Xuanyangzi had already estimated the puppets’ combat strength as highly as he could, yet he had still underestimated them.
Then, an indescribable mix of wild joy and belated frustration surged through him.
“Haha… hahahaha…”
Xuanyangzi began with a low chuckle, but his laughter soon grew louder, brimming with exhilaration and smug satisfaction.
He had figured it out. Changge had given them a total of fifteen puppets.
“Changge’s generosity is damn astonishing. Fifteen puppets—that’s fifteen Great Emperors!”
He suddenly raised his head and looked toward the Supreme of the God-Burying Abyss and the Supreme of the Godfall Ruins.
His gaze had changed.
The corners of his lips suddenly curled into a strange arc—one so unsettling that even the two Supremes across from him felt their hearts jolt.
“Heh heh heh…”
Xuanyangzi let out a deep, sinister laugh utterly at odds with his previously solemn demeanor.
“Senior Brother, you…”
Ye Guying froze.
“Hehehe…”
Shi Wanshan seemed to understand what was going on. He looked at Xuanyangzi, then at the two bewildered Supremes opposite them.
He, too, bared his teeth in an equally strange grin.
The other peak masters and elders were stunned at first. Then, as if they had received some kind of signal, the tension in their faces relaxed, and a teasing, amused look appeared in their eyes—as though they were waiting to enjoy a good show.
“You’re fighting a battle, so fight! What the hell do you mean by suddenly making faces like that?!”
The Supreme of the God-Burying Abyss and the Supreme of the Godfall Ruins felt their hearts tighten, and their attacks slowed.
They had lived for countless ages. How keen were their instincts, honed through battle?
This sudden, utterly baseless ease—even mockery—in their opponents’ demeanor filled them with immense unease!
“Old ghost, what are they plotting?”
The Supreme of the God-Burying Abyss transmitted his voice, his tone laced with suspicion.
“Something’s wrong! End this quickly!”
The Supreme of the Godfall Ruins also felt a nameless panic. No longer caring about conserving his strength, he prepared to burn more of his origin to activate his Emperor-grade weapon.
However, it was already too late.
Under the wary gazes of the two Supremes, Xuanyangzi took out two puppets and activated them.
“Boom—!”
A terrifying imperial might, identical to that which had erupted on the outer battlefield and seemingly capable of splitting the heavens and earth apart, exploded forth.
Dark-golden divine light shot into the sky, instantly transforming into a thousand-zhang-tall dark-golden puppet. Immortal divine radiance flowed across its entire body, while its blurred features radiated supreme majesty!
Two more puppets at the Great Emperor realm!
“G-Great Emperors?! And they’re puppets?!”
In the distance, the Lord of the Supreme Mystic Sacred Land was using an Emperor-grade weapon to anchor the Eastern Region in place. His eyes were filled with incredulous shock.
He stared at the dark-golden giant that towered between heaven and earth, his voice distorted by the extremity of his astonishment.
“Fifteen Emperor-grade weapons—this… this is already enough to overturn the understanding of countless ages!
“And they even possess puppets capable of unleashing Great Emperor-level combat power?!
“What kind of existence are they?!”
“Never heard of before! Never heard of before!”
The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion Master’s Heavenly-Derivation Sword wailed in his hand. His face was deathly pale as he muttered to himself and attempted to divine the truth.
Yet all he saw was a chaotic mass of heavenly secrets. The backlash caused him to cough up another mouthful of blood.
“Emperor-grade weapons raining down like a storm, puppets crowned as emperors… The existence behind all this possesses methods that have already reached the realm of the profound!”
Throughout the entire Eastern Region, every surviving cultivator—whether wandering cultivators hiding in the ruins or elders and disciples of the various sacred lands—was utterly dumbfounded!
Only moments ago, they had still been overwhelmed by the shock of fifteen Emperor-grade weapons appearing at once. In the next moment, two living Great Emperor-level combatants had descended upon the world!
