On the morning of the third day.
After sending out the war warning in advance and making sure all common villagers near Marigold City either entered the city or left the area, Elara confirmed the city was fully prepared for war. Before the enemy from Youdan could make a move, she launched the first attack on them.
In Youdan.
Near the main grain warehouse of the Puppet Sect.
Unlike the bleak and ruined border towns of Plumera, once someone stepped into Youdan's territory, it felt like sinking into a dark swamp.
Even under the blazing sun, the light was blocked by a thick layer of mist, making everything seem damp and eerie.
The land here was mostly wetland and marsh. The towns were surrounded by poisonous plants, insects, and creatures. The locals had long lived with poison, and their complexions were unhealthy. No matter where they went, they gave off the chilling feeling of poisonous ghosts.
Among these people, who already looked like the living dead, stood a group of half-rotten, half-dead puppets.
This army of puppets was huge and neatly arranged. From a distance, it looked like an army of the undead.
The people around them, whose faces also looked abnormal, acted like this was nothing new.
Anyone who could lead such a massive puppet army had a very high status in Youdan. So the locals not only avoided staring but also bowed from afar and took a different path with great fear and respect.
At the front of this puppet army stood a strange, twisted building.
It was the largest and most central tower in the town.
Inside the tower.
At the top of the main hall sat a massive, squirming creature that looked like a mix of multiple species.
Its face was oddly shaped. It glanced at the puppet masters below and asked in a hoarse, strange voice, "Where are the puppets that invaded Plumera?"
One of the puppet masters, sitting closest, had a similarly twisted face. He respectfully replied,
"Master, we've sent newly mutated stealth puppets to secretly enter Shenyi Valley. As for the border with Plumera, our infiltration has already begun. Following the leader's orders, we're advancing three times faster than before. In about one more month, the southern region of Plumera will be completely infiltrated and brought back under our control."
This creature, called Master Duqu, was one of the remaining three hall leaders of the Puppet Sect. The fourth one, called Duozhu, had already been killed by Elara.
After hearing the report, the heavy feeling that had been pressing on Duqu's heart since Duozhu's death finally lifted a little.
A strange smile appeared on his face. He made the puppet master repeat the infiltration progress, then assigned each puppet master a new task based on the previous orders from the leader. He dismissed them after giving a third of the puppet army to help them carry out their missions in Plumera.
After about the time it took to finish a cup of tea, only Duqu remained in the hall.
His huge body slowly rose. He pressed a mechanism nearby. With a grinding sound, the giant stone table in front of him moved aside, revealing a dark secret tunnel.
This tunnel led into the inner parts of the Puppet Sect.
His large, wriggling body was about to squeeze into the passage when it suddenly trembled. He sensed extreme danger.
Although he looked huge and clumsy, he reacted like a leech struck by a jolt. He jerked to the side just in time to dodge a flying dart.
An attack!
Duqu opened his mouth full of sharp teeth to summon the puppet army outside.
But just as he did, something sharp flashed through the air, aiming directly at his open mouth.
He quickly shut his mouth and stopped summoning the puppets, dodging again with surprising speed.
But just as he moved, something hit his jaw hard. The force was so strong that it dislocated his mouth and forced it open.
A pill flew straight into his throat. Before he could react, another force slammed into his neck, forcing him to swallow it.
"There. He swallowed it."
A clear female voice came from the shadows in the southwest corner of the hall.
The master turned sharply, staring in disbelief at the young woman who had suddenly appeared, along with the man holding her as they stood high on a beam above.
How was this possible? How did they get in? His puppets and insects filled the place. Even a fly couldn't sneak past without him noticing. How long had they been hiding here? Had they been present even while he was assigning orders?
Elara saw the shock on his face and knew exactly what he was thinking.
The reason was simple. She had Creek with her, the one thing immune to all poison. Before coming, she and the guards took a special medicine prepared by Creek that made them undetectable to puppet masters. As long as she didn't touch any of the puppets or poison controlled by Duqu, they wouldn't sense her.
But Duqu had made himself look so disgusting that Elara felt sick just looking at him. His huge, wormlike body was like a creature from a horror film. Even though she had seen many apocalyptic monsters in her past life, this still made her want to throw up.
She had no interest in wasting time on him. After confirming he had swallowed the special blocking pill made by Creek and could no longer control the puppets outside, she gave Wei One the signal to act.
