Chapter 497 - 480: Forbidden Demonic Puppet
Yan Song was ruthlessly fixated on the outcome. His primary objective was to kill Wang Meng, and he had no intention of letting him display his true power.
The owl’s soul blasted toward Wang Meng. Its mournful shriek made all the surrounding Cultivators clutch their ears, feeling as if their hearts were about to burst from their chests.
Even cultivators at the Minor Perfection realm reacted the same way, and they were protected by the arena’s arrays. Bearing the full brunt of the attack on the Dueling Platform, one could only imagine the terrifying impact Wang Meng was about to endure.
Life-Reaping Owl’s Cry!
Anyone but the user would be doomed. Even a Great Perfection cultivator would be momentarily stunned by it.
At that moment, Yan Song’s sword was already lunging at Wang Meng. ’The Sect Leader said he definitely can’t block this,’ he thought. ’This single strike will finish him!’
But the killing blow was stopped dead in its tracks.
Wang Meng’s fingers had caught the tip of the blade. The owl’s cry was still raging, but as Wang Meng slowly turned his gaze toward the owl’s soul, the shriek cut off abruptly and the soul instantly burst apart.
Before Wang Meng had even made a move, Yan Song shot backward, his back soaked with sweat.
’What... what just happened?!’
No one saw how Wang Meng had struck. Or perhaps, he hadn’t struck at all.
At that moment, everyone understood. Wang Meng hadn’t made it this far by some fluke, and it certainly wasn’t luck.
It was simply that he had yet to meet an opponent who could make him take the fight seriously.
Yan Song’s expression wavered. ’Should I use it or not?’
’But he even stopped my sword!’
Instantly, four giant puppets materialized around Yan Song. The four puppets immediately encircled Wang Meng, and circular arrays appeared beneath their feet. The four arrays then combined to form a Grand Locking Spirit Array, trapping Wang Meng at its center.
"Kill him!"
Yan Song roared through gritted teeth. The four puppets immediately thundered toward Wang Meng.
’These are my Lifebound Puppets!’
’Each one is equivalent to a Body Cultivator at the First Layer of Minor Perfection! Paired with the Combined Formation, their power is immense! All I need is for them to buy me one opening to finish Wang Meng with a single strike!’
Wang Meng didn’t even glance at them. He simply stomped his right foot lightly on the ground.
BOOM...
Four Vibration Waves erupted outwards, instantly reaching the four puppets. RUMBLE...
The four puppets were blown to smithereens.
The entire arena fell deathly silent, everyone staring dumbfounded at Wang Meng. Linglong and the others, however, remained expressionless. To an ordinary Cultivator, this was a shocking display, but to them, it lacked any real technical substance.
They were waiting for the Puppet Sect’s Ancient Puppet, not to watch this fool Yan Song waste their time.
Yan Song stumbled backward, his face a mask of utter disbelief.
Wang Meng spoke, as if concerned he had frightened his opponent. "So many friends have come all this way. We’re all waiting for your Ancient Puppet. What’s the hold-up?"
Yan Song’s face grew even paler at his words. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to use it... but the cost was far too great.
’I thought killing Wang Meng wouldn’t be this hard,’ he despaired. ’That puppet is a last resort, but now...’
Gritting his teeth, he summoned a massive array. As Secret Spells swirled within it, Yan Song’s entire body instantly turned beet-red, like a boiled crab, his Vitality continuously draining into the formation.
Shan Lin frowned. ’...This is a sacrifice!’
’What kind of puppet requires a sacrifice just to be used once?’
’A Forbidden Puppet!’
’Only the legendary Forbidden Puppets require a sacrifice of life to be activated!’
Forbidden Puppets possessed immense power but violated the Celestial Dao, and thus had been banned for ages. The Puppet Sect was the foremost master of Puppetry in the Star Alliance. While they didn’t create such things, if they found one and chose to use it, there was little anyone could do.
A Demon Statue slowly rose from the array. On its once-bare head, wailing human faces began to surface. The howls were bloodcurdling. Yan Song’s expression grew even more grim; he was already injured from the destruction of his Lifebound Puppets, and now the Demon Statue was demanding an even greater price.
