Chapter 1825: Chapter 1043: Ghost Fog Puppet (Part 2)
"It’s the Ninja Team General who’s causing trouble. The slash I delivered on the puppet was blocked as well. An invisible force deflected my blade momentum; I sensed something similar when I controlled the puppet to attack him earlier," Yang Xiao said quickly.
Wang Yue Qianxun confirmed, "It’s the Ninja Team General. This force is under his control. Whoever he grants it to gains a massive power boost, along with some of his once-demonstrated immortal defensive abilities. These three puppets are akin to his avatars."
Wang Yue Qianxun, like Yang Xiao, was intelligent. Through simple combat, they had already assessed each other’s general abilities.
During the recent skirmish, Yang Xiao also confirmed that these puppets couldn’t wield the magic artifact abilities they had in life. All their powers were sourced from the Ninja Team General of the Kah Party.
Yang Xiao speculated that each puppet only had one magic artifact on them.
Meanwhile, once the puppets take and use the magic artifacts, the General of the Ninja Army cannot use them anymore. This is why the Ninja Team General remains hidden in the fog, only controlling the three puppets to attack them.
Because the Ninja Team General only has a single defensive ability left, he lacks offensive power.
Understanding this, Yang Xiao knew what to do next. The Ninja Team General’s advantage was also his disadvantage.
His power and abilities were too dispersed. At first glance, it’s ingenious, catching opponents off guard, but once discovered, it leaves them an opportunity to turn the tables.
Judging from these puppets’ strength, Yang Xiao preliminarily judged that this Ninja Team General was not simply exhibiting the Peak of Ghost Level abilities.
Still, it wouldn’t be too high, perhaps a distance away from true Half-step Nether Realm.
The reason is simple; if he truly had Half-step Nether Realm strength, there’d be no need to hide from them, two Ghost Level juniors, but rather crush them with sheer force.
Honestly, if confronting an expert close to the Half-step Nether Realm directly, winning without significant sacrifice would be difficult. But it was the opponent’s ambiguity that allowed Yang Xiao to see an opportunity.
The scope of this Ghost Fog was too vast, making it hard to find the Ninja Team General’s true body within it. Yang Xiao decided to deal with the three puppets first.
All these puppets are intricately linked to the true body. Once destroyed, surely the true body would suffer significant effects or even backlash.
Exchanging glances with Wang Yue Qianxun, there was no need to say more. They understood each other’s intentions. Yang Xiao, Wang Yue Qianxun, and Mirror Ghost each picked a puppet and engaged in combat.
Sure enough, in the combat of the three puppets, the Ninja Army General struggled to maintain balance in distributing spiritual power, which led to an inability to apply effective suppression across the three battlefields, putting the situation at a stalemate.
Frankly, even with power distribution, the three puppets still had a spiritual level above Yang Xiao, Wang Yue Qianxun, and Mirror Ghost, but they were, after all, puppets. Each puppet could utilize only one magic artifact ability, leading them to fall into disadvantage.
Yang Xiao and team couldn’t afford to delay further, not worried about reinforcements but because the Ghost Fog was continuously affecting them, constantly eroding their spiritual power. Every use of an artifact in this fog incurred backlash far greater than usual. Currently, the Soul-Capturing Mirror with Yang Xiao was covered with mist.
This mist was not from rain or humidity but related to the Ghost Fog. The mirror gradually blurred, their bodies grew damp, and the Ring-Headed Saber in hand felt increasingly heavy, all dangerous signals.
Not considering reinforcements, if they didn’t fight hard, they might eventually be trapped here, dying.
The cause of death would be backlash from their own magical artifacts.
Yang Xiao faced off against a puppet covered with corpse spots on its arms, whose abilities could pollute artifacts. Fortunately, Yang Xiao had Ghost Lantern, which nearly countered it completely.
To avoid the puppet’s destruction by Yang Xiao, the Ninja Team General hidden deep in the fog had to extract spiritual power from the other two puppets to nourish it.
