The vine roots pierced into the orb of spiritual power, absorbing the energy within.
Contrary to Hua Jian’s expectations, absorbing this spiritual power was not difficult.
Furthermore, there was a significant difference between this power and the Magic Path spiritual power she had imagined.
Spiritual power from the Magic Path should, by definition, contain some Demonic Qi, right?
Yet, this spiritual power actually tasted quite good, lacking any of that foul flavor.
It made Hua Jian wonder, ‘Is this really Magic Path spiritual power?’
As she absorbed the orb of spiritual power from within its body, the puppet instantly lost its energy source.
It collapsed to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. Hua Jian took the opportunity to observe the puppet’s appearance and found that the craftsmanship was very crude.
It was by no means a masterpiece. Aside from being somewhat sturdy, every other aspect had been simplified as much as possible; there was clearly no intention to make it look like a real person.
It felt like a disposable item. Hua Jian tossed the drained puppet aside and flew toward the other areas where the fighting continued.
For the others, it didn’t make much of a difference whether the opponent was a puppet or a real person; if anything, puppets were harder to deal with.
A human had far more vital points than a puppet. Moreover, humans feared pain and death, while puppets did not.
The puppets were also sturdier. When hit by ordinary Spirit Techniques, they didn’t even flinch.
During this night battle, many cultivators encountered the problem of being unable to damage their enemies.
Their teamwork was decent, as they were warriors who had already fought alongside Ji Caiyue for a while, and basic combat techniques were second nature to them.
Cooperating to create openings for teammates was easy, but it was frustrating when those attacks failed to damage the puppets.
These puppets didn’t use any Spirit Techniques either. They simply relied on physical strength to rampage, occasionally using their internal energy source to release primitive bursts of spiritual power. That was the extent of their abilities.
Swish! Snap!
Shiqi held her sword with both hands, hacking away at the puppet in front of her as if she were chopping firewood.
She could technically overcome the puppet and deal some damage, but the damage numbers were simply too small.
She could only resort to this graceless, unrefined method of chipping away at it.
“Ha!”
With another heavy sword strike, the puppet’s arms finally gave way, shattered by Shiqi’s brute force.
However, losing its arms was not a major injury for a puppet. Without hands, it still had legs and a head; every part of it could be used to attack.
Under Shiqi’s speechless gaze, the puppet kicked off the ground and began using leg techniques to attack.
‘Tsk, why is this guy so persistent…?’
She raised her sword to continue the struggle, but several petals glinting with a metallic luster suddenly flew out from the dense fog.
These petals accurately struck the puppet’s leg joints, instantly severing its legs from its body.
Hua Jian lunged out of the mist. The vines behind her lashed out toward the disabled puppet, wrapping it up like a cocoon in an instant.
“Target its joints. If you just hit the body, of course you won’t do much damage.” As she spoke, Hua Jian used her previous method to drain the puppet’s energy source.
Once she understood the puppet’s internal structure, the task became much easier. She just had to find the right spot and drill in.
After the puppet went silent, she tossed it to the ground and pointed at the joints she had sliced open with her Spirit Tool, letting Shiqi take a closer look.
To be honest, Hua Jian was a bit surprised that Shiqi had managed to hack the puppet’s arm off through sheer force.
The girl might be a bit simple, but her strength was truly immense.
‘She’s hacking with nothing but raw strength. Can’t she use a little finesse?’
“I’ll try…” Shiqi scratched her head, realizing she had just done something quite nonsensical.
To hide her embarrassment, she quickly ran to another area to test out the new information she had received.
Hua Jian didn’t follow her. She wasn’t particularly worried about Shiqi; even without the techniques she had just taught, Shiqi could overwhelm a puppet in a one-on-one fight.
Right now, another area needed her help more. If she didn’t intervene, the puppets would truly start a massacre.
It was common knowledge that poison was a powerful and insidious weapon, but it had one fatal flaw: it was ineffective against non-living things.
This had been the case for Hua Jian before she mastered more direct combat techniques.
Whenever she encountered non-living entities, her strength would plummet, and she couldn’t even utilize one-tenth of her power.
As her top Inner Disciple, Caidie had inherited everything from her, including that sense of helplessness when facing non-living objects.
