NOVEL NEXT Chapter 105: Puppets Of The Tower
Boom-
"Ugh."
"?"
After passing through a colorful mist, a massive gold-plated tower revealed itself.
Her mouth closed at the tower's imposing presence.
"..."
However, for Karlstein, it was merely interesting.
"If there was such a tower, it should have been visible from outside the Prohibitions."
After all, Karlstein was immune to all Prohibitions related to illusions and mental effects.
"Is there a spatial difference? Hmm."Moreover, they had to travel quite far to pass through the Prohibitions, so it was a vastness completely different from what they had seen from the outside.
"E-Euk. M-More importantly, are you okay? Your Spiritual Power..."
Since the tower appeared, the Spiritual Power circulating in their bodies seemed to freeze, unable to move.
"I can still manage the minimum operation to use the Storage Pouch, though."
"That's probably only possible because it's you. I feel like my Spiritual Power is completely frozen."
"Is that so?"
Well, it's not like I expected her to fight or something anyway.
"Let's go for now. Something should come up."
"Don't you lack a sense of crisis?"
"Don't you think it's stranger to turn back after coming this far?"
"Th-That's..."
A mysterious gold-plated tower within the Prohibitions.
It could be said with certainty that there was no cultivator who would just pass by after seeing this.
"Why is Spiritual Power restricted, though?"
However.
As Karlstein waved his finger, the metal lump he was holding floated into the air.
"Hmm... This ability works fine?"
"Junior Brother, how did you do that? It doesn't seem like you used Spiritual Power."
Spiritual Power wasn't his only means. He didn't know how to use Spiritual Power offensively with what he had learned so far anyway.
He was just accumulating and refining Spiritual Power while learning cultivation techniques like Inner Qi Cultivation Techniques.
"Let's go."
Karlstein smiled brightly.
Zhang Yihong was at a loss for words.
"I-I'll go with you!"
As she was unable to use Spiritual Power now, he was her only lifeline.
It was practically the same as him dragging her along from the start.
Creak-
As he approached the entrance, the door opened automatically.
"Is this a welcome?"
What greeted them upon entering was...
"Huh?"
"J-Junior Brother."
Senior Sister Zhang instinctively grabbed his clothes in fear.
Dozens of people in various outfits were hanging in the air, motionless with empty eyes.
However, their outward appearance was no different from humans.
Zhang Yihong was frightened by this bizarre sight.
This was because they looked so vividly human, yet at the same time were fixed in twisted postures that normal humans couldn't take.
As Karlstein stepped inside and took a step forward,
Creak-
Dozens of eyeballs moved towards him.
"Oh!"
Were they alive?
Senior Sister Zhang seemed to have already half-fainted at the bizarreness.
One more step.
Creak-
Are they just watching?
That can't be.
Step-
As he took a few more steps towards the center, they fell to the floor like puppets with cut strings.
"There's no need to wait for them, yeah?"
He knew what was what.
These weren't displayed to kindly guide them.
Creak-
"Don't worry. Just rest behind me."
He took out something long and black from the Storage Pouch.
Click-
"Let's see how tough they are, shall we?"
E-19A Blaster Rifle.
An early model blaster-type automatic rifle spewed fire towards the front.
Boom- Boom- Boom- Boom-
Clang-
The one at the very front was blown away and rolled on the floor.
"Oho?"
As expected, they weren't human.
If they were ordinary humans, not even bone fragments would have remained.
Creak- Creak-
The one with dents all over its body struggled like a broken machine.
But the problem was the others.
With Karlstein's preemptive strike as a signal, they began to swarm in.
Boom- Boom- Boom-
The rifle wasn't ineffective. They couldn't move after taking a few hits.
However, one rifle couldn't stop all of them rushing in from all directions.
Even so.
"Hahaha."
Various firearms poured out of Karlstein's Storage Pouch.
Karlstein, who lightly floated the firearms in the air, smiled joyfully.
"I never said there was only one."
Fire erupted simultaneously from various firearms.
Boom-
"Let's see who wins!"
Karlstein had engaged in modern warfare instead of the mere fistfighting he was expected to do.
***Zhang Yihong couldn't close her mouth.
Boom-
Ratatata-
Th-This is...
Fire spewed from all sorts of metal lumps her Junior Brother had taken out, sweeping everything in front.
"As expected, the tougher ones appear more frequently as we go up."
So what?
Everything was burning and being destroyed under the dozens of flashes from the metal lumps.
Flash- Boom-
Dozens of metal objects were spinning around her Junior Brother, spewing fire. From other metal objects, bullets were being fired with air-ripping sounds.
It was truly like an iron fortress.
Moreover, the speed of the projectiles was difficult even for her, at 8 Stars in the Qi Refining, to easily detect.
The principle seemed similar to the mortal world's incendiary bombs or artillery, but the power was incomparable.
If it weren't for the unknown transparent barrier her Junior Brother had set up, even a graze would have turned them to dust.
