Chapter 1246: Receiving Puppets

After breaking free from the hills, Qin Sang found that the talisman formation laid by Gongliang Yu was still perfectly intact, but Dongyang Bo was nowhere to be seen. He wondered where Dongyang Bo had gone.

Qin Sang looked around, thinking to himself that with his essence blood and magic treasures both damaged, Dongyang Bo might not participate in the conflict with Sin Abyss.

Spreading his wings, he flew to a distant hilltop and watched the activity at the cave entrance from afar.

The battle with Dongyang Bo had awakened a monster sleeping at the bottom of the Blood River.

Qin Sang didn't want to engage in a pointless fight, so he quickly left without even looking at the monster. He had no idea of its strength or origin.

Even before the monster fully awakened, Qin Sang felt a sense of threat, indicating it was likely not a benign creature.

If this fiend were to awaken and circle the Blood Lake entrance, there might be more trouble when he tried to leave.

He stared at the cave entrance, only to see plumes of bloody mist pouring out, followed by a group of blood shadows scrambling out as if they had encountered a terrifying enemy, showing extreme panic.

Outside the cave, the bloody mist was thin. Without the support of the blood mist, these blood shadows immediately flew around like headless flies, triggering the surrounding ancient restrictions and vanishing into thin air.

The chaos didn't last long, and the cave entrance quickly returned to normal.

Qin Sang watched for a while and, seeing no further changes, decided to leave it be. He flew far away, found a hidden spot, and placed the talisman puppet on the ground.

The talisman puppet was howling wildly; the jade bottle already had a crack and was barely containing it.

It was so unruly; no wonder Gongliang Yu had been so careful when controlling it.

Qin Sang looked at the talisman puppet, at a loss. For now, the only course of action was to find a way to restrain the puppet first, and then thoroughly study how to subdue it once he was outside.

He sat cross-legged on the ground and sent his divine sense into the talisman puppet. He was immediately startled.

"Good heavens! What a mess!"

Within the Nascent Soul talisman puppet, numerous soul shadows stood. The moment they sensed Qin Sang's divine sense, they all turned to look at him simultaneously, making his hair stand on end.

Immediately after, Qin Sang felt something trying to tear at his primordial spirit. These soul shadows also went mad, scrambling to pounce on him, like a hundred ghosts rampaging at night.

"What kind of puppet is this! It's definitely an evil puppet!"

Although Qin Sang had the protection of the jade Buddha, his scalp still tingled.

Such a chaotic puppet. He wondered what sinister methods the Shangyuan Pure Palace had drawn upon to refine it.

It was impossible to sort it out quickly. While the jade bottle's spirit array could still suppress the talisman puppet, Qin Sang rapidly changed countless restrictions, and finally, with the power of demonic flames, forcefully sealed it.

'Crack!'

The spirit array reached its end.

A black light entered Qin Sang's palm.

The talisman puppet was sealed into a palm-sized figurine. It was very restless, with demonic flames surrounding its body, transforming into tadpole-shaped black runes seemingly etched onto it, temporarily sealing it.

"Master, where do we go now?"

Fatty Chicken was released by Qin Sang, its expression somewhat anxious.

They had originally come to find its mother, but Dongyang Bo had caused an unexpected detour.

Dongyang Bo's trap for Gongliang Yu and Qin Sang's fight with Dongyang Bo hadn't taken much time, but the preceding tracking had been quite long.

Qin Sang adjusted his breathing and recovered. He stood up and said, "Let's quickly check the outer areas and then rush to meet them."

With his identity unexpectedly exposed, Qin Sang felt an even greater need to find the Thunder-Swallowing Falcon Demon King.

Firstly, he might be able to find a legitimate demon king for the Thousand Mountain Bamboo Sea, providing an explanation to the demon race. Secondly, he himself would gain an ally.

From now on, it wouldn't be all about fighting and killing.

