Madam, please ascend.

Chapter 403 Heavenly Puppet True Dragon
Meanwhile, on the border of the Great Yan, in a valley used for garrisoning troops.

Yun Yi's expression was solemn, because the scene before him was somewhat frightening.

There were many corpses of Great Yan soldiers piled up here, but they were not rotten. Their hearts were beating violently, and from a distance, it looked as if something was about to burst out of their bodies.

Under the cover of night, a sinister chill permeated the air.

Yun Yi had deliberately left someone alive so that he could follow the clues and find out what the Great Yan was really planning.

I never expected that after seeing it with my own eyes, I would still be shocked by their depravity.

These corpses were clearly under some kind of evil spell, which could be considered a form of "recycling." However, the Great Yan and Great Xia dynasties had been locked in a stalemate for many years, and people at least maintained a certain bottom line in their conduct, rarely resorting to such inhumane acts.

Even Su Qing, a member of the Great Xia Dynasty, felt somewhat uncomfortable seeing this tragic scene.

Some of the corpses were "contributed" by Yun Yi; all of them died cleanly and swiftly, with a small sword piercing their foreheads. The other corpses were transported from different directions, with varying deaths, but the only thing they had in common was that they were all completely dead.

There were cultivators guarding this valley, but their cultivation levels were not high, and Yun Yi and Su Qing easily deceived them.

Yun Yi asked in confusion, "Is this some kind of method for refining corpses?"

Su Qing shook his head and said, "It shouldn't be. These corpses have no life force to speak of, and there is no evil energy from the corpse refining method in their bodies."

That's true. The movements of the corpse now seem more like "unconscious" movements than something as bizarre as if it were under a curse.

"Perhaps it was poisoned by a Gu?" Yun Yi extended a sword aura from his fingertip, slicing open the corpse's heart, thinking that there might be some unknown Gu worms causing the trouble.

Surprisingly, the thing that made the heart beat was indeed insect-like, but not a living creature.

To be precise, this is a "wooden spider" made of wood.

Yun Yi suddenly realized: "It seems to be some kind of mechanism."

Su Qing: "Strange, what purpose can this serve? Can these wooden spiders possibly control the dead soldiers?"

"That's most likely it. This little gadget can turn corpses into puppets..."

At this point, their eyes lit up, and they both whispered, "The Heavenly Puppet Sect?"

Yun Yi sighed, "We still don't know how powerful these corpses will be once they are turned into puppet soldiers. However, the fact that the Great Yan Emperor deliberately started the war must be the source of his confidence."

Su Qing: "He can even turn the soldiers of the Great Xia into puppets, so that his troops will be endless after the war begins."

"But the price is too high, and there must be sacrifices to drive the puppet. There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world."

"I must immediately send a message back to my father, instructing him to keep a close watch on the bodies of our soldiers. If they cannot be collected and taken away, they must be burned on the spot."

Upon hearing this, Yun Yi summoned a wisp of fire to test the corpses and found that they were indeed impervious to water and fire. Although they had not yet been completely transformed into puppets, they had already demonstrated a certain degree of invulnerability to swords and fire.

If it were actually used on the battlefield later, it would be able to take on ten opponents at once.

Based on the plans of the Overturning Heaven Pavilion, Yun Yi guessed that these soldiers were one of their backup plans for slaughtering humans.

However, Yun Yi hesitated about whether to destroy it directly at this moment.

I am currently in the shadows, and if I act rashly, I might be brought into the light, which would not be a good thing.

It would be better to wait and see. The key is how to deal with Po Jun. As long as the culprit is eliminated, the problem will naturally be solved.

Su Qing said softly, "That's an Ascension Realm cultivator. Have you figured out a way to deal with him?"

Yun Yi shook his head and said, "I'm not sure yet. But in my opinion, the Ascension Realm is limited by the scarcity of spiritual energy and can only make a limited number of moves. We can only restrain them and prevent them from resorting to desperate measures and using their full strength."

It must be said that since the separation of the celestial and the human realms, the ascension realm in the mortal world has been restricted. In the past, after they descended to the mortal realm and exhausted their spiritual power, they could return to the celestial realm to recuperate.

In retrospect, Heaven has done something beneficial for Yun Yi.

Yun Yi: "I dealt with him before at Yixian Lake. The tricky part is that he can control puppets, and his main body can also take their place. The puppets' actions do not consume the main body's spiritual energy; their power comes from the materials themselves."

For example, that armored puppet, though somewhat clumsy, was a genuine Dao Integration Realm expert. If Mu Lang could casually throw out a few of them, destroying an entire imperial city would be a piece of cake.

Su Qing: "The more outrageous the method, the easier it is to destroy it once you find its weakness. Just like these puppet soldiers, the wooden spider in their hearts is the core."

