Chapter 23: Corpse Puppet

  "Brother Tao, you have great courage and insight, truly worthy of being from the Mingmen School. Knowing that this is a trap, yet still daring to come alone, I, Qin Mou, admire you greatly." With these words, the middle-aged man in black robes, Qin Hu, stepped into the dilapidated Temple of Earth and stood at the temple gate, applauding.

  It's only been a few days since they last met, but Qin Hu is becoming increasingly sinister. His entire body exudes an aura of death, as if he had crawled out from a pile of corpses. His face is even paler than before, revealing a hint of evil intentions. Sun Tao senses a hidden crisis lurking beneath the surface from Qin Hu's gaze, which makes him feel like he's being stared at by a cold-blooded venomous snake ready to strike at any moment, making his whole body feel uneasy.

  "What? Are you alone? What about the rest of the Five Tigers Gang?" Sun Tao stood outside the dilapidated Temple of Earth, his powerful divine sense spreading out in all directions. The only living being within the temple was Qin Hu right before him, with no one else around, and no signs of ambush by the Five Tigers Gang members. Sun Tao slightly narrowed his eyes, asking Qin Hu.

  At this moment, seeing Qin Hu, Sun Tiao suddenly felt extremely dangerous. Sun Tiao was somewhat puzzled, what backing did this person have, to dare to fight alone with himself, could it be that he had seen through his own abandoned cultivation?

  "Heh heh... You little thing, unaware of the heavens and earth. Last time I was willing to make peace with you, it was because I wasn't ready yet. A disciple of the Beast Tamer Sect, what a big fat sheep! Slaughtering you will surely provide me with enough resources to cultivate for a good period of time! And that monkey of yours, it's not bad as a puppet. Refining it into a puppet will definitely be much stronger than those useless things." Qin Hu heard Sun Tao's inquiry and responded with a sinister smile.

  "If you want my property and my spiritual beast, I'm afraid you don't have the ability." Without any ambush, it's just Qin Hu alone. Sun Tuo relied on the large number of talismans in his hand and the two generals, Bēng Jiàng, to take down Qin Hu at once and destroy the evil force of Wǔ Hǔ Bāng that bullied men and women.

  "With me, wanting to take you down is not very likely, but after three days of preparation, this is enough for me to wipe you out." Qin Hu heard this and nodded in agreement with Sun Tao.

  Qin Hu relied on his own strength, and he himself admitted that he couldn't take down Sun Tao alone. However, with the help of the hundreds of Dead Spirit Puppets refined by the Five Tigers Sect, he could easily annihilate Sun Tao using sheer numbers. According to his observations, Sun Tao was at most a cultivator in the Qi Refining stage, around the 10th layer, and couldn't even control flying swords at will, so his cultivation level definitely wasn't that high.

  "Bring it on, I'll see what you've got to take me down." Sun Wei saw Qin Hu's confidence and suddenly felt uneasy.

  "Ding ding ding!" Qin Hu was about to send Sun Tao to his death, and he didn't want to explain anything more to him. He patted the storage bag at his waist, took out a black bell that was only the size of a palm, and revealed an evil aura. The black bell emitted a crisp ringing sound as Qin Hu shook it, and a layer of black ripples spread out from the black bell.

  "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

  A crisp bell sound rang out in the ruined temple, and suddenly a dull thud came from within. The ruined temple was shrouded in a layer of dark, eerie energy that seemed to emanate from nowhere. In just a few breaths, the temple was enveloped in an aura of death. Corpses, half-rotten and stiff, leapt out of the crumbling temple gates.

  "Corpse puppet, this is corpse puppet, are you a person of the Demon Gate?" As he looked at the numerous rotting corpses emitting foul odors rushing out of the ruined temple gate, these were the remnants of the Five Tigers Gang who died in battle. Under Qin Hu's control, they jumped and rushed out of the broken temple, hundreds of people surging forward, instantly drowning Sun Tao in a sea of people. Looking at so many corpse puppets, Sun Tao's mouth was slightly dry.

  Hundreds of undead puppets, this is Qin Hu's greatest reliance. If there weren't so many undead puppets, Qin Hu wouldn't have made a move against Sun Tao. These undead puppets don't feel pain and are inanimate objects. Even if their heads were chopped off, as long as Qin Hu, who controls the undead puppets, doesn't die, they can continue fighting indefinitely. This is what's most terrifying.

  "Give me the life of that wicked little brat!" Qin Hu shook the Corpse Bell in his hand, and a wave of death ripples spread out from it. With a flick of his wrist, he pointed in the direction where Sun Tao was, his voice low and even.

  The ruined land outside the temple was shrouded in a thick, black aura of death, and the rotting corpses emitted a foul stench. The pair of grayish-white eyes of the corpse suddenly shot out a red light, waving its palms as it pounced on Sun Tao like a zombie.

