WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Cultivating Underground ◈
Chapter 67
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Several days later.
Blackened roofs appeared beneath the flying boats.
The settlement between two low mountains had once been called Cheongseok Cultivator Market, a place where nearby Qi Refining cultivators often gathered. Now it was little more than a ruin.
Cart tracks overlapped in a tangled mess along the road through the cultivator market. Broken jars and burned timber lay beyond collapsed walls.
‘Have the Geonyang Kingdom’s gu adepts already looted this place?’
To the northeast, a few independent cultivators were moving along a narrow road.
Some of those leaving the cultivator market stopped when they saw the Danso Sect’s flying boats, then turned back.
...
The flying boats from the Danso Sect landed in a broad clearing north of the cultivator market.
Cultivators from the Danso Sect and Byeokra Sect who had arrived earlier came to greet them. Behind them were cultivators in unfamiliar clothing from nearby small sects and cultivation families.
When Dam Un-saeng stepped off the leading boat, a Golden Core elder from the Byeokra Sect approached. They exchanged greetings and began talking.
From what Yi Hyeon overheard, they seemed to be discussing the placement of defensive positions and where to set up the great formation.
The two elders disappeared farther inside, while Song Gye-myeong, the eldest senior brother, gathered the nearby disciples and began assigning work.
“We’ll restore the three halls in the northeast and use them for alchemy. First...”
...
Everyone was busy for the next few days.
Many cultivators worked on the foundations for a Tier 3 great formation around the cultivator market. Qi Refining disciples carried stone and timber or prepared living quarters.
Dam Un-saeng traveled around the cultivator market’s surroundings with another Golden Core cultivator.
Once, the elder was gone for half a day. As the sun began to set, a great red light rose into the southwestern sky.
A short while later, a series of thunderous booms came from beyond the distant mountains.
The disciples preparing to refine pills in the courtyard looked toward the distant sky with worried expressions. Song Gye-myeong merely glanced up and spoke calmly.
“Don’t worry. Keep working.”
* * *
A month later.
Yi Hyeon was patrolling northwest of the cultivator market with four Qi Refining disciples.
As the garrison became established, the patrol area had expanded.
Yi Hyeon was responsible for the road leading into the cultivator market and the low ridges around it.
The road carried more than refugees. Quite a few people had left after hearing that the cultivator market was devastated, only to return when word spread that the great sects had moved in.
One disciple, who had been counting the carts in the distance, spoke.
“Martial Uncle, I think there’s fighting over there.”
Yi Hyeon had already sensed it.
Spiritual power surged violently in the valley ahead. Soon, a red flame rose between the trees and scattered.
“Follow me. Don’t come too close.”
With that, Yi Hyeon kicked off the ground.
...
Dozens of carts lay overturned in the middle of the road, with mortals crouching behind them.
An elderly cultivator at mid Foundation Establishment stood in front of them, with several fallen Qi Refining cultivators at their back.
Facing the elderly cultivator were three Tier 2 gu adepts from the Geonyang Kingdom.
The man at the front smiled and twisted his long spear.
“We’re at war. Don’t blame me.”
The spearhead struck the flying sword in the air.
Clang!
The instant the flying sword shot sideways and lodged in a tree trunk, a burst of energy from the spearhead struck the elderly Foundation Establishment cultivator’s shield head-on.
Boom!
As the elderly cultivator staggered, another man circled around and slashed at their neck with a short blade.
Clang!
A sudden streak of sword light knocked the blade aside. The man retreated, clutching his wrist.
Yi Hyeon landed between them.
“Step back.”
The three gu adepts’ expressions changed.
The man with the spear looked at the emblem on Yi Hyeon’s robe and sneered.
“The Danso Sect’s reached this far...? Still, that’s only one more person. Let’s finish this quickly.”
Before he had even finished speaking, one of the men behind him leaped forward.
He aimed a killing blow not at Yi Hyeon, but at a Qi Refining cultivator helping an injured person behind a cart.
Yi Hyeon moved his left hand slightly. A hand formed from blue spiritual light appeared and slammed the man savagely into the ground.
Bang!
Almost at the same time, the spear-wielding gu adept charged at Yi Hyeon, releasing a fierce aura.
Whooosh!
Yi Hyeon simply stood his ground and held his sword at an angle.
The spiritual power flowing along the blade layered upon itself. Its faint sword light grew blindingly bright, then condensed until even the light vanished.
Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper, Third Form: Vertical Slash.
Flash!
A brilliant streak of sword light appeared, splitting the black energy pouring from the spearhead to either side.
The gu adept hurriedly pulled his spear back, but the sword light was already passing between his hands.
His eyes widened.
Slice!
His body split in two.
The gu adept who had been driven into the ground by the Essence-Condensing Grasping Hand struggled to his feet and roared.
Something writhed beneath his robe. His back and shoulders swelled.
Yi Hyeon turned his sword toward him, and sword light flashed again.
Slash!
It cut cleanly through his Protective Spiritlight and split open his chest in a single stroke.
The man went limp.
The last gu adept was already leaping above the trees to flee.
Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper Sword Qi shot from Yi Hyeon’s sword like lightning.
Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper, Twelfth Form: Bending Turn.
The streak of light seemed to follow the gu adept’s path. Then it turned smoothly in midair and swept beneath his legs.
“Aaagh!”
He lost his balance in the air and fell into the bushes beside the road.
Yi Hyeon pulled him out with the Essence-Condensing Grasping Hand, sealed his acupoints, and set him down at the side of the road.
Silence fell.
...
The people crouching behind the carts began to raise their heads.
The elderly Foundation Establishment cultivator stood with their shield in hand, mouth open, looking back and forth between Yi Hyeon and the bodies.
Yi Hyeon asked, “Are you badly hurt?”
“N-no. I... Only my magical implements are a little... Thank you for saving my life!”
“Are these people from your household?”
“Yes. We didn’t even know a war had begun. The Geonyang Kingdom’s gu adepts suddenly invaded, so we were fleeing...”
The cultivator bowed deeply again.
“Thank you for saving us!”
“There’s no need to be so formal, fellow cultivator. I’m a Foundation Establishment cultivator too.”
‘A Foundation Establishment cultivator...? Are Foundation Establishment cultivators from the great sects this strong?’
The elderly cultivator raised their bowed head, but lacked the courage to meet his gaze and lowered their eyes again.
After witnessing the power of the formidable figure before them, they did not dare address him as a fellow cultivator.
The Danso Sect’s Qi Refining disciples arrived a moment later and stared blankly at Yi Hyeon.
One was looking at the place where the fallen gu adept had swung his spear. A deep furrow scarred the hard road, and a tree beside it had been torn apart at waist height.
The disciple asked cautiously, “Martial Uncle, were they all Tier 2 gu adepts?”
“It seems so.”
Yi Hyeon answered as he examined the bodies.
Their clothes differed, but the insides of their belts and shoes bore markings that looked military. An iron token indicating his identity also hung from one man’s waist.
The Fuzzbees stirred restlessly inside his spirit insect pouch. Yi Hyeon sent a thought through the Spirit-Nurturing Seal to calm them.
‘Not now.’
One disciple whispered to another.
“Are Tier 2 gu adepts usually that weak...? He took them all down while we were still on our way?”
“You idiot. Martial Uncle Yi is just that strong.”
When Yi Hyeon turned his head, both immediately fell silent.
“Go and help the people who are down.”
“Yes!”
The disciples answered more loudly than usual.
...
Questioning the captured gu adept revealed that all three belonged to the Geonyang Kingdom’s army. However, this attack did not seem to have been ordered by the military. They had apparently acted on their own to gather loot.
The prisoner said they had spent the past few days robbing cultivators from the Gon Kingdom in the surrounding area.
According to him, gu adepts had to keep spending resources to raise their Life-Sharing Gu as well. They needed enough for their own cultivation and enough to feed their gu, so their hunger for resources seemed even greater than that of Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Dam Un-saeng read the report and nodded.
“Well done.”
“It wasn’t much.”
“Not for you, perhaps.”
The elder’s gaze moved to the nearby Qi Refining disciples. Their robes were stained with dirt and blood, but none were injured.
“Remember what you saw today. If you work hard at your cultivation as Dong-sam does, you can overcome even frightening situations with ease. In this world, strength matters most.”
“We’ll remember!”
After the disciples withdrew, Dam Un-saeng spoke to Yi Hyeon.
“We’ll have to increase the patrols in the northwest.”
“I’ll keep a closer watch on that area for the time being.”
“Good. Coordinate your alchemy duties with Gye-myeong.”
* * *
Three months later.
Cheongseok Cultivator Market looked nothing like it once had.
