Chapter 703 The Golden Hook in Place of the Severed Hand (2)

Ding Hao easily defeated six men with his Sword Intents and sword technique.

The Black Moke Force must have advanced their strength exponentially in this short period of time.

“Where did that power in your bodies come from?” Ding Hao flicked a small flame seed with his fingers. It landed on the ice around the head of the brawny scar-faced man, melting it.

“You… you…” The brawny scar-faced man gasped for breath, his physical strength still completely suppressed by the Hell Ice. He looked at Ding Hao in shock and anger, and bellowed, “Release us! My brothers and I don’t want the Three-headed Heavenly Hound’s Power of the Origin anymore.”

“Answer my question first.” Ding Hao’s eyes were keen as knives, staring at him fixedly. The red flame leaped around his fingers like an elf, beautiful and deadly.

“Do you know who we are? You…” The scar-faced man gritted his teeth and looked ferocious.

“You don’t seem to have realized the fix you’re in.” The corners of Ding Hao’s mouth curled up. A tiny spark from the small flame jumping around his fingers dropped on the top of the scar-faced man’s head, seeping in.

“You… Ah… Ah…” The scar-faced man squealed like a pig being slaughtered.

Once these seemingly harmless sparks entered his body, his soul would feel like he was being roasted by the ignited flame. The pain his soul felt was far worse than slow slicing.

Soon, he broke down completely. “Spare me, I’ll say it, I will…”

Ding Hao nodded.

The brawny scar-faced man suddenly felt the pain in his body subside without a trace. His head covered in a cold sweat, he let out a long sigh of relief. Still in a state of shock, he said, “My brothers and I were originally leaders of a middle-sized mercenary company from Ke Province. Around three months ago, someone contacted us to make a deal…”

“Who was it? What kind of a deal?” Ding Hao was interested.

Anything involving the Black Moke Force was of paramount importance to Ding Hao. It would have something to do with his origin, as well as that grievance that had lain buried for so many years.

“It’s someone who veiled his face with a black cloak. I noticed that his right hand was gone and could not be revived. He replaced that hand with a golden hook. He said that he could give us the most powerful force from another world. But we need to… well…”

When he said this, the brawny scar-faced man’s mouth suddenly opened wide. Like a fish out of the water, he could not utter a sound at all. His eyes glazed over and his pupils contracted. Wisps of black mist, horrific like black blood, spurted out of the corners of his mouth, nose, and eyes.

“Oh no!”

Ding Hao was shocked. Just when he was about to strike…

Boom!

There was a crisp sound.

The head of the brawny scar-faced man burst open like an exploding watermelon. His blood and brain splattered everywhere.

A thick black mist spurted out from a gash on his neck. In the blink of an eye, the rest of his frozen body was no more than a shriveled, clothed corpse.

“He’s dead… an extremely powerful restriction formation has been planted in his body. Once he divulges any information about that black-cloaked man, it will explode. Clearly, that black-cloaked man with the replacement hook for his severed hand doesn’t want anyone to know about him.”

Ding Hao sighed.

Since such a restriction formation had been planted in that man’s body, there must be similar restriction formations planted in the remaining five men too.

Ding Hao consulted the Saber Master and the Sword Master, asking them if they had a way to break the restriction formation.

Unfortunately, he failed in the next few attempts.

In the end, Ding Hao had to forcibly scour the sixth man’s consciousness with his Divine Senses. He vaguely saw that mysterious cloaked man with a golden hook, just as described by the brawny man. At around the same time, that figure seemed to have noticed Ding Hao’s presence. He raised his head slightly, a ferocious light flashing across his eyes. After smiling grimly, the image shattered, and the sixth man’s head exploded instantaneously.

Ding Hao sighed.

He had scarcely any information. There were still too few clues.

However, these six men all deserved to die. He knew from scouring the sixth man’s consciousness that they had committed a lot of evil deeds when alive. They died after their brains exploded, fitting retribution for their wickedness.

“Who on earth was that mysterious man with the golden hook?

“Did he come from the Land of Divine Grace?”

And what did he have to do with his old enemy from the Eastern Divine Palace?

Could it be that the power of the Land of Divine Grace had begun infiltrating the Land of Infinity? And what was their motive in doing that?

One after another, questions hovered in Ding Hao’s mind.

He had to find that mysterious man with the golden hook.

“He has nurtured so many masters with powerful strength using the Black Moke Force… Why? Is he after the treasures of the Sacred Hall ruins too? Or does he have some other motive?”

Ding Hao suddenly realized that this expedition to the Sacred Hall ruins was no longer a simple affair.

“Woof, woof, woof!”

The black puppy’s barks rang out in his ears.

Ding Hao looked down and found the little fella biting the hem of his robe. Its large black onyx-like eyes were full of affection, as it scampered toward him excitedly.

By now, it had completely integrated its mother’s Power of the Origin.

Compared with before, the little fella’s fur was shinier and darker, resembling black silk as it reflected the sun’s rays. Its small chubby body was now rotund and sleek, like a black meatball. Its four stumpy legs looked most amusing as it scampered.

