The sound of drawing a blade echoed, as the baby spirit was slashed into ash by Sang Que, a crimson light flashed on the purely black Hundred Blade before quickly disappearing into the blade.
Sang Que and Xia Chan stepped into the little garden, standing back-to-back, wary of their surroundings.
The constables still wandered aimlessly around, countless baby spirits appeared on the rooftops and in the grass, like beasts ready to pounce and tear apart Sang Que and Xia Chan.
Amidst the sounds of chanical devices, under the eaves of the surrounding corridors and houses, eerie puppets pieced together from half-human and half-wood hung suspended, their arms bristling with sharp blades that glead coldly.
There were no traces of the dwarfs and the Puppet Master; Sang Que had tried before, but here she could not unfold the Ghost Realm.
The Red-clothed Female Zombie leapt out of the darkness, landing on the fake mountain beside Sang Que, while a ghostly figure in a wedding dress and red veil simultaneously appeared on the other side of the fake mountain.
The Yin Child appeared in front of Sang Que and Xia Chan. Sang Que glanced at Xia Chan, her left hand gripped the blade of the Hundred Blade, and with force, ignited raging green flas on the purely black blade.
Sang Que swung the blade and a crescent-like fla pattern was unleashed, imdiately igniting the first batch of baby spirits, who wailed and turned into black smoke.
Nurous baby spirits charged one after another, the Red Ghost followed behind Sang Que, while Xia Chan remained by the fake mountain, her black hair growing rapidly and extending over the grass like black serpents, strangling the baby spirits.
The Deceitful Bride stood quietly by Xia Chan’s side, not moving an inch. The Yin Child flashed into the group of puppets at the periphery, pulling at the arms of those puppets.
A great battle was about to erupt.
The dwarfs and Puppet Master, hidden in the dark, originally believed they could win by sheer quantity of baby spirits and puppets, but at that mont, they saw nurous bizarre zombies suddenly erging from the darkness.
So zombies turned directly into mud swamps, ensnaring the baby spirits who touched the muddy water, making it impossible for them to break free. The Red Ghost approached and crushed a baby spirit with one claw.
A puppet advanced, its blade slicing that zombie in half at the waist, but before the two halves of the zombie hit the ground, the broken ends spewed large amounts of mud water and then reassembled.
A zombie covered in dried yellow grass bits jumped over, placing its hands on a puppet, and imdiately, the puppet began to twitch, blades of wheat spikes continuously sprouting from the flesh, rendering it unable to move as if stuck.
Sang Que rushed forward, slashing vertically with the long knife imbued with yin fire, splitting the puppet in two and letting it be consud by the yin fire.
On the other side, nurous puppets besieged Xia Chan. Back in Cui Liu Lane in Wangshan City, Xia Chan’s hair was once completely restrained by the blades on the puppets, but this ti, the blades could not cut through her hair.
Beyond the increased resilience of Xia Chan’s hair after her advancent, she manipulated it with greater precision, softening it to the extre before the blades could reach, negating the force of the blade.
The dwarfs originally thought that no matter who they faced, they could crush the opponent with the sheer number of baby spirits, just like when they dealt with Hua Qianmian in Wangshan City, who had many faces and thereby many lives; the contest was one of endurance.
In the end, the dwarfs still won, exhausting all the faces on Hua Qianmian; if the Ink-Wash Ghost Realm hadn’t been on the brink of closing, they would have fed the ghost from Hua Qianmian’s body to the baby spirits.
But at that ti, Hua Qianmian was also not far from being counter-devoured, forcing the dwarfs to leave her and retreat first.
This ti, the dwarfs used the sa strategy against Sang Que, employing the number of baby spirits to keep attacking, depleting her strength; ordinarily, the power that a Yin Walker could wield had a limit, beyond which the ghost would begin to counter-devour.
Sang Que commanding two ghosts ant this limit would soon be reached, at which point both ghosts counter-devouring her would make further action unnecessary by the dwarfs.
Once both sides were wounded and exhausted, the dwarfs would then imprison the Yin Child.
But...
At this mont, the dwarfs realized his baby spirits had nearly been wiped out, and Sang Que showed no signs of exhaustion. Throughout, Sang Que only used that yin fire which was possessed only by He Buning, while the Deceitful Bride had not moved at all.
The Yin Child acted independently, constantly tearing the surrounding puppets to pieces, then glancing at Sang Que, giving the dwarfs the impression of eagerly seeking praise.
Was this the rebellious, ferocious, and terrifying Yin Child he rembered?