If you let this young girl use poisonous insects to scheme against people, she would do an excellent job.
As long as the gap in strength wasn’t too large, she could use her insects to make a person’s life a living hell.
But once the enemy was replaced by something like a puppet, Caidie was immediately at a disadvantage.
Five Poisons Peak was not without powerful combat-oriented Spirit Beasts, but Caidie had not yet formed contracts with them.
The “little cuties” in her possession were all specialized for use against humans.
You couldn’t expect little bugs to bite a puppet and poison it.
‘Bug venom isn’t a computer virus,’ Hua Jian thought to herself.
As a result, Caidie could only use her fragile physical body to evade the puppet. If it weren’t for a few cultivators staying with her, she probably would have been captured by the puppet long ago.
“Miss Caidie, hide over here! I’m safe!” Xia Hui propped up a barrier, shielding Caidie behind her.
However, she hadn’t fully recovered yet. The barrier she sustained would shatter upon impact, capable of blocking only a single attack from the puppet.
Once that one block was used, they would have to run.
A significant number of puppets had invaded the forbidden zone. Aside from a few of the strongest cultivators who could win one-on-one, everyone else had to team up to resist them.
The Alliance members brought by Sword Hero each had their own fixed squads. Once the fighting started, they instinctively gathered together.
Meanwhile, cultivators without squads had no choice but to group up with whoever was near.
Xia Hui and Caidie had intended to find Shiqi for protection, but they had run directly into a puppet on the way. With no other choice, they were forced to stay and deal with it.
“What do we do? My bugs can’t hurt them at all!” Caidie was anxious, but there was nothing she could do.
She wasn’t like Hua Jian, who could transform into a different form capable of direct combat.
“It’s fine. Miss Caidie just needs to hold out until Miss Hua Jian arrives to support us. These puppets won’t be able to stop her.” Xia Hui comforted Caidie, then suddenly grabbed her and pushed her down.
The next moment, a burst of spiritual power released by the puppet grazed over them, hitting a cultivator nearby who failed to react in time.
“Ah!” The cultivator let out a scream and collapsed to the ground, his face covered in blood.
The description used for Shiqi could also apply to the puppets: they were simple, but they were strong.
Their spiritual power bursts didn’t qualify as Spirit Techniques, but their power was equal to or greater than the Spirit Techniques used by an average Spirit Master.
If a Spirit Master took a direct hit while off-guard, it could easily render them combat-ineffective.
Even if they were prepared, a direct hit was incredibly painful. It was impossible to shrug it off easily.
Fortunately, just after that shot was fired, Hua Jian arrived at the battlefield.
In a few swift motions, she dismantled the puppet into a pile of parts, moving so fast that those around her couldn’t even react.
The current Hua Jian resembled a deity with three heads and six arms. The vines growing from her back had become like her own limbs, perhaps even more flexible and powerful than arms.
By grabbing the puppet’s limbs and twisting with force, she could snap them at their weakest points.
Even Xia Hui’s eyelids twitched at the sight, feeling that Hua Jian’s current state was a bit excessive.
‘Please act a bit more like a human, my lady!’
“You two shouldn’t stay here. Fall back immediately,” Hua Jian shouted to the two who were staring in a daze after she finished off the puppet.
These two girls had very little direct combat capability. Staying here would only make them a burden. It was better for them to return.
Caidie was somewhat reluctant to leave, but Xia Hui pushed her head down into a nod and unhesitatingly followed Hua Jian’s orders.
On the way back, she even found two people to help carry the wounded cultivator.
With them gone, Hua Jian finally had no more reservations. She began to fully unleash her power, turning into a predatory beast as she charged into the battlefield.
The situation for the cultivators had been slightly unfavorable. People were constantly being struck by puppets and losing their combat ability.
Some cultivators were even torn to shreds by puppets right in front of everyone, with blood spraying like rain.
Even Sword Hero couldn’t quickly defeat a puppet; he was tied down and unable to support other areas.
At least, that was how it appeared.
Without Hua Jian, the situation probably would have become increasingly dire.
Eventually, the mounting casualties would have caused morale to collapse, leading to a rout similar to when they were first attacked.
