Chapter 1260: A Sword Pointed at the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance
Chapter 1260: A Sword Pointed at the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance
Sun Erlang didn't respond to the master craftsman's words. His limits stretched far beyond this.
One hundred, two hundred, five hundred...
Only when the number of black puppets swarming the testing ground surpassed one thousand did Sun Erlang, under the master craftsman's astonished gaze, finally cease summoning more.
Over a thousand black puppets clashed with one another, each employing a unique combat style, making it impossible to believe they were all being manipulated by a single person.
Even after achieving such a feat, Sun Erlang still had enough focus to chat with the craftsman.
"You jest, senior. I am the Sacred Emperor's first disciple. In the future conquest of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, I will be a commander, not a mere soldier. Besides, while these puppets are indeed powerful..."
"...I am not weak either."
Sun Erlang's tone was brimming with confidence. "I can delegate the control of these puppets to my subordinates. I refuse to believe that the Sacred Army puppets you've forged, senior, could outnumber the soldiers of our Sacred Dynasty."
As he spoke, flashes of dark light flickered, and the thousand puppets Sun Erlang had summoned vanished from the testing ground one by one.
A spatial rift appeared in their place, and a colossal puppet, its golden light as brilliant as the Heroic Spirit Hall in the skies of the Sacred Dynasty, descended into the arena.
A mysterious and majestic aura swept across the entire testing ground.
The seals surrounding the area groaned under the immense pressure, creaking as if they might shatter at any moment.
The golden puppet's eyes fixed on Sun Erlang, cold and merciless, like a god gazing upon the mortal world.
Being locked in its sights, Sun Erlang felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as if he were facing his own master.
"This is..."
Sun Erlang looked at the master craftsman, a hint of shock in his voice.
The craftsman spoke with undisguised pride, "Now *this* is a puppet that represents the pinnacle of my craft. Those black Sacred Army puppets from before are just mass-produced cannon fodder, consumables for war."
"Think about it. Did you really believe I would let you test my truly high-end creations without any preparation?"
Sun Erlang felt a bit embarrassed at the remark, but his attention quickly returned to the golden puppet standing silently before him.
"Senior, how powerful is this puppet?"
"I don't mean to discourage you, young Sun, but if it came to a real fight, even you, the great first disciple of the Sacred Emperor, might not be a match for this one," the craftsman stated proudly.
Sun Erlang's eyes narrowed, but he didn't voice a rebuttal.
The craftsman continued, "This puppet is nothing like the mass-produced models. Each one is personally forged by me and empowered by the Sacred Emperor..."
He paused. "Heh heh, well, all you need to know is that these golden puppets are exceptionally precious. Even with the full might of the Sacred Dynasty, we've produced no more than ten of them."
"Likewise, the requirements to control one are significantly higher. I was actually worried about where to find suitable pilots. I never expected you to have such an ace up your sleeve..."
"Since you can simultaneously control over a thousand standard puppets, handling five of these golden ones should be no problem for you."
"Such a massive difference?" Sun Erlang asked with a frown.
"Heh heh, you'll know once you try," the craftsman said, pushing a golden sphere into Sun Erlang's sea of consciousness.
Boom!
The scene before him shattered. In an instant, it felt as if he had been transported from the testing ground to the endless, dark Star Sea.
Ahead, two colossal, crimson-gold spheres radiated intense heat and light.
Drawn to them unconsciously, Sun Erlang moved closer, only to realize with a jolt that they were the two eyes of the golden puppet!
His consciousness was instantly absorbed. When Sun Erlang came to his senses, he stared at his own hands in a daze.
He could no longer feel his original body.
His current form had become that of the golden puppet.
And...
Sun Erlang could clearly feel a surging, unknown power flowing and circulating within him.
"This is..."
While he was still stunned, the craftsman's voice echoed in his ear. "I'm sending you to the void outside the Great Qi's small world, to a special hunting ground. There, you can test this puppet body to your heart's content."
The surrounding space warped, and in an instant, Sun Erlang found himself in a dark void.
In the distance, he could vaguely see the Sacred Dynasty, encircled by its many small worlds.
"Roar!"
A silver-scaled giant serpent, tens of thousands of meters long, suddenly appeared from nowhere, its massive, blood-red maw wide open.
In the next moment, it was about to swallow the golden puppet Sun Erlang was controlling whole.
However, Sun Erlang made no defensive move. He simply allowed a faint light to emanate from the puppet's surface.
As if ignited by flames, the silver-scaled serpent turned to ash amidst agonizing cries, dying a painful death.
The serpent's death was like a stone tossed into a pond, sending out ripples.
