,/.

Su Fan had never imagined that when the Sword Demon climbed the mountain to issue his challenge, an outsider would actually sneak into Sword God Mountain and reach the Cliff of Reflection.

To kill him, they had truly spared no expense.

"On the surface, I'm a good-for-nothing. Who exactly is so determined to kill me?"

Fury surged in Su Fan's heart.

"No matter who it is, just wait!"

He was not far from breaking through to the Emperor Sword Realm.

Once he broke through, he could descend the mountain and seek out the truth.

No matter who was pulling the strings or what background they had, since they wanted to kill him, they could just wait to die!

Leng Zhuī arrived at the cave.

He found it completely empty, without a single person inside.

"Where is he?"

Leng Zhuī began searching the Cliff of Reflection.

Yet he failed to notice that Su Fan had silently been following behind him all along.

He turned the entire Cliff of Reflection upside down, yet still found no trace of Su Fan.

Leng Zhuī could not help but feel puzzled.

"Where is he? Where did he go?"

Just then.

He suddenly felt his nape tighten. A hand had clamped around his neck and lifted him up like a chick!

Leng Zhuī's face drained of color in terror.

Fear flooded his mind!

"Little chick, are you looking for me?"

A savage, sneering voice came from behind him.

Leng Zhuī began trembling all over. He felt weak from head to toe, utterly incapable of resisting.

The hand gripping his neck seemed to possess some terrifying power.

In an instant, it robbed him of all ability to fight back.

His body was spun around in the air, and he finally saw the person holding him.

A young man.

Gulp!

Leng Zhuī was terrified out of his wits.

Su Fan?

That legendary good-for-nothing?

Inwardly, he cursed the black-robed man and greeted every female ancestor in his family.

This was the good-for-nothing you talked about?

Does spreading rumors cost nothing?

You just opened your mouth and made it up!

Su Fan sneered, holding Leng Zhuī up with one hand while patting his cheek with the other. "Little chick, who sent you here?"

"S-Senior, this junior was blinded by greed. I heard there was treasure at the Cliff of Reflection, so I infiltrated this place. I beg Senior to show mercy!"

Leng Zhuī said, trembling.

At a time like this, he absolutely could not admit that he had come to kill someone.

Otherwise, he would undoubtedly die!

Su Fan sneered. He gave Leng Zhuī a shake as though shaking a chick, making every bone in Leng Zhuī's body crackle. His body went limp, and his head spun.

"Little chick, do you think I'm that easy to fool?"

It was over!

He could not fool him anymore!

Leng Zhuī's heart sank deeper and deeper.

"It was that damned black-robed man who told me to come kill you!"

With things having reached this point, Leng Zhuī could only confess.

"Lord Su, you are magnanimous. Please spare me just this once."

Leng Zhuī began begging for mercy.

Sure enough!

It was the black-robed man again.

A layer of black light appeared on Su Fan's hand, brimming with a strange and ominous aura.

The black light resembled countless fine needles as it pierced into Leng Zhuī's body.

Leng Zhuī felt a chill run through his entire body. In his consciousness, it seemed as though tiny black worms had appeared one after another.

Terrifying beyond measure!

His face changed drastically.

Wasn't Su Fan a disciple of Sword God Mountain?

What kind of method was this?

Gradually, Leng Zhuī discovered that his consciousness was no longer under his control.

His body no longer seemed to belong to him.

Yet he remained fully awake.

Fear filled his mind!

After a long while, his consciousness recovered, and his body was once again under his control.

Only those thin black worms in his consciousness seemed to have been born with him, rooted deep within his awareness.

They seemed capable of controlling him at any moment and killing him!

The way he looked at Su Fan was filled with terror.

Su Fan nodded in satisfaction.

What he had just used was a forbidden art.

The Puppet Life Forbidden Art!

It was a forbidden art of an ancient evil sect, obtained after the Sword God destroyed that sect.

It transformed lifespan into Puppet Bugs, which parasitized another's consciousness. They could control the other person's mind, control everything about them, and take their life at any time.

The terrifying aspect of this forbidden art was that

once Puppet Bugs were planted within someone and they became a Puppet Life, no matter how powerful they were, they would be controlled and unable to break free.

Even if the controller was far weaker than the one being controlled.

Furthermore, a person reduced to a Puppet Life would suffer no impact to their cultivation, consciousness, or anything else. Only, they could not betray their master, and their life and death were no longer in their own hands.

Moreover, the master of a Puppet Life could read the Puppet Life's memories!

This was an extremely evil forbidden art.

It used life as the price to create Puppet Lives.

In ancient times, the Puppet Life Sect had used this art to control countless powerful experts and countless prodigies.

They liked to seek out prodigies and control them as Puppet Lives while they were still weak. Once those prodigies grew powerful, even if their strength far surpassed theirs, they would still be unable to escape control.

The Puppet Life Sect had relied on this to become an incomparably powerful force.

There had even been quite a few prodigies from the great sects back then who were secretly controlled by the Puppet Life Sect.

The sect master of one powerful sect had actually been a Puppet Life of the Puppet Life Sect!

That sect master had been controlled as a Puppet Life in his youth. With his extraordinary talent, he had eventually become the sect master.

One powerful expert of Sword God Mountain had become a Puppet Life. In the end, the Sword Master of Sword God Mountain at the time discovered it, and in his fury led sword cultivators from across the world to crush the Puppet Life Sect!

Su Fan had cultivated this forbidden art. At this moment, he directly used the Puppet Life Art to control Leng Zhuī, turning him into a Puppet Life to work for him.

There was no value in killing him.

The Puppet Life Forbidden Art was evil.

After Su Fan read the cultivation method recorded in that jade pendant, it had automatically destroyed itself.

It could only be read once!

Su Fan would not use this forbidden art lightly.

Leng Zhuī was merely a test subject, used to test this forbidden art.

"Go investigate who wants to kill me. Understand?"

Su Fan patted Leng Zhuī's face as he spoke.

"Yes!"

Leng Zhuī nodded.

He could not control his own consciousness to refuse.

At this moment, Leng Zhuī regretted accepting this job beyond all measure.

He hated the black-robed man to the bone!

If that man had not said the target was a good-for-nothing, he would never have agreed to risk infiltrating Sword God Mountain to kill someone.

Although Leng Zhuī had been controlled as a Puppet Life, his thoughts and consciousness had not changed.

Everything was exactly as it had been before he became a Puppet Life.

Only he himself knew that he was now controlled by another and could not resist the control within his consciousness.

Nor could he reveal that he had become a Puppet Life.

This was also the strange and evil aspect of Puppet Lives.

Back then, even if those sect prodigies had been utterly unwilling and wished to reveal the truth or beg for help, they had been unable to do so.

They could not even choose death for themselves!

It was an incomparably terrifying torment.

Leng Zhuī left.

He departed carrying Su Fan's task.

As well as his fury toward the black-robed man.

He decided to settle the score with the black-robed man.

"The Puppet Life Forbidden Art is far too evil."

Su Fan sighed with emotion.

As upright as he was, he would not lightly use the Puppet Life Forbidden Art.

Standing at the edge of the Cliff of Reflection, he gazed toward Sword God Mountain. Though it lay far away, he could still sense two surging sword intents.

One sword intent belonged to Chen Cang.

The other was incomparably domineering, overflowing with murderous intent.

The Sword Demon!

"I'd better keep lying low. Until I break through to the Emperor Sword Realm, I absolutely won't leave the mountain."

Su Fan shook his head and returned to the cave to continue honing the forbidden arts he had learned.