.

Han Li’s extremely large movements were naturally noticed by the four below, causing them to grow greatly frightened; they could not help but slow down their fighting.

None of them expected that someone had actually been eavesdropping on their conversation all along. It seemed that the person who had heard their secret wasn’t weak, but after seeing Han Li tactfully flee into the distance without intending to help anyone, the four looked at each other and wordlessly agreed to continue their battle.