novelraw Chapter 604: Regicide!
Chapter 604: Regicide!
At the silver-haired giant’s command, the ancient jade was immediately raised into the air, and with ten fingers forming a seal, he began to unseal the jade’s power with all his might.
Ning Fan swept his gaze over and then slightly narrowed his eyes. It was a five-colored ancient jade, a fragmentary piece that was incomplete, appearing very old with a few cracks.
This ancient jade bore no aura of a magical treasure; it looked like an ordinary object, not resembling a treasure.
Yet, as the silver-haired giant moved his fingers, the ancient jade gradually exuded an extremely terrifying and eerie aura!
Sometimes as cold as ice, sometimes as hot as fire, sometimes vibrant like wood, sometimes weighty like earth, sometimes sharp like gold...
The aura swiftly transformed, gradually merging the five elements... At this moment, Ning Fan sensed a hint of danger emanating from the ancient jade.
Despite the eons that had passed, the ancient jade still imparted a strong sense of threat to Ning Fan!
Something was sealed within the ancient jade... something extremely dangerous!
Screech—
The White Bone Nie Li and the Nine-Headed Nie Li closed in from both sides, launching attacks on Ning Fan.
After one strike, the two beasts immediately retreated, touching and leaving swiftly, then gathered their strength to launch another attack.
These two beasts could naturally not harm Ning Fan and the Purple-Eyed Netherfiend; their sole purpose was to stall Ning Fan for ten breaths, giving the silver-haired giant a chance to unseal the ancient jade.
The two beasts had Fragmented Three and Fragmented Four cultivations respectively; though they were not a match for the Purple-Eyed Netherfiend, they could at least stall for ten breaths in a desperate fight.
"Though I do not know what exactly is sealed within that ancient jade, since it poses a sense of crisis to me, I must not let Wan Chang Kong unseal the jade!"
Ning Fan’s left eye flashed with a Demon Star, and a bloodline pressure at the ancestral level suddenly swept through the void!
It was the bloodline pressure of four drops of Fu Li ancestor blood!
Under this level of pressure, both the White Bone Nie Li and the Nine-Headed Nie Li were left in utter panic, their aura suppressed, as if their demonic power were sealed, rapidly weakening!
The aura of the White Bone Nie Li weakened from the Fragmented Three realm down to the Great Void Realm!
The aura of the Nine-Headed Nie Li also plummeted from the Fragmented Four realm to the Fragmented One realm!
Their very souls were trembling endlessly! Before this, they only knew Ning Fan as a Fu Li, unaware that he was an ancestral blood Fu Li!
A king’s blood Fu Li could easily control the Sinful Mark to annihilate any Nieli.
The bloodline pressure of an ancestral blood Fu Li alone could significantly weaken the cultivation of any Nieli!
"This is... the bloodline pressure at the ancestral level! Impossible! This Lu Bei is actually an ancestral blood Yao!"
"What kind of demonic blood is this? I’ve never heard of it! Not a single demon race I know of, not even from the Nie Li clan, yet it can cause Nie Li’s cultivation to plummet. Why!"
The silver-haired giant’s face was aghast, yet he bit his tongue fiercely, spraying essence blood madly, all to hasten the jade’s unsealing.
Now that both life puppet Nie Li’s cultivation had weakened, not to mention stalling Ning Fan for ten breaths, they couldn’t even manage to stall for one breath.
Without enough time to unseal the ancient jade and release what was sealed within, he would certainly die at Ning Fan’s hands today!
It’s not fast enough; the unsealing speed of the ancient jade is still insufficient!
The silver-haired giant ignited his own Blood of Mourning, willing to burn away the Immemorial Evil Vein to hasten the unsealing of the jade!
"Five breaths, no, three breaths! Just give me three breaths, three breaths! I can release the ’Mourning Ancient Puppet Thread’ from this Mourning Ancient Heaven-Piercing Jade, and easily capture the Crushed Five Nieli as a puppet, turning the tide of the battle!"
"Three breaths, give me three breaths!"
