"These are real Combat Puppets!"
As Li Chen looked at the two figures standing beside the carriage, something stirred within him.
Zhao Bin had summoned combat-type Mechanism Automatons. Perhaps to conserve materials and cut costs, they looked like grotesque men stripped of their skin, with no painted skin covering their frames.
But their crude appearance did not diminish their actual fighting strength. They were packed with mechanisms and concealed weapons, their various intricate mechanisms powerful and precise-deadly instruments of war in a Puppet Master's hands.
The Rotary-Wing Aircraft Li Chen had made was a small puppet. In function and complexity, it could not begin to compare with Combat Puppets fit for actual battle, and their values differed accordingly.
Most Puppet Masters choose to fight by controlling Mechanism Puppets. This is especially prevalent at the lower ranks, and it is also the fighting style that gave rise to Puppet Masters who command entire groups.
At higher ranks, Mechanism Armor gradually comes into play, along with fighting styles that involve transforming one's own body into a Combat Puppet. As a child, I saw Battle Puppets rated three stars or higher that could rival foundation establishment cultivators.
Master Zhao is using the classic Puppeteer approach: controlling several Mechanism Puppets at once. It demonstrates his ability to command them; only a mind accustomed to managing multiple threads can handle them freely.
I can also control several puppets in battle at once, but I've never fought a real battle. I wonder if I'll end up fumbling when the time comes.
Li Chen's gaze moved between the two puppets. The slightly bulkier one is an Armored Warrior Puppet that Artisan Zhao assembled and modified from components he bought himself. The better-proportioned one should be a Sharp Warrior Type Ten issued by the Creation Sect to teachers serving at the Heavenly Crafts Academy.
Armored Warrior Puppets are fairly common among Wilderness Rogue Cultivators out in the wilds, but Keen Warriors are rare. Even in the hands of a Master Artisan Puppet Master, one would hardly look shabby. After all, it's a top-tier two-star puppet with combat strength comparable to a Tenth Level of Qi Refining cultivator!
The Tenth Level of Qi Refining was a term from the Outer Dao. Among the introductory ranks of cultivators, it should have stood at the very pinnacle.
The Sharp Warrior Type Ten Battle Puppet possessed fighting strength comparable to a Tenth Level of Qi Refining cultivator. That was a conclusion tested through years of warfare, as trustworthy and reliable as common knowledge. As for how many levels of fighting strength Artisan Zhao's personally assembled and modified Armored Warrior Puppet possessed, outsiders had no way of knowing. Mechanism Puppets had to be judged by both their base model and their star rating, and personalized configurations could not be overlooked either.
At that moment, another change came over Zhao Bin. His figure flickered several times, then gradually turned transparent.
He leaped off the speeding Chariot and vanished, leaving only his voice to admonish them. "Stay seated in the Chariot. Don't wander off!"
Li Chen paused in surprise. So this is how Puppet Masters conceal their presence and hide themselves? It seems he uses a Concealment Method acquired from the Outer Dao together with an enchanted robe to hide himself, while leaving his puppets exposed. That way, he can pursue if he wins and escape if he loses. In low-level combat, it's practically unstoppable...
Puppet Masters focused on production and creation, and they guarded their lives carefully in battle. Generally, they hid nearby and controlled their Mechanism Puppets, waiting for an opening.
"What's going on? Are monsters attacking?"
The apprentices began to panic.
Someone stood up and said, "Everyone, don't panic. We're only apprentices, so we can't help Master Zhao, but we shouldn't cause him trouble either."
His reassurance helped a little, but Li Chen had no attention to spare for it. His gaze remained fixed on the direction from which the explosion had come.
Suddenly, a spring breeze swept past, swaying the bamboo branches. Amid their rustling, something seemed to cut through the air like an arrow, and a gray-white figure flashed out, swift as a leopard.
Upon suddenly spotting the Chariot, the figure seemed to pause, then lunged toward it, moving even faster than before.
Li Chen narrowed his eyes. The instant the man left the bamboo grove, he finally recognized what he was.
Outer Dao... a Sword Cultivator!
The others cried out as well. "It's a Sword Cultivator! Ah, there's a brand on his face. He must be an escaped slave!"
"An escaped Sword Cultivator slave?"
"It really is an escaped Sword Cultivator slave. You don't see that every day."
Within moments, the man drew close enough to see clearly inside the carriage, and those inside could finally make him out as well.
He was a young man in his twenties, wearing a Dark Teal Sword Robe in the Outer Dao style of the Other Continent. A character had been tattooed in ink on his left cheek: "slave," roughly an inch across and as distinct as an engraved seal.
His robe had been slashed open in several places by blades. Already stained with blood and covered in dirt and dust, it looked worn and ragged.
Yet the whites and blacks of his eyes were sharply defined. He stared straight at the Chariot, his gaze like tongues of flame that scorched the eyes.
Though his chest heaved and his breathing was labored, his steps remained steady. Like a wild beast that had spotted its prey, he bared his sharp claws and fangs, his presence inspiring dread.
Those who had cried out fell silent as one. A thick shadow seemed to descend over the entire Chariot, and the oppressive atmosphere made it almost impossible to breathe.
He must be a peak qi refinement cultivator-a true expert!
In this life, Li Chen had witnessed battlefields and slaughter while still in swaddling clothes. Yet faced with a supreme expert of such bearing, he still felt his heartstrings tighten involuntarily.
A black shadow suddenly leaped out and lunged in front of the young Sword Cultivator.
Someone exclaimed under their breath, "It's Master Zhao's puppet!"
It was indeed the Armored Warrior Puppet. Zhao Bin had made his move from hiding.
Clang!
Before Li Chen could see clearly, a blazing white sword radiance flashed past.
The young Sword Cultivator pressed his index and middle fingers together in a sword seal, thrusting straight toward the Armored Warrior Puppet from a distance.
The cold wind stirred the tips of the young man's hair, and his sleeves snapped like unfurled banners.
But his body remained still. In that transition between motion and stillness, agile as a startled dragon, a blade of condensed Sword Qi and Gang Edge took spectral shape and pierced the Armored Warrior Puppet's body like a real sword.
A burst of brilliant light erupted from the armored warrior's chest, followed by black oil spraying out like blood.
But Mechanism Puppets knew no pain and had no regard for their lives. As long as their mechanisms and joints remained intact, they would not immediately lose their fighting strength.
Its movements remained as fierce as a starving tiger's as it lunged straight at the young man.
The young man opened his fingers into a palm and struck the armored warrior hard in the chest amid a burst of fierce wind. Before the Armored Warrior Puppet could seize him with its momentum, he suddenly pivoted and darted aside, evading a sneak attack from the Sharp Warrior Type Ten behind him.
Only then did everyone see that his back was a mangled mass of flesh and blood, wounded by the iron shot fired from a Thunderfire Bomb.
He had already been gravely wounded before arriving here. After just a few movements, his breathing grew even heavier. Clearly, he had reached the end of the road.
Suddenly, the young Sword Cultivator lunged toward the front of the Chariot, his face twisted savagely. "Hahahaha! Let's die together!"
At the sight, the apprentices screamed in helpless panic, as though they had plunged into an icy cavern.
Crash!
The windscreen shattered, sending glass flying everywhere. The young Sword Cultivator had charged straight inside!
But the moment the young Sword Cultivator stepped onto the front of the carriage, his body stiffened briefly, leaving a glaring opening in his previously fluid movements.
Shlick!
The Sharp Warrior Type Ten's Wrist Blade stabbed through him from behind and emerged from his chest.
"Filthy slave. You must be dreaming."
Zhao Bin's voice rang out coldly behind him.