When everyone present felt the Sovereign level Qi fluctuations, their faces turned pale. If the Sovereign were to be by himself, then with a 200 plus Saints, they may exhaust him to death and win through that but even that wasn’t guaranteed.

However, there were also 200 Saints accompanying the man, so if they were to focus all of their attention on the Sovereign, the Saints would annihilate their low levelled cultivators. However, if they focused on the Saints, the Sovereign would have free reign to do what it wanted. The Commander’s face was grim and as he looked at the people behind him, he could only bitterly smile. This was the place where they would die.

As his gaze passed Curo, it turned complex. Curo’s face wasn’t filled with fear or bitterness. Rather, it was filled with determination. Suddenly, when a deathly silence filled the surroundings, Curo’s cold voice sounded out, “Mo Hao, Shin Haotian, Huang Feng, Chen Heng! Form a protective circle around me and let no one in!” The moment he said that, the four didn’t question the order and immediately flew to the four sides of Curo as he sat down and produced a small wooden figure.

The figure was extremely detailed in it’s features and it resembled Jing Fang. Curo then muttered something and just as the wooden figure in his hands began to glow in a black light, he threw it up. A blinding light burst out from the figure as laughter echoed out again, “Seems like you half pints from the Nine Clans couldn’t hold yourselves back any more!”

Hearing this, the faces of the Burning Heavens Citadels forces turned to shock. The wooden figure had turned into a flesh and blood man. What’s more, he also released Qi Fluctuations equivalent to a Sovereign. Seeing this, all the gazes turned to Curo and they saw him sit down there cross legged. His eyes were closed as his hands formed a peculiar seal, covered in black light.

Seeing this, the Commander resolutely barked, “Lou Xi, take your Squad and guard Captain Ji with your lives.” Hearing the order, the man at his right banged his chest piece with his fist as he hurriedly flew down with eight others. They formed another protective circle around Curo and stared all around with extreme vigilance.

The Commander looked at Curo and sighed internally, “Is it fate or just a lucky coincidence…. When my Burning Heavens Citadel needs a Sovereign the most, he is able to produce a Sovereign Puppet.” He could only look at Curo with a complex and peculiar gaze once more before he looked straight ahead and barked again, “Captain Ji will stall the Sovereign, rest of you lot, prepare to fight for your lives!”

Hearing this, the forces of the Burning Heavens Citadel raised their weapons to the air with a deafening battle cry. No more words were spoken as the wooden puppet of Jing Fang flew out to meet the Sovereign of the Nine Clans. The Commander, Saints and regular forces all followed behind him and a bloody and a messy battle for survival started once again. The moment the figure had turned into Jing Fang, Curo’s body became unmoving.

When Jing Fang had given him this wooden figure he had said, that this puppet was only an incomplete and failed product made in haste. Not only did it require Curo to constantly pour in massive amounts of Qi to keep it active, he also needed to be in full control of the puppet. However, he had not yet learned to split his mind, so the only way he could do that was to have himself surrounded by protective detail while he himself solely focused on fighting in the puppet.

His Real Body would be left up to fate and if someone managed to kill his Real Body, then the puppet would also deactivate. Taking all of this into account, Jing Fang had pushed the Hidden Dragon Academy to surround Curo with the two Heavenly Saints and two Earthly Saints. If push came to shove and he needed to use the figure, the four of them could keep his Real Body safe. As Curo flew ahead inside the puppet, he came across the Sovereign from the Nine Clans.

Without saying another word, he immediately started fighting with the man. It was only luck that the Sovereign was also a puppet and thus it’s combat strength was roughly equal to Curo. Since it was like this, there were two options for this battle to end; First, whichever side ran out of Qi needed to maintain the puppet first and Second, which ever side managed to kill the puppet controller first.

Thinking this far, Curo hurriedly sent a message to the Commander, “This Sovereign is a puppet like mine, if we wish to end this with our victory, you need to find the controller while I tie up the puppet.” Hearing this message, the Commander faltered for a second before he immediately understood what Curo meant. The person in control of the other puppet was most likely a Heavenly Saint with a Qi reserve much vaster and deeper than Curo’s.

