Heavenly Puppet Sect

"Living corpses?"

The moment he heard the brawny giant's anguished howl, Xie Xuanyi understood.

Whether it was the mechanism arts of Great Chu or Nanli, they were in truth legitimate lineages, merely somewhat unorthodox.

Unorthodox, but never wicked!

Xie Xuanyi had once seen the wicked art of refining living people into mechanisms in the hands of evil cultivators from the Hundred Thousand Mountains. This technique was known as "Living Corpse Refinement." It usually selected strong-bodied body cultivators and, after a ritual of flesh-and-blood sacrifice, turned them into so-called "living corpses."

This technique defied the heavens and violated human harmony. Both Great Chu and Nanli had classified it as a forbidden art.

But those evil cultivators in the Hundred Thousand Mountains of the Southern Borderlands... cared neither for morality nor the law.

So long as they abandoned all bottom lines and performed blood refinement, they could turn a fresh, powerful young body into a fiercely loyal attendant at their side, an unmatched dead warrior willing to brave boiling water and tread through fire.

Quite a few evil cultivators had refined their own exclusive "living corpses"!

Xie Xuanyi clenched the sword sheath in both hands, wielding it as a long blade as he pinned it fiercely through Rank Six's chest. He knew that the one playing chess against him was merely a puppet. Its true master was someone else, and was most likely hiding somewhere nearby, controlling this puppet living corpse with divine sense to do battle.

He had now gained the upper hand. This living corpse possessed an exceptionally strong physique, but Sunken Chime Mountain was treacherous and cramped, leaving almost no room for close-quarters combat.

That strike had nailed it through.

As long as Xie Xuanyi did not let go...

No matter how immense the living corpse's strength, it could not turn itself over.

"So you're not only the Demon Kingdom Venerable's dearly trusted good son, but also some shady little ghost from the Southern Borderlands."

Xie Xuanyi released his hands, planted one foot atop the sword hilt, and slowly rose.

The gale lifted his black clothes.

He swept his gaze around. All was silent.

The real Rank Six lay hidden shallowly amid the wilderness.

At last, he understood what Rank Six had been doing during the three days he delayed the plan... This Southern Borderlands evil cultivator's identity was truly troublesome. He had likely gone through untold hardship just to enter Azure Prefecture.

If he had guessed correctly, Rank Six intended to do two things in tonight's transaction.

First, obtain the Finger Bone.

Second, kill Rank Three.

"Aren't you the same?"

Several mocking laughs mingled with the wind echoing through the dark, endless night.

"The information the Demon Kingdom provided on Rank Three is completely different from you... The Rank Three in their intelligence was skilled with a great spear and at the peak of the Qi Guiding Realm. You brat are only in the Qi Refining Realm. You should be a body cultivator, right? Carrying a broken sword and trying to impersonate a sword cultivator?"

Hearing this, Xie Xuanyi could not help but laugh.

Interesting.

Truly interesting.

From the other party's tone, this "Rank Six," deeply trusted by the Venerable and entrusted with an important task by the Demon Kingdom, seemed to be a fake as well?

"Since we walk the same path, why must we draw blades and swords?"

Xie Xuanyi spoke calmly. "Why not come out and meet me, and turn weapons of war into jade and silk?"

After identifying the living corpse, he had released his divine sense, enveloping more than half of Sunken Chime Mountain.

Though his Qi was weak, his divine soul remained powerful.

The art of controlling mechanisms with strings feared nothing more than having one's true body exposed. The master behind this puppet had to be hiding somewhere on Sunken Chime Mountain at this very moment!

Every time a voice was transmitted, there would be fluctuations of the divine soul.

Xie Xuanyi wanted to stall the living corpse's master and locate their hiding place directly through conversation!

"Bullshit."

A cold laugh rang out through the mountain again. "Who walks the same path as you? There is only one White Marsh Finger Bone. Tonight, either you die or I perish!"

As soon as the words fell.

Xie Xuanyi chuckled softly. "Is that so? Aren't you being a little too confident?"

The next moment.

Xie Xuanyi's gaze turned toward an extremely secluded, shadowy corner deep within the purple bamboo forest.

He kicked the sword again. But this time, what flew out was no longer merely the sheath, but the snow-white flying sword concealed within it!

Buzz!

A wisp of Golden Qi clung to the flying sword's blade and instantly pierced through a distance of one hundred zhang!

"...?"

The flying sword vanished into the darkness at once. A spray of blood burst from deep within the purple bamboo forest, followed by a muffled groan of bewilderment mixed with pain. An extremely petite figure darted out from the bamboo shadows.

