Martial Peak

Chapter 2156, Puppets

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

Flames burst out and ice and snow rolled, but after the dust settled, Gong Wen Shan stood unscathed, and the golden barrier surrounding him showed no signs of damage.

Glancing up at Wu Chang sarcastically, he sneered, “I already said this barrier is under my complete control, did you not understand? Idiot!”

Wu Chang’s face twitched as his expression turned gloomy.

After seeing this bizarre scene, the onlooking cultivators who had not yet entered the Flowing Time Temple were all shocked. On the one hand, they admire the courage of Gong Wen Shan who dared to offend a monster like Wu Chang. On the other hand, they were shocked by Wu Chang’s strength.

If the terrifying blow just now had fallen among the crowd, few of them would have survived.

When two Masters clashed, it was the audience that suffered. Realizing this, everyone present quickly composed themselves and used their best Movement Skills to charge into the crack in the Flowing Time Temple’s barrier.

“If I can’t enter, none of you can either!” Wu Chang shouted angrily, apparently not willing to suffer alone here and swiftly acting to ensure just that.

Stretching out his hands, he summoned two Dao Source Grade High-Rank swords, one burning red, one icy white. Slashing out, blades of red and white Sword Qi shot towards the advancing crowd.

“Ah... dodge!”

“Wu Chang’s gone crazy!”

“How... how COULD he do this!”

Everyone was shocked and quickly dispersed.

However, Wu Chang had acted without any warning, and coupled with his immense strength, even if his attack had been dispersed across many people, there were still some who were unable to avoid it and were hit by his strange, opposing attribute attack.

*Hong...*

A huge pit was opened up in front of the temple as blood and shattered limbs were strewn across the ground. Six people had been killed directly while another dozen or so were injured.

Yang Kai had dodged quickly and emerged unscathed, but Bian Yu Qing and Kou Wu had been slightly injured, their faces both showing some shock and fear at this moment.

Even as he witnessed all this, Gong Wen Shan just stood in place, not using the power of the barrier to protect anyone but himself, nor to stop Wu Chang from attacking. However, after Wu Chang launched his attack, Gong Wen Shan actually grinned slightly, as if his conspiracy had succeeded.

“Wu Chang, have you gone crazy! We didn’t provoke you in any way, so what’s the meaning of this?”

“That’s right, Wu Chang, you were born into a great Sect like Heavenly Martial Holy Land, so you should know how to distinguish right from wrong! Just because you cannot go in, do you intend to make trouble for all the rest of us?”

“Wu Chang! Don’t go too far! If you want to vent your anger, do it on the one who refused to let you in, don’t just attack us out of spite!”

Among a group of cultivators who had survived the catastrophe, a few people began shouting with dissatisfaction.

“Good, the two of you also cannot go in,” Gong Wen Shan suddenly pointed at two cultivators who were clamoring for Wu Chang to direct his rage at the ‘evildoer’.

The faces of these two people suddenly collapsed, turning extremely ugly.

“Brother Gong, I didn’t mean that... Brother Gong, please be the bigger man and don’t care about some misspoken words...”

“Yes, Brother Gong, no no, Uncle Gong, please let me in!”

The two immediately backed down and begged for mercy.

Gong Wen Shan simply ignored them.

“Brother Wu Chang...” The cultivator named Jing Li who had arrived here first suddenly cupped his fists and said with a solemn expression, “My Benevolent Martial Sect can be regarded as an attached Sect of Heavenly Martial Holy Land, so even if others can’t enter, I can, right?”

Wu Chang did not respond.

Jing Li nodded, “Many thanks!”

As soon as his words fell, he rushed straight towards the Flowing Time Temple, but just as he was about to reach the crack in the barrier, Wu Chang attacked again, sending a blast of Sword Qi towards Jing Li, nearly slicing his arm off.

“Brother Wu Chang, what are your intentions here?” Jing Li sweat profusely as he raised his head up and asked anxiously.

Wu Chang simply stood mid-air and snorted, shouting in a firm, unbending tone towards the crowd, “I said, since I can’t enter, none of you can either.”

As he spoke, he lifted his swords again, crossed them above his head, condensed his Source Qi, then slashed downwards.

A shocking sword light shot out, seemingly leaping across space as it cut towards a figure which was sneakily trying to approach the entrance down below.

After releasing this blow, Wu Chang stood calmly and said indifferently, “Anyone who dares ignore my words will die!”

The moment he uttered these words though, his expression suddenly changed as a look of amazement filled his face.

In front of the entrance below, Yang Kai had to stop in place because Wu Chang’s attack was too fast. If he didn’t stop, he would definitely be hit.

In desperation, Yang Kai could only spin around, form a fist while using his Dragon Transformation Secret Technique as well as his Five Elements Indestructible Sword Qi, and punch out.

*Hong long long...*

The cross of red and white Sword Qi was struck by the dazzling five-coloured punch, causing space to cave in.

With the assistance of the recoil from this attack, Yang Kai easily made it to the entrance of the Flowing Time Temple. Before crossing the barrier, he did not forget to call out to Gong Wen Shan, “Thanks!”

Gong Wen Shan stared at the place where Yang Kai disappeared, a strange expression covering his face as he muttered to himself, “That guy... he’s strange!”

