Ten minutes later.
The Heavenly Pride students — who’d been so full of fighting spirit and bravado moments ago, charging fiercely at the puppet factory under Ji Wuri’s lead — were now in dire straits.
It was like poking a hornet’s nest. The instant the puppet factory came under attack, countless puppet beasts came pouring out. If the earlier puppet beasts had been like a flood bursting its banks, then the ones surging out now were like the Milky Way pouring down from the heavens, swallowing the Heavenly Pride students — Ji Wuri included — in an instant. Most terrifying of all: whereas ninety percent of the puppet beasts the students had been fighting before were bronze-tier, the ones now surging out of the puppet factory showed almost no trace of low-grade bronze puppets. Over eighty thousand were silver-tier puppet beasts, with close to another twenty percent gold-tier.
Heaven only knew how a puppet factory could hold so many gold-tier puppet beasts stockpiled inside.
Tens of thousands of silver puppets, thousands of gold puppets. Surrounding from all four sides. Forming a devastating force.
Never mind ordinary students being unable to resist — even Zhonghua piloting the Sword Dancer and Ji Wuri piloting the Vengeful Prince felt the pressure bearing down like a mountain at this moment.
“Retreat!” Ji Wuri’s Vengeful Prince was being focus-fired and surrounded by over a hundred gold-tier puppet beasts at once, no longer able to move with his earlier debonair ease. Had this not been Human Valley — no law-restriction, no prohibition of force — and had Ji Wuri been able to act personally, even ten thousand more gold puppets could have been wiped out in an instant without the slightest effort. But this was Human Valley; for all his quasi-divine power, Ji Wuri had no chance to deploy it.
“Everyone, charge with me!” Zhonghua was both delighted and worried. Delighted because Ji Wuri was destined to fail at showing off today; worried because, with so many gold-tier puppet beasts surrounding them, one slip and he’d be dragged in himself. There was certainly no danger to his life, but the Sword Dancer and the two Jet Beasts were all precious constructs. Once fully destroyed, rebuilding them would cost far more resources and time — a serious deviation from the plan.
The two Jet Beasts, having stored up enough energy, spat out two ultra-powerful pillars of light, blasting open a passage through the encirclement that gave the students a chance at escape. Jinji, Mige the Tall Tower War Wolf, and the others, their hearts turning from despair to joy, charged out at the first opportunity. Unlike those two, Young Lord Yangquan piloted the Flame Spitter, fiercely protecting his friends’ escape — and though he himself was in grave peril, he never once forgot the guardian spirit of a senior student, deeply moving many of the students around him.
The blasted-open passage quickly closed up again, and the students who’d fled only halfway, with almost no power to fight back, were cut down by the gold-tier puppet beasts.
At that moment, a stroke of sword-light came cleaving down with heaven-rending, earth-shattering force — a hundred times more powerful than the Jet Beasts’ double cannon-blast. The encircling gold-tier puppet beasts burst apart in an instant, shattering, scattering into wreckage and debris across the ground.
It was Ji Wuri — this stroke was the “Light of Vengeance” he’d been building up for a long while. Even gold-tier puppet beasts couldn’t withstand so fierce a blow.
Ji Wuri’s ten gold-tier knights seized the opening to press forward, blocking the enemy from within the passage, forming a golden wall of defense to escort as many students as possible back to the puppet academy.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Inside the puppet factory, a deafening roar suddenly erupted.
Four puppet battle constructs appeared — a hundred meters tall, each of a different form, all of them platinum-tier. One after another they sprang into the air and plummeted to the ground with the crushing force of toppling mountains, flattening the fleeing students underfoot in an instant. One gold-tier knight construct, too slow to evade, was likewise crushed to powder by a platinum construct. Inside its cockpit, that follower of Ji Wuri’s was gravely wounded, spitting blood.
Before his companions could come to the rescue, that platinum-tier construct suddenly clenched its great hand — and within the ten-meter space surrounding the follower in every direction, every object twisted as though seized by an invisible demonic claw, instantly bursting into fine powder, dissolving into nothing. Whether human or construct, all were reduced to ash and smoke in an instant. The two gold knight companions rushing to the rescue, seeing so terrifying a sight, were scared out of their wits, abandoning all thought of cover and immediately springing back in retreat.
Smack, smack!
The two of them, like fleas, were flattened against the ground by another platinum puppet construct.
That wasn’t the most terrifying part. Before everyone’s eyes, the two shattered, deformed gold knight constructs — as though corroded by concentrated acid — melted at a speed visible to the naked eye, entire constructs and all, including the two followers inside who hadn’t escaped in time.
Zhonghua’s expression changed. These four platinum puppet constructs were too powerful — there was simply no contending with them by force. As for the other two, their abilities were still unknown. But one thing was certain: of the two whose abilities had already been displayed, one wielded “particle oscillation,” the other “concentrated-acid corrosion.” Neither of these was something a construct made of steel could counter. Setting aside their hundred-meter frames, their higher platinum-tier grade and combat power — the inexhaustible numbers and never-depleting manufacturing capacity alone were enough to surround and slaughter any opponent.
