3293 No shortcut (2)
Xia ruofei didn’t dare to believe Taoist Zhen Yang’s words so easily. Just now, Taoist Zhen Yang had deliberately led him to the center of the mini town where there were the most puppets. Then, he had suddenly activated the puppets to surround Xia ruofei, catching him off guard and almost killing him on the spot.
What was even more infuriating was that this old monk had tricked Xia ruofei into coming in in the name of honoring the reward ...
Hence, Xia ruofei had to greet old Taoist Zhen Yang. He did not dare to believe the old Taoist when he said that he would not participate in the hunt. Besides, old Taoist Zhen Yang had said that the entrance to the second floor would only open after he had completed the task of killing 100 puppets. Xia ruofei did not believe him.
He only believed in himself now.
Therefore, even though Xia ruofei was anxious, he did not rush out to fight the puppet just because of old Taoist Zhen Yang’s words.
On the contrary, he quickly calmed down and patiently used his spiritual power to investigate the situation outside.
The puppets in the mini – town had all deviated from the established plot. Whether it was the peddlers or the old farmers, they were all searching for Xia ruofei. Even the young girls who stayed at home and the children who played with mud on the streets were all going through the streets and alleys to find Xia ruofei.
Xia ruofei could feel the strong aura from these puppets. Even a little girl who looked to be only eight or nine years old had reached the advanced stage of the Golden elixir realm.
Therefore, the strength of these puppets could not be judged by their appearance.
Naturally, Xia ruofei could not fight against so many powerful puppets.
He was constantly paying attention to the movements of the puppets. Fortunately, his spiritual power cultivation was very profound, so he could completely cover the range of the first floor of the Tower of Trials. Therefore, the situation of these puppets quickly formed a constantly changing dynamic map in his mind.
In addition, he had the map vision provided by the perceptual mirror, so he could be said to have a very accurate grasp of the puppet’s situation.
There was no obvious pattern to the search of these puppets, but because their numbers were not enough to cover the entire floor of the Tower of Trials, there would always be an opening.
What Xia ruofei needed to do was to accurately grasp these openings.
He had already found another place to hide the spirit painting. However, it was a crack in the mud wall about twenty meters away from the current hiding place of the spirit painting. However, he just happened to need to pass through this alley and enter a narrow alley opposite, so the risk of being discovered was quite high.
Xia ruofei quickly found an opportunity.
At this moment, the two groups of puppets had just passed by the entrance of the alley. Furthermore, they had not entered the alley where the spirit map painting was located, so there was no one in the alley.
Xia ruofei used his spiritual power to monitor the situation. He knew that he had about three seconds. After three seconds, another group of puppets would appear at the other end of the alley. If he did not move quickly enough, he would be discovered.
Without any hesitation, he left the spirit map space with a thought. The moment he appeared in the narrow alley of the mini town on the first floor of the Tower of Trials, he had already summoned the qushuang flying sword. He stepped on the flying sword and flew forward.
At the same time, Xia ruofei kept the painting hidden in the ditch back into his body.
Leaving the space, releasing the flying sword, flying on the sword, and putting away the spirit map scroll – the whole process could be said to be done in one go, and the total time spent was only about one second.
With two seconds left, Xia ruofei’s figure disappeared in a flash and appeared in another alley.
With a wave of his hand, the spirit map scroll was accurately sent into the crack in the earth wall. At the same time, he returned to the spirit map space with a thought.
The three seconds had just passed.
At that moment, another group of puppets had appeared at the other end of the alley. However, they did not notice anything as Xia ruofei had already hidden himself carefully.
With the help of the spirit map, Xia ruofei moved from the center of the mini town to the periphery.
It was a close call several times. If he had been a little slower, Xia ruofei’s figure would have been exposed to the puppet.
When Xia ruofei successfully moved to the outskirts of the mini town and hid the spirit painting in the grass outside the town, he secretly heaved a sigh of relief.
The next step was much easier because there were many shrubs and weeds growing on the hills outside the town. It was much easier to hide the spirit map scroll in such an environment.
The puppets ‘search was still focused on the center of the town and the nearby alleys. Although there were puppets in the outer area, the density was much lower. As long as Xia ruofei did not make any mistakes, it would be difficult for the puppets to find him.
Xia ruofei used the cover of the weeds and bushes and used the stupid method of moving bit by bit to finally successfully cross the small hill where true yang temple was located and came to the rear side.
In Xia ruofei’s field of vision, there was a map of the entire first level of the Tower of Trials. He knew very well that the entrance to the second level was just behind true sun Temple. After crossing the hill, he would be able to see it very quickly.
Xia ruofei carefully avoided the puppets ‘search and advanced to the spot on the map that represented the entrance to the second floor.
He saw with his own eyes that the light spot representing himself and the light spot representing the entrance of the passage had overlapped. At this time, there was only a tree in front of him. This was a towering tree that required at least five people to wrap their arms around. This tree was also quite tall. It seemed to be able to reach the ceiling of the first floor of the Tower of Trials.
Could this tree be the entrance to the passage? Xia ruofei muttered in his heart.
How was he going to open the passageway? Did he have to climb to the top of the tree, knock down the ceiling, and enter the second floor? Xia ruofei suddenly had an absurd thought.
Of course, he quickly rejected this idea. The design of the Tower of Trials was so exquisite, how could the entrance of the passage be so nonsensical?
There were no puppets coming from the back of the hill, so Xia ruofei dared to stand in front of the tree and study it carefully. However, he still maintained his spiritual power so that he could react in time and hide if a puppet came close.
Just as Xia ruofei was lost in thought, he heard a burst of laughter behind him.””Hehe! Scholar Xia, I didn’t think that you would really have some skills! To be able to break out of such a tight encirclement and even accurately find the location of the passage ...”
Xia ruofei suddenly turned around. When he saw old Taoist Zhen Yang standing behind him with a face full of smiles, his face revealed a look of disbelief.
He had been on high alert just now, and his mental power was released in all 360 degrees without any blind spots. In fact, he had also successfully monitored every move of the puppets in the mini town.
However, when did old Daoist Zhen Yang appear?
If he couldn’t find him with his spiritual power, it meant that his strength was far inferior to his opponent ‘s.
If old Daoist Zhen Yang really had any ill intentions towards him, he would have been a corpse by now.
“Daoist Zhen Yang ...”
Old Daoist Zhen Yang waved his hand and chuckled, “Don’t worry, scholar Xia. I’ve said it before, I won’t participate in the puppets ‘hunt for you. In this trial, I’ll only be a bystander. I won’t interfere in any way!”
“Taoist priest, this trial is too difficult ...” Xia ruofei said with a bitter smile.
“Of course it’s difficult,” old Daoist Zhen Yang said with a smile. “If an ordinary person could pass it easily, would it still be called a trial?” Scholar Xia, you don’t have to doubt my words. Bringing you to the center of the town was also part of the trial mission. I can tell you now that the tree you found is the entrance to the second floor, but it’s closed now. If you don’t kill more than a hundred puppets, you won’t be able to open the entrance no matter how hard you try. If you don’t believe me, you can turn to the back and see if there’s an Eight Trigram symbol on the tree. When this Eight Trigrams symbol lights up, it means that the passage has been opened. Now that it’s not lit up, it means that you didn’t kill enough puppets ...”