Thousands of puppet soldiers crawled out of their coffins, a scene so eerie that it sent chills down everyone's spine and made their hearts race.
Many cultivators who had just charged into the camp were met with this shocking sight. Some were so stunned they could barely stand, frozen in place as they stared at the thousands of puppet soldiers filling the camp, utterly intimidated by their presence.
"Retreat! Fall back now!" Kael shouted without hesitation.
Arjun immediately nodded and flickered backward in a flash, but at that moment, a puppet soldier lunged straight at them!
Though these puppet soldiers had been dead for years, refined into mindless puppets, they retained an almost terrifying instinct for combat, making them formidable opponents.
"This puppet soldier is at the peak of Level Eight!" Kael's heart sank as he assessed the situation.
The fact that this puppet soldier still possessed peak Level Eight strength was unexpected. After all, the Water Dragon had died three thousand years ago, and these puppets had been crafted back then. Over time, their power should have waned—yet they still retained such fearsome strength.
Kael's scalp prickled with dread. These puppet soldiers must have been at least Level Ten or higher in life to maintain such formidable power even now.
Though both were at the peak of Level Eight, the difference between this puppet soldier and Seraphina's puppet knight was like night and day.
Most of these puppet soldiers still retained their combat instincts from life, moving purely on primal reflexes—unstoppable war machines, terrifying in their efficiency.
One puppet soldier had already closed in on Kael and Arjun. Its face was indistinct, its body wreathed in a mist-like aura resembling battle energy. Its movements were bizarre yet unnervingly agile.
"You... dare trespass... into my King's forbidden grounds... All of you... shall die!" The puppet soldier actually spoke, its voice a hoarse rasp, its eyes burning like twin candle flames as it fixed a deathly stare upon Kael and the other intruders.
BOOM!
A mist-like surge of battle energy erupted from the puppet soldier's body, raging forth like a tidal wave. The sheer force of the shockwave nearly sent Arjun flying!
Reacting instantly, Arjun unleashed a wind-based spell.
"Storm's Mutation!" A violent gale exploded outward, howling as it formed a crushing pressure aimed directly at the puppet soldier.
Yet the puppet's battle energy proved even fiercer—it sliced through Arjun's magic as effortlessly as a blade through tofu, leaving a gaping tear before hurtling toward Arjun in a deadly dive!
Arjun's expression darkened. The puppet's strength far exceeded his expectations. Though technically at the peak of Level Eight, its combat instincts and sheer lethality surpassed even that tier!
"Lightning Shield!" Kael, fully grasping the danger, immediately conjured a crackling barrier to block the assault. Simultaneously, he thrust his staff forward: "Hand of the Thunder God!"
Above them, a massive lightning-formed hand materialized amidst rolling thunderclouds before crashing down with devastating force!
With an earth-shaking BOOM, the Hand of the Thunder God finally overwhelmed the puppet soldier, slamming it into the ground so hard that the impact left a crater in its wake.
Yet to Kael's astonishment, even with its body shattered, the puppet began rising again—readying another attack!
"What's going on? Is this thing immortal?!" Arjun cried out.
Kael's eyes narrowed. He caught a glimpse of the faint earthen-yellow glow at the puppet's brow and understood. "To destroy these puppets, we must sever their heads. That yellow light on their foreheads—it's the core controlling them!"
As he spoke, Kael shifted his stance and struck with his staff once more.
Countless bolts of lightning streaked forth, this time aimed squarely at the puppet's skull.
Like a blade, the electricity cleaved through the puppet's head. The creature collapsed with a final thunderous crash, the candlelight in its eye sockets flickering weakly before fading into nothingness.
"So it really works!" Arjun exhaled in relief as the puppet soldier collapsed, its existence utterly extinguished.
He had genuinely feared these puppets were unkillable—if that were the case, fighting would've been pointless, and fleeing their only option.
"There's a crystal embedded in its forehead..." Kael's gaze sharpened as he channeled magic, reaching toward the puppet's brow.
In his palm now rested a thumb-sized, earthen-yellow crystal—the very core controlling the puppet.
Though small, this unassuming fragment radiated an overwhelming density of power. Within it surged an almost terrifying concentration of earth-elemental energy, so pure it dwarfed any earth-attuned magic gem Kael had ever encountered.
"This is... the Essence of the Earth..." Kael murmured, eyes widening in realization.
The Essence of the Earth—the quintessential extract of the land, a crystallization of elemental might. To any earth mage, even this sliver would be a treasure beyond measure, capable of propelling their mastery to new heights.
Though Kael primarily cultivated fire and thunder magic, with only basic proficiency in earth spells, the Essence's value wasn't lost on him. This was a rarity even among top-tier earth gems, its energy magnitude incomparably greater.
As Kael clenched the crystal, warmth pulsed against his palm—a comforting, primordial strength radiating from the earth itself.
"Such vast, surging earth energy..." Kael's eyes gleamed. This Essence was a relic scarcely found across the Three Continents. Tiny as it was, its worth was incalculable.
"Essence of the Earth!" Arjun clearly recognized it too. Envy dripped from his gaze, his mind already calculating how many such crystals might lie within these thousands of puppets. Suddenly, his fear of the undead army evaporated, replaced by naked greed—as if staring at mountains of gold.
In an instant, Kael changed his mind. Originally planning an immediate retreat with Arjun, he now made a decisive call: "Arjun, we need to gather as much Essence of the Earth as we can—then fall back before these puppets overwhelm us!"
The discovery of the Essence had reshaped his priorities.
Treasures like this were beyond price, utterly unmeasurable in gold. Even a fragment contained the purest earth energy in existence.
Arjun's voice turned grave. "Agreed. Between the two of us, we should handle whatever comes."
Kael nodded. There was no time for hesitation. With a flick of his gaze, he retrieved an Arcane Crystal Cannon from his spatial ring, loading it with spare magic crystals as contingency.
He had no intention of deploying it recklessly—the cannon's consumption was staggering, and with thousands of puppets here, waste was unthinkable. It would remain his last resort, a hidden trump card.
With this safeguard, Kael shed his reservations. Alongside Arjun, both unleashed their full power. Magic surged across the battlefield as their combined efforts drastically sped up the harvesting. No longer caring about drawing attention, Kael rained down thunder spells, swiftly amassing a sizable haul.
They weren't alone. Others soon noticed the Essence embedded in the puppets' brows. Within moments, retreat became unthinkable—every cultivator now fought to claim even a single fragment.
"We've each got over a dozen already!" Arjun crowed. Thanks to Kael's sharp identification and swift decision, they led the pack by a wide margin.
Kael acknowledged with a nod, but his brow furrowed at the thickening puppet ranks. "Time to go."
As the words left his mouth, the battlefield shifted again.
At its heart stood the stone stele—yet beside it lay a larger coffin, distinct from the rest. Crafted not of wood but bronze-like metal, it emitted a series of ominous clicks.
Slowly, the lid began to rise—and with it, the overwhelming aura of a Level Ten powerhouse erupted…