Alas, he was destined not to have three breaths to unseal the ancient jade; Ning Fan wouldn’t even give him two!
In the instant the ancestral blood pressure was unleashed, weakening the two life puppet Nie Li’s cultivation, the Purple-Eyed Netherfiend had already received Ning Fan’s command. It immediately spread a sky of black haze, sweeping the two Nie Li’s into oblivion!
With the fall of the two Nie Li’s, the life cultivation of the former was condensed by the Sinful Mark into eight Nie Fruits, and the latter’s into twelve Nie Fruits.
Each Nie Fruit for Ning Fan, the ancestral blood Fu Li, was equivalent to a Fragmented Void Dao Fruit.
But Ning Fan had no time to collect these Nie Fruits.
Without hesitation, he rode the Purple-Eyed Netherfiend, transforming into a demon wind and charged fiercely towards the silver-haired giant. Before the second breath arrived, he had already reached the silver-haired giant and launched an attack.
The Purple-Eyed Netherfiend flapped its wings, spreading a sky full of black haze, sweeping towards the silver-haired giant.
Although it seemed like a light sweep of haze, the silver-haired giant’s sternum was instantly shattered, as if struck by Mountain Tai, forcibly halting the jade’s unsealing hand seal.
The ancient jade’s light gradually dimmed, reverting once again to an ordinary fragment, floating alongside the twenty Nie Fruits in the boundless void.
Seeing the jade’s light dim, Ning Fan breathed a slight sigh of relief. Successfully thwarting the silver-haired giant’s attempt to unseal the jade was indeed fortunate.
The silver-haired giant, standing in the void, clutched his chest with one hand, steadied his form only after retreating ten thousand miles.
Upon seeing the unsealing of the jade fail, with the jade lost miles away, the silver-haired giant showed a pained expression, yet he gritted his teeth, swiftly abandoning any attempt to retrieve the jade, and vanished in a flash of light.
He was defeated... This time, he was thoroughly defeated, having lost even the ancient jade, he was no longer a match for the Purple-Eyed Netherfiend, and had to flee.
Watching the silver-haired giant turn and flee, Ning Fan patted his storage pouch, summoned the puppet, and ordered it to retrieve the jade and all the Nie Fruits.
He himself rode the Nie Li in continued pursuit of the silver-haired giant.
At this moment, the silver-haired giant had ignited even his Blood of Mourning, his escape speed was naturally extremely fast, not at all weaker than the Purple-Eyed Netherfiend.
But as the Evil Vein gradually burned out, his escape speed slowed down, until finally, after fleeing billions of miles, he was caught by Ning Fan.
At this moment, the silver-haired giant was already in a critical state, and looking at Ning Fan blocking his path, he showed an extremely resentful expression.
"Lu Bei! Lu Bei! Lu Bei!!! Why do you insist on exterminating me, pushing me too far! You push me too far!!! If it weren’t for the help of the Crushed Five Nieli, do you think I would fear a mere junior in the Great Void Sect? A weakling hiding behind power! If I..."
He hadn’t finished speaking when Ning Fan revealed a mocking expression, riding on the escape light of the Purple-Eyed Netherfiend, flashed aside a hundred miles.
Suddenly, where Ning Fan originally stood, a giant light gate of a Celestial Cauldron appeared.
Countless mechanism war chariots flew out from the light gate, with spiritual crossbows in each chariot firing simultaneously, millions of spirit arrows shot towards Ning Fan, each arrow capable of killing a Golden Core expert!
The alignment of millions of spirit arrows could direct the downfall of even the careless Void Fragmentation cultivator!
At this point, the silver-haired giant still harbored deceitful intentions, eyeing a chance to ambush Ning Fan.
He intentionally escaped billions of miles, merely seeking to catch Ning Fan off guard.
Even at the brink of despair, he was unwilling to bow and await death.
Unfortunately, Ning Fan was on guard against him and wouldn’t fall for his plot.
All these millions of spirit arrows missed, which was truly regrettable...
