Chapter 194: Deep in the Medicine Garden, the Guards Reveal Themselves

The aura on these people was yin-cold and lifeless; they were nothing like living beings, but rather like puppets that had been dead for a long time, controlled by some evil sorcery.

Among them, the figure closest to the bronze cauldron was somewhat different from the other guards.

It was a stooped old man, also wearing a dark-green robe, but without a mask, revealing a face full of wrinkles like dry bark.

He leaned on a black cane, around which a live snake coiled; the snake was pitch-black, its eyes flashing with a ghostly green light, and it was hissing as it flicked its tongue.

The gloomy aura emanating from this old man was several times stronger than that of the Black Judge we had encountered before, reeking of nauseating decay and evil.

Zhang Jun and Lin Xue had just popped out from the thicket when the stooped old man suddenly lifted his head; his murky eyes, like muddy pits, locked precisely onto their hiding place.

"Heh…heh heh heh…" a hoarse, grating laugh escaped his throat, like sandpaper rubbing on bone: "I've waited so long, and finally two lively little bugs have come… perfect, to add some fresh fertilizer to my medicine garden."

Before his words faded, he lightly stomped the snake-entwined cane on the ground.

"Boom!"

A muffled thud, as if striking directly at a person's heart.

The seven or eight puppet guards in dark-green robes surrounding the altar suddenly had a point of blood-red light flare in their hollow eye sockets.

They moved like activated machines—stiff yet astonishingly fast—silently charging from different directions toward the thicket where Zhang Jun and Lin Xue hid!

No battle cries, only the sharp sound of robes tearing the air, and the icy killing intent seeping from the stillness!

"We've been discovered!" Zhang Jun hissed.

"Charge!" Lin Xue's eyes flashed with cold light.

Hiding any longer is pointless; now we can only force our way through!

Their target was the bronze cauldron on the altar, and possibly the nearby fragment of the Hundred Herbs Classic!

Zhang Jun was the first to burst from the thicket, his body erupting in golden light like an angry vajra, slamming head-on into the two puppet guards lunging at him!

"Bang!"

Zhang Jun's fist, blazing with scorching pure yang energy, slammed solidly into the chest of a puppet guard.

That force could pit a stone block.

But the puppet guard merely swayed, its dark-green robe denting deeply where struck, without any sign of torn flesh.

Let alone a pain reaction—the face beneath the mask probably wouldn't even furrow a brow.

Its stiff, patchwork‑like arm, whistling with wind, swung back to grab Zhang Jun's face.

The nails were long and sharp, glossy black, clearly coated with a lethal poison that seals the throat on contact.

Zhang Jun tapped the toe of his foot, sliding aside to narrowly evade that vicious claw.

He silently cursed: these things move awkwardly, yet possess terrifying strength and are not slow; the key is they feel no pain and fear no death—damn, they're a real pain to deal with!

Another puppet guard had already lunged from the side, delivering a simple straight punch that felt as heavy as Mount Tai pressing down.

Zhang Jun sank his stance, steadied his horse stance, and naturally employed the Medical Sect Body Technique, skillfully dodging the punch's center while turning his elbow into a blade to viciously strike the opponent's arm joint.

"Crack!"

A sound not loud, but clear enough—a bone‑joint dislocation.

The puppet guard's entire arm instantly went limp and drooped, yet it acted as if unharmed, its other hand still whistling forward as if that arm weren't its own.

The pure yang energy indeed works; each hit makes a wisp of black smoke rise from the puppet, slowing its movements by a beat.

But their numbers overwhelm; they charge forward like they've been injected with chicken blood, and Zhang Jun, surrounded, feels his arms and legs beginning to weigh down.

Meanwhile, Lin Xue was not idle.

Her body was light as a leaf, moving with ease among the several puppet guards' encirclement.

With her fingers flying, needle‑fine silver strands like cow hairs shot out silently.

These needles precisely pierced the puppets' moving joint gaps, and also struck some odd nodes that looked like energy flow points.

Although they couldn't kill these iron lumps, it was enough to make the puppets' movements clumsy and sluggish.

At the same time, she raised her bare hand, and powders of many colors scattered like heavenly maidens strewing flowers.

Some powders, just by smell, sting the nose, noticeably slowing the puppets' movements as if they were drunk.

Other powders are strongly corrosive; when they touch the puppets' robes they hiss and emit foul green smoke, scorching the flesh beneath the fabric to a faintly visible black.

Lin Xue devoted all her superb medical skill to making these ghastly things "uncomfortable," greatly easing the pressure on Zhang Jun's side.

By the altar, the stooped old man showed no hurry to act.

He simply stood there gloomily, his withered lips twitching rapidly, uttering a muddled, low chant like a mosquito's hum.

The cane in his hand, entwined with a black snake, tapped the altar stone slab beneath his feet with a steady rhythm.

As his chanting and striking grew faster, the rust‑spotted bronze cauldron at the altar's center buzzed louder and more urgently.

"Buzz—buzz—buzz—"

The ancient rust on the cauldron's surface seemed to come alive, gradually oozing a viscous dark‑green glow.

The dark‑green toxic mist pervading the medicine garden, as if finding its home, surged wildly toward the bronze cauldron.

Then, through some unseen link, it poured ceaselessly into the bodies of the puppet guards.

Having received this toxic mist's "nourishment," the blood‑red light in the puppet guards' hollow eyes suddenly flared.

Their yin‑cold aura grew heavier, their strength and defense seemed to increase a notch, and even their originally stiff motions became noticeably smoother, exuding a strange ferocity!

The Hidden Breath Jade Talisman hanging from Zhang Jun and Lin Xue's necks, under the double oppression of the impenetrable toxic mist and the cauldron's eerie power, finally couldn't bear it—with a soft "crack," a fine line split its surface, rendering it completely useless.

On the contrary, the Yin Yang Jade Pendant they wore close to their bodies grew brighter and brighter.

The Yang Jade in Zhang Jun's palm radiated a scorching golden light like a miniature sun.

The Yin Jade in Lin Xue's bosom emitted a deep, icy blue glow.

The golden and blue energies spontaneously flowed, forming a faint, slowly rotating Taiji‑pattern force field around them that barely kept the toxic mist trying to invade their bodies at bay.

At the same time, this miniature yin‑yang force field seemed to form an intangible opposition to the dark‑green evil light emanating from the bronze cauldron.