Chapter 1259: An Army of One
Instantly, a phenomenon materialized in the skies above the Hongze Realm, announcing the demise of the cultivators from the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
“Nascent Soul cultivator Lin Bai, who walked the path of cultivation for one hundred and sixty-five years...”
“...was gravely wounded and perished while fighting for the Clear Void Flowing Crystal in the Hongze Realm, after being besieged by Qian Sheng, Qian Ming, and Qian Su.”
“His body perished and his Dao scattered, returning to the heavens!”
...
Though they had been slain by the Sacred Dynasty's vanguard, the cause of death now displayed across the sky was a conflict with the Qian family.
This was Sun Erlang's first time using the Heaven-Tampering Talisman, and its effect appeared to be quite satisfactory.
Sun Erlang meticulously recorded the celestial vision with a projection stone, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
Following the final message left by Zhang Ming, he located the vein of Clear Void Flowing Crystal.
Once this was all done, Sun Erlang departed in silence.
A long time passed before the obscured and altered heavenly secrets of the Hongze Realm gradually returned to their natural state.
In Yueyang Prefecture, within the territory of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, lay the estate of the Qian family.
Qian Wanling, the family head and a cultivator at the peak of the Soul Transformation stage, wore a grim expression. Standing before him, Qian Sheng, Qian Ming, and Qian Su appeared utterly bewildered.
“Explain this fine mess you've made,” he demanded.
“What mess?” Qian Sheng asked, dumbfounded.
“Eldest Brother, you summoned us so suddenly, and you look... what in the world happened?” Qian Su chimed in, equally confused.
Qian Wanling slammed his fist on the table. “Still trying to hide it? The Lin family is already at our gates! Lin Bai was their most promising successor, and you just killed him! Do you think they'll simply let this go? The Clear Void Flowing Crystal may be a treasure, but you have to be alive to enjoy it!”
“Blinded by greed! Incredibly foolish!”
The Qian patriarch glared at his brothers, his eyes practically smoldering with rage. If blood weren't thicker than water, he would have struck them all down with a single blow.
“Wait a moment!” Qian Ming's face changed as understanding dawned. “Lin Bai? Clear Void Flowing Crystal? Eldest Brother, you must be mistaken! Us, kill Lin Bai? You can't be serious!”
Seeing their continued denial, Qian Wanling's disappointment reached its peak. “You'd even lie to me for the Clear Void Flowing Crystal? Fine! Just fine!”
Fuming, Qian Wanling produced a projection stone and played the recording of the phenomenon from the Hongze Realm.
As the celestial phenomenon played out before them, the three Qian brothers were utterly stunned.
“This can't be right, Eldest Brother! We swear we didn't do this!”
“Someone is framing us! You have to believe us, Eldest Brother!”
After a moment of shocked silence, all three brothers cried out, protesting their innocence.
Qian Wanling stared at them, scrutinizing their faces, yet he could find no hint of deceit in their expressions.
“These fools aren't skilled enough actors to pull this off,” he mused. “Could it be...”
Now, even Qian Wanling began to waver.
“So, where were you three during that time?”
Hearing the question, Qian Sheng and his brothers hesitated.
But under their eldest brother's murderous glare, they had no choice but to reveal the truth.
“That day, we were cultivating at the lakeside pavilion by Yueyang Lake, absorbing the sun's essence, when we suddenly sensed a strange disturbance in a nearby earth vein, as if a treasure was about to emerge. We went to investigate, but as soon as we arrived, the earth vein's power erupted violently. We were swept into its currents, completely losing control...”
“We only managed to break free recently,” Qian Sheng recounted, leaving no detail out.
Noticing his eldest brother's darkening expression, he quickly added, “It's true! See for yourself. After being trapped in the earth vein for so long, our spiritual power has been unavoidably saturated with its dense aura.”
Qian Wanling scanned the three of them with his spiritual sense and, indeed, detected the unmistakable traces of prolonged exposure to the power of an earth vein.
He fell silent.
The three brothers thought he still didn't believe them and were about to argue further.
But Qian Wanling cut them off with a long sigh. “What does it matter if I believe you? Will the Lin family believe you? Will anyone else?”
“The images recorded on this projection stone have been verified. They aren't forged.”
“And what's more, it involves a treasure like the Clear Void Flowing Crystal...”
“The Qian family is in grave danger.”
As the reality of the situation sank in, Qian Sheng's eyes burned with fury. “Who would go to such lengths to frame us!”
Qian Ming's eyes were bloodshot. “Don't worry, Eldest Brother. We won't drag the family into this.”
With that, he turned to leave.
“You fool!” Qian Wanling roared. “Going out now is suicide!”
He froze at Qian Wanling's angry rebuke.
Seeing his three brothers, wronged and furious, Qian Wanling sighed once more.
