novelraw Chapter 594: Mourning Demonic Bloodline
Chapter 594: Mourning Demonic Bloodline
The forces that the Vine Emperor led into the Eastern Tree Ocean this time were all elite.
He had a thousand Void Glimpse Stage puppets, all crafted by the Void Inquiry Stage.
Nearly 50 Void Refinement Realm Puppet Masters were controlling these thousand puppets, currently working with tens of thousands of living puppet cultivators from the Muye Kingdom to bloodbath the land!
This is a catastrophe, a calamity that could overturn the entire Eastern Tree Ocean!
He personally led six Void Fragmentation subordinates and 11 Void Fragmentation spirit clones of the Void Inquiry Stage, heading to Jishui to take the Bamboo Sovereign’s life!
The Muye Kingdom was in chaos. The Bamboo Hall’s cultivators either died untimely deaths or became living puppets, assisting the Vine Hall’s atrocities.
At this moment, the Bamboo Sovereign could only muster three Void Fragmentation powerhouses: the Great Elder of the third heavenly layer, the Fifth Elder of the first heavenly layer, and the Seventh Elder.
This was the best opportunity to kill the Bamboo Sovereign and destroy the Bamboo Hall. The Vine Emperor had meticulously planned for tens of thousands of years for this moment!
"Kill!"
With a command from the Vine Emperor, murderous intent surfaced in the six Void Fragmentation elders behind him. They split into two groups and launched a siege on the Fifth Elder of the Bamboo Hall!
Among these six Vine Hall’s Void Fragmentation elders was the large-skulled Void Fragmentation and the dryad Void Fragmentation, who had once hunted Ning Fan.
Among the six Void Fragmentation elders of the Vine Hall, one was of the Second Heavenly Layer, while the others were of the First Heavenly Layer!
With six First and Second Heavenly Layer elders besieging the sole First Heavenly Layer Fifth Elder, his outcome was inevitable. It wouldn’t take long before the Fifth Elder would be slain, severing one of the Bamboo Sovereign’s arms of support!
"Fifth Elder, be careful!"
The Great Elder and the Seventh Elder saw the Fifth Elder being besieged, their faces filled with anger and intent on rescuing him.
At that moment, 11 Void Fragmentation spirit clones from the Void Inquiry Stage coldly surrounded the Great Elder of the third heavenly layer.
At the same time, the Second, Third, and Fourth Elders, now turned into living puppets, jointly besieged the Seventh Elder.
"Why have you three betrayed the Bamboo Hall! Give this old man a reason!"
The Seventh Elder was filled with righteous indignation, glaring angrily at the three Fragmented Void Elders who betrayed the Bamboo Hall.
He didn’t know that these three elders had long become living puppets of the Void Inquiry Stage, and wielding swords against their own was simply beyond their control.
The three living puppet Fragmented Void Elders ignored the Seventh Elder’s fury, casting one spell after another, coldly and mercilessly, toward him.
Among the three living puppet elders, the Third and Fourth Elders were in the Fracture First Realm, while the Second Elder was in the Second Realm.
Their combined efforts only meant that it was a matter of time before the Seventh Elder would be slain...
"Damn it! The betrayal of these three Fragmented Void Elders has driven countless cultivators in the Eastern Tree Ocean mad... Void Inquiry Stage! I ask you! Are you behind all this! Ten thousand years ago, you entered our Eastern Tree Ocean, slaughtering countless beings, and now you dare plot against our Bamboo Hall! If I don’t kill you, I vow to cease being human!"
The Great Elder roared furiously, and with a grasp of his large hand, countless gale winds transformed into 11 deep azure wind dragons, rushing toward the 11 spirit clones of the Void Inquiry Stage.
The 11 silver-haired elders all looked mockingly at the wind dragons, their fingers entwined with countless threads as thin as nothing.
All the silver-haired elders simultaneously activated the silver threads, which instantly shot through the void like lightning, piercing into all the wind dragons.