"That's right. So, knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to victory in every battle. We need to find out more about the other side."

"Lu Ziwei must have already made a move?"

"Of course, she's not the type to sit idly by and wait for her fate."

For Yun Yi and Su Qing, destroying these puppet soldiers was an extremely simple matter. However, they had many concerns at the moment, fearing that a rash move might trigger a war between the two countries.

At that time, the battle lines will stretch for thousands of miles, and even those at the Dao Integration Realm will be overwhelmed. Countless people will die, which would be exactly what the Overturning Heaven Pavilion wants.

Lu Ziwei thought the same way, which is why she faked her death to escape and avoid further conflict with the emperor, preventing the situation from escalating out of control.

Tonight, while Helian Haihai was focused entirely on the Imperial Preceptor's residence, she decided to test his strength.

However, fearing the shepherd behind the emperor, she could only tear off another page from the Book of Ten Thousand Generations, condense a firefly, and use her divine sense to control it to fly into the palace.

Sure enough, when Helian Haihai saw that the Crown Prince had brought back the head of the Imperial Preceptor, his first reaction was to confirm its authenticity.

He lifted the head and examined it for a long time, even drawing his precious sword and slashing at it a few times to scratch the skin before laughing and saying, "Ran'er did a good job. I thought before that your Eastern Palace lineage really wanted to oppose me, but I didn't expect you to be so cunning."

Helian Ran knelt down and bowed, not daring to raise his head. "Your subject has always been loyal to Father Emperor and has never had any disloyal intentions."

"Haha, after I die, this throne will be yours."

The old man is making empty promises again.

He seemed to remember something important, and suddenly picked up the head and left, not even bothering to pay attention to the crown prince.

Helian Ran was not surprised; he didn't know when his father had become this temperamental.

He forcibly suppressed the coldness in his eyes, and after waiting for a long time without Helian Haihai returning, he was certain that Helian Haihai had gone far away before bowing and retreating outside the palace.

Helian Ran glanced at the palace, which was filled with an eerie atmosphere, and thought to himself, "By tomorrow morning, the news of the Grand Preceptor's death will have spread throughout Xijing City. How will you deal with it then?"
A firefly brushed past the prince without attracting his attention.

The firefly moved swiftly forward, catching up with the departing old emperor, and silently landed in his hair, hiding within his braid.

From this moment on, everything Helian Haihai did was under Lu Ziwei's surveillance.

Lu Ziwei's eyes gleamed with a strange light as she held her breath and sat cross-legged. Upon seeing this, Ye Lan and Liang Shangjun immediately took on the role of protectors, one going outside and the other staying inside, both protecting the Grand Preceptor.

The commotion at the Imperial Preceptor's residence tonight was so great that it could no longer be concealed, and thus rumors spread everywhere. Helian Haihai was even more excited; as long as Lu Ziwei was gone, no one could resist his order to attack Great Xia.

Therefore, he was very pleased and went to the depths of the palace, a rather secluded place known only to a very few people.

Similar to the "Panlong Pagoda" in the Great Xia Palace, this place is also hidden underground. It is the size of a palace, with a sinister atmosphere, and one feels a chill upon entering.

Even Lu Ziwei was surprised to learn that such a place existed in the palace. She thought to herself that the old emperor had indeed been holding back from her, and had been secretly plotting to attack the Great Xia here.

What concerned her even more was the mysterious figure in the underground palace, who was dressed in a black cloak and whose face could not be seen.

Before him lay a skeleton, over a hundred feet long, which almost filled the entire underground palace.

In addition, twelve bronze pillars run through the dragon's body, and the dragon skeleton is suspended in mid-air by black iron chains. The pale bones are covered with bluish-black incantations.

The mysterious man was clearly Po Jun Mu Lang, and what he was going to do now was to refine this dragon skeleton into a puppet.

Lu Ziwei was shocked. She never expected that a dragon skeleton would be hidden underground in Xijing City, and she never expected that the real purpose of the mastermind was this object.

She quickly searched her mind for clues about the dragon's remains, recalling that it was hailed as the last five-clawed true dragon in the human world, and that it had died thousands of years ago.

Helian Haihai, who was usually aloof, was extremely respectful at this moment and said, "I have killed Lu Ziwei, but I am not sure if she is completely dead. Please, Immortal Master, take a look for me."

Unexpectedly, Mu Lang refused without even looking up, saying, "I will teach you the art of the Heavenly Puppet and help you achieve immortality in exchange for you handing over this dragon skeleton. After that, we will be even. Therefore, I have no reason to help you."

Helian Haihai's face turned ashen, but knowing the immortal's temper, he said no more.

He said, "Now that Lu Ziwei is dead, I plan to launch an attack on the Great Xia on a chosen day."

