Zhou Zishu timed it exactly right, made a light sound of exertion, and executed a brilliant maneuver. Gracefully, Baiyi twirled in a dexterous flip, blade parrying blade. Exerting great strength, he channelled his continuous flow of internal energy onto the hallowed weapon, and cleaved the heavy sword in that puppet’s hand right into two.

Zhang Chengling had never seen this level of technique before, and held his breath as he fixed his eyes on it.

However, that puppet did not care at all. His fingers opened mechanically to abandon his heavy sword, and then he swung his arm over--he did not fear pain or death, his whole body available for use as a weapon. Mind boggling at this situation, Zhou Zishu grabbed that arm swinging at him. If it were a normal person, their arm would have been dislocated by Zhou Zishu’s single tug, but this puppet was extremely sturdy. Instead, it pushed at Zhou Zishu, forcing him to retreat until his back was pressed up against the door to that stone chamber behind him.

Zhou Zishu withdrew his hand and shrunk back. With a boom, the puppet had punched a huge hole in the door. He could not have been more thankful that he had prepared for any future problems earlier and told Zhang Chengling to close this door, but at the next moment, he could no longer bring himself to rejoice--behind this male puppet, he saw a female puppet. This thing looked like she was unable to turn, and could only walk forward.

So she walked forward, gliding directly towards Zhang Chengling, who had retreated to the other corner earlier in order to get out of Zhou Zishu and the male puppet’s way.

Alarmed, Zhou Zishu ducked the horizontal arc of the male puppet's arm, and threw himself at Zhang Chengling. The female puppet appeared to be moving faster than he was; he had only just managed to shield Zhang Chengling when the long flute[24] in the puppet's hand swept towards him like a stick. The place was too small, and with no way to avoid the blow, Zhou Zishu absorbed the brunt of it with his back, instantly coughing up a mouthful of blood.

Arms braced against the wall, the fresh blood in his mouth dripped onto Zhang Chengling’s shoulder. His body pitched forward involuntarily and nearly squashed that youth underneath him. At this point in time, Zhang Chengling ignored his own fear, and hurriedly extended his hands to support him. Pressing Zhang Chengling down, Zhou Zishu laboriously dodged to the side, and the female puppet’s second strike zoomed past his head, narrowly missing his scalp.

His Baiyi nearly slipped out of his hand. The seven Three-Autumn Nails of the Seven Acupunctures in his chest tremored violently, and his vision went momentarily black.

Zhang Chengling raged, “You dare to hurt my shifu? I’ll fight you!”