It had become an enormous stronghold under the constant protection of a Tier 3 great formation. Countless halls and pavilions had risen over the ruins. Judging only by the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators on the streets, the cultivator market seemed far more prosperous than before the war.
Inside, however, the atmosphere was deadly tense.
Swift spirit birds and Voice Transmission Talismans constantly traveled in and out of the cultivator market. Cultivators came and went even late at night and before dawn.
Certain unspoken boundaries had also formed in their battles against the Geonyang Kingdom’s gu adepts.
When Golden Core cultivators took action, the other side’s Tier 3 gu adepts moved as well. While the higher-level forces kept one another in check, Foundation Establishment cultivators and Tier 2 gu adepts fought over roads and mountain ridges.
Of course, no one had agreed to spare lower-level enemies. Anyone would strike if an opportunity arose. But pushing deep into enemy territory to hunt weaker opponents could leave them surrounded by enemies of their own level. The enemy might also target the places they had left unguarded.
In the end, no one could move recklessly.
Even if the Foundation Establishment cultivators won several battles, they would struggle to hold the stronghold if the Golden Core elders lost.
Amusingly, even the Tier 3 gu adepts and Golden Core cultivators thought the same way!
The course of the war would ultimately depend on who won the battles between Nascent Soul cultivators. With the balance of power at the highest level still undecided, there was no reason for them to stake everything on a fight to the death first.
Many were willing to fight for their sect, but few intended to die with it. Quite a few cultivators were already considering where to flee if their faction lost.
And so the strange standoff continued. Cultivators mostly fought small skirmishes against opponents of the same level, waiting to see which way the struggle between the Nascent Soul cultivators of the Nammyeong Twelve-Sect Alliance, the Gon Kingdom, and the Chang Kingdom would turn.
Rumors claimed that Nascent Soul cultivators from the Hyeon Kingdom had appeared to help the Gon and Chang Kingdoms. But even inner sect disciples like Yi Hyeon did not know whether those rumors were true.
...
Late one evening, Song Gye-myeong passed around a jade slip received from the main sect grounds for the Yeonha Peak disciples to examine.
“This is newly acquired information. It concerns the Mirage Tower Sect of the Nammyeong Twelve-Sect Alliance.”
Yi Hyeon studied the pictures inside the jade slip.
They depicted a gourd engraved with patterns like fish scales, a shell-shaped magical implement, and slender, curved throwing knives.
‘There was someone who used things like these.’
He recalled the cultivator in a dark blue robe he had fought long ago in the Hwacheon Secret Realm. That opponent had concealed twelve throwing knives in cold mist before launching them. Yi Hyeon had not known which sect the cultivator belonged to at the time, but the methods of using the magical implements described beside the pictures were quite similar.
He also recalled the late Foundation Establishment cultivator who had used a shell magical implement.
Song Gye-myeong continued.
“They’re skilled in water- and wind-element spells. They also use the shells and pearls of a demonic beast native to the Nammyeong Sea called the Mirage Clam in various crafts. If you encounter mist, don’t trust only what you can see. Apparently, even the presences detected by spiritual sense can overlap.”
“Illusion arts?”
“So it seems.”
Mae So-gun read the next passage in the jade slip.
“Dream-Illusion Coral...”
She studied a picture marked with red spots for a while.
“So this was that powder from last time.”
“Some of the wounded showed similar symptoms, so they compared them. They mix it into mist or use it with magical implements. The poison isn’t particularly strong, but exposure during battle can be dangerous.”
...
A little over four months after their arrival at Cheongseok Cultivator Market.
In a valley roughly a thousand li from the cultivator market, Ak Mu-gu’s iron token struck a curtain of mist.
Boom!
One side of the curtain caved in deeply, but the man standing beyond it rippled like water and scattered. The instant the iron token passed through empty air, two throwing knives flew in from the opposite direction.
Mae So-gun’s blue-green silk stretched sideways.
Clang!
The spiritual light on the silk’s surface deflected the knives. She immediately twisted her wrist, bringing the long strip of silk back around to shield the group.
“Senior Brother, don’t send it too far out!”
“I know!”
Ak Mu-gu recalled his iron token.
Three Foundation Establishment cultivators were gathered at the bottom of the valley.
Two from the Danso Sect, one from the Byeokra Sect.
The Byeokra Sect cultivator sat against a boulder with a deep cut in their thigh. Clutching a small formation disk, they supplied spiritual power to the formation flags planted between the rocks.
