Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 184 - 134: Shadow Puppetry and the Evil Cultivator’s Malice

Chapter 184: Chapter 134: Shadow Puppetry and the Evil Cultivator’s Malice

"However, this time we’re well prepared. Even Late Innate Martial Artists would die here. Those cultivators are only marginally stronger than Innate Martial Artists—how could they possibly handle tens of thousands of troops?"

In just a few months, they hadn’t been idle; not only had they mobilized massive numbers of Prefecture Soldiers from surrounding cities, but their forces now numbered fifty or sixty thousand strong.

There were even dozens of True Qi Realm Martial Artists among them, as well as several Innate Martial Artists. Safe to say, they were putting everything on the line for this one battle.

But as the real fighting began, both men quickly lost any desire to jump in themselves.

At first, they’d wanted to wait for the evil cultivator to show a weakness before making their move. Never did they expect that cultivator’s body to explode with light, like a god or demon descending to the world. He grasped a giant hammer, and just one sweep sent a hundred armored soldiers screaming and flying back, like worthless scraps thrown aside.

And that body—over two meters tall—was like it had eyes in the back of its head. Even when faced with crossbow bolts, it would dodge with ease.

If he couldn’t dodge, he just took the hit head-on. The light around him would blaze even brighter, but nothing else happened. He just kept on slaughtering.

"A guy like that..."

Jin Ke shuddered inside, terrified.

He was a Mid Innate Martial Artist himself, and not even he dared to take a crossbow bolt head-on without a scratch.

Crossbow arrows might not kill you with a shot or two, but they’d quickly drain your True Qi reserves. After ten arrows, you wouldn’t have any True Qi left to resist another attack.

That’s why Innate Martial Artists would always try their best to dodge crossbow bolts.

They’d use their flexible body techniques to avoid being targeted.

But this guy wasn’t even trying to do that.

"How the hell do we stop someone like this?"

Watching Prefecture Soldiers drop dead at the slightest touch, both of them could feel the fear spreading like wildfire. The soldiers who couldn’t even push up front were already shaking, teetering on the edge of collapse.

In the face of an Immortal, they seemed utterly powerless.

"Go!"

Jin Ke muttered, and with Yan Yun, shot far off into the distance.

Within half an hour of their flight, the battle line of tens of thousands collapsed in a roar. The surviving soldiers scattered in panic, fleeing in all directions.

The evil cultivator, seeing blood, became a blur of lightning—hunting down the fleeing troops, not caring whatsoever about Jin Ke and Yan Yun’s escape.

······

"Tens of thousands of troops, utterly destroyed?"

When Zhu Qing heard the news, she nearly staggered and fell flat on the ground.

The old woman quickly caught her, face full of concern and heartache.

"You can’t blame them. That evil cultivator is just too strong—an Immortal, after all."

As soon as she said this, everyone went dead silent.

"We have to leave, and fast. That evil cultivator probably has some way of tracking us. Right now our only hope is to keep running and buy more time."

"Yeah, yeah, right!"

"But... where can we even go?"

Yan Yun sounded hopeless.

He had seen the evil cultivator’s massacre with his own eyes—he’d been scared out of his mind since then.

That’s why he eventually turned to the Alchemy Dao.

Martial cultivation just wasn’t in his heart.

"How about we head for Black Mountain Prefecture? Scholar Lu is there, and with him around, our side would at least be stronger." An elderly man spoke up.

Yan Yun immediately shook his head. "Innate Martial Artists are helpless in front of Immortals. If we go, we’ll just bring disaster to them too."

He’d always respected Lu Chang’sheng, and didn’t want his group to drag that evil cultivator down onto their land.

"Heh. And you think if we don’t go, he’ll escape this fate?" Jin Ke sneered.

To him, Yan Yun just didn’t get it.

In a crisis like this, you should gather every possible ally. That’s the only way forward.

Yan Yun fell silent.

Lu Chang’sheng was the strongest Innate Martial Artist in the south; there was no way he would escape the attention of those evil cultivators.

"But—"

Yan Yun sighed, but didn’t say anything else.

Soon, the group changed course and started heading south.

At the same time, back at the Shi Mansion within Black Mountain Prefecture, two figures landed at the front gate, one after the other.

"Not going in, Fellow Daoist Zhang?"

The evil cultivator in back flashed a grin at the one ahead.

"Heh, if Fellow Daoist Mo wants to, you’re welcome to go in first,"

Evil Cultivator Zhang snorted coldly.

They both knew Meng Ping had died here. If you acted cocky in a place like this, you’d never have lived this long.

Everyone knows evil cultivators are chased by Immortal Sect cultivators at any moment. Be reckless, and you’ll get cut down in a heartbeat.

Evil Cultivator Zhang formed a hand seal. Suddenly, a vertical eye opened on his brow, and a breeze swept out.

"Heh, just as I thought—trouble’s here."

"This must be how they managed to kill that coward Meng Ping."

"Well, you going in or not?"

Evil Cultivator Zhang grinned, but didn’t step forward. Instead, he patted his belly, and a flash of magical power sparked in his palm.

Next moment, something slid out from under his clothes and hit the floor—it was a sheet of human skin!

As soon as it landed, it started to inflate, little by little, until it became a lifelike double, indistinguishable from a real person. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Your shadow puppetry is even scarier, Fellow Daoist Zhang. Can you put it to use?"

Shadow Puppetry is a forbidden evil technique, outlawed by the Immortal Sects. Its practice is utterly vile—soaking a human skin in the blood gathered straight from people’s hearts, then refining it over time.

Just that one skin alone had to soak up the heart’s blood of at least ten thousand people to form it into a magical artifact.