The 11 wind dragons all howled miserably. In the next moment, their eyes turned blood-red, completely controlled by the Void Inquiry Stage.
With a flick of the silver threads, the wind dragons turned back on the Great Elder, launching an assault against him!
One after another, the giant dragons burst apart, transforming into soaring azure tornadoes, mixed with billions of wind blades, engulfing the Great Elder in a tempest!
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The spell backfired, and the wind blades cut into his body. In a matter of moments, the Great Elder was covered in wounds.
Standing amidst the tempest, he retrieved a ceremonial banner and shook it fiercely. The banner shimmered with a green light, dispersing the countless wind blades instantly.
Afterward, the Great Elder gazed with shock and anger at the 11 silver-haired elders, full of profound apprehension...
The Void Inquiry Stage not only caused his spell to backfire but also hid countless silver threads in the retaliatory wind dragons.
Those silver threads, carried by the wind blades, pierced into the Great Elder’s Dantian, directly shattering his Divine defensive armor that shielded his Spirit, causing him to lose more than ten percent of his primordial spirit’s power in an instant...
In that moment, the Great Elder felt an unprecedented sense of life-and-death crisis and used a self-damaging secret technique to eradicate all the silver threads within him...
If he had been a moment slower, his entire Spirit might have been wiped out by the Void Inquiry Stage... how dangerous!
"What a predicament... the Void Inquiry Stage’s skills are too terrifying, and my Spirit is already wounded. I’m afraid I’m no match for him..."
The Great Elder, the Fifth Elder, and the Seventh Elder were all trapped in peril. If no one came to their rescue, it would be hard to ensure their survival.
The Bamboo Sovereign clenched his fists, desperately wanting to go help the three elders, but was unable to do so.
Not far from him stood the Vine Emperor, cold and watchful, in a face-off with him.
If he attempted to rescue the three elders, the Vine Emperor would seize the opportunity to launch a sneak attack on him...
The only way to save the three elders was to quickly eliminate the waiting Vine Emperor, but that notion was unrealistic.
Even in his prime, the Bamboo Sovereign’s strength could only equal the Vine Emperor’s, with neither able to surpass the other.
And now, having already been ambushed by the three living puppet elders, the Bamboo Sovereign was heavily injured. Fighting the Vine Emperor left him with little chance of victory, and, rather than killing the Vine Emperor, he might end up defeated and possibly killed...
"Vine Emperor! Destroying my Bamboo Hall only weakens the Tree World’s power; what benefit is it to your Vine Hall! Do you desire to rule a realm as feeble as the Rain Immortal World by isolating yourself? If you withdraw from the Eastern Tree Ocean, sparing the Bamboo Hall, I, the Emperor, will agree to any condition you set! Spare my three loyal elders, they should not die here!"
"..."
Hearing the Bamboo Sovereign’s words, the Vine Emperor seemed to hear something amusing, merely sneering without saying much.
He neither negotiated with the Bamboo Sovereign nor initiated an attack to kill him.
Though injured, the Bamboo Sovereign was still a formidable adversary, his power still in effect. Now was not the ideal moment to kill him!
The Vine Emperor was waiting for the Void Inquiry Stage and others to kill the last three Fragmented Void Elders of the Bamboo Hall to shatter the Bamboo Sovereign’s state of mind!
He was waiting for the Void Inquiry Stage’s 12th spirit clone to unseal and release the four fierce beasts of Nieli to kill the Bamboo Sovereign together with the Ming Luo Tree and Nieli!
He did nothing but wait, watching the Bamboo Sovereign. At any movement the Bamboo Sovereign made, he was ready to attack!
Time ticked by, chaos ensued in the Muye Kingdom, and more and more cultivators were losing their lives in Jishui City, to the extent that the Jishui underneath the city was stained red with blood and corpses.
In the fight against the Void Inquiry Stage, the Great Elder was increasingly on the defensive, his injuries becoming severe.
The Seventh Elder, besieged by three living puppets, had lost a leg and an arm, his breath weak and life slipping away.
