The art of puppetry

These last two jade boxes held exactly what Liu Yu wanted.

Inside one of the two wooden boxes was a fiery-red, perfectly round orb the size of a fist. It contained a vast, violent mass of fire energy—a Seventh-Rank Fire-Attribute Magic Core taken from a seventh-rank magical beast!

The other held an exceedingly ordinary-looking bamboo scroll. Grayish brown, its material looked almost too plain, yet it was Liu Yu's main reason for coming to Demon Flame Valley!

He gently untied the thin cord around the bamboo scroll and slowly unrolled it. Three blood-drenched characters, brimming with viciousness, reflected in Liu Yu's eyes.

"Heavenly Demon Puppet!"

This "Heavenly Demon Puppet" was neither a cultivation method nor an ordinary Dou Technique, but an art of puppetry passed down from the Ancient Era. Refining a Heavenly Demon Puppet required three things: a human body, a soul, and a magic core.

With the body as its vessel, the soul as its guide, and the magic core as its heart, a unique refining method could create a Demon Puppet. Demon Puppets had three grades: heaven, earth, and human. They could also absorb the power of lightning to evolve continuously, with their ultimate form, the Heavenly Demon Puppet, rivaling a Dou Zun expert!

I have the body and the magic core. All I'm missing is a soul, Liu Yu murmured inwardly. That reminded him of the little thief who had slipped into the Thunderclap Blood Domain. Perhaps... heh heh. After putting Earth Demon Old Ghost's corpse into System Space, the space around Liu Yu rippled, and he vanished from the storeroom.

Boom, boom, boom...

Outside Black Seal City, within the Thunderclap Blood Domain, countless bloody holes suddenly split open amid the rolling blood clouds. Enormous dragon-shaped bolts of blood-colored lightning crawled out of them with earthshaking roars. Wreathed in an aura of destruction, they opened their savage, blood-red maws and roared toward the people of the Black Emperor Sect, Demon Flame Valley, and the other forces below.

Su Qian and Eagle Mountain Old Man also tacitly left the scene, moving to another battlefield that the blood lightning had yet to reach.

"Bang!" "Aah!"...

The blood lightning tore through space and crashed down. Many who had misjudged its power were blasted straight into chunks of flesh amid agonized, heartrending screams.

Watching the people of Demon Flame Valley unleash Dou Techniques only to be swallowed by the blood lightning, Mo Tianxing inwardly cursed them as fools. After the lightning had gathered power for so long, a few Dou Wangs and Dou Emperors still dreamed of resisting it! Couldn't they see that even he was dodging?

Had those dead Dou Wangs and Dou Emperors heard Mo Tianxing's thoughts, they would surely have cursed him right back. It wasn't as though they couldn't sense the terrifying power within the blood lightning. But so many bolts had struck in an instant! They could dodge the first, second, and third, but not the fourth!

As his figure darted about, Mo Tianxing also searched for a way out of this predicament. His gaze swept toward Medicine Emperor Han Feng, whose situation was decidedly grim. Relying on the power of his heavenly flame, he had originally been able to hold his own against a Dou Zong. With the Gold and Silver Elders holding back another Dou Zong, their side had still managed to maintain a stalemate with Feather Pavilion. But once the two Dou Zong experts, Su Qian and Eagle Mountain Old Man, joined in, the balanced battle instantly became a rout. The Gold and Silver Elders received particular attention and were the first to die.

Mo Tianxing had a vague suspicion as to why Su Qian and Eagle Mountain Old Man were helping Feather Pavilion, but he couldn't be bothered to investigate. His most pressing concern was finding a way to escape.

Despite himself, Mo Tianxing looked toward "Liu Yu" at the center of the Blood Realm. He noticed that the six blood-colored wings and mysterious halo behind him had disappeared, stirring a thought in his mind. Has he exhausted his Dou Qi? Even if he hasn't, unleashing a phenomenon of this scale must have taken a considerable toll.

