Chapter 1134: Chapter 1134: Livingston

Compared to the previous cave, this one was clearly smaller and could be easily surveyed with a single glance.

There was nothing strange about the surroundings, and it was almost dull in appearance.

Zen noticed that Freya was carefully picking up the ancient treasures. Naturally, he didn't leave immediately, but strolled around in the cave. He was making a final check on the cave, looking for any signs that they had perhaps missed.

After circling the cave once, Zen was now even more sure that there were no other mysteries to be found in the cave.

When Zen looked back again, his eyes widened. The ancient treasures that had been piled up like a small mountain were reduced by half. Obviously, the warriors had put the other half into their space rings. The wealth had truly been pillaged now!

When seeing this scene, Zen could not help but shake his head. After the heavenly essence within these ancient treasures was lost, the value of these ancient treasures was no longer great. They had been reduced to mere trinkets now.

A faint smile flirted over his face. Just as he was about to take a step forward, he noticed a sword plunged upright in the ground nearby.

'Perhaps this sword can't even be considered an ancient treasure. I wonder who stabbed the sword into the ground, ' Zen thought. His eyes narrowed slightly as a look of bewilderment surfaced on his face.

The ancient treasures that were piled into a small mountain had been eroded by the passage of time, and the heavenly essence within them was long gone. But strictly speaking, each and every one of them had been of the highest quality.

However, the sword in front of him seemed to be of a much lower grade. Even the edge of the sword blade had been rendered dull over time. Was this really a sword?

Despite being unable to obtain what he wanted in this cave, Zen was not discouraged. When he saw the sword, his interest was piqued. It was so strange and out of place, since it was clearly of an inferior quality to the other treasures.

When he thought of this, Zen took two steps forward and extended his hand to grasp the exposed blade of the sword. It did not move at all! The sword remained plunged into the ground, as if the very ground was holding fast to it.

“Huh?”

Zen became even more curious. Although he had only exerted a slight amount of strength, it should probably have been an easy task to pull out the sword. Was it because most of the sword was buried in the earth?

Zen stood firmly on the ground and held the sword with both his hands, resting one hand on the blade. The blade of the sword was already dull, and it did not cut his hand at all. However, even if it was not dull, with his current body strength, it should not be too much of a hindrance to him.

Grasping this sword, Zen suddenly exerted his full strength and pulled with all of his might.

A huge force was suddenly released upwards as the blade was finally freed from the earth.

Boom!

At this moment, the entire cave seemed to tremble as if in fear.

The warriors who were still picking through the abandoned ancient treasures immediately raised their heads and observed their surroundings. Soon enough, everyone's eyes locked onto Zen. They momentarily stopped searching and looked at him curiously.

“What is he pulling out?”

“It looks like a sword. It must be something extraordinary!”

“Quick! Let's go take a look!”

“What's the use of going there? Do you dare to snatch something from his hands?”

In the eyes of these warriors, the current state which Zen was in was of an existence akin to a fiend. Who would dare provoke him?

As Zen lifted the “sword” upwards, countless cracks began to appear beneath his feet. Soon after, a black object was half-pulled out from the cracks.

“Huh? What is this?” Even Zen couldn't help but take a few steps back after he lifted half of the “sword.”

Zen had originally thought that it was an ancient sword, but when he pulled it halfway up, he realized that he had jumped to a conclusion.

What was grasped in Zen's hands was not a sword. Instead, there was a head made of metal underneath the sword, and a body made of metal, too, connected to the neck below the head. Slowly, Zen drew it further out of the ground to examine it. ŔåɴՕ𝖇ЕＳ

“It's a puppet!” Zen murmured as his gaze froze.

Puppets were definitely not uncommon. However, this puppet in front of him had a very strange appearance. It was different from Saul in the fairy palace, and also different from the puppets in the Central Region. It was quite unique.

At the top of the puppet's head was a sharp object that looked remarkably like a sword. The body of the puppet had been buried in the earth, with only the “sword” abruptly sticking upright out of the earth.

No one knew why there would be a puppet inside the cave.

The Endless Abyss had been opened six times, but no one had discovered this secret on the previous five occasions. The last time Lavender was here, she had only wandered around once before leaving. Of course, she couldn't answer Zen's question. He stared at the puppet, at a loss for words.

