Chapter 54 - Corpse Puppet Army

The battle raged on, slowly growing increasingly ferocious and becoming more intense by the second. Despite the growing intensity, many people, particularly Ghu Clansmen, were still hiding their sleeve, refusing to show their strongest abilities just yet. Unless the battle grew to a certain level, they would withhold from displaying their hidden abilities; this was the natural caution of a Ghu Clansman. Unlike many other young prodigies, none of these individuals were overly arrogant and desperate to show off to others, they had learned that it was best to always keep some of your abilities hidden from those around you.

“We should head towards the centre, where Aque Li is gathering the other Qi masters.” Ghu Lin assessed, speaking loudly such that the other nearby Ghu Clansmen could hear. When they heard the name ‘Aque Li’, many people’s expressions changed, now understanding how that person had so easily rallied the others.

“Aque Clan…!” Ghu Nadda exclaimed. “So Aque Li came this time…are others from the Aque Clan here…?”

“They should be, they hid themselves, blending in as lone Qi masters this time.” Ghu Lin nodded. “Keep an eye out for them, they could even be hidden amongst our ranks.”

People looked around warily upon hearing this. For some reason, this line of Ghu Lin’s gave Yaan an uneasy premonition, but he couldn’t work out why he felt this way. To be honest, there were simply too many things that he needed to remain wary of. He decided it would be best to maintain his caution, or else he could be attacked by the hidden Aque Clan member, if they existed that is.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Yaan’s expression changed and he suddenly leapt back.

BANG!

Just as he landed lightly on his feet, the ground where he had been standing exploded. Dirt ignited and shot out in all direction, catching a Ghu Clan female Qi master in the eye.

BOOM!

The dirt exploded on impact, causing the woman to scream out miserably. However, she was still a Ghu Clansman, and she rapidly used a defensive spell to prevent the shockwaves from tearing apart her brain. Her face was now completely disfigured and her expression became ferocious, turning towards her attackers, only to find…they were already dead!

More precisely, they were corpse puppets.

As he saw a group of five Qi Temple realm corpses with such high unified battle strength attacking his side, Yaan felt bitter. It wasn’t long before another wave of figures charged towards them, but on closer inspection, it became obvious that they were also all corpses!

Hordes of corpses charged their way, followed by the enemy Qi masters who had become more daring with so many bodies surrounding and protecting them. Gradually, the Ghu Clan’s momentum was halted, and even pushed back!

“Ah…” Nadda muttered, glancing at Yaan and sharing his bitter expression.

“We should have thought of this…” Nadda laughed wryly. Yaan nodded, sighing as he realised the same thing.

As corpse after corpse puppet charged towards them, joined by Qi masters who hid behind them, Yaan realised that almost all of these corpses were Yuso Clansmen…all of them were sold to their current enemies by himself and Nadda.

In their defence, they never expected that they would be engaging in an all out battle against every single one of their clients! Well, these people would have just spent their money elsewhere and bought other offensive means if they hadn’t bought the Yuso Clan corpses…this thought made Yaan and Nadda feel a bit better, but it was still depressing to battle against the weapons that they had supplied to their enemies.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh…

Yaan was startled and glanced to the side. He watched as Nadda brought out 5, 10…12 corpse puppets from his spatial ring! Nadda’s corpse puppets were all at the Qi Temple realm and Qi Palace realm and they all charged forth towards the opposing corpse puppets as soon as they appeared.

Nadda wasn’t the only Ghu Clansman to bring out corpse puppets, but his control was exquisite compared to others! Not only that, but all of his puppets were at the 3rd and 4th Layer Qi Temple realm! Whilst corpse puppets weren’t as powerful as Qi masters of the same cultivation stage, they were still a force to be reckoned with! Normally, it would be difficult to control 4 or 5 corpse puppets at a time, showing that Nadda was actually an expert in this area!

Yaan knew that Nadda used corpse puppets, but he didn’t realise that he was so proficient!

Actually, after Nadda’s corpses appeared and joined the fray, the other Ghu Clansmen who had been holding back and hiding their abilities until now, decided that they also needed to put more effort in! The battle had clearly escalated to the extent that holding back their abilities was no longer possible. The sudden addition of the Ghu Clansmen’s corpse puppets gave the Ghu Clan a massive surge in momentum, the tides of battle were turned in an instant! Swarms of corpse puppets began appearing, soon enough expanding the Ghu Clan’s army and numbers 5 fold! Not all of the Ghu Clansmen controlled corpse puppets, but around half of them did!

Yaan glanced at Ghu Lin, but he showed no signs of changing his methods. He didn’t bring out any corpse puppets, but continued to use his unusual methods to cripple every opponent he faced. He didn’t kill, but he cut tendons, dismembered limbs and so on, leaving helpless victims on the floor for Yaan to finish off.

But Ghu Lin was very crafty. He never crippled so many that there were too many to keep track of. He crippled at a similar rate that Yaan killed, making it easy for him to dive in and grab the rewards.

Surprisingly, with Ghu Nadda’s corpse puppets joining the fray, the teamwork between him, Ghu Lin and Yaan became impeccable. Nadda’s corpses arranged into a formation just ahead of Yaan and Ghu Lin, fending off the bulk of the enemies around them whilst allowing only a select few through, who Ghu Lin promptly dealt with. With those Qi masters debilitated, Yaan was able to rush in swiftly, finishing their dwindling lives before they had the chance to use any recovery pills or healing type spells.

As the battle dragged on, the scent of blood stained the air. Bodies littered the ground and the bloodthirsty expressions of those on both sides grew more and more savage. For most of the people here, this was their first experience with a battle on this scale. Of course, there were some who had experienced wars between their home sects or clans, but it was rare to have so many powerful Qi masters battling it out to the death like this. Perhaps the fact that they were within an enclosed space, a large palace hall, made it feel all the more desperate, though. No matter which way they turned, there was nowhere to escape this frenzy.

It had been a long time since Yaan had experienced this sort of feeling. Back when he cultivated Yuan Qi, before his dantian was crippled, he used to absorb the slaughter aura from those he killed. With his dantian destroyed, he was no longer able or forced to do such a thing.

Still though, one couldn’t help but feel a bloodthirsty insanity when blood sprayed all around, with bodies falling to your sides with every passing second, and with a seemingly endless swarm of enemies trying to end your life.

He tried his best to keep a sound mind of course. Compared to others, Yaan was more accustomed to dealing with such emotions, meaning he was able to retain his rationality to a greater degree. Actually, this was noticeable across the Ghu Clan side as a whole; compared to their enemies, there were fewer individuals with bloodshot eyes, who had completely lost themselves to slaughter.

As time flew by, Yaan’s breathing became heavy. He had lost count of the number of enemies he had slain, of the number of lives he had ended. At first, before entering this battle, he was hesitant to engage in such wanton slaughter, but now…when he was thrust into the midst of this chaotic battlefield, he didn’t have the luxury to care about anything other than progressing forwards, killing in order to survive.

Yaan swallowed recovery pills to keep up his energy, but this battle was more mentally taxing than physically, for him at least. Images of those he had killed kept flashing through his mind, it was difficult to focus on the battle when their screams seemed to echo throughout his psyche, even long after their deaths. He pushed through this pain, but it was without a doubt exhausting, and Yaan wasn’t sure how much more he could take. He didn’t know how long it had been and how long they had remaining, but it was clear that neither he nor those around him could go on for much longer.

And then, finally, they reached their target. For the first time since the battle commenced, Yaan, Ghu Lin and Nadda all stopped, gasping for breath as they stared forwards viciously. Ahead of them, the blood soaked figure of Aque Li stared back with a dark expression.