205: Chapter 205 War

"Effective."

Xiao Yuanlie, the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage Cultivator of the Xiao Family, let out a long breath and turned to speak to Liu Jiang, his tone suppressing a hint of relief:

"Fellow Daoist Liu, at this rate, those corpse-refining mooks of the Corpse Puppet Sect shouldn't be able to break through the triple Formation Restrictions."

"Don't rush."

Liu Jiang interrupted him, his gaze remaining locked tightly on the Demonic Path Cultivators behind the black fog,

"They haven't truly made a move yet."

Before his voice faded, a bone flute sound, piercing to the extreme, rang out from deep within the black fog.

That flute sound was sharp and desolate, as if carefully ground from the finger bones of some creature; every single note burrowing into the ears made one's scalp tighten and their spiritual platform unsettled.

Hearing the sound, the corpse tide suddenly stagnated, thousands of corpse puppets like marionettes whose strings were suddenly cut, standing stiffly in place, letting the flames of the Burning Spirit Formation lick their bodies, a burnt stench spreading and black smoke rising.

Following closely, the black fog churned violently, dozens of Black-Robed Cultivators simultaneously forming hand seals and chanting low, obscure incantations in their mouths.

Streaks of ink-black spiritual light shot out from their fingertips, silently sinking into the corpse horde.

Those iron-armored corpse puppets, which had originally been burned to tatters by the blazing flames, unexpectedly began to crazily tear at and devour each other, severed limbs and broken arms autonomously splicing and reorganizing under the traction of some eerie power.

The remains of more than ten iron-armored corpse puppets intertwined and aggregated, transforming into a deformed monster two zhang tall—its entire body craggy with bone spurs, its joints twistedly growing several extra limbs, shaped like an evil ghost crawling out from the depths of Hell.

"Corpse Puppet Fusion Technique."

Liu Jiang's gaze congealed, his voice sinking,

"This is the signature method of the Demonic Path corpse-refining lineage. The combat power of the fused corpse puppets will rise sharply, but the duration they can maintain it is limited; they are going to force an attack."

That deformed corpse puppet opened its large mouth, emitting a silent yet bone-chilling roar, and strode with thick legs to fiercely charge toward the mountain pass.

The pillar of fire condensed by the Burning Spirit Formation struck its body, yet could only scorch the surface skin and flesh, completely unable to stop the steps of its advance.

Every heavy step it took shook the ground to a tremble, and the newly surging corpse tide behind it, like a black tide, followed closely behind, fiercely slamming against the defensive line.

"Rending Gale Formation, open!"

Liu Jiang shouted explosively, the spiritual light on the main Formation Plate in his hand flashing brightly.

The third Restriction activated in response, the air in front of the mountain pass suddenly distorted, countless invisible wind blades generated in the Void Realm, crisscrossing and cutting, emitting a teeth-aching shrill howl.

The coverage range of the Rending Gale Formation was no more than one hundred and thirty zhang, yet it happened to firmly jam at the narrowest part of the mountain pass; if the corpse tide wanted to pass through, it had to cross through this death zone.

The deformed corpse puppet stepped into the Rending Gale Formation domain first, its body covered in bone spurs instantly slashed with dozens of wounds deep enough to see bone.

The speed of the wind blade cutting grew faster and faster, the bone armor on the corpse puppet's body surface shaved away layer by layer, ultimately revealing a dark purple core inside.

That core was twisted internal organs and broken bones intertwined together, still slightly wriggling—this was precisely where the fatal weakness of the fused corpse puppet lay.

With quick eyes and nimble hands, Liu Jiang formed a hand seal with one hand, and a crimson sword light flew out from his sleeve, piercing into the core with peerless precision.

The instant the sword light penetrated the core, the entire deformed corpse puppet exploded with a roar, broken bones and rotten flesh flying in all directions, smashing more than ten surrounding copper-armored corpse puppets so that they staggered about in disarray.

Yet this was only the first fused corpse puppet; the bone flute sound in the black fog rang out once more, and dozens more fused corpse puppets struggled to stand up from the corpse horde, striding with heavy steps into the Rending Gale Formation.

"All Foundation Establishment Cultivators strike together!"

Liu Jiang quickly assigned targets, every single Foundation Establishment Cultivator present simultaneously driving their lethal moves.

