Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Just when the attack was about to reach Shentu Yuan, Tang Jie roared, "Stop!"
This thunderous roar caused the wave of dark energy to freeze in the air, giving Tang Jie the opportunity to pull Shentu Yuan to the side.
Still, the energy wave had only paused for a moment, so while it failed to strike Shentu Yuan in the back of the head, it managed to collide with his back, and Shentu Yuan howled in pain as he was sent flying. A moment later, Ximen Changfeng and the others attacked.
With a bang, a dark figure fell from the air and landed on the ground with a metallic clang.
Borrowing the light from their attacks, the group saw that their assailant was an existence covered entirely in black armor and holding a large black sword. Although it had suffered their combined might, it still stood back up as if nothing had happened.
"This is…" Everyone was stunned.
"It's a Nether General!" Ye Xiao shouted.
As he shouted, the ghost general slowly raised its head, revealing a skeletal face made from condensed fog. It let out a noiseless roar and then charged at them, swinging its large sword.
Tang Jie stepped forward and raised his right arm. The sword cut at the arm in a spray of sparks, failing to injure him. But a cold energy traveled through the sword into Tang Jie's body, infiltrating his organs.
It was then that Ye Xiao shouted, "Watch out! The Nether General's attacks are like the fog ghosts', able to affect the soul, only at an even more formidable level!"
"A bit late for that," Tang Jie gruffly replied as he circulated in his Yang energy, canceling out the ghost general's Yin energy. But this was clearly a much stronger energy, requiring Tang Jie to expend more of his Yang energy.
The ghost general swung its sword again, but Tang Jie had learned his lesson this time and dodged while throwing out a punch. Bang! The ghost general was sent flying, but this blow wasn't enough to kill it. Its mouth clacked as it swayed to its feet.
This sort of ghost didn't know pain or fear death. Unless they were obliterated, they would just keep fighting.
"Quite sturdy," Tang Jie commented as he threw in a kick at the ghost general's chest. The black armor cracked open, and the black fog flowed out, ultimately condensing into a drop of water in the air, which Tang Jie grabbed.
"What is this?" he asked Ye Xiao.
Ye Xiao excitedly said, "That's Yellow Springs Water, an item of extreme Yin properties. Nether Generals take form using this water as their core."
Upon hearing this, Tang Jie took out a bottle and put in the water drop, which landed in the bottle with a clink.
Ye Xiao said, "With the passage to the Nether Domain opened, it's more than just the Blackwater River coming. Quite a few ghosts from the Nether Court have also probably come in. Ghosts have always been rare, and whether it's ghost essence or Yellow Springs Water, they are all hard to find and very valuable. If you get a chance, you should definitely try and get some. These alone will make this trip worth it."
Everyone became energized by these words and started to look for more ghost generals. Even Shentu Yuan, who was still groaning from his wound, began to look around.
In the distance, he spotted a dark figure, clearly another Nether General. Shentu Yuan shouted, "Don't fight with me for it! This one is mine!"
He was only at the Spirit Ring Tier, but he had twenty-some combat puppets of the same level, which put his actual combat power on par with a Heart Demon True Person. With a wave of his hand, two combat puppets charged forward. Puppets had no souls, so the ghost general's attacks were useless against them, and it was pushed back repeatedly by the puppets. But at this moment, the ghost general suddenly raised its sword and swung it forward. Rather than a chop, it seemed more like an order to advance.
Several dozen figures appeared behind that ghost general, and upon closer inspection, all of them were ghost generals, marching toward the group.
Everyone was alarmed by the appearance of all these ghost generals. Shentu Yuan asked, "What do we do now?"
"What else? Kill our way through!" Ximen Changfeng shouted as he unleashed a blast of sword energy.
The sword energy struck the leading ghost general, causing its body to sway. It threw its head back and screeched, upon which all the other ghost generals also began to screech.
A sinister wind stirred over the Blackwater River, and then it began to howl toward them.
Everyone attacked, but more ghost generals began to appear behind them, the number ballooning from several dozen to almost a hundred. These ghost generals were all at almost Spirit Ring in terms of power, their attacks could affect the soul, and they had no fear, all of which made for a big headache for Tang Jie's group. They finally understood why a fiend had died here, as there was simply no end to the ghosts of the Blackwater River.
"Hurry, hurry! We need to break through!" Ye Xiao shouted.
But those ghost generals were just too difficult to deal with, a far greater challenge than the fog ghosts, and their encirclement wasn't so easy to break through. And every exchange with those ghost generals would affect the soul to a certain extent, and as this effect stacked, everyone started to feel dizzy and confused.
"Tang Jie, let out the combat puppet!" Shentu Yuan shouted. Puppetry required great mental power, and the disruption to his soul was starting to muddle his focus so that even his puppets were getting difficult to control. He could no longer control all twenty-some combat puppets and could only let them fight on their own. But if they relied purely on instinct, the puppets became much weaker.