He clearly felt that Yang Kai only had a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivation, but right before everyone’s eyes he had taken a blow from Wu Chang head on without any damage.

That was not something an ordinary cultivator could accomplish.

Wu Chang was also quite shocked.

The moment Yang Kai turned around, Wu Chang recognized him as the one who had obtained the diamond-shaped Star Seal. At that time, he had also used some strange Secret Technique to resolve the fatal blow he and Luo Yuan had launched against him.

That Secret Technique was so strange and mysterious that Wu Chang was unable to even determine what it was.

Now, however, this strange guy actually blocked his own blow head-on...

[Was that brat playing the pig to eat a tiger?] This idea came to Wu Chang’s mind involuntarily.

At that moment, he became distracted, giving the cultivators down below an opportunity to rush towards the entrance, many of them passing through the barrier and disappearing in the blink of an eye. When Wu Chang came back to his senses and wanted to stop them again, it was already too late.

He could only watch everyone rush into the Flowing Time Temple, leaving just him and the two other cultivators excluded by Gong Wen Shan.

“Wu Chang, Wu Chang...” Gong Wen Shan laughed, repeating Wu Chang’s name, a sarcastic and teasing expression on his face as he quipped, “Now that everyone else has gone in, what are you going to do?”

Wu Chang didn’t speak as he stared at Gong Wen Shan coldly.

“Trying to kill me with a glare?” Gong Wen Shan grinned, “This is the cost of threatening me! There’s nothing wrong with young people being hot-blooded, but if they become too arrogant...”

As he spoke, he assumed the tone and demeanour of a wizened old sage, but before he could finish what he wanted to say, he saw Wu Chang turn around and fly off, soon disappearing from sight.

“...I didn’t even get a chance to add some insults. Well, he’s decisive, I’ll give him that. If it was me I wouldn’t have been able to give up such a great opportunity so easily... I guess there wasn’t any point in sticking around,” Gong Wen Shan laughed at himself before he turned around and entered the Flowing Time Temple.

As he said, it was meaningless for Wu Chang to stay. Gong Wen Shan had said he would not let him in and had the ability to back up his words, so instead of staying and being smugly derided by Gong Wen Shan, Wu Chang felt it best to leave and search for other opportunities.

Of course, a grudge had been formed already, so if the two of them were to meet again, Wu Chang would definitely not let Gong Wen Shan off so easily.

“Uncle Gong... come back, come back!”

“Brother Gong, don’t ignore us. We’re still out here!”

The two cultivators who had been refused entry by Gong Wen Shan hurriedly shouted, but who was left to give them a response? After waiting for some time outside the temple, the two men could only leave in a depressed manner.

.....

“What’s this?” Inside the Flowing Time Temple, as soon as Yang Kai got in, he was stunned by the scene in front of him.

Here, there was a massive hall that seemed at least a few thousand meters in length and breadth. In front of him, Xiao Chen, Lan Xun, Luo Yuan, Xiao Bai Yi, and Murong Xiao Xiao, who had entered first, were surrounded by a group of countless and densely packed puppets. All of them were engaged in a fierce melee, with metal shards and puppet limbs scattered across the ground. Obviously, before Yang Kai came in, these people had already destroyed many puppets.

Yang Kai was naturally quite familiar with puppets, having encountered them a few times back on Shadowed Star. There was also a family on Shadowed Star which specialized in the Dao of Puppetry and were able to create almost life-like puppets.

There was no doubt that the Star Boundary also had puppets, but Yang Kai had not encountered any yet.

Now, inside the Flowing Time Temple, there were too many to count.

These puppets were of all different shapes and sizes, but they could be roughly divided into three categories. One was human-shaped puppets, all of which were quite tall and burly and held different kinds of weapons, giving them an imposing air. The second type was beast-shaped, with tigers, leopards, wolves, even snakes and insects. These Monster Beast-like puppets behaved similarly to real Monster Beasts and had great lethality to them. As for the third category, they were simply the ones that did not fall into either of the previous two, their images too unique to describe as either man or beast. The number of puppets that belonged to this third category was the smallest, but they also seemed to be the strongest, each one having unique abilities and strengths that were difficult to predict.

The number of puppets in this giant hall was quite large, reaching into the hundreds, and all of them gave off an aura equivalent to a Dao Source Realm cultivator. Even though Xiao Chen and the others were favoured Sons and Daughters of Heaven, two fists couldn’t block four strikes, so when Yang Kai came in, he found these people on the defensive, with almost no leeway to counterattack.

“If I knew it would be so troublesome, I would have waited outside a little longer!” Yang Kai grumbled to himself. He was worried that some of the good opportunities in the Flowing Time Temple would be snatched up by others if he didn’t hurry, so he rushed inside, but seeing the scene before him, he realized it would have been better to take his time. It wouldn’t be too late for him to enter after all these puppets were killed.

“Junior Brother Yang, be careful, these puppets are not easy to deal with!” Murong Xiao Xiao’s voice suddenly entered his ear. She should have spotted Yang Kai come in and found some time while she was defending herself to warn him.

“Although I really want to thank you for your consideration... I wish you could have warned me without exposing my existence!” Yang Kai smiled wryly as, sure enough, the moment Murong Xiao Xiao called out to him, one of the puppets that wasn near her turned and directed its strange red eyes towards him.