At the same time, a Martial Saint wearing a bronze mask chopped off a strange man's left arm with a single slash, but the opponent didn't even flinch—he simply swung his curved blade in return, its surface glowing with a sinister light as it swept across the Martial Saint's neck.
"Pshhk!"
The Martial Saint's head flew off instantly, a jet of blood erupting from his chest cavity and staining the air crimson.
Even more astonishing, the wound on the strange man's severed arm rapidly squirmed and, in less than ten breaths, a perfectly intact left arm regrew.
Seeing this, the seventeen Martial Saints still on the battlefield felt a chill run down their spines. What kind of monster was this—get an arm chopped off, and just grow a new one? Could such a creature even be killed?
"Fall back!"
Ian Song ordered in a low voice.
At Ian's command, all seventeen Martial Saints breathed a sigh of relief, quickly disengaging from the battlefield and retreating to his side. Fighting monsters like these was just too terrifying!
The ten strange figures didn't pursue, just watched coldly from a distance.
"Young Master Huang, what should we do? These monsters don't seem killable!" Gavin Huangpu said gravely.
"That's right! Just now in the fight, I left a wound on one of those monsters' chests, but it healed in a single breath!" another Martial Saint chimed in.
Ian Song didn't reply, but instead activated the Omniversal God-Eye to examine the strange figures. He wanted to see exactly what these creatures were.
A moment later, a cluster of information appeared in his mind: Blood Demon Puppet—lives for slaughter, grows stronger by devouring blood-qi, has no soul, and possesses extremely powerful regeneration. As long as the blood-qi inside is not depleted, even if dismembered, it can revive in a short time!
After learning what these monsters were, Ian secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Let's go!"
With a flash, Ian led eighteen Martial Saints straight to Huayan City.
Throwing people at the Blood Demon Puppets is too costly. Worse, if anyone on our side gets hurt, the blood-qi they release will just be absorbed by the puppets.
So, to truly kill a Blood Demon Puppet, you first have to keep draining its blood-qi, and second, never let it absorb any new blood-qi.
After Ian arrived in Huayan City, Huang Yan appeared right behind him.
Then, the two of them joined forces, spending thirty thousand supreme-grade spirit crystals and ten pieces of god-iron to set up an Absolute Execution Grand Formation in Huayan City.
However, he didn't evacuate the citizens of Huayan City, because Blood Demon Puppets are extremely sensitive to living beings with blood-qi. Their instincts drive them toward places with the most life—so if the city's population scattered, the puppets would change targets and never come to Huayan.
Working together, the two finished the Absolute Execution Grand Formation in less than an hour.
Meanwhile, the ten Blood Demon Puppets were already fifty li from Huayan City—at their speed, they'd arrive in just a quarter of an hour.
Sure enough, a quarter hour later, the Blood Demon Puppets appeared at the city gates of Huayan.
Both gates stood wide open, but the entrance was deserted—all the guards had retreated deeper into the city.
Ian Song and Huang Yan stood side by side just behind the gate.
A flash of bloodthirsty light flickered in the eyes of the lead Blood Demon Puppet, and then all ten strode toward Ian and Huang Yan.
Finally, all ten Blood Demon Puppets entered Huayan City.
Ian narrowed his eyes and stomped his right foot on the ground. Instantly, the Absolute Execution Grand Formation surged up, and a sealed formation space appeared, trapping all ten Blood Demon Puppets inside.
This Absolute Execution Grand Formation didn't include any illusion layer, because Blood Demon Puppets have no souls—no matter how powerful, illusions can't affect them.
"Condense!"
Ian Song and Huang Yan simultaneously formed hand seals, and instantly, a hundred Martial Saint phantoms appeared, charging madly at the ten Blood Demon Puppets.
But after conjuring a hundred Martial Saints, one percent of the thirty thousand supreme-grade spirit crystals' energy was already consumed.
Still, controlling the Martial Saints in battle also required精神力—working together, Ian Song and Huang Yan could only maintain a hundred phantoms at once.
The Blood Demon Puppets themselves weren't actually that strong—most were mid-stage Martial Saint level, with the leader at late-stage.
Earlier, twenty Martial Saints had tried to surround and kill them, but failed mainly because the puppets were completely fearless. Fighting them was like being tied down.
Now, though, the formation's Martial Saint phantoms didn't fear injury at all.
So as soon as the battle started, the ten Blood Demon Puppets were instantly overwhelmed—within moments, one puppet's body was chopped into several pieces.
But in less than ten breaths, the severed pieces fused back together—though the reformed Blood Demon Puppet's blood-light was visibly thinner than before.
Seeing this, Ian Song was greatly encouraged.
Together with Huang Yan, Ian Song kept controlling the hundred Martial Saint phantoms to repeatedly dismember the Blood Demon Puppets.
In half an hour, all ten Blood Demon Puppets had been chopped up at least twice, though over twenty of the conjured Martial Saints had been destroyed.
But it didn't matter—lose one, just conjure another. So Ian's side kept a steady force of a hundred Martial Saints.
Another hour passed.
By then, each of the ten Blood Demon Puppets had been dismembered more than five times, and the blood-light around them was down to a thin layer.
However, more than a hundred and twenty phantoms had been destroyed in total.
If these Martial Saints weren't just illusions, but real people, the East and South Domains would've suffered unimaginable losses.
Finally, after the Blood Demon Puppets were killed and dismembered two more times, the last of their blood-light vanished.
Seeing this, Ian Song felt a surge of energy—the hundred Martial Saints under his and Huang Yan's control attacked even more fiercely.
At last, when a Blood Demon Puppet was dismembered again, its corpse dissolved into clusters of black light and faded from the air.
One!
Two!
Three!
Four!
...
In the end, all ten Blood Demon Puppets were completely destroyed.
And with the death of the Blood Demon Puppets, the ten jade command plates stored in Elder Chu's storage ring suddenly shattered.
Feeling the change in her storage ring, Elder Chu instinctively checked inside. Seeing the ten shattered jade plates, her expression turned extremely ugly—those plates were the key to controlling the Blood Demon Puppets.
As long as the jade plate was crushed, the Blood Demon Puppet would die.
Conversely, when a Blood Demon Puppet died, its jade plate would automatically shatter!
"Impossible! How could anyone kill the Bloodfiend Guard!"
Elder Chu cried out, her face shifting between anger and dread, with a hint of panic in her eyes.
Huayan City.
After withdrawing the Absolute Execution Grand Formation, Ian Song and Huang Yan departed together. The ten Blood Demon Puppets in the East Domain were dealt with, but those in the South Domain remained. Every moment the puppets persisted would mean more casualties for the South, so they had to be found and destroyed as quickly as possible.
With mastery of the Great Teleportation Technique, Ian Song and Huang Yan split up to search. By evening, Ian found ten Blood Demon Puppets rampaging through a small city, slaughtering its population.
There was no time to set up a formation, so he could only wait until they moved to another city before trying again.
While Ian Song was fighting the Blood Demon Puppets, news of the Eastern Domain battle spread. Reportedly, over two million soldiers had been trapped in a grand formation set up by formation master Huang Liang for more than three days and nights. It was believed that soon, the entire army would be wiped out.
When this news reached the Military Affairs Camp, everyone grew anxious—especially the eight elders, who gathered again in the elders' conference room.