“Am I dreaming? Great Emperors—two of them? And they’re puppets?!”
“How many trump cards do they have?! They’re practically giving the restricted zones no chance to survive!”
“Hahaha! Heaven bless the Eastern Region! Heaven bless humanity! We’re saved! We’re truly saved!”
After a brief silence, cheers of wild joy erupted like collapsing mountains and roaring seas!
Countless people burst into tears, embracing one another and sobbing. It was the ultimate release of emotions—being dragged from hell straight into heaven in an instant!
“No! Impossible!!!”
The pupils of the Supreme of the God-Burying Abyss and the Supreme of the Godfall Ruins contracted to pinpoints. They let out terrified roars filled with boundless fear.
At last, they understood what those strange smiles meant.
They had not been relaxed.
They had been mocking them with victory already in hand!
The three Great Emperor puppets that had suddenly appeared on the outer battlefield and reversed the tide of battle had already shaken them to their cores.
Now, the group before them had produced two more terrifying existences of the same level!
A cold, bone-deep despair instantly drowned them.
Run!
They had to flee immediately!
What enemies? What blood food? None of it mattered anymore. Staying alive was all that mattered!
Without the slightest hesitation, the two Supremes burned the little of their innate blood essence that remained, tore open the void, and attempted to escape.
Their condition had already been extremely poor, and they had endured a prolonged, high-intensity clash of Emperor-grade weapons.
They had long since become spent forces. Now that they faced opponents of the same level—or perhaps even stronger—they could not summon the slightest will to fight!
“Now you want to leave?” Xuanyangzi’s icy voice rang out like a declaration from the god of death. “Too late.”
“Stop them.”
At the command of his mind, the two newly manifested dark-golden puppets moved, precisely sealing off every possible route through space.
The two metal giants, radiating supreme imperial might, stood to the left and right like ancient demons that had existed since time immemorial, completely blocking the escape paths of the Supreme of the God-Burying Abyss and the Supreme of the Godfall Ruins!
“Damn it, I’ll ascend to the extreme—!”
But before the Supreme of the God-Burying Abyss could finish speaking, the only response they received was cold, merciless destruction.
The two Great Emperor puppets attacked at the same time.
One formed a sword with two fingers, while the other simply drove forward with a punch.
“Crack!” “Pfft—!”
The two Supremes’ imperial bodies, already heavily wounded, were as fragile as glazed glass before the puppets’ absolute strength. In an instant, they were covered in cracks.
The ten-thousand-zhang demonic body of the Supreme of the God-Burying Abyss began to crumble inch by inch, while the netherworld body of the Supreme of the Godfall Ruins dispersed like smoke.
There were no earth-shaking explosions—only two faint, muffled sounds, like rotten wood snapping.
Before the incredulous eyes of every survivor in the Eastern Region, the bodies of the two Supremes, along with their terrified and despairing souls, shattered, dissolved, and returned to the void in an instant!
They transformed into two masses of dense origin energy, so concentrated it seemed almost solid, containing decaying laws. The purifying Dao-rhythm radiating from the two puppets completely devoured and erased them, leaving not even a trace behind.
Their bodies and souls were annihilated!
They did not even have the chance to undergo an ultimate ascension!
From the moment Xuanyangzi took out the puppets to the complete death of the two Supremes, the entire process lasted no more than two or three breaths.
Above the Eastern Region, the supreme pressure and destructive fluctuations that had raged for so long suddenly vanished.
All that remained between heaven and earth were the two silent, towering dark-golden puppets, their divine radiance restrained, and the deafening cheers of survivors erupting from the Jade Lake Sacred Land, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, and countless ruins throughout the Eastern Region.
Xuanyangzi, however, did not immerse himself in the joy of victory.
His gaze swept across the vast land before finally crossing endless mountains and rivers to lock sharply onto the direction of the Central Region.
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
