Chapter 1223: Heavenly Craft Lock

Whoosh!

With the words, demon shadows flickered, and in the blink of an eye, a large number of heart demons appeared before them.

There were over a hundred of them.

Back in the Heart Hall of the War Master Hall, Zang Xu had summoned a bunch of heart demons to kill him, but they were all tamed and stored away, and now they came in handy.

Sizzle!

Over a hundred heart demons charged straight at the puppets.

"This one's mine, don't fight me for it!"

"I saw it first..."

"I'm Demon Bing, he's Demon Ding, the teacher himself named us; those without names go to the back!"

The many heart demons, suddenly seeing so many puppets, rushed over excitedly, and in a flash, before the puppets could even reach them, they all lay on the ground.

"You... you..."

The ruthless man went mad.

He had expended who knows how many materials and magical artifacts to refine these puppets, thinking they could become his main force, invincible and unstoppable, easily killing the man before him. He never dreamed that the other had already prepared a countermeasure.

So many heart demons... Is your family running a heart demon shop, selling heart demons?

"Get up..."

He roared in anger.

However, the puppets struck by the heart demons all stared blankly, motionless, like zombies.

"Master, let me kill them all, or else if the heart demons lose control, they'll charge again..."

Jinyuan Ding came over, once again resuming its proud and spirited demeanor, wiggling its huge butt, as if eager to sit one to death.

"Kill them?"

Zhang Xuan shook his head. "Although these are puppets, they have their own consciousness. Killing them all would be too cruel."

These puppets had all been awakened, like Jinyuan Ding, they were special weapons. Killing them outright was too brutal.

"Then..." Jinyuan Ding was taken aback.

If they didn't kill them, and the heart demons lost control, with so many of them... wouldn't they be beaten to death?

"Ah, let me handle it."

Shaking his head, Zhang Xuan looked reluctant, then reached out with his hand.

Swish!

All the puppets lying on the ground were swept into his storage ring.

These creatures were in chaos, unable to resist, and since they were weapons themselves, they wouldn't die even inside.

"..." Jinyuan Ding.

"..."

The ruthless man was also choked speechless, nearly vomiting blood.

These puppets were his... his...

This is robbery!

You didn't have trouble handling them; you had already planned how to handle them!

Full of frustration, he knew there was nothing he could do.

With so many heart demons, the puppets' consciousness was thrown into chaos, they couldn't even fight. No matter how angry he was, it was useless.

"Ah, reforming so many puppets, making them abandon evil and do good, is a great merit! I've made a big contribution to the Master Teacher Academy!"

Ignoring the speechless Jinyuan Ding and his clone, Zhang Xuan sighed, looking perfectly at ease, and walked over to the mechanism from which the puppets had emerged, gently pushing it open.

A downward passage appeared again. Still letting the clone go first, he followed and continued down.

This time there was no danger, and they soon reached a lower underground chamber.

"This looks like a maze..."

Jinyuan Ding looked around and couldn't help saying.

The underground chamber before them was not a large room, but countless small rooms, densely packed, with paths everywhere, looking just like a maze.

Most importantly, it stretched endlessly, impossible to see the end, extending far underground, as if the entire island was filled with such structures.

"What... is this for?"

The clone was baffled.

Not just them, even Zhang Xuan was stunned.

With his insight, he could tell that these maze-like rooms were forged from special materials, costing an immense amount.

If the many puppets before had cost a lot, these rooms must have cost even more, at least tens or hundreds of times more than the puppets!

"Could it be for the puppets to live in?"

Jinyuan Ding thought for a moment and said.

"For puppets to live in? Even a hundred puppets couldn't fill so many..."

Scanning with his divine sense, he could easily see tens of thousands of rooms. Even if puppets lived there, they couldn't fill so many.

"Don't overthink it. Be careful, don't let the ruthless man ambush us..."

Unable to figure it out, Zhang Xuan shook his head and walked forward along the maze-like passage.

Anyone else would soon get dizzy, but under Zhang Xuan's Principle of Clarity Eye, the faint disappearing line in the air still appeared faintly. Following it for nearly ten minutes, passing countless rooms, they came to another downward stone door.

Since they had come this far, they hesitated no more. The two of them and the cauldron went down again.

As soon as they stepped onto the stone steps, a dense killing aura surged toward them, as if trying to tear their consciousness apart.

The clone could still withstand it, but Jinyuan Ding shook violently, unable to hold on.

Although its level had been raised to a mid-grade sacred artifact, and its strength had reached the late Out-of-Body realm, it was still just a spirit, not a soul. Facing the fierce killing intent of the alien spirit clan, it was too weak.

"You go back first."

Putting it into his storage ring, Zhang Xuan and his clone looked up at the same time.

