The snake head gradually condensed into a miniature humanoid shadow, but the figure quickly flickered and disappeared.

This was truly unbelievable. When Henry Brooks focused his attention and looked again, he saw the two snake eyes on the snake head ripple, as if tiny whirlpools were rapidly opening up inside them. An invisible wave once again surged toward his consciousness and soul, trying to engulf him...

Henry Brooks's consciousness once again entered that blood-cloud wasteland littered with corpses and shattered bones. Under the oppression of the blood clouds, the giant hall looked desolate.

What was going on?

So-called golden finger—did it mean that his soul and consciousness could use the snake bracelet to re-enter this desolate, ghostless, corpse-strewn blood-cloud wasteland?

“Focus your mind and enter the hall now!” Earl Lefton's voice sounded again.

It was as if an invisible barrier in the giant hall had opened. Henry Brooks's mind moved with his thoughts, and with a soft pop, like piercing a water membrane, he slipped directly into the giant hall.

However, the scene inside the giant hall was not as Henry Brooks had imagined. All around was thick fog, a gray haze that obscured everything, with only a stone altar standing in the center, about seven or eight meters high.

Henry Brooks had entered the giant hall with his spiritual consciousness, so he was still looking down at the stone altar from above. The altar was huge, with a diameter of thirty to forty meters, and seven alien corpses stood upon it.

These alien corpses were slightly shorter than ordinary people. Upon closer inspection, they were no different from the variously sized bones outside the giant hall, except that they still retained withered tendons, membranes, and flesh.

The skin of the alien corpses was blood-red, as if covered by a layer of wrinkled blood membrane. From a distance, they looked even more like seven skinned rakshasa demons, standing there bloodily, or perhaps like blood corpses buried underground for countless years...

Henry Brooks instantly felt a scalp-numbing terror. He hadn't expected the image of Cang Yu to be so grand, nor had he thought that Earl Lefton would refine seven alien corpses resembling blood corpses in the giant hall.

“What are these?” Even deep in his heart, Henry Brooks felt a chill, but he forced himself to ask into the gray depths of the giant hall.

“These are the last seven martial warrior-level Heavenly Martial Guardian puppet bodies I refined with my remaining power. Since you are the guardian chosen by the Dragon Emperor and now the master of the snake bracelet, you are qualified to possess one of them, to refine it as your puppet avatar in the blood-cloud wasteland, and thus officially become a Heavenly Martial Guardian of the temple...”

Seeing the gray haze all around, Henry Brooks couldn't tell if the temple was always like this or if Earl Lefton deliberately didn't want him to see the details of the hall. Looking at the seven blood-corpse-like guardian puppet bodies on the altar, he felt a chill in his heart. Hearing Earl Lefton's extremely weak voice coming from the gray void all around, he still couldn't see Earl Lefton's true form.

At this moment, Henry Brooks could only obey Earl Lefton, but he had too many doubts in his heart that needed answers. He urgently asked, “Senior Earl Lefton, how do I use the guardian puppet body, and how does it benefit martial cultivation? What exactly is a Heavenly Martial Guardian?”

“You use the snake bracelet as a bridge for your consciousness. After choosing one of the guardian puppet bodies as your puppet avatar, it will be completely synchronized with your physical body...” Earl Lefton said.

Henry Brooks had no idea what Earl Lefton was talking about.

He had seized Edward York's body, and his soul could not fully merge with the flesh, so he had to cultivate martial arts to promote the fusion of soul and body in order to survive. But he couldn't imagine— even if he refined a puppet avatar, it seemed the avatar could only remain in the blood-cloud wasteland. How could it possibly help his martial cultivation?

Listening to Earl Lefton's voice, which was now extremely weak, as if every word consumed great energy, Henry Brooks was filled with questions. He couldn't care that the so-called Heavenly Martial Guardian puppet bodies were so hideous and terrifying; he forced himself to be patient and, following the method taught by Earl Lefton, split off a portion of his consciousness and entered the first puppet body.

He had no right to bargain at this point.

But just as his consciousness entered the first puppet body, he felt a buzzing in his mind.

At this moment, part of his consciousness returned to his body in the bedroom at Splashing Cloud Cliff, while another part remained in the temple's guardian puppet body. It seemed he could use his mind in two places at once, simultaneously observing the bedroom and the temple, without interference between the two.

This feeling was truly amazing. Henry Brooks really couldn't find a better term than “consciousness bridge” to describe the snake bracelet.

The function of the snake bracelet seemed to allow his consciousness to exist simultaneously in both his physical body and the guardian puppet body. It was even more wondrous and mysterious than the legendary second nascent soul that could only be cultivated at the Dao Pill or Dao Embryo stage...

He also noticed at this time that his physical body in the bedroom at Splashing Cloud Cliff and the guardian puppet body in the temple were indeed maintaining exactly the same posture.

Henry Brooks's mind moved, and his body squatted down; the guardian puppet avatar on the altar also squatted down in sync. He scratched his head in the bedroom, and the puppet avatar did the same, not missing a single detail. It was as if some magical power had projected his physical body's shadow into the temple with perfect accuracy.

But what did this have to do with his martial cultivation? Besides, wasn't this puppet avatar a bit too ugly?

“The snake bracelet and the puppet body are both gifts from the Dragon Emperor. Using the snake bracelet as a bridge, you can split and connect your consciousness— I'm about to fall into deep sleep, so I can only briefly explain the use of the puppet body.”

At this point, Earl Lefton was already speaking with great difficulty, and began to explain.