Why Seek Your Own Doom

"Not good!" A terrible premonition seized Venerable Huangquan's heart. It felt as though what the puppet raised was not a hoe, but a razor-sharp heavenly blade! "Yellow Springs Secret Art!" Just as the hoe came crashing down, Venerable Huangquan hurriedly invoked his life-saving secret art, turning his entire body into the waters of the Yellow Springs. The waters of the Yellow Springs were cleaved in two by the hoe, splitting into two separate masses of water. The two clusters swiftly retreated and merged back together, reforming into Venerable Huangquan. "Pant, pant, pant—" With lingering dread, Venerable Huangquan stared at the puppet. A single swing of a hoe had brought him to the brink of life and death, forcing him into a desperate corner. How could the Dao Seeking Sect possess a puppet of this caliber? To his knowledge, even the Yanshi Sect—one of Great Xia's super-rank sects and the sect most adept at crafting puppets today—could not craft the puppet before his eyes. Just who could have made it?! A trace of terror flitted across the depths of Venerable Huangquan's eyes. The Dao Seeking Sect's foundation was truly horrifying. Even with external enemies invading, they still had the spare strength to guard their treasury—and with a Tribulation Transcendence stage puppet no less. Soon, the terror in his eyes vanished, replaced by a thick sneer. He was not someone who could be frightened away by a mere puppet. While this puppet was made of peculiar material and exceptionally hard, making it extremely difficult to dismantle by brute force... "Yet the gap between a puppet and a cultivator is not something that puppetry art can bridge!" "I hereby establish [Rule: Within Tianmen Peak, Dharma treasures shall not be driven by spiritual energy]." Those at the Tribulation Transcendence stage possessed the ability to lay down rules. No matter how brilliant a puppetry art might be, it would hit a wall when faced with the power of rules. Puppets were classified as a type of Dharma treasure. There were two ways to make a puppet move: one was through a puppeteer secretly controlling it, and the other was for the puppet to move on its own. A puppet at the Tribulation Transcendence stage required a puppeteer to be at least at the Body Integration stage. If the puppet before him was being controlled by a puppeteer, then that puppeteer was definitely not at the Tribulation Transcendence stage. Had the puppeteer been at the Tribulation Transcendence stage, they would have joined the fight in person while controlling the puppet. In reality, no such thing was happening. And if there were no puppeteer controlling it, a puppet that could only act on its own was nothing more than a lifeless object, entirely unable to match him! The puppet was made of wood, crafted in the form of a woman, but its maker had not carved any facial features, leaving it faceless. The puppet tilted its head slightly. Though no expression could be seen, one could easily imagine its puzzled look at this moment. *Bang!* The puppet threw a punch squarely at Venerable Huangquan's face. The strike caught him completely off guard, landing right in the middle of his face and knocking out two of his front teeth. "How is this possible?!" In his panic, Venerable Huangquan did not even care about his knocked-out front teeth. He was certain that the rule he had established was in effect. Moreover, because the rule's scope was small, its binding power was so strong that even he could not use any Dharma treasures. Yet this puppet was moving about freely! The puppet clearly had no intention of explaining anything to Venerable Huangquan, kicking him flat to the ground. Venerable Huangquan's gaze turned increasingly savage. Originally, he had wanted to end the battle quickly. After all, he had sneaked in; if the Dao Seeking Sect noticed him, it was very likely that those fighting in the bamboo forest would notice as well, causing the battlefield to shift here. But now, he could not afford to care. "Netherworld Ghost Realm, Yellow Springs Ferrying, Three Sighs of Naihe!" Waters of the Yellow Springs welled up, corroding the earth. Hundreds upon thousands of ghosts and phantoms wandered about, breathing out mournful sighs. Resentment soared to the heavens, nearly solidifying, turning Tianmen Peak into a living purgatory of unbearable agony. Venerable Huangquan held nothing back. This was his ultimate trump card, the technique that had allowed him to reign supreme across an entire era. In that bygone age, any cultivator who merely heard the words "Yellow Springs" would sink into panic and despair. The power of this technique was far too conspicuous. Whether it was the disciples taking shelter in the core area or the elders fighting in the bamboo forest, everyone noticed the commotion on Tianmen Peak. At first, they tensed up, realizing an external enemy had infiltrated. But when they saw that the commotion was located at Tianmen Peak, they simply acted as though nothing had happened and continued tangling with the enemies before them.