Mysteries of Immortal Puppet Master - Chapter 1526

Chapter 1526: Chapter 628: Nine Fire Dragon Lord vs Yun Wuji (2)

He wore a grey-white Daoist robe, his brows and eyes exceedingly pale, as if washed by clouds and mist.

Ning Zhuo cast a glance over, his brows faintly knitting.

The feeling Yun Wuji gave him was rather strange. It was the first time the youth had seen this type of Nascent Soul Cultivator.

Yun Wuji’s lips were lightly colored, his irises likewise pale; the whole person showed no sharpness, no majesty, not even the usual oppression of a Nascent Soul Cultivator. He stood there like a wisp of cloud-shadow condensed into human shape; if one did not look closely, one would feel he might fade away at any moment.

His sleeves were wide, hanging down past his wrists, and within them there seemed to be an extremely faint white vapour slowly drifting.

At his waist hung a half-transparent Jade Pendant, within which a speck of white mist drifted back and forth.

On his feet, grey-white Traceless Cloud Shoes stepped upon the air as upon level ground, without the slightest sound.

The two entered the field and faced off, and the protective light screens before the three factions’ seats lit up simultaneously.

The Jade Chime suddenly rang once.

The first bout, begin!

Before the sound of the Jade Chime had completely faded, the daylight within the Clear Sky Martial Arts Arena abruptly brightened by several degrees.

The Formation’s Jiaoyang slowly rose, pouring down ten thousand strands of golden radiance. The Astral Wind was formless, yet at the edges of the formation walls it scraped out fine, broken traces of light.

Between the Nine Fire Dragon Lord and Yun Wuji lay a distance of a hundred zhang, with nothing in between—no barrier, no ground, no Cloud Qi—only a stretch of empty, limpid firmament.

Ning Zhuo narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking to himself, “A cloudless sky—Nine Fire Dragon Lord’s choice of arena this time truly isn’t just for his dragon body to soar, but more to first weaken the methods of cultivators like Yun Wuji.”

The Nine Fire Dragon Lord was the first to move.

He hovered in midair, his Red Gold Robe snapping in the wind. The Jiaoyang’s golden radiance fell upon the nine Fire Dragon Patterns on the robe’s surface; the dragon heads, Dragon Claws, and Dragon Scales lit up one after another. Those nine Fire Dragon Patterns were not mere ornament; under the impetus of his Mana, they actually seemed to slowly swim across the robe, scales rasping, fire lines flowing.

He raised his right palm, and in the center of his palm first floated up a wisp of Red Gold Pill Fire.

That Pill Fire was not fierce, but instead extremely steady, like the furnace flame used in the earliest warming of medicinal herbs within an Alchemy Furnace.

Next, the Nine Orifice Furnace Heart Pendant at his chest quivered slightly. From the nine apertures on the Red Gold Jade Pendant, each spurted out a thread of firelight.

The Nine Fire Dragon Lord gave a low shout: “Open Furnace.”

Boom!

The first strand of firelight sank downward.

There had been no earth in the clear sky, yet as that streak of Red-brown Earth Fire sank into the void, it was as if a fire nail were driven deep into the firmament. The empty Martial Arts Arena jolted violently, as though an invisible furnace bottom had been forcibly propped up.

The second strand of Cyan Green Wood Fire spread along the Red-brown Earth Fire, with branch-and-leaf-shaped fire patterns unfurling in all directions. Taking the Nine Fire Dragon Lord’s Mana as root, it conjured from nothing a stretch of green-flamed fire branches.

The third strand of purple-white Thunder Fire exploded!

Above the clear sky, thunder roared. The Astral Wind was ignited by the Thunder Fire, turning into one purple-white fire serpent after another, coiling and circling around the Nine Fire Dragon Lord.

The fourth strand of Heart Fire sank into his eyes, dark red and somber; just seeing it from afar made one’s heart grow irritable.

The fifth strand of True Fire shone with a Platinum clarity, making the clear sky ever more transparent, to the point that even the faint patterns on the formation walls revealed a trace of distinct outline.

The sixth strand of Pill Fire circled his palm, Red Gold and rounded, like Elixir Pills condensing and turning within a furnace.

The seventh strand of Spiritual Fire scattered into fine threads, roaming through the air, as if seeking Qi Mechanisms to entwine.

The eighth strand of Demon Fire was ghostly green, clinging to the cuffs of his robe and the edges of the dragon patterns, its flame hue cold and at odds with the other eight fires, yet suppressed by the Dragon Fire, not daring to overstep.

Lastly, the ninth strand was Dragon Fire.

The Nine Fire Dragon Lord’s spine suddenly shuddered; a Red Gold dragon shadow rose from behind him, raising its head toward the Jiaoyang at the vault of heaven. Before the dragon shadow had fully condensed, a muffled dragon’s roar was already rolling across the clear sky.

Nine Fires Opening the Furnace!

On the Nanming Village Seat, bloodlight flashed in the eyes of the Red Robe Guest, who sneered coldly, “This dragon is not stupid, forging the clear sky into a furnace chamber first, further suppressing Yun Wuji’s cloud-type methods. Any cloud that comes out will be refined away.”

Tan Zhu’s grey-black deep robe hung down; his face was pale. Hearing this, he said blandly, “A cloudless sky is indeed a fine field. Only, if Yun Wuji cannot even spread clouds, he’s not fit for White Cloud Village to send him out.”

Within the White Cloud Village Seat, white clouds slowly flowed within You Yunshou’s sleeves; his expression was unhurried.

Qiu Lei of the Territorial Expansion Alliance simply watched the scene in silence.