“Go!” Zhonghua dodged an attack from one platinum puppet construct, used the Sword Dancer to grab hold of Yangquan’s Flame Spitter, and forcibly hauled the young man away. To rescue Yangquan from his predicament, Zhonghua paid the price of one Jet Beast. The other Jet Beast, too, was tottering on the brink under the siege of a dozen gold-tier puppet beasts, nearly scrapped — fortunately Yangquan coordinated seamlessly, casting out a steel cable normally used to lock onto enemies and dragging it bodily back. The forcibly retrieved Jet Beast was already missing two limbs; a moment later and it absolutely would have become scrap copper and rotted iron.
In the entire scene, the only person who remained composed was Ji Wuri.
He piloted the Vengeful Prince, spinning out ten million strokes of sword-wind. The marvelous sword-wind appeared beneath the students’ feet like so many tornadoes, miraculously sweeping the students — already trapped in hopeless straits, eyes shut and awaiting death — clear out of the battlefield and delivering them all the way back to the distant puppet academy. This maneuver drew cheers for Ji Wuri from every quarter — the rescued students, the newcomer recruits cowering in the puppet academy who’d not dared to fight, even the elite students who’d fled back earlier. Including Yangquan, whom Zhonghua had expended such effort to save, who couldn’t help shouting out to Ji Wuri in excitement.
Watching this scene, Zhonghua’s heart turned bitter. He really had labored for no thanks. The limelight, once again, had been snatched away by this fellow Ji Wuri. Could it be that he would never, in all his life, catch up to him? This godlike Ji Wuri was genuinely a source of despair… But the dejected Zhonghua quickly recovered his confidence. Because in Human Valley, Zhonghua felt he’d turned the greatest fortune of his life — namely, making the acquaintance of that one young man. If that young man of Eastern Hidden Clan origin made his move and went to war with Ji Wuri, then turning the tables later was not impossible.
Ji Wuri had backing. But behind that young man stood an entire great clan. That young man would absolutely never fail. The only problem was how to get him and Ji Wuri to come to blows.
Knowing he couldn’t compete with Ji Wuri for now, and with the situation having turned dire, Zhonghua stopped sticking his neck out — quietly putting away the Jet Beasts and using only the Sword Dancer to sweep the bronze puppet beasts surging endlessly up the puppet academy’s steps.
“Ji Wuri’s stealing all the limelight today — aren’t you going to step in and knock him down a peg?” Mingzhu, who’d finished being angry and was sitting with Yue Yang atop the puppet factory roof gnawing corn again, looked at Yue Yang with mild puzzlement. No matter how she looked at it, this kid didn’t seem the type to sit idly by. Mingzhu was convinced that unless the sun rose in the west, this kid wouldn’t let Ji Wuri have it so easy.
“Keep watching the show.” Yue Yang was utterly unbothered. As long as Mingzhu didn’t pursue the pectoral-muscle incident, all was well. Ji Wuri? Let him do as he pleased — in the end, the one who’d pick up the spoils in the middle would only be himself.
Ji Wuri could have retreated to the puppet academy fairly smoothly. For reasons unknown, the gold-tier puppet beasts and platinum puppet constructs all refused to approach the academy; even the silver puppet beasts attacked their way in only in small numbers. Had Ji Wuri been willing to retreat, then even with four hundred-meter platinum puppet constructs, they couldn’t have held him. But whether because of everyone’s cheering and shouting, or out of sheer unwillingness to concede, Ji Wuri — before turning back — reversed his light sword and cleaved a vicious stroke at the puppet factory behind him.
Boom!
After the heaven-shaking, earth-shattering tremor subsided, what met the eye was a puppet factory split in two. Though the puppet factory was buried deep underground, with less than a tenth of it exposed above the surface, even the portion protruding aboveground was a structure several hundred meters in scale. One stroke, and it was cleaved in two. This display utterly conquered the distantly watching students. Elite students like Mige the Tall Tower War Wolf and Yangquan now worshipped Ji Wuri beyond all measure.
“Prince — Vengeful Prince!”
“Vengeful Prince!”
Though they’d suffered a crushing defeat with countless dead and wounded, the students still raised their arms and cried out as though they’d won a great victory, shouting through their tears, wildly celebrating the stroke that had cleaved the puppet factory in two.
All save one — the Hall of Light Master, Zhonghua. Only he gave a sour little snort, signaling his contempt.
In that instant, Ji Wuri had already won every heart. But this stroke had also landed him in an extraordinarily disadvantageous position. The four platinum puppet constructs had now surrounded the Vengeful-Prince-piloting Ji Wuri like an iron prison. The next layer out was tens of thousands of gold-tier puppet beasts, and the outermost layer was an ocean of silver and bronze puppet beasts.