Now that both sides were openly confronting each other, they would undoubtedly be very cautious and wouldn't give the other side an opportunity to act.

Qin Sang's foundation in the cultivation world was still shallow, unlike Dongyang Bo.

Since he intended to establish the Qingyang Temple lineage, and the two sects would also be affected by their grievances in the future, making many allies to make the enemy hesitant, and gradually achieving his goals, was the correct path.

Taking Fatty Chicken with him, Qin Sang summoned his ebony sword and traveled by sword-light escape, covering the outer areas.

Fatty Chicken's Thunder-Nian Pearl showed no reaction.

It seemed that if the Thunder-Swallowing Falcon Demon King was still alive, it could only be deep within the Blood Lake.

Fatty Chicken was listless. The outside was already so dangerous, making it hard to imagine what the depths of the Blood Lake would be like. No matter how strong its mother was, the hope of survival in such a place was slim.

At this time, Qin Sang was traveling through the mountains with Fatty Chicken.

After flying for a while, Qin Sang stopped on a hilltop, looking up at the increasingly taller peaks ahead. Here, over a dozen mountain ranges rose in an orderly, tiered fashion, like a staircase.

"Master, it seems to be there!"

Fatty Chicken pointed with its wing at the foremost mountain path.

The summit of that mountain was most distinctive; it had been flattened by something unknown, forming a vast platform.

This was where the Nascent Soul cultivators had agreed to meet!

Qin Sang nodded slightly and said with some surprise, "There's no one here. Have they all gone inside already?"

His figure flickered, and he leaped onto the stone platform, immediately feeling his vision expand.

Beyond this mountain, there were no more mountain ranges obstructing the view.

Within his sight lay an exceptionally vast basin, enveloped in bloody mist.

The mist surged within the basin.

Even with the keen eyesight of the Heavenly Eye Butterfly, he couldn't penetrate the bloody mist to see what lay beneath.

This place was different from the Blood River he had seen before. There were no blood shadows moving around everywhere, but ancient restrictions were densely laid within the bloody mist here, making it far more dangerous than the Blood River.

According to the information they had collected earlier, the so-called depths of the Blood Lake were this basin enveloped in bloody mist.

Back then, the Blood Lake's seal had loosened for some unknown reason, and the illusory image of an Interspatial Blood Mulberry was projected from the Blood Lake, leading to its discovery.

Later, several seniors jointly broke the seal and entered. They reached this platform, where they saw the true form of the Interspatial Blood Mulberry floating within the bloody mist.

On this very platform, one senior cast a great divine ability and actually fished out the Interspatial Blood Mulberry.

As for why they turned against each other and shattered the Interspatial Blood Mulberry, and what happened afterwards, was unknown.

The scattered pieces of the Interspatial Blood Mulberry outside were incomplete, and everyone suspected that some parts might have fallen back into the basin.

Therefore, their trip was not entirely to thwart Old Demon Ye's conspiracy; they also intended to search for the divine wood.

Standing here, Qin Sang gazed into the distance and noticed a black dot emerging from the bloody mist in the middle of the basin. On closer inspection, it looked like the spire of some building.

"Master, there's a message here."

Fatty Chicken came to the edge of the platform with a new discovery and called out loudly.

Qin Sang also saw it.

At the edge of the platform, there was a message condensed from true essence, floating on the surface of the blood-red stone, only slightly concealed.

It had been jointly reinforced by Transcendent Demon Lord, Xiang Qing, Daoist Chongyi, Qing Jun, and others using special methods, so it couldn't be faked.

Except for Dongyang Bo, most of the strongest cultivators in the Lesser Cold Domain had arrived.

The message indicated that shortly after arriving, they discovered anomalies deep within the basin. Fearing it was Old Demon Ye's doing, they couldn't wait for everyone else to gather and had gone ahead.

It specified the direction and noted that dangers along the way would also be marked, for later arrivals to follow quickly.

Qin Sang looked around but didn't see the anomalies they mentioned.