Chapter 1176: 1176

“Take your time. It’s rather nice outside, so I’ll go out and have a look around the area first.”

Just as everyone was in an animated discussion, Diwu Mingchuan sauntered out after saying these words.

Everyone watched him carefully.

But they thought there was nothing wrong with that.

After all, Diwu Mingchuan was the patriarch of the Diwu Great Family, which was one of the top Wulin forces. Even if he didn’t take part in the discussion, part of this place would belong to his family.

As for the other sects, they had to get their share through these discussions.

The other three patriarchs of the Four Great Families continued to search around. The leaders of the other forces began a new round of search after their discussion.

Fang Qiu remained in the hall, staring at the character: Mo.

However…

“Pa! Pa! Pa!”

Within minutes, the sounds of fighting came from outside.

Fang Qiu hurried out to check.

The others who were doing their search for the third time also went out to see what was happening.

When Fang Qiu stepped out, he saw Diwu Mingchuan fighting with those wooden puppets.

His eyes swept over the scene: Diwu Mingchuan had defeated many of the wooden puppets, and there were only a few remaining.

Everyone saw what he did.

Then they realized what Diwu Mingchuan was up to.

There was nothing in this pavilion, so the only valuable thing in this place was the wooden puppet!

Thinking of this, everyone immediately understood why Diwu Mingchuan took the initiative to fight with those wooden puppets.

At this time, all of them knew it was a clear indication.

The most precious thing here was indeed the wooden puppet.

Since everyone else had been busy scavenging for all the good items and treasures, they had clearly forgotten about these wooden puppets.

At this very moment, they were suddenly enlightened.

But there were only a few puppets left after Diwu Mingchuan’s slaughter.

Everyone became anxious when they saw what happened.

They rushed out of the pavilion, surging toward the few wooden puppets like a swarm of hornets.

Some time ago, in order to observe these wooden puppets, no one dared to use any killing moves, so they didn’t get anything from the wooden puppets by merely watching them.

Now, they were no longer in the mood to observe.

Only with brutal strikes could they beat these wooden puppets to the ground or even smash them into pieces. Then, they would know where the power of the wooden puppets came from.

But now, there were not many of the wooden guards left. If anyone wanted to find out the secret, he had to grab hold of one. Otherwise, he would never get the chance.

“Damn it, you old bastard!”

“No one is allowed to grab my puppets!”

“In any case, he is one of the four great patriarchs. How can he become as insidious as the young people today?”

Everyone was speaking ill of him.

“Ha-ha.”

While listening to all these criticisms, Diwu Mingchuan howled with laughter and carried on hitting the wooden puppets.

Soon, everyone rushed up and started attacking those wooden opponents.

When Diwu Mingchuan saw this, he knew he had to change his tactics.

If this group of people came up, they might take away the one that was fighting with him.

When such a thought passed through his mind, he immediately unleashed a heavy attack and swiftly grabbed the puppet before him, turned around and ran off.

Everyone saw him fleeing.

Then they hurriedly charged at the other wooden puppets.

Fang Qiu didn’t waste any more time and dashed to strike a wooden puppet.

But as soon as he made his move, three or four people rushed over from different directions, trying to snatch away his target!

Fang Qiu raised his eyebrows in trepidation.

He decided to go all out.

With one mighty punch, he knocked the wooden puppet back a few meters and pounced on it to distance himself from the others. By throwing a series of heavy blows, he kept beating back the wooden puppet charging at him.

The others didn’t give up and continued to chase after him, still wanting to snatch this wooden puppet.

“Do you guys have to go that far?”

Fang Qiu roared. Seeing that they were about to catch up, he immediately delivered another tremendous blow to the wooden puppet, sending it flying up high in the air. Meanwhile, he stamped hard on the ground and lunged forward before the others could catch up with him. He grabbed the wooden puppet that had not yet landed on the ground and sprang away.

It was now obvious that the wooden puppet belonged to John Doe.

Seeing this, those going after John Doe didn’t think it was a good idea to chase after him. After all, there were several more puppets in other places. Compared with scrambling for the one in John Doe’s arms, it would be better for them to go back to grab the few puppets on their way here.

After all, they had a good idea of what John Doe was capable of doing. No matter how vigorously they pursued him, it would be hard for them to snatch the puppet from John Doe.

“This guy is so fucking fast!”

“I can never catch up with that brat.”

The people pursuing John Doe sighed with emotion.

Then they turned around and made a dive for the remaining wooden puppets. Their battle for benefits continued!

All those who competed with each other for a puppet had similar strengths. For example, the leaders of the eight factions were fighting for the wooden guards with each other, and so were the leaders of the sixteen sects. As for the four patriarchs, each of them got one because no one dared to challenge them.

Master Numinous, the chief of the Pear Garden, also managed to get one.

These people who just turned around saw this situation and realized that everyone was powerful. They might get none if they tried to make a grab for the puppets.

In desperation, they wanted to go back and chase John Doe.

But Fang Qiu was so fast that he had already fled to a far distance in the blink of an eye.

Everyone could only smile bitterly at his receding figure.

The rest of the wooden golems lured the others away. The small group was busy fighting for these wooden puppets, so no one paid any attention to Fang Qiu.

