Chương 27: Curses (Part III)

Instead of heading for the front door, Xu Hua ran toward the nearest window, the one closest to the elders' remains. He shuddered as his eyes passed over their mummified corpses, but he had no choice. He needed to find the nearest way out of this house! Reaching the window and preparing to leap out, his battle instincts screamed at him to stop. A chill raced down his spine, forcing him to step back twice.

At the same moment, a wooden hand shot out from the darkness outside the house, striking the space where he had just stood.

"Corpse puppets," he muttered, the light from within the house allowing him to recognize the attacker.

"That Liu Tian was from the Myriad Soul Transformations Sect! Why!?" His fear of becoming entangled with those infamous puppets made him turn around to search for another way out. When he did so, he saw Lucian. Lucian's robes were torn, strips of fabric scattered across the floor where he had ripped them away, leaving his face and upper body fully exposed. His eyes, previously cold, now held a rage stronger than Xu Hua's!

Before, Lucian had shown apathy or, at most, curiosity, which led Xu Hua to believe at first he was a powerful cultivator detached from the mortal world. After the battle, Xu Hua discarded those assumptions and instead believed Lucian to be a cultivator at the Qi Refining realm at most. Maybe someone with his Third Eye Chakra opened, which could explain the illusion techniques. All those past assumptions made him much more confused now.

He could not understand what kind of technique within the Qi Refining realm could produce the black liquid hand. Frozen for a moment, Xu Hua had time to see Lucian's severed forearm dissolving into blood, vaporizing, and condensing into that thick, viscous darkness. Then, just as quickly, it formed another massive hand. Xu Hua's mind was in chaos as he weighed which threat was worse. Letting his instincts take over, he threw himself to the ground as a groan and a heavy thud echoed behind him.

One of the corpse puppets had entered the house! The creature's jaws were gone, and parts of its calf were missing. Yet, it could walk with ease, as much of its body had turned into wood. Xu Hua saw more of the creature's skin shift into a brown hue, hardening like bark. This showed that its transformation was almost complete. Rising slowly from the ground, he was searching for another escape route when Lucian suddenly lunged at the corpse puppet!

Too stunned to react, Xu Hua watched Lucian's robes and skin tearing under the strain of his lunge, blood spilling from his skin's pores as if he could not withstand the sudden acceleration! Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Even more unsettling was how the black hands moved with Lucian, as though fixed in space, following his movements. Xu Hua barely understood what he was seeing when one of those black hands shot forward and struck the puppet.

With a sharp crack, the blow shattered its wooden surface, punching through its chest. Believing that Lucian would soon die because of the corpse puppets, Xu Hua first rushed to another window, just to be sure. Without much surprise, he saw two more wooden corpses coming to the house, and promptly decided to go to the main door. As he neared the exit, he could see more puppets approaching from afar.

Most were missing limbs due to the way they had died, which meant he could likely outrun them before the wood recreated their missing feet! However, Xu Hua didn't reach the door. A wooden head struck his back, making him stumble, and then a headless wooden corpse, missing its limbs, collided with his legs and brought him down. Next, a figure appeared above him. It was Lucian, holding the wooden puppet's limbs.

The creature's legs were gripped by the massive black hands, turning the terrifying puppet's limbs into blunt weapons. Xu Hua had no time to shout or beg for mercy before a flurry of blows descended upon him. They were way too fast for him to block. It was almost like Lucian's strenght and agility was enhanced by at least three times! Lucian smashed into him, each strike carrying blunt force that shattered bones and ruptured organs.

The impacts came so fast and with such brutality that even the puppet's limbs broke apart after the first barrage. Nonetheless, in his enraged state, Lucian did not stop, slamming Xu Hua's battered body with his fists instead. Pain, unlike anything he had ever felt, overwhelmed Xu Hua's mind. In seconds, he lost consciousness, his final sight being Lucian's fist crashing into his face. The blood that spilled from Xu Hua's wounds hovered above the ground, vaporizing and condensing into a black, viscous substance.

The Curse of Wrath refinied this dark liquid, and the black hands formed partial wrists, followed by thin lines like blood vessels outlining forearms. As Xu Hua hovered at the edge of death, the two corpse puppets that had just entered the house lunged at Lucian. Before they could reach him, however, both were struck mid-motion by the floating black hands.

Fortunately for the Village Head, the sudden aggression drew Lucian's focus, and he immediately lunged toward the wooden creatures, unleashing a storm of punches that shattered their limbs, fragments of wood and flesh scattering across the house. These puppets had not fully transformed, and red blood still leaked from them. As it did, the liquid vaporized, feeding the growing black appendages floating around Lucian.

Behind those forming arms, a shadowy silhouette, twice Lucian's size, flickered into shape, incomplete and difficult to perceive in detail. After reducing the two puppets to broken remains, Lucian turned back toward Xu Hua, whose blood continued to feed the presence behind him. Gnashing his teeth, he stepped forward, preparing to strike. Then, one of his eyes flashed crimson. Lucian froze for a brief moment.

Frowning a while later, he moved toward the door, abandoning Xu Hua entirely, going as far as stopping siphoning his blood to feed the Curse of Wrath. With torn flesh, bloodied skin, and ragged clothes, a manic smile spread across Lucian's face as he rushed outside, searching for more blood! On his back, one of the six dots was now glowing red, and a faint red light shimmered inside the other black dots.

Meanwhile, far away, Wang Chen and Bai Xiaomeng hid within the village cellar, barricading the doors and windows. They had wanted to flee, but it became impossible as the number of puppet corpses grew. Now, around the cellar, dozens of puppets gathered, searching for a way in to barge in and devour them.