Chapter 699: A Special Challenge?

Ye Feng’s eyes were filled with a vast stone forest that stretched as far as the eye could see. Among the stones were sculptures of various shapes, which reminded him of his Puppet Beast.
Earlier on, Ye Feng had left it inside the Absolute Martial Ark. Under a million-fold time acceleration, the Puppet Beast had been slowly devouring other stone sculptures and digesting them. After checking several times and finding that the Puppet Beast was in a dormant state, Ye Feng simply stopped paying attention to it.
It wasn’t until just before his ascension, when he handed over the Absolute Martial Ark to Long Tian, that he discovered the Puppet Beast had completed its digestion. Only then did he transfer it to the Refinement Realm.
At present, Ye Feng’s own stone sculpture already had 105,000 secret patterns carved on it, though only about 10,000 of them had been completed so far.
However, carving secret patterns was a delicate task. Ye Feng didn’t intend to rush it and had never found time to do it. His plan was to obtain all 20,000 secret patterns in this virtual realm before continuing to carve more onto the Puppet Beast.
In this stone forest, Ye Feng was well aware that these sculptures weren’t simply placed there for him to admire. Although the secret patterns on them were incomplete, they were rapidly repairing themselves at a visible pace.
Each sculpture contained as many as 50,000 secret patterns.
Calculated based on human cultivation levels, each of these sculptures represented the peak of the Half-True Realm, with strengths comparable to the peak of the True Return Realm. Some with rich combat experience could even reach the True Manifestation Realm. As far as the eye could see, there were likely no fewer than 10,000 such sculptures. If someone from the virtual realm were to invade, it would be impossible for them to survive. The strongest beings in that realm could at most reach the True Entry Realm, and they would likely not even be able to defeat a single sculpture here, let alone face tens of thousands of them at once.
But for Ye Feng, who had already reached the True Breakthrough Realm, these sculptures were nothing but child’s play.
In just a moment, those once motionless giants woke up one after another, only to see their target—Ye Feng.
Ye Feng didn’t take the attacks from the Puppet Beasts too seriously. Their attack power was at most at the level of the True Manifestation Realm. Even if he stood still and took the hits, he wouldn’t suffer any damage. He knew that to break through this layer, he either had to kill all the Puppet Beasts or find the core of this layer’s formation.

He casually spread his fingers, unleashing a thunderous divine technique to eliminate some of the approaching puppet beasts, while his gaze scanned through the crowd of them. After a while, Ye Feng finally spotted a particularly large one. Upon closer inspection, he found that the number of secret patterns on that puppet beast was nearly 80,000. According to Ye Feng’s estimation, this creature’s cultivation level was at least on par with his own—reaching the peak of the True Breakthrough stage, or even higher. Fortunately, the secret patterns on it were still incomplete and not activated yet. Ye Feng shifted his focus elsewhere, continuing to clear the puppet beasts within his line of sight while searching around, but he ultimately found nothing. “Could the core of the formation be on that puppet beast?” Ye Feng frowned slightly. “The Heavenly Dao Master surely wouldn’t pose such a difficult challenge for me. Under normal circumstances, I should only be able to enter here with a cultivation level at most reaching the True Realm. Setting up such a powerful core makes no sense… Unless his intention is to trap me here, forcing me to train until I reach the True Breakthrough stage before allowing me to leave. In that case, it’s hard to say how long I’d have to meditate.” Thinking of these issues, Ye Feng grew even more puzzled. He shook his head to dispel these distractions. “Forget it. I’ll focus on clearing out all the other puppet beasts here first.” Concentrating fully, he devoted all his attention to the puppet beasts before him. Using fists, palms, or fingers, Ye Feng’s techniques were no longer confined to his past methods. He had mastered seven different martial divine techniques, four of which were in a fused state. Even the casual moves he used were incredibly powerful. To speed things up, Ye Feng even summoned the Imperial Extreme Demon Weapon, transforming it into both swords and blades. By now, the Imperial Extreme Demon Weapon had reached the strength of a peak virtual treasure. Combined with Ye Feng’s mastery of both sword and blade techniques, his killing speed increased several times over. Wherever Ye Feng passed, corpses of puppet beasts lay in heaps. Yet those puppet beasts showed no fear, continuing to surge forward in an endless stream. It took nearly two hours for Ye Feng’s slaughter to reduce the number of puppet beasts. Another hour and a half passed before he finally wiped them all out—except for that one that hadn’t been activated yet. Just then, the voice of the Heavenly Dao suddenly rang out, and its projection appeared not far away. “Would you like to undertake a special challenge?” Ye Feng frowned slightly. “What kind of special challenge?”

“Challenging the last Puppet Beast will earn you a special reward,” continued the Heavenly Dao. “This Puppet Beast is engraved with 7,888 secret patterns, and its cultivation level is at the peak of the Truth-Shattering Realm, with its strength reaching the ultimate stage.”
“A special reward? What is it?” Ye Feng asked casually, though he didn’t expect the projection of the Heavenly Dao to tell him.
“The reward varies depending on the degree of completion,” explained the projection. “If the challenge lasts more than ten breaths, you’ll get Level 1 reward; if it lasts more than a cup of tea, Level 2; if it lasts more than half an hour, Level 3; if it lasts more than an hour, Level 4; if it lasts more than twelve hours, Level 5. If you succeed in defeating the Puppet Beast, you’ll receive the ultimate reward. As for what the specific prizes are, that can’t be revealed for now.”
“Are there any restrictions or rules for this battle?” Ye Feng asked.
“There are no rules. As long as you can delay time, any means are allowed,” replied the projection of the Heavenly Dao, which finally gave Ye Feng some peace of mind. Although his initial goal was simple—just to buy more time to get a reward—he now thought that if he really couldn’t handle it alone, at least the Golden Patterns could help, and if that didn’t work, he still had his clones.
“Do you accept?” The projection of the Heavenly Dao looked at Ye Feng, seemingly expecting an answer.
“Alright, I accept!” Ye Feng finally nodded. Almost simultaneously, the secret patterns on the Puppet Beast’s body began to repair themselves…