The battle subsided, yet not a drop of blood was shed.

Lu Ye raised his hand to retrieve a piece of what appeared to be a physique cultivator's corpse, but upon closer inspection, it was nothing but a piece of wood.

Moreover, at the very moment the enemy perished, Lu Ye distinctly sensed a mystical force ripple from a certain direction, as if the physique cultivator had exchanged places with something else at that instant.

A dead-substitute puppet!

Lu Ye immediately understood what this thing was.

He had seen records about dead-substitute puppets in the Xiyuan Pavilion of the Dwarf Race. These could be considered the most powerful life-saving artifacts because they could die once on behalf of the cultivator who refined them.

However, making such an item is extremely complex and requires exceptionally rare materials, so even across the entire stellar space, there aren't many of them. Even if some exist, they are treasured by their owners and rarely seen by ordinary people. Only the most outstanding juniors of some major powers are equipped with them to prevent unforeseen events.

The Dwarf Race has a type of Spirit Talisman known as the dead-substitute talisman, which functions similarly to the dead-substitute puppet, but it is a red talisman that only Sun Blaze experts can refine.

In comparison, the dead-substitute puppet is undoubtedly more effective, because a cultivator can place this puppet in a safe location ahead of time, and when they are about to die, they can swap places with the puppet, letting it take the calamity in their place.

The dead-substitute talisman doesn't work like that; it needs to be refined into the body.

Simply put, a cultivator with a dead-substitute talisman might escape a disaster with this red talisman, but they will still appear nearby, and if they can't escape swiftly, they will still be hard-pressed to escape death.

Now that the physique cultivator disappeared without a trace, with only the remnants of a dead-substitute puppet left, it clearly indicated that he had exchanged places with the puppet.

Lu Ye glanced into the distance, feeling a twinge of regret.

If he had known that the physique cultivator possessed such a divine object as a dead-substitute puppet, they could have sat down and had a proper discussion. If the other side was willing to use the puppet to bargain for their life, it could have been negotiable.

But now it's too late, as the puppet is destroyed, there's nothing left to discuss.

This type of treasure is definitely not something that the physique cultivator would normally have access to. Lu Ye figured it was likely a treasure seized from this battlefield earlier.

Truly a priceless item, if it were to be sold, those major powers would vie for it eagerly. After all, whose family doesn't have a few outstanding juniors? Buying this artifact would mean gaining an extra life, an added layer of security.

Casually tossing aside the puppet's remnants, Lu Ye led Little Dumb and others toward the distance while the Blood Escape Technique's power was still active.

Perhaps due to overconfidence, the physique cultivator hadn't placed the puppet too far away before taking action, thus when he swapped places with the puppet, Lu Ye was able to catch a trace.

In an instant, a scarlet rainbow streaked through the Void.

Simultaneously, in that direction, two figures were fleeing rapidly, one of them being the physique cultivator, albeit in a wretched state; the puppet, while it could substitute his death, couldn't substitute his injuries, and the wounds he sustained were still affecting him, leaving his aura somewhat weak.

Beside him was a young man with only mid-stage cultivation.

Counting the Ghost Cultivator that Lu Ye killed earlier, this was a squad of three, one mid-stage, two late-stage.

The mid-stage youth's task was to scout for potential targets while holding onto the physique cultivator's dead-substitute puppet. Once a target was found, the physique cultivator and the Ghost Cultivator would team up to strike. This had been their strategy for some time, working quite pleasantly.

As it turned out, the physique cultivator appeared beside the young man, his face filled with terror, giving him quite a fright.

"Who did you encounter? Where's Old Hei?" the young man asked anxiously while fleeing, already having a bad feeling but unwilling to believe it.

The physique cultivator replied unhappily, "We tangled with someone we shouldn't have! Old Hei is already dead!"

The young man was taken aback. Though the Ghost Cultivator faction lacked strong defenses, they were actually difficult to kill because they would often flee far away if a strike missed, making them elusive and hard to track.

Moreover, Old Hei was a late-stage Ghost Cultivator. This mission was supposedly just dealing with a mid-stage and four early-stage opponents; it should have been an easy task. How did it come to this?

Not only is Old Hei dead, but the physique cultivator's dead-substitute puppet is gone too, meaning he had also died once.

How powerful could those people have been?

Just then, the young man's heart suddenly tightened, sensing an overpowering aura locking onto him. Looking back, he saw a red glow rapidly approaching from afar, relentlessly pursuing.

The physique cultivator also sensed it, feeling indignant, "Persistent like a ghost! They want to kill us all!"

"What do we do?" the young man asked, terrified by the deaths of his companions and feeling he wasn't a match for the pursuer, leaving him flustered.

The physique cultivator's expression fluctuated for a while before he eventually sighed unwillingly, "Accept our fate!"