It should have been an ordinary patrol.
After checking several locations as usual, the group had been heading back when mist surged up at the valley entrance.
When they tried to escape upward, gu adepts appeared. When they tried to turn back, other enemies were already blocking the way.
Their first Voice Transmission Talisman had been cut apart by a throwing knife before it could leave the mist. They had no idea how far the ones sent afterward had traveled.
Ak Mu-gu steadied his breathing and examined the area outside.
There were eight enemies.
Five Tier 2 gu adepts from the Geonyang Kingdom and three Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Mirage Tower Sect.
“Surrender, and we’ll spare your lives.”
A deep voice came from beyond the mist.
Ak Mu-gu snorted.
“Why should we believe that?”
An iron token flew forward again.
This time, it was not an illusion.
A black fist emerged from the mist and struck the token head-on.
Bang!
The iron token flew back, making Ak Mu-gu’s arm jolt violently.
The gu adept spread a hand and released threads like spiderwebs. Behind the gu adept, the Mirage Tower Sect cultivators unleashed a shower of throwing knives.
Mae So-gun gritted her teeth and spread her silk.
Some knives were illusions, but real ones were mixed among them, making them extremely difficult to block.
While she picked out and stopped the real blades, two gu adepts leaped in from the rocks on either side.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The protective curtain of light shook violently. Blood trickled from the mouth of the Byeokra Sect cultivator holding the formation disk.
...
At the same time.
Yi Hyeon was on a ridge east of the valley.
He had been returning after inspecting his assigned area when he saw three red signals shoot into the sky. But the lights scattered before they could rise very high. They could not have been visible from far away.
As he drew closer, he heard spiritual power clashing.
Rather than descend at once, Yi Hyeon crouched low.
He spread his spiritual sense and detected several presences in the mist filling the valley. They were divided into a group huddled in one place and another circling them, pouring out attacks.
‘Senior Sister Mae?’
Familiar blue-green silk briefly appeared through the mist.
‘Senior Brother Ak must be with her. Are they surrounded?’
Yi Hyeon examined the surroundings.
Far to the south, powerful waves of spiritual power rose from time to time. Reports that morning had said Golden Core elders and enemy Tier 3 gu adepts were facing off in that direction.
‘I need to save them quickly, before anyone else comes. There are... eight enemies?’
It was not more than he could handle alone. But keeping his fellow disciples safe while quickly dealing with enemies who might scatter in every direction would be somewhat troublesome.
‘In that case...’
...
Bang!
One side of the protective curtain split open, and a gu adept thrust a long spear through the gap.
Mae So-gun’s silk wrapped around the shaft, but another gu adept followed with a punch that struck the silk.
Thud!
She was driven backward.
Ak Mu-gu stepped forward and swung his iron token down. The gu adept released the spear and retreated.
Behind the gu adept, a Mirage Tower Sect cultivator raised a gourd. The mist grew thicker, and three throwing knives appeared to split into six, then twelve.
Ak Mu-gu ignored the paths he could see and focused on his spiritual sense. But even the presences he detected overlapped.
‘Damn it...’
Then it happened.
The sound of breaking stone came from all around the valley.
At first, he thought the cliffs were collapsing from the battle.
But a white leg rose through a crack in the ground, followed by a round body.
Click.
As it braced itself against the ground and crawled out, objects of the same shape appeared from gaps in the rocks beside it.
One, two, three.
The hard white bodies moved in perfect order without colliding.
Ak Mu-gu’s hand paused.
‘Puppets?’
They looked like enormous ants made of bone.
More kept crawling from cracks beneath the cliffs and from behind fallen trees.
One Mirage Tower Sect cultivator shouted.
“Skull Island?”
The gu adepts also slowed their attacks. The man who seemed to be their leader looked back.
“No one said reinforcements were coming.”
A cultivator in a black robe walked out from behind the white bone puppets.
An altered voice emerged from beneath a turtle mask.
“You’re making quite a racket on the soil of the great Anneung Kingdom.”
The gu adept frowned.
“What the hell are you talking about? Since when was some mortal kingdom like Anneung great?”
“Wait, Skull Island isn’t our enemy...”
The masked cultivator raised a hand. The restrictions engraved on the puppets’ bodies lit up together.
Hummm.
Unlike the Mirage Tower Sect cultivators, the gu adept at the front quickly sensed that the puppet master before them was an enemy. He leaped up first.
