Translator: Silavin & frozenfire
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
Such evil cultivators were extremely fond of plundering the graves of Masters, as every corpse they obtained would boost their strength. It was precisely because of this reason that those cultivators were detested and abhorred no matter where they went. The art of refining Corpse Puppets was also regarded as the most forbidden of forbidden techniques; knowledge that one should absolutely not dip their fingers into.
However, despite that, it was impossible to eradicate it entirely; regardless of time and place, there would always be some who were willing to commit the most heinous of deeds under Heaven and defy the natural order of things to gain strength.
Yang Kai had never imagined that there would actually be such people in a Sect like Thousand Leaves Sect that would have attempted Corpse Puppet refining.
It was one thing for this Corpse King to not have any consciousness at all; however, the critical factor was the Spirit Arrays present across its body. These arrays, coupled with the golden lustre radiating from its body would make it instantly identifiable as a Corpse Puppet that someone had refined!
Furthermore, it was an Emperor Realm Corpse Puppet!
What kind of person would refine the body of such a powerful cultivator into a Corpse Puppet without a single shred of sentience? Yang Kai was utterly incapable of recovering from the shock that was rocking his heart.
However, he quickly realized that something wasn’t right. According to what Ye Hen had said, the Thousand Leaves Sect Master of that generation had entered the Sealed World by himself, before the entrance was closed. From those words, that meant that there was no one except for the Sect Master present within this Sealed World during that point in time countless years ago.
Yang Kai had also not discovered any traces of the existence of a second person.
Furthermore, with that past generation’s Thousand Leaves Sect Master being a Third-Order Emperor Realm Master, who possessed such terrifyingly powerful capabilities to refine him into a Corpse Puppet?
[Could it be… that he refined himself into a puppet?]
Yang Kai was instantly frightened when this thought flashed through his mind. If that was truly the case, that would mean that the previous generation’s Thousand Leaves Sect Master had already reached an incredible height in the Dao of Puppetry, while also possessing a level of determination and far surpassed normal Masters.
After all, just the thought of refining oneself into a puppet would cause horror and fear to gush out of people’s hearts. Furthermore, exactly how much pain and suffering would one need to bear throughout the entire refining process?
Although this was just his guess, Yang Kai felt that he was not far from the truth.
Just as he was overwhelmed by his thoughts, the Corpse Puppet, which had remained still with a fluctuating expression on its face, suddenly turned its head towards the direction of Yang Kai, a chilling glow beaming out of its ghostly fire orb-like eyes.
Yang Kai immediately knew that his situation had worsened, as his enemy seemed to have broken out of whatever was restraining it and was about to hunt and kill him.
Before he could digest that thought, the Corpse Puppet had already appeared right before him with a flicker. In the next instant, a terrifying fist came towards Yang Kai.
Yang Kai felt as though his life was flashing before him. Despite not possessing any sentience, resulting in its exceedingly simple and unchanging way of combat using its fists to strike its targets, just a single punch from the Corpse Puppet, with its overwhelming strength was more than what Yang Kai could contend against.
The ferocity of that fist perfectly displayed the might of an Emperor Realm Master. Swirls of energy visible to the naked eye accompanied this fist, seemingly wanting to tear the surrounding space apart and collapse the entire world.
Yang Kai’s scalp turned numb as he roared, “Dragon Transformation!”
In the next instant, a high-pitched dragon roar rang out as a dazzling golden phantom of a dragon surfaced behind him. With a shake of its head and swish of its tail, the Golden Dragon rushed into his body. Cracking sounds rang out while Yang Kai’s arms turned to dragon-like claws, while the outer surface of his body was covered to the brim with Dragon Scales. Not only that, with a sharp tearing sound, a pure dragon aura gushed out from his backbone as it lengthened abruptly, as though he had turned into a large dragon and was attempting to take to the skies.
Yang Kai had unleashed his Dragon Transformation Secret Technique to its utmost limits!
Having refined the three dragon artifacts, A Dragon Scale, Dragon Bone, and Dragon Bead, supplemented with his already incredibly powerful flesh body, Yang Kai’s current strength immediately skyrocketed.
Not yet done, while he was unleashing his Dragon Transformation, Yang Kai had also summoned his Five Elements Indestructible Sword Qi. In a breath, a five-coloured radiance blossomed, as the power of the Five Elements gushed out. Crossing his arms before his body, he entered into a defensive stance.
Yang Kai absolutely did not dare to launch any attacks, as he felt that he was just like a small wooden boat shaking before the roaring storm that was the powerful might of his enemy. Any howling wind or large wave could send him capsizing and drowning as a result.
*Hong…”
As the Corpse Puppet’s punch made contact, Yang Kai felt as though he was struck by lightning as his entire body shook. Cracking sounds rang out from his arms as they were snapped and bent into unnatural shapes. At the same time, his body was sent flying by the massive force, adding to his pre-existing injuries.
All of these happened even after he had unleashed his Dragon Transformation and Five Elements Indestructible Sword Qi to its utmost limit.
If he had not prepared defensively against the punch, Yang Kai reckoned that he would have already been turned into dust.
He was experiencing first-hand just how powerful the Corpse Puppet before him was.
As he flew through the air, Yang Kai forcefully suppressed the pain ripping through his body and roared out between his clenched teeth, “Come out!”
With his roar, a massive mountain-like figure descended from the sky, sending an explosive boom as it landed on the ground, shaking the earth in a flurry as it did so.
The Embodiment had entered the stage.
His appearance was so sudden that he did not even know exactly where he was, or what kind of danger Yang Kai had gotten into; however, in the next instant, his giant body turned stiff as he could sense the vile aura radiating from the body of the Corpse Puppet. The might of this aura was so powerful it almost made him lose the will to fight.
