The puppet seemed to have figured out his intentions. As soon as Ian Song retreated, it immediately pressed forward, attacking relentlessly.
This annoyed Ian a bit, so he had no choice but to swing his sword and get entangled with it again.
After hundreds of fierce exchanges, the sword essence in his lower dantian was nearly exhausted. He switched output to his middle dantian and pulled out a top-grade spirit crystal from his Storage Ring to replenish his sword essence.
"Ha ha!"
Ian suddenly laughed, because he realized that the puppet didn’t have any top-grade spirit crystals. In other words, he could drag out the fight and exhaust it to death.
With this new plan to wear down the opponent, Ian no longer feared the battle and kept clashing head-on.
Big moves burn through sword essence quickly. Even though the puppet, like him, had two dantians, without top-grade spirit crystals to replenish its sword essence, after hundreds more exchanges it was already showing signs of exhaustion.
Just as Ian thought he was about to succeed—
the puppet suddenly turned and ran.
"Damn it, where do you think you're going!"
He’d finally managed to run the puppet’s sword essence dry—there was no way Ian would let it escape now!
Without thinking, he triggered Spatial Stasis.
Buzz.
A small world of stasis instantly formed, freezing the puppet in place.
"Slash!"
Without a moment’s hesitation, Ian swung his sword and beheaded the puppet.
"Child, congratulations on clearing the first layer of the Second-Tier Trial!" The Temple Spirit’s voice sounded right after, and a beam of light shone on him, instantly restoring him to peak condition.
"Child, you have half an hour to rest. Would you like to proceed to the second layer immediately?"
"I’ll rest for half an hour first!" Ian replied. He needed some time to review and summarize the fight. During the battle he hadn’t noticed, but now he realized he’d made a major mistake: he hadn’t guarded against the puppet using divine abilities.
It was strange, though—why hadn’t that puppet used any divine abilities at all?
He replayed the battle in his mind. The puppet had multiple chances to use divine abilities, but why hadn’t it?
He didn’t think the opponent was going easy on him.
"Could it be...?"
At that thought, his eyes suddenly lit up. Could it be that the puppet hadn’t copied his divine abilities?
If that was true, then his chances of clearing the Second-Tier Trial shot way up.
Half an hour later.
Ian was teleported into a new scene.
No longer a grassland, but a vast desert.
Two flashes of light appeared, and then two puppets identical to him suddenly materialized.
Catching them off guard—
Ian instantly triggered Gravity Domain.
Gravity Domain could multiply gravity twentyfold in an instant, but as Ian’s cultivation advanced, this divine ability had lost its decisive impact.
The moment Gravity Domain activated, Ian slashed out several times in quick succession.
Sword-qi roared like dragons, his sword moved like a flying immortal, and in an instant he stabbed at one puppet’s brow.
Twenty times gravity affected the two puppets for only a hundredth of a second.
Splat!
His sword pierced through one puppet’s head, but the other puppet sent him flying with a slash.
"Whoa, whoa!"
Ian coughed up blood twice in a row, but still managed a smile.
He triggered Radiance of Life.
He began to retreat, flying backward.
The puppet chased after him with its sword, slashing relentlessly and forcing Ian into a desperate defense.
A few seconds later, Ian’s wounds were healed. He started counterattacking, using the same strategy as on the first layer—one hand gripping a top-grade spirit crystal, the other wielding his sword.
In the blink of an eye, Ian and the puppet had exchanged over a thousand moves. Both his dantians still held more than half their sword essence, while the puppet’s sword essence was nearly depleted.
To prevent the puppet from escaping, Ian kept it tightly locked in combat.
"Splat! Splat!"
Two hundred moves later, Ian stabbed one puppet through the brow with his sword, but was also stabbed in the right arm by the puppet’s sword.
"Child, congratulations on clearing the second layer of the Second-Tier Trial!"
The Temple Spirit’s voice sounded again, sending down holy light to heal his wounds.
Once again, he had half an hour to rest.
But Ian didn’t rest this time and went straight into the third layer challenge.
This time, the setting was a mountain valley.
As soon as he appeared, he was ready to trigger Soul-Control Brand.
Flashes of light—three puppets appeared.
Soul-Control Brand!
Ian shouted, and a streak of dark light struck one puppet. Soul-Control Brand is a seventh-grade divine ability that can control an enemy for thirty seconds.
"Kill!"
The next moment, Ian charged at the other two puppets with his sword.
At the same time, the puppet struck by dark light suddenly turned traitor, swinging its sword with reckless abandon at the puppet beside it.
Sure enough, Soul-Control Brand scored a solid opening move.
Bang! Bang!
Two figures exploded apart.
The puppet that was ambushed suffered a severe wound—a bloody hole in its chest, blood spurting fast.
The puppet that launched the ambush was lightly wounded as well.
Meanwhile, Ian was locked in battle with the third puppet.
"Kill!"
The puppet controlled by Ian charged forward with its sword again.
Ten seconds later, the severely wounded puppet was slain, but the controlled puppet was also badly hurt.
"Kill yourself!"
Ian gave it one last order.
Splat!
A flash of sword-light, and a head flew high into the air.
In less than thirty seconds, Ian had dealt with two out of three puppets. The last one posed no pressure at all.
An hour later, Ian finished off the third puppet and cleared the third layer of the Second-Tier Trial.
"Child, congratulations on clearing the third layer of the Second-Tier Trial!"
Half an hour later.
Second-Tier Fourth-Layer Challenge Domain.
This time, the scene shifted to a forest.
The next moment, four flashes of light—four puppets appeared.
Space froze, Soul-Control Brand was on cooldown, so Ian tossed out the Silverglow Skiff and jumped aboard, vanishing in a streak of silver light. He knew he couldn’t take on four puppets of equal strength head-on.
Seeing Ian escape, the four puppets looked dazed.
In a flash, Ian had flown six kilometers away. He activated his Clairvoyance divine ability to check the status of the four puppets.
He saw the four puppets bumbling after him.
"Ha ha."
Ian laughed. Clearly, not only had these puppets failed to copy his divine abilities, they couldn’t even replicate his artifacts.
He kept those four puppets trailing behind him.
In the blink of an eye, a day passed.
Ian’s Spatial Stasis and Soul-Control Brand divine abilities finished cooling down.
Putting away the Silverglow Skiff, he landed on a plain.
Soon, the four puppets caught up to him.
The moment they got close, Ian triggered Spatial Stasis.
Splat, splat, splat, splat!
Three seconds was all he needed to lop off four heads.
So, after spending just over a day, he cleared the Fourth-Layer Challenge Domain. Now, he felt even more confident about breaking through the Fifth-Layer Challenge Domain.
After a brief rest, he stepped into the Fifth-Layer Challenge Domain.
Five puppets appeared, and he once again took off on the Silverglow Skiff.
Another day passed.
The five puppets were trapped inside the small world created by Spatial Stasis.
"Kill!"
Without hesitation, he slashed—five heads flew high into the air.
The Temple Spirit’s voice rang out: "Child, congratulations on clearing the fifth layer of the Second-Tier Trial!"