Chapter 131: The Might of the Raven (Part Two)

The raven, entirely absorbed in swaying and posturing, naturally heard Bai Qi’s shout. Instead of rushing, it leisurely replied, "Just a moment~ Just a moment~ This Saint is almost done, hold on a little longer."

Bai Qi felt his mind going completely frantic. Glancing sideways at the raven, he realized that even if it was close to finishing, it would still take a while. He then turned his gaze back to the puppets. Beneath their cold, frigid armor, two deeply crimson, glaringly bright giant eyes were flashing. Clearly, these entities possessed a certain degree of consciousness. To an intruder like Bai Qi, this was nothing short of a hostile invasion. Of course, it was equally possible that they were being manipulated by a hidden controller behind the scenes. Regardless of the underlying reason, right now, they meant business.

Facing Bai Qi, the three puppets—whose six massive hands had previously been empty—suddenly twisted backward. All ten fingers plunged straight into their own spine-bones, while a low, muffled groan escaped from within their helmets.

Bai Qi’s pupils dilated. In an almost inhuman display of self-mutilation, the puppets behaved as if they were creatures of flesh and blood. They forced their arms backward, drove their hands into the sides of their spinal columns, and proceeded to wrench open their own ribs.

Watching the three seemingly emotionless puppets "extract" two scimitars from their own backs sent a chill down his spine. These curved blades were suffused with a bloody, crimson aura that rose leisurely without dissipating, constantly wrapping around the surfaces of the weapons.

If one looked past this blood-aura and examined their true nature, the scimitars in each puppet's hands were precisely what Bai Qi had imagined: their own ribs, snapped off to serve as weapons.

Though these weapons were made of bone, the baleful slaughter-aura coating their surfaces had clearly been forged through the harvesting of countless lives.

When the three puppets bared these lethal weapons, the sheer murderous intent was enough to disturb the minds of both Bai Qi and Xie Tu, who was fighting nearby.

Though a great shock rippled through Bai Qi’s heart, his hands did not pause for even a fraction of a second. The "Destruction" incantation stacked layer upon layer, pushing the art of shattering to its absolute limit. It seemed that wherever the force of "Destruction" swept, not a single blade of grass would be left alive.

Ever since he first encountered the two character-incantations in the *Guangling Qin Score*, through continuous application and deep refinement, the profound mysteries of these incantations had become like an extension of his own limbs, moving with his thoughts and deepening with his intent.

As the "Destruction" incantation surged forth like a giant whale bursting from the sea, devouring everything in a wild frenzy, the crimson light within the five puppets' eyes grew even brighter and deeper. They seemed to become even more bloodthirsty in the face of this sudden, hostile force. The malevolent roots embedded in their nerve endings thickened under Bai Qi's burst of power, and the thumping rhythm of their phantom heartbeats accelerated violently.

Because the other two puppets were still being continuously stalled by Xie Tu, they had no time to spare to deal with Bai Qi. Meanwhile, on Bai Qi's side, the three corresponding puppets had already raised their scimitars and charged forward, their heavy footsteps pounding fiercely against the ground.

Transformed by the "Destruction" incantation, the spiritual energy gathering in Bai Qi's chest condensed into a massive, heavy, and domineering blade without a hilt. With a ferocious roar, Bai Qi brought it down in a vicious slash.

Despite appearing bulky and cumbersome, the three charging puppets possessed a breathtaking agility that starkly contrasted with their gigantic frames.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

The ten-meter-long blade qi unleashed by Bai Qi, amplified by the "Destruction" incantation, emitted a piercing, explosive friction against the surrounding air. One of the puppets failed to dodge in time; the blade edge sliced cleanly across its entire right arm, severing it with the smooth, flat precision of a laser cut.

However, the remaining two closed in rapidly, lunging toward Bai Qi with four glaring scimitars crossed in the shape of a cross, intent on hacking his body to pieces.

With lightning-fast reflexes, Bai Qi jerked his body sharply backward just as two consecutive explosions—*Bang! Bang!*—erupted right beside his ears.

Dense beads of cold sweat broke out across his forehead. Panting heavily and still shaken with lingering fear, Bai Qi realized just how agile these puppets truly were. Had he not leveraged the recoil of his own previous slash to retreat, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Before he even had a moment to pause, the two puppets charged at him once more in a pincer movement from left and right. Dragging their scimitars across the ground, they left behind long, scorched black trails, burning the soil with a harsh sizzling sound and a pungent smell of char.

Bai Qi leaped backward once again, refusing to even turn his head as he cursed furiously, "Damn it, Raven! Are you not done yet, you old bastard? If you aren't done this second, I'm coming over to hack you to pieces first!"

"What the hell is your rush? It's ready, it's ready! You and Xie Tu just need to lure them over. As long as they get close to the perimeter, the array I've set up will act like a magnet, drawing them directly inside, trapping them, and letting the lethal force within the array wear them down!" The raven quickly transmitted its thoughts telemetrically to both Bai Qi and Xie Tu.

Kicking off the ground with both feet, Bai Qi unleashed the *Exterminating Palm*, layering his palm prints one upon the other. Six layers on each hand, totaling twelve layers in all, he blasted them simultaneously toward the three puppets lunging at him.

Dodging and weaving while fighting on the retreat, Bai Qi watched as the three puppets whipped their scimitars through the air, continuously unleashing crescent-shaped beams of red light. Bai Qi tried to elevate his body to evade them, but one of the crimson beams struck the side of his thigh. *Sizzle!* It felt like molten iron being poured directly onto his flesh, inflicting a pain so intense that Bai Qi let out a sharp cry, his leg buckled, and he took a direct face-plant into the dirt.

Wave after wave of red beams swept toward him relentlessly. Gritting his teeth against the agonizing pain, Bai Qi rolled his body, frantically tumbling across the ground to dodge.

On the other end, Xie Tu had also noticed Bai Qi's precarious situation. It was evident that fighting these puppets—which possessed strength comparable to the Earth Realm—purely through brute force carried a significant disadvantage, especially when the enemy outnumbered them. Shaking off the two puppets that had been clinging to him in close combat, Xie Tu let them follow closely at his heels, secretly guiding them toward the location of the array set up by the raven, needing only to draw them within a five-meter radius of the formation.