Chapter 106: Thanks for the Gift, the Underground Altar!
Teng Lei's expression darkened as he spoke coldly, "What more do you want? Do you really think my Yin Puppet Sect is afraid of you?"
"Not afraid? Then let's fight," Lin Fan replied calmly, Yuan Power beginning to gather in his palm.
Seeing that Lin Fan was ready to attack without hesitation, Teng Lei's face twitched hard.
In the Great Wilderness Province, it had always been the Yin Puppet Sect bullying others—when had anyone dared to pressure them?
Teng Lei wanted nothing more than to teach Lin Fan a brutal lesson, maybe even kill him on the spot.
But when he recalled the scene outside the Ancient Monument Space, where Lin Fan crushed Lin Langtian without resistance, he ultimately loosened his clenched fists.
For the sake of obtaining a martial inheritance from the Martial Tablet inside the monument, he decided to endure—for now. He could always settle the score later.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Teng Lei gave himself an excuse to back down, then said, "Fighting here will only lead to mutual losses and hurt our chances of obtaining the inheritance!"
Lin Fan's eyes flickered. After a brief moment of silence, he said, "Then I'll let you go—for now. But you'll hand over half of what's in your storage pouch. Everyone else gives up their entire pouch."
Originally, Lin Fan had planned to kill the whole group.
But in that moment, he changed his mind.
Inside the Ancient Monument Space was the Martial Tablet of Fortune, which granted martial inheritance once every three years—only ten people could receive it.
Lin Fan intended to claim three of those slots for himself, but he didn't want to provoke a public outcry.
So he planned to take the spots held by major factions.
Letting Teng Lei live for now meant he could unknowingly reserve one of those places for Lin Fan. A useful tool, if nothing else.
"You…" Teng Lei's face darkened to the color of ink. But after a long moment of silence, he finally gritted his teeth and turned to his people, barking, "Hand it over!"
"Young Master?"
The disciples of the Yin Puppet Sect were visibly unwilling.
"If you could beat him, you wouldn't have to hand anything over," Teng Lei snapped coldly.
The group fell silent. None of them dared to protest again as they obediently handed over their storage pouches.
"Thanks for the donation. Safe travels,"
Lin Fan said cheerfully after collecting everything. Upon checking the contents, he saw nearly 300,000 Pure Yuan Pills—he was quite pleased.
"Hmph!"
Teng Lei snorted and turned to leave with his people.
But they seemed to have forgotten something important…
"Let's head down," Lin Fan said with a smile to Qing Tan and Lin Dong.
The two nodded, and the three of them silently descended deeper into the Puppet Talisman Nest.
As they moved downward, they noticed that the inner walls of the massive black cavern were lined with countless small caves.
Each cave housed a puppet talisman.
However, they were all scrapped or broken.
After several minutes of descent, the trio spotted something deeper below—a lean, sharp-featured old man sitting outside one of the caves, staring greedily at a puppet talisman meditating inside.
Spiritual energy surged from his Niwan Palace and shot into the puppet's body, attempting to control it.
"That guy looks like someone from the Yin Puppet Sect. He's trying to seize that puppet," Lin Dong whispered, face tightening.
"A mid-grade Spirit Talisman Master. In the Great Wilderness Province, he might be considered strong… but not in front of me,"
Lin Fan said lightly. With a flick of his wrist, the Thunder Sword appeared in his hand.
"Slash."
Lin Fan uttered a low command and, without using any martial technique, slashed through the air with a sword beam.
"Not good!"
The old man from the Yin Puppet Sect, who was in the middle of imprinting a spiritual brand on the puppet, suddenly sensed danger behind him. He hastily used his spiritual energy to form a shield.
Chi!
But the shield was instantly cut apart by Lin Fan's sword like paper.
The sword beam didn't slow down, and it slashed straight through the old man's back!
"Ah!"
A miserable scream echoed as the man was cleaved in two, dying instantly.
With a wave of his hand, Lin Fan collected the old man's storage pouch and then grabbed the high-grade puppet, storing it in his system space.
"Awesome! We got another high-grade puppet! Should we see if there are more?"
Qing Tan beamed with joy.
She said "another" because Lin Fan had previously given one to Lin Dong.
Lin Fan shook his head. "I've already scanned the area with my spiritual sense. This is the only usable high-grade puppet here. But I did discover something else."
Lin Dong's expression shifted. "Brother Lin Fan, you sensed it too?"
Lin Fan nodded slightly. "Yeah. Something down at the bottom of this nest is triggering my Natal Talisman's resonance."
"Maybe it's the Devouring Ancestral Symbol," Little Marten guessed as he perched on Lin Dong's shoulder.
The name alone made Lin Dong's eyes burn with excitement.
"Let's go take a look," Lin Fan said decisively, eyes flashing.
He knew well that the Devouring Ancestral Symbol had already been taken by Teng Sha of the Yin Puppet Sect.
But beneath this place, the black-eyed elder had left behind something necessary—approval—without which Lin Dong wouldn't be able to refine the symbol.
And so, the trio descended further into the depths of the nest.
The deeper they went, the larger the surrounding caves became.
These were once storage chambers for more advanced puppet talismans.
Unfortunately, they were all abandoned now—completely empty.
"Hmm? That's some seriously cold air…"
As they descended, Lin Dong suddenly stopped, surprised by a creeping chill.
Lin Fan sensed it as well, though it didn't affect him much.
To Qing Tan, it just felt refreshingly cool.
"Be careful. This is Nethercold Qi. The lower regions here must be connected to the deep earth. If this chill gets into your body, it can even freeze your spiritual energy,"
Little Marten warned cautiously.
Qing Tan blinked. "But I think it just feels cool?"
Little Marten rolled his eyes. "You're a Fiend Demon Body. Of course it doesn't affect you."
"But… Brother Lin Fan doesn't seem bothered either," she added.
Little Marten paused, then said, "Probably because Lin Fan's already at the Manifestation Stage. I scanned the Nethercold Qi's intensity—it won't affect anyone above Manifestation."
Lin Dong let out a bitter laugh. "Looks like I'm out of luck for the Ancestral Symbol. You two should go on without me."
"I can handle the cold,"
Little Marten said just then. With a wave of his claw, a burst of purple-black light surged out and wrapped around himself, Lin Dong, Huo'er, and Little Flame.
"Let's go," Lin Fan said.
Now that the issue was resolved, Lin Dong had no reason to object.
A few minutes later, the group finally reached the very bottom.
A colossal black altar emerged before their eyes!
Their gazes were instinctively drawn to the center of the altar.
There, both Lin Fan and Lin Dong could feel a strange, powerful pulse emanating from deep within.
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