Li He, the peerless prodigy and Ninth Prince of the Great Qi Dynasty, spoke insolently at a royal banquet in the Great Han Dynasty. He was crippled by Prince Su, the dynasty's guardian, who wielded a flying sword to sever his tendons, shatter his kneecaps, and destroy his Dantian Qi Sea, reducing him to a disabled man.
Previously, all nations had been skeptical about whether the Great Han truly had a Myriad Transformations realm expert. Now, no doubt remained. After all, the entire imperial city—including spies from various nations—had witnessed the flying sword pierce through the city's Demon-Sealing Great Array.
Noble families and sects within the Great Han, which had begun ignoring royal decrees, now sent envoys to the capital to pledge loyalty. They feared the Han Emperor would use them as scapegoats and dispatch the Myriad Transformations expert to exterminate them.
The Great Qi Dynasty was devastated. Though their young prodigy had been crippled by the Han, they could only swallow their humiliation. Fearing Han's anger, Li He was demoted to commoner and imprisoned in the Clan Administration Office upon his return. Even the Supreme Sword Sect cut ties with him and expelled him from the sect under the pretext of a trivial offense.
While the Supreme Sword Sect had Myriad Transformations experts, there were gaps in strength among them. Their ancestor lacked the ability to wield a sword across thousands of li, forcing them to yield to the Great Han.
Even the previously dominant Great Zhou Dynasty began extending goodwill. Lin Shuo, the Second Prince of Han who had been detained in Zhou's capital, finally set off for home.
...
In the border region of the Great Han Dynasty stretched a thousand-li mountain range. Its main peak, shrouded in perpetual dark clouds and impassable to birds, was known as Yin Cloud Ridge. Strangely, the peak bore no greenery—only jagged rocks. Approaching it, one heard howling winds through the rocks, like the wailing of a hundred ghosts. Over time, a hundred-li radius around the peak became uninhabited.
A figure flew through the yin clouds above the ridge, vanishing as if swallowed by the mist. Beyond the clouds, a mountain steeped in billowing demonic energy emerged, dotted with eerie structures—even palaces built from hundreds of skeletons. The yin clouds were an illusion; the peak's true form remained hidden without passing through them.
The figure landed on a bone-strewn square halfway up the mountain and walked toward a gloomy palace constructed from ten thousand skulls—human, demon, and beast. Each skull gaped, its black eye sockets fixed on the palace's center, as if roaring in defiance. Inside, emerald ghost fires floated, turning the palace green like the Yellow Spring.
"Patriarch, the legendary Prince Su of the Great Han has acted, crippling Great Qi's Ninth Prince with a flying sword. Should we adjust our plans for the Great Han?" The figure bowed to a blurred form seated above, shrouded in green light.
"No need. It's all a ruse by the Great Han. Elder Sun, fear not—they have no Myriad Transformations expert," the Patriarch cackled, sneering. "The world thinks Prince Su advanced to Myriad Transformations and returned, but they don't know he's in our Demonic Heaven Sect!"
"What?!" Elder Sun gasped, stammering, "Prince Su of the Great Han is in Demonic Heaven Sect?"
"Indeed." The Patriarch smiled proudly and clapped. Heavy footsteps sounded behind him, and a burly figure with a sheathed sword walked forward, standing rigidly like a marionette. Illuminated by ghost fires, his face was expressionless, his eyes empty—like a soulless husk. Any Han royal would recognize him as Prince Su, rumored to guard the dynasty as a Myriad Transformations expert.
"This corpse puppet is Prince Su of the Great Han!" the Patriarch laughed wildly.
"Patriarch, how... how did this happen?" Elder Sun stared in disbelief. Prince Su had been a Ninth Rank Purple Mansion cultivator, a step from Myriad Transformations, while the Patriarch was only Seventh Rank Purple Mansion—how could he have turned Su into a puppet?
"It was fate!" the Patriarch boasted. "Years ago, I entered the Qilian Mountains to hunt an Iron-Armored Golden Ape for a puppet, but found Prince Su maddened by cultivation gone awry. I brought him back and spent decades refining him into this puppet." He sighed, "Sadly, his cultivation weakened to Sixth Rank Purple Mansion, and he can't use Wind Sword Intent, but a Sixth Rank Su is still enough for our plans."
"Brilliant, Patriarch! Turning Great Han's Prince Su into a puppet—imagine their faces when they learn their ancestor is your puppet!" Elder Sun's flattery delighted the Patriarch.
"Investigate when Second Prince Lin Shuo departs. Once he enters Han territory, send the Zhou royal attendants we've puppeted to attack. I'll control Su's puppet to massacre Zhou, forcing Han and Zhou to war!" The Patriarch's laughter made ghost fires flicker, his figure wild and terrifying.
"When Han and Zhou war, we'll harvest massive blood to sacrifice and revive the Blood Demon Venerable!" Elder Sun's eyes glowed fanatically, willing to do anything for the Venerable.
"The Blood Demon Venerable was重创 (severely wounded) by Han experts and faked death to survive. To revive him, we need a Blood Pool. With enough blood, he'll awaken at peak power—Seventh Rank Myriad Transformations, invincible! We'll follow him to conquer nations and unite the world under Demonic Heaven Sect!" The Patriarch's face contorted with ambition, his eyes ablaze.