Chapter 552 - 500: Trying to Draw a Tiger but Ending Up with a Dog

Chapter 552: Chapter 500: Trying to Draw a Tiger but Ending Up with a Dog

In the northern part of the city, atop the roof of a pavilion, Chu Mu gazed at the terrifying scene in the city’s center. Only then did he finally begin to understand.

’The Twelve Blood Fiend Corpse Transformation Array... The Chen Family... What a deep and vicious plot!’

As realization dawned, he couldn’t hide his apprehension. The Chen Family’s plot was deep and utterly vicious!

He had been puzzled before. How had the Chen Family managed to deceive all the Nascent Soul Great Powers who came to Bazhou City? How had they deceived him, the Artifact Refiner and Array Master who oversaw the Soldier Puppet’s restoration, allowing them to lay such a heaven-shattering trap right here in the city?

Now, the scene before him undoubtedly provided the explanation.

The Chen Family had laid this heaven-shattering trap at the cost of the entire Bazhou Basin’s annihilation!

The Chen Family’s Tier Four Soldier Puppet—or rather, this Tier Four Soldier Puppet originating from an Ancient Immortal Dao Sect—had been forged with the system of the Demon Realm’s Flesh and Blood Demon Puppets as its primary framework.

When he first inspected the Soldier Puppet’s construction, he had clearly detected that its massive body was not entirely an inanimate object of metal. Instead, it possessed a structure akin to a human body, complete with a Dantian, Meridians, and an interwoven network of crisscrossing channels.

The signs of a Flesh and Blood Demon Puppet were unmistakable!

It was precisely this Flesh and Blood Demon Puppet construction that made repairing the Tier Four Soldier Puppet possible. All subsequent restoration work had revolved around this core system.

By the time the restoration was complete, the Flesh and Blood Demon Puppet system comprised nearly seventy to eighty percent of the Tier Four Soldier Puppet’s entire structure.

In that case, the Soldier Puppet could no longer be considered a purely inanimate object. Like the countless Demon Puppets in the Demon Realm, it possessed some characteristics of life. It no longer had to rely entirely on Spirit Stones for power and could absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi on its own.

Even if it was damaged, it could use the miraculous properties of the Flesh and Blood Demon Puppet to recover on its own to a certain extent.

As long as Spiritual Qi remains, the Soldier Puppet does not die.

By the same token, as long as Blood Qi remains, the Soldier Puppet also... does not die!

Judging from the current scene, the Chen Family must have started their plotting in Bazhou long, long ago. Their scheme likely began right after he finished restoring their Tier Four Soldier Puppet.

This plot wasn’t merely about hiding something underground; it was centered directly on the Spirit Vein beneath Bazhou City. After the Soldier Puppet’s restoration was complete, they must have hidden it directly within the Spirit Vein to be nurtured, allowing it to absorb Spiritual Qi and use the city’s Spirit Vein and Earth Vein to conceal its aura.

And this Twelve Blood Fiend Corpse Transformation Array, built around twelve Tier Four Soldier Puppets, must have been part of the plan from the very beginning.

They also used the Spirit Vein and Earth Vein of Bazhou City for concealment. With the tide of Spiritual Qi from the Spirit Vein and the surging energy of the Earth Vein providing a dual cover, it would have been impossible for anyone to detect a trace of it, so long as they didn’t venture deep into the Spirit Vein to investigate.

In fact, with the concealment provided by the Spirit Vein and Earth Vein, even the Demon Pattern Secret Door he had left behind was difficult to detect.

The only reason he had detected it earlier was likely because the Chen Family had begun activating their years-long plot, causing a slight bit of its aura to leak out.

If he hadn’t left that secret door and happened to detect it, this plan would have been perfectly seamless!

No one would have been able to notice a thing.

Just like the tens of thousands of Cultivators who had just perished amid the roaring din, they likely never even had time to react before the Twelve Blood Fiend Corpse Transformation Array—with its twelve Soldier Puppets at the core—caused them to violently explode, turning them into fuel for the puppets to unleash their Mighty Power!

