The Puppet Army

Yi Xuan felt a flash of white light before his eyes, and when his vision returned, he found himself inside the interior of some unknown building.

The old lady also arrived here with Yi Xuan. Seeing Yi Xuan looking around, the old lady did not speak, but waited for Yi Xuan to get used to the environment.

Yi Xuan had lived in the Azure Cloud Sect for over twenty years. Because of his good relationship with the old matriarch and the fact that he was Rootless Person who could not cultivate, even the sect's forbidden area in the back mountains was not guarded against him.

In terms of understanding the Azure Cloud Sect, Yi Xuan would even dare to say that he was no less knowledgeable than Xiao Anhe, the former sect leader. However, this was indeed the first time Yi Xuan had ever entered this place.

Judging from the interior alone, Yi Xuan could not determine what kind of building he was in, but judging from the space, the building should be no smaller than the main hall of the Azure Cloud Sect.

At first glance, the hall is almost as big as Yi Xuan's No. 1 Base, but even though the hall is so big, it does not feel spacious. Instead, it looks a bit crowded.

The hall was filled with a dense array of strange and wonderful things. Some had wings and looked like birds, some were on all fours but couldn't be identified as animals, and some looked like human figures but had two extra arms on their backs.

"This... this..." Seeing these things, Yi Xuan was so surprised that he didn't know how to express himself. If Yi Xuan wasn't mistaken, what he saw should be the so-called puppets.

"That's right! These are all!"

The Supreme Emperor nodded and smiled as he looked at Yi Xuan.

"These are all yours, sir?" Yi Xuan asked, somewhat incredulously.

The old woman shook her head. "They belong to our Azure Cloud Sect!"

Hearing the old lady's words, Yi Xuan looked at him in disbelief.

Next, the old lady Yi Xuan about these puppets and the origin of this secret realm.

It turns out that although the founders of the Azure Cloud Sect were not very powerful, the Azure Cloud Sect has still developed over several thousand years.

Just like secular countries, a sect will also experience periods of rise and fall.

The Azure Cloud Sect has experienced several periods of glory over the past few thousand years, but the most dazzling one was more than a thousand years ago.

The overall strength of the sects at that time was not much stronger than it is now. The reason it was called glorious was because a genius Puppet Master appeared in the Azure Cloud Sect at that time.

That person was the Azure Cloud Sect at the time. He was originally an ordinary cultivator, but he obtained the inheritance of High Antiquity Puppet Technique in a fortuitous encounter.

Although this Puppet Technique cannot enhance his own strength, it allows him to control many puppets that are equal to or even stronger than him.

With those puppets, this sect leader led the Azure Cloud Sect to expand its territory in the Southern Frontier border region, eventually showing signs of becoming a first-class power in the Southern Frontier.

Originally, the Azure Cloud Sect was just an ordinary sect in the Southern Frontier. Even if it expanded its territory, it would be insignificant to the top forces in the Southern Frontier.

But when the Azure Cloud Sect began to show signs of becoming a first-rate power, the other top powers in the Southern Frontier couldn't sit still.

After all, the Southern Frontier is only so big. If another top-tier power emerges, the resources held by the existing powers will be reduced, which is something they don't want to see.

As a result, several major forces began to suppress the Azure Cloud Sect. Although the sect leader of the Azure Cloud Sect was able to kill many people with his Puppet Technique, he was somewhat at a disadvantage against the experts of several top forces.

Under pressure from those forces, the territory of the Azure Cloud Sect shrank again and again, and the glory brought by that sect leader was ultimately short-lived.

The sect leader's cultivation stagnated in his melancholy, and he eventually passed away as his time was up.

However, he was not entirely without achievement despite the melancholy of his later years.

The puppets that Yi Xuan saw in the hall were a trump card left by the sect leader for the Azure Cloud Sect, controlled by the successive Supreme Elders of the Azure Cloud Sect.

"How about it, young Yi!" the old lady asked smugly, "Who would have thought that our Azure Cloud Sect had such a trump card?"

Yi Xuan nodded. "I really didn't expect that, Elder. Then why didn't I see you use them last time the Gazing Immortal Sect attacked?"

The old matriarch shook her head and said, "How could a small Gazing Immortal Sect be worthy of sending out a puppet army? Although the previous elders have not imposed specific restrictions on the use of these puppet armies, everyone tacitly agrees that unless the Azure Cloud Sect is destroyed, these puppets will not be activated!"

The Supreme Elder curled his lip and continued, "The incident with the Gazing Immortal Sect was indeed quite troublesome, but the crisis level was far from requiring the use of puppets. The Azure Cloud Sect has encountered countless situations far worse than that, but there have been very few times when we had to use a puppet army. Therefore, apart from me, no one else in the sect knows anything about Puppet Technique!"

After saying this, the old lady led Yi Xuan through the hall to a high platform at the back of the hall, where a jade statue was placed.

Yi Xuan examined the statue; its craftsmanship was indeed exquisite, and it looked lifelike, almost indistinguishable from a living person.

Kneel down!

Yi Xuan, who was still examining the jade statue, was startled by the Supreme Elder's shout from behind and instinctively knelt down on the prayer mat in front of him.

The old woman approached Yi Xuan and said, "The person in front of you is the Puppet Master! Why don't you kowtow to your ancestor?"

Before the old lady could finish speaking, Yi Xuan had already begun kowtowing.

Yi Xuan still greatly admired this patriarch whose ambitions remained unfulfilled. Regardless of whether he ultimately succeeded or not, he dedicated his life to revitalizing the Azure Cloud Sect, and this alone deserves the respect of every disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect.

After seeing Yi Xuan and kowtow three times, the old lady suddenly placed her palm on the top of Yi Xuan's head.

Before Yi Xuan could understand what the old lady meant, he felt a rumbling sound coming from his Sea of Consciousness.

After that, Yi Xuan lost control of his body and was pulled into his Sea of Consciousness.

Suddenly, a black hole appeared above Yi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness, and strange points of light kept emerging from it.

After entering Yi Xuan 'Yi Xuan Sea of Consciousness, the light points all headed towards the center of his Sea of Consciousness, quickly merging into the source of his Sea of Consciousness.

Fortunately, the integration of these light spots did not cause Yi Xuan any discomfort.

After an unknown amount of time, the black hole in the sky began to slowly shrink until it disappeared completely. The tiny points of light that emerged from the black hole all merged into the center of Yi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness.

As the last point of light merged in, Yi Xuan felt as if something had suddenly stretched open his brain, causing him great discomfort and a severe throbbing pain.

Just as Yi Xuan felt the pain reach its peak, it subsided instantly, and Yi Xuan's consciousness gradually blurred until she fell into darkness.