Chapter 38: Realm of Ten Thousand Puppets
Endless wasteland.
Amidst the whirling sand, the spectral image of a long bridge made of white bones pierced through the void, traversing a hundred miles in the blink of an eye.
Its speed was unmatched.
Upon the bridge, Dantai Xue’s exquisite face showed no trace of emotion. In her slender hand, she gently crushed a jade pendant, letting its fragments scatter away on the wind.
“As long as I can hold out for one incense stick’s time, Master will arrive…”
The thought had barely surfaced when, ahead, the void was abruptly shattered by a massive, hundred-foot-long brown wooden puppet serpent!
The wooden serpent gaped its jaws and spewed forth a torrent of crimson flames.
It seemed almost as if Dantai Xue had deliberately hurled herself into its path!
With a gesture of her delicate hand, a turbid, yellow river surged from the void, shielding her. Then, she summoned a divine talisman shaped like a snowflake, which radiated dazzling, glassy light, enveloping her in its protective glow.
Sizzle! Sizzle!
The flames struck the Yellow Springs and were immediately extinguished by half. The remainder surged forward, engulfing Dantai Xue.
Within the blaze, her graceful silhouette flickered in and out of sight.
Suddenly—
A shrill, piercing whistle resounded.
The masked man’s soul shuddered, teetering on the brink of collapse. As he faltered, struggling to stabilize his spirit, a slender white bone needle silently materialized, darting toward his eye socket.
The masked man snorted in anger. A flash of light shot from his eyes, intercepting the bone needle with a beam of fire.
The bone needle twirled nimbly, transforming into a skull more than ten feet across, which opened its jaws and devoured the fire. The next moment, the skull spun and turned into a mirror of bone, emitting a blinding flash of lightning.
Booming thunder split the heavens, torrents of lightning pouring down in a waterfall that instantly engulfed the masked man.
The divine light of sorrow swept across, extinguishing the raging flames.
Dantai Xue stood poised in the void, watching as lightning flickered, her radiant beauty illuminated and shadowed by its flashes.
Amid the lightning, a massive figure gradually emerged.
Chants of sacred Sanskrit echoed, Buddhist light suffused the air, and the lightning slowly faded.
A golden Buddha, more than thirty yards tall, now hovered in the void. The masked man stood atop its head, applauding.
“Remarkable. You’ve only just reached the Golden Core stage, yet you forced me to summon my Ninefold Divine Puppet. My curiosity about this world only grows!”
“That treasure you wielded just now—what is it called? It can shift at will among so many utterly different forms?”
Dantai Xue’s expression was grave.
The golden Buddha before her loomed like a mountain, exuding an eternal, unyielding aura that suppressed heaven and earth.
Compared to the Golden Core monks of Dizang Temple, this golden Buddha seemed the true master of all Buddhas.
But what was the “Ninefold Divine Puppet” the masked man spoke of?
She extended her hand, recalling her White Bone Relic, and answered with measured calm, “This treasure is called the White Bone Relic. It can transform into the Mighty Bone Demon, the White Bone Dao Palace, the White Bone Thunder Mirror, the Bridge of Regret, the Seven-Kill Sword, the White Bone Divine Needle, the Netherworld Inferno Ring, the Bone Flute, the Heaven-Crossing Scepter, and other magical implements.”
The masked man nodded. “A demonic artifact indeed, remarkably unconventional.”
“May I ask, where does your path hail from?” Dantai Xue inquired, curiosity in her eyes.
Though their clash had been brief, she had almost exhausted her repertoire; all her skills, if not wholly displayed, were nearly spent.
Yet she had not managed to wound the masked man in the slightest.
The gap in their strength was still too great.
“I come from the Myriad Puppets Realm… Hm? Someone approaches!”
The masked man turned his gaze toward the southern horizon, his tone turning cautious.
From the distant sky came a single, sonorous sword note.
That sword note rang through the heavens, resonating with earth and sky alike—a marvel, wondrous beyond comprehension.
Then—
Dantai Xue saw a sword-scar cut across the world, cleaving the very fabric of this realm!
The golden giant Buddha suddenly erupted in boundless radiance and struck out with its palm, only to halt abruptly.
The very Ninefold Divine Puppet that had filled Dantai Xue with dread… was severed in two!
The sword light, veering slightly as if by chance, also slew the masked man.
A drifting cloud appeared at the horizon.
A handsome and distinguished middle-aged cultivator descended lightly, treading upon empty air.
“My disciple, forgive your master’s tardiness. Were you frightened?”
His face shone with a gentle smile, warm as autumn sunlight.
