Chapter 2543: Chapter 2543: The Wooden Puppet Soldiers

Timotheus smiled at Zen's words. “Indeed, as a token in the eighteenth stage of the Other Shore Realm, the Mysterious Meteor Tripod is good. However,” he said seriously, “I don't think the Grand Chieftain would use that as his Other Shore Token.”

Emily gravely nodded in agreement. “Technically, the token of a powerhouse like Chiyou should be above the thirtieth stage of the Other Shore Realm. The Mysterious Meteor Tripod in the eighteenth stage is not even qualified to be his token.”

While she might not have known what Chiyou's Other Shore Token was, this made sense to her.

“But if this is not my grandfather's Other Shore Token, why is it here?” Zen asked curiously, scratching his chin.

Ramzi smiled. “There is an Other Shore Token in Clement's Trumpet Flying Ship, but it does not belong to him. In the same way, the Mysterious Meteor Tripod may have been borrowed by the Grand Chieftain to run the divine land.”

“So that's how it is,” Zen muttered as he stared thoughtfully at the Mysterious Meteor Tripod.

The vitality between heaven and earth in the divine land was transformed from the chaotic energy that came from outside the land through the four divine trees; however, it was not enough to run the entire divine land.

Only the Other Shore Token would be able to fuel this humongous ship.

“But there are too many divine crystals here,” Ramzi noted, deep in thought. “It's very likely that most of the divine crystals collected by the Nine Li race in the past countless years have been stored here. If these crystals are used solely to run the divine land, that would be too big a waste. I wonder why the Grand Chieftain arranged it this way.” Ramzi glanced at the divine crystals that surrounded him.

Meanwhile, Leopold closely observed the Mysterious Meteor Tripod. His eyes were scanning each nook and cranny when he noticed dark shadows reflecting on the piles of shiny divine crystals.

These shadows felt familiar. Narrowing his eyes at the figures in the distance, he said, “I don't know the Grand Chieftain's intention, but we are definitely in trouble now.”

Just as he finished speaking, the black shadows gained speed, making their way down the piles of divine crystals.

Emily followed Leopold's gaze. “What're those?”

The figures were only half a man tall, with metallic black bodies running on four legs. There were two fist-sized eyes on their triangular heads. On their torsos was a unique-looking rune.

“They are Wooden Puppet Soldiers,” Timotheus answered with a long face. “And, these are the most powerful kind.”

“How powerful are they?” Emily asked nervously.

“We can take down a few of them, but we are definitely no match for so many,” he replied.

The Wooden Puppet Soldier was a kind of war puppet that was unique to the Nine Li race.

The weakest of the Wooden Puppet Soldiers had strength comparable to that of True Gods. To make things worse, one person from the Nine Li race could control thousands or even tens of thousands of them at one time.

But the Wooden Puppet Soldiers steadily closing in on Zen's group were the most powerful. They had an Other Shore Token embedded in their bodies, making them strong enough to compete with the masters at the Other Shore Realm.

Emily's face turned pale at what Timotheus said. There were two to three hundred Wooden Puppet Soldiers running towards them!

“Since these Wooden Puppet Soldiers are so formidable, how come my grandfather didn't use them to protect the divine land?” Zen asked confusedly as he tensely eyed the black shadows that were closing in on them.

“The reason is very simple. They can only move in a large array. The Grand Chieftain was unable to cover the whole divine land with the large array, so he only placed them here to guard this area. Since we broke in without permission, they're after us,” explained Ramzi calmly.

“Quit analyzing! We need to get out of here,” Timotheus shouted. “These Wooden Puppet Soldiers are hostile. If we are surrounded by them, we will perish here!” He gestured at the others to get moving. 𝑅𝓪ꞐÔβƐŠ

Everyone began to retreat quickly along the path paved with divine crystals, but they were too late. The Wooden Puppet Soldiers had reached them, catching up to Leopold, who had been covering their retreat.

Buzz!

The rune on the chest of the Wooden Puppet Soldier that met Leopold rotated suddenly, flashing a white light ray at him.

Phew!

Leopold's expression changed. He instinctively jumped up, twisting his body to dodge the light ray.

In doing so, other Wooden Puppet Soldiers had caught up to him, their runes rotating menacingly.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

White light rays shot from the bodies of the Wooden Puppet Soldiers.

Seeing that the light rays were going to pierce through Leopold, Zen quickly moved in front of him.

Phew! Phew! Phew!

Zen didn't expect these light rays to be so powerful.

He could sense that they were only slightly weaker than the Slaughtering Moonlight Array.

“Let me stop them. You go catch up with the others!”

No matter how powerful these light rays were, they couldn't hurt Zen. He easily diverted the energy elsewhere.

Leopold and the others were well aware of Zen's abilities. Without hesitation, he caught up to the others and they made their hasty escape.

Thankfully, the Wooden Puppet Soldiers were not intelligent. They had no concept of splitting up to follow both the group that was escaping and Zen, so they all rushed towards the latter.

Buzz!

The Wooden Puppet Soldiers spread in a fan-shaped formation, the runes on their chests rotating to shoot light rays at Zen.

If it were Emily or Timotheus, they wouldn't have stood a chance. Fortunately, Zen was skilled in diverting their forces.

Even though this was so, Zen had to fall back under their unrelenting attacks. His expression grew more and more serious.

The force of the combined attacks of so many Wooden Puppet Soldiers was equivalent to that of ten Slaughtering Moonlight Arrays.

Zen was able to transfer all these attacks to the surface of the Mountain of Holy Beings, but even the mountain could not bear such forces!

An image flashed through his mind, and it was revealed to him that the surface of the Mountain of Holy Beings that was located under the ground was cracking under the forces of the light rays. A silver light burst forth from the cracks, indicating the mountain's gradual collapse.

The Mountain of Holy Beings was very important to the divine land. If it collapsed, who knew what consequences they'd have to face then?

In his desperation, Zen decided to divert part of the forces to other remote regions in the divine land.

Rumble!

Suddenly, to the north of the divine land, light rays wreaked havoc on the remote regions.

Under these incredible forces, mountain ranges were cut off one by one, and gullies that were as deep as a hundred thousand feet were evened out. They had directly splintered the layer of soft stones, and the Lethal Fire Magma gushed out from the bottom of the gullies.

Although these regions were considered remote, there were still a few divine citizens who lived there. As they watched this apocalyptic scene unfold before them, their faces turned deathly pale with fear.

However, the weirdest thing was that the destructive forces didn't cause any damage to the villages where the divine citizens lived.