"Have you stopped fleeing? Or do you still plan to ambush me a third time?" Ning Fan coldly laughed with a hint of mockery.
"Hmph, I won’t flee anymore, I’ll perish together with you! Appear, my thousand puppets!"
The silver-haired giant’s puppet body suddenly shattered, retreating from the giant figure, transforming back into the appearance of the silver-haired elder, Wan Changkong.
Wan Changkong pointed a finger, and over forty light gates of Celestial Cauldrons appeared out of nowhere, each one releasing twenty to thirty Void Refinement Realm puppets.
These puppets were different from the Living Puppets before; they were Dead Puppets, the most common kind in the Void Refinement Realm.
There were puppets made from grass and wood, puppets crafted from Spirit Ores, puppets made of clay, puppets forged from ice, and puppets made from human corpses...
In total, there were 1023 puppets here, each at the Void Inquiry Stage!
These 1023 puppets were exactly the components that formed Wan Changkong’s giant puppet body!
Adding Wan Changkong himself, it precisely totaled 1024 puppets!
In addition to the Living Puppet Art passed down from the Mourning Ancient Heaven-Piercing Jade, there was another spell called the Vajra Unity Technique.
The essence of this technique is for cultivators of the Mourning Demonic Bloodline to refine themselves into puppets, and then to create a large number of Dead Puppets. By merging with these Dead Puppets, they achieve a great physical form far surpassing their own realms.
The reason Wan Changkong’s physical form reached the level of Nirvana Fifth Heaven was entirely due to his union with the 1023 Void Inquiry Stage puppets.
Now that he released the unity technique, naturally, he could summon 1023 Void Inquiry Stage puppets for battle.
A mad intent to kill flashed in Wan Changkong’s eyes, and with a pinch of his finger technique, the Void Inquiry Stage puppets soared into the sky, surrounding Ning Fan, and upon nearing him, they immediately self-detonated!
In just a few breaths, nearly two hundred Void Inquiry Stage puppets had self-detonated!
The simultaneous self-detonation of nearly two hundred Void Inquiry Stage puppets generated shockwaves potent enough to instantly kill Ning Fan.
The Purple-Eyed Netherfiend, loyal to its master, opened its mouth and swallowed all explosive shockwaves, fearing any harm might reach Ning Fan.
Ning Fan remained unharmed, but she suffered internal injuries from the explosion...
If she hadn’t protected Ning Fan, she wouldn’t have been injured.
For the first time since breaking the seal, this Purple-Eyed Netherfiend was wounded, her aura slightly disturbed.
"Ha ha, the Crushed Five Nieli is nothing impressive, sustaining injuries under my puppet’s self-detonation!" Wan Changkong grew more excited.
No matter, these Void Inquiry Stage puppets could all be sacrificed, they could all be discarded!
Though puppets were precious, life was even more so. If one couldn’t survive today’s tribulation, everything else was in vain!
"I refuse to believe that a thousand Void Inquiry Stage puppets can’t blow you to pieces! Explode! Explode! Explode!!!" Wan Changkong sneered continuously.
Ning Fan’s eyes turned cold. He originally had a way to escape into the chiliocosm to evade the puppets’ self-detonation tactically.
The Purple-Eyed Netherfiend was unaware of his self-preserving method, so she willingly risked injury to protect him.
Ning Fan did not understand what motivated this Purple-Eyed Netherfiend to submit to him, obey him, and protect him.
But seeing this Purple-Eyed Netherfiend willing to harm herself to shield him, his heart couldn’t be calm.
"Take some rest. Wan Changkong is already at the end of his rope, I can kill him on my own!"
"Even if there were ten times more Void Inquiry Stage puppets, they wouldn’t be a threat to me now! The spiritual puppets from all worlds couldn’t harm me, they are all life imprisoned! With one finger, I imprison your life!"
Ning Fan, clad in black, flickered and disappeared from above Nieli’s head, reappearing in front of eight hundred Void Inquiry Stage puppets.
His long hair fluttered wildly, as a pitch-black crescent moon slowly emerged in his left eye.