Nevertheless, every single time he had been summoned was due to Yang Kai encountering a strong foe, so he quickly managed to regain his senses and composure. Extending his hand into the void, he clenched it, catching the flying Yang Kai.
“Cough cough…” Half kneeling on the Embodiment’s hand, Yang Kai continued to cough out blood as his face grew paler by the second.
“Master!” Appearing alongside the Embodiment, Liu Yan’s beautiful face instantly drained of all colour upon seeing the miserable shape Yang Kai was in. She immediately headed towards Yang Kai and helped him up.
“What in the world is that thing!?” The Embodiment’s eyes were wide open as it stared at the problem, which was as small as an ant in his eyes, yet making him not dare to look down on it at all, to the point that his voice turned slightly shaky.
“A Corpse Puppet!” Yang Kai stood up and explained, “A Third-Order Emperor Realm Corpse Puppet!”
“What?” Both the Embodiment and Liu Yan cried out in shock, intense tremors rocking their souls. After being stunned for a while, the Embodiment finally responded with a bitter tone, “How did you provoke such a monster?”
“It’s a long story…” Yang Kai’s mouth twitched as he gave a reply. Shaking his arms, cracking sounds rang out as his broken arms were reconnected together. Lowering his head, he noticed that his hands had snapped apart at the wrists, clearly revealing the golden bones within. Just a single look was enough to tell him how formidable that Corpse Puppet’s punch was.
Fortunately, due to his Dragon Transformation Secret Technique and Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art coming together to reinforce his flesh body, coupled with his originally powerful physique and Golden Blood, this level of injury wasn’t able to hamper him.
“It’s coming!” All of a sudden, the Embodiment shouted out. As those words left his mouth, the Corpse Puppet had already leapt up from its original position, rushed towards the Embodiment, and sent a punch towards him.
In terms of size, the Corpse Puppet was utterly dwarfed by the Embodiment, just like a little stalk of grass before a large tree, so insignificant it was not even worth comparing.
Nevertheless, the Embodiment’s expression remained solemn as he did not dare to underestimate the punch heading his way.
Faced with such danger, he proceeded to launch a punch in response.
The gigantic fist smashed against the puny figure, causing a Heaven shaking boom to ring out. Shockwaves caused by the powerful collision rippled out, kicking up chaotic winds in the process.
The Embodiment’s mountain-sized body was sent flying backwards. He waved his hands and legs futilely in response, creating an exceedingly comical sight to behold.
Nevertheless, the Corpse Puppet clearly did not end up unscathed after receiving the Embodiment’s punch head-on. Flying backwards at a faster speed than the Embodiment, it smashed into the cliff wall behind and disappeared without a trace.
After a split second, a loud bang rang out as a human-shaped hole was created on the cliff wall, with the Corpse Puppet present in the middle. Spiderwebs of cracks formed with it in the centre, rocks crumbling and falling down as they spread outwards.
Yang Kai sucked in a mouth of cold air as he was utterly incapable of believing what he had just witnessed.
He was all too clear of the Embodiment’s strength. The latter was born after fusing with an entire continent and despite the continent not being very large in mass, it was still born from World Energy and possessed its own source.
In other words, every strike from the Embodiment possessed the might of a world behind it.
With his current realm of strength, the Embodiment should be able to even kill Emperor Realm Masters with ease if they were to eat his strikes head-on; however, after taking his punch, the Corpse Puppet had actually not sustained too much damage, with the only result being sent smashing into the cliffside.
Exactly how resilient was this Corpse Puppet body?
Not only that, it had actually managed to send the Embodiment flying with its punch. The strength it possessed was enough to destroy Heaven and shatter the Earth.
“Liu Yan!” Yang Kai shouted.
Without needing any instructions from him, Liu Yan already knew what she needed to do. With a slight shake of her body, she immediately transformed into her Firebird form. Flapping her wings, she hurtled towards the Corpse Puppet. Letting off a clear cry, she opened her mouth and exhaled a torrent of roaring flames towards the Corpse Puppet.
The flames unleashed by Liu Yan were exceedingly powerful, being composed of her natal fire that had fused with the Heavenly Thunder Fire, Azure Ice Fire, Sun’s True Fire, and even the Divine Spirit Luan Feng’s World Extinguishing Black Flames.
Her flames were exceedingly dangerous.
With that breath, the cliff face swiftly melted away, transforming into red hot lava that emitted boiling hot gases as it flowed down.
Although the Embodiment’s punch wasn’t able to do anything to the Corpse Puppet, Liu Yan’s flames had caused a considerable amount of damage to it, as a series of deep roars and cries quickly rang out from beneath the roaring flames.
Quickly, angry howls started to ring out, before a dark green radiance blossomed within the intense flames and started to advance forwards.
Yang Kai was shocked by what he saw, as he realized that the Corpse Puppet had actually started to spew out Corpse Poison to defend against Liu Yan’s intense flames. Not only that, it seemed to show signs of gaining an advantage.
For a moment, the dark green Corpse Poison fought neck and neck against the fiery red flames as they collided in the air.
Nevertheless, Yang Kai knew that this was just a false hope; once the Corpse Puppet managed to extricate itself, Liu Yan would not be able to contend against it. Although she had experienced many extraordinary encounters, there was still a disparity in strength between her and a Third-Order Emperor Realm Corpse Puppet, despite its lack of sentience.
Yang Kai was secretly breathing a sigh of relief that the Corpse Puppet did not possess any sentience. Otherwise, with its cultivation and the Divine Abilities mastered in its previous life, the three of them would definitely be incapable of contending with it at all.
