Eternal Heavenly Emperor

This was not a real person, but a wooden puppet that was taller than an average person by two heads!

It was clear that this puppet's body was segmented, but it moved with very smooth steps. At first glance, it was indistinguishable from a real person.

Having seen Skeleton Monsters and zombies, Chu Hao wasn't too surprised by this wooden puppet running around.

The wooden puppet strode forward and swung a punch at Chu Hao.

Wooden puppets didn't have meridians, their power activation made their meridian patterns shine, so Chu Hao couldn't immediately tell what level of cultivation this puppet was equivalent to. But judging from the force of its punch, it was at most equivalent to a First Tier martial master.

Boom!

Chu Hao swung his fist to meet it, and the puppet flew back like a kite, slamming into the wall and sliding down with a squeaking sound.

It was as expected, just equivalent to a Single-Meridian martial master.

What surprised Chu Hao was that the puppet was completely unscathed.

Even though its combat power was weak, its defense was strong.

The puppet immediately got up and walked toward Chu Hao again, swinging another punch.

Chu Hao didn't want to waste energy, so he started moving agilely around the puppet.

He quickly noticed something odd, a small red dot on the puppet's left leg. An idea struck him, and he moved in, changing his fist into a pointed finger, aiming for the red dot.

How could the combat power of a mere First Tier Martial Sect match Chu Hao? He accurately struck the red dot, producing a muffled sound.

The puppet instantly stopped moving, like a robot that had lost power.

At this moment, a step silently appeared out of nowhere, leading to the third level.

He had cleared the level.

Chu Hao thought to himself, this first challenge was naturally the easiest; otherwise, no one would have reached beyond the 90th level. Each level got progressively harder, and no one had ever reached the 100th level. He wondered what his limit would be.

As he pondered, he arrived at the second level.

As he stepped up, the staircase behind him disappeared, just like when he entered the first level.

The space, size, and puppet remained the same.

The puppet accelerated towards Chu Hao, swinging its long arms to strike at him.

Chu Hao moved swiftly and quickly found that the weakness was different from the first level; this time, it was located at the puppet's chest. Additionally, the puppet's strength had increased to Two Meridians.

Did one level mean one small realm upgrade? Would that make the eighth level roughly equivalent to a Single-Meridian Martial Sect? If it counted Nine Meridians and Ten Meridians, then from the 11th level, there should be a Martial Sect, and by the 21st level, even Warriors should appear.

That seemed impossible; otherwise, how could Wu Shitong and the others have reached beyond the 80th level?

Boom!

Chu Hao effortlessly defeated the puppet, and the steps to the third level appeared.

The third level, Third Tier martial master. The fourth level, Fourth Tier martial master. The fifth level, Fifth Tier martial master… For Chu Hao, these were easy, and he swept through them to the ninth level.

He was curious whether the puppet in the ninth level would be a Nine Meridians or a Single-Meridian Martial Sect.

The ninth level.

Thump, thump, thump. Footsteps approached, and two puppets appeared before Chu Hao.

So instead of increasing the puppet's strength, they increased the quantity.

No wonder people could reach the 70th, 80th, and even 90th levels. Quantity would accumulate to a qualitative change. Two Eight Meridians martial masters? Still a piece of cake.

However, the weaknesses of these two puppets varied and they had a joint attack method, naturally increasing their combat power and making it harder to hit the "weakness."

The strength of these two puppets was no less than Eight Meridians, but to Chu Hao, what were two Eight Meridians martial masters?

Boom! Boom!

He easily knocked down the two puppets and moved up to the tenth level.

According to Wu Shitong, every ten levels, there was a reward. This meant passing one level and passing nine levels were essentially the same, just like passing the 81st level and the 89th level.

He wondered what the reward would be.

Chu Hao didn't ask Wu Shitong and the others about it. Whoever got the treasure would certainly not tell.

Thump, thump, thump. This time, three puppets appeared.

Chu Hao took the initiative, throwing punches and sending the three puppets flying. Then he flicked his fingers, and the three puppets became like real wooden dolls, unable to move.

The steps to the 11th level appeared silently, and on the first step, there was a jade vase.

Was this the reward?

Chu Hao picked up the jade vase and saw there was a piece of paper stuck to it, which read: King's Blood Pill, can expand meridians tenfold and slightly increase brute strength, enhance physique.

