Controlling his life-bound puppet, Li Ye moved swiftly through the Jiuding Valley sect grounds, heading straight for his target the sect's treasure vault.
Thanks to the many tomes left behind by Jiudingzi, which included some architectural maps, Li Ye had a decent grasp of Jiuding Valley's layout. While not to the point of absolute familiarity, he was at least moving with clear purpose.
There was no wasted time.
Hidden within a mountain on the battlefield's edge, he calmly observed the situation both inside and out.
Although the Thousand Island Water City army outside was launching a fierce assault that had the grand formation shaking on the verge of collapse, this was still a third-grade formation it wasn't known for nothing.
As long as the formation was maintained from within Jiuding Valley, it could still hold out a while longer.
If Jiuding Valley was truly desperate, they might even unleash a final burst of strength and launch a suicidal counterattack on the invading forces before the formation crumbled completely.
"Even with such a fierce assault, it'll still take time to breach the formation…"
"At a moment like this, the entire Jiuding Valley is too busy dealing with the enemy to worry about much else. At most, only a few upper-level members, already thinking of fleeing early, might head to the treasure vault…"
"A handful of Foundation Establishment cultivators at best not even a threat to my life-bound puppet now…"
"If I do run into them, I can simply let them open the vault first before I make my move!"
Li Ye thought silently, with a trace of anticipation.
The golden cauldron artifact he had seized from Jiudingzi seemed to be more of a symbolic object for the sect. It wasn't directly linked to the sect's formations or vault restrictions.
And Jiudingzi hadn't carried any tokens granting access to those systems either. From the start, Li Ye had planned to breach the vault's defenses on his own.
At this point, Jiuding Valley had neither the manpower nor the resources to mount a serious defense against him. No need to hesitate.
Forcibly breaking the formation was no longer an issue.
Waiting for someone to open the door for him had just been a passing thought it wasn't something he realistically expected.
"…Huh? Someone's coming?"
Li Ye raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised.
By now, his life-bound puppet had reached the mountain peak housing the treasure vault, which was heavily protected by formations.
Under normal circumstances, this place would be heavily guarded by sect disciples, with strict defenses in place. Now, only the formation remained, shielding the area from outside surveillance.
But before he could find a proper angle to breach the defenses, he saw two figures quietly approaching.
Leading the way was none other than Sect Master Xiang Dong'ang, followed by Elder Ye Shiguang.
The two kept their auras suppressed and moved efficiently. Upon reaching the treasure vault, they immediately pulled out a token and opened the formation's barrier, stepping inside in haste.
Running into a situation where the vault's owners opened the door for a thief Li Ye certainly wasn't about to pass up such a golden opportunity.
The life-bound puppet moved instantly, transforming into a stream of clear water and silently slipping in right behind them, entering the vault.
However, the moment it entered, the vault's formation seemed to detect the anomaly. It immediately activated, unleashing beams of spiritual light that struck the puppet.
"Who's there?!"
The cautious Xiang and Ye were startled by the disturbance. Following the formation's alarm, they quickly spotted the intruder that had somehow slipped in behind them.
Seeing the formation autonomously attacking the watery intruder, they followed up without hesitation, each summoning their spirit tools and launching attacks.
There was no questioning only the immediate decision to kill and eliminate the threat!
But then, the black-blue water surged upward, and a powerful Golden Core aura emerged.
In the stunned eyes of Xiang and Ye, the water coalesced into a figure clad in armor, its face concealed.
It was the very same Golden Core cultivator who had interfered in the battle at Thousand Island Water City!
And now, he had snuck into Jiuding Valley to steal from their treasure vault!
The puppet raised its hand, sending streams of water to intercept the formation's attacks one by one.
As for the spirit tools from Xiang and Ye, they didn't even try to dodge. A true essence barrier sprang up, taking the blows directly.
All the while, it focused solely on manipulating the water to bombard the area where the formation had reacted earlier. After several successive strikes, it forcefully created a breach in the defensive array, causing it to shut down and stop attacking.
Despite being top-grade sect artifacts, the cauldron-shaped spirit tools wielded by Xiang Dong'ang and Ye Shiguang could only slightly ripple the barrier.
Just when it seemed they might break through it, the flowing water reinforced the shield, returning it to its original state.
They couldn't even land a proper hit on the armored figure!
Thud!
Xiang Dong'ang, unable to retract his spirit tool in time, reacted quickly to the hopeless situation he dropped to his knees.
"Senior, spare us! You may take whatever you want from the vault just let us live!"
Ye Shiguang followed suit in a panic, "Senior, please spare our lives!"
But the life-bound puppet didn't stop for a moment. With a flick of its hand, several razor-sharp water threads flew out.
They glistened like crystals, beautiful and deadly.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
In the blink of an eye, the threads sliced across Xiang and Ye's necks.
The sparkling water turned red. Their terrified, pleading expressions froze in place before they collapsed, dead.
Although the puppet was strong, its methods using the Blackwater Pearl were limited. Had either of the two chosen to run instead of kneeling, Li Ye might not have been able to catch and kill them, given the constraints of the formation here.
It could only be said that the fear left by previous events had shaken them too deeply.
The puppet reached out and took their storage pouches and command tokens.
"If I let everyone who begs for mercy off the hook, I'd probably have a lifetime of enemies constantly coming for me…"
Li Ye shook his head and resumed his actions.
With the sect master's command token in hand, even without knowing every secret code or technique, his formation mastery was more than enough to handle the rest.
The sect's treasure vault was now his for the taking.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Amid earth-shaking spiritual energy surges, Jiuding Valley's grand formation finally shattered.
Rooaar!
"Kill!"
As the black flood dragon let out a deafening roar, the Thousand Island Water City army stormed into Jiuding Valley.
Heads rolled, and blood flowed like rivers. The Jiuding Valley disciples were powerless to resist, fleeing like stray dogs.
The black flood dragon roared furiously, unleashing torrents of black water, crushing numerous Foundation Establishment elders and sealing a decisive victory.
It then charged straight toward the treasure vault at the rear mountain, blasting through all formations in its path and tearing off the roof of the vault.
But what greeted its eyes
were two headless corpses and a looted ruin, as if someone had already swept through the place.
A furious roar erupted, shaking the heavens.
"Who dares steal Thousand Island Water City's prize… Don't let me find out who you are!!"
.........
"This black flood dragon sure has a bad temper..."
Li Ye retrieved his life-bound puppet and the two storage artifacts, shaking his head with a chuckle as the distant roar echoed through the air.
Then, a slow smile curled at the corners of his mouth.
"With such a huge haul, even after advancing to the Golden Core stage, I won't be lacking resources for cultivation anytime soon..."
As he spoke, a faint cyan glow flashed across his body. In the blink of an eye, he merged into the surrounding vegetation and disappeared into the distance.
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