Hundreds of unknown, ferocious beasts emerged from the darkness, charging toward Sun Erlang as if they had lost all reason.
Sun Erlang could clearly sense that each of these specially bred beasts of the Sacred Dynasty was no weaker than a Nascent Soul cultivator.
But facing their siege...
Sun Erlang raised his left hand and swept it gently through the air, as if strumming the strings of a zither.
A ripple spread through space.
The ferocious beasts, once brimming with killing intent, still wore the expressions they had in life. But in an instant, their bodies were dismembered into countless fragments, raining down like bloody confetti.
"The power of laws."
"The law of space."
Sun Erlang gazed silently at his left hand as a wave of understanding washed over him.
In that moment of epiphany, he seemed to see a figure hidden within his own body.
"A Spirit of Heaven and Earth?"
Even after unleashing such a devastating attack, Sun Erlang felt no fatigue while piloting the golden puppet.
The energy it contained seemed boundless.
"A puppet stronger than a Dao Integration cultivator?"
Sun Erlang was certain that the seemingly effortless move he had just made was enough to grievously wound a Dao Integration expert from the Xuanhuang Realm.
And that was far from the golden puppet's full potential.
"No wonder Senior Craftsman said I was no match for it."
While his heart was filled with indescribable shock, a sense of disappointment also crept in.
He was the Sacred Emperor's first disciple, blessed with countless resources and even a fortuitous encounter with the Tai Yan Sect...
And in the end, he was still weaker than a randomly forged puppet?
What, then, was the point of his cultivation?
As his mind wandered, the golden puppet flickered and returned to the testing ground.
Sun Erlang was ejected from the puppet's body, returning to his own.
Weak.
The extreme contrast instantly surfaced in Sun Erlang's mind.
"Heh heh, that was a blow to your pride, wasn't it, kid? But there's no need to feel that way."
"The resources we poured into these golden puppets could have easily pushed a normal cultivator to the Dao Integration realm."
The craftsman patted Sun Erlang on the shoulder. "You must have felt it, right? Each puppet contains the power of a Spirit of Heaven and Earth. With such a core, these puppets are like fish in water when fighting in the Xuanhuang Realm, gaining nearly a one-third boost to their combat strength."
"Moreover, if the same person controls multiple puppets..."
The craftsman's tone suddenly grew excited. "The puppets can borrow the power of each other's elemental laws!"
"Their combat power can multiply several times over in a short burst!"
Sun Erlang stared silently at the golden, majestic puppet, which stood like a deity in the testing space, and said nothing.
"The Sacred Dynasty and the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance are bound to clash one day. The outcome of that war will be decided by high-end combat power. How many Dao Integration cultivators does the Alliance have? At least a thousand. And how many disciples does the Sacred Emperor have?"
"Besides, you all are still too young. Compared to those veteran Dao Integration masters of the Alliance, you might not have the upper hand. The Sacred Emperor can't personally step in to deal with all of them, can he?" the master craftsman's voice was low and somber.
"At the highest level of power, whoever reveals themselves first is the one who reveals a weakness. Kid, you need to be prepared. In the coming war, the Sacred Emperor may not make a move so easily."
Sun Erlang nodded. "I understand this principle."
"With these golden puppets, we can drastically close the power gap between us. What do you say, young Sun? Want to give it a try?" the craftsman asked.
"As long as you can control three of them at once, surrounding and killing a Dao Integration expert from the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance will be a piece of cake," the craftsman guaranteed.
Sun Erlang slowly nodded.
...
Within the Sacred Emperor's throne room.
The conversation between his first disciple and the master craftsman naturally did not escape the Sacred Emperor's notice.
The golden puppets, with cores made from Source Power Essence and the Spirits of Heaven and Earth from the Xuanhuang Realm, had turned decay into marvel. They were puppets created from pure resources, yet they possessed the power to crush Dao Integration experts.
The inspiration, of course, came from Tianyang.
In fact, under the influence of the golden source power and the craftsman's modifications, Tianyang's own strength had already surpassed Dao Integration and reached the Longevity realm. And...
He was not far from reaching the mortal limit.
Unfortunately, it seemed some unseen restriction was at play. Tianyang's own progression could not be replicated in other puppets.
Even with an identical construction plan, the later puppets were a whole major realm weaker than Tianyang.
Besides the unique factors of Tianyang's own transformation into a puppet, Li Ping suspected a deeper principle was at work.
"The first to walk a path claims it entirely. Just like ascending as a Nameless True Immortal, the path does not allow others to tread upon it. The same is true for these puppets."
"It's just that the restriction seems even more severe."
However, with Tianyang and the current golden puppets at his disposal, Li Ping was already quite satisfied.