"How's the creation of those puppet soldiers going?"

"We have already raised tens of thousands of them in the border valleys. Once the war begins, we can awaken them all and then we will surely be able to sweep across the Great Xia."

Mu Lang was clearly not interested in this; he was focused entirely on the dragon skeleton, wanting only to create a Heavenly Puppet True Dragon.

Lu Ziwei suddenly sensed something and immediately dispersed her divine sense, along with the firefly, which vanished into nothingness.

Sure enough, Mu Lang then looked up at Helian Haihai, as if he had noticed something, but he did not notice anything strange about his hair.

He moved his finger, and a spider the size of a palm crawled toward Helian Haihai.

"This spider queen can help you control those puppets. If you have nothing else to do, you may leave now."

Having achieved his goal, Helian Haihai immediately rose to take his leave. He tucked the Spider Mother into his sleeve, his heart burning with excitement, as if he could already envision the glorious scene of unifying the two great dynasties.

Mu Lang continued to refine the puppet. Suddenly, phosphorescent flames emerged from one of the dragon skeleton's ribs, which he forcibly suppressed.

The pitiful dragon's body trembled slightly, the sound of bones grinding together like a mournful cry. This body, which should have been completely lifeless, was now sprouting centipede-like bony limbs from its spine.

It was originally a true dragon among men, bestowed with a title by the heavens, but now it must be transformed into a puppet to be used by men.

Even in death, he was still filled with resentment.

……

Lu Ziwei's forehead was covered in sweat, and she was panting heavily, as if she had just experienced a life-or-death crisis.

Seeing this, Ye Lan carefully wiped away her sweat and asked, "Are you alright?"

"We've finally found the mastermind behind this, but they're even more difficult to deal with than we imagined. This is really troublesome."

Lu Ziwei pondered when Yun Yi would arrive, and after much thought, she realized that only he could help her through this difficult time.

This eventful night passed quickly, and the sun was already rising outside.

The news of the Imperial Preceptor's death spread like wildfire, finally erupting at this moment and spreading throughout Xijing City, and continuing to spread outwards.

After discovering the anomaly in the valley, Yun Yi and Su Qing set up an array there as a backup plan, and then sped off on their swords towards Xijing City.

Despite Fang Yuanjian's repeated expressions of unwillingness to be trampled on, the situation was urgent, so he chose to cooperate obediently.

Along the way, Yun Yi even used the Dao of Rules to tear through the void and evade several spies from the Great Yan. Despite his hurried pace, he finally arrived at his destination at dawn.

This time, instead of disguising himself as an ordinary person to enter through the city gate, he used his magical powers to deceive everyone and sneak in with Su Qing.

His choice proved to be entirely correct, as the city gate checks were extremely strict, with no one allowed to leave once they entered.

Moreover, the city was shrouded in gloom, and the death of the Imperial Preceptor was a devastating blow to everyone.

Yun Yi and Su Qing soon heard about this, and Su Qing exclaimed in surprise, "Lu Ziwei is actually dead?"

"Absolutely impossible, but given her style of doing things, she's at least outwardly dead."

"What does she want to do?"

"There is only one situation: if the opponent is difficult to deal with, staying in the open will only lead to being passively attacked, so it is better to go into the shadows to find out what's going on."

Su Qing: "But with her death, why do I feel like the Great Yan Dynasty has completely fallen into chaos?"

At this time, several groups of people had already gathered in the city and were rushing towards the palace, because there were rumors that the emperor had killed the imperial advisor, and they were going to seek justice.

The Imperial Advisor has devoted himself to the Great Yan Dynasty; how could he die due to the mutual suspicion between the emperor and his minister?!
Yun Yi said, "Lu Ziwei has already begun to counter her opponent's moves."

As he spoke, he transformed himself into the appearance of "Prince Xian Su Xin" and also changed Su Qing's face, just in case someone in the city had been to Da Xia and met the Eldest Princess.

The two went directly to the largest inn in the city, Liuxian Inn, to stay. Since Lu Ziwei needed a favor from him, she would definitely keep an eye on Yun Yi's movements.

Since they can't go to the Imperial Preceptor's residence, the most likely place for them to rest is the best place for the two sides to meet.

Sure enough, not long after he disguised himself as Su Xin, a figure crept up to him furtively.

"You've finally arrived!" The newcomer was none other than Liang Shangjun, whose movements were unpredictable and unique.

Yun Yi: "I heard your Imperial Preceptor died?"

"The old emperor is stubborn and self-willed, so it's better for the lousy imperial advisor to stay in office." Liang Shangjun said shrewdly, "So the imperial advisor is indeed dead, but Lu Ziwei is still alive."

Yun Yi smiled helplessly: "Then let's stop talking nonsense and lead the way."

(End of this chapter)