At the moment the crescent moon appeared, the connection between the eight hundred puppets and Wan Changkong was entirely severed. Each puppet stood bewildered in the void, at a loss.
Subsequently, a Black Moon Mark slowly appeared on the bodies of each puppet.
As the Black Moon Mark appeared, the eight hundred puppets instantly defected, becoming Ning Fan’s subservient Void Inquiry Stage puppets!
In the void, the eight hundred puppets all bowed their heads in submission to Ning Fan!
"Black... Black Moon Divine Skill! This is the power of the Black Moon Divine Skill! With just one skill, it directly strips away my control over the eight hundred Void Inquiry Stage puppets. What a tyrannical spell!"
"In the presence of the Black Moon, those who defy it shall perish! In the presence of the Black Moon, those who defy it shall perish!!! As a Puppet Master, as part of the Lamenting Deceased Clan, no one can defy the Black Moon!"
Wan Changkong watched this scene in a frenzy, eyes filled with deep reluctance.
He spent his life slaughtering his way to his current status, painstakingly refining these Void Inquiry puppets.
Yet, in an instant, all these puppets were snatched away by Ning Fan... why?!
At this moment, Wan Changkong dispelled the form of the giant puppet, and his physical body was no longer strong.
At this moment, Wan Changkong, despite having the cultivation of the First Heavenly Layer of the Void Fragmentation Realm, was gravely injured and dying, his bloodline burned out.
But even so, he was unwilling to die here, he was unwilling!
"Spare my life, and I will become your puppet, your servant, helping you slay the Vine Emperor! With my Vajra Unity Technique, I can merge a thousand puppets into one, and once merged, my physical body will rival that of a cultivator in the Fifth Heaven of Nirvana, even the Vine Emperor is no match for me!" Wan Changkong pleaded.
Ning Fan walked step by step closer to Wan Changkong, coldly saying, "Not needed. Even if I need strong warriors as servants or puppets, I would not choose you. Because I simply do not trust you!"
Bang!
Ning Fan’s body suddenly shattered into wisps of dark shadows dispersing.
At the moment his body shattered, a silver light gate appeared once again in the void where he had been.
This time, four artillery blasts of a Void Fragmentation Realm Strike emerged from the light gate, attempting to blow Ning Fan to dust.
Fortunately, Ning Fan timely shattered his body, narrowly avoiding this attack.
This was Wan Changkong’s third ambush; even at the last moment, he would still bite, one can’t be careless.
Such a person, even if a restriction is planted, and memories wiped while kept nearby, is a disaster!
"You won’t have a fourth chance to ambush me... you can die now!"
The dark shadows recondensed, and Ning Fan appeared behind Wan Changkong, raising his hand with a golden sword light, splitting him in two from his Tian Ling.
The deceitful and vicious Wan Changkong thus truly fell.
The thirteenth wisp of his spirit sense he had secretly cultivated tried to sneak away but was discovered by Ning Fan, who coldly soul-searched and erased it.
At the moment Wan Changkong fell, throughout the entire Eastern Tree Ocean realm, all cultivators who had become living puppets began to turn into flying ash and dissipate.
Not only in the Eastern Tree Ocean, but even some cultivators from the other three Great Tree Oceans began to turn into flying ash and dissipate.
These people were similarly Wan Changkong’s living puppets, dark seeds he had planted.
Had Ning Fan not slain Wan Changkong, these dark seeds might never have surfaced.
After soul searching, Ning Fan spat out demonic fire, turning Wan Changkong’s remains to ash, ensuring the man’s death.
He collected Wan Changkong’s storage pouch, took the eight hundred puppets, and returned to the top of Nieli, riding it back to deal with the puppet.
The puppet had already obeyed Ning Fan’s orders, retrieving the ancient jade and 20 Nie Fruits, and handed them to Ning Fan.
In this battle, Ning Fan obtained a total of 27 Nie Fruits. While for others, these fruits were akin to self-damaging poisonous fruits, for Ning Fan, they were a significant supplement, equivalent to Void Fragmentation Realm Dao Fruits.