Good stuff!

Chu Hao's eyes lit up immediately; each meridian could only expand a hundredfold. One King's Blood Pill could expand it tenfold, saving one-tenth of the time. If he had enough King's Blood Pills, he could instantly reach the peak of martial masters or even Martial Sect by just unblocking the meridians.

He was already at the Nine Meridians Peak; the next step was either reaching Ten Meridians or stepping into the First Tier Martial Sect. For both, the King's Blood Pill would be extremely effective. Moreover, the King's Blood Pill could enhance his physique and brute strength, which was equally practical.

Star Force's defense would weaken with exhaustion, but a strong physique wouldn't. Once enhanced, the effect would be permanent.

Chu Hao thought, if he could cultivate both his body and Star Force together, wouldn't that be doubling his power?

But body cultivation was rare in the world, indicating that path must be incredibly difficult.

He shook the vase and found only one King's Blood Pill inside, which was somewhat disappointing. He stored the King's Blood Pill in the Mustard Seed Ring and continued upward to the 11th level.

Four puppets!

Chu Hao advanced forcefully, unstoppable.

Five puppets, six puppets, seven puppets… By the 19th level, there were 12 puppets.

Another ten levels, what about the next one?

Chu Hao reached the 20th level, and thump, thump, thump, a dozen puppets appeared immediately. Counting them, there were still 12, but upon closer inspection, each puppet had two red dots.

Did this increase or decrease the difficulty?

If either red dot qualified as a weakness, it would lower the difficulty. But if both had to be hit simultaneously, it would increase the difficulty.

Considering the 20th level couldn't be easier than the 19th, he had to hit both red dots simultaneously to count.

Chu Hao tested it, and indeed, hitting one red dot didn't stop the puppets; they continued moving freely.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Twelve puppets combined their strength for a powerful attack, forcing Chu Hao to retreat.

After all, this equaled the combined strength of twelve Eight Meridians martial masters; being hit was definitely unpleasant.

"I need to be a bit more serious!" Chu Hao said to himself and charged forward.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

One puppet after another was knocked flying by him. When they hit the ground, they immediately stopped moving, completely losing their combat power.

In just four or five minutes, twelve puppets lay on the ground.

A new set of steps appeared, with another jade vase on the first step, still a King's Blood Pill.

"Excellent, what I need now is a pill that can quickly enhance my cultivation, so I can break through to War General soon!" Chu Hao stored the jade vase and proceeded to the 21st level.

Thirteen puppets.

The quantity increased again.

Chu Hao kept fighting and soon reached the 30th level, where the puppet count reached 22, and there were as many as three red dots.

As the quantity accumulated, it would eventually make a qualitative change!

Even a First Tier Martial Sect could theoretically crush martial masters, but a large number of martial masters could still reverse the situation and defeat a First Tier Martial Sect.

Chu Hao also wanted to know his limit, how many Eight Meridians martial masters he could handle at once.

He advanced forcefully, defeating the 22 puppets and receiving a third jade vase – still a King's Blood Pill.

According to the rankings, the top ten had all reached the 70th level, meaning until then, it was easy, so the rewards weren't impressive.

Chu Hao proceeded to the 31st level.

Twenty-three puppets, four red dots.

Chu Hao became more serious but still quickly cleared the level.

The 32nd level, the 33rd level… the 40th level!

The number of puppets and the red dots to be hit increased, making each level progressively harder.

After half a day, Chu Hao stood on the 70th level.

The number of puppets abruptly rose to 100, and the number of red dots reached 8.

"Amazing!" Chu Hao took half an hour to clear this level and had to stop to recuperate, as the consumption of Star Force was immense and consecutive battles left him very fatigued.

He sat cross-legged, took out a Star Stone, and absorbed its energy.

Having passed seven levels, he received seven King's Blood Pills. Perhaps passing the 80th level would change the reward.

Two hours later, Chu Hao stood up, feeling his combat power restored to its peak.

The 71st level.

The number of puppets remained at 100, but the number of red dots increased to 9!

This was an extraordinary difficulty spike.

With so many red dots on each puppet, all had to be simultaneously hit. Hitting one or two was easy, but reaching a certain quantity made it nearly impossible.

In reality, once reaching the limit, no matter if it was only one puppet, even if it wasn't attacking, hitting that many points simultaneously was impossible – fingers just weren't that fast!