My Notoriety Spreads Throughout the World

With the girl by her side, she had no worries, wielding the Dawn Blade to clear the path ahead. Even when a puppet attempted a sneak attack while she was unprepared, Tang Xin would notice in time and resolve it.

From start to finish, Tang Xin's combat prowess exceeded her expectations.

The other party grew up on the Star of Art, having rarely encountered crises and lacking battle-hardened training. Despite her tactical training within academy boundaries, she could steadily follow her footsteps, almost as if reading her mind, always acting a step ahead to coordinate with her next offensive thoughts.

Similarly, she could also guess the purpose of each action in the girl's battle, timely making adjustments, whether to fall back or to break through, creating a favorable environment for the girl's chanting.

This unspoken understanding, the feeling of being able to entrust one's back to another, allowed her to quickly pass through the ten or so puppets lunging at her, aiming straight for a puppet behind the layers of shadows.

This puppet's appearance was not much different from the surrounding ones, even more inconspicuous than the refugee puppets. In the black tide, it was easy to overlook, but its deliberate low profile caught Xu Xiaoyou's attention.

Intuition told her that this puppet possessed support abilities, capable of enhancing all nearby puppets. It reminded her of the Battle Banner Masters in group battles, whose powerful team encouragement made them prime targets on the battlefield. Here was no exception.

Just then, black mist surged around her. From the shadows, a puppet figure clad in a black cloak, wielding two Snake Fang Daggers, broke through the void, attacking her direction!

At the moment the dagger stabbed towards her, she saw his face clearly—it was Lin Xing. The young man's previous refreshing and shy smile was gone, his face covered with dull gray glaze, his lifeless eyes void of vitality.

He was being controlled by puppet strings, or rather, his body, long controlled by strings, had recently been converted into a puppet.

This long-hidden attack was extremely fierce. A flash of cold light erupted at her neck, the otherwise fatal injury blocked by two protective water streams, one summoned by Xu Xiaoyou and another by Tang Xin behind her.

She completely ignored him, leaping off the head of a refugee puppet before he could launch a second attack, rushing towards the last puppet in the back, piercing through its torso with a slash, then horizontally cleaving its chest along with its head!

After she took down this puppet, most surrounding puppets started to shake violently as if their souls had been extracted. After a brief struggle, they collapsed one by one, emitting a dull thud.

Only a few puppets remained standing, still approaching them, creating a bizarre silence hanging in the air—save for the crisp collisions of puppet movement and distant thunderous roars echoing on the horizon.

Indeed, relying solely on a Puppet Master's spiritual power, it's impossible to control so many puppets simultaneously. A Three Tier Rank's spiritual power isn't vast enough for such breadth. This puppet functioned as a relay, executing commands from the Puppet Master, controlling these ordinary puppets.

Once she took care of this relay, these puppets lost control, naturally losing their support and strength.

After Xu Xiaoyou finished all this, she looked at the puppet Lin Xing not far away, pondering his next move.

He seemed to receive an order, not attacking Tang Xin as she expected. Instead, he turned and disappeared into the night, rushing into the distance.

No doubt, the one controlling puppet Lin Xing was the Puppet Master himself, and only someone near them, able to observe the entire battlefield, could adapt their tactics in real-time.

Yorick is very likely in the settlement. Indeed, after showing several weaknesses, the Puppet Master couldn't hold back anymore, turning against them, intending to take them out one by one.

This affirmed her initial judgment; the Puppet Master had been watching them all along during these days.

From the underground chamber before leaving the city, to the snowy plains, passing through the Fars Mountains, and finally to this refugee settlement, their every conversation, every argument, every move was observed.

And his planted spy was Lin Xing, at least from what was visible so far...

The enemy in the shadows, while they're in the open, Xu Xiaoyou quickly pondered the next strategy in her mind.

"To catch a cunning rabbit, the hardest part isn't catching its agile, swift body, but luring it out of its hole. The most crucial step has been accomplished."

Tang Xin also realized something, stepping forward to Xu Xiaoyou's side: "Is that Puppet Master in the settlement now?"

"Yes." Xu Xiaoyou nodded in response.

"Then what should we do next?"

"Same as before, find them and regroup."

Xu Xiaoyou said, then she and Tang Xin took care of the nearby puppets and hurried toward the direction of the stilted building.

...

Before dawn broke, they passed through layer upon layer of encirclement and found Lin Sheng on a street near the stilted building.

The man's clothes had become tattered rags, large areas of bloodstains spreading over his upper body, deep wounds appearing on his tall, sturdy back, looking somewhat ghastly.

Following him was a dense mass of puppets, swarming figures in the street. This surging black tide of refugee puppets, their limbs and faces entangled, sporting expressions of bizarre laughter, crying, or panic, at first glance looked like a nightmare in the form of Corpse Mountain, consuming everything in its path.

Lin Sheng's aura was heavy, filled with a bloody scent and an overwhelming killing intent, as if he had just emerged from a bloody sea of corpses.

As soon as he reached the two girls, he asked, "Have you seen Lin Xing?"

"He's a puppet." Xu Xiaoyou said, then added after a thought, "He attacked us not long ago."

A complex expression flashed across Lin Sheng's face, followed by a long sigh.

Xu Xiaoyou asked, "What about Chen San?"

Lin Sheng shook his head, "I didn't see him when I woke up, don't know where he went."

As they spoke, another batch of puppets arrived, surging from both sides of the street, within this purgatory meticulously crafted by the Puppet Master, these refugee puppets appeared inexhaustible from every direction.

Even if defeated, it wouldn't be long before the previously killed faces, dragging their decaying bodies, emerged from the black tide again.

Just when they were cornered, facing another upcoming bloody battle, several hushed calls suddenly came from near the street corner.

The three turned their heads, spotting silhouettes in an alley waving at them, the refugee youths they encountered yesterday.

"Quickly, follow us, we'll take you to a safe place!"