The Fifth Elder, under siege by six Void Fragmentation adversaries, was the first to unleash an agonizing death scream!
Ah!
After a heart-wrenching scream, the Fifth Elder was slain by the six Vine Hall’s Void Fragmentation adversaries, his corpse plummeting from the sky!
"Fifth Elder!"
The Bamboo Emperor’s tiger eyes flared with rage, unable to contain himself anymore. Sovereign qi surged around him as he took a large step forward, launching an enraged punch at the six Void Fragmentation cultivators of the Vine Palace who had killed the Fifth Elder.
This punch merged all his mana and sovereign qi, forming an immense golden fist mark thousands of feet tall, an anger-infused strike from a Fifth Heavenly Layer Void Fragmented king!
As the fist imprint blasted out, the streaming clouds over millions of miles all turned to pure gold.
Contained within that fist imprint was the Bamboo Emperor’s uncontainable anger, its sharpness unstoppable!
Behind the Bamboo Emperor, a massive golden illusion suddenly appeared, exactly his Emperor Shadow!
When the Emperor Shadow manifested, countless cracks ripped through the sky, from which golden light streamed.
Just after the six Vine Palace Void Fragmentation cultivators had slain the Fifth Elder, the Bamboo Emperor’s punch came at them suddenly, leaving them all terrified. Each hurriedly activated their defensive magical treasures and retreated!
They dared not delay retreating. Being merely First and Second Heavenly Layer cultivators of the Void Fragmentation Realm, how could they dare face the wrath of an emperor directly!
They retreated swiftly, but the fist imprint came even faster, crossing countless spans in an instant, smashing all the defensive magical treasures raised by the six Void Fragmentation cultivators to dust!
As the fist mark moved through them, two Void Fragmentation cultivators immediately fell, leaving the other four severely wounded!
Among the fallen two was even a Second Heavenly Layer Void Fragmentation cultivator from the Vine Palace!
"You have indeed acted, hehe..."
The Vine Emperor’s voice suddenly came from behind the Bamboo Emperor, without the anger of a subordinate being killed, only delight.
That delight was because the Bamboo Emperor acted to extinguish the enemy, revealing a flaw.
Suddenly appearing behind the Bamboo Emperor, the Vine Emperor wielded a purple-gold halberd, slashing it at the Bamboo Emperor’s Tian Ling.
This strike came during the gap when the Bamboo Emperor was attacking, leaving him no time to dodge!
The Bamboo Emperor only had time to slightly sway aside, but the short halberd had already sliced into his flesh!
Swoosh!
With one slash, the Bamboo Emperor’s right arm was forcibly severed, and purple poison infiltrated his body from the wound.
Enduring intense pain, the Bamboo Emperor glared at the Vine Emperor, stabilized himself after several backward steps, then charged forward, launching his left fist to battle the Vine Emperor!
"Teng Gunan! I will fight you to the death!" The Bamboo Emperor roared with fury.
"Hehe, you have lost an arm to me and have been poisoned by the Soul Breaking Halberd, greatly weakening your vital energy and cannot summon a trace of your sovereign qi! You are now no match for me; today you will meet your end by my hands!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The collision between the Bamboo Emperor and the Vine Emperor sent destructive waves through the sky.
With each impact, the Bamboo Emperor’s injuries worsened, yet he was determined to fight to the death with the Vine Emperor, no matter the cost.
Amid their clash, the three Living Puppet Elders had already succeeded, slaying the Seventh Elder and capturing his corpse.
The Bamboo Emperor’s eyes were bloodshot. He could never understand why these three Living Puppet Elders would betray the Bamboo Hall and slay their fellow hall members...
"Why! Why would you betray me!"
"They have not betrayed you...their hearts still loyal to the Bamboo Hall, but their bodies must act on my command. For they are my Living Puppets! Refinement!"
The eleven silver-haired elders battling the Great Elder all let out cold laughs.
