130: Chapter 130 Human-Handed Puppet Beast

On the outer perimeter of the Ten-Thousand Beast Mountain Range, Black Wind Col.

The mountain winds were like knives, whipping up a sky full of yellow sand.

Over thirty bandits sat scattered among the piles of jagged rocks, with sabers and swords laid across their knees, radiating a fierce Killing Intent.

The leader was a one-eyed brawny man who, having no hope of reaching Foundation Establishment, simply gathered a band of desperate criminals to set themselves up as lords of the mountain outside the Three Counties.

Over the past ten-odd years, this gang of bandits had expanded from the initial seven or eight people to over thirty people now, with ten of them alone being at the Late Stage Qi Refining.

Speaking of surface-level strength, they were only stronger, not weaker, than any small Family in the Three Counties.

"Boss! Someone is coming up the mountain path!"

The one-eyed brawny man narrowed his remaining eye and looked toward the end of the mountain path.

Five. Just five.

Five Wang Family Cultivators slowly walked out from the end of the mountain path, all of them young people in their early twenties, wearing green garments and robes, with lotus emblems embroidered on their lapels.

Behind them followed ten Puppets of various appearances—Iron-Winged Birds soared in the air, Puppet wolves crouched at their feet, and bronze-armored scorpions swung their venom-drenched tail hooks.

Every single one was polished to a bright sheen, with Formation patterns flowing across their joints, and at a single glance, one could tell they were no ordinary items.

"Five people?"

The one-eyed brawny man was stunned for a second, then threw his head back and laughed loudly, his laughter shaking the loose stones in the col to rattle down.

"Only five people came! Your Wang Family can only act arrogant on that tiny plot of land in the Three Counties! Once you step out of the Three Counties' borders, do you really think you're still the King of the Three Counties?"

The bandits behind him also burst into roars of laughter, their laughter filled with contempt and disdain.

A scar-faced man at the Late Stage Qi Refining hoisted a ghost-head saber onto his shoulder and sarcastically took over the conversation.

"So this is the Lotus Pier Wang Family? I heard Loose Cultivators over in Xiaoshan County praise them to the skies, and I thought they were some kind of miraculous immortal clan with three heads and six arms! Turns out they just sent a few reckless greenhorns out to throw their lives away! Look at how delicate and tender-skinned every single one of them is; I'm afraid they haven't even seen blood before, have they?"

A sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked skinny man beside him also joined in the jeering, laughing so hard he slapped his thighs.

"I say, did your Wang Family earn too many Spirit Stones and burn a hole in your pockets, spending money to buy you this gear and making you truly believe you're Sect Disciples? Those Puppets are made prettily enough; they're fine to scare Mortals when let out, but once a real fight starts, I'm afraid they'll shatter at a single touch!"

Another burly, fierce-looking bandit spat a mouthful of saliva and roared in a thick, rough voice.

"Boss, why waste words with these brats! Just five people daring to come raid our Black Wind Col, who are they looking down on? Brothers, chop up these ignorant little bastards, and those ten Puppets can just be taken to exchange for wine money!"

The one-eyed brawny man slammed the short axe with undried bloodstains in his hand onto the ground, shaking the loose stones beneath his feet to scatter in all directions, and grinned viciously.

"Did you hear that? My brothers said they want to chop you up as a side dish for wine. If you know what's good for you, leave your Puppets and Storage Pouches behind, strip off this Wang Family skin, and kneel down to kowtow three loud times to your grandfather. Grandpa will spare your dog lives today!"

The five Wang Family Disciples' expressions did not change at all. The leading youth slowly drew the long sword at his waist, the tip of the sword pointing diagonally at the ground.

"Wang Shouchang of the Wang Family, acting under the Patriarch's orders, is here to clear out the bandits of Black Wind Col."

The one-eyed brawny man's expression abruptly sank, a fierce light fully erupting in his single eye, and he squeezed a single word out through his teeth: "Kill."

Over thirty bandits suddenly surged forward simultaneously, the light of blades and shadows of swords pouring toward the five people like a violent storm.

That scar-faced man took the lead, his ghost-head saber carrying the violent Qi of Late Stage Qi Refining, and wherever the blade passed, even the air was torn apart into piercing shrieks.

In the bushes on a distant hillside, lurked two foreign Loose Cultivators who had traveled along the same route as the Wang Family team.

They had originally been attracted by the Wang Family's generous bounty to pick up some scraps, intending to wait until both sides suffered heavy casualties before going out to snatch a few head counts to claim the reward.

At this moment, seeing the Formation of five people against thirty, the younger Loose Cultivator was so anxious he slapped his thighs, and lowered his voice to speak urgently:

"Five people fighting thirty? And there are ten Late Stage Qi Refining ones! Have they gone mad? Senior Brother, are we still waiting? If we wait any longer, I'm afraid even collecting their corpses while they're still warm will be too late!"

The older Senior Brother beside him locked his gaze firmly on those ten motionless Puppets, his brows tightly furrowed, and he slowly shook his head.

"Let's watch a bit more. Something is wrong. Look at those Wang Family people—the bandits are almost rushing right up to them, yet they haven't moved at all. It's not because they're scared silly; they're waiting for orders."

Right at this moment, Wang Shouchang shook his long sword. Five streaks of spiritual light soared into the sky.

Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth—the five-colored lights intertwined in the air into a rapidly spinning wheel of light, and the Lesser Five Elements battle Formation instantly formed.

Different from ten years ago, this five-colored wheel of light was no longer just a single combined-attack amplification—the spiritual light flowed rapidly among the five people, and everyone's aura surged by nearly a whole tier under the Formation's enhancement.

What made the one-eyed brawny man's pupils contract even more was that those ten Puppets moved—not charging forward in a disorderly fashion, but dispersing according to the Formation, and precisely landing between each eye of the Lesser Five Elements battle Formation.

The Iron-Winged Birds flapped their wings and soared into the sky, the Puppet wolves lowered their bodies, the bronze-armored scorpions slithered close to the ground, and all Puppets locked onto their respective targets simultaneously.

The gaps between these Formation eyes were filled seamlessly tight.

This was a new tactical method the Wang Family had figured out over ten years—using Puppets to fill the gaps in the battle Formation, with humans and Puppets cooperating seamlessly, combining offense and defense into one.

"Meet the enemy! Quickly meet the enemy!" the one-eyed brawny man shouted harshly and furiously.

But it was already too late.

The five-colored wheel of light abruptly surged, and the five Wang Family Disciples, as if guided by the exact same thread, instantly broke into the bandits' Formation.

Wang Shouchang, the Sword Cultivator at the Metal position, charged straight ahead, sword light sweeping across the sky like a ribbon of silk, and with a single sword stroke, he chopped off the ghost-head saber slashed by the scar-faced man, cutting both the saber and the man into two sections.

Two Puppet wolves by his side flanked from left and right, their jaws biting onto the bandits attempting to sneak attack from both sides, and the crisp sound of fangs sinking into flesh was exceptionally piercing amidst the sounds of slaughter.

Fierce flames surged in the hands of the Cultivator at the Fire position, and two dragons roared out from his palms.

The two Iron-Winged Birds overhead dove down simultaneously, spitting blinding white lines of fire from their beaks, and the four streams of fire intertwined in the air into a fiery net that blocked out the sky and sun.

The sharp-mouthed skinny man failed to dodge in time, his entire body enveloped by the fiery net, his screams resounding for only half a breath before being swallowed by the blazing flames.

The female Cultivator at the Water position formed hand seals, frost crystals spreading from her fingertips, while the Puppet snake at her feet had long since burrowed into the ground.

The next moment, three Puppet snakes burst out of the earth simultaneously from within the bandits' Formation, their tails twisting around three bandits' ankles and giving a fierce tug, dragging the three screaming men into the ground, their screams transmitted out from the earth cracks, muffled like a funeral bell.

Vines in the hands of the Cultivator at the Wood position shot out like spiritual snakes, wrapping around the throats of several bandits simultaneously alongside the venom-drenched tail hook of a Puppet scorpion.

The vines strangled their necks, the tail hooks pierced into their backs, both ways of dying befalling them simultaneously, and those bandits slumped softly to the ground without even having time to let out a scream.

The shield Cultivator at the Earth position planted a heavy sword on the ground, and a mud wall rose abruptly from the earth, while two Puppet beetles roamed along the edges of the mud wall, venom-drenched flying needles pouring out like a torrential storm, sealing off all retreat paths for anyone attempting to escape.

This wasn't five people fighting thirty people. It was fifteen people fighting thirty—five Late Stage Qi Refining Cultivators plus ten High Grade Puppets with Middle Stage Qi Refining battle strength, cooperating seamlessly as if they were a single entity, every single strike accurate down to a hair's breadth.

That burly man who was just clamoring to chop people up as a side dish for wine had his chest burned through by a line of fire. Lowering his head to look at the hole in his chest, he fell backward with an expression full of disbelief.

That bandit who hadn't yet had time to make a move was just about to deploy Daoist Magic when his footing suddenly emptied, and he was dragged into the ground by a Puppet snake, leaving only a muffled scream behind.

The one-eyed brawny man swung his axe to block, but was simultaneously blocked on all retreat paths by three Puppets and three strands of Daoist Magic.

His single eye reflected cold light from all directions, and while his short axe was still raised mid-air, his throat had already been pierced through by a streak of sword light.

In less than the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, over thirty bandits all collapsed to the ground. Not a single one managed to run away, and not a single one had time to send out a distress signal.

In the bushes on the hillside, that young Loose Cultivator's jaw almost dropped to the ground.

He kept his mouth wide open, unable to say a single word. The older Senior Brother beside him could no longer care about hiding either, standing straight up and gazing at the scorched battlefield below, watching those five green-robed Cultivators methodically retrieve their Puppets and tally their loot.

Their actions were skillful and composed, as if they were used to doing it.

Someone replaced the worn-out joint copper buckles for a Puppet wolf, someone folded and put away an Iron-Winged Bird into a Storage Pouch, someone tallied the consumption and spoils of this battle; not a single person was injured, not a single Puppet was scrapped, and not even a single person breathed a few extra breaths.

The older Senior Brother was silent for a very long time, before squeezing out a sentence from his throat, his voice trembling.

"Are these the bloody Disciples raised by an Immortal Cultivation Family? Five fighting thirty, in less than half a cup of tea—compared to Sect Disciples, they aren't far behind anymore..."