Sword light, Spell spiritual light, and the dazzling light of Talismans intertwined in front of the mountain pass into a brilliant yet fatal light screen.

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, over a hundred fused corpse puppets collapsed one after another under the pincer attack of the Rending Gale Formation and the Cultivators, but the price was likewise not small—everyone's spiritual power had already been depleted by twenty to thirty percent.

"Fellow Daoist Liu, going on like this is no solution."

A Foundation Establishment Cultivator of the Sandao Sect fiercely wiped the blood and filth from his face, looking panting toward the rear where dozens more corpse puppets were about to finish fusing,

"Their corpse puppets are endless, but our spiritual power is limited. With the triple Formation Restrictions fully opened, the consumption of Spirit Stones is simply too massive."

Liu Jiang did not answer immediately, his gaze swiftly sweeping across the entire battlefield.

The Corpse Puppet Sect's offensive looked surging and fierce, but the true elite—those twenty-eight Foundation Establishment demonic Cultivators and over thirty silver-armored corpse puppets—remained steadfastly unmoving, steadily hiding behind the black fog and continually driving low-tier corpse puppets to consume the Restrictions and the Cultivators' spiritual power. This was the most typical attrition tactic.

"They want to exhaust us to death,"

Liu Jiang said in a deep voice,

"We cannot let them have their way."

He took out a pale golden Talisman from his Storage Pouch.

Spiritual light flowed across the Talisman's surface, and the Talisman scripts slowly wandered like living creatures; the coercive pressure they emitted caused the few surrounding Foundation Establishment Cultivators to involuntarily step back half a pace—a Tier 3 Low Grade Thunder Fire Talisman.

This was a trump card he had specially exchanged for at the Sect before setting out from the Tianxuan Sect.

As an elite inner-Sect Disciple of the Tianxuan Sect, aside from this Tier 3 Low Grade Thunder Fire Talisman, his Storage Pouch also concealed a few other Tier 3 Talismans.

These Tier 3 Talismans were originally intended to be kept for critical moments to directly deal with those demonic Cultivators, but right now, they had to be used first to resolve this endless batch of corpse puppets.

Liu Jiang pinched the Talisman between two fingers, forcefully infusing spiritual power.

The thunder patterns on the Talisman paper suddenly lit up, dazzling electric light crackling between his fingers.

"Go!"

The Thunder Fire Talisman transformed into streaks of crimson flowing light, shooting into the most densely packed areas of the corpse horde.

The next moment, crimson thunder balls the size of fists violently exploded in the center of the corpse group, thunder light and blazing flames intertwining and expanding, sweeping and covering a radius of over a hundred zhang.

Everything at the center of the explosion was vaporized instantly, the violent shockwave carrying thunder and fire to sweep outward.

The fused corpse puppets and copper-armored corpse puppets were easily sent flying like pieces of paper, while the iron-armored corpse puppets were directly reduced to flying ash.

By the time the thunder and fire dissipated, a scorched clearing nearly one hundred zhang in diameter had unexpectedly appeared in the center of the corpse horde.

The ground had been melted by the high temperature into a layer of glazed crystals, and the air was filled with a pungent burnt stench and the residual aura of the thunder gale.

With just this single strike, at least several hundred corpse puppets of various kinds were written off, and the bone flute sound behind the black fog suddenly stagnated.

...

When the battle at the Chimang Ridge mountain pass reached the seventh day, the situation underwent a subtle yet undeniable change.

Not only did the Corpse Puppet Sect's offensive fail to weaken in the slightest, it instead grew increasingly fierce.

Every day from dawn to dusk, the corpse tide impacted the defensive line wave after wave without tiring, as if endless.

The triple Formation Restrictions operated day and night without stopping, and the consumption speed of Spirit Stones far exceeded the initial expectations.

By the fifteenth day, the three Formations of Chimang Ridge had already consumed nearly twenty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, plus a large batch of low-tier Formation Materials.

At this very moment, it was still far from the timing for Master Xuanyue to make a move.

Across the entire border line of Hongshan Prefecture, there were a total of five large-scale passes and eighteen small-scale passes, and Hongshi County was merely one of the eighteen small battlefields.

Up to now, no Golden Core demonic Cultivator had yet appeared.

Once Master Xuanyue acted rashly, it would inevitably prematurely draw out the enemy's Golden Core demonic Cultivator, at which point the entire situation would become even more complex and thorny.