NOVPUBLin Yufei arrived in a hurry and looked at Qian Wanling, who sat upright and tense in the small building, his eyes undisguised with murderous intent.
"You Qian Family, are truly too presumptuous! You blatantly disregard the Rules of the Immortal Alliance!"
"Calm down, Brother Lin," Qian Wanling said with a bitter smile, apologizing. "This matter is someone framing us."
"Framing?! Is the Heavenly Dao’s omen of anomaly false? Is the recording in the Shadow Stone false?!"
The more Qian Wanling spoke, the more Lin Yufei saw it as an excuse and evasiveness, which aroused his great anger.
He was about to take action right there and then.
"Silence."
Fan Li let out a cold snort, forcefully suppressing the two who were at the brink of drawing swords.
He then carefully examined the footage in the Shadow Stone, his brow furrowed.
The footage was not fake.
However, he had indeed noticed anomalies in the Leyline not long ago.
The Qian Family wouldn’t dare to fool him with such a laughable excuse.
What in the world was going on?
For a time, Fan Li felt somewhat overwhelmed.
He knew that if this matter was not handled properly, it might well become known to the entire world.
"You two, follow me to the Hongze Realm."
Fan Li said in a deep voice.
...
However, even with Fan Li’s personal visit, they still couldn’t determine the truth of the matter from the remnants in the Hongze Realm.
Yet there was indeed a significant presence of Kongming Flow Crystals there.
"Old Thief Qian, with Master Fan personally deploying the technique to recreate the Heavenly Dao’s descent, what do you have to say now that you’ve seen it with your own eyes?"
"Brother Lin, is there a possibility that the Heavenly Dao omen... is fake..."
"Shut your damn mouth! From today on, our Lin Family and your Qian Family are sworn enemies until death!"
Watching the hatred not only unresolved but deepened between the two families, Fan Li felt a headache coming on.
He looked up at the sky dome of the Hongze Realm.
"Heavenly Dao... has it changed again?"
After returning to Yueyang State and conducting several experiments as well as multiple verifications, Fan Li confirmed that the Heavenly Dao’s omen of a Cultivator’s fall was still valid.
Despite this, doubts lingered in his heart, especially as Qian Wanling kept insisting that the youngest of the Qian Family had been wrongfully accused.
After personally questioning the Divine Souls of the three, Fan Li also believed they were not the murderers.
Left with no other choice, Fan Li had to report the matter to the Immortal Alliance Headquarters.
What he did not know was that this was the second similar report the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals had received.
However, due to the innate operating reasons of the Immortal Alliance structure, such matters still had not caught the true attention of the higher echelons of the Immortal Alliance.
Silently, the seeds of chaos had been sown.
Da Qi.
Sun Erlang, synthesizing information from various secret agents of the Holy Dynasty, was very satisfied with the effects of the Tampering Heaven talisman.
For the past several thousand years, the precision of the Heavenly Dao’s omen of a fall had been finely verified. It had formed a fixed mindset among the Cultivators of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals; naturally, they would not suddenly begin to doubt it.
"However, it can only be used as a surprise. If used too often, it will lose its effectiveness."
"It has to be used at a critical moment."
Sun Erlang shook his head.
The heroic sacrifice of Zhang Ming’s team had been truthfully reported to The Emperor.
The Emperor unusually proclaimed this to the whole world, not shielding the Holy Capital with his mighty power, but instead created a Floating Temple above Sacred Capital City.
The temple shone with Golden Light, suspended high up in the skies.
From any corner of Da Qi, one could see the temple’s sun-like brilliant radiance.
The Emperor declared that any soldier who sacrificed themselves for the Holy Dynasty would form their statues in the temple after death.
Although they would lose their physical form, they could live forever in the state of a spirit.
The projections of Zhang Ming and others, shining with Golden Light as they flew out from the Floating Temple, confirmed The Emperor’s words.
The people of Da Qi cheered for The Emperor’s divine grace, and the fear of death slowly transformed into a fervent desire to enter the Floating Temple and become immortal spirits.
Sun Erlang knew that the so-called spirits were likely a remnant of the will transformed into shape by the Master’s divine power.
Although it was a far cry from true immortality,
it was still a form of salvation after death.
Rather than dissipating soul and spirit, leaving a final trace in the world, was also good.