The Gu Masters of the Puppet Sect were never strong in direct combat. Their real strength was parasitic control over others. Once forced to take the medicine made by Oswyn, which temporarily suppressed that ability, they became extremely weak, just like Master Zu had.
Still, they weren't that easy to deal with. Even if the medicine worked for a while, if no one could take over their core Gu during that window, they could still survive through their parasite and be reborn in a new body. Just killing the physical body wasn't enough.
That's why it was hard for anyone else to defeat the Puppet Sect's top hall masters.
But unfortunately for them, they ran into Elara. She had holy spirit blood in her body and had already fused with the mother Gu of the venomous spider. She had the power she earned by trading 500 days of her life and the golden core given by the White-haired Master. Reversing control over the Puppet Sect's mother Gu was no problem for her.
Still, it took time. If the Puppet Sect attacked all at once, even with Uno and the rest helping, it would turn into a brutal fight. That's why she chose to sneak in with Uno and go after Master Qu first. Elara was going to handle them one at a time.
Now in front of her stood Master Qu, whose power was stronger than Master Zu. Even without his parasite ability, normal fighters wouldn't easily beat him. But Uno wasn't a normal fighter.
Once Elara's holy spirit blood awakened, his bond with her deepened. The mother Gu inside this monster hall master couldn't touch him at all. To Uno, this oversized monster was nothing more than dead meat.
"Bloodslave? You're a bloodslave!"
Master Qu finally noticed something strange in Uno. His frightened expression turned twisted with a grin. Just like the venomous spider had done before, he tried to activate his own mother Gu to fight for control over Uno.
But since he never heard what happened with Master Zu before his death, he didn't know Uno and the others couldn't be controlled anymore. So while he stared with greedy excitement, Uno appeared and sliced his body clean in half.
Instant kill.
Foul-smelling liquid sprayed from the giant body. Master Qu's excited face froze in place as he died without closing his eyes. From the middle of his torn body, a lump of flesh rolled out. It was nearly identical to Master Zu's heart.
Elara stared at it with disgust. She took a breath and forced herself forward. While repeating calming words in her mind, she made herself reach out and grab it.
She started using the reverse control technique she had been practicing these past days. She summoned the holy spirit blood within her. She began invading and taking control.
This blood mass was clearly Master Qu's mother Gu. Once she took control of it, every puppet he had controlled, including the massive puppet army outside, would become hers.
But as expected, a hall master's mother Gu wasn't easy to handle. Just as Oswyn predicted, she needed time to subdue this mother Gu, which was equal in level to the venomous spider.
Elara focused fully on controlling the struggling Gu. At the same time, she motioned to Uno to stay alert and handle anyone nearby. She couldn't afford any interruptions.
She had to be fast.
With Master Qu down, there were only three hall masters left. The attack happened deep inside the Puppet Sect. No matter how good Oswyn's stealth potion was, the Sect Leader would definitely notice something was wrong.
That was inevitable. So Elara had to take over this mother Gu completely and absorb it before the Sect Leader reacted.
At the same time, deep inside the Puppet Sect...
The Sect Leader, who looked even more monstrous than Master Qu, was sitting coiled on his throne. Suddenly, the eyes on the sides of his head opened, full of shock and rage.
"Someone slipped into our base without a sound. Master Zu is dead. Master Qu too. The mother Gu... it's struggling. This can't be real. Unforgivable."
His huge body slowly stood from the throne. Dangerous, poisonous creatures that normal people wouldn't dare touch crawled all over him. They clung to him tightly, moving like a dark wave.
He looked far more horrifying than the monster hall masters.
Just as he was about to summon the main Gu for a counterattack, several Gu Masters rushed in.
"Sect Leader! Bad news! The main grain depot at the east camp suddenly caught fire! By the time we saw it, half was already burning! The soldiers didn't dare get close with water. Even the puppets were losing control from the flames!"
"Sect Leader! The big southern warehouse also just caught fire! We found unconscious guards inside the hidden door. Someone must have sneaked in and poured oil everywhere. Water can't put it out!"
"Report!"
Before they even finished speaking, another Gu Commander rode in, saw the two kneeling Gu Masters, and shouted to the Sect Leader.
"Sect Leader! Emergency! General Qi of Plumera led an army of one hundred thousand across the border. They're marching straight into our Yudan territory!"
Three disasters in a row hit them before they could even react. The entire sect was thrown into chaos.