  "Damn it, this guy actually has the Necromancy of the Demon Gate. With these undead corpses that don't feel pain and no fire-based spells, there's basically no way to deal with these dead puppets." As he watched the dead puppets pounce on him like evil spirits, Sun Tao cursed under his breath, his mind instantly immersing into the world of Journey to the West. He chanted the True Origin, summoning out the Blasting General from the two generals of the Blasting Formation.

  No fire spells, no spiritual power in his body, true yuan. Looking at the countless undead puppets, Sun Tao's heart was filled with anxiety. Relying on a single collapse would not be enough to deal with these undead puppets. This battle would be a tough one, and only by thoroughly resolving Qin Hu could this crisis be resolved.

  Through this lesson, Sun Tiao understood that when cutting grass, one must remove the roots. Since they are enemies, there is no need to leave any way out for them. Being merciful to enemies is being cruel to oneself. If they are enemies, one should think of ways to eliminate them, so as not to invite unnecessary trouble for oneself.

  Bengba Erzhong's Beng summoned, the Tongbei monkey unfolded a set of Tongbei fist, and the dead puppet close to Sun Tao was blown away. Although these dead puppets were not invulnerable to swords and guns, they had no pain sensation; if their bones weren't completely shattered, they would continue to charge forward fearlessly.

  No pain, no fear of death, such a dead puppet's eyes flickered with red light, and in his mind there was only one thought, that is to attack, attack and keep attacking, tearing the enemy in front of him into powder.

  He burst out a punch, blasting the dead spirit puppet back, revealing rows of white bones underneath. They continued to charge forward fearlessly. Sun Tao kept waving the flying sword artifact in his hand, but since he didn't have any true yuan inside him, he couldn't unleash its power at all. Just as he had forced his opponent back, more dead spirit puppets surged forward from behind.

  The strength of the undead puppet is not strong, but it wins in strangeness, has no pain, and ordinary means can't deal with the opponent at all. Only by cutting off all its limbs can it be killed. But there are too many undead puppets, these undead puppets don't give Sun Tao a chance to cut them into pieces, surrounded by danger in the crowd of undead puppets, if not for the desperate resistance of the gibbon, Sun Tao would have been overwhelmed by this tide of people long ago!

  "Little brat, enjoy this last feast of death, you won't have a good ending after offending me, Qin Hu!" Looking at Sun Tao's continuous charge in the undead puppet group, Qin Hu stood on high ground and couldn't help but sneer with satisfaction. Unable to break out of the undead puppet group, Qin Hu would soon see Sun Tao being torn into pieces by these undead puppets!

  Constantly waving the flying sword artifact in his hand, without any true yuan in his body, Sun Tao's physical strength was rapidly depleting. If those undead puppets had weapons in their hands, Sun Tao would have been chopped into pieces by them long ago!

  The undead puppets were too numerous, and killing them was a losing battle. The fatal blow that had been effective before now seemed like a mere tickle to these undead puppets. One slash would go down without causing any pain or numbness.

  Sun Tao felt his physical strength was about to be exhausted. He slapped a golden talisman on his body, and a dazzling golden light burst out from it, as if a divine being had descended upon the world. The light firmly protected Sun Tao.

  The stinky claws that grabbed onto the golden shield were like grabbing steel, and they directly sent the hand flying back, unable to harm him in the slightest.

  "How despicable, you scoundrels! You're actually using this chaotic tactic of throwing everything at us, and to think we don't even have any Flame Talismans left. If only I could set fire to all of you!" As he gazed out at the endless tide of undead puppets, Sun Tao felt like flying but couldn't take off, forced to continue fighting amidst the horde of puppets. After another round of intense combat, the golden light emitted by his Vajra Shield had dimmed somewhat. Muttering a curse under his breath, he then bellowed orders at his troops: "Take down Qin Hu for me! Don't worry about me!"

  Beng will get the order, Tongbei Fist is launched, and he rushes all the way to kill Qin Hu. Sun Tuo takes advantage of the situation to pat a few Shenyin symbols on his body, and his whole body leaps up like a fish, stepping on the dead spirit puppet's body and rushing into the broken temple. There are courtyard walls blocking the way, avoiding these dead spirit puppets is relatively much easier.

  One by one, the sword talismans flew out of Sun Tao's hands and transformed into streaks of gray light that shot towards Qin Hu like lightning. He didn't want to waste these on low-level dead spirit masters.

  Due to the unexpected attack of the sword talisman, Qin Tao had no choice but to use his magic tool to block Sun Tao's sword talisman. He didn't have time to shake the corpse bell, and the attacks of those undead puppets suddenly slowed down. Sun Tao took advantage of this rare opportunity to rush towards the broken temple.