Stranger Danger

“Not good!”

Profound Spirit Taoist felt a sense of unease the second he saw the woman.

At the same time, Chi Tian was dashing toward her.

Halfway there, he was shrouded by crimson flames and looking quite terrifying.

The woman did not attempt to dodge or avoid Chi Tian, however. Her eyes were perfectly calm.

“Die!”

Chi Tian cracked a vicious grin thinking that the woman was just putting up a brave front. But right before he could reach her, a hint of scorn and coolness suddenly flickered in her eyes.

It looked like she was looking at an ant.

The next moment, alarm and fear gripped Chi Tian. At the same time, Profound Spirit Taoist’s urgent voice reached him.

Chi Tian subconsciously looked behind himself and came face to face with a cold, metallic face.

That’s not the face of a living person!

Chi Tian didn’t know why, but the thought suddenly flashed through his mind. At the same time, the fear swelled into terror and caused every hair on his body to stand on end.

Why was he afraid? Because the face was just several inches away from him. More accurately, the person was standing right behind him. He had no idea when they were there.

Alarmed and furious, Chi Tian channeled a tidal wave of crimson flames from his person and engulfed his mysterious opponent.

However, a hand reached out from the crimson flames and grabbed his shoulder before he could react.

At that moment, an icy sensation spread throughout his body in an instant. His crimson flames extinguished just like that.

Shocked, Chi Tian tried to break out of his mysterious person’s grip to no avail. Be it in terms of strength or power, they were definitely stronger than him.

Worse, the icy sensation continued to eat away at his body and caused him to stiffen up more and more. Instead of fire, water was dripping out of his pores.

Meanwhile, Profound Spirit Taoist and everyone else was watching Chi Tian being suppressed by a strange person wearing dark armor and a golden mask. Streams of water surrounded their person, and their aura was terrifying.

Chi Tian was as weak as an ant in the person’s hands.

“Crimson Flame Army! Charge!”

Seeing that their superior was trapped, Chi Tian’s personal guards immediately rushed toward the mysterious person to save Chi Tian.

However, they were only halfway there when another silhouette descended from the sky and landed in the middle of the Crimson Flame Army.

Rumble!

The earth shattered, and lightning spread in every direction. For a moment, the night was as bright as daytime. Several hundred soldiers were engulfed by the devastating lightning and disintegrated into ash just like that.

When the lightning disappeared, the silhouette finally revealed its true form. It was a person wearing purple armor and a gold mask. They were surrounded by lightning and overflowing with violent and destructive power.

“The Zhen Armor… and the Kun Armor? Impossible. This cannot be possible!”

Profound Spirit Taoist’s eyes were wide open with shock and disbelief as he stared at the two mysterious people.

The Zhen Armor and Kun Armor he was talking about was none other than the black-armored person and the purple-armored person in front of him.

To be accurate, they weren’t people at all—or at least, not completely. They were puppets and Strange Artifacts created using humans as the core.

There were eight such puppets in total. They were named the Eight Divine Armors.

Long ago, after Meng Chang became the King of Nanjiang, he sought to bring Nanjiang fully under his control and pave the way for eternal peace. So, he assembled some of the greatest artisans and talisman artificers in the world and, using the corpses of Sages as the core and bolstering them with countless natural treasures, Magia, and secret arts, forged eight powerful puppets.

The eight puppets were named after the Eight Trigrams, Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Zhen, Gen, Xun and Dui. Each puppet boasted a power corresponding to their arrangement. They could control wind, thunder, water, fire, mountains, rivers, and the earth. That was why they were named the Eight Divine Armors.

Every Divine Armor boasted the power of a Sage. Although they were inanimate, non-sentient objects and so could not compare to a true Sage as a matter of course, they were still godlike armor forged from the body of a Sage and bolstered by countless natural treasures. They could feel neither pain nor fear, and they were almost indestructible. They were quite powerful to say the least.

It was said that each Divine Armor possessed the power to destroy an entire city and its army. If all eight Divine Armors were to enter the battlefield and form the Great Heaven and Earth Formation, it would not be an exaggeration to say that they could wipe an entire corner of the world out of existence.

The Eight Divine Armors became the Nanjiang Royal Court’s sacred objects and trump cards after their successful creation. They had only been deployed several times throughout history. However, each and every deployment had saved the Nanjiang Royal Court from major crises.

Without a doubt, the Eight Divine Armors were one of the main reasons the Nanjiang Royal Court was able to remain in power for over a thousand years.

For obvious reasons, the Eight Divine Armors could only be activated by the royal family of the Nanjiang Royal Court, specifically the lineal descendants of Meng Chang. It was to ensure that the Nanjiang Royal Court would always be under the control of the Meng Clan.

Alas, the Meng Clan grew increasingly weak as time passed, and the rebellion that took place about a hundred years ago resulted in the annihilation of the Meng Clan. As a result, the method to activate and control the Eight Divine Armors were lost, and they became no more useful than decorations. They had been sealed at the bottom of the Peaceful Nanjiang Palace since.

In fact, the reason Profound Spirit Taoist did not notice the commotion at the beginning was because he was busy studying the Eight Divine Armors inside the Peaceful Nanjiang Palace. He was hoping to decipher their secrets and gain control over them.

To be able to control the Eight Divine Armors was like obtaining eight Sages out of nowhere. It was a major boon no one could resist.

Profound Spirit Taoist hailed from the Eight Views Sect. Not only was he a master of talismans and artifact forging, he was as powerful as he was knowledgeable. In his opinion, it shouldn’t take him too long to unlock the secrets of the Eight Divine Armors.

Of course, he realized how childish and delusional he was after he made contact with the Eight Divine Armors. Everything about them—the forging methods, the secret arts etc—was profound beyond his understanding. Despite skipping meals and sleep to study them for the past few days, he only managed to catch a glimpse of their profoundness. He was a long, long way away from being able to control them in any way.

This was why he was so shocked. It couldn’t have been more than a few hours since he left the place, and someone had already activated and taken control of the Eight Divine Armors?

Was all his time and effort a joke?

Suddenly, a possibility flashed through Profound Spirit Taoist’s mind.

Could she be a descendant of the Meng Clan?!

He finally realized that his earlier guesses might be all wrong.

The thief who stole the Sky Mending Spring wasn’t a Chu official plotting the downfall of the Martial Might Duke and the Nanjiang Pacification Army at all. He was overthinking this.

At this point, it became clear that they were remnants of the Meng Clan. The theft of the Sky Mending Spring was just a distraction so that the woman could slip into the Peaceful Nanjiang Palace and activate the Eight Divine Armors.

After all, he had been staying inside the Peaceful Nanjiang Palace this entire time, not to mention the place was heavily guarded. It was difficult enough to slip inside, much less make contact with the Eight Divine Armors.

In other words, his enemy’s objective was the Eight Divine Armors from the start.

Unfortunately, he found out about it too late.

… Or maybe not?

Only the Zhen Armor and Kun Armor had appeared, meaning that the other six Divine Armors were still deactivated. In that case, he still possessed enough manpower to suppress his enemies.

Of course, the army guarding this place was going to suffer massive damage to take out the Zhen Armor, Kun Armor, and the two Meng Clan remnants, but there was no other option.

The Nanjiang Pacification Army boasted a Sage and countless elites as a matter of course, but right now their Sage was keeping the Sky Mending Sect at bay to prevent them from rescuing the Nanjiang Royal Court.