Flesh-Branch Puppet

At the commotion, nearby stallholders and shoppers all gathered around to watch the excitement.

When Chen Jue pointed at the stallholder who had been sent flying, the crowd immediately erupted in horrified cries.

"Is that a Flesh-Branch Puppet from the Medicine King Sect?!"

"What are Linjiang's city guards even doing? They actually let something like this sneak into the city!!!"

Hearing this, Chen Jue followed the black-clad security guard over for a closer look.

The stallholder he had rammed away had his chest cavity split open beneath the crushing weight of the "mud truck." There were no organs or flesh inside—only a cavity full of sticky green fluid, along with brown branches supporting the body.

The black-clad men maintaining order looked terrified, and Chen Jue's scalp went numb as well.

He had never imagined that the young man he had just chatted and traded with was a monster through and through!

By then, the onlookers were already buzzing with discussion.

"Something huge has happened... Flesh-Branch Puppets are puppets controlled by the Medicine King's followers. If one has appeared in the outer city, it means experts from the Medicine King Sect are already active in Linjiang!"

"Back then, Puzhou in Henan Province was first infiltrated by Flesh-Branch Puppets. Then they planted a Life Tree in the city center, corrupting a million living beings overnight..."

"..."

Chen Jue pricked up his ears at the surrounding chatter, his gaze never leaving the corpse with its ruptured chest.

The thing gave off an indescribably chilling sensation. Green fluid bubbled in its chest cavity, and after death, its body gradually turned as pale as a bloated corpse fished from the water. Its belly swelled rapidly, like a balloon being inflated, growing a full circle larger.

"Haha, with its belly puffed up that big, it's not about to explode, is it?"

Amid the discussion, someone unknown tossed out that joking remark.

In an instant, the entire hall fell silent. A bone-chilling cold stabbed up everyone's spine, turning their faces pale with terror.

"Run!"

The thought had only just surfaced in everyone's minds.

When a massive BOOM! rang out.

The Flesh-Branch Puppet on the ground abruptly exploded, countless jets of green slurry sweeping across the entire second-floor black market like bullets.

"Sorry, brother."

The instant the Flesh-Branch Puppet exploded, Chen Jue reached out and pulled the security guard beside him—the one pointing a flintlock at him—in front of himself as a shield.

The green slurry immediately splattered all over the guard's head and face, while Chen Jue remained untouched by a single drop.

"You!"

Other than being disgusting, the green slurry did not seem poisonous. The gun-wielding guard came to his senses, flew into a rage, and turned to argue with Chen Jue.

Chen Jue inwardly groaned. Judging by the guard's furious expression, he was probably about to lose one or two thousand in emotional damages.

"Cough, cough, cough!~~"

The guard was so enraged that before he could get out more than a few words, he choked on his saliva. He crouched down, repeatedly pounding his chest with his palm as he coughed without stop.

To show concern, Chen Jue stepped forward and patted the guard's back. With one slap, the guard immediately vomited up a puddle of green mucus with a splash.

Brown roots writhed within the mucus like tapeworms.

Chen Jue's eyes widened in shock, as though he had seen something utterly unimaginable.

He backed away two steps, only then noticing that everyone splashed by the green fluid was now bent over in violent coughing fits.

Green mucus poured from their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses, collecting into clumps on the ground. Driven by the writhing roots, the clumps expanded as though alive, gradually merging together.

"We're rich! We're rich!"

Some survivors who had not been struck by the green fluid shouted in wild celebration, dragging sacks behind them as they frantically swept up goods.

Chen Jue immediately came to his senses. He kicked over the black-clad guard in front of him, snatched the flintlock wrapped in black cloth from his hand, and rushed straight for the medicinal herb stall that he had previously hesitated to approach.

Two other martial artists had also set their sights on that stall. They moved in from either side, only for Chen Jue to draw his blade and bar their way, driving them back with a single slash.

"Friends, make your fortune elsewhere."

Chen Jue stood firm with his saber held crosswise, leaving no room for argument.

Seeing the young man wield a two-handed saber with only one hand, the two martial artists became uneasy and could only retreat unwillingly.

Chen Jue picked out the medicinal herbs that had not been contaminated by the green fluid and packed them into a tote bag.

Then a thought struck him, and he turned to look toward the stall at the edge that sold manuals.

