The puppet's thunderous footsteps echoed as it charged toward Lin Qian, and his mind raced with thoughts.
"Spirit-Repelling Silver has a special effect on soul power, so a direct confrontation will definitely be tough."
"Because of its heavy build, it's slow, but its strength is likely immense. A head-on clash would be a disadvantage."
"The best approach is to overwhelm it with speed, targeting the joints to disable the puppet and secure a victory."
As Lin Qian reached this conclusion, the gray, massive puppet had already closed the distance. Its large metal fist came crashing toward Lin Qian's face.
The fist cut through the air with a howling wind, blowing Lin Qian's long hair back.
Crack!
In an instant, crimson-gold lightning surged across Lin Qian's body. Without hesitation, he raised his fist and struck forward.
His flesh-and-blood fist, wrapped in roaring crimson-gold lightning, collided with the puppet's incoming metal fist.
The force of the impact caused the charging puppet to halt as lightning engulfed its entire body.
Bang!
The deafening sound of the collision echoed through the empty corridor, and the puppet, which had been rushing toward Lin Qian, shattered into pieces and was sent flying. The debris clattered against the Spirit-Repelling Silver floor.
Lin Qian retracted his fist, dispersing his soul power, and continued walking forward, paying no mind to the scattered fragments on the ground.
"So, I guess direct confrontation works after all!" Lin Qian muttered to himself as he passed the wreckage of the puppet he had just obliterated.
Meanwhile, in another corridor, a sky full of twinkling sword energy gathered around a woman dressed in pristine white. The sword energy shot forward, precisely striking all of the puppet's joints.
With a series of cracking sounds, the puppet's Spirit-Repelling Silver components fell apart and scattered across the ground.
Ye Xin retracted her soul power and walked past the fallen puppet remains, thinking to herself, "With the strength of these puppets, this should be an easy challenge for Xiao Qian."
Elsewhere, Li Yunfeng left afterimages behind as he moved around his puppet, making it impossible for the automaton to track his position. Golden sword energy shot out, shattering the puppet's joints and bringing it down.
On another path, a puppet encased in swirling soul power resembling seawater was held in place, unable to break free. As the pressure from the soul power increased, Zhang Zide watched as the puppet's joints shattered, rendering it powerless.
Both Zhang Qi and Zhang Wenxuan employed a fighting style that Lin Qian had suggested, using their Eight-Armed combat style to overpower and defeat the puppets with sheer strength.
Lin Qian and his group advanced smoothly on their paths.
Bang!
After obliterating a third puppet with a single punch, Lin Qian noticed a change ahead of him.
Three black lights descended from above, landing on the back of his hand.
When Lin Qian looked down, he saw three tiny patterns on his hand, seemingly part of a larger design.
According to the floating text that reappeared, these patterns represented his performance score. Having defeated three puppets, Lin Qian had earned the right to enter the trial's small world and gained these marks as a record of his success.
He could now proceed deeper into the Path of Battle, facing more puppets to accumulate additional performance points.
"Zhuge Ming, how's the analysis going?" Lin Qian asked as he continued walking forward, mentally communicating with Zhuge Ming of the Heavenly Works Department in the Huaxia Empire.
Upon entering this space, Lin Qian had connected his soul power with his eyes to relay the information he gathered to the Heavenly Works Department for analysis.
According to Zhuge Ming's analysis, Lin Qian was already inside the small world. However, the space he was in was merely a segmented part of it, separated by arrays.
The space did contain traces of teleportation arrays, indicating that different outcomes—success or failure—would trigger different effects.
As for the markings on Lin Qian's hand, Zhuge Ming's analysis confirmed that they were just a form of identification, used solely to record his performance points with a high degree of accuracy.
With this information, Lin Qian relaxed and continued charging forward. Whenever he encountered stronger or larger puppets, he simply punched them apart without hesitation.
The strength of these puppets was only at the level of the Life and Death Realm's Body Stage. With each new puppet, the difficulty increased slightly, but it still remained within this realm.
Even by the time Lin Qian faced his tenth puppet, none had reached the strength of the Life and Death Realm's Power Stage.
Standing still for a moment, Lin Qian pondered, "If this is the case, many people should be able to pass through the Path of Battle and enter the small world. After all, this South Conference has gathered numerous geniuses, most of whom have reached the Life and Death Realm."
With this thought, Lin Qian kicked forward with great force.
The air exploded as the puppet in front of him raised its arm, only to be struck squarely in the chest by Lin Qian's kick.
The puppet's chest cracked, and the fractures spread across its body until it shattered into pieces, just like the ones before it.
"Boring!" Lin Qian muttered, shaking his head in disappointment as he looked down at the broken fragments.
At that moment, a swirling white vortex appeared in front of him.
Glancing at the ten small markings on his hand and then at the vortex ahead, Lin Qian scoffed, "Only ten puppets to clear the path? That was way too easy."
With that, Lin Qian stepped into the vortex and vanished from the Path of Battle.
After Lin Qian left, a semi-transparent phantom of an old man suddenly appeared in the spot where he had been standing.
The phantom elder's face showed a mix of surprise and amusement as he smiled. "Interesting, truly interesting. After all these years, I've finally found a promising candidate."
Unaware of the strange old phantom that had appeared, Lin Qian now found himself standing on solid ground.
As soon as he landed, he heard the sound of something cutting through the air. When he turned around, he saw a long blade descending toward his head.
Crack!
The blade struck Lin Qian's head but shattered into two pieces. The front half of the blade spun through the air, while the remaining half remained in the hand of a sea creature.
The sea creature looked at the broken blade in its hand and then at Lin Qian. Without a moment's hesitation, it turned and fled.