He hastily downed a Pill, pouring more of his Vitality into the array. Yan Song was now aging at a rate visible to the naked eye.
But he wasn’t afraid. ’As long as I eliminate Wang Meng, the Sect Leader will grant me more Vitality!’
The Demon Statue wasn’t large at all, about the size of an average Human Cultivator. Its body was pitch-black, initially resembling a simple pillar. But after being infused with Vitality, a face, hands, and feet emerged.
"Wang Meng, this is an Ancient Demon Dao Image! It was forged from Purgatory Gold and is immune to all Magic! Even a Great Perfection master would be helpless against it! You are dead!"
Yan Song shrieked hysterically, staring down at his own withered skin.
But he was the only one roaring; everyone else’s attention was fixed on the Demon Statue.
As the Young Master of the foremost Demon Sect, the No Illusion Demon Sect, Lin Jinghao couldn’t help but nod. He flicked open his Good Person Fan. "Quite the investment. This thing is notoriously troublesome."
At last, the Demon Dao Image moved. It seemed delighted by its resurrection, leaping and bounding about. But its movements left everyone stunned.
’That speed...’
It was surreal.
Nothing but afterimages!
If it was truly immune to Magic... what could Wang Meng, a Sword Cultivator, possibly do?
"That Yan Song is a fool. Why didn’t he just kill Wang Meng with a single strike? This would all be over!"
"Heh, Wang Meng wouldn’t do that. Otherwise, it would be a rather dull trip for all the people who came to watch."
"This Demon Statue is indeed an ancient treasure. Yan Song’s Essence Blood isn’t enough to fully power it, yet it still possesses the strength of the Fourth Layer of Minor Perfection. With Magic being useless, I’m afraid only the Dragon Race would stand a chance against it."
"Actually, this thing was specifically created in ancient times to counter the Dragon Race."
"The Puppet Sect really spared no expense."
Song Yifan felt a pang of worry. After all, the state Yan Song was in was terrifying. As the successor of the Jiuling Sect, she likely understood the power of this creature better than anyone present, save for Yan Song and Yue Shan. If Wang Meng was careless, he would be in grave danger.
Seeing Song Yifan’s concern, Hu Jing sighed inwardly. ’That Wang Meng, always making people worry.’
"Don’t worry, little sister Yifan," Hu Jing said.
Song Yifan opened her mouth to argue, but stopped. She truly couldn’t believe it, because she could feel a suffocating power emanating from the Demon Statue.
In an instant, the Demon Statue struck, vanishing completely from sight.
It was as if it had ceased to exist. After a long moment, it still hadn’t reappeared. A savage grin spread across Yan Song’s face. ’This Demon Statue possesses a terrifying ability. Even a Great Perfection master would have to bow before it!’
At this, even Mingren and the other experts’ expressions changed!
’This is a Forbidden Law Demonic Puppet!’
’The pinnacle of Demon Statues created by Ancient Cultivators!’
’A Forbidden Law Demonic Puppet.’
But the most shocked person wasn’t in the audience; it was Yan Song himself. His face was a mask of disbelief as his body suddenly convulsed. The aging process, which had halted, began to accelerate once more. Trembling, Yan Song dumped an entire bottle of Pills into his mouth, but it was no use.
THUD. Yan Song collapsed to the ground, aging rapidly. "Sect Leader... you... lied to me!"
If it had been a mere Forbidden Demonic Puppet, a small sacrifice would have been enough to activate it. Yan Song had been willing to take that risk—fortune favors the bold, after all. But if he had known it was a *Forbidden Law* Demonic Puppet, he would never have touched it. That was a death sentence. It was the ultimate form of Demonic Puppet, one that could only be summoned by sacrificing the complete soul of a Cultivator.
Moreover, it could only complete a single task, making the cost exorbitant. Zhang Mang hadn’t sent him here just to kill Wang Meng.
From the very beginning, he had never intended for Yan Song to return alive.
