As the bolt of reddish-purple lightning faded, Xue Han's severely ravaged remains were revealed.

However, what had been revealed was not a body. Instead, it was a dark red wooden puppet with mysterious patterns engraved upon all of its parts.

Standing not far away from the wooden puppet was none other than Xue Han, and his face was looking a little pale, but aside from that, he was completely unharmed.

Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan's expressions instantly changed drastically upon hearing this.

That's a substitution puppet! 

Xue Han summoned a pill that he promptly swallowed, and his pale complexion quickly recovered.

"I didn't anticipate there to be a restriction like this, but no matter. There are plenty of ways to kill someone without directly attacking them," he chuckled coldly, then began to slowly ascend the staircase once again.

Patriarch Cold Flame shuddered as he hurriedly tried to get away, but he had only just raised a foot when an unnatural flush appeared over his face, and he threw up a mouthful of blood before falling feebly to the ground...