His thoughts raced, and Mo Tianxing acted at once. As his afterimages flickered, golden light gathered in his palm. By the time that energy reached its peak, he had closed in on Liu Yu. A golden beam that twisted even the surrounding space shot violently from his palm. As though he had failed to react, Liu Yu was pierced in an instant, more than half his body blasted apart.

It worked! Delight surged through Mo Tianxing's heart. Strangely, however, no blood flowed from Liu Yu. His figure simply dissolved into faint wisps of bloody mist.

Mo Tianxing frowned. Watching the blood clouds gradually disperse overhead, he felt a vague unease. The Liu Yu he had just killed was not the real one!

Regardless, the blood-colored world is already fading. Escape first!

"Retreat, now!" Mo Tianxing ordered the people of the Black Emperor Sect.

"You destroyed one of my Phantom Clones. You'll have to pay with your life!"

Just as Mo Tianxing took the lead in fleeing, a cool voice entered his mind from every direction. Before he could react, an enormous fiery-red nail appeared out of the void and stabbed toward him.

Mo Tianxing's heart tightened. His hands rapidly formed seals, gathering countless streams of golden energy that instantly condensed into a massive, thick golden shield before him.

The fiery-red nail struck the golden shield with a tremendous crash. An invisible nail passed through the shield and sank into the center of Mo Tianxing's forehead. His eyes bulged wide, and then his body plummeted straight down.

As a six-winged figure appeared, Mo Tianxing's corpse vanished into thin air.

"Father!" Among the people of the Black Emperor Sect, a handsome man in white cried out in a daze. His father, the pillar of the Black Emperor Sect, a Four-Star Dou Zong expert, had died just like that?!

By then, Yun Yun and the Grand Elder had brought Feather Pavilion's people, along with Su Qian and the others, to Liu Yu's side. The Grand Elder was also carrying a half-dead Han Feng.

"Are you all right?" Yun Yun asked softly, her beautiful eyes resting on Liu Yu. She had just witnessed Mo Tianxing blast Liu Yu into bloody mist and couldn't help worrying.

"Ha, the one Mo Tianxing attacked was my Phantom Clone," Liu Yu explained. He had already returned by the time Mo Tianxing attacked. The reason he hadn't stopped him immediately was that the Phantom Clone maintaining the Thunderclap Blood Domain had nearly exhausted its energy. Even without Mo Tianxing's attack, it would have dissipated shortly.

"Leave Han Feng to me for now. Clear out the remaining people from the Black Emperor Sect and Demon Flame Valley. I'm going to find someone first." Liu Yu took Han Feng from the Grand Elder and used his Soul Power to extinguish his life outright. He temporarily suppressed the Sea Heart Flame, which had begun to stir as Han Feng's soul dissipated. Then, with a slight movement of the blood wings behind him, he vanished from the spot.

Somewhere in a mountain range in the Black-Corner Region, rolling black mist swept through the air.

When did a monster like that appear in the Black-Corner Region? That useless Han Feng, who couldn't accomplish a thing but could ruin everything, actually dared provoke him so recklessly. Had I known, I would have taken his soul beforehand. The soul of a Grade Six Alchemist—what a waste!

Protector Xuan brooded within the black mist. He had come to the Black-Corner Region intending to discuss certain matters with Han Feng, only to find him absent from Maple City. Instead, the commotion in Black Seal City had drawn his attention.

When he arrived in the area around Black Seal City, he discovered an enormous blood-colored barrier. Curious, and confident that no one in the Black-Corner Region could threaten him given his strength, he used a special secret method to slip inside the barrier and happened to witness everything within. He had intended to harvest a batch of souls, but recalling that man's uncanny abilities, he chose caution. As the barrier faded, he slipped out, planning to report information about this man to the Venerable Elder. Surely the Venerable Elder would be interested.

At the thought that reporting this matter might earn him a reward from the Venerable Elder and even raise his position, Protector Xuan's frustration over failing to harvest any souls eased considerably.

"Heh heh heh..."

Sinister, chilling laughter drifted from the black mist from time to time.