In this place, Xu Ran had already experienced many strange and eerie events. Faced with this scene, he felt no discomfort; instead, he calmly contemplated.

"What is this?"

Xu Ran murmured softly, observing the dark golden bones with increasingly meticulous attention.

The surface of the black bones was seen to be extremely rough, as if something had previously been incessantly rubbing against it, leaving pits and grooves.

"Hmm?" Xu Ran noticed something amiss with the dark golden bones and observed again closely, "Something’s wrong!"

At this moment, Xu Ran realized the anomaly.

"On that dark golden bone, those lines are the black Nether Runes that just appeared on the black flesh!"

Now, Xu Ran understood what those lines on the dark golden bones were.

Strictly speaking, the black lines weren’t actually on the black flesh; originally, they were engraved on nine black stone pillars.

Even now, when the nine Chaotic Ancient War Puppets returned to the place where the stone pillars previously stood, the War Puppets underwent tremendous transformations.

Before Xu Ran could finish contemplating, the nine Chaotic Ancient War Puppets, initially left with only dark golden bones, suddenly began shaking in the air like a sieve.

With each shake, the distance between the nine Chaotic Ancient War Puppets would further shorten.

In no time, the War Puppets, which originally were a hundred meters apart, actually connected with one another.

At that moment, the initially dark golden bones seemed to become individual mortise-and-tenon structures, embedded together.

"This is... fusion!!"

Outside the dueling arena, the eldest brother exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the changes happening with the nine Chaotic Ancient War Puppets.

For a moment, he struggled to control his aura as Extreme Ice Power permeated the entire dueling arena, causing the temperature to suddenly drop. Even the cultivation body of both the second brother and little sister began to shiver uncontrollably, freezing some soul bodies who had cultivated for a shorter time.

"Eld... eld... eldest brother, what... do you mean by that?"

They also heard the eldest brother’s words but didn’t quite understand the meaning, so the little sister spoke to inquire.

Among the people present, only the second brother and the little sister were capable of speaking.

"Cough!!"

Upon hearing the little sister’s cold, shivering voice, the eldest brother coughed, and immediately, the Extreme Ice Power within the dueling arena dissipated, causing the ice on the soul bodies that were frozen earlier to melt away, returning them to normal.

"Fusion, this is also a method of the Chaotic Ancient War Puppets!"

"From what I know, besides the extremely demanding physical conditions required for refining the Chaotic Ancient War Puppets, the techniques used are incredibly complex!"

"It requires engraving the refiner’s mark within the residual grand path and source. As long as it’s the same refiner’s mark, the refined Chaotic Ancient War Puppets can merge together to unleash unexpected abilities!"

"Precisely what those abilities are, there’s no clear record!"

The eldest brother finished speaking in one breath, simultaneously staring expectantly at the mirror reflecting the nine Chaotic Ancient War Puppets.

Things unknown to him naturally intrigued him greatly.

The eldest brother being so intrigued, it goes without saying that the other soul bodies were fixated on the mirror, eagerly watching to see what the merged nine Chaotic Ancient War Puppets would become!

...

In the dueling arena.

Once the nine Chaotic Ancient War Puppets were close enough, a black vortex suddenly rose around them, and concurrently, the dark golden bones began to melt, turning into pools of dark golden blood, absorbed by the newly risen vortex.

As more of the dark golden blood merged into the vortex, the black vortex grew ever larger, eventually covering the entire sky of the dueling arena like a black sun, obscuring all sight.

"Dong!"

"Dong!"

"Dong!"

"Dong!"

...

Just as Xu Ran was unsure of what was occurring, a thick bell sound emanated from the black vortex.

That bell sound resembled the booming heard when heaven and earth first opened, resonating with endless life force throughout the dueling arena. The only difference was that accompanying the bell sound were voices capable of corrosion, not life force.

"Bell sound?"

Xu Ran heard the bell sound, extremely puzzled, simultaneously mobilizing innate qi on the surface of his body to protect his body.

"Nine puppets, merging into a single bell?"

...

Not only Xu Ran felt perplexed, but the soul bodies watching outside the dueling arena also felt the same.

However, the expressions of the second and eldest brothers showed a hint of peculiarity.

"Eldest brother, you recognized the sound?" the second brother asked upon noticing eldest brother’s peculiar expression.

"Did you as well?" the eldest brother didn’t answer directly, instead asking back.

At this point, the second brother also understood the eldest brother’s meaning and continued.

"But why is this bell sound related to the Nether Abyss, and why does it carry a sense of destruction instead of life force? This defies logic!"

At this moment, the second brother’s thoughts returned to ancient times, continuously recalling scenes from that era in his mind.

"The bell sound is the same, yet it should not be the same one, or rather, it’s the opposite!"

The eldest brother’s ambiguous words left the little sister bewildered.

"Eldest brother, what are you two talking about? I don’t understand at all!"

None of those present, except for them, understood what they were discussing.

"You know the Human Emperor Bell, right?" the eldest brother inquired.

This time, all the soul bodies nodded.

"Of course they know, the Human Emperor Bell, it’s the divine artifact that accompanied the birth of heaven and earth. Besides it, there are the Human Emperor Sword and Human Emperor Armor, known as the primordial divine artifacts!"

The little sister spoke.

The Human Emperor Bell, Human Emperor Sword, and Human Emperor Armor—the Human Emperor’s Three-piece Set—are recorded on the first page of all ancient texts. Anyone who has read them is deeply impressed.

However, seeing them in the texts doesn’t mean seeing them in reality, as they have never been seen.

Not even the ancient times saw them completely.

It is said that after the birth of the world, they vanished into the Origin Realm without a trace.

Even when occasional news of the Human Emperor’s Three-piece Set emerged in ancient times, investigations revealed them to be false.

Therefore, the first page of all ancient texts contains only text records, with no pictures or sound records.

"At the end of ancient times, the Human Emperor’s Three-piece Set briefly appeared in the world, but only for a moment, with few witnessing it, and those who did perished in a great battle!"

"There wasn’t time to record the situation at all!"

The speaker was none other than the second brother; judging by the tone of his words, he was one of the few who saw the Human Emperor’s Three-piece Set and survived.

"Second brother, you saw it?" the little sister asked, surprisingly addressing him as second brother, which was rare.

Speaking of it, the second brother puffed out his chest, "Sort of saw it, just a fleeting glimpse of the Human Emperor’s Three-piece Set’s shadow."

"However, the bell sound was heard quite clearly, identical to the bell sound emitted after the fusion of those nine Chaotic Ancient War Puppets just now!"

At this point, the second brother’s face displayed confusion.

"In ancient times, when the Human Emperor’s Three-piece Set appeared, it was accompanied by a thick bell sound and extremely rich life force dispersing in the Origin Realm."

"The cracks on the earth caused by the battle among various Great Powers began to heal rapidly, in stark contrast to the current atmosphere of destruction!"

This is why the second brother was perplexed.

The Human Emperor Bell, an unparalleled existence in the world with no possibility of impersonation, and its bell sound likewise.

But today, within the trials of the Nine-Layered Giant Tower, a bell sound identical to the Human Emperor Bell was heard, with entirely opposite characteristics.