Though injured, the Bamboo Sovereign was still a formidable adversary, his power still in effect. Now was not the ideal moment to kill him!
The Vine Emperor was waiting for the Void Inquiry Stage and others to kill the last three Fragmented Void Elders of the Bamboo Hall to shatter the Bamboo Sovereign’s state of mind!
He was waiting for the Void Inquiry Stage’s 12th spirit clone to unseal and release the four fierce beasts of Nieli to kill the Bamboo Sovereign together with the Ming Luo Tree and Nieli!
He did nothing but wait, watching the Bamboo Sovereign. At any movement the Bamboo Sovereign made, he was ready to attack!
Time ticked by, chaos ensued in the Muye Kingdom, and more and more cultivators were losing their lives in Jishui City, to the extent that the Jishui underneath the city was stained red with blood and corpses.
In the fight against the Void Inquiry Stage, the Great Elder was increasingly on the defensive, his injuries becoming severe.
The Seventh Elder, besieged by three living puppets, had lost a leg and an arm, his breath weak and life slipping away.
The Fifth Elder, under siege by six Void Fragmentation adversaries, was the first to unleash an agonizing death scream!
Ah!
After a heart-wrenching scream, the Fifth Elder was slain by the six Vine Hall’s Void Fragmentation adversaries, his corpse plummeting from the sky!
"Fifth Elder!"
The Bamboo Emperor’s tiger eyes flared with rage, unable to contain himself anymore. Sovereign qi surged around him as he took a large step forward, launching an enraged punch at the six Void Fragmentation cultivators of the Vine Palace who had killed the Fifth Elder.
This punch merged all his mana and sovereign qi, forming an immense golden fist mark thousands of feet tall, an anger-infused strike from a Fifth Heavenly Layer Void Fragmented king!
As the fist imprint blasted out, the streaming clouds over millions of miles all turned to pure gold.
Contained within that fist imprint was the Bamboo Emperor’s uncontainable anger, its sharpness unstoppable!
Behind the Bamboo Emperor, a massive golden illusion suddenly appeared, exactly his Emperor Shadow!
When the Emperor Shadow manifested, countless cracks ripped through the sky, from which golden light streamed.
Just after the six Vine Palace Void Fragmentation cultivators had slain the Fifth Elder, the Bamboo Emperor’s punch came at them suddenly, leaving them all terrified. Each hurriedly activated their defensive magical treasures and retreated!
They dared not delay retreating. Being merely First and Second Heavenly Layer cultivators of the Void Fragmentation Realm, how could they dare face the wrath of an emperor directly!
They retreated swiftly, but the fist imprint came even faster, crossing countless spans in an instant, smashing all the defensive magical treasures raised by the six Void Fragmentation cultivators to dust!
As the fist mark moved through them, two Void Fragmentation cultivators immediately fell, leaving the other four severely wounded!
Among the fallen two was even a Second Heavenly Layer Void Fragmentation cultivator from the Vine Palace!
"You have indeed acted, hehe..."
The Vine Emperor’s voice suddenly came from behind the Bamboo Emperor, without the anger of a subordinate being killed, only delight.
That delight was because the Bamboo Emperor acted to extinguish the enemy, revealing a flaw.
Suddenly appearing behind the Bamboo Emperor, the Vine Emperor wielded a purple-gold halberd, slashing it at the Bamboo Emperor’s Tian Ling.
This strike came during the gap when the Bamboo Emperor was attacking, leaving him no time to dodge!
The Bamboo Emperor only had time to slightly sway aside, but the short halberd had already sliced into his flesh!
Swoosh!
With one slash, the Bamboo Emperor’s right arm was forcibly severed, and purple poison infiltrated his body from the wound.
Enduring intense pain, the Bamboo Emperor glared at the Vine Emperor, stabilized himself after several backward steps, then charged forward, launching his left fist to battle the Vine Emperor!
"Teng Gunan! I will fight you to the death!" The Bamboo Emperor roared with fury.
"Hehe, you have lost an arm to me and have been poisoned by the Soul Breaking Halberd, greatly weakening your vital energy and cannot summon a trace of your sovereign qi! You are now no match for me; today you will meet your end by my hands!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The collision between the Bamboo Emperor and the Vine Emperor sent destructive waves through the sky.
With each impact, the Bamboo Emperor’s injuries worsened, yet he was determined to fight to the death with the Vine Emperor, no matter the cost.
Amid their clash, the three Living Puppet Elders had already succeeded, slaying the Seventh Elder and capturing his corpse.