Just as he was about to vault over the bone puppets and charge straight at the masked cultivator, his body sank.
His expression changed.
‘A flight-blocking restriction!?’
He raised his gu-origin true qi, and his sinking body began to rise again.
At that exact moment, three more Bonefuzz puppets turned their heads toward him.
Thump!
Four streams of Earth-Origin Force overlapped on his body, sending him plunging straight out of the air.
He gritted his teeth and tried to rise, only for his vision to turn red.
‘Fireball Spell?’
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Fireballs exploded one after another against his Protective Spiritlight.
The man crossed his arms to shield his face, but another explosion threw his upper body backward.
Around him, the other bone puppets moved quickly. Each turned its head toward a different gu adept and lit up the restrictions on its body.
One gu adept tried to dash sideways, only to drop to their knees.
Another made a low leap and slammed their shoulder into a boulder.
While their bodies struggled against the Earth-Origin Force holding them, red fireballs rained down.
Booom! Bang!
The flames dyed the valley’s mist red.
...
For a moment, Ak Mu-gu could not close his mouth.
The gu adepts who had been pressing them from every direction moments earlier were now pinned in place and taking a beating.
The white bone puppets around them moved without pause. Inside their bodies, the light of spirit stones flickered rapidly.
[Senior Brother Ak!]
Mae So-gun’s voice transmission brought Ak Mu-gu to his senses.
She was already helping the wounded Byeokra Sect cultivator to their feet.
[It looks like infighting! Let’s get out of here!]
[Ah... Right!]
The bone puppets did not pursue them as they withdrew.
Ak Mu-gu and Mae So-gun had thought they would die that day. Overjoyed at this heaven-sent opportunity, they retreated quickly.
...
Yi Hyeon confirmed that Senior Brother Ak and Senior Sister Mae had left the valley, then lightly turned the wrist holding his sword.
At that moment, a Mirage Tower Sect cultivator formed hand seals. A powerful stream of water burst from a gourd and swallowed several fireballs.
A flat shell magical implement rose from another cultivator’s hand.
Clack!
The shell opened and released blue ripples.
One of the leading Bonefuzz puppets was pushed sideways. Three throwing knives flew through the gap.
Crack!
One of its front legs was severed.
But the Bonefuzz did not fall. It lowered its body on its remaining legs and continued to maintain its flight-blocking restriction on a gu adept.
The Mirage Tower Sect cultivator frowned.
‘Strange. The puppets of the Yin Bird Sect’s Skull Island branch don’t react like this, as far as I know...’
Before the cultivator could move the throwing knives again, sword light flew in from the side.
Clang!
One knife was knocked away in midair.
The cultivator in the turtle mask had already charged within striking distance.
The sight of that sword light made the Mirage Tower Sect cultivator’s expression stiffen. This opponent was not merely skilled at controlling puppets.
“Kill the puppet master first!”
At the shout, the remaining throwing knives turned toward Yi Hyeon.
The gu adepts thickened their Protective Spiritlight to withstand the fireballs and joined the attack. Black energy from their fists and fine strands of insect silk rushed at Yi Hyeon together.
Yi Hyeon advanced with his sword in hand.
Hummm.
The sword qi condensed and refined along the blade released a wondrous light, pushing the surrounding mist away in a circle.
The shell-wielding cultivator’s face hardened.
‘An extremely high-level inheritance...’
Yi Hyeon shifted half a step sideways, letting a throwing knife pass close enough to brush his robe. He twisted at the waist, and a black fist projection shot past his shoulder. His sword tip dropped, cutting the insect silk aimed at his ankles.
A single footwork movement rendered all three kinds of attacks useless.
The opening stance with his sword held upright had already changed into a circling sword form. Light extended from the tip, curved in an arc, and split into three streams.
At the same time, Yi Hyeon’s left hand grasped at the air.
Thoom!
One gu adept’s upper body suddenly bent forward.
An immense pulling force descended, on an entirely different level from the flight-blocking restrictions used by the bone puppets.
“Wha...!”
Beside them, the gu adept releasing insect silk also lost contact with the ground.
First the nearby gu adepts, then even the Mirage Tower Sect cultivators forming hand seals behind them began to be sucked toward Yi Hyeon from within a radius of several dozen jang, as though caught in an invisible whirlpool.
Just as a flying knife grazed an ally’s shoulder and the gourd releasing water tilted upward, its powerful stream swept into the vortex as well.