Yan Song was only in his forties, with a bright future ahead of him. Reaching the Great Perfection realm wasn’t out of the question. His resentment gradually faded as his body withered into old age.
A strange sound echoed across the Magic Arena. It was somewhat like the grinding of teeth, but more like the sound of bones scraping together.
Yet, there was still no trace of the Demonic Puppet.
’Is it invisible?’
’How can there be no trace of its aura?’
The sound seemed to emanate from the Netherworld itself. The sky grew dim, adding to the sinister atmosphere. Everyone present was a Cultivator and thus unafraid of mere ghosts, but the mood was undeniably eerie. Yan Song, who had been a powerful cultivator, had been reduced to a pile of withered bones by the array.
In the current Star Alliance, such terrifying sacrificial techniques had become exceedingly rare.
No one believed Yan Song had intended for this to happen. It seemed he had suffered a backlash from the Demonic Puppet.
Shan Lin’s expression was grave. He, too, had guessed at the possibility. If this truly was a Forbidden Law Demonic Puppet, then this was a major incident.
With its summoner consumed by the backlash, the Demonic Puppet was likely out of control, free to indulge its instinct to devour Elemental Power and Essence Blood. This type of puppet had been eradicated for two reasons: one, its power was too immense, and two, an uncontrolled one could bring about disaster.
Most of the Cultivators didn’t understand what had happened; they only felt that things were strange. But the more knowledgeable among them could already sense that something was terribly wrong.
The chilling sound enveloped the Dueling Platform. At some point, the sky had darkened completely, now glowing with a blood-red hue.
The space itself seemed to be fluctuating abnormally, yet Wang Meng remained perfectly still.
The expressions of the Holy Hall Beings turned completely grave. Cultivators of Hu Jing’s caliber could feel the true power of this Demonic Puppet.
’It’s not invisibility,’ they realized. ’Ordinary Hidden Magic is useless here. To vanish so completely, there is only one method.’
’Space Control!’
Hiding within space itself. Unless one possessed the formidable physique of the Dragon Race—and even then, only those with the supreme bodies of the Dragon Emperor’s bloodline—one could not withstand the damage from spatial traversal. It was completely inhospitable to Human Cultivators. However, the strength of Human Cultivators lay in their research. This type of Demonic Puppet was created to imitate the Dragon Race, and its core was even made of Dragon Bone.
How could such a powerful Demonic Puppet appear here?
"Master, isn’t Junior Brother making a mountain out of a molehill? A tool like this should have been saved for Mingren or Lin Jinghao. We’ve only managed to repair this one after all these years."
"Since your Junior Brother chose Wang Meng, he has his reasons!"
The speaker was a middle-aged man. With a casual wave of his hand, he seemed to command the might of heaven and earth.
The insignificant Puppet Sect lacked the ability to repair a Forbidden Law Demonic Puppet.
Poor Zhang Mang was taking the fall for this. While he did want to deal with the Holy Hall, he would never have wasted such a treasure to do it. He wasn’t that extravagant. Besides, Yan Song was an outstanding disciple of the Puppet Sect. Zhang Mang, the City Lord, was not foolish enough to sanction such a self-destructive move.
Among the crowd of Cultivators, a pair of eyes watched everything unfold, a slight smile playing on their lips.
The Forbidden Demonic Puppet was clearly reawakening. Once it fully absorbed the power of the sacrifice, it would be time for a massacre. Amidst the puppet’s creaking, the Cultivators could now hear a new sound: a chilling, hair-raising laugh.
Unlike the anxious Human Cultivators, the members of the Dragon Race and Demon Race merely had solemn expressions, showing no other reaction.
This creature was difficult to deal with, but it wasn’t enough to make them retreat in fear.
At that moment, on the Dueling Platform, Wang Meng smiled. He took a single step forward with his right foot.
POP...
A faint ripple echoed out. But in that instant, the expressions of Linglong, the Mengg Lord, the Lord of Punishment, and Lin Jinghao all changed drastically. *This* was a true change of expression. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with recommendation tickets and monthly passes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)