The man in the conical hat had not joined the looting. Instead, he pressed the self-destruct switch on the box behind him, cleaning up the loose ends here.

The box burned red-hot in the flames. The man even gathered up the manuals displayed on the stall and tossed them all inside.

"Damn it! How much can you even make working for a month? Why are you trying so hard?!"

Chen Jue ground his teeth and gripped his saber hilt, about to cross the obstacles and head over.

Yet at that moment, a sudden change occurred.

The security guard Chen Jue had just kicked over seemed to have suddenly gone rabid. His mouth split all the way to his ears as he opened a gaping maw filled with green fluid and lunged fiercely at Chen Jue with incredible speed.

Chen Jue shuddered in alarm, shifting slightly backward and instantly evading the guard infected by the green fluid.

"Ahhh!"

"Let go of me! I won't take your stuff anymore!"

"You monster!"

Chen Jue being able to instantly evade an infected person's bite did not mean everyone else could.

Especially those martial artists immersed in the "zero-cost shopping" frenzy, who had completely let down their guard.

They were pounced on by infected people beside them. Some had their throats bitten through, while others had half their faces torn off by teeth, releasing one heart-rending scream after another.

A chill ran down Chen Jue's neck as he sensed several malicious gazes fixed on him.

Following the sensation, he turned to look.

At the spot where the Flesh-Branch Puppet had exploded, a circle of infected people had gathered without anyone noticing. Their bodies were muscular, their faces blue-gray like tree bark.

They stood in a formation with eerie precision and chanted a scalp-numbing prayer in unison.

"The Medicine King is merciful; all things sprout and flourish!"

"Those who sow as one shall ascend to paradise together!"

As the prayer echoed through the second-floor black market, their bodies rapidly swelled as though being inflated!

"Sun Youtian! Are you stupid?! What matters more, money or your life?! Run already!!!"

Seeing the situation had completely spiraled out of control, the surviving martial artists of the black market began leaping from windows to escape after scooping up enough benefits.

Chen Jue kept his eyes locked on the man in the conical hat. When he saw him jump out through the south window, Chen Jue promptly leaped out through the eastern window as well, following close behind.

Clatter!

Chen Jue vaulted over a blue corrugated-steel fence, making a conspicuous noise as he followed the man in the conical hat into a deserted old alley.

"You've got some nerve, trying to steal the Wu Clan's things!"

Three voices suddenly rang out from the houses on either side of the old alley.

Chen Jue's expression tightened. This is bad. He hurriedly prepared to make a break for it.

But at that moment, two figures dropped down before and behind him, while another stood atop the roof, sealing off every route of escape.

Chen Jue rested a hand on his saber hilt and stared warily at the three martial artists blocking him in the alley.

"Kid, who are you?"

The martial artist blocking the rear of the alley wore a fitted black outfit and carried a single-edged saber over three feet long. His gaze roamed over the long saber at Chen Jue's waist, making his greed impossible to conceal.

The martial artist blocking the front of the alley was very young, barely over twenty. He wore a light red patterned Chinese-style cardigan and held a longsword in a black scabbard, a faint smile of lofty disdain and carefree arrogance lingering at the corner of his mouth.

"What powerful background could someone have if they came to a black market to buy cultivation manuals?"

"One slash will settle it. Hang his head outside the black market and give the latecomers a proper warning."

The three surrounded Chen Jue on three sides in the narrow alley, chatting and laughing among themselves as if Chen Jue were already a dead man who could still speak for the time being.

Chen Jue stood still with a hand on his saber hilt. Faced with the three-sided encirclement, he had initially felt somewhat regretful and nervous, but he quickly noticed something off.

Because his vital blood was far too vigorous, in his perception, the vital blood of these three martial artists pointing fingers at him was like candle flames on a windowsill in a gale—so feeble they seemed liable to be snuffed out at any moment...

It was known that the higher a martial artist's realm, the more vigorous their vital blood would be.

So no matter how highly three martial artists with candle-weak vital blood had cultivated, how strong could they possibly be?

Fourth level of true qi? That was their absolute limit!

"Little brat, put down that saber now. Your grandpa here might let you die a little easier!"

The black-clad martial artist holding the saber at the rear of the alley approached Chen Jue with a sinister grin.

The young martial artist at the front, wearing a cold smile, moved in at the same time, steadily compressing the space Chen Jue had to maneuver.