The other warriors looked over, reflecting longing in their expressions. Although they didn't know what this thing was, everything that was discovered in this abyss was considered to be a treasure. Naturally, they wanted this puppet.

However, when they thought about the miserable condition of the ogre warrior who had activated the Ancient Evil Ape bloodline in the last cave, they could only grimace and restrain their greed. This greed would drive them to move, but Zen's strength could definitely stop them.

Zen looked carefully at the unique-looking puppet in front of him.

This puppet was not originally a living being, but a manmade one. Everyone's sense of beauty was different, so no matter how unique and absurd the puppet was, it was not strange at all. To someone it had been a thing of beauty.

However, since those ancient treasures had been left here for countless years and had already been turned into trash, the puppet should be no different from trash now, right? Zen considered whether he should leave the puppet with the other worthless items.

Just as this thought flashed through his mind, an almost inaudible voice came from the puppet.

“You...you have… Alas...”

The voice was hoarse and weak. Even if Zen had listened attentively, he wouldn't have been able to clearly hear what the puppet had said.

But no matter what this puppet had said, it proved one thing—the puppet was still “alive.”

Since that was the case, Zen's interest naturally increased and he looked at it more closely.

Although Zen didn't know what this puppet was saying, he couldn't really be bothered to listen carefully. Instead, he immediately grabbed the puppet's head and pulled it up hard, until its entire body was unearthed. In any case, the puppet's components looked ordinary, but despite the years in the ground, it still looked quite sturdy.

Boom!

After Zen had pulled out the puppet, he threw it to the side, where it landed with a loud booming sound.

The shape of the puppet was very strange, with a bald oval-shaped head, a bald oval-shaped body, and a sword-like ornament on top of its head. It had four limbs that were similar to a human's. It was a weird sort of human-formed puppet.

Throughout the entire process, the puppet continued babbling in a low voice, but no one could tell what it was trying to say. It could be because it was too weak, or it could be because it was speaking in a language which was now dead. After all, languages changed over years.

Zen turned the puppet over as he examined it, and discovered a small groove in its back.

Noticing the groove, Zen smiled knowingly.

There were also warriors that specialized in puppets. For instance, the Cloud Hall's Saint Morphens was good at puppetmastering techniques, and the energy he supplied to the puppets was often from his life vitality. Zen considered that this puppet could also be out of juice.

The puppet in front of him might also be driven by life vitality.

In any case, Zen decided that he wouldn't suffer any loss if he tried it. Thinking of this, he took out a supreme life vitality crystal from his space ring, and inserted it into the groove in the puppet's back. There was a loud clicking sound.

The moment Zen slotted the supreme life vitality crystal in, the puppet suddenly cried out in excitement, “I...I can actually...”

Immediately though, the voice weakened again, and Zen was no longer able to hear what it was saying.

Zen's eyes were clouded with confusion. But as he stared at the groove, he instantly understood that the supreme life vitality crystal had been instantly exhausted.

“That's fast!” Zen was left speechless. The life vitality contained in the supreme life vitality crystal seemed to be far from enough. The speed at which the puppet had consumed the life vitality was also astonishingly fast.

Without thinking too much, Zen once again took out a life vitality jade from his space ring and once more inserted it into the groove.

“I...I actually come back to life! I can't believe it!” the puppet called out excitedly again.

Zen stared at the puppet and asked, “Who are you?”

The puppet sized Zen up and then slowly collected its limbs and moved towards him. It took a while before it smiled and said, “I… I'm Livingston. Ha-ha!”

This puppet seemed to think that reporting its name would shock all of the warriors in the cave, and its voice also contained a trace of pride.

However, after he finished speaking, many of the warriors were still clueless and they stared at the puppet in confusion.

“Livingston?”

“I've never heard of it.”

“Does this name have any background?”

Zen also asked the same question in his mind. Not only had Lavender never heard of it before, even the experienced and knowledgeable cyan dragon didn't know who Livingston was. Clearly, the puppet had faded beyond memory over the centuries in which it had been buried.

“Huh? You don't even know who Livingston is?” The puppet's voice contained grief and indignation. “I am the number one weapon refiner in the universe! Are you guys ignorant or simply massively ill-informed on such matters?”