This greatly eased the pressure on the other two battlefields, exactly in line with Yang Xiao’s strategy—luring the tiger away from its mountain.
Yang Xiao forced back the corpse spot puppet with one slash, then withdrew the Ghost Bamboo Stick, assuming a stance of desperation. But in the next second, Yang Xiao, who charged at the corpse spot puppet, suddenly disappeared, reappearing beside another bayonet puppet.
Yang Xiao and Mirror Ghost, one left and one right, encircled the bayonet puppet. Yang Xiao thrust the Ghost Lantern against the puppet’s face and detonated it, the dazzling green light dispersing the fog around the puppet, exposing it completely to Yang Xiao.
At that moment, Yang Xiao confirmed his hypothesis. With the Ghost Fog gone, the puppet’s spiritual power plummeted to Fierce Grade.
Yang Xiao was waiting for this moment. Mirror Ghost struck down the puppet’s defensive bayonet, and Yang Xiao swung the Ghost Bamboo Stick with all his might against the puppet’s chest, blasting apart half of its body. Flesh, bones, and entrails splattered into the air, as if water thrown out.
Having made a successful strike, Yang Xiao showed no sign of joy. Instinctively, it felt off to him, as in his plan, the Ninja Team General concealed in the fog should have surely intervened.
But he did not. Yang Xiao even secretly mustered power, ready to activate the Taoist Great Demon’s backlash force at any moment, his ultimate trump card.
Earlier in the fight, Yang Xiao even allowed Mirror Ghost to take a hit without exposing this trump card, preparing for this very moment.
"Damn..." Yang Xiao abandoned searching for the Ninja Team General’s trace in the fog, turning to Wang Yue Qianxun. As suspected, an unexpected event unfolded.
At the bayonet puppet’s last moment, the Ninja Team General didn’t even attempt a rescue, resolutely abandoning the puppet, opting to reinforce the other two.
Without Mirror Ghost’s restraint, the corpse spot puppet went straight for Wang Yue Qianxun, enduring a stab to the chest by that hairpin while capturing her arm with a fierce grip.
In an instant, the area grabbed turned red, swollen, and festering. Wang Yue Qianxun kicked the puppet away but it was too late. Another puppet suddenly emerged from the fog behind her, its spiritual power already elevated to Peak Ghost Level.
Although Wang Yue Qianxun reacted quickly, her hastily activated ability couldn’t match the puppet’s. Her hairpin stabbed into the puppet’s shoulder, but it caused almost no substantial damage.
The puppet, enduring the hurt, collided ferociously into her, and upon her fall, enveloped her in a sack, tied the sack’s mouth, hoisted her on its back, and ran back into the fog.
"Stop right there!" Yang Xiao disregarded the Soul-Capturing Mirror’s backlash, instinctively trying to chase, but was intercepted by the corpse spot puppet.
This time, the corpse spot puppet’s power had skyrocketed. It stubbornly took a few hits from Yang Xiao’s sticks just to hold him.
Yang Xiao’s heart sank halfway. Wang Yue Qianxun was stuck in the sack and carried away by the Ghost, her fate became imaginable, for the coarse sack was a magic artifact as well.
But as Yang Xiao agonized over Wang Yue Qianxun’s demise, something strange occurred—Wang Yue Qianxun suddenly returned, as if she had instant teleportation, back to her prior position, maintaining the same movements. The next moment, the Bag Ghost again emerged from the fog.
As if the scenario replayed, but this time, Wang Yue Qianxun had predicted the Bag Ghost’s route, narrowly evaded the strike.
Meanwhile, Yang Xiao noticed the wristwatch on Wang Yue Qianxun’s wrist, hearing faint "tick-tock" sounds—indicative of the second hand’s movement.
"It’s the ability of that wristwatch!" Yang Xiao instantly realized, that wristwatch can restart time!