Finally, he made a decision with the authority of a family head. “At this point, being misunderstood is inevitable.”
“Our only option is to report this matter to Lord Fan Li...”
Fan Li was the Dao Integration cultivator who guarded Yueyang Prefecture. He disliked staying in the provincial capital, Yueyang Sky City, and instead resided in a small pavilion he had built on the shores of Yueyang Lake.
“I will go myself. Remember, stay hidden at home. Do not go out.”
Qian Wanling warned them sternly before altering his appearance and leaving through a secret passage.
He left Qian Sheng and his brothers behind, panicked and at a loss.
A short while later, Fan Li, who was resting in his lakeside pavilion, frowned as he listened to Qian Wanling's account.
Just then, the head of the Lin family, Lin Yufei, arrived.
“Lord Fan, you must see that justice is done for my Lin family!”
The Lin family's lookouts, posted outside the pavilion, had spotted Qian Wanling and immediately informed Lin Yufei.
Lin Yufei had rushed over. Seeing Qian Wanling sitting formally inside the pavilion, he made no effort to conceal the murderous intent in his eyes.
“Your Qian family has gone too far!” he seethed. “You treat the laws of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance as if they're nothing!”
“Brother Lin, please calm yourself. We have been framed,” Qian Wanling said with a wry smile, offering an apology.
“Framed?! Was the celestial proclamation a lie? Were the images on the projection stone fake?!”
If Qian Wanling had said nothing, it might have been better. To Lin Yufei, his words sounded like nothing but excuses and sophistry, which only fueled his fury.
He was ready to strike on the spot.
“Enough.”
Fan Li snorted, his authority forcefully quelling the explosive tension between the two men.
He studied the recording on the projection stone again, his brow furrowed in thought.
The recording wasn't a forgery.
But he had indeed detected the disturbance in the earth vein during that period.
The Qian family wouldn't dare try to fool him with such a preposterous excuse.
What in the world was going on?
For a moment, Fan Li felt a headache coming on.
He knew that if he mishandled this, the affair would likely become public knowledge, causing a massive uproar.
“Both of you, come with me to the Hongze Realm.”
Fan Li declared in a low voice.
...
However, even with Fan Li present in person, they were ultimately unable to uncover the truth from the faint traces left behind in the Hongze Realm.
There was, however, a strong residual aura of Clear Void Flowing Crystal.
“Old thief Qian!” Lin Yufei snarled. “Lord Fan himself performed the divination to recall the heavenly phenomenon of the death. I saw it with my own eyes! What more do you have to say?”
“Brother Lin, could it be possible... that the celestial phenomenon itself was false?”
“What utter nonsense! From this day forward, there will be no peace between the Lin family and the Qian family until one of us is destroyed!”
Seeing that the animosity between the two families had not only failed to resolve but had intensified, Fan Li's headache grew worse.
He looked up at the sky over the Hongze Realm.
“The Heavenly Dao... has it changed again?”
After returning to Yueyang Prefecture, and conducting several experiments and cross-verifications, Fan Li confirmed that the celestial phenomenon marking a cultivator's death was still a reliable indicator.
Still, a sliver of doubt remained in his heart, especially since Qian Wanling continued to vehemently insist on his brothers' innocence.
And after personally interrogating the three with his own divine soul, Fan Li was also certain they were not the culprits.
Left with no other choice, Fan Li reported the incident to the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance headquarters.
What he didn't know was that this was already the second such report the Alliance had received.
However, due to the inherent inertia of the Alliance's vast bureaucracy, incidents like these had not yet captured the attention of its highest echelons.
Silently, the seeds of chaos had been sown.
The Great Qi.
Sun Erlang compiled the reports gathered by the Sacred Dynasty's various spies and was immensely satisfied with the effects of the Heaven-Tampering Talisman.
For thousands of years, the accuracy of the celestial death phenomenon had been proven time and again. The cultivators of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, their minds set in this established pattern, would not suddenly question its validity.
“However, it can only be used for surprise attacks. Overuse will diminish its effectiveness.”
“It must be reserved for crucial moments.”
Sun Erlang shook his head.
He had already reported the heroic sacrifice of Zhang Ming's team to the Sacred Emperor.
In a rare move, the Sacred Emperor announced the matter to the entire dynasty and, with his immense power, created a floating divine hall above the Sacred Capital.
The hall glittered with golden light, suspended high in the heavens.
From any corner of the Great Qi, one could see the hall's brilliant glow, as radiant as a second sun.
The Sacred Emperor decreed that any soldier who sacrificed their life for the dynasty would have a statue of themselves manifested within the hall.
Though they would lose their physical forms, they would live on for eternity as heroic spirits.
The ethereal figures of Zhang Ming and his team, bathed in golden light, emerged from the floating hall, confirming the Sacred Emperor's promise.