Ning Fan put away the Nie Fruits, examining the five-colored ancient jade closely, growing more startled the more he looked.
From Wan Changkong’s memories, Ning Fan learned that this five-colored ancient jade was named the Mourning Ancient Heaven-Piercing Jade, which could help cultivators open the Mourning Demonic Bloodline and acquire several secret techniques inherited by the Lamenting Deceased Clan.
These secret techniques included the Living Puppet Art and the Vajra Unity Technique.
Sealed within this Mourning Ancient Heaven-Piercing Jade was a thread.
It was a puppet string, a Life Puppet Thread once used by the Mourning Ancestor!
This thread possessed a miraculous divine skill, capable of refining living puppets beyond a major realm once!
Ning Fan couldn’t help but be alarmed; had he acted a bit slower earlier, allowing Wan Changkong to unseal this thread, he might have directly been turned into a living puppet.
Wan Changkong, pushed to the brink, wouldn’t use this thread unless desperate. He initially planned to use it to capture a rogue immortal as a living puppet, roaming across the nine worlds...
Wan Changkong, a Broken First Layer Cultivator, could capture a rogue immortal to be a living puppet with this thread.
Ning Fan, as a Void Refinement Realm expert, could at least capture cultivators of the Sixth to Seventh Layer of the Void Fragmentation Realm as puppets with this thread, and even those of the Eighth Layer could be attempted...
"I wonder if this Puppet String from the Mourning Ancestor could be used to refine rogue devils into living puppets..."
Previously, Ning Fan only thought about controlling rogue devils, never considering turning them into puppets.
Having acquired this Puppet String from the Mourning Ancestor, this thought process could certainly be changed. Directly refining rogue devils into living puppets would be easier and more secure than controlling them with the Devil Subduing Hoop.
"This can be done, but to ensure safety, I should prepare thoroughly before attempting to subdue a rogue devil with this string..."
"Now... it’s time to settle the score with the Vine Emperor!"
...
In Jishui City, one by one, the riotous living puppets turned to flying ash and vanished, and the disturbances ended.
Watching Jishui City gradually calm down, the Vine Emperor was suddenly aghast.
"The living puppets are disappearing, what’s happening?!"
Boom!
High above Jishui, the space suddenly shattered.
A youth in black, standing on a Purple-Eyed Netherfiend, flew out from the void fissure, returning to the battlefield of Jishui.
At the moment the Purple-Eyed Netherfiend reappeared, endless black clouds swept down.
At this moment, the battlefield at Jishui had already seen numerous cultivators from Vine Palace rushing to support, but with the sweep of the black mist, all Vine Palace cultivators were reduced to ash and perished.
The few remaining elders of Vine Palace either fell by the hands of the Bamboo and Willow Emperors or died under the sweep of the black mist. Now, only one seriously injured elder of Fragmented Void remained alive...
"Lu Bei is back, Wan Changkong must be dead... We’ve lost this battle!" Tianqin Lao Guai’s face was extremely grim.
"Retreat!" The Vine Emperor gritted his teeth.
The two each took out a jade scroll and crushed it, instantly creating a massive gateway behind them.
Without hesitation, they each leapt into their gateway and escaped hastily.
Alarmingly, the jade scroll they used was the World Path Rain Slip.
The direction of their escape was not towards the Western Sea but the Four Heaven’s immortal worlds!
The location of the Three Realms Sect is precisely within the Four Heaven’s immortal worlds!
Following this defeat, with all Vine Palace experts deceased and the Vine Emperor himself gravely wounded, naturally, he dared not remain in the Tree World to recuperate for fear of Liu Haoyue’s revenge, hence he fled from the Tree World directly.
"Where do you think you’re going!" A Void Fragmentation cultivator from Liu Hall was unwilling to let Vine Emperor and Tianqin Lao Guai escape and directly pursued into the gateway.
Liu Haoyue wanted to stop this person, but it was too late.
