Chapter 411: The Great Army Refined, Marching Toward Rain Valley

"Hiss!"

The great snake mount, now light and free of illness, hissed again with full vigor, unable to help but raise its head, only then realizing what had happened.

I'm cured?! How is that possible?! Even the apostles of the Holy God couldn't withstand the Fluorite Sickness...

"I shattered the infection within your body. Next, you must quickly digest the flood dragon meat to effectively utilize it as your own nourishment; otherwise, the sickness will recur."

The Dark God General said this.

Simply put, by following the infection of the Fluorite Sickness, he had directly shattered it while it was raging within his mount's body, achieving a disguised purification effect similar to the Holy God's Hanging Lamp, turning it into nourishment the mount could utilize.

With the flood dragon meat in its belly—which had almost been carved away and scattered, but which it had guarded and held onto desperately—as long as this great snake worked hard to digest it, reaching the Fifth Rank Perfection and stepping into the ranks of the strong geniuses would be no problem.

It nodded frantically at once, circulated its demon power, and began to act.

Its injuries recovered rapidly, and its overall aura underwent a change.

The Dark God General landed on the great snake's head with a look of satisfaction. Subconsciously, he went to touch his saber as he usually did, then remembered that his own broadsword had been shattered by the apostles, and the largest remaining piece was currently stuck in the mountain far away.

The setting sun was like blood; looking at it from afar, it resembled a tattered tombstone.

His gaze became somewhat complex, and he lifted his foot to step down lightly.

It was time to go back.

"Hiss!"

The great snake hissed, crawling and slithering away.

It left behind the Holy Kingdom, which was shrouded in the dead of night, a place of deathly silence where life no longer stirred, and chased the sun toward the Dark Kingdom in the west.

However, was it truly a place of deathly silence?

The Dark God General looked back from afar.

At this moment in the Holy Kingdom, few of the infected remained, yet the commotion seemed to be growing ever larger? Indeed, one could not expect to just hunker down in Spirit Spring Village and linger on; in the end, the war had not actually finished...

"I don't know if I should thank that side, but for the upcoming actions, at least I don't have to worry about harassment from the infected."

The Holy God naturally relied on Spirit Spring Village to observe every corner and direction of the Holy Kingdom.

Or rather, except when she was within the Holy Mausoleum, she had plenty of ways to patrol her kingdom.

Regarding the total annihilation of the apostles, she silently sighed and mourned, wishing them a peaceful rest. After the Dark God General left the national borders, she squeezed out the remaining strength to guide those remains into the mausoleum soil.

In front of Du En, she only spoke of the changing situation and the various performances of that general.

He truly possessed a supreme physical body, and as expected, as the party that had spread the Fluorite Sickness, he had a deep understanding of it and could easily crush the infection and the disease.

—The Dark Kingdom's deployment of the Fluorite Sickness had indeed injured them as well, a mutual defeat, but they were the side that held the initiative and had possessed a basic understanding of it early on.

Gaining the upper hand now and eliminating the threatening infected was indeed within reason, yet it was also somewhat unexpected.

It was mainly because that general had fought Jiang Ying, which allowed him to break through; otherwise, the opponent would certainly not be so composed now, and would surely have long since driven straight in and slaughtered their way into the Holy Kingdom.

Du En watched silently as the "pig teammate" lay in the coffin, still lacking a restored silhouette, then glanced at the sky, looking far away at the true pig teammate on the other side.

Even as calm as he was, he could not help but want to sigh.

Not a single one of them is useful.

But fortunately, although the Dark God General showed a special effectiveness against the Fluorite Sickness, Du En's own strength did not rely on the Fluorite Sickness, so there was no need to be overly anxious.

Although the Holy God knew this too, she seemed to have other concerns.

Therefore, she had truly pointed out the locations of all the Fourth and Fifth Rank mines within the Holy Kingdom, as well as every last known spiritual object, appearing as if she were going to exhaust all her strength to gamble on the nation's fate.

She also had the physician hurry to use two types of exotic objects to attempt to craft an antidote and awaken Jiang Ying.

Did she seem to have other expectations for that side? Du En did not dwell on it, but while doing his best to recover, he worked overtime through the night, refining and managing on a large scale. First, he refined more Empty Salamander Puppets to carry out air transport, and then one puppet after another was quickly produced.

His Dao techniques were proficient, and he gave his all.