"Phew."
Junior Brother Gahwi walked leisurely as if on a flower-viewing outing.
Am I perhaps caught in an illusion?
How desperate must she have been to think such thoughts?
Dharma Tools?
What kind of Dharma Tool could launch such flashy and continuous attacks without Spiritual Power?
She had never heard of such a thing.
Even those that looked incredibly tough at a glance were being shattered to pieces, unable to even approach.
The surroundings had already turned into ruins, raising clouds of dust.
Thud- Thud-
If there was any consolation, it was that the outer walls of the tower remained intact?
"Th-This is..."
"Kahaha!"
She couldn't continue speaking as she looked at her Junior Brother, whose eyes seemed to gleam with a certain madness.
***At the top floor of the tower.
Creak- Creak- Creak-
A voice was heard from somewhere on the top floor, which looked like a laboratory.
[A Noble Archer...?]
That being, whose consciousness was connected to the tower, had known from the start that there was a commotion on the lower floors. The disturbance had started from the first floor and was quickly heading upwards.
But the speed of ascent was too fast.
The tower was a spatial Dharma Tool made of Sealing Stone that sealed Spiritual Power.
It was not a place that cultivators with sealed Spiritual Power could possibly break through.
Nevertheless, if they could pass through unhindered to this extent, perhaps only A Noble Archer would be capable of it?
However, it didn't seem to be an archer, as there was no particular reaction from the Prohibitions set up against an archer.
[....]
Occasionally, there were cultivators of the Body Tempering route, who trained their bodies to the extreme without Spiritual Power, but floors were already prepared to deal with them too.
In the end, they would just become new materials for him.
Until now, cultivators who broke through the Prohibitions and invaded the Sealing Stone Tower had all become materials for puppet dolls without exception and were displayed on the lower floors.
The same would be true for those coming up now.
[It doesn't matter who.]
They wouldn't be able to reach here anyway.
Especially the floor right below the top floor.
Even the tracking of a famed archer couldn't pass through there.
Clatter-
However, if there was a cultivator who could break through everything and reach the top floor.
It must be the one he had been waiting for.
Truly.
It truly shouldn't be possible.
But if so.
[Hehehe.]
It must be someone who would fulfill his long-cherished wish.
Of course, he didn't have high expectations since not a single person had come looking for him in such a long time that he had almost lost his sense of self.
***Boom-
"The firepower is starting to run out."
"Impossible."
The Senior Sister had been repeating those words like a parrot while following behind.
"Shouldn't Dharma Tools used by cultivators be able to do this much?"
"Well..."
It's not impossible, but...
In order to be fine like her Junior Brother after pouring out so many, it was not a matter of Dharma Tools, but rather something only high-realm cultivators could do.
"Hmm. They don't go down easily. There doesn't seem to be any particular weak point. You called them Puppets, right?"
"Y-Yes."
Puppets, called the Flower of Dharma Tool Crafting.
However, even the Qi Refining Pavilion of the Flame Metal Sect found it difficult to create Puppets.
In front of Karlstein, hundreds of Puppets were forming Formations and moving organically as they rushed towards him.
Some of them even used sorcery.
Boom-
However, the hundreds of firearms Karlstein had taken out were no less formidable. Among them were even cannons of a size incomparable to ordinary rifles.
"Hmm. If I increase the firepower more, I don't think we'll be able to withstand it."
They were enduring the aftermath with a few defense kits for emergencies, but anything more would be too much.
"Is this as far as the shooting game goes?"
"What?"
Karlstein showed no sense of crisis at all.
He began to personally move.
Crunch-
"I've got a rough feel for it now."
"...!"
As he clenched his fist in the air, one Puppet nearby twisted and stopped moving.
Crunch-
"It's not easy."
"W-What on earth?"
"Surprisingly, these guys seem to be made of metal too."
Crunch-
Karlstein turned one into scrap metal and shook his head.
"Still, it's too tough..."
But he still showed no sense of crisis.
After all…
"It might not be as fun, but..."
There was no need for him to destroy them.
As Karlstein waved his hand, several Puppets staggered.
Not only that, but those attacking, those defending, and those rushing in…
All of their postures wavered and their Formations crumbled.
Countless bombardments poured through the gaps.
Boom-
Even the firearms began to show strategic movements rather than indiscriminate bombing.
"I wonder what the reward will be?"
To her, who was only at 8 Stars in the Qi Refining Stage, all of this felt like a dream.
But even pinching her cheek didn't change anything.
"Junior Brother... Perhaps..."
"Yes?"
"Were you hiding your realm and infiltrating the Flame Metal Sect for some reas..."
"What are you saying?"
"A-Are you a person of ancient times hiding their identity?"
"..."
"W-What should I do? All this time I-"
"Senior Sister."
"Yeah? I mean, yes?"
"Get a hold of yourself."
Shake shake-
Did I not give enough Neck Slices?