What did it mean to have hundreds of puppets whose cultivation approached the nascent soul realm?
Among everyone present, only Zu Yuan knew all too well. Fear and venom filled his eyes.
He had originally planned to forfeit this Sect Grand Competition rather than invite disaster, but the Sect Master had personally ordered him to participate.
Even now, Zu Yuan still could not figure out how he had offended Chen Changsheng.
Thinking back over everything he had done, if this was about someone he had killed, well, he had killed far too many people.
He had started killing at five years old. Who the hell knew which day he might have slaughtered Chen Changsheng's entire family?
What rotten luck!
His disguise had been flawless. He had even become a personal disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect's Sect Master.
Yet he had capsized in a gutter called Chen Changsheng!
Zu Yuan murmured an incantation, and his figure began to change. A moment later, he looked like an entirely different person.
This was the innate divine ability he took such pride in: Myriad Transformations Demon Image!
Not only could he transform his body into any image in his mind, but he could also alter his aura and cultivation techniques, even disguising demon essence as true essence!
Once transformed, even a tribulation transcendence stage expert could not see through him!
The only drawback was that his cultivation dropped by one major realm.
Originally in the nascent soul realm, he had reverted his Nascent Soul to a core, returning to the Golden Core realm.
If I were still in the nascent soul realm, why would I give these few hundred puppets a second thought? Zu Yuan thought resentfully as he hid in the crowd.
As long as he pretended he was outmatched and left, it would still count as participating in the competition. First, he had to get through this calamity.
A true man knows when to bend and when to stand tall. One day, I'll repay this tenfold, a hundredfold!
Meanwhile, Chen Changsheng, his hands tucked into his long sleeves in front of him, swept his divine soul across the entire Mustard Seed Space, yet found no trace of Zu Yuan!
Naturally, Chen Changsheng knew this was Zu Yuan's signature trick. It was something people had only learned after countless victims fell prey to his schemes.
In his previous life, the renowned Sacred Emperor of the Demon Realm, Zu Yuan, had also been known as the Myriad Transformations Devil Lord!
But this posed no difficulty for Chen Changsheng.
Chen Changsheng calmly took a stack of papers from inside his robes and said evenly to everyone present, "Senior brothers, please leave voluntarily when I call your names. Otherwise, I won't be responsible for whether you live or die."
Just moments earlier, Chen Changsheng had recorded everyone who entered the Mustard Seed Space. Even those he did not know, he had memorized their features and appearances.
Chen Changsheng had decided to find Zu Yuan hiding among them through a process of elimination!
Facing 399 people alone, Chen Changsheng looked as though he were picking chicks out of a chicken farm.
Those who had made it in were either outstanding disciples of the Inner Sect or pillars of other sects.
When had they ever suffered such humiliation?
At once, true essence erupted from three men. Some formed hand seals, while others charged at Chen Changsheng with swords in hand.
But before they could even begin to resist, nascent soul realm puppets pinned them to the ground.
The three were brought before Chen Changsheng by the nascent soul realm puppets.
"Wang Five, Li Four, Zhao Six..."
Using their appearances and the numbers he had assigned them, Chen Changsheng found the three men's portraits one by one.
Only after checking their features did Chen Changsheng cup his hands toward them. "Senior brothers, pardon the offense!"
The moment he finished speaking, the nascent soul realm puppets hurled all three out of the Mustard Seed Space.
Chen Changsheng looked at the remaining 396 people and said evenly, "All right, those three senior brothers have demonstrated how it works. Which senior brother is next?"
Everyone in the stands stared dumbfounded at Chen Changsheng inside the Mustard Seed Space.
One man steamrolling four hundred people?
Just where had this guy come from?
Why had no one ever heard of such a person in the Azure Cloud Sect?
Which peak did this fellow belong to? How was he so ferocious?
Little Mountain Peak?
That explained it. That peak produced nothing but monsters.
Looking at the densely packed puppets inside the Mustard Seed Space, every single one possessed cultivation on par with the nascent soul realm.
Creating a nascent soul realm puppet was even harder than cultivating to the nascent soul realm.
Yet this Chen Changsheng had summoned hundreds with a wave of his hand!
Never mind where all those precious materials had come from-even making them required a powerful cultivator at least three major realms above them!
Was there a grandmaster artificer hidden behind Chen Changsheng as well?
At the sixth level of the core formation realm, he was pressuring four hundred cultivators of his own level or higher, with more than half of them actually in the nascent soul realm!
What staggering arrogance!
"Dongxu Zi, isn't this boy a monster? He can control hundreds of nascent soul realm puppets while only in the core formation realm? Is his divine soul really that powerful?"
"The Azure Cloud Sect certainly lives up to its name, producing such an extraordinary talent!"
"I wonder whether that little bald monk from Spirit Mountain Temple can withstand him!"
In the Main Hall, the elders of the Nine Great Sacred Lands also began to see Chen Changsheng in a new light. Even as elders of the Nine Great Sacred Lands, they had never heard of a genius like him.
Wearing an inscrutable expression, Dongxu Zi deftly parried the compliments of the surrounding elders, though inwardly he was wondering whether Little Mountain Peak's feng shui was simply too good. He would have to send someone from Heavenly Evolution Peak to take a look one of these days!
The group from Little Mountain Peak was just as dumbfounded by Chen Changsheng's display.
"Uh, Third Senior Brother is so badass!" Hu Tutu said, staring blankly at the Mustard Seed Space in the sky.
After all, in her memory, Third Senior Brother always frowned slightly and slipped behind everyone else. This was the first time she had seen him looking so outrageously cool and domineering.
Ouyang was stunned as well. He had never imagined that the most cautious, most devious of them could show off so smoothly. He could not help saying to Bai Feiyu, "Xiao Bai, what's the point of you standing in trees all day? Look at Third-he's showing off without leaving a single seam!"
Bai Feiyu rolled his eyes, but inwardly he was shocked too. If he encountered Chen Changsheng without any preparations, he might well die on the spot.
Standing atop the pavilion, Xiao Feng pulled out his notebook and frantically took notes. He had thought Third Senior Brother was merely a master painter, yet he could show off like this too. He needed to watch carefully and learn well.
Leng Qingsong simply held his sword in his arms, as though everything around him had nothing to do with him.
Inside the Mustard Seed Space, the three hundred and ninety-odd contestants suddenly felt pressure weighing on them like a mountain. They knew perfectly well that they might become stepping stones to success for the youth in purple Daoist robes opposite them!
One against 399-even if he lost, that would be enough to boast about for a lifetime!
But they were not without a chance!
If more than three hundred people attacked together, could he really withstand them?
They exchanged glances and instantly reached an agreement, charging at Chen Changsheng all at once.
What they had not expected was that the hundreds of nascent soul realm puppets would form an array on their own.
Caught unprepared, they plunged headfirst into an array bristling with murderous intent.
The array was exceedingly strange. The hundreds of puppets merely entangled them rather than fighting to the death. Whenever they tried to unleash their full strength, the puppets quietly withdrew.
It felt as frustrating as punching a lump of dough.
As everyone became trapped in the killing array, unable to escape, Chen Changsheng's voice rang out like a summons to their doom:
"Sun Seven, Liu Eight, Qian Ten... no, no..."
Amid the rustling of papers, someone would let out a scream and go flying out from time to time.
Every name Chen Changsheng called meant another person was eliminated.
At that moment, these favored children of heaven were like piglets in a pen, waiting to be picked out.
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