Chapter 59: True Form Revealed |
"Many thanks, Leader Xia!" Luo Ming took the Concentrated Fire Oil, his face instantly bursting with joy. He quickly ordered Shang Ping and the other two to hold the front line while preparing the oil. His gaze locked onto the giant puppet's arm, immediately understanding Xia Hong's intention.
Xia Hong handed over the oil and turned toward the western side of the valley. Seeing the precarious situation of the people from Dachuan and the other three camps, he urgently called out to Yuan Cheng and the other five behind him, charging toward that direction.
Yuan Cheng, Yue Feng, and the other four had managed to survive in that crevice. While it seemed like his timely arrival had saved them, luck had played a greater role. Having just broken through to the Lumberjack Realm, they were weaker than not just Rogge Camp's members, but even those from Dachuan and Huangzhao Camps.
The giant puppet's massive size alone gave it an enormous attack range. Combined with its terrifying strength, there was hardly any safe ground left in the valley. Its remaining three limbs - the left arm blocked Rogge Camp's Lumberjack Realm experts on the right side of the valley, while its two towering legs stomped wildly on the experts from Dachuan and the other three camps.
Earlier, when they were trapped in the wooden houses, all five camps had suffered casualties. Rogge Camp fared slightly better with three or four iron tools to defend themselves temporarily. The other four camps, being weaker and lacking any iron tools, had already lost seven members, leaving only sixteen survivors struggling beneath the puppet's feet.
Boom...
"Old Huang, haven't you cleared the entrance yet?" Hong Gang narrowly dodged the puppet's right foot with his son, retreating while shouting anxiously at Huang Yong behind him.
They were all near the western valley entrance. Huang Yong and five others were desperately moving the large rocks blocking the exit. Hearing Hong Gang's urgent shout, he kept working while replying, "The rocks are too big and too many! We need more time! Hold on a little longer!"
Hong Gang glanced back during a brief respite, seeing only a small portion of the rubble cleared. Despair crept into his heart. When the four wooden houses merged into this monstrous puppet, realizing they stood no chance together, they had scattered - Rogge Camp to the left, Great Xia's six to the right, while he and Huang Yong's four camps chose the exit route to the west.
Though despairing, they quickly devised a plan: split into two groups - he and Lu He would distract the puppet's legs while Huang Yong and Chen Ying cleared the rubble. The plan seemed sound, but execution proved far harder than expected. The puppet's overwhelming strength had already claimed six of their sixteen distraction team members in mere moments.
At this rate, they'd all be dead before clearing half the exit. Hong Gang considered recalling Huang Yong's group to make a desperate stand together.
"Father!" His son Hong Mu's urgent shout snapped him from his thoughts. Looking up in horror, he saw the puppet's massive right foot descending toward him with terrifying force, the air pressure alone nearly crushing him.
Despair flashed through Hong Gang's eyes - this stomp would reduce him to pulp like the previous six victims. "Move, Father!" At the critical moment, Hong Mu charged from the side, knocking him several meters away.
"Fool! Who told you to save me... Mu'er!" Hong Gang shouted mid-air, angry at his son's reckless rescue. But watching that massive foot descend toward his son, his rage turned to heartbreak as he cried out his son's name.
Boom... The foot crushed down mercilessly, shaking the ground violently and shattering Hong Gang's heart along with it. "Ah... Mu'er..." Raising Hong Mu had been his life's proudest achievement - a 24-year-old Lumberjack Realm expert unmatched in Redwood Ridge's surrounding camps, achieved largely because Hong Gang had sacrificed his own cultivation, giving all Frost Beast meat to his son.
"Father, I'm alright!" The voice from beneath the puppet stunned Hong Gang. Looking up, his grief transformed into overwhelming joy as the puppet suddenly detached part of its foot and withdrew. The separated portion spontaneously combusted on the ground.
Boom... The wooden chunk was pushed aside from below, revealing two figures. Seeing Hong Mu alive though spitting blood, Hong Gang's face lit up before he solemnly bowed to the knife-wielding man beside his son. "Leader Xia, words cannot express my gratitude. From now on, whatever you command, I'll brave ten thousand deaths without refusal!" Remembering they hadn't met, he added, "I'm Hong Gang, leader of Dachuan Camp."
Xia Hong, who had indeed rushed over to save Hong Mu, waved him off with a bitter smile. "Whether there'll be a 'from now on' is uncertain. I didn't come specifically to save him, Leader Hong needn't be so formal."
Hong Gang knew this wasn't the time for lengthy talk, simply helping his son up while maintaining grateful eye contact with Xia Hong, whose attention had already returned to the wooden giant.
Truthfully, Xia Hong hadn't risked his life to save a stranger. His target had always been the puppet. While charging over, he'd noticed the armless puppet's movements becoming uncoordinated, realizing damaging its limbs might disrupt the Wood Puppet Abomination's control. He'd slid beneath it, using residual Concentrated Fire Oil on his knife to destabilize its footing. Saving Hong Mu was incidental.
His theory proved correct - after losing part of its right foot, the puppet's movements grew increasingly uncoordinated, its stomps losing their former power. Meanwhile, Luo Ming seized this opportunity with the oil Xia Hong had given him. Mirroring Xia Hong's earlier move, he climbed the puppet's left arm, found its thinnest point, and cleanly severed it.
The severed arm revealed numerous translucent white threads that sparked violently upon contacting the oil on Luo Ming's blade. Already unbalanced from the damaged right foot, the puppet staggered wildly after losing its left arm. Luo Ming didn't hesitate, charging along the remaining arm toward its head.
Nearing the head, he threw his last bit of oil at its face before slashing with his blade. The oil splashed across the puppet's face, bursting into flames that penetrated deep into its wooden skull as Luo Ming's blade followed.
"Ah..." An angry, aged voice echoed through the valley. Xia Hong looked up, his expression turning grave. Though aged, that peculiar sound of grinding wood - both hoarse and piercing - was unmistakably familiar.
The Wood Puppet Abomination had finally revealed its true form!