Although, he didn’t know how vast Curo’s Qi Reserve was, if they went for the drawn out battle, they were more likely to lose than win. Since the situation panned out like this, he secretly contacted the Saints under his command and had half of them fight the other Saints to keep them busy while the other half were to search for the controller.

While fighting the Sovereign puppet, Curo also tried to scan and search for the controller if he could, however, the attacks of the other puppet were relentless enough to not give him the free time to do so. As the two kept fighting high up in the sky, the Nine Clans seemed to have the same idea that the Burning Heavens Citadels forces had. As each side was frantically searching for the other sides Sovereign Puppet Controller, several Squads of Saints appeared on the edge of the battlefield.

Each of them had grim faces on and just as they were pondering on what to do, a voice sounded out in their heads, “Move to the back of the Nine Clans forces and search for the person in control of the Sovereign Puppet.” This voice was Curo and the moment they heard that, the people could only smile bitterly as they joined the forces to search for the Puppet Controller. Although each of them was bitter at heart about being dragged into this, they couldn’t voice their discontent. However, the halfassed method of searching and casual fighting they did, did not escape Curo’s sight.

His anger started to flare as he blasted the other Sovereign Puppet with a ball of black flames. As the Puppet retreated, Curo roared in anger, “You shit fucks either start searching and fighting with everything you have or I am going to bury all of you here with the Nine Clans!” Hearing this roar, the entire battlefield paused for a moment before it resumed. Although none of them could see Curo’s face, from his voice alone it was obvious that he was pissed. Mo Hao’s eyes narrowed as he coldly started observing the Squads that had joined them halfway through the battle.

Suddenly, Curo’s voice echoed in his head, “Mo Hao, I am going to give you a recording tool. Record all of their actions from now on.” Hearing this cold voice in his head, he could only nod his head. Suddenly, a black orb the size of a fist appeared in front of him. He quickly started recording all of their actions and the more he observed them, the more angry he grew. “Did this shit fucks not understand the situation we are in? Once the Captain’s Puppet runs out of Qi, we will be lambs for slaughter in front of them.” As he mumbled that in a low tone, the surrounding twelve people’s faces grew cold as well.

They were detesting these Squads that had joined but gave a half baked effort. Suddenly, Curo coughed a mouthful of blood as his left shoulder started glowing in a white light. His complexion grew better but it was still pale.

Seeing this, Mo Hao grit his teeth and sent a message to the Commander, “Captain seems to be at his limits, unless we manage to find the Controller in the next few minutes, I suggest we start making preparations for the retreat.” Hearing this, the Commander’s face grew serious as he glanced up into the sky. Both of the puppets were wearing rags and several spots on their bodies were gone, revealing the wooden inside. Both of the Puppets were at their limits, however, since they hadn’t found the other Controller, they had no idea whether they were winning or losing.

Just as they were frantically searching for the other Puppet Controller, a loud Bang! echoed across the battlefield and pieces of a Puppet fell down from the sky. Everyone’s hearts were stuck in their throats as suddenly, Curo’s head jerked backwards and a stream of blood flew out from his mouth. As he laid down on his back, the surrounding people were grim. When the other puppet descended, it was missing half it’s head, an arm and both it’s legs. However, it was the Nine Clan’s Sovereign Puppet.

They could do nothing but bitterly sigh to this. They no longer had the option of retreating either. When the Saints looked towards Curo, their faces were filled with both respect and sorrow. Curo had given his all to delay the puppet as long he could but they had not managed to find the other Puppet Controller in time.

Then their gazes turned to the Squads that had joined in half way and their gazes were filled with malicious rage. Sensing all these gazes, these Squads could do nothing more than lower their heads and cower in fear. They had known that the Sovereigns in the sky were both puppets and whichever side won would win this entire battle. In spite of this, they were not doing their up most to find the other Puppet Controller. They all knew Curo and were envious of both his talent and his reputation. Deep down, they suppressed their efforts because they wanted to see him suffer.