The firelight illuminated the night, never extinguishing.

The people in the village looked at the outskirts from afar, feeling it was all very dreamlike. The unease and anxiety of these past days were all burned away in the firelight, and the overall atmosphere became somewhat different.

The people with light and severe illnesses on the island in the lake were also extremely excited, yet they could not help but feel dejected.

They smelled the smoke of the counterattack but knew they could not participate in it, which was why they felt this way.

The Living Remnants were also watching from afar.

After stripping away the shadows of the Rift Flowers, they did not immediately dissipate because of the residual influence—or rather, the residual whiskers—and with the physician's spell-casting protection, they still had some time to linger, even gaining a semi-corporeal state, which was perfect for them to act as helpers.

Because they were dead, projections of the past, naturally, under normal circumstances, it was impossible for them to be infected by the Fluorite Sickness.

There were eighty-eight Spirit Spring Villages, with thousands upon thousands of patients. Relying on him alone to run everywhere was not only tiring, but the efficiency was truly not great. Now that he had helpers, as long as the final exotic object arrived and the antidote was crafted, he could quickly treat the illness and save people.

"Please, by all means, do not be careless. The people of the Dark Kingdom are mostly madmen, especially those stationed at Rain Valley; they are like fanatical believers. Once they detect our goal, they will only destroy the Rain Bone. Therefore, my suggestion is to decapitate them and seize the object, then bring the main force to bear and crush them!"

The physician sought out Du En and made this suggestion.

Clearly, this side had not expected him to collect two exotic objects so quickly, leaving only one step away, so it was inevitable that their mindset had changed, not wanting to fall short at the final hurdle.

Du En nodded slightly; that calm expression always made his own people feel very at ease.

Thus, the physician came in a hurry and left in a hurry.

Du En also caught a glimpse of Yun, the physician's younger sister, appearing in the distance.

The two sides merely met eyes, one nodding slightly, the other waving a hand in greeting, and having finished their salutations, they continued doing their respective tasks.

Time passed in a hurry, flowing in an orderly fashion.

Very soon, it was dawn.

The firelight extinguished along with it.

【Spells: Earth-Wood Holy Refining (Great Accomplishment 302/500), Top-Grade Puppet Manipulation (Mastery 33580/300000)】

【Hundred Arts: Puppet Crafting (Great Accomplishment 0/500)】

After a night of struggle, with no regard for cost and no stinginess in piling up materials and quantity, unsurprisingly, his Puppet Crafting skill broke through to the Great Accomplishment stage.

If it weren't for the fact that the Source Life Star Realm lacked Sixth Rank materials, he could have even raised it a bit higher. After all, he could be considered a minor Void Refinement cultivator; making a Sixth Rank puppet was difficult, but not by much.

Because there were many materials for the Earth and Wood elements, the Earth-Wood Holy Refining also saw a significant improvement.

At the same time, various puppets were being controlled and constantly transported, beginning to deploy in battle formation, while also rapidly increasing the proficiency of the Supreme Puppet Manipulation Technique.

Looking at it as a whole, the improvement was quite significant.

Today can be said to be different from the past.

Du En felt no impatience or complacency; he remained as he always was, and under the hazy, dim morning sun, he inserted the final magical artifact spine into the life-sized puppet before him. The brand-new puppet general had a face modeled after his own; as the components were fully replenished, light radiated from its core, circulating throughout its body like meridians, while wood and earth textures were covered in human-fleshed skin, and a set of robes was also constructed from surging magical power.

A new Du En appeared there.

Using the best and most special materials, employing the culmination of puppet-making techniques, sparing no effort to fill its core with magical power, and with various blessings added by the Holy God, plus the physician taking time to embellish it with medicinal methods... a Du En puppet that could pass for the real thing was created.

The purpose was obvious: to impersonate himself!

Next, this puppet general, built with a massive pile of materials and techniques and possessing fifty percent of his own strength, would openly command the puppet army; it was also a hub for magical power distribution, allowing Du En to better control the dense, million-strong army of puppets without the aid of divine sense.

However, because of this order of magnitude, the need to balance puppet quality, and factors like the short overnight timeframe, Du En's own consumption and damage had not actually recovered much; in fact, he was even more injured than before.

After all, he had his own limits.

Of course, it could not be seen on the surface.

