Chapter 37: The History of Wooden Man Lane

  The winding mountain road is paved with small stones and stretches all the way down from the top of the mountain.

  The mountain road has a little frost, and there seems to be a hundred feet of ice on the distant cliff.

  The road has frost and is slippery, the cliff is a hundred feet of ice.

  Nangong Yun, the elder, walked ahead on the mountain path, where frost had formed on the stones. He walked steadily, with his hands clasped behind his back, admiring the scenery: "Since you're all idle and bored, I'll tell you about the origin of Muying Xuan."

  Listening to Nan Gongyuan's storytelling, Gu Chao and the other sixty outer sect disciples finally learned about the origin of Muying Village.

  About 8,000 years ago, two incredibly talented individuals emerged. One was surnamed Gongshu and the other Mo. When Gu Chao heard this, he was taken aback for a moment, as these two surnames did have some interesting connotations, similar to certain historical events in his past life. Anyway, let's get back on track. These two individuals, Gongshu and Mo, were both skilled at creating various types of weapons and puppets. They created all sorts of puppets, but initially, they weren't very well-known. However, there was one time when Gongshu alone used a large number of golden puppets to battle against a Silver Rank sect, and that Silver Rank sect was nearly annihilated by these puppet warriors.

  From then on, the art of puppetry shook the world.

  However, Gongshu and Mozi are both mysterious figures, and their activities were not limited to the state of Qi, but extended throughout the entire Warring States continent.

  Because these two sects' puppetry skills are too famous, there are also people in the Great Qi Empire who study this puppetry skill. For example, the Golden Level Sect of the Great Qi Empire, Yulingmen, has already studied the method of making copper men, but they have not yet studied the method of making higher-level golden men.

  The Taishan school itself is a martial arts sect that focuses on knife repair and researches knife techniques, basically having nothing to do with puppets. However, 800 years ago, the Taishan school produced an elder named Ximuzi who was not interested in knife techniques but was very interested in making puppets. Unfortunately, the Taishan school had almost no information on puppetry, and although Elder Ximuzi was extremely talented, his talent was not particularly high, so he could only create a weakened version of the wooden man, which is the one placed at the mountain gate of the Taishan school.

  But don't think that the recruitment of outer sect disciples was a piece of cake at that time.

  It's actually just part of Mugen no Kanata.

  The real Wooden Dummy Alley, with more than 80 entrances at first, then getting narrower and narrower, finally gathering into one. And when the outer door disciples were recruited, only a small part of the Wooden Dummy Alley was used, without even using 1% of its capacity. This time's year-end exam will truly utilize the Wooden Dummy Alley.

  "This time, I'll also explain the rules for the year-end mid-term exam. The Wooden Man Maze has a total of eighty entrances, and you can freely choose one to enter from. Then, the eighty paths will converge at forty intersections, shrinking to forty paths, which will then converge at twenty intersections, shrinking to twenty paths. These twenty paths will converge at ten intersections, shrinking to ten paths, and finally, the last ten paths will converge into one. The first five people to reach the end point will be rewarded, while the last five will receive a certain punishment. At the intersection points between the Wooden Man Mazes, you may encounter other people, and you can freely choose whether to fight or form an alliance."

  "Of course, there are also some people who are lucky and will encounter no one else at the intersection. After all, with eighty channels and sixty people entering, nineteen of them are empty."

  Nangong Yuanzhang elaborated on the details of the rules in detail.

  It actually has quite a bit of luck involved.

  The luckiest thing is to meet friends and join forces to fight together.

  Fortunately, when I arrived at the intersection, there was no one else around.

  Bad luck, ran into an enemy, have to fight a battle.

  The worst luck would be running into Mu Rongying, Fang Yin, Zhang Tao, and Lin Yuan. That would truly be a tragedy.

  Of course, luck is important and strength is also important. If you don't have strength, it's always a waste of time.

  Like Murong Ying, no matter what luck he has, no matter who he encounters, he can guarantee his own victory, this is absolute strength overwhelming everything.