"What are you standing there for, aren’t you going to think of a way!"
The Puppet Master was furious, for Sang Que’s use of yin fire this ti was obviously aid at him.
Originally, his puppets could be endlessly assembled as long as the main body was intact, even if torn apart by the Yin Child. This allowed him to jump between puppets and effectively remain immortal.
But now, every ti Sang Que had to use yin fire to burn the puppets and baby spirits to ashes. At this rate, when there were no more puppets left, he would be close to death.
The Puppet Master’s five fingers hanging by his side moved continuously, and the puppets that were initially encircling Sang Que retreated to one place, piling up in a disorderly heap, emitting strange sounds as they rapidly assembled.
The dwarf also realized he had hit a tough spot and made the remaining baby spirits retreat to a distance as well.
Sang Que returned to Xia Chan with the Red Ghost, surrounded by a few strands of hair Xia Chan had been cut off, not many, indicating Xia Chan was at ease, unaffected.
There were still fifty Corpse Mud Zombies; about ten Mai Mang Zombies had been killed, having been attacked by the baby spirits and then hacked apart by the puppets.
But the opponent’s losses were greater. At least half of the baby spirits and a third of the puppets had been lost.
Sang Que swung her long knife. Five minutes were up, and the yin fire on the blade extinguished.
At this mont, the blade glowed red, having absorbed much power from the baby spirits, growing more bloodthirsty and sharp.
In the distance, a large pile of puppets was being unrestrictedly assembled, while those baby spirits huddled together, tearing at each other as if raising Gu, aiming to nurture the strongest baby spirit from the power of others.
"Little Chan, leave those baby spirits to you. I’ll deal with this Puppet Master first!"
Xia Chan nodded as Sang Que charged in with the Red Ghost and nurous zombies before the puppet assembly was complete.
Having fought with the Puppet Master before, she knew the puppet techniques; once one was taken down, the other would pose no threat.
Following Sang Que’s instructions, the Yin Child stood on the rooftop, scanning the county governnt’s grounds under the night, the crimson Ghost Eye glinting coldly, searching for the dwarf and Puppet Master’s hiding spots.
In the garden’s corner, a mixture of flesh and wooden chanisms assembled fully, forming an indescribably massive and bizarre creature towering as high as three people.
A tail-like scorpion tail swept into the air, blades of all shapes and sizes gleaming coldly, crashing down on Sang Que and the zombies’ heads.
Sang Que instantly teleported to evade, the Red Ghost leapt high, but the zombies were not agile enough, and with a crash, they were smashed beneath, the Mai Chong Zombie turned to mush, layers of Mai Chong shooting out from the scorpion tail’s crevices, as the tail struggled awkwardly to lift up.
The Corpse Mud Zombies turned into a quagmire, their rancid and sticky corpse mud clinging to the scorpion tail, dragging it further down.
Sang Que appeared mid-air, wielding her knife with great force.
With a flash of red light, the giant scorpion tail severed at its base, completely sinking into the corpse quagmire, vanishing.
The Hundred Blade was unmatched in sharpness, and Sang Que faced the massive assembled puppet with composure, dismantling it inch by inch with each strike of the blade.
The quagmire ford by Corpse Mud Zombies kept expanding, swallowing the fallen parts, giving the puppet no chance to reassemble.
anwhile, the Yin Child on the rooftop suddenly broke into a smile before disappearing from sight.
The dwarf and Puppet Master hiding in the shadows focused on their respective battlefields, but when a chill crept up behind them, the Yin Child’s small hand had already touched the Puppet Master.
"Ah!!"
A scream ripped through the night, the Puppet Master’s body hidden under the black robe lted into a pool of blood, while the Yin Child clasped a strange-looking arm and slowly turned her head to look at the dwarf beside her.
The Puppet Master wasn’t dead, having lost a puppet-controlling arm, he leapt to a nearby puppet with his own power, but as he landed, his sight was filled with a flash of red.
Sang Que opened the Qian Trigram Eye, locking onto the Puppet Master’s position. The mont the Deceitful Bride’s veil descended, Sang Que unfurled the scroll, covering the Puppet Master from overhead entirely, leaving him no ti for any other movent.
The scroll dropped face-down to the ground, and the Puppet Master was finally captured by her, imprisoned inside the house of Taoyuan Village depicted on the scroll. Though a Door Ghost sealed the house, with his consciousness, the Puppet Master couldn’t be trapped for long.
The battle with the dwarf must be swiftly resolved, and only then deal with the Puppet Master, for controlling him was crucial to framing the Ghost Opera Troupe.
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