The weakest ones of Tang Yu's team were on the Triple Awakening Stage. He had noticed that although the heavy-armored puppet's defense was high and the black armor was even more durable than that of the Triple Awakening demonic beast, its charging speed was only at the Second Awakening level.
This was the key to his strategic plan!
Er… no, it's just a glorified word of 'retreat'!
The team wooshed past the charging puppets. Although the armored puppets were aware of it, they already charged up. It wasn't easy to turn, and suddenly Tang Yu and the others were already far ahead.
The hunters on the back also noticed.
"Quick! Follow them!"
They seized the opportunity to continue running. However, there were already some armored puppets that had successfully turned at the corner, thumping their legs on the stiff stone slabs and making a deadly charge.
Bang!
Snap!
Crack!
Tang Yu didn't even have to look back to understand what was going on.
This was a reality. The world after doomsday was cruel and unforgiving. It's highly possible to encounter dangers in the wilderness that could claim one's life. But in this mysterious secret realm, the level of danger was even greater. Even though the hunters had prepared for all possibilities before coming in, death was still inevitable.
'Such a pity, those quality resources- I mean, quality talents… I don't know how many of them could get out of here safe and sound. But it's also a screening process. If they could get out of here, they must be better quality talents'
Bypassing the armored puppet from the main hall's side, what he saw was another tunnel entrance. He had no idea how far they had to go deeper into the tomb to get to the end. Probably rich people liked to build massive tunnels.
"My Lord, there's something wrong with this tunnel." Gray Blade observed their surroundings.
This path was a bit different from the one they just entered. Just now, it was a straight empty path. Nothing else was seen on either tunnel's sides except for those few rune words. As he turned at a corner, Grey Blade's keen eyes made him notice some traces of mechanism in the stone walls. Not a rough mechanism where they just put some wooden planks to cover the hollowed stone walls. But well-designed traps!
Tang Yu had thrown out some basic puppets during their escape. They were practically abandoned because the puppets couldn't match their speed. By now, they should've been dismantled by those terracotta puppets. What's the use of a puppet anyway?
Throwing the round compressed puppet, the white round puppet landed on the ground. The basic puppet stepped forward when suddenly…
Clack!
Tang Yu observed as the puppet triggered the mechanism. A row of holes appeared from both sides of the stone walls, and countless arrows whooshed out of the holes. The arrows flew with full force, completely penetrating the puppet's body with no resistance. This power… it's a threat even for the Sixth Awakening Stage hunters.
Tang Yu was a little distressed. He should have known that throwing one puppet out would be enough. Why did he throw out so many in one go? Such a waste!
The hole opened, and arrows rained out at the same time. Gray Blade arrived at the very edge of the holes in a flash. He pulled out a strange tool from his trouser's pocket, inserted it into the hole, and pounded on it a few times.
"Alright, this mechanism is of the linkage type. I jammed it with some nodes inside, but I don't think it will last long, let's leave as quickly as possible."
Elaine condensed two ice shields to protect the sides of the group, just in case something happened. And the group passed through quickly.
All sorts of traps and mechanisms were popping up along the way. For example, the ground suddenly caved in while they were walking, the bottom of the put was covered with spikes. Or two stone walls clamped against each other in the tunnel, blocking the passage. At the same time, poisonous smoke suddenly emerged from within, and so on.
The traps weren't of that much threat for Tang Yu's team, but it was really troublesome. He couldn't figure out what the owner of the tomb was thinking. Some of the traps are disposable, while some don't. The design concept is quite complicated. Tang Yu wasn't sure how many of those hunters following behind him could go through these traps. He didn't care about the foreign hunters, but he would be disappointed if those Lindong mercenaries were wiped out. It would mean that his advertisement was written in vain, right?!
Suddenly, he saw another rune literature inscribed on the stone wall.
"Only the bravest adventurers could obtain my treasure. Move forth, brave ones."
Tang Yu: "???"
Can't he write something more useful?! Could it be… those stone puppets were designed to filter out the bravest adventurers? Bullsh*t!
Nevertheless, Tang Yu quickly commanded the others to excavate the stone slab again. This time, his followers already know what to do. They worked quickly and efficiently. Not long after, the stone slab was extracted from the stone walls.
As they gained work experience, the quality of the slabs increased a lot. It was neat and tidier than before.
"Should we take some more? Nah, forget it. It's a waste of time."
Without slowing down their footsteps, they rushed straight out of the path. Once again, Tang Yu paused in his steps. What in front of him was a large hall, the same size as the one before. Which means…
Tang Yu looked around, observing the armed terracotta statues still in stone sculpture state were arranged in the hall. Normally, he would command a small team to annihilate these puppets.
However, he could hear footsteps behind him. Dozens of hunters were running after them with all their might. They were the second group of the Bear Path Exploration Team, which now had caught up with Tang Yu's team. They also had some Triple Awakening Stage hunters, that's why they could get through the stone puppets. Anyway, those stone puppets only had Double Awakening Stage speed. While the Double Awakening hunter couldn't maintain their speed at full burst, the puppet doesn't have such a limit. That's why only the Triple Awakening hunters or above could catch up.
There were mostly Triple Awakening hunters in the second team. With a few Double Awakening whose almost at their limit, and were helped by their companion during the run,
There's no third group. Or rather, the third group was those heavy-armored puppets.
Tang Yu heard the sound of heavily armored puppets charged towards them. He estimated half of the stone puppets in the previous hall were chasing them in this direction.
Clearly, it was too late to annihilate the puppets that hadn't awoken yet in the second hall.