War, in the end, was a contest of who had more trump cards.
The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance was undoubtedly profound, but the resources he could mobilize were not few either.
Moreover, the master craftsman had guessed one thing wrong.
"A true powerhouse isn't someone without weaknesses."
"It's someone who isn't afraid of others targeting their weaknesses."
In this war against the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, he had no intention of hiding in the background the whole time.
Otherwise, how could he live up to the name of Sacred Emperor?
"Dharma Spreader."
Li Ping sat quietly, but his gaze pierced through the firmament, reaching beyond the Xuanhuang Realm.
In his hand, he toyed with a brilliant, seven-colored crystal.
Clear Void Flowing Crystal.
Through the records sensed by the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao, Li Ping had already grasped the basics of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's rainbow light escape technique.
He decided to use a puppet body to travel to the depths of the Star Sea before the war began.
Not to fight the Dharma Spreader ahead of schedule, but to seek enlightenment in the Star Sea.
"I will win this war."
The Sacred Emperor's conviction had never wavered.
...
Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
Within the Deduction Jade's space.
Sensing the faint conviction transmitted from his clone, Li Fan couldn't help but nod slightly.
Although his connection to the Sacred Emperor was growing weaker as the clone's power increased, the Sacred Emperor's course of action was still steadily proceeding as planned.
Coupled with the contingencies he had left in place, Li Fan wasn't worried about his plans backfiring.
Besides, as long as his goal of forcing out the Dharma Spreader's objective was achieved, that was enough.
As for everything else...
One thought to return to truth, all else is illusion.
After sitting idly in the Deduction Jade space for so long, Li Fan himself had benefited greatly from the continuous insights flowing from the Sacred Emperor and the Sacred Embryo.
Especially from the other side of the Star Sea, where he had touched upon higher laws that surpassed the limits of the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan had begun to contemplate the path ahead.
"Although I'm under the shackles of the New Method, I can carve out a new path."
"The Dharma Spreader's system relies on the Xuanhuang Realm itself. If I build a new foundation in the star-filled void, I can break free from its constraints."
"However, doing so means I won't receive the Xuanhuang Realm's aid. There are pros and cons. Moreover, resources in the void are scarce. To truly achieve anything, I might have to rely on the Xuanxian Boat."
"And then there's that formless High Wall."
"It seems to be a power completely different from the system of the Darkest Star Sea. But its ability to restrain the power of a True Immortal speaks to its immense strength. If I can study it, it might serve as a surprise move in a future battle against the Dharma Spreader."
"The only concern is..."
Li Fan frowned slightly. "The Dharma Spreader and the Heavenly Doctor left the Xuanhuang Realm long before I did. Their talent also surpasses mine."
"All the insights I've discovered so far, they must have discovered long ago."
"So, my supposed advantages... are not advantages at all."
"..."
"It seems only a real fight will reveal the truth of their capabilities."
It had to be said that as the number of his reincarnations increased, the veils of mystery surrounding the Dharma Spreader and the Heavenly Doctor were gradually being lifted. From initially avoiding them at all costs, Li Fan now felt an increasing desire to test their limits.
Perhaps the day he would truly defeat them was not far off.
Li Fan's thoughts then turned to the Cat Treasure that his Sacred Emperor clone had found.
If there was anything in this life that particularly concerned him, it was this treasure from beyond the High Wall, which he hadn't managed to fish out before.
"The fisher is also the fished..."
A strange light flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
The peculiar reaction of the entire Du'e Sect to the Cat Treasure made Li Fan think of many things.
For now, however, it was all just speculation.
His Sacred Emperor clone had also noticed this strangeness.
His journey to the One Beginning Sect to collect the Wind Calamity remnants and the Great Heavenly Master's bones was partly motivated by this consideration.
...
While Li Fan was lost in thought, the long-standing tranquility of the Deduction Jade space was suddenly broken.
A visitor had arrived.
It was Sun Luyuan of the Sun family.
"Lu'er, joyous news, joyous news!"
Sun Luyuan greeted the other two Dao Integration guardians before speaking to Li Fan.
"I know."
Li Fan's calm response left Sun Luyuan momentarily stunned.
"Through the connection of our bloodline, how could I not know?"
"How is Wu Ninglu?" Li Fan asked, seemingly suppressing a smile at the corner of his mouth.
Sun Luyuan sighed softly. "Wu Ninglu has unfortunately passed away. But thankfully, the child is safe. This is why I delayed coming to you; I was afraid you wouldn't be able to handle it."
Sun Luyuan changed the subject. "Do you have any idea how extraordinary that child is? Born at the Dao Integration realm..."
(End of this chapter)
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