Divine Emperor Demon Emperor

Lin Yun was the first to charge into the valley. The moment he entered, he felt the light dim considerably. The sunlight from the sky could not penetrate the deep, secluded canyon.

Not pausing for a moment, Lin Yun ran straight for the depths of the valley. Several hundred meters behind him, the Crown Prince had already caught up with his men, closely followed by the disciples of the Wind Forest Sect.

After running for about a thousand meters, Lin Yun suddenly stopped. Ahead of him was a Wooden Man Array.

At least several hundred wooden men formed an array, each standing less than half a meter apart. The formation sealed off all paths, meaning the only way to continue forward was to go through the Wooden Man Array.

In the brief moment Lin Yun paused, the Crown Prince was the first to catch up. Seeing Lin Yun, the Crown Prince let out a cold laugh. "Haha, Lin Yun, let’s see where you can run now."

The Crown Prince had barely finished speaking when Lin Yun shot him a glance and charged directly into the Wooden Man Array.

Watching Lin Yun charge into the Wooden Man Array, the Crown Prince cursed under his breath but didn’t dare to follow rashly. The wooden and stone men of Celestial Eagle Valley were not to be underestimated; they were masterpieces, the culmination of the painstaking effort of dozens of generations, built with an immeasurable amount of resources.

As if they could sense him, the hundreds of wooden men moved in unison the moment Lin Yun entered the Wooden Man Array. They constantly shifted their formation, trapping Lin Yun securely in the middle.

But that wasn’t all; these wooden men also attacked. After dodging a strike from one, Lin Yun saw that its simple blow had carved a deep pit into the hard ground.

’I can’t let them hit me. With so many of them, it’ll be impossible to get away,’ Lin Yun thought.

He used Inch Step to weave through the Wooden Man Array, but even though he had grasped its True Intent, it wasn’t enough to completely evade the attacks.

In just a few moments, the wooden men had already struck him five or six times. If he hadn’t managed to protect his vital spots with each blow, he would have been seriously injured by now.

’Damn it, don’t these things have a weak point?’ After a few attempts, Lin Yun realized it would be incredibly difficult to just force his way through. He had launched several attacks of his own, only to find the wooden men had no apparent weaknesses.

No matter how he attacked, the wooden men wouldn’t fall. Even when he shattered their limbs, they continued their assault without pause.

As Lin Yun was besieged within the Wooden Man Array, the Crown Prince and the Wind Forest Sect disciples watched from the outside with looks of horror. Even with their Primordial Ocean Realm cultivation, this was not an array they could afford to take lightly.

Especially the weaker ones among them—they’d likely be beaten to death or forced to forfeit within ten breaths of entering the array.

"Brother, there’s no way that kid can get through this Wooden Man Array. We’ll just wait here. Once he crushes his token, he’s failed. Then he’ll be ours for the taking," the Second Prince said with a laugh, standing beside the Crown Prince.

Hearing this, the Crown Prince smiled faintly. The Second Prince had a point. Even with his own power, he wasn’t completely confident he could force his way through. He refused to believe that Lin Yun, a mere cultivator at the Seventh Layer of the Qi Sea Realm, could possibly clear the Wooden Man Array.

Lin Yun was in a world of hurt inside the Wooden Man Array, but there was no way he would crush his token. To do so would mean forfeiting his spot on the Green Talent List.

"Damn it," he muttered, unable to stop himself. Lin Yun realized he was starting to get agitated.

Having faced death so many times, Lin Yun knew full well that the more dangerous the situation, the calmer one had to be. Impatience would only lead to a faster death.

As he dodged, Lin Yun forced himself to calm down and began to analyze the Wooden Man Array. ’Since it’s an array, there has to be a pattern.’ He had tried multiple approaches; brute force was useless. He would have to outsmart it.

Dodging and observing, Lin Yun noticed that while each wooden man moved differently, after watching for a while, he started to find some clues.

The hundreds of wooden men were divided into over a dozen smaller arrays. This meant the greater Wooden Man Array was a composite of these smaller formations, each controlling about fifty wooden men.

’An array... an array... Right, the Array Hub! Every array has to have a hub.’ The realization struck him. ’No matter the array, it must have a hub. Destroy the hub, and the array becomes useless.’

With this thought, Lin Yun began searching for the Array Hub. After a thorough search, his eyes locked onto one particular wooden man. It had been kept protected in the center of the formation and had never once attacked him.

Furthermore, on its forehead was a piece of gray jade, so inconspicuous you would never notice it unless you were looking closely.

’Could this one be the Array Hub?’ he wondered. Without a second thought, he decided to take the risk. Now that he’d found a lead, he had to go for it.

He executed Inch Step, weaving through the wooden men. His target: the one with the jade on its forehead.

After a few more hair-raising but successful dodges, Lin Yun finally reached the wooden man with the jade on its forehead. He threw his arms around it and placed his hand on the jade.

The moment Lin Yun subdued it, the surrounding wooden men froze, ceasing their assault.

Seeing this, Lin Yun was overjoyed. He guessed that the key to this challenge was the dozen or so wooden men with jade on their foreheads. As long as he controlled them, passing through the Wooden Man Array would be simple.

With his hand on the jade, the wooden man didn’t resist at all. Leading it by his side, Lin Yun walked through the Wooden Man Array without issue. The moment he let it go, the array instantly returned to its previous state.

"He made it through?" The expressions on the faces of the Crown Prince, Ziyi, and the Third Prince turned grim as they watched Lin Yun clear the Wooden Man Array. ’That bastard actually made it.’

Having cleared the Wooden Man Array, Lin Yun turned to look at the group from Yanhuang Country and the Wind Forest Sect. He roared, "You can’t stop me! One day, I, Lin Yun, will annihilate the Yanhuang Royal Family and the Wind Forest Sect! Just you wait!"

Hearing Lin Yun’s declaration, the Crown Prince was the first to roar back in fury, "Don’t get ahead of yourself, you brat! You’ve only cleared the first obstacle. I have plenty of ways to kill you!"

With that, the Crown Prince charged into the Wooden Man Array, and the others quickly followed suit.

As they entered, the Wooden Man Array whirred to life once more. Apart from Primordial Ocean Realm experts like the Crown Prince, the Second Prince, the Third Prince, and Ziyi, the others were beaten and severely injured almost the instant they stepped inside.

In less than twenty breaths, two people from Yanhuang Country were forced to crush their Identity Tokens. The same happened on the Wind Forest Sect’s side. They had no choice; if they didn’t crush their tokens, the wooden men would have beaten them to death.

As the tokens shattered, a faint light emanated from them. Because of this light, the wooden men ceased their attacks on them.

The tokens had saved their lives, but it also meant their run for the Green Talent List was over.

Seeing two of his own men instantly eliminated, the Crown Prince weaved through the wooden men and eventually managed to find one with jade on its forehead.