Chapter 21: Puppet Warriors

After seizing the Huang Yuanyu mining area belonging to the Fire Moon Sect, Qu Yi arrived at another mining zone—this one being the sect’s most important spirit stone mine.
Previously, the Fire Moon Sect had forty cultivators at the Golden Core stage, thousands of disciples at the Foundation Establishment stage, and several thousand more at the Qi Guidance stage. Most of their spirit stones came from this very mine. It seemed as though all the spiritual energy in the Lan Yue Mountains converged here; this mountainous area was a natural source of exposed spirit stones. With just a shovel, one could easily obtain a spirit stone. Digging a little deeper revealed high-quality spirit stones, in large quantities.
Qu Yi scanned the area with his spiritual sense and found that within 500 miles, there were only spirit stone mines, where numerous lower-ranked disciples of the Fire Moon Sect were mining.
“Instrument God, can the Dimensional Sphere collect all these spirit stones here?” Qu Yi stood atop a high mountain, communicating with the Instrument God through his spiritual sense.
The Dimensional Sphere had previously collected red-flame refined iron ore, low-grade spirit stone veins, and cold iron ore. With such a large scale of collection, Qu Yi didn’t know where the Instrument God had stored these ores or whether it could handle this entire spirit stone mine as well.
“Hehe, Qu Yi, I’ve told you before—not only can the Dimensional Sphere take care of this mine, but it can even cover the entire Cuimu Planet,” the Instrument God replied calmly.
Qu Yi was now relieved. All he needed to do was kill the Fire Moon Sect members in the mine and then let the Dimensional Sphere do its job.
“Instrument God, help me investigate the situation of the Fire Moon Sect members in the mine.” Qu Yi had detected some strange energy fluctuations but wasn’t sure, so he turned to the Instrument God for help.
After a while, the Instrument God said with a smile, “The Fire Moon Sect attaches great importance to this spirit stone mine. They even acquired a puppet leopard at the Early Yuan Ying stage and twenty puppet warriors at the Late Golden Core stage. Additionally, they sent a Late Golden Core cultivator named Yong Yan to supervise all the disciples’ mining activities here.”
Hearing this, Qu Yi sighed in relief. The strange energy fluctuations he had sensed were actually the spirit stones inside the puppets.
Some cultivation sects specialized in crafting puppets. Puppets like these leopard and warrior puppets required spirit stones to function. Of course, although these puppets could display corresponding combat strength, they lacked intelligence, making their attacks less flexible. That’s why each puppet was usually accompanied by a cultivator to maximize its strength.

Qu Yi called out Bai Man, Qing Wu Gui, and Wu Yuan, then explained the situation of the Fire Moon Sect in this spirit stone mining area.
“That Yong Yan in the later stage of the Golden Core realm and those twenty puppet warriors, leave them to me,” Qu Yi took on his own task.
“That puppet leopard, let me handle it. I want to see how it uses energy,” Qing Wu Gui said calmly.
“The mining disciples of the Fire Moon Sect, leave them to me. The Blood-Sucking Mosquito can have another feast,” Bai Man harbored deep hatred for the Fire Moon Sect and showed no concern for the lives of the hundreds of lower-ranked disciples there.
Uuu!
After hearing this, Wu Yuan saw that the three of them had taken all the tasks, leaving it with nothing to do, so it immediately started to complain unhappily.
Qu Yi smiled at Wu Yuan and said, “Wu Yuan, later you can compete with the Blood-Sucking Mosquito for time and also devour those disciples of the Fire Moon Sect.”
Wu Yuan immediately let out a happy sound, spread its wings, and rushed straight toward the spirit stone mining area.
Needless to say, Qu Yi, Qing Wu Gui, and Bai Man also flew down immediately. While in the air, they released the two turtle dragons as well.
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!
Three alarm sounds rang out throughout the Fire Moon Sect’s spirit stone mining area, alerting all the disciples to the enemy attack. Undoubtedly, these alarm sounds also reached the Fire Moon Sect’s hidden disciples outside the mining area, who immediately flew back to the main peak of the Fire Moon Sect to report to their leader, Yong Shan.
Qu Yi headed straight for Yong Yan. His strength had now reached the middle stage of the Golden Core realm, giving him great confidence in fighting against someone in the later stage.
“Who are you? How dare you attack our Fire Moon Sect’s spirit stone mining area?” Yong Yan held a red long spear and pointed it at Qu Yi as he shouted angrily.
Qu Yi took out his Fire Scaled Blade and swung it, creating a flaming great sword that appeared out of thin air and struck at Yong Yan.
Yong Yan’s long spear was also a fire attribute magic weapon called the Flowing Fire Spear, but it was only a top-grade magic weapon, one rank lower than Qu Yi’s lower-grade precious weapon, the Fire Scaled Blade.
“Damn you!” Yong Yan cursed angrily when Qu Yi immediately started fighting, and his Flowing Fire Spear also emitted a flame.
When the two flames collided, Qu Yi’s flaming great sword was clearly stronger, splitting the floating flames in half. However, the energy of his flaming great sword was also nearly depleted.
Qu Yi chuckled. Not bothered by the fact that his first flaming great sword hadn’t worked, he swung his Fire Scaled Blade again, approaching Yong Yan and starting close combat.
Close combat—this was Qu Yi’s favorite way of fighting.