But for Sun Erlang, minimizing the sacrifice of his soldiers was the right path.
He entered the secret location where the Holy Dynasty forged tools of conquest.
The Army-killing Arrow and the Sky Piercing Talisman were both developed here.
"Master Craftsman, greetings."
Sun Erlang spoke to the busy Craftsman.
The Craftsman didn’t respond, but focused intently on the black puppets that were zipping around rapidly in the space ahead.
Sun Erlang didn’t take offense and looked towards the puppets as well.
"Such incredible speed."
The black puppet was teleporting continuously, its form drifting, even evading the lock of Sun Erlang’s divine sense.
"Slow! Still too slow!"
"The supply of source power is just that much, trying to bring the functionalities of the mass-produced model up to the abilities imagined is still somewhat forced."
The Craftsman spoke with regret.
"Kid Sun, go on and have a spar with it."
The Craftsman said suddenly.
Sun Erlang nodded, and in a moment, was on the experimental field.
The black puppet stopped its fast movements and launched a fierce attack at Sun Erlang.
There were two main types of attacks: one was a spray of black death rays imbued with the breath of annihilation.
The other was the explosive Array Technique modules, designed to trap and damage the enemy.
They could almost contend with a typical cultivator at the Peak of Nascent Soul, but clearly they were unable to injure Sun Erlang.
While easily dodging the black puppet’s attacks, Sun Erlang flicked several blue light spheres with his fingers.
The light spheres transformed into different curves, accurately locking on and striking the black puppet.
A ghostly light flashed across the puppet’s body, strangely absorbing Sun Erlang’s techniques.
"Kid, you haven’t seen this last time, have you?"
"This move is called ’using the enemy’s path to counter them.’"
As the Craftsman said this, threads of blue light lit up the puppet’s body.
Those blue light spheres were actually reflected back at him.
"This is just one puppet, the advantage of this mass-produced type is in their numbers."
Following the Craftsman’s words, in the blink of an eye, dozens more puppets appeared in the experimental space.
In the battle against them, Sun Erlang found that these puppets seemed to function as a single entity.
Not only did they coordinate well, but they also formed a vague formation.
And any one of them could concentrate all the attacks absorbed by the group and reflect them back.
Even with Sun Erlang’s notable strength, facing more than thirty puppets without using his killing techniques, he started to feel overwhelmed.
After calling a halt to the test, Sun Erlang returned to the Craftsman’s side.
"Master Craftsman, how many such mass-produced puppets can be deployed at once?"
The Craftsman shrugged, "Kid, this is a secret of the Holy Dynasty. Even though you are a direct disciple of the Emperor, I can’t tell you too much."
Sun Erlang couldn’t help but be at a loss for words.
The Craftsman burst out laughing: "Just teasing you."
"[Sacred Army Puppets], they come in groups of fifty and require special cultivators to manipulate them to unleash their full combat power."
"Surrounding and killing someone in God Transformation shouldn’t be a problem."
At those words, a sharp gleam flashed through Sun Erlang’s eyes.
"Is there a limit to the number of these Sacred Army Puppets that can be manipulated?"
"A limit?" The Craftsman paused slightly, then understood.
"Do you want to give it a try?"
Sun Erlang nodded.
The Craftsman pondered for a moment and handed over a Black Jade Disk.
"Don’t push yourself."
Sun Erlang took the disk, and instantly in his sea of consciousness, an image of thousands of black puppets standing neat and straight appeared.
His thoughts became like a thread, linking all these puppets together.
Each and every puppet seemed to possess its own consciousness.
After the connection, Sun Erlang’s divine soul felt as if it was tied down by something heavy, becoming somewhat burdensome.
However, this also resulted in him manipulating the puppets as if they were an extension of his own limbs.
Once Sun Erlang got used to the puppets’ bodies, with a thought, one of them flew into the test field.
It began experiments in escaping and attacking.
After some time adapting, Sun Erlang felt the burden on his divine soul had become negligible.
He then started connecting to additional puppets.
Then the third, the tenth, the fiftieth...
In the Craftsman’s increasingly astonished gaze, the total number of puppets under Sun Erlang’s control surprisingly exceeded one hundred.
And looking at his expression, he seemed to still have plenty of ease.
And looking at his expression, he seemed to still have plenty of ease. And looking at his expression, he seemed to still have plenty of ease.