Supreme Unity Heavenly Dipper, Twenty-Ninth Form: Three Lights, Nine Divisions.
The turtle-masked cultivator’s sword moved with indescribable speed.
Flash!
The three rotating streams of sword light split into nine and burst outward in every direction!
‘Damn it...’
Those being dragged inward hurriedly brought out every defense they had. But with their balance already broken and sword light raining down so swiftly, they had no way to stop it.
Crack!
The Mirage Tower Sect cultivator’s shell shattered. Sword light pierced straight through their chest.
“Aaagh!”
The gu adepts’ screams followed.
Thud, thump, thump.
In an instant, two Tier 2 gu adepts and two Mirage Tower Sect cultivators lost their lives.
...
The Mirage Tower Sect cultivator who had survived by standing a little farther away was deathly pale.
Twenty puppets were still moving independently, yet the puppet master was personally wielding a sword as well.
‘How...?’
How could someone display such terrifying combat prowess while dividing their spiritual sense to control the puppets’ movements and activate their restrictions?
The cultivator gritted their teeth and struck the gourd.
Rrrrumble.
Thick mist poured from its mouth into the valley. Rocks, bodies, and even the flames burning from the bone puppets’ Fireball Spells blurred in an instant.
The Mirage Tower Sect cultivator hid in the mist.
Yi Hyeon sent a thought through the Spirit-Nurturing Seal.
[Keep the gu adepts pinned down.]
He moved forward.
Within the mist, the fleeing Mirage Tower Sect cultivator’s figure split into three. One shot up the cliff, another fled deeper into the valley, and the last hid behind a boulder.
The mist smelled both fishy and sweet.
The back of his throat stung briefly, but it grew no worse.
Yi Hyeon circulated the Poison-Expelling Art, forcing out the faint poisonous miasma seeping into his body. Perhaps thanks to the resistance he had built by taking Poison-Warding Pills, he suffered no ill effects.
‘Could this be the Dream-Illusion Coral powder I’ve heard about...?’
The illusion arts disturbing his spiritual sense were also insufficient to deceive him.
His entire body had been bathed in spiritual power during the Qi Refining stage. He had also practiced the Essentials of Spirit Refining while steadily taking Spirit-Nurturing Pills and Spirit-Calming Pills.
The level to which Yi Hyeon had tempered his primordial spirit and spiritual sense was in a different class from that of ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Sword light shot from the Dark Palace-Gate Sword.
Clang!
A throwing knife flew out of what had seemed to be empty air, revealing the Mirage Tower Sect cultivator.
The cultivator instinctively thrust the gourd forward, trying to unleash a powerful torrent, but...
Booom!
Yi Hyeon’s sword flashed, and the gourd burst apart in an instant.
The turtle mask approached through the scattering droplets. The cultivator’s eyes widened.
“Why... Why don’t the illusions or the coral poison work on you...!?”
Sword light flashed in place of an answer.
Watery Protective Spiritlight tore apart. The words were cut short along with the speaker’s neck.
...
Explosions still rang out on the opposite side of the valley.
The gu adepts’ leader was enduring the fireballs with both arms shielding his head.
Blood ran beneath his blackened robe. Maintaining his Protective Spiritlight consumed a considerable amount of gu-origin true qi.
He could withstand the attacks of a single puppet. The problem was that several layers of pulling force held his body no matter which way he moved. If he knocked aside a fireball in front, another came from the side.
Whenever he tried to destroy a nearby puppet, it retreated and one behind it moved forward. Their irritating habit of taking turns infuriated him.
“You little things!”
As he roared, the muscles in his arms and neck swelled.
His back, bent beneath the Earth-Origin Force pressing down on him, slowly began to straighten.
The joints of eight Bonefuzz puppets creaked.
He took a step, crushing the stone beneath his foot.
“You think this sort of junk can...!”
Just then, another gu adept’s scream came from nearby.
When the man turned his head, the turtle-masked cultivator was already looking toward him, having pulled a sword from his subordinate’s back. The remaining gu adept’s body also lay sprawled behind the masked figure.
Before he knew it, he was the only one left alive.
Then a voice emerged from beneath the mask.
“Everyone, stop. Save the spirit stones.”
The lights inside the puppets went out. The force crushing his shoulders and knees vanished in an instant. The man forced his body down before it could spring upward.
‘You’ve let your guard down. Did you think I was no different from the other gu adepts...? Heh heh.’
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