The horrible illusory manifestation of the Three-headed Heavenly Hound had disappeared without a trace.

“Meow, little fella, you got the wrong man. I’m your master.” The displeased Evil Moon lifted up the black puppy, and gave it this reminder.

“Woof, woof, woof!” The black puppy licked Evil Moon’s head affectionately.

“Meow, you’re a smart guy. You know how to curry favor with me. Haha, from now on, you’ll be my little follower. Don’t worry, just follow me… I promise you the meat of divine beasts and sweet wine… Hey? Wait a second… meow, what are you doing? I’m a male, I don’t have any milk… F*ck, if you lick me again, meow, I’ll get angry…”

Evil Moon fled embarrassedly.

The black puppy actually put its mouth under Evil Moon’s belly and wanted to suck milk.

“Hahahaha…” Ding Hao and Uncle Tianshu laughed so hard that their tears almost fell.

After trekking another ten days, Ding Hao and Tianshu finally caught up with the exploration team in front.

The periphery of the Sacred Hall ruins appeared before their eyes.

In this vast Bone-burying Forest, there was a rare expanse of green grassland. One could vaguely see shattered golden walls hidden amidst the vines. Collapsed deity statues and city walls, as well as the foundations of tall stone palaces, were all covered with green moss and ferns. The towering arched door more than 20 meters high was still standing. There was even a statue of a single-armed War God, the long sword in his hand pointing far away…

This was just the periphery of the Sacred Hall ruins.

It was like a lost country, full of fragmented, mysterious beauty.

There was a strange force permeating the sky above the ruins, similar to a boundary formation. As soon as Ding Hao stepped into the periphery of the ruins, he felt the sudden changes in the rules of space and power. The Qi in his body was suppressed, and its flow stagnated.

This feeling was extremely familiar, as Ding Hao had encountered a similar situation in Fake God City of the Sage Battlefield before.

“Is there also an Archean inscription formation in these ruins that can suppress a martial artist’s Qi?” Ding Hao released his Divine Senses to probe. Once someone entered the ruins, his Qi power would be suppressed, and his physical strength would have stronger combat capability than his Qi.

“Dammit, I hate this feeling,” Uncle Tianshu muttered. Obviously, he had noticed the changes in the power of the rules too.

The moment they entered the periphery of the ruins, it became almost impossible for them to fly. It would consume too much Qi. They had to walk after landing.

Evil Moon, on the other hand, had no time to feel this.

It was riding on the back of a white-striped tigress, cradling a snoring black puppy in its arms.

The white-striped tigress had been caught by Evil Moon along the way. She had just given birth to two tiger cubs, and all three were captured by Evil Moon. The cat made the tigress the black puppy’s wet nurse.

At first, the white-striped tigress was somewhat unwilling. After all, she was also quite a bully in the Bone-burying Forest. Her strength wasn’t bad, and there was a trace of an Archean behemoth in her bloodline. However, Evil Moon gave her a good beating and her head was repeatedly smashed by Uncle Tianshu’s black pot. In the end, she had no choice but to endure the insult and accept the black puppy as her adopted son, letting it suck her milk.

By now, the black puppy and the two tiger cubs, both less than a month old, had become “milk brothers”.

Evil Moon, on the other hand, was forced to become a full-time nanny.

The moment the black puppy opened its eyes, Evil Moon would immediately take the puppy and the two tiger cubs to have their milk.

“Meow, I’m so miserable… I’m so stupid. I shouldn’t have adopted this little devil…” Evil Moon muttered.

Ding Hao was delighted to see this. Given Evil Moon’s untrustworthy nature, taking good care of the black puppy and the white tiger cubs was an unprecedented act of kindness. It did not devour these three little fellas, which was already showing them mercy.

In this way, the strange team of two men and five beasts stepped into the Sacred Hall ruins.

Along the way, they saw traces left behind by the pathfinders. There were lingering auras and marks of battles, as well as newly wrecked deity statues and stone walls. A fierce battle had clearly taken place not long ago, yet there were no corpses or bloodstains. One could only vaguely see a few fractured weapons…

“Let me think how we should proceed.”

Uncle Tianshu took out an ancient map from the inner lining of his robe, examined it carefully for a while, and then walked to the front to lead the way.

Ding Hao had suspected this old fella to have a complete authentic map of the Sacred Hall ruins. Now he was even more certain of his guess.

The periphery of the ruins was extraordinarily majestic and boundless.

Numerous broken walls were interconnected as far as their eyes could see, in a very strange configuration. One could not see the farthermost ends of these golden structures. These ruins formed a unique maze. Since the martial artists could not fly, unless they had a very strong sense of direction, they could easily get lost in these golden ruins.

Quite obviously to Ding Hao, this terrain was fatally dangerous.

He could only follow behind Uncle Tianshu obediently.

They did not know how long they had walked. Uncle Tianshu suddenly stopped.

“Do you feel that someone or something is spying on us in the dark?” Uncle Tianshu asked suspiciously.

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