  Gu Chao thought about the rules in his heart, and such rules actually left no room for maneuvering, still relying on strength. Fortunately, he now possessed considerable strength, and the seven months of cultivation had not been wasted.

  Not long after Nan Gongyuan introduced the rules, they finally arrived at the wooden puppet alley in front of the mountain gate. At this time, the cover had been moved away, and what appeared in front of everyone was no longer a single wooden puppet alley door. There were as many as eighty such doors, each two zhang wide, some high and some low.

  Suddenly saw eighty doors, but it was quite shocking.

  Door after door, a glance reveals all doors, the feeling of doors connecting to doors, a stunning visual impact.

  Sixty-one outer disciples, for a moment, were all somewhat connected by this door, as if the ocean of doors gave them a shock.

  Elder Nan Gongyuan had seen this many times before and was no longer surprised: "Now, at the end of the year, the mid-term exam is about to begin. You will each choose a door to enter."

  Murong Ying led the way and chose a door in the middle to enter. He was the center of everyone, so he had to choose the middle door.

  Having seen Murong Ying rush in so quickly, the other boys and girls were also a bit anxious. After all, the mid-year exams had already begun, and everyone was racing against time. The more they rushed in, the better. At this point, they hastily chose a door to enter, but this selection of doors was completely random, not necessarily because the two doors next to each other were close together, so there wasn't really anything good about choosing one over another.

  Gao Ren, Luo Tao and Gu Chao exchanged a smile, each seeing encouragement in the others' eyes.

  ……

  Then, Gu Cha went in through a door.

  The wooden corridor in front of me is one and a half zhang wide, and its length is unknown. Within the two-zhang range that has just entered the wooden corridor, there is not a single wooden person, but at a distance of two zhang from the gate, many wooden people stand.

  Those wooden men are basically around six feet tall, with bodies made of a strange red wood that is quite exquisite. The elbows, joints, arms, torso, and legs are all roughly similar to those of humans, while the head is square-shaped with no ears or nose, only a pair of eyeballs shining with a pale blue light.

  It's a familiar scene, Gu Chao has some feelings, still remembering when he was assessed as an outer disciple of the Taishan Sect, he couldn't even deal with a wooden man, extremely embarrassed, finally using his observational skills and wisdom, narrowly passing the wooden man alley assessment, successfully becoming an outer disciple of the Taishan Sect.

  In the blink of an eye, seven months have passed, time really flies.

  A wooden man immediately charged at Gu Chao, who raised his red copper long knife and drew it out of its scabbard to block the attack. After blocking this strike, Gu Chao immediately began to counterattack. He didn't use any fixed moves, but simply struck out randomly with his first knife, which cut straight into the wooden man's neck.

  Immediately, the second knife came out again, and the second knife cut randomly but accurately on the wooden man's neck, which was the same as the first wound.

  With another misstep, his body shape shifted, and the third knife was launched.

  Three knives struck at the same position, boom, the wooden man's head was immediately cut off, and instantly this wooden man lost its mobility.

  The current strength of Gu Chao, easily striking three knives in the same position can defeat a wooden man. In the past, Gu Chao was miserably defeated by this wooden man. At that time, Gu Chao's strength was only at the second layer of the Post-Heavenly realm and couldn't even defeat a wooden man. Now he can easily defeat the wooden man.

  This is the result of seven months of hard work!

  After comparing with Mu Ren's hand-to-hand combat, Gu Chao understood that he had become stronger, truly stronger!

  Gu Chao placed his hand on the hilt of the knife, and his confidence was even greater than before. This time's year-end exam, he must get a good result.

  Young man, who doesn't have a heroic spirit of "I'd rather die than surrender" in his heart!

  Ancient super also has!

  Heaven and earth, who but I!

  Above the clouds, at the top of the sky, that position is waiting for me!

  (Updated again, seeking recommendations for Lingchen and seeking collection.)