"You..." the young man looked at him, surprised.

"There's no escape. I was just caught up before; I'm leaving now, you're on your own!" he said decisively, withdrawing from this battlefield. Being temporary companions, there was no deep emotional bond. They could help each other in favorable conditions, but when faced with adversity, it was each for himself.

The figure of the physique cultivator disappeared, and the youth heaved a heavy sigh, following suit.

Lu Ye, who had been chasing from afar, also paused. He was just pursuing that physique cultivator, as the expense of the dead-substitute puppet made him feel quite pained. He intended to come over and teach this physique cultivator a lesson, but he didn't expect that the other party had a hidden companion, revealing their whereabouts.

However, upon careful thought, this was to be expected. The dead-substitute puppet placed outside by the physique cultivator needed someone to guard and protect it, so leaving a companion unseen was the normal choice.

Now that the two of them have both withdrawn, Lu Ye felt a suffocating frustration in his heart with no outlet for release.

"What's that?" Cai Yue's sharp eyes spotted something left where the youth vanished.

Lu Ye looked up, squinting, and indeed saw something unusual over there. Feeling a stir in his heart, he hurried towards it.

Upon reaching the place, he found a jade disc. Lu Ye picked it up, examined it carefully, and found it to be only palm-sized, seemingly without anything special. He tried to pour spirit force into it, but there was no response at all...

"What use does it have?" Cai Xing asked curiously, while the other three looked at him eagerly.

Lu Ye shook his head: "I don't know for the time being, but this should be a treasure unique to the battlefield."

The reason for this assumption is that this item was left after the youth disappeared, so it must be something that cannot be taken out, in other words, it can only be used on this battlefield.

Lu Ye tried to store it in his storage ring, only to find he couldn't, as an invisible force was obstructing him, further confirming his hypothesis.

Indeed, this was a treasure that could only be used on this battlefield.

From this point of view, that squad of three had quite good luck, having a dead-substitute puppet and such an unclear jade disc, but unfortunately ran into a squad they couldn't defeat, beaten bloody.

Lu Ye studied it for a while, but couldn't figure it out, so he handed the jade disc to others for inspection, still without any clue.

This was quite frustrating. The treasures appearing in the Melee Battle Meet were bizarre and varied. Of those they acquired before, except for the two purple talismans which had some value, the others weren't much useful. Now this trophy, its use was even more unclear.

"You take it!" Lu Ye tossed it to Little Crooked. Since it's a treasure, it can't just be discarded; maybe it might be useful sometime.

Little Dumb had to handle the As-Close-As-Siblings Array Disc, and the Star Moon Sisters sometimes had to assist him in attacks, so Little Crooked was the most idle. The unknown treasure given to her was undoubtedly the best choice.

Little Crooked caught it.

The five maintained their Black Tortoise Array formation, with the array disc's power not activated, each driving their spirit force forward, seeming aimless.

After a while, Little Crooked suddenly exclaimed with joy: "This thing reacted!"

Lu Ye immediately halted and turned to look at her.

Little Crooked fiddled with it a bit, showing an understanding expression: "This jade disc is a battlefield map, capable of displaying the detailed situation of the entire battlefield!"

Saying this, she tossed the jade disc to Lu Ye.

Lu Ye took and checked it, finding it indeed as Little Crooked said. It showed no reaction before, but now, under perception, one could clearly sense the mysteries within the jade disc.

This was a battlefield map, not only recording the terrain and landforms in detail, but Lu Ye could even perceive many bright and dim light points moving within it under his sensing.

Frequently using the ten-part map and the star map, Lu Ye was very familiar with this kind of thing.

Immediately he understood that those light points represented the cultivators in the Melee Battle Meet, and the brightness of the light points represented the level of their cultivation.

Just like now, at the center of the map, five light points gathered motionless, one slightly brighter than the others, whose brightness was almost identical.

This represented their group, Lu Ye's cultivation was a bit higher, hence his light point was brighter.

It explained why their squad was quietly refining stellar space energy and still ran into trouble before. Lu Ye thought it was just a coincidence, since they weren't hiding their trail, seeing them would be normal for any cultivator passing by nearby. But now it seemed it wasn't. Others came specifically for them.

Relying precisely on the function of this jade disc.

Five pushovers represented so clearly on this jade disc, who wouldn't pick them?

"How to activate it?" Lu Ye asked. This item was a good find. With this jade disc in hand, he could know the whereabouts of all cultivators on the battlefield at a glance, no longer fearing not finding anyone.

Yet, first, he needed to figure out how to activate its power.

"I just randomly infused spirit force, and it activated," Little Crooked explained.

Lu Ye was a bit bewildered. He had done the exact same thing earlier, so why didn't it work? He had a vague idea, but to confirm it, he'd need to wait a bit longer.