The citizens of the Great Qi rejoiced at the Sacred Emperor's divine grace. Their fear of death slowly gave way to a fervent desire to enter the floating hall and become immortal heroes.
Sun Erlang knew that these so-called heroic spirits were likely wisps of remnant consciousness, preserved and given form by his Master's divine power.
It was a far cry from true immortality.
Still, it was a form of salvation after death.
Better to leave one final trace upon the world than to have one's soul scatter and be utterly annihilated.
For Sun Erlang, however, the true path lay in minimizing the sacrifices of his soldiers.
He arrived at the secret facility where the Sacred Dynasty forged its weapons of war.
Both the Army-Destroying Arrow and the Heaven-Tampering Talisman were created here.
“Greetings, Master Qiaogong.”
Sun Erlang greeted Master Qiaogong, who was busy at work.
Qiaogong didn't reply, his attention fixed on a black puppet that darted rapidly through the space before him.
Unfazed, Sun Erlang turned his gaze to the puppet as well.
“Incredible speed.”
The black puppet flickered in and out of existence, its movements so erratic that it even evaded the lock of Sun Erlang's spiritual sense.
“Slow! Still far too slow!”
“The supply of Source Power is limited. It's still a stretch to expect this mass-produced model to perform at the level I envision.”
Qiaogong lamented, his voice full of regret.
“Sun, get in there and test it,” he said suddenly.
Sun Erlang nodded and, in a flash, appeared in the testing grounds.
The black puppet ceased its rapid movements and launched an all-out assault on Sun Erlang.
Its attacks were twofold: one was a beam of black light that carried an aura of annihilation.
The other involved detonating built-in formation modules to trap and wound its target with standard arrays.
It could fight on par with an ordinary peak Nascent Soul cultivator, but it was clear it couldn't harm Sun Erlang in the slightest.
Effortlessly dodging the puppet's attacks, Sun Erlang flicked his fingers, sending several orbs of blue light flying.
The orbs traced curving paths through the air, unerringly locking onto and striking the black puppet.
A dark glimmer flashed across the puppet's body, and to his surprise, it absorbed his attack.
“You didn't see that last time, did you, boy?”
“I call this technique 'a taste of your own medicine'.”
As Qiaogong spoke, wisps of blue light began to glow on the black puppet's body.
The blue orbs he had just launched were fired back at him.
“And that's just a single puppet. The true advantage of these mass-produced models is their numbers.”
As Qiaogong finished speaking, dozens more puppets materialized in the testing chamber.
As he fought them, Sun Erlang discovered the puppets moved as if they were a single entity.
Their coordination was flawless, and they vaguely formed a battle array.
Furthermore, any single puppet could focus and unleash the combined force of all the attacks absorbed by the entire group.
Even with his considerable power, Sun Erlang found himself hard-pressed when facing more than thirty puppets without resorting to his killing techniques.
He called a halt to the test and returned to Qiaogong's side.
“Master Qiaogong, how many of these mass-produced puppets can be deployed at once?”
Qiaogong shrugged. “That, my boy, is a state secret. Even as the Sacred Emperor's personal disciple, I can't give you the specifics.”
Sun Erlang was left speechless.
Qiaogong roared with laughter. “I'm just messing with you.”
“These are the Sacred Army Puppets. They operate in groups of fifty and require a specialized cultivator to control them to achieve their full potential.”
“Besieging and killing a Soul Transformation cultivator should be no issue.”
A sharp glint flashed in Sun Erlang's eyes at his words.
“Is there an upper limit to how many of these puppets one person can control?”
“An upper limit?” Qiaogong paused for a moment, then understood.
“You want to try?”
Sun Erlang nodded.
Qiaogong mused for a moment before handing him a round, black jade disc.
“Don't push yourself too hard.”
Sun Erlang accepted the disc. Instantly, an image of a thousand black puppets standing in perfect, silent rows appeared in his sea of consciousness.
His mind felt like a silken thread, connecting to each and every puppet.
It was as if each puppet possessed a mind of its own.
Upon connecting, Sun Erlang felt a weight settle upon his soul, as if it had been tethered to something immense.
However, this connection also granted him perfect control over the puppets, as if they were extensions of his own body.
Sun Erlang familiarized himself with the puppet's body. With a single thought, one of the puppets flew into the testing grounds.
It began performing flight and attack maneuvers.
After a period of adjustment, Sun Erlang found the strain on his soul had become negligible.
He then began to connect to more puppets.
A third, a tenth, then a fiftieth...
Under Master Qiaogong's increasingly astonished gaze, the total number of puppets under Sun Erlang's control impressively surpassed one hundred.
And judging by his expression, he was still managing with ease.
“This kid...”
“He's really something!”
A thought suddenly struck Master Qiaogong. “If you were to control the entire Sacred Army puppet legion by yourself... wouldn't the effect be even greater?”
(End of Chapter)
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