Sword light flickered, sword energy crisscrossed, and the might of the sword formation erupted in full. The blinding radiance seemed capable of illuminating all of history as it completely enveloped a vast area around the city gates.
Du Xian, standing at the forefront, had nowhere to dodge. Countless surges of rampant energy transformed into a crushing, shearing force that wrapped around him.
In the blink of an eye, Du Xian was torn to shreds.
"Hahaha! Overestimating yourself!" The leading Liuying Sword Sect disciple had initially seen Du Xian charge at them with such fierce momentum and assumed he must have some hidden trump card. Who would have thought it was all thunder and no rain — after a single round of the sword formation's assault, the enemy was already reduced to pieces. He burst into laughter.
But the laughter had barely begun when his instincts screamed that something was wrong. His expression shifted, eyes bulging as he stared at the dismembered Du Xian, as though witnessing something utterly impossible. Aghast, he cried out: "A puppet!"
This Du Xian, who had charged at them with such reckless abandon, as though courting death, was not a living person at all — he was a puppet!
It was just that this puppet had been crafted with such exquisite refinement that it was indistinguishable from a real human. In the heat of battle, he'd had no time to examine it carefully. Only now, after having dismembered it, did he spot the telltale signs.
"Detonate!" A low voice, like a sound from the underworld, rang in every ear.
On the shattered remains of the puppet Du Xian, strands of searing light suddenly flickered, then blazed to blinding brilliance.
A wave of extremely dangerous aura radiated outward like a tsunami.
The Liuying Sword Sect disciple's face drained of all color. He screamed at the top of his lungs: "Run!"
As he shouted, his sword spun in his hand, generating layer after layer of sword intent as solid as a fortress to shield his body. He tapped his foot and retreated at full speed.
BOOM…
A thunderous explosion erupted. Outside the city gates, a searing white sphere burst apart, blanketing an area a full hundred zhang in radius. Violent waves of energy tore through the void, whipping up gales of destruction.
Muffled groans rang out one after another, then cut off abruptly as vital signs winked out, each one marking the fall of a warrior. The onlookers watched with pounding hearts and ashen faces.
Shortly after, the dust settled.
At the gates of Liuying City, a massive crater had appeared — over a dozen zhang deep and a hundred zhang across. The area around it was a scene of utter devastation. A large section of the city wall had crumbled. Scattered across the ground were charred corpses and severed limbs.
Crack, crack, crack…
The serpent puppet that had been hovering nearby, guarding Du Xian and Ye Jinghan, now coiled its body and raised its head slightly, its scarlet tongue flicking ceaselessly. Tucked within the curve of its belly, Ye Jinghan and Du Xian still stood, completely unharmed.
On the devastated earth, one figure staggered to his feet — the same leading disciple of the Liuying Sword Sect. He had been the strongest among all the disciples and had reacted the fastest, so although the puppet's self-destruction had inflicted some injuries, he had managed to cling to his life.
No sooner had he risen to his feet than the light before him dimmed. Someone had blocked his path.
He looked up. It was Du Xian.
Their eyes met. The Liuying Sword Sect disciple's gaze turned murderous with rage. He snarled, "You cheating bastard!"
He raised his sword to strike at Du Xian, but the moment he moved, excruciating pain shot through his entire body, and his energy refused to circulate. His face grew even paler.
The puppet Du Xian's self-destruction had carried terrifying power — roughly equivalent to the self-detonation of a Dao Source Realm peak cultivator. The Liuying Sword Sect disciples had been extremely close at the time, and the blast had virtually annihilated them all. Though he had somehow survived, his condition was far from good.
Du Xian's eyes burned crimson as he gritted out, "Compared to what the Liuying Sword Sect did to my Thousand Leaves Sect, this is nothing — this is merely interest!"
The feud of an exterminated sect could never be forgiven under heaven. Regardless of whether the Liuying Sword Sect had been acting on someone else's orders, they were the killers. Du Xian would show him no mercy.
With that, he brought his palm crashing down toward the Liuying Sword Sect disciple's head, intent on killing him without delay.
"Insolent junior! This is Liuying City — how dare you act the murderer here!"
An aged figure suddenly materialized across the sky, and with a casual sweep of his hand, he reached toward Du Xian.
A surge of Emperor Realm pressure washed over the area, and Du Xian found his entire body going rigid, unable to move no matter how desperately he struggled.
"Emperor Realm!" Du Xian's expression changed. He knew his actions had drawn out a powerful figure, but this person didn't seem to be the Sect Master of the Liuying Sword Sect. He couldn't tell what this man's intentions were or what his connection to the Liuying Sword Sect might be.
"At such a young age, you're already this bloodthirsty — if you're allowed to grow, who knows what havoc you'll wreak? I shall take you back to purge you of this killing karma!"
The old man seemed to be justifying his intervention. By the time he finished speaking, his enormous hand was already upon Du Xian's head.
In the void, several other figures flickered into motion — hurtling toward Ye Jinghan, who still stood where she was.
The Thousand Leaves Sect — a trivially small sect. In the past, hardly anyone would have paid it any mind. The recent stir it had caused was purely because the Liuying Sword Sect had been broadcasting the affair far and wide.
But the path of puppetry was, after all, an unorthodox art. Even if it had some uses, it wasn't the sort of thing that should attract attention.