And next, if things went as planned, the entire Bazhou City—the hundreds of thousands of Cultivators gathered here from All Over the World—would be turned into Blood Qi fuel for these twelve Soldier Puppets by the Twelve Blood Fiend Corpse Transformation Array.

As long as Blood Qi remains, the Soldier Puppets do not die!

Twelve Tier Four Soldier Puppets, fueled by the hundreds of thousands of Cultivators in the city!

Six Tier Four Nascent Soul Great Powers! Four of them were at the Early Stage of Nascent Soul, one was at the Middle Stage of Nascent Soul, and there was even one Great Cultivator at the Late Stage of Nascent Soul!

Add to that a Chain Array powerful enough to trap even Nascent Soul Great Powers...

And with that, they had constructed this heaven-shattering gambit!

The Nine Heavens Sect, the Longevity Sect, the Profound Nether Alliance... even the Righteous Alliance... Any who had come to this city, be they Nascent Soul Great Powers or common Loose Cultivators, had walked into the trap. They were all... fish in the Chen Family’s barrel.

It was easy to imagine that regardless of whether the Chen Family’s gambit succeeded or failed, Bazhou City, and indeed the entire Bazhou Basin, would be transformed into a completely dead and desolate land under the influence of the Twelve Blood Fiend Corpse Transformation Array!

If hundreds of thousands of Cultivators from All Over the World were to fall here, the Blood Qi would surge to the heavens, and malevolent spirits would fester and multiply, just like in the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea of the Demon Realm!

Resentful Souls, Blood Monsters, Evil Corpses...

This Bazhou Basin, once practically a paradise, would in the future surely become a haven for Corpse Cultivators, Ghost Cultivators, and other such "Evil Cultivators."

As his thoughts raced, the gloom in Chu Mu’s heart grew even heavier.

’This time, I’ve really shot myself in the foot!’

Back when he was overseeing the Soldier Puppet’s restoration, after discovering the Demon Pattern Secret Door, he had made numerous preparations to prevent the truth from one day coming to light and the Chen Family turning on him.

His preparations to clear his name were secondary. The main failsafe he’d left behind was a special modification to the Demon Pattern Secret Door. He had changed it from something completely undetectable to something that would allow the puppet’s controller to notice that something was amiss when control was being seized, giving them a chance to react.

His intention with these preparations was simply to give the Chen Family’s controlling Cultivator enough time to realize that the puppet’s own Demon Patterns were the problem, and that it had nothing to do with him, Chu Mu. This would clear his name, prevent him from taking the blame for others, and keep him from becoming the target of the Chen Family’s wrath.

But now, these Tier Four Soldier Puppets—refined exactly as he had envisioned—had become part of this heaven-shattering scheme. They had formed a great net that not only trapped the Nascent Soul Great Powers of the various factions but had also ensnared him, the very person who started it all.

If he hadn’t made that alteration and still had his completely undetectable failsafe, he would have had far more room to maneuver.

If he had handled it skillfully, he might even have been able to turn the Chen Family’s heaven-shattering plot and their twelve Tier Four Soldier Puppets to his own advantage!

He might even have been able to turn the tables on them completely!

He had used the puppet’s failsafe as a bargaining chip to trade for Nine Heavens Profound Gold with that Sword Dao Nascent Soul. With that failsafe, the Sword Dao Nascent Soul would have undoubtedly been able to handle this situation with ease and respond gracefully.

But in the current situation, even if he activated his failsafe, the Chen Family’s six Nascent Soul Great Powers controlling the twelve Tier Four Soldier Puppets would be caught completely off guard, as they had no knowledge of its existence.

However, the reaction time he had intentionally built in to clear his own name would be more than enough for those six Nascent Soul Great Powers to respond in time!

The only difference would be that the Chen Family’s "jar" for their grand scheme—the one meant to trap the fish in the barrel—would have a few more uncertainties...

At this thought, the corner of Chu Mu’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch. ’Trying to draw a tiger and ending up with a dog,’ he mused. ’That’s me, isn’t it...’

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