It was a round-shaped head of a bald child. It was hard to tell if it belonged to a girl or a boy.

He was now deep in the ground. Xu Xiaoshou was so frightened that he kept stepping back until he hit the earth wall and mud fell on his head.

“It's a child?”

Many thoughts flashed through his mind in those few moments.

Could it possibly be that the Tiansang Spirit Palace was an evil organization, and the Tianxuan Gate was a prison specifically designed to detain children?

He thought about Elder Sang and Ye Xiaotian.

It was quite possible!

Crack!

There was a noise, then the head raised with great difficulty and looked into Xu Xiaoshou's eyes.

It had red eyes, looking just like those of the frenzied Zhou Tianshen. And it possessed a formidable aura.

Shortly afterward, Xu Xiaoshou realized he was wrong about the head.

Could the thing be…?

It was a puppet!

Unlike those iron lumps outside, the puppet had the external form of a human child.

“Ma Ma.”

The puppet child spoke with a hoa.r.s.e mechanical voice. It was as if someone forgot to lubricate its throat.

Xu Xiaozhu had gooseb.u.mps all over his body.

“Mom?”

In the dim, barricaded underground cavern, the puppet child kept calling for its mother and seemed to have spiritual intelligence.

d.a.m.n it!

What kind of place was it?

Could it be the Treasure of Suppressing Barrier?

“Ma Ma.”

The puppet child's voice rang out again. It appeared to be struggling. Even though it had discarded its black crystal cage, the lower half of its body remained in it, and it could not get out.

“Double sealing?”

Xu Xiaoshou saw it as a bad omen. He wondered if he could defeat the puppet child if it freed itself from the ground.

He was very confident of himself when digging the tunnel, but he wasn't so sure anymore at that moment.

Boom!

The trembling at the Tianxuan Gate became more p.r.o.nounced. The soil overhead fell in large chunks. Xu Xiaoshou knew he had no time to go to a different place!

“Ma Ma.”

The puppet child sounded a bit more desperate.

“Child, do not be afraid. Mommy is here, and I will pull you out.”

Xu Xiaoshou reached out his hands with some hesitation and added, “You cannot hit me after you come out. Remember my face. You called me mommy. Do not be mischievous, alright?”

“Ma Ma.”

Xu Xiaoshou felt a chill in his heart and held his hands back momentarily.

“You should stretch out your hands. If you do not put your hands out, I have no choice but to pull your head.”

“Ma Ma.”

The puppet child seemed unresponsive.

Xu Xiaoshou quietly stared at the puppet child and had some doubts.

He took out the communication jade scroll and wondered if the item would react in the sealed land.

However, the jade scroll did not move or respond, which meant that he had to remove the second seal around the puppet child.

He recalled what Luo Leilei had previously said. If the puppet child was a Treasure of Suppressing Barrier, it would mean that the Tianxuan Gate will be in trouble if the child escaped from restraint.

Jade scroll.

The shabby thing looked weaker than the Black Fallen Scabbard. Could it withstand the destruction of the small world?

In the end, Xu Xiaoshou chose the Master Dean's advice.

Honestly, he could not find a way out and there was little choice but to believe the Master Dean at that point!

Xu Xiaoshou stared at the pair of scarlet eyes, gritted his teeth, and held down its head.

He felt a warm sensation, and the head was soft to touch.

It was the sensory experience of touching a human head!

“Ma Ma.”

The two words uttered by the hoa.r.s.e voice were strangely eerie. It played with Xu Xiaoshou's mind as he held the head and gave him gooseb.u.mps.

Xu Xiaoshou felt a chill run down his back, and he unconsciously stiffened his body.

“Do not detach your head and spray my face with your blood!”

Without further hesitation, Xu Xiaoshou put his hands under the jaw of the head and pulled forcefully.

Whoos.h.!.+

The seal, which bound the lower half of the puppet child's body, was revealed immediately.

“Ma Ma!” the puppet child called out, sounding agitated.

Xu Xiaoshou shrank back in surprise. The move had almost made him release his hands and let go of the head.

Xu Xiaoshou looked at the puppet child apprehensively. His expression said it all—my goodness, can you stop screaming? You make me feel nervous!

As the two b.a.l.l.s of flames under his feet fired up, Xu Xiaoshou used the force to a.s.sist in the effort. With a booming sound, the seal ripped apart completely.

