Chapter 287 - 283: Invalid
When Tang Luo, clad in heavy silver armor and carrying a drum-hammer weighing three thousand catties, returned to the underground magma cave, the young men who had become steel beasts could hardly recognize him.
Only Tang Bin and Tang Zhi raised an eyebrow, reminded of Tang Sen’s appearance when he first returned to Xiling.
Old Man Xu, who had undoubtedly felt the sharpest in the group, detected something more in Tang Luo; now his aura was only at the peak of Mortal
Realm.
Although he knew that Tang Luo would sacrifice his powers in order to enter the Minor Spiritual Realm, seeing Tang Luo calmly ditch his abilities made Old Man Xu uncomfortable. He couldn’t help but question whether he could do the same if it were his own siblings in trouble.
Degrading one’s cultivation level to that of Mortal Realm meant that one’s painstaking endeavor of ten years would be gone in an instant, a devastating blow for any martial artist.
To sacrifice a promising peak Mortal Realm martial artist for six mortals was a decision that no sane person could take, yet Tang Luo did it.
All those present were martial artists; as they sensed Tang Luo’s diminished aura, the atmosphere became extremely heavy.
Ji Fu coldly spat out, “Is it worth it?”
The youngest martial artist ever to reach the peak of Mortal Realm was willing to abandon his powers in order to save a few average disciples. Ji Fu saw no logic in this trade-off.
Lifting the visor of his helmet, Tang Luo revealed his calm, fair face and glanced sideways at Ji Fu. “Whether it’s worth it or not, I know. By the way, you tell me the spell to control the puppet mechanism.” After all, the puppet could be used to transport supplies, and they couldn’t afford to have it destroyed.
“You’re now at a Mortal Realm level of cultivation, and even a foundation of Transcendent Realm will struggle to employ it!” said Ji Fu, although he respected Tang Luo for his family-oriented actions, he still thought Tang Luo’s sacrifice was worthless.
“That’s none of your concern. Just teach me,” Tang Luo said, tightening the strap of his bag. Inside the bag were five pieces of Top-Grade Tai Sui. The hunger was too hard to bear for his current physical condition, so Tai Sui was the only thing he couldn’t leave behind.
Seeing Tang Luo’s stubbornness, Ji Fu took a piece of paper from his pocket and tossed it to Tang Luo. “You can learn it slowly inside it!”
Tang Luo, who had been neatly catching the paper and stuffing it into his gauntlet, waved his hand, “Thanks, Young Master Ji.”
Having said this, Tang Luo turned to Tang Zhi and others, smilingly saying, “Thanks for guarding the gate.”
Initially, only the Great Elder Tang Siyuan was inside the underground magma cave. Now even Tang Hong Tao and Tang Zhen, whom he had briefly met in the Scripture Pavilion, were there. The three of them were sitting next to the Spirit Realm Gate. It was clear what they were protecting.
Looking stern, the clan leader Tang Zhi advised, “Chief Luo, if things turn out to be impossible, I hope you put the overall situation first and escape.
“Rest assured, clan leader.” Tang Luo bowed his hand in salute, picked up the hammer, and jumped straight into the Spirit Realm Gate without any hesitation.
After a dizzying moment, Tang Luo stumbled into the grassland instead of falling from the sky. Duang, duang, duang, he left a few deep footprints.
After regaining his balance, he sat down cross-legged to sense the location of the Star of Transcendent Realm. Already two warriors had lost their lives, and he was afraid that one of them might be the young boy.
In the Great Thousand World, where he could not sense the location of the Star, this anxiety had magnified many times.
It wasn’t until he felt the Transcendent Realm Star moving that he dropped the burden off his heart.
Carrying the huge hammer, Tang Luo started running wildly towards the southeast.
His robust strength allowed him to bear the weight of eight thousand catties of heavy armor. The silver military officer stirred up a cloud of dust as he thunderously moved towards his target.
With his right hand holding the hammer and the left one the paper Ji Fu had given him, he intended to learn the puppet-controlling spell on the go. Everyone thought Tang Luo could enter the Minor Spiritual Realm only because he weakened his cultivation, but only he knew that his cultivation level hadn’t reduced a bit; he was still at the peak of Transcendent Realm.
Since Ji Fu told him about the instability of the Spirit Realm Gate, he became apprehensive and aimed to train the people in the First Cultivation Ground, putting his dependency solely on himself.
Because the only thing unstable was the Spirit Realm Gate, not the Minor Spiritual Realm, which meant Tang Luo could hide his cultivation in the Star, and then recover all his cultivation after going through the portal, without delaying things a bit.
With dust all over the sky, Tang Luo charged towards the little boy’s location. Fifty miles in, his face darkened.
Before his eyes were a few hundred puppet mechanisms, as if they had anticipated his position, blocking his path.
Fortunately, he had memorized the controlling techniques of the puppet on the way. He held up the magic seal urgently to control the blocking puppets.
But the controlling techniques Ji Fu had given him seemed to suddenly malfunction as the puppet mechanisms surrounded him tightly, like an army array.
“Impossible!” Tang Luo took the techniques Ji Fu gave him from his gauntlet again, repeatedly confirming that he hadn’t used them wrong. If that was the case, then it was clear that the controlling spirit array inside these puppets had been tampered with by someone.
Just as he was confirming the techniques, hundreds of puppets pounced on him. Each one was made of iron and wood, their bodies were pitch-black. As they pounced on him, he paid no mind to them.
Facing hundreds of puppets from all sides, Tang Luo sighed and discarded the paper in his hand after being certain that the techniques were useless. Holding the long handle of the drum-hammer, his arms, as strong as a monkey god’s, swung it around.
The iron hammer, half a meter in diameter, hammered heavily on one of the puppets in front of him, causing it to stick to the hammer. The puppet, capable of bearing several tons, was like a broken toy, adhering to the colossal hammer and being sent flying into another puppet.
Just after a single swing, over a dozen black puppets were shattered in the upper body, creating a vacuum in the center of the surrounding puppets. Tang Luo shook off the puppet debris stuck on the hammer, pushed off the ground hard, and the soft grassland, opposite to the strong and violent force, rippled like a solid ground. The silver-armored warrior leaped into the air, lifting the hammer high, and then smashed it back to the ground.
The robust power stirred up the unlimited Spiritual Power between heaven and earth, bursting over the ground. The grassland of Minor Spiritual Realm seemed to have met the end of the world. The ground cracked open, revealing the rocky soil underneath. Deep crevices spread in all directions.
The heavy puppets couldn’t maintain their balance in such an earthquake; they swayed from side to side, with many of them falling into the abyss. With only two hits, Tang Luo wiped out more than a hundred puppets.
Pulling out the drum-hammer, which had gone deep into the ground leaving only the handle above, Tang Luo was planning to mop up all the puppets in one go. But then he noticed that the rising puppets turned around and began to retreat in all directions..