The Bamboo Emperor’s eyes were bloodshot. He could never understand why these three Living Puppet Elders would betray the Bamboo Hall and slay their fellow hall members...
"Why! Why would you betray me!"
"They have not betrayed you...their hearts still loyal to the Bamboo Hall, but their bodies must act on my command. For they are my Living Puppets! Refinement!"
The eleven silver-haired elders battling the Great Elder all let out cold laughs.
Then, two silver-haired elders temporarily withdrew from the battle, each manipulating silver threads, resurrecting the fallen Fifth and Seventh Elders as ’Living Puppets’ before the Bamboo Emperor’s eyes...
These two also became Living Puppets of the Void Inquiry Stage, bowing their heads to the eleven silver-haired elders high in the sky!
The Bamboo Emperor and the Great Elder froze at the sight, then seemed to realize something, their rage overwhelming!
So that’s it. No wonder the Void Fragmented elders who had served the Bamboo Hall for generations would betray it, nor why so many cultivators of the Eastern Tree Ocean went inexplicably mad...
It turned out that Void Inquiry Stage could create Living Puppets!
Living Puppets...puppets with life!
If you are alive, I retain your consciousness, making you a puppet, whether you are willing or not, you are mine to control!
If you are dead, I revive your memory, resurrecting you as a puppet, stripping you of the opportunity to reincarnate, making you my slave!
In this world, all puppets, even those with spirit awareness, are Dead Puppets. No puppet technique, however intricate, could revive the dead as puppets or allow puppets to retain their living consciousness...
Yet in ancient times, there was a demonic clan that developed the Living Puppet Art, named the Lamenting Deceased Clan!
The master of the Lamenting Deceased Clan was the ancestor of the Northern Heaven Immortal World...the Ancestral Emperor of the Northern Heaven!
Within the Lamenting Deceased Clan, most secret techniques, including the Living Puppet Art, could only be performed by those who cultivated the Mourning Demonic Bloodline.
The Lamenting Deceased Clan had to burn their own bloodline, with only a one in ten thousand chance of cultivating the Mourning Demonic Bloodline.
Among ten thousand people, only one could successfully cultivate the Mourning Demonic Bloodline; the rest would fail and die.
Being too dangerous, the Lamenting Deceased Clan was exterminated by the collective powers of several Four Heavens Great Powers after the Ancestral Emperor of the Northern Heaven passed away, leaving no survivors...
Unexpectedly, Void Inquiry Stage could wield the Living Puppet Art, revealing his identity...
"Void Inquiry Stage! I never expected you to be a remnant of the Lamenting Deceased Clan! If the Four Heavens knew your identity, they would surely hasten to kill you!" The Bamboo Emperor roared in anger.
"Hehe...Your Majesty Bamboo Emperor, you indeed overestimate this old man, for I am not of the Lamenting Deceased Clan, merely that I accidentally consumed a treasure, unexpectedly cultivating the Mourning Demonic Bloodline, and gaining scattered techniques as a result. However, you reminded me, whether or not I am a Lamenting Deceased Clan member, the fact of possessing the Mourning Demonic Bloodline must never be revealed, or it might invite the killing calamity from the Four Heavens Great Powers..."
"Since I confided in you about the Living Puppets, I will not let you live; the dead will keep all my secrets!"
Swoosh!
A fierce light flashed in Void Inquiry Stage’s eyes. One among the eleven Spirit Sense duplicates suddenly burst apart, shattering into countless silver lines, piercing through the entire body of the waning Great Elder!
In the next moment, the shattered Spirit Sense reformed, while the Great Elder, pierced by the silver lines, gradually had empty eyes, becoming one of Void Inquiry Stage’s Living Puppets...
"Your Majesty Vine Emperor, no need to wait any longer, you and I together can easily kill the dying Bamboo Emperor!" Void Inquiry Stage sneered.
"Good! It is a great fortune for me to ally with the Mourning Demonic Bloodline!"
Boom!
As the two intended to jointly slay the Bamboo Emperor, a giant military boot suddenly descended from the sky!
"Haha, you don’t mind if Liu jumps into this bamboo slaughter, right?"
Boom!
With one stomp, a Spirit Sense of Void Inquiry Stage was destroyed directly!
"Liu Haoyue!!! How dare you destroy my Spirit Sense!!!!" The remaining ten silver-haired elders’ eyes all turned blood-red. (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian () to vote for recommendations, monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit for reading.)