“Ma Ma!”

A mournful roar bellowed out close to Xu Xiaoshou's ears. The seal finally released the lower half of the puppet child's body, and the child came loose from the ground.

Xu Xiaoshou's pupils suddenly dilated as he focused on his vision.

It was actually…

The lower half of an ordinary child!

The fleshy body was almost indistinguishable from that of a normal human being. The only difference was that the hands and wrists, feet, and ankles appeared shackled with black iron. And the chains had broken.

He moved his eyes to a spot to satisfy his utmost curiosity.

The puppet child's crotch was a flat triangle.

“No gender?” Xu Xiaoshou whispered to himself, and he looked baffled.

It was just then that Xu Xiaoshou quickly let go of the puppet child's head as he sensed lurking danger.

The child opened its arms, intending to wrap them around Xu Xiaoshou's neck.

“Hey.”

Xu Xiaoshou ducked to avoid it.

“Ma Ma!”

The voice sounded dissatisfied. Xu Xiaoshou saw a blur in front of him and the puppet child disappeared.

The next moment, he felt a pain in his abdomen, and then there was darkness.

When he regained his sight, Xu Xiaoshou found out that he was punched and sent flying high in the air. But he did not fly up through the tunnel he had dug. Instead, he went sent hundreds of meters deep underground!

“Sneak attacked, pa.s.sive point, 1.”

Poof!

It was then that Xu Xiaoshou felt a sharp pain, and he looked down to see a fist mark on his abdomen. It was b.l.o.o.d.y.

It stunned him.

He had the body of a Master!

The puppet child was undoubtedly destructive.

“Ma Ma.”

Xu Xiaoshou heard a friendly voice behind him and instinctively dodged. He saw with his Perception Ability that the puppet child had already appeared behind him.

This…

He was still traveling in the air from the powerful punch. He wondered how fast the child was and how the child could catch up with him after one punch.

He did not think that even Luo Leilei was as fast as the child!

“Ma Ma!”

When he heard the voice sounding a little annoyed, Xu Xiaoshou realized that something was wrong. Perhaps he probably should not have dodged earlier.

Boom!

He saw the shattered sky when he opened his eyes again.

“Sneak attacked, pa.s.sive point, 1.”

A deep crater over a hundred meters wide appeared in the black arena of gladiators. Xu Xiaoshou collapsed in it, unable to move.

A gaping hole appeared on his back, and fresh blood flowed copiously everywhere.

If he had not possessed the pa.s.sive technique, he would have died!

Dean.

Elder Sang was right. He should believe no one except himself in such a world he found himself in.

It was a piece of misinformation that he could find a sealed place to put the jade scroll in. The Dean should have told him to stay away from that place!

“Ma Ma.”

He heard the affectionate voice again. Xu Xiaoshou did not wish to dodge that time around. He laid quietly on the spot, allowing the curious child to check him out.

“Gazed, pa.s.sive point, 1.”

The puppet child was in a crouched position. The child did not attack him when Xu Xiaoshou remained still.

“Monster. It is a monster!”

The Eternal Vitality had healed his injury. But Xu Xiaoshou still did not move.

He thought about the steel puppets he had encountered earlier. He was sure they were the same as this child.

However, they were not on the same level!

It was highly probable that the child was a manufactured puppet. But in terms of physical qualities, the puppet child was much superior to those he saw earlier!

What was more important was that it had spiritual intelligence!

Items like the Black Fallen Scabbard were merely psychic at most, while the puppet child could think. But he was not sure if its mind was an anomaly.

“Good baby, I know you are probably expressing goodwill to me by touching me. But to be honest, your strength is a bit too strong for me.”

Xu Xiaoshou craned his neck and tried to communicate with the puppet.

The puppet child's scarlet eyes looked thoughtful.

Xu Xiaoshou was pleased to see the expression and thought his approach had worked.

Since his strength could not match the child puppet's, he should try a fresh approach!

The verbal approach is the art of kings!

He opened his mouth to speak again.

BAM!

The puppet child held his head down and pushed it into the cracked ground.

The wind was chilly. The time seemed to have slowed down. Xu Xiaozhu's legs swayed in the air for a while and then dropped helplessly.

“Sneak attacked, pa.s.sive point, +1.”