“A good opportunity!”

With sudden insight, Fang Qiu immediately rushed into the mist.

He had taken note of the location of the lake in advance so he dashed to the lake with lightning speed under cover of the fog. Then he leaped out of the fog and jumped directly into the lake without anyone noticing it.

He dived into the lake.

Suddenly, the wooden puppet, which remained motionless after getting a sound beating from him, began to struggle wildly.

To prevent it from stirring up the lake surface and attracting the others’ attention, Fang Qiu could only hold the struggling puppet tightly and sink to the bottom of the lake as quickly as possible.

No one noticed that John Doe had disappeared from their sight.

None of them noticed the disturbance in the lake just now, and they were still fighting with each other for the few remaining wooden puppets.

With his spiritual force, Fang Qiu mobilized the abundant Qi of Heaven and Earth around him and managed to still the waters of the lake. Then, holding the dummy in his arms, he dived deep down into the lake.

“What on earth is underneath this lake?”

Fang Qiu had always been curious about the bottom of the lake, for he had sensed that the largest fluctuation of the Qi of Heaven and Earth was actually coming out of the lake.

He wondered what exactly was under the lake.

But…

After Fang Qiu dived straight to the bottom of the lake, his face changed dramatically.

At the bottom of the lake, he saw a huge hole!

That’s right!

There was a big hole.

The bottom of the lake was very wide, and the location of the large hole was near the center of the lake. It looked very deep and dark. Judging from the size of the crater, the diameter of the hole was at least five meters.

“Could it be in this cave?”

Fang Qiu hit upon a strange idea.

He looked around and found that the area at the bottom of the lake was extensive. Then he immediately swam around, searching carefully.

But he didn’t find anything.

At the bottom of the lake, everything looked completely normal. Except for the ordinary stones and sand, there was nothing else.

In the end, Fang Qiu returned to the center of the lake.

He came to the big hole again, held the wooden puppet close to him, and swam toward the hole.

It was a deep lake, so it was a little dark at the bottom. After Fang Qiu entered the deep hole, everything around him became even darker.

The lake water was as cold as ice.

After descending for a long time, Fang Qiu realized the hole seemed bottomless.

When he went down more than ten meters, he finally saw a hole at the side.

This one was on his left.

From there, the underground water kept surging up.

A formation sealed the hole on the right.

“Could the abnormal change of the Qi of Heaven and Earth be happening inside?”

Fang Qiu stopped before the hole enclosed by the formation. After taking a closer look, he found that the formation that sealed the hole was just like the formation outside, which was a layer of light curtain.

But this light curtain had no characters. Nevertheless, Fang Qiu could sense the energy flowing and changing on the light curtain when he focused his mind on it.

“This formation…”

Fang Qiu carefully looked into it and concluded that this light curtain formation was the same as the one outside.

He didn’t hesitate.

Fang Qiu put forth his strength, clasped the wooden puppet tightly in his arms, and then began to break through the light curtain formation with his eyes closed.

It was just like what he had done before.

Because of his proper understanding of the formation, Fang Qiu quickly cracked it and found the entrance of this formation.

“Swish.”

After locating the entrance, Fang Qiu immediately flashed inside.

To his amazement, the dim scene before him suddenly disappeared as soon as he entered the formation.

It was pitch-black inside.

Even the surge of ice-cold water flowing around him was gone.

There was no water, and there seemed to be nothing within the deep hole!

A ray of light suddenly lit up.

Fang Qiu looked over to see what was going on.

It came from the chest of the wooden puppet in his arms.

The light was not very bright — only a limited space around it was illuminated.

“Could it be the source of the power of the wooden puppet?”

Fang Qiu’s heart skipped a beat.

He immediately put his hand into the chest of the wooden puppet.

There was originally a piece of wood there, but when he reached toward the light, the wood automatically slid to one side.

He put his hand into it.

Fang Qiu grabbed the orb inside and took it out to have a look.

“Gee?”

What appeared in his hand was a piece of jade-like object.

When he took the jade stone away, the puppet, which had been struggling in Fang Qiu’s arms, suddenly collapsed and became motionless, like a robot that had run out of battery!

Fang Qiu’s eyes lit up.

Then, he put the glowing jade back into the puppet.

As expected, the wooden puppet moved again!

“Sure enough!”

Fang Qiu looked at the piece of jade in surprise, carefully observed it, and murmured, “What is this piece of jade?”

Feeling rather puzzled, Fang Qiu took the jade, threw the wooden man aside, and began to explore the dark space.

“Swoosh! Swoosh!”

After exploring for some time Fang Qiu found that there was still traces of the Qi of Heaven and Earth in the deep hole.

“It should be this place.”

This thought occurred to Fang Qiu.

At once, he activated his Divine Consciousness and continued to probe into the depths of the hole.

His Divine Consciousness set off.

As anticipated, he received some information from the deeper part of the underground hole!

There was something inside!

Right away, Fang Qiu turned his head and then quickly went into the depths.

There was no flowing water in this deep cave. Although it was humid inside, he felt as though he were in the same cave that was outside!

By following the vibes from the depths of the cave, Fang Qiu penetrated deeper into the cave.