A suffocating mixture of grief, outrage, and murderous intent hung heavy in the air.

Then—

SCREEECH!

A grating, metallic cackle tore through the silence of the dead capital, sounding like iron scraping against bone.

Everyone looked up sharply.

In mid-air, a phantom figure coalesced, shrouded entirely in voluminous black robes. His face was hidden behind an expressionless metal mask, revealing only a pair of muddy, soulless eyes.

“Welcome, everyone, to the Demon Nest.”

His voice filtered through the mask, laced with mockery and cruelty. He waved a withered hand casually, as if scattering feed to chickens.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Like a downpour of black rain, countless figures shot out from the void. Densely packed like a swarm of locusts, they plummeted toward the alliance forces. These figures moved with stiff, jerky limbs. Their eyes were vacant voids.

They were puppets.

Most emitted the aura of the early or mid-Golden Core stage. But what chilled the cultivators to the bone wasn’t their strength—it was their faces.

“Senior Brother Zhao? No!”

“That’s Uncle-Master Wang!”

“Junior Sister! How could you be…”

Cries of shock and roars of pure agony erupted instantly. Among the descending horde were disciples and Elders who had gone missing years ago or had fallen in previous battles. Now, refined into unfeeling tools of war, their faces twisted with necrotic energy, they pounced on their former brothers, sisters, and lovers.

“Daoist Qianji!” Xia Chengyan roared, his eyes burning with fury. “You sick bastard!”

Without hesitation, the Prince shot into the sky. A longsword flowing with crimson-gold flames materialized in his hand. The blade’s light tore through the gloomy sky, slashing straight for the masked puppeteer.

“Hmph.” Daoist Qianji snorted coldly, not bothering to dodge.

The space behind him twisted, and a towering, bulky puppet suddenly stepped out. The puppet raised both massive arms, and a thick, solid wall of earthen-yellow light instantly condensed before it.

CLANG!!!

Xia Chengyan’s peerless sword strike slammed into the shield, erupting in a blinding explosion of sparks and shockwaves. The light shield shuddered violently, but it did not shatter.

“[Profound Yellow Mountain-Suppressing Rock]?”

Li Fuxi’s pupils contracted to pinpricks. She recognized that signature defense at a glance. It was the unique, unparalleled skill of her Eldest Senior Brother, Wang Pan.

An icy, absolute killing intent detonated from her body.

Shing!

Her spirit sword left its sheath. Two brilliant lotuses of sword qi bloomed around her, spinning with lethal velocity. Several Golden Core puppets that tried to intercept her were instantly shredded into meat and scrap metal.

She tapped the ground, transforming into a streak of white light, following Xia Chengyan’s wake to pierce straight at Daoist Qianji.

Below, the [Eight Trigrams Formation Plate] beneath Lin Xiaozhu’s feet lit up with piercing intensity. She swept her gaze over the chaotic battlefield, her expression turning grave.

“I sense them! Two other Nascent Soul signatures… deep within the Imperial Mausoleum!”

As soon as her words fell, the entire secret realm began to quake violently. A blinding, pure white light erupted from both the sky and the ground, swallowing everything indiscriminately.

“It’s a randomized teleportation array! Be careful!” Lin Xiaozhu’s urgent warning came just a split second before the light engulfed them.

Crap, Zhang Xian thought the moment the light flared.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Li Fuxi charging recklessly toward Qianji. He didn’t hesitate. He slapped a high-grade Wind Talisman on his leg.

Whoosh!

Leaving an afterimage behind, he appeared beside Li Fuxi as if teleporting. In the instant before the white light swallowed them, he wrapped his arm tightly around her slender waist.

“What are you doing?!” Li Fuxi shouted, shocked and angry.

The next second, the world spun.

Vertigo slammed into them.

When the light faded, Zhang Xian and Li Fuxi found themselves standing in a vast, open square. Majestic, dilapidated palace ruins surrounded them. Directly ahead, perched on the soaring eaves of a palace roof, stood the black-robed Daoist Qianji.

