Chapter 146 - Demonic Puppet Horde
As Chen Wuhen’s cold words echoed through the chamber, Lady Tao smiled faintly. Behind them, Elder Scholar Yan Jingshu sat against the wall, coughing slightly as the medicinal pill soothed his wounds.
Before the surrounding demonic disciples could even activate the Yin Corpse Mist Array and the Corpse Puppets, the soul link across the remaining vessels flared violently.
Frantic spiritual pulses surged through the consciousness network. Distress signals from the remaining outer strongholds erupted at once.
’The Demonic Beast Branch has been surrounded by the Heavenly Cloud Sect!’
’The Hundred Puppet Branch is under siege!’
’The Blood Fiend Branch is under attack!’
In less than an hour, the Heavenly Cloud Sect had launched coordinated strikes across every surviving branch of the Nine Shadows Demonic Sect.
Chen Wuhen’s eyes turned bloodshot red as a dark aura surged up from his soul, cutting through the panic in their minds.
"Silence!" Chen Wuhen commanded coldly through the link. "Abandon the strongholds immediately! Use your teleportation arrays to retreat to Black Crow Ridge Stronghold, and destroy the teleportation arrays behind you!"
A brief pause followed across the soul network as they confirmed. "Understood."
***
Deep within the mist-filled basin where the Hundred Puppet Branch resided, the clash of weapons echoed through the dense miasma.
The vanguard of the Heavenly Cloud Sect under Peak Master Yan had breached the outer gates smoothly, but the assault had quickly turned into a gruesome nightmare. Hidden arrays beneath the earth had unleashed swarms of razor-sharp puppet strings. Many elders fell victim to the trap. Their eyes had turned lifeless and their limbs jerked uncontrollably, turning their weapons against their own sect members.
Clad in deep azure armor, Peak Master Yan Qinghai parried a flurry of incoming strikes with the heavy shaft of his spear. He swung his arm, releasing a sweeping wave of azure Qi that pushed his possessed brethren back without causing any harm. Still, he gritted his teeth, forced to hold back his power for fear of accidentally killing his own people.
Amidst the chaotic struggle, the communication jade at his belt buzzed with Sect Master Jun Tianya’s voice.
"Strongholds Two and Four have been purged. I suspect that the demonic vessels possess emergency teleportation arrays. Lock down the spatial boundaries. Do not allow them to flee."
Yan Qinghai’s grip tightened around his spear. "Understood."
Stamping his foot against the stone ground, Yan Qinghai leaped high into the air, halting around a hundred feet above the mist.
From the center of the plaza, a black stone altar emerged through the parting fog. Standing atop it was a hunched figure. Beneath the dried blood and filth, he still wore the tattered crimson robes of Heavenly Cloud Sect’s Crimson Cloud Peak. It was Elder Yun Song, or rather, Demonic Ancestor Mo’s split soul currently commanding the Hundred Puppet Branch.
"Peak Master Yan," Yun Song said with a sly smile. "Did Jun Tianya send you here to die in his place?"
Yan Qinghai looked down from the sky. "Demonic Ancestor Mo. Hiding inside the corpse of our former elder. You are just as pathetic as you were three hundred years ago."
"Pathetic?" Ancestor Mo sneered through the old vessel. "In this world, only strength decides life and death!"
With a flick of his wrist, an array of fine black puppet strings shot into the ground like rain.
The plaza cracked wide open. Hundreds more figures dragged themselves up from the subterranean pits.
Among them were grotesque demonic beast puppets, mortal villagers, and wandering cultivators, their lifeless bodies forming a dense, living screen. Standing directly before Yun Song was an eight-foot monstrosity woven from condensed flesh and beast bones, the Quasi-Saint Grade Yin-Flesh Puppet.
"Strike them, Peak Master Yan!" Yun Song mocked, cackling with rasping glee. "Every blow you land will tear your own elders apart first!"
Yan Qinghai stared down, his knuckles tightening around his spear. The destructive might of his spear could flatten the valley in an instant, but doing so would obliterate every innocent soul below.
***
Sixty thousand li to the west, within the Western Barren Canyons.
Peak Master Jian Wufeng stood in the air, his grey robes fluttering in the dry wind. The stench of blood was thick enough to choke a mortal.
Across the valley floor lay piles of desiccated corpses. To strengthen his physical body, the vessel once known as "Indestructible Mountain Fist" had captured and absorbed the blood of thousands of cultivators and mortals alike across the borderlands.
Around a hundred blood fiends, their bodies grotesquely enlarged and pulsating with crimson energy from the Demonic Blood Fiend Art, howled as they swarmed the valley floor. The sword elders accompanying Jian Wufeng had already deployed along the valley to pin them down.
At the canyon floor stood a nine-foot titan covered in crimson runes. In his chest, the Blood-Swallowing Pearl pulsed with dark vitality, pushing his physical body into the Saint Essence Realm.
"Jian Wufeng!" the titan roared, shaking the canyon walls. "You think your sword can pierce my indestructible flesh?! This is my Blood Fiend Demonic Dao!"
The titan surged forward like an avalanche, his Blood Qi darkening the sky. He swung his massive fist towards Jian Wufeng, unleashing the Heaven-Suppressing Fist Technique.
A colossal blood-red fist phantom tore through the canyon, warping the air and shattering stone.
Jian Wufeng looked down at the incoming strike, his eyes still and tranquil.
"A demon fueled by stolen blood dares to speak of the Dao?"
Jian Wufeng’s thumb pressed against his sword hilt.
The communication jade at his waist flickered with faint violet light. Sect Master Jun Tianya’s voice came through, calm and solemn.
"Strongholds Two and Four have been purged. I suspect that the demonic vessels possess emergency teleportation arrays. Lock down the spatial boundaries. Do not allow them to flee."
Jian Wufeng did not even glance down at the jade. His gaze remained fixed on the incoming colossal blood-red fist tearing through the skies.
"He won’t get the chance," Jian Wufeng murmured as he took his stance.