Yun Wuji stood beneath the Jiaoyang, his grey-white Daoist robe illuminated until it was almost transparent.

He did not hurry to evade.

Those pale eyes lifted, glancing once at the high Jiaoyang, then at the empty clear sky all around. The brighter the sky, the fainter his figure, like a white trace that might at any time be bleached away by the sunlight.

He lightly flicked his sleeve.

From the wide Hidden Cloud Sleeve flew out a small banner.

The White Cloud Banner!

The little banner was but a foot in length, its surface grey-white, the banner staff as thin as a bamboo twig. The moment it left his sleeve, it spread with the wind, hanging in front of Yun Wuji.

In the clear sky, the first wisp of Cloud Qi exhaled from the edge of the small banner.

That Cloud Qi was very thin, very light, like steam rising from the rim of a teacup. Were it not that the three factions’ seats were all occupied by experts, it would be hard to discern under the blazing light of day.

The Nine Fire Dragon Lord let out a derisive snort.

He lifted his hand and pressed down.

His Alchemy followed a Seven Transitions process and technique.

The first transition, Warm Furnace!

The Red-brown Earth Fire and Red Gold Pill Fire advanced together. The formless furnace bottom abruptly expanded; a low, muffled furnace hum resounded in the clear sky. That thin layer of cloud had only just spread when it was forced to curl inward by the Pill Fire, its edges turning a scorched crimson.

Yun Wuji lightly tapped with his Traceless Cloud Shoes.

His entire person retreated backward—not quickly, his posture composed. The small White Cloud Banner continued to exhale clouds before him, like an old farmer facing a scorching sun, still sowing seeds in an unhurried rhythm.

The second wisp of Cloud Qi appeared.

The third wisp of Cloud Qi appeared.

The Nine Fire Dragon Lord’s gaze darkened slightly.

Each wisp of Cloud Qi exhaled by the small White Cloud Banner went through a process of gathering, kneading open, then spreading out again. It seemed weak, yet layer upon layer overlapped, like a sheet of white paper folded again and again, growing thicker with each fold.

“Don’t even think about it.” The Nine Fire Dragon Lord swept his sleeve.

The second transition, Medicine Acceleration.

The Cyan Green Wood Fire surged, its fire branches madly extending out of thin air toward Yun Wuji. The fine lines of Spiritual Fire slipped among the fire branches, chasing after the tiny source of Cloud Qi.

Yun Wuji lifted his left sleeve.

His long robe was a Magic Treasure, and the two wide cloud sleeves were of an even higher Grade—they were the Hidden Cloud Sleeves!

From within the Hidden Cloud Sleeves exhaled a mass of white cloud, just in time to meet the Cyan Green fire branches head-on.

The fire branches drilled into the white cloud, which was instantly burned crimson.

Yun Wuji did not protect it; instead, with a twist of his cuff, he let that mass of white cloud break into over a dozen thin clouds. Each thin cloud was scorched red by the fire, yet also borrowed the force of the flames to steam upward, generating more vapour.

Ning Zhuo’s eyes lit up: “He’s using burning clouds to birth mist?”

The clear sky had no clouds to begin with.

But once the white cloud was burned by fire, it dispersed into boundless vapour. The vapour was collected by the Hidden Cloud Sleeves, then fed back to the Cloud Domain.

The fiercer the Nine Fire Dragon Lord’s flames, the greater Yun Wuji’s expenditure, yet so long as they did not burn everything clean, he could in that expenditure accumulate an environment belonging to his own Cloud Path.

This method was not domineering in the least, yet very seasoned, mature, and steady.

The Nine Fire Dragon Lord had clearly discovered this as well.

He gave a cold snort—the third transition, Shell Breaking.

The Thunder Fire exploded with a roar!

The purple-white Thunder Fire raced along the green-flame fire branches, in an instant shattering the three cloud masses that had just formed in front of Yun Wuji. Thunder rolled through the clear sky like the Nine Heavens Thunder Drum struck by a Fire Dragon Claw. The protective light screens before the three factions’ seats rippled faintly, and the cloud seats of the spectators shook with the impact.

Yun Wuji’s figure was forced out by the Thunder Fire.

The grey-white silhouette was pierced by the Thunder Fire, purple-white flame blooming on his shoulders and back; then, with a snap, it scattered, turning into tufts of charred white cloud wool.

The real Yun Wuji had already used White Cloud Stepping to fall behind another patch of thin cloud.

By this time there were already seven or eight cloud clusters in the field.

None of them were large.

Within the furnace-like clear sky spread by the Nine Fire Dragon Lord, they were like scraps of tattered white cloth, drifting uncertainly, liable at any moment to be swallowed by a Fire Wave. Yet it was precisely these fragments of cloud that finally granted Yun Wuji paths for shifting and evasion.

The fire intent in the Nine Fire Dragon Lord’s heart grew even stronger.

He loathed this sort of combat style that refused to meet his blows head-on.

Thus, the fourth transition, Impurity Illumination.

The True Fire, like Platinum daylight, shot from the Nine Fire Dragon Lord’s brow, sweeping across the clear sky. Those cloud clusters, under the illumination of the True Fire, revealed their internal structures with utmost clarity. Flowing Cloud Shadow was likewise exposed, and one could see over a dozen Yun Wuji figures scattered about, some with sleeves slightly raised, some with heads bowed and eyes lowered, some turning sideways to evade.

As the True Fire swept past, the false images rapidly thinned.

The only figure whose Qi Mechanism was slightly heavier stood behind the cloud cluster on the far left.