In the spacious underground palace, a square box hung in the center, four iron chains embedded in the walls, forged from some unknown material, dark and gleaming with cold light.

The surging aura of slaughter was emanating from it.

“The Fiend… is inside here?”

The clone was stunned.

“Very likely!”

Zhang Xuan frowned.

Being able to emit such a dense aura of slaughter and bloodline power, it already surpassed Qingtian Huang; only the Fiend could possess such.

Below the box was an altar, similar in appearance to the one Zhang Xuan had used against Qingtian Huang, only larger, with strange patterns carved on it, also carrying a killing intent, as if anyone approaching would be directly sliced in two.

The clone picked up a stone and threw it at the altar.

Zzzt!

Several sword lights emerged from the altar, turning the stone to powder.

“This…”

Zhang Xuan’s eyebrows jumped.

The altar he had used was for capturing souls; this one seemed to be a killing formation, easily capable of slaying a person.

Even if he entered those sword lights, he would surely be chopped into mincemeat.

In other words…

Whoever tried to approach the iron box would be shredded by the sword lights and die on the spot.

“Fiend, where are you?”

After a glance, unable to see through its nature with the Eye of Insight, Zhang Xuan looked around.

“Being able to call my name shows you know quite a bit about the history of the Master Teacher Hall! But even if you found this place, so what? If you can’t open this box, you can’t kill me…”

The Fiend’s voice rang out.

“You’re inside the box?”

Zhang Xuan narrowed his eyes.

“That’s right. Even if you know, do you dare to let me out?”

The Fiend sneered.

“This…”

Zhang Xuan hesitated.

Back at Chen Zhe’s residence, when the other party had used a black hole to capture him, he had muttered that by devouring him, a Heaven’s Mandate Master Teacher, he could escape his shackles… Now it seemed this should be that box.

If he really opened it, and the other took the chance to escape, the Fiend in the Book of Heaven’s Path was unassailable… He himself would certainly not be a match.

But… if he didn’t let it out, with such a large iron box protecting it, killing it became impossible.

“First, let’s see what this thing is!”

Puzzled, Zhang Xuan did not rush but walked step by step toward the iron box.

The closer he got, the denser the aura of slaughter. For someone like Teacher Wu, even an eight-star master teacher, it would likely be unbearable, leading to mental collapse.

But Zhang Xuan was different. The Heaven’s Path true qi circulated in his body, and the pressure immediately vanished. Soon he reached the periphery of the altar.

He didn’t dare enter this place yet, but from such a close distance, with the Eye of Insight, he could already see clearly what the iron box was.

From the outside, there was no gap at all, like an iron lump, about fifty centimeters in diameter.

“What is this?”

The clone also came over.

“If I’m not mistaken, it should be… a master artisan’s Artisan Lock!”

After a moment’s hesitation, Zhang Xuan said.

“Artisan Lock?” The clone was puzzled.

These days, he had been in the storage ring, and the knowledge Zhang Xuan had recently gained from reading had not yet been shared, so his knowledge base was still far behind.

“The Artisan Lock is the most intricate mechanism lock created by master artisans, used to imprison certain indestructible special treasures. Once locked, even the designer himself cannot open it. Forcibly breaking it will directly destroy the contents inside!”

Zhang Xuan said.

The clone was stunned.

“This thing is different from the Artisan Trick Box. It was designed for sealing!” Zhang Xuan nodded.

He had seen an Artisan Trick Box before; though difficult to open, with the right method it could be unlocked. But this Artisan Lock was a dead knot, its purpose simply to lock something inside and prevent it from coming out.

In other words, once locked, even a god could not break it.

Forcing it would only destroy what was inside as well.

“If that’s the case, isn’t it simple? Just violently strike it, let the Artisan Lock self-destruct, and this Fiend will die, right?” The clone blinked.

They weren’t here to rescue the Fiend; it would be best if it died inside.

“This… it’s not that simple!”

Zhang Xuan shook his head, said nothing, but walked around the perimeter, chin in hand, thoughtful.

If it were as simple as the clone said, how could the Fiend have allowed them to come in?

Although he couldn’t get close to the Artisan Lock, if he found a way to strike it with true qi, he probably wouldn’t touch the altar and wouldn’t be attacked, right?

If it were that easy, the Fiend would be too easy to kill.

He didn’t believe such a powerful being could be slain so simply.

“Let’s look around separately and see if we can find anything!”

With a thought, Zhang Xuan transmitted the knowledge he had recently acquired to the clone, then bypassed the altar and walked around.

The underground palace was large, its walls made of the same special material as the maze above, no longer rock or the like.

Frowning, Zhang Xuan reached out a finger and gently touched it.

Whoosh!

A book appeared in his mind.

After a glance, Zhang Xuan frowned.

“This…”