His hands were clasped behind his back, his icy gaze locked onto them like a viper.

“How deeply affectionate,” Qianji cackled, the sound grating on the ears.

His gaze swept over Zhang Xian before settling greedily on Li Fuxi.

“You must be the brat the White Venerable wants dead. And as for the little girl beside you…” He licked his lips beneath the mask, his eyes flickering with a sinister, ghostly light. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. A pure Dual Spiritual Root. If I refined you into a puppet to serve by my side day and night… wouldn’t that be delightful?”

BOOM! BOOM!

Before he could finish his monologue, two powerful auras shot toward the square like meteors.

It was Xia Chengyan and Zhiyin.

“Old geezer! Prepare to die!”

Xia Chengyan arrived screaming, his crimson-gold sword erupting with scorching radiance as he slashed at the roof.

Seeing Zhiyin following closely behind, a trace of surprise flashed in Qianji’s dark green eyes.

“Oh? Your puppet actually broke through to the Nascent Soul stage? How bizarre. A tool surpassing its master’s realm… if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would call it impossible.”

Zhiyin’s face remained impassive, her clear, cold gaze fixed on the villain. “Was it you who dismantled Zhiyin Two?”

Daoist Qianji let out a strange laugh. “Correct. That puppet was interesting; its core structure had some unique ideas. I never thought a backwater like the Southern Region could produce such puppetry. If I have the chance, I’d love to… dissect your techniques.”

“Refining the living into dolls. Treating cultivators as raw materials.” Zhiyin’s voice dropped an octave. “With you, there is nothing to discuss.”

“Why are we talking to him?!” Xia Chengyan interrupted, vibrating with impatience. “Let’s jump him! It’s a 4v1 gank! I’ve got a date with my Xiaozhu later, so let’s wrap this up!”

BOOM!

The Prince transformed into a beam of golden light. His sword carried the momentum to boil seas and scorch the heavens as he led the charge.

A cold light flashed in Li Fuxi’s eyes. Man and sword became one, a beam of refined killing intent piercing straight at the enemy. Zhang Xian didn’t hold back either, tossing a handful of expensive talismans to harass the villain from the flanks.

Facing a siege from three sides, Daoist Qianji didn’t panic. He sneered.

“Hmph. Trying to bully the old with numbers? Little brats, I think you’ve forgotten who I am!”

He threw his arms wide.

WARP!

Space twisted violently! several figures exuding terrifying auras instantly teleported in front of him.

First, a middle-aged man with a rugged, resolute face stepped forward. He held a wrought-iron long spear.

CLANG!

The spear moved like a dragon, parrying Xia Chengyan’s crimson flame sword with impossible precision. The strike was heavy, filled with the bloody aura of a veteran general.

It was the Great Xia Dynasty’s missing Grand General—Han Lie.

Second, an old man with crane-white hair and a youthful face drifted backward. He wore ancient robes and formed hand seals with blinding speed.

A complex star chart lit up beneath his feet. Countless starlight runes ascended, weaving into a massive net of light that sealed the sky above the square. A heavy, crushing pressure descended on the battlefield.

Li Fuxi’s heart sank. This was the former Head of Tianque Peak, the master of divination and formations—Perfected Being Star Concealment.

Suddenly, both Li Fuxi and Zhang Xian felt a lethal lock-on.

A third figure blurred toward them. The man raised both hands, firing two condensed, pure-gold finger beams straight at their foreheads.

The pressure contained within those fingers was undeniably Nascent Soul level, even if the movements were slightly stiff.

When Li Fuxi saw the face of her attacker, her entire body trembled. Her grip on her sword tightened until her knuckles turned white.

That face belonged to the man she revered as a father. Her mentor.

Perfected Being Wangchuan.

At the same time, the hulking puppet beside Daoist Qianji moved. It spread its massive palms.

HUMMMMM—

Waves of thick, earthen-yellow halos pulsed outward. Instantly, an impenetrable layer of [Profound Yellow] armor encased Qianji and his elite puppets.