Deep in the sea of puppets, Ji Wuri couldn’t have escaped even with wings. Never mind that Zhonghua didn’t want to rescue him — even if he had, it would have been impossible to accomplish the task of cutting a bloody path out of the puppet sea.
Two gold knights charged out from the hall, instantly swallowed in the sea of puppets — but in the instant of their submersion, the remaining five companions, all piloting gold knights, leapt across by treading on the upraised arms the two had thrust up to bear them. Further on, another gold knight sacrificed himself as a stepping stone, helping send four companions forward, intending to spend their last ounce of strength to rescue the encircled Ji Wuri.
“No — don’t come over!” For the first time, Ji Wuri’s expression changed.
This was absolutely not what he wished to see. He understood his subordinates’ loyal devotion; he’d even wanted it. But he still had use for people in the future, and didn’t wish to spend all his followers here in this puppet sea — genuinely loyal followers were few, after all. With his ability, even if the Vengeful Prince were shattered, he could escape safely; his life was under no threat. Now, with his gold knights all deployed, their loyalty and devotion beyond question — but was what they were doing actually of any use?
The four platinum puppet constructs raised their great arms, each toward a single gold knight.
Oscillation, corrosion…
With no possibility of resistance, two gold knights died horribly before Ji Wuri’s eyes. And the last two gold knights to finally reach the Vengeful Prince — before they could even find their footing, one was frozen rigid by an extreme frost. When that frozen gold knight toppled to the ground, it actually shattered into a field of broken ice. Yangquan and the others watched, hearts and guts splitting with horror — to what temperature must frost reach, to freeze steel more brittle than glass?
The most wretched fate wasn’t that of the one frozen — man and steel together — into an ice-pop and shattered across the ground. It was the last one. That gold knight showed no outward change, but the entire interior — every component of the construct, along with its driver — was squeezed out through the gold knight’s steel faceplate, both steel and human body drawn into fine threads. More terrifying still: before being squeezed out through the steel faceplate as shredded flesh, that unlucky soul had been ceaselessly vomiting up his internal organs. All his viscera came out, broken and shattered, as though an invisible giant hand were endlessly crushing his chest and abdomen.
“What kind of ability is that?” Jinji trembled all over with fright, and beside him, Mige and Yangquan had likewise never heard of so eerie an ability.
“Vacuum suction.” Zhonghua gave an uncertain snort. The extreme freezing earlier was one thing, but this latter vacuum suction was something even Zhonghua had never seen.
A construct wasn’t a fighter with innate gifts and domain abilities. If it possessed wind, fire, water, earth attack capabilities, that wouldn’t be strange — being man-made, it could be fitted with the corresponding combat apparatus. Particle oscillation was explicable enough. But possessing so eerie an ability as vacuum suction was truly inconceivable. What kind of person could possibly create such constructs? And to what end? If they were merely meant to guard the puppet factory, was there any need to create constructs like these?
Zhonghua couldn’t make sense of it at all — and not only him; even Ji Wuri, witnessing it firsthand at close range, couldn’t make sense of it either.
“What’s going on?” Mingzhu nudged Yue Yang with an elbow, signaling for an explanation. For all their everyday horseplay, at certain moments Mingzhu regarded Yue Yang as a know-it-all — when stumped on outside matters, ask him.
“It’s simple. Particle oscillation, concentrated-acid corrosion, extreme freezing, and vacuum suction — none of these are abilities a puppet construct possesses. These four hundred-meter platinum puppet constructs only provide defensive power. What actually unleashes the combat might is the ‘person’ inside.” At Yue Yang’s words, Mingzhu immediately cried out in alarm, shaking her head in denial. “Impossible — this is Human Valley, restricted by ancient law. No one can use combat power, whether innate gift or domain!”
“There’s one possibility — more thorough even than the ‘Flesh-and-Blood Constructs’ Wanmo makes. The entire person has lost all individual consciousness, lost their soul, with only the flesh-and-blood husk left alive, turned into a puppet manipulated by another.” Yue Yang’s face turned grave, and he nodded with certainty. “If that’s the case, then such a walking corpse might retain a few of its innate abilities. In a word, this too is a puppet — but a living puppet, made out of a human being.”
“Ah!” Hearing this, Mingzhu gave a shiver. “Who could be so evil, using people to make puppets?”
“That,” Yue Yang said, lifting his head toward the sky, “is precisely what I want to know.” After a long while, he murmured, “In Human Valley, what catastrophe exactly occurred? Why has it become what it is now? I believe that when it was created in ancient times, Human Valley was absolutely nothing like it is today. Who exactly destroyed the order and the law of this place?”
Mingzhu was taken aback, taking a good while to react. “Let’s go ask the three envoys. They surely know the truth!”
Yue Yang smiled. “Of course they know. Otherwise, why would they keep searching for reincarnated challengers like us — ones who can retrieve the ancient relic?”
(End of Chapter)