Then, two silver-haired elders temporarily withdrew from the battle, each manipulating silver threads, resurrecting the fallen Fifth and Seventh Elders as ’Living Puppets’ before the Bamboo Emperor’s eyes...
These two also became Living Puppets of the Void Inquiry Stage, bowing their heads to the eleven silver-haired elders high in the sky!
The Bamboo Emperor and the Great Elder froze at the sight, then seemed to realize something, their rage overwhelming!
So that’s it. No wonder the Void Fragmented elders who had served the Bamboo Hall for generations would betray it, nor why so many cultivators of the Eastern Tree Ocean went inexplicably mad...
It turned out that Void Inquiry Stage could create Living Puppets!
Living Puppets...puppets with life!
If you are alive, I retain your consciousness, making you a puppet, whether you are willing or not, you are mine to control!
If you are dead, I revive your memory, resurrecting you as a puppet, stripping you of the opportunity to reincarnate, making you my slave!
In this world, all puppets, even those with spirit awareness, are Dead Puppets. No puppet technique, however intricate, could revive the dead as puppets or allow puppets to retain their living consciousness...
Yet in ancient times, there was a demonic clan that developed the Living Puppet Art, named the Lamenting Deceased Clan!
The master of the Lamenting Deceased Clan was the ancestor of the Northern Heaven Immortal World...the Ancestral Emperor of the Northern Heaven!
Within the Lamenting Deceased Clan, most secret techniques, including the Living Puppet Art, could only be performed by those who cultivated the Mourning Demonic Bloodline.
The Lamenting Deceased Clan had to burn their own bloodline, with only a one in ten thousand chance of cultivating the Mourning Demonic Bloodline.
Among ten thousand people, only one could successfully cultivate the Mourning Demonic Bloodline; the rest would fail and die.
Being too dangerous, the Lamenting Deceased Clan was exterminated by the collective powers of several Four Heavens Great Powers after the Ancestral Emperor of the Northern Heaven passed away, leaving no survivors...
Unexpectedly, Void Inquiry Stage could wield the Living Puppet Art, revealing his identity...
"Void Inquiry Stage! I never expected you to be a remnant of the Lamenting Deceased Clan! If the Four Heavens knew your identity, they would surely hasten to kill you!" The Bamboo Emperor roared in anger.
"Hehe...Your Majesty Bamboo Emperor, you indeed overestimate this old man, for I am not of the Lamenting Deceased Clan, merely that I accidentally consumed a treasure, unexpectedly cultivating the Mourning Demonic Bloodline, and gaining scattered techniques as a result. However, you reminded me, whether or not I am a Lamenting Deceased Clan member, the fact of possessing the Mourning Demonic Bloodline must never be revealed, or it might invite the killing calamity from the Four Heavens Great Powers..."
"Since I confided in you about the Living Puppets, I will not let you live; the dead will keep all my secrets!"
Swoosh!
A fierce light flashed in Void Inquiry Stage’s eyes. One among the eleven Spirit Sense duplicates suddenly burst apart, shattering into countless silver lines, piercing through the entire body of the waning Great Elder!
In the next moment, the shattered Spirit Sense reformed, while the Great Elder, pierced by the silver lines, gradually had empty eyes, becoming one of Void Inquiry Stage’s Living Puppets...
"Your Majesty Vine Emperor, no need to wait any longer, you and I together can easily kill the dying Bamboo Emperor!" Void Inquiry Stage sneered.
"Good! It is a great fortune for me to ally with the Mourning Demonic Bloodline!"
Boom!
As the two intended to jointly slay the Bamboo Emperor, a giant military boot suddenly descended from the sky!
"Haha, you don’t mind if Liu jumps into this bamboo slaughter, right?"
Boom!
With one stomp, a Spirit Sense of Void Inquiry Stage was destroyed directly!
"Liu Haoyue!!! How dare you destroy my Spirit Sense!!!!" The remaining ten silver-haired elders’ eyes all turned blood-red. (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations, monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)