Dantai Xue bowed deeply, her voice soft as she spoke, “Thank you, Master, for saving my life.”
This was none other than the leading cultivator of Xuanyuan Continent, Patriarch of the White Bone Demon Sect, and the Seven-Kill Demon Lord—Pang Yue.
He gazed fondly at Dantai Xue, sighing, “Only a few months shy of the ten-year mark, and you still broke through to the Golden Core early.”
“The situation was dire, Master. I had no other choice. Please accept your disciple’s punishment,” Dantai Xue murmured, head lowered.
Smack!
A crisp sound rang out behind her.
A blush flared on Dantai Xue’s delicate face, her eyes glistening as she cast a shy glance at Pang Yue.
The firm, rounded curves of her hips stung with heat.
“Come to my chambers tonight to receive your punishment…”
“Yes, Master,” she replied with a radiant smile, her lovely face blossoming with allure.
In the ways of the demonic path, nothing is forbidden.
Dantai Xue had long known that within the White Bone Demon Sect, the several Golden Core elders—Gao Yan, Xiong Ying, Ruan Lengshuang, and others—were all dual-cultivation partners of the Seven-Kill Demon Lord. Four core disciples had also been favored by the Patriarch… and she was one of them.
They were master and disciple, but also lovers—united in both heart and Dao.
Dantai Xue was born with extraordinary talent, her strength surpassing all her peers. Among the cultivators of the world, those who could even catch her eye were few indeed.
For one to win her heart, to claim her devotion—there was but a single man.
“Who was this person? That puppet was rather intriguing!” Pang Yue remarked with interest, approaching the bisected Golden Core corpse.
“He was about to reveal more, but Master, you… killed him,” Dantai Xue said. “He mentioned something about the Myriad Puppets Realm.”
“An outsider from beyond the domain?” Pang Yue’s brow arched in surprise.
The ancient texts of Xuanyuan Continent’s sects contained no shortage of tales about cultivators from other worlds.
Having unified the four branches of the demonic sect, Pang Yue had perused countless ancient secrets and naturally knew that innumerable realms lay beyond this world.
Yet the membrane dividing these realms was formed by the very laws of heaven and earth—insurmountable for those at the Golden Core stage.
And on Xuanyuan Continent, the Heavenly Dao had long been in decline; for hundreds of thousands of years, no Nascent Soul expert had appeared…
After Dantai Xue recounted all she had witnessed, Pang Yue immediately led her into the Nine Nether Great Rift to investigate.
…
Aboard the massive silver warship, countless shadows of blood flitted noiselessly, eerily silent.
These blood-shadows, as if sentient, pounced upon any cultivator they encountered. The cultivators from the Myriad Puppets Realm were utterly helpless, reduced to pulp and blood, their essence absorbed by the shadows.
In less than the time it takes for one incense stick to burn, the blood-shadows had harvested every life aboard the warship.
A river of blood poured from the ship, flowing through the void until it reached Pang Yue’s feet and vanished.
Pang Yue’s aura surged and ebbed, as fathomless as the abyss. Even Dantai Xue, now also at the Golden Core stage, could not discern the limits of his power.
With eyes closed, Pang Yue meditated for a long while before opening them. Gazing at the distant, colossal Void Gate and the silver warship, he spoke slowly: “This time, Xuanyuan Continent will not escape its doom.”
By devouring the blood and souls of hundreds of cultivators aboard the silver warship, he had “seen” the Myriad Puppets Realm through countless pairs of eyes.
The Myriad Puppets Realm was vast beyond measure.
Three continents, seven seas, eighteen subordinate worlds.
Within this realm was but a single sect—the Nine Gods Sect.
Its master, the Ancestor Wuhua, was the only Nascent Soul expert in the Myriad Puppets Realm, ruling unchallenged.
Under Ancestor Wuhua were one hundred and eight Golden Core disciples, commanding tens of thousands of cultivators as they waged war across the heavens.
The Golden Core who had been slain by Pang Yue’s sword was none other than Zhao Mengfo, ranked ninety-seventh among Ancestor Wuhua’s disciples.
The Myriad Puppets Sect possessed nine great lineages, collectively known as the Nine Divine Puppets!
The skills of the sect’s cultivators lay entirely in their puppetry; the Nine Divine Puppets represented the strongest of all puppet arts.
They could reach the Nascent Soul realm!
Ancestor Wuhua had swept the heavens with his nine Nascent Soul-level puppets, undefeated.
In a small world like Xuanyuan Continent, where the Heavenly Dao was deficient, even a single Nascent Soul puppet could lay waste to all under heaven.