The moment that Void Fragmentation cultivator stepped into the gateway, a purple light suddenly arose from it, sweeping towards the cultivator.
The old monster of the Void Fragmentation realm immediately let out a miserable cry, directly turned into ashes by the purple light.
"Territorial Light of Separation!" Other Void Fragmentation cultivators from Liu Hall were all shocked.
The escape jade scrolls used by Vine Emperor and Tianqin Lao Guai actually had the Territorial Light of Separation defending the gateway. With this light present, anyone pursuing into the World Path would be directly turned into ashes by the light.
"Transmit the order of this Emperor that no one in Liu Hall shall pursue into the World Path again!" Liu Haoyue sighed and closed his eyes.
"Damn it! To think Teng Gunan ran away!" Bamboo Sovereign, enraged, felt greater pain from his severed arm, slapped his single palm, and killed the last Vine Palace Fragmented Void cultivator who hadn’t escaped in time to vent his anger.
Ning Fan stood silently atop the skull of Nieli.
At this moment, his mana was exhausted, and the Purple-Eyed Nieli was also somewhat injured. With the Territorial Light of Separation blocking him, it would be difficult to pursue into the World Path, and even if he could, he might not succeed in killing Vine Emperor.
But if he lets Vine Emperor go, it will surely become a future threat!
Ning Fan thought briefly and noticed that the Territorial Light of Separation outside the two gateways was only a thin layer, very sparse, and immediately had an idea.
He slapped his storage pouch and suddenly summoned two hundred Void Inquiry Stage puppets, pinched down a command, "Explode!"
The 200 Void Inquiry Stage puppets self-detonated, immediately blasting a gap in the thin Territorial Light of Separation outside the gateway.
At the moment this gap appeared, Ning Fan, riding Nieli, rushed into one of the two gateways.
The gateway wasn’t the one Tianqin escaped through, but the gateway Vine Emperor had used!
The moment Ning Fan rushed into the gateway, the Territorial Light of Separation outside the gateway healed.
"Brother Lu rushed in?!" Bamboo Sovereign found it a bit unbelievable.
"Yes." Liu Haoyue replied absent-mindedly, his eyes revealing a look of worry.
He worried about Ning Fan’s safety and whether Ning Fan could successfully kill Vine Emperor.
He used to only appreciate Ning Fan’s Dao Enlightenment, but now he appreciated Ning Fan’s style even more and did not want Ning Fan to encounter harm.
Within the World Path, Vine Emperor was flying towards the Four Heaven’s immortal worlds with a gloomy expression, muttering to himself from time to time, "Lu Bei! You ruined this Emperor’s plan, forcing me to flee Tree World; this debt is noted! The next time we meet, will be the moment of your demise!"
"Is that so! We’ve already met again; let me see how you will bring about my demise! Kill!"
Ning Fan’s eyes turned cold, directing Nieli to launch a black mist attack.
The Vine Emperor was already no match for the Purple-Eyed Nieli, and now being gravely wounded, how could he be a match for Ning Fan and Nieli.
"Lu Bei, you cannot kill this Emperor, you cannot! Spare me, and I will write off the past grudges with you; how about it!"
"I don’t believe you!"
"If you kill me, the Three Realms Sect will not spare you!"
"If I don’t kill you, will the Three Realms Sect spare me then!"
...
Three days later, within the Four Heaven’s immortal worlds, the corpse of Vine Emperor suddenly fell from the sky, crashing into the sect of the Three Realms Sect.
The entire sect was shocked!
Tianqin Lao Guai, who had just returned to the sect, was even more terrified.
Someone chased into the World Path and killed Vine Emperor, but who was it?!
Luckily, that person didn’t enter his gateway, otherwise, the dead one wouldn’t be Vine Emperor but him, Tianqin...
What a close call...
"Tianqin! Our sect asks you, who killed Du Yu!" A long, melodious voice unexpectedly asked.
He didn’t inquire about Vine Emperor, only Du Yu, because to him, Du Yu was more useful!(To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations, monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)