As expected, the moment Qu Yi got close to Yong Yan, Yong Yan tensed up instantly, his Flowing Flame Gun trembling violently as several streams of flame shot in all directions to drive Qu Yi away. Qu Yi immediately used his Golden Speed secret technique, “Ten Thousand Miles in an Inch,” to dodge those flame streams repeatedly before returning to Yong Yan’s side and swinging his Fire Scaled Blade with force. The Fire Golden Pill in his heart was poured into the blade, creating a massive flame sword nearly fifty meters long that appeared in midair. Yong Yan was terrified—this flame sword was likely something even those at the early Yuan Ying stage wouldn’t dare to confront head-on. He tried to dodge immediately. But Qu Yi had anticipated this; suddenly, a Yellow Sand Ruler appeared in his hand. Activating it, a waterfall of yellow sand flowed down, blocking Yong Yan’s escape route. Now, Yong Yan had no choice but to either take the blow from the flame sword or enter the yellow sand waterfall. Without the confidence to withstand the flame sword, Yong Yan jumped into the waterfall, surrounded by his true energy shield. Qu Yi smirked wickedly, then poured all the true energy from the Earth Golden Pill in his spleen into the Yellow Sand Ruler, unleashing its full power. In just a few breaths, Yong Yan’s true energy shield in the waterfall was crushed, and his body couldn’t possibly endure such heavy impacts from the yellow sand. Yong Yan died. After dealing with Yong Yan, Qu Yi took out two mid-stage Golden Pill Water Demonic Pills, converting them into Fire True Energy and Earth True Energy within his body, restoring the true energy levels in his heart and spleen. Then, he flew toward the twenty puppet warriors. There were four of each of the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—each led by a disciple in the late Foundation Establishment stage. Initially, these twenty puppet warriors were helping the Puppet Leopard fight Qing Wu Gui, but upon seeing Qu Yi kill Yong Yan, they rushed over and turned to confront him. “Perfect timing!” Qu Yi laughed loudly, holding his Fire Scaled Blade. As he spoke, he swung the blade, and the massive flame sword appeared, slashing at the lead puppet warrior. This warrior was of metal element. Realizing he couldn’t dodge the flame sword, he immediately swung his golden great sword, revealing a ten-meter-long golden sword. The flame sword and the golden sword collided with a loud crash. The blade continued to strike the puppet warrior, while the golden sword was shattered to pieces. The Fire Scaled Blade was a lower-grade precious weapon, and the flame sword it summoned was beyond the reach of even the higher-grade magical weapons held by the puppet warriors.

The flaming great sword struck the puppet warrior, accompanied by a sizzling sound of fire, as if it were about to burn the warrior to ashes. The disciple beside the puppet warrior kept throwing spirit stones into its back, the designated area for storing and retrieving them. The puppet warrior activated its defensive formation to resist the flaming great sword. A golden light barrier kept reappearing despite being destroyed by the fire, clearly thanks to the abundant supply of spirit stones that sustained the defensive formation. Qu Yi was amazed—so this puppet warrior not only had offensive capabilities but also a defensive formation within it. Yet just as the puppet warrior managed to withstand the flaming great sword, Qu Yi moved swiftly, arriving right beside it. Under the astonished gaze of the disciple, his Fire Scaled Sword struck the puppet warrior. A lower-grade treasure weapon attacking a higher-grade magic weapon meant the latter could hardly resist. The puppet warrior was split in two by Qu Yi, and the disciple at the Foundation Establishment stage was also killed in one strike. The nineteen remaining puppet warriors, witnessing Qu Yi’s formidable combat prowess, were so frightened that they stopped in their tracks, clearly intimidated by his Fire Scaled Sword. No wonder—since these puppet warriors had the hardness of higher-grade magic weapons, how could they withstand a lower-grade treasure weapon like the Fire Scaled Sword? Realizing this, Qu Yi decided not to activate the flaming array within his sword. Instead, he moved quickly to each puppet warrior and used the sword’s hardness and sharpness to strike them. In just one breath’s time, he severed five more puppet warriors using his lightning-fast speed. The remaining fourteen immediately reacted, gathering together to form a collective defense. Seeing them unite, Qu Yi smirked wickedly. He quickly brought out four arrays: the Wind Binding Array, the Wild Fire Array, the Golden Thorns Array, and the Storm Sand Array. With those puppet warriors grouped together, it was the perfect opportunity to catch them all at once. Wind Binding Array—activated! Wild Fire Array—activated! Golden Thorns Array—activated! Storm Sand Array—activated! With four consecutive activations, Qu Yi launched all four arrays. The fourteen puppet warriors panicked and tried to flee, but it was too late. Winds wrapped around them, sand traps ensnared them, while fierce flames scorched them, and the sharp golden thorns kept attacking them.

When the four formations were activated, they first eliminated those fourteen Foundation Establishment stage disciples who were directing from behind. Only after the spirit stones of these puppet warriors were exhausted did Qu Yi stop the four formations. As for the fourteen puppet warriors, Qu Yi stored them in his storage bracelet for his own use.