However, now under the malicious gazes of the Burning Heavens Citadel’s Forces, they could only lower their heads and dread what was about to come. Curo had managed to recover a bit and managed to struggle to sit up. Instead of bitterness, there was a hint of a smile on his face. Seeing this, Mo Hao was confused but when he followed Curo’s gaze and saw nothing, he frowned as he sent out his Qi Sense.

His face suddenly changed as well and a hint of smile formed on his face as he looked at Curo. “So, he wasn’t planning on fighting to the bitter end in the first place but was stalling for time.” As this thought entered Mo Hao’s head, ten streaks of light appeared on the horizon. These ten figures all excluded the Qi Ripples of Sovereigns. Behind these ten figures, on could see a huge boat with the Five Academies Alliance Insignia on it’s sail rushing towards them. Seeing these ten figures, the Commander only released a breath of relief as he looked towards Curo with a gratified gaze.

This battle had drawn itself out to be nearly half a day long. The ten figures looked at the City Wall and cupped their hands in respect and bowed before turning heir gazes towards the Nine Clans forces. Without any delay, the immediately rushed forward. Seeing that ten Sovereign Puppets had appeared on the other side, the Nine Clans could do nothing once again than immediately withdraw their forces. The ten Sovereign Puppets had no thought of chasing them and the moment they saw them retreat in panic, they flew to the City Wall and stood in front of Curo. One Puppet then said, “As per your order’s Lord Deputy, the Ten Sovereign Puppet Squad had arrived as reinforcements to the Burning Heavens Citadel!” Curo gave a weak smile as he said, “Your timing couldn’t have been better. Had you been even half a minute late, I am afraid you would have only found corpses here.”

Hearing this, the puppet also sighed as he looked towards the fleeing Nine Clans Forces and said, “We were immediately mobilized and sent out the moment we got the order. Roaming Dragon Head Sovereign Sheng helped us shorten the time it took to arrive by four times. He had said that he had a bad feeling about this and it seemed that Sovereign Sheng was right.” Hearing this, the thirteen Saints surrounding Curo all gave him a gratified look.

Curo then said as well, “For some reason, the moment the last battle ended, I had this weird feeling of danger and that a calamity was approaching. Seems like even the Heavens favour us in this war.” Hearing this, the puppet let out a laugh before he said, “Our Real Body’s will arrive in quarter of an hours worth of time. Head Sheng and Sovereign Jing and Sovereign Xi sent over some supplies for you and also, there are special orders for your Squad.” Hearing this, Curo’s eyes turned serious.

If all three of the Heavenly Sovereigns that stood at the front of the Hidden Dragon Academy sent over supplies for a special mission, it was bound to be something extremely dangerous. Curo nodded his head and took out some Medicinal Pills to start recuperating the injuries he had suffered. The backlash caused by the Puppet’s destruction had riddled his body with injuries. If he didn’t have a body that was several times stronger than a normal Saints, he may have been crippled by it. As Curo closed his eyes to heal his injuries, no one disturbed him any more.

However, a commotion broke out nearby that caused the Ten Sovereign Puppet’s eyes to turn cold. When a group of 40 Heavenly Saints arrived, they brought along them the all the Roaming Squads that had shirked their duties and almost killed all of them. Had it not been for Curo sending out a request for reinforcements and them arriving in time, then they would all be corpses at the moment. Seeing the Squads being brought to them, the Ten Sovereign Puppets immediately singled out their Roaming Squads and one of them said coldly, “Do you have any idea how your actions may have implicated the entire war?” As these people lowered their heads in embarrassment, another quickly added, “If you shit heads have no will to take part in this war, what the fuck are you even doing here? Trying to curry a favour with the Academies that you have participated?” This squad of Ten Sovereign Puppet Squad was a jointly formed squad of 2 Peak Heavenly Saints from each Academy.

On the way there, they had heard a report of how they had only showed up and left during the first battle and that had infuriated them. When they got a hurried report from Mo Hao how they were shirking their duties during this war, they become truly enraged at the lot and were quite close to slapping these people to Kingdom to come.