From the carvings of shelves, several runes flared a red light, casting eerie shadows across the corridor. The polished stone under their feet rippled like liquid, then hardened again, trapping Wu Shuan up to his ankle.
"Shit—!"
Before he could wrench himself free, several shadowy shapes emerged from the walls. They looked like twisted formation puppet mannequins, their limbs long and thin, their torsos marked with rune scripts.
Their eyes glowed with ember light as they hissed, lunging straight for Wu Shuan.
The Core Condensation seniors reacted instantly.
SHUA
Senior Brother Duan's spear cleaved one puppet in half, the fragments clattering to the ground in a shower of sparks.
KACHA
But to everyone's shock, the broken fragments reformed almost immediately, the rune scripts pulling themselves together like iron filings under a magnet.
"They repair themselves!" shouted Xuan Qing. "Don't use brute force—find the cores!"
Han Yu's gaze darted around quickly.