But this time was different, because they still had hope for victory!
After realizing that the Array of Bewilderment wasn’t very effective, Hua Jian had shifted its function to blocking outside observation.
Therefore, the cultivators within the array could clearly see the young girl rushing between battlefields to put out fires.
Even though her current appearance felt somewhat inhuman, who wouldn’t love a hero who saved them from a desperate situation?
Hua Jian was like a puppet grinder. Wherever she went, the puppets in that area would be dismantled within a few moves.
She didn’t even have time to absorb the spiritual power from the puppets. After tearing them apart, she tossed them to the ground and let the other cultivators handle the rest.
Regardless of the method, they just had to destroy the puppet’s energy source.
By sheer force of will and personal strength, Hua Jian fundamentally shifted the balance of power. At this moment, she left a profound impression on everyone’s hearts.
They had seen the geniuses on the Genius List before, and some had even fought them, but none of them could compare to the shock Hua Jian provided.
If they could at least see the backs of those other geniuses, Hua Jian was already standing above the nine heavens; they couldn’t even see her shadow.
No wonder they had never heard of Hua Jian before. A literal immortal like her didn’t need some list to prove her strength.
This scene fell into Sword Hero’s eyes, further strengthening his resolve that he could not leave Hua Jian alone. A genius like this absolutely must not fall into the hands of the Right Path!
Otherwise, for the next thousand years, everyone would live in the shadow she cast.
This was the legendary true talent capable of suppressing an entire era!
‘I must find a chance to ask that person…’
……
“The puppets are being consumed rapidly. Those little kids are quite impressive.”
“Instead of that, I think you’d better focus a bit more. This giant butterfly is too hard to deal with.”
On the outskirts of the forbidden zone, several black-robed Ling Kings were fighting a large, colorful butterfly.
One side had the numbers, while the other had the strength. For a time, no winner could be determined.
The battle had lasted nearly half an hour, and the situation within the forbidden zone was not optimistic. The black-robed men were starting to feel the urge to retreat.
Ultimately, they hadn’t come here to wipe everyone out. If they hadn’t known that a Ling King rank Spirit Beast was guarding Hua Jian, these Ling Kings wouldn’t have even bothered to show up.
Now that the puppets entering the forbidden zone were losing contact one by one, they knew this night raid would end in failure. In that case, it was time to retreat.
Regardless, the intended testing effect had been achieved.
“Self-destruct the remaining puppets. We’re leaving!” The strongest of the black-robed Ling Kings gave the cold command, while simultaneously throwing a punch into the air beside him.
The punch hit nothing. Only after he finished the strike did the colorful butterfly appear, swiping at his head with a claw.
“This is difficult…” The Ling King raised his hand to block the claw and was swatted a considerable distance away.
A Meng’s ability to transition between reality and illusion made the fight incredibly frustrating. An opponent with such an ability was undoubtedly the most difficult type to face.
It could hit you, but you couldn’t hit it. It was utterly unfair.
Even they could only think of attacking when she attacked to break the mechanic, but the situation showed that this method wasn’t very effective.
They could only stall her, not defeat her. Since the mission inside the forbidden zone had failed, why stay?
Time to run!
“You’re lucky this time. Next time, I’ll definitely pluck your wings off!”
“Just you wait!”
The black-robed men threw out a few threats, then crushed several small black spheres. A pitch-black mist immediately covered the area.
By the time A Meng fanned away the black mist, the auras of those black-robed Ling Kings had already fled deep into the Northern Ice Plain.
‘Did they run away?’ A Meng wondered to herself. She didn’t recklessly give chase.
Instead, after confirming they weren’t planning a surprise return, she flew straight back into the forbidden zone.
She hadn’t forgotten her duty; protecting Hua Jian was a much higher priority than chasing enemies.
When she flew back to Hua Jian’s side in her illusory state, the scene in the forbidden zone gave her quite a fright.
Almost half of the cultivators were injured. Those who weren’t were working hard to stabilize the wounded.
Even Hua Jian’s clothes were torn in several places, and her expression was somewhat gloomy.
‘What happened? Did something go wrong?’
Something had indeed gone wrong.
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