Xie Xuanyi raised a hand lightly.

The flying sword returned and slipped back into his palm.

The entire process took only three or four breaths. Throughout it all, he had remained standing atop that huge, powerfully built puppet.

Xie Xuanyi narrowed his eyes. He had not expected this Rank Six, who had won the Demon Kingdom's trust, to be merely a woman... Yet her looks were utterly incomparable to Shen Yan, the Demon Kingdom spy from before.

Rank Six's face was savage and covered in scars, her entire body shrouded beneath a black robe.

At this moment, she covered her shoulder with one hand.

Blood trickled steadily out, running down through the gaps between her fingers.

That instant just now, Xie Xuanyi's flying sword had been too fast. Rank Six had never imagined that her position would be exposed... Yet she did not show much pain at all.

After taking that sword.

A careless smile instead swept across Rank Six's scar-covered face.

"There are many evil cultivators in the Southern Borderlands skilled in mechanism arts."

Xie Xuanyi looked at the woman before him and spoke slowly. "To protect themselves, these creatures that cannot bear the light chose to huddle together for warmth. Once gathered, they became the 'Heavenly Puppet Sect,' whose foul reputation rivals Yin Mountain's... If I'm not mistaken, your art of refining 'living corpses' came from the Heavenly Puppet Sect, didn't it?"

"You know quite a lot."

Rank Six gave a cold laugh. "Calling us creatures that cannot bear the light at every turn—what about yourself? If you can bear the light, why hide yourself away? Didn't you want to meet me frankly just now? Now that we have met, why not peel off that face and speak?"

The Heavenly Puppet Sect excelled at flaying skin, extracting bones, and blood-refining living people!

The "resin face" Xie Xuanyi had made was child's play in their eyes, because they truly could peel off an entire human face to make a "human-skin mask"!

Rank Six was an expert in this.

Thus, with only one glance, she could tell that Xie Xuanyi wore a false face.

Xie Xuanyi laughed freely and shook his head.

"You chose Sunken Chime Mountain for this meeting and had a full three days. You can't possibly have prepared only one living corpse, can you?"

He spun the sword in a flourish and aimed its tip at the woman not far away.

"What do you think?"

Rank Six still wore that indifferent, cold smile. After a pause, she slowly asked, "What do you think... Is this disciple of the Heavenly Puppet Sect only skilled in blood-refined mechanism arts?"

Xie Xuanyi frowned slightly.

He noticed something exceedingly strange.

The bloody hole in Rank Six's shoulder, where the flying sword had pierced her earlier, was still steadily bleeding. If he had guessed correctly, this woman was very likely in the Grotto-Heaven Realm!

With the Qi cultivation of the Grotto-Heaven Realm, sealing a wound and quickly stopping the bleeding should not have been difficult!

Wait... blood?

Xie Xuanyi lowered his head with a grim expression. The snow-white, gleaming blade of the flying sword that had returned to him had somehow been stained with a smear of scarlet. It was the blood it had brought back when it pierced through Rank Six's shoulder.

"I most enjoy 'eating' body cultivators like you."

The woman covered her shoulder, lowered her head, and giggled foolishly.

The next moment, she abruptly raised her head—

A thread of scarlet light erupted from between her brows, gathering into something like a vertical eye. Countless strands of bloody stench intermingled and converged, forming that vertical eye.

The Grotto-Heaven Realm and the Qi Guiding Realm stood as far apart as clouds and mud.

To step into this realm...

A cultivator had to concentrate their Qi and forge their own "grotto-heaven divine abode" within their dantian!

A thousand cultivators would often form a thousand different "grotto-heavens."

After reaching this realm, the grotto-heaven became a cultivator's source of power. Differences in cultivation methods, aptitude, and countless other factors... created enormous disparities in strength within this realm. Two Grotto-Heaven Realm cultivators of similar levels might clash, only for one side to utterly crush the other!

Three thousand Great Daos, countless seeds.

Every grotto-heaven could be called a seed of the Great Dao. So long as its master cultivated diligently and excavated it earnestly, it would display a distinct trait of the Great Dao!

The road of cultivation began beneath one's feet.

One day, one could open a grotto-heaven.

That was the origin of the words "grotto-heaven."

At this moment, the residual blood clinging to the flying sword's blade resonated with the scarlet vertical eye opened between Rank Six's brows.

An intense sense of danger, far surpassing the night raid in Taian City, surged into Xie Xuanyi's heart!

Bang!

The flying sword exploded!

A massive cloud of blood mist exploded within the purple bamboo forest!