Baihu felt something was off about this smoke. At this critical moment, his fading rationality began to return somewhat.

He sensed that any “Participant” capable of releasing such thick white smoke must be maintaining their rationality at an extremely low level—almost as low as his own.

The “Mighty Wind” he had unleashed with full force was unable to completely disperse the smoke.

So he steadied his mind, then swung both hands together, sending out an even greater “Mighty Wind” than before. But in the next instant, a massive stone wall materialized before him in half a second, blocking most of the wind’s force.

Old Sun also stood not far away with bloodshot eyes, his gaze somewhat dazed. Although he couldn’t recall anyone in the “Extreme Path” whose “Echo” was called “Thick Smoke,” judging by where the smoke was emanating from, it was most likely from the sabotage squad that Yan Zhichun had dispatched earlier.

The other members of the “Extreme Path” merely paused upon seeing this, then continued releasing their “Echoes” to interfere with Baihu’s movements.

Since communication devices like walkie-talkies could barely exist in the “Land of the End,” everyone seemed to be on a chaotic ancient battlefield. Without messengers to inform them, they could only speculate about many sudden developments.

After all, there was only one Zhoumo, and her “Sound Transmission” was mostly one-on-one. It was difficult to quickly convey information across the entire battlefield, so to survive, they had to think even harder than usual.

They could only bet that this massive white smoke was a smokescreen before destroying the giant bell, meaning the sabotage squad had already reached the vicinity of the bell—now they just needed one final strike.

Seeing this, Baihu grew somewhat anxious. He pointed at the center of the massive stone wall, and the wall rapidly shattered into countless fragments amid slight trembling. After the countless fragments scattered everywhere, they exploded again.

Instantly, agonized screams filled the plaza. The massive dispersed explosions not only injured members of the “Extreme Path” but also left many “Supporters” who had rushed to help with torn flesh and bloody wounds.

The tremendous blast wave was like a mixer, instantly sweeping the thick fog from the center of the plaza across the entire square.

Moments later, the original white fog merged with the black smoke from Baihu’s explosion, instantly shrouding everyone present in obscurity. Various sounds of coughing, panicked exclamations, and pained wails became incessant.

The numerous “Supporters” also realized that the white smoke could serve as the best cover. Since they had no fixed teammates to begin with, theoretically they could attack anyone they saw in this thick smoke. So in the invisible chaos, everyone dragged their injured bodies and began fighting each other again.

After the massive stone wall exploded, just as Baihu was about to continue using “Mighty Wind,” he heard the sound of cutting through air from all directions. Countless stones flew toward him, and he could only use “Explosive Combustion” to block them with his hands for now. But each explosive combustion brought even darker smoke.

He stared intently at the dark shadows in the thick smoke and suddenly saw a “Participant” with a strange figure leap out and lunge toward him.

That person’s attack clearly had no technique, even walking with a stumbling gait, yet Baihu still immediately reached out and pierced through their chest.

His palm passed through the body. Baihu raised his aged, murky eyes to look, only to discover that a chunk of this “Participant’s” head had been blown off—they should have been thoroughly dead long ago.

Baihu frowned slightly. Just as he was pondering what was happening, he saw more and more figures beginning to gather.

“Old Deng…” Old Sun called out dazedly from a distance. “Why didn’t you use your ‘Puppets’ earlier? Only starting to use them after so many people have died…”

The short, stout Old Deng turned his head and shot Old Sun a look. “What’s your problem? How can I use ‘Puppets’ without dead people?”

“Oh… you’re right…”

Old Deng extended both hands, constantly moving his fingers in the air. His fingers appeared exceptionally nimble, as if completely independent—each one suspended in the air could move separately.

Whenever a corpse fell, Old Deng would raise a single finger and then “awaken” another corpse. He could actually control ten corpses at once, making them move together and lunge at Baihu in succession.

Numerous corpses only showed their silhouettes in the smoke, and this sensation made Old Deng laugh continuously.

“Old Sun… see that? This way it’s more like a shadow puppet play. I’m controlling them even better than before.”

“Shadow puppet…” Old Sun stared blankly at the silhouettes in the smoke. “Nonsense… how is it similar? The little fighting figures in shadow puppet plays… all wear armor…”

As his words fell, the various corpses among the dark shadows suddenly became angular and defined, as if strange armor had condensed on them, making their shadows appear majestic and imposing.

And Old Sun’s eyes became even more vacant at that moment.

“Good, this is great—puppet figures wearing armor!” Old Deng said with a laugh. “I heard there’s also ‘Puppets’ at the ‘Heavenly Level’… I wonder how many bodies that person skilled in ‘Puppets’ at the ‘Heavenly Level’ can control at once… could it be a hundred?”

After hearing this, Old Sun shook his head and gave a wooden “heh heh” laugh, saying, “Maybe the ‘Heavenly Level’ can only control one body, after all, they’re not as skilled as you at manipulating shadow puppets. Those abilities don’t come from themselves either, so they’re quite weak.”

“Don’t talk nonsense,” Old Deng replied.

For a time, Baihu was completely surrounded by numerous corpses. Although he wouldn’t suffer any injuries, strangely enough, he actually began to lose his sense of direction in this close-quarters entanglement.

Since the surrounding area was filled with identical thick fog, Baihu couldn’t tell which direction he should release his “Mighty Wind.” Each time he was about to strike, new corpses would reach him. Because the distance was too close to conveniently use “Explosive Combustion,” Baihu could only cleanly break the limbs of the corpses to prevent them from moving.

But these “Puppets” not only felt no pain—they were all covered in thick stone armor, forcing Baihu to exert considerably more effort.

“Such powerful ‘Puppets’…” Baihu murmured. “To be able to control so many at once…”

Soon Baihu discovered that these “Puppets” were different from what he remembered. Even after breaking their limbs, they would still spring up from the ground with a “whoosh,” as if pulled by some thin thread.

Baihu looked at the sky. There was nothing there at all. It seemed that what pulled these “Puppets” up wasn’t “threads,” but rather “Faith.”

Now it didn’t matter if he couldn’t immediately disperse the smoke. After all, in this smoke everyone had lost their sense of direction. Everyone was now fighting each other, which actually saved him trouble.

But Baihu soon realized something was still wrong. At a position no more than ten meters from him, a group of people seemed to be having a dispute.

Those people were far too close to both him and the giant bell. It appeared there wasn’t just one person who could release “Thick Smoke” there—there was a group of people with different objectives gathered in that location.

“When did this happen…?”