The Master and His Wealthy Fiancée

The group stepped beyond the circle of corpses to search for clues, but they remained completely clueless. They couldn't even figure out where these zombies, these so-called Demonic Puppets, had come from.

The black fog was hampering their five senses far too severely.

The black fog? Just then, everyone distinctly sensed it was moving—even the four Foundation Establishment Stage senior brothers.

"Everyone, stay close! Don't get separated!" Tang Xian immediately transmitted, heading in the direction the black fog was flowing.

'Right or wrong, at least they had a direction.'

The group had been advancing for less than fifteen minutes when four crimson figures suddenly flashed into Chen Dong's Divine Sense. They were incredibly fast, far surpassing the Demonic Puppets that were once villagers.

Li Zhixuan's Spirit Sword and Chen Dong's Thunder Technique both struck nothing but air.

It all happened too fast. They covered the thirty or forty feet in the blink of an eye, leaving no time to even send a transmission. The moment Tang Xian sensed the attack, he slashed out with two golden rays, but he was tackled and dragged deep into the black fog. Not a sound could be heard from him.

The four Foundation Establishment senior brothers panicked. They had assumed that with a Golden Core Senior Martial Uncle leading the way, the mission's contribution points would be theirs for the taking. Who could have imagined they'd end up in such a state?

They quickly moved closer to Chen Dong and Li Zhixuan, terrified of being dragged into the black fog. All of them knew that these two new junior brothers were stronger than they were.

Chen Dong and Li Zhixuan stood on high alert. They wanted to go after Tang Xian but worried the four senior brothers wouldn't be able to keep up and would get separated. Plus, this black fog was too strange; neither of them had ever seen anything like it.

Only a few breaths passed before Chen Dong vaguely sensed another Demonic Puppet attack. Lightning coalesced into a Thunder Spear in his hand, and he immediately hurled it in the direction of his premonition.

Engulfed in the black fog, it was impossible to see the result.

Suddenly! Two pairs of crimson eyes shot forward from that direction. This time, Chen Dong's Divine Sense perceived them clearly. The charging figures were wearing the cyan flowing dresses of the Cyan Sky Sect!

'Aren't those two of the senior sisters from Qiu Cai's team?!'

At that moment, their eyes were blood-red, glowing with a crimson light. Their mouths were split open to the back of their heads, baring saw-toothed fangs. Their speed was astounding, approaching that of a late-stage Golden Core expert. One lunged for Chen Dong, the other for Li Zhixuan.

They had obviously been turned into Demonic Puppets. Chen Dong didn't have time to think—any hesitation and he would be the one getting hurt. He immediately unleashed a Fire Technique, from which a Fire Phoenix emerged.

The Fire Phoenix and the Demonic Puppet crossed paths in an instant. Chen Dong was slightly astonished; the Demonic Puppet had dodged from less than thirty feet away. 'This speed is seriously tricky. This must be how Tang Xian got taken out.'

As for Li Zhixuan, he had managed to sever one of the Demonic Puppet's arms. Their first strike having failed, the two puppets once again vanished into the black fog.

The arm on the ground showed not a hint of flesh and blood, resembling nothing more than a withered bone.

'So the Demonic Puppets really are our sect sisters.' It was all but certain that Qiu Cai's team had met with disaster. 'And the two figures just now were slightly different from the ones that ambushed Tang Xian... which means four disciples from our sect have become victims. These Demonic Puppets, transformed from Foundation Establishment Stage senior sisters, have speeds rivaling the late-stage Golden Core. The senior brothers behind us can't possibly fend them off.'

Chen Dong and Li Zhixuan glanced at each other, a silent question passing between them: What now?

Just then, Li Zhixuan's brow twitched. His azure Spirit Sword instantly split into over a hundred copies, which shot out in four different directions.

Chen Dong's Divine Sense had a shorter range than Li Zhixuan's. It was only when Li Zhixuan attacked that Chen Dong sensed four Demonic Puppets simultaneously converging on him.

Before the sword-light could reach them, the Demonic Puppets vanished once more. 'Considering how they dodged the Fire Technique earlier,' Chen Dong thought, 'with such precise control, the member of the Demon Race controlling them can't be far.'

Chen Dong immediately sent a transmission, asking, "What's the maximum range at which you can maintain precise control over your Spirit Sword?"

Li Zhixuan instantly replied, "Up to a thousand zhang, it's like an extension of my arm. At ten thousand zhang, I can still land a killing blow. That is, provided I'm not in this black fog!"

Chen Dong forced himself to consider the worst-case scenario. 'But the demon in this fog probably isn't a Nascent Soul. Otherwise, they would have just wiped us out instead of resorting to these fog-and-puppet tricks.' Given Li Zhixuan was at the pinnacle of the Golden Core stage, 'the demon's real body must be within a thousand zhang.'

But even if they knew the demon's approximate location, with this black fog in the way, the creature would have already relocated by the time they arrived.

Chen Dong couldn't think of a good solution. Li Zhixuan seemed to have revealed some of his Golden Core aura when he used his Void Sword Technique, and for nearly fifteen minutes after, no more Demonic Puppets attacked.

The four Foundation Establishment senior brothers' terror reached its peak, and they began sending pleading transmissions to Chen Dong and Li Zhixuan.

"You two junior brothers, you can't abandon us!"

"We saw it! Our fellow disciples were turned into Demonic Puppets! We don't want to become one of them!"

"Senior Martial Uncle Tang Xian is gone. We can only rely on you junior brothers now. Just tell us what to do via transmission, and we swear we won't hold you back!"

The four men's pleas reminded Li Zhixuan of his sect members from the Wangyou Sect who had died for him. He transmitted in a resolute voice, "Everyone, rest assured. The two of us may have joined the sect only recently, but we are not the kind to watch our comrades die before our eyes. Finding our three senior martial uncles is the priority now. Stay close to us!"

The transmission had just ended when two battered, stumbling figures, supporting one another, entered Chen Dong and Li Zhixuan's Divine Sense range.

One of them was Qiu Cai, one of the three Golden Cores.