Tang Jie also could see that the time had come, and he raised his right hand and let out a golden-armored general, the Mother Cloud Essence Metal puppet controlled by the ghost guard.
The moment the Mother Cloud combat puppet appeared, four ghost generals attacked it.
The puppet didn't dodge, and as the swords struck, they didn't even raise sparks. The puppet then thrust a clawed right hand forward, upon which a ghost general's chest was pulverized. With a swing of the arm, its right arm turned into a long and broad saber which beheaded that ghost general. This transformation function was the most important close-combat ability Tang Jie had given the puppet. For this purpose, he had even put a part of the Sovereign Blade into the puppet, which also made it unbreakable. Of course, this was only true for the right arm.
At the same time, the Mother Cloud combat puppet's left arm began to shine with circles of light.
These circles of light were like countless stars, radiating an enchanting light as they gathered into an immense power that traveled into the palm. The combat puppet raised its left arm and pushed, upon which a frenzied torrent of energy blasted numerous ghost generals into the air.
A moment later, countless stars twinkled and exploded in the air in a breathtaking sight. Shentu Yuan even muttered, "The Stellar Flame Aurora Formation… so beautiful!"
What the Mother Cloud combat puppet had used just now was a combination formation that Shentu Yuan and Tang Jie had worked together to make for the puppet, the Stellar Flame Aurora. It was made from three smaller formations, combined into a single and more powerful formation.
This one strike had killed ten-some ghost generals and left many more heavily injured.
After this strike, another circle of light appeared on the puppet's legs—the light of the Lightning Pursuit Formation, which made the puppet extremely fast. The puppet shot forward like a lion plunging into a pack of wolves. A red light glowed on its chest, and a moment later, a firestorm erupted around it.
This was yet another combination formation.
The ghost generals' soul attacks were of no use against it, and ordinary attacks couldn't break through the Mother Cloud Essence Metal, so these ghost generals that were such a headache for cultivators were like harmless pets to the puppet, and it easily swept through them.
Spell art after spell art exploded among the ghost generals, the combat puppet flying between them and tirelessly reaping their lives. Its left hand fired off spell art after spell art, and with each spell art it used, a part on its body would light up. Meanwhile, its right hand used the simplest and most brutal attacks, killing a ghost general with each strike.
Its legs shone as the Lightning Pursuit Formation combined with the Swift Wind Formation into the Illusion Aurora Formation, which allowed the puppet to kill with greater ferocity and speed.
The number of ghost generals rapidly dwindled, and what had seemed like a neverending flood quickly seemed like not enough. In the blink of an eye, only two or three were left.
The puppet's right arm lengthened into a long saber, and with a single swing, the heads of the remaining ghost generals went flying into the air, dark fog billowing out of their bodies as they collapsed.
The battle was finally over.
It had been a simple and brutal battle, a battle where one had been able to fight to one's heart's content.
There was no suspense, no desperate counterattack, only a massacre. It had been a very simple battle, like a dancer dancing on the stage, displaying all their elegance—the Mother Cloud puppet's first battle had ended in a perfect fashion.
Shentu Yuan and the others were dumbfounded.
Although they knew that the puppet was powerful, ultimately, they had never truly seen it at full power before. All they knew was that Tang Jie hadn't been able to get an upper hand against it in battle. But when they saw the Mother Cloud combat puppet using its power to the maximum extent, its simple yet brutal aesthetics left all of them satisfied.
Of course, its achievements were also thanks to the fact that it naturally countered the ghost generals. The soul attacks of the ghost generals were a pain for anyone else, including Tang Jie, but they were of no use against the puppet. However, other puppets were controlled by cultivators, so the mental connection they shared meant that puppets would also be affected. But the Mother Cloud combat puppet was controlled by the ghost guard, so it didn't have this problem. This was why it had been so easily able to put up such excellent results.
Even so, there was no doubting the power of the Mother Cloud combat puppet, and everybody cheered.
Tang Jie had the puppet gather up the drops of Yellow Springs Water that had condensed from the black fog. Once it had gathered them all, it walked back to Tang Jie and got down on one knee, offering up the water drops.
Tang Jie took them and gave some to the others rather than taking them all for himself.
He then opened up the secret door on the back of the puppet and checked the crystal core. "It used 10%."
Killing nearly one hundred ghost generals had only taken 10% of the power of a crystal core, which left everyone excited. Tang Jie activated the cycling formation so that the used core entered the recharge state. It wouldn't be long before the used energy was completely recovered.
After doing this, Tang Jie decided to have the puppet lead the way.
With this guy around, they had no need to worry about any sort of sneak attack.
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