At this moment, the puppet general was completed and was immediately controlled to begin its operations.

"Then we shall go and take back the Rain Bone first."

The Holy God Hanging Lamp landed on the shoulder of Du En, who looked like he had no problems, its radiance becoming even softer; a shadow of the Hanging Lamp also appeared on the puppet general that was leaving.

Only Yun came to see them off, because the others were busy, and ordinary villagers could not possibly come here.

"Your Majesty, honored guest, I wish you a smooth journey."

She wished them well from the bottom of her heart, waving her hand to send Du En and the others off.

I must work hard too!

Looking at the backs moving toward the morning sun, her gaze flickered slightly; she appeared very motivated, and without stopping to linger, she turned and headed back to the village.

Rumble!

As Du En walked, a rumbling sound appeared ahead.

A ground-traveling puppet broke through the earth and unfolded its abdominal shell, revealing a space to accommodate them, allowing the man and the god to step inside; it then sealed shut and leaped away, burrowing into the ground.

The rumbling sound quickly dissipated, gradually changing from burrowing to earth-escaping.

The previous display was merely to deceive the public.

—At the same time, there were many other burrowing and ground-traveling puppets moving through the earth as the army began its activities.

Just like fish entering a school, the rolling and swimming of countless sardines would make one overlook a single one, not to mention the various puppets running on the ground, flying in the sky, swimming in the water, and escaping through the void.

The composition of this army was even more complex, because Du En's puppet-making techniques had been elevated; various fifth-tier techniques were used with ease. If not for the fact that materials were actually quite restricted, he could easily have created an elite army of purely fifth-tier, and at least mid-fifth-tier, puppets.

But as it was now, it was actually not bad.

As the puppet general took its place, the dense, million-strong puppet army, with a minimum of fourth-tier peak quality, officially set out in a grand manner, spreading out from east to west and forming an arc-shaped route.

On this arc lay the location of the Rain Bone.

Rain Valley.

This place was gloomy all year round, with dark clouds that never dispersed; the slightest disturbance would trigger fierce winds and torrential rain, and it rained non-stop throughout the year, appearing quite peculiar.

The water vapor was extremely abundant, carrying a bloody scent.

A drizzling rain was falling incessantly at this moment, landing upon this valley.

The water-swimming puppets were in their element here, not needing to consume their own magical power to open up water veins.

They were the first to swim here.

Then.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh! Blood-colored light tore through the rain curtain and illuminated it.

The light rain carried a dark, ominous purple, and even in the reflections were tiny, shimmering specks—the fragmented clusters of fluorite crystals.

The rain in Rain Valley now was all rain that gathered the source of the disease.

What pierced through it unimpeded were actually arrows made of blood and flesh!

They were like limbs that had been skinned alive, with only pale bones and blood-red muscle fibers, making one feel alarmed and horrified.

As they broke through the air, the puppets reacted; the water-element prohibition seals on the puppet bodies, irrigated by magical power, rose directly by controlling the water, transforming into all sorts of weapons to meet them.

The pure water weapons were first contaminated by the disease-rain before they even made contact with the bone-flesh arrows.

Pop! They shattered easily, just like water; it was normally difficult to form hard, solid masses.

Seeing that the arrows could not be blocked—it was a method of the Spirit Severing stage—these fourth-tier vanguard puppets made a prompt decision, driving their magical artifact spines through their cores to induce self-detonation.

Boom—

The explosion had just begun when the bone-flesh arrows broke through it and struck the detonation point directly.

Hum! An invisible ripple wiped away the traces left by the puppets, and a small cluster of bone-flesh branches immediately grew on the spot. As the disease-rain fell, these bloody, pale-bone-flesh branches grew at a speed visible to the naked eye, and in a short time, they were already a large cluster of shrubs.

But it stopped there, lacking the strength to continue.

Because there was no replenishment of real flesh and blood.

Rumble, rumble...

It was as if a hornet's nest had been poked; in the territory outside Rain Valley, waves of rumbling sounds approached, and the impact caused the newly grown bone-flesh shrubbery on the outskirts of the valley to tremble constantly.

The dark clouds spreading across the sky also began to shudder! "Woo—"

Accompanied by a long, mournful howl, the dark clouds shattered violently in a large area, and a fifth-tier peak puppet nearly a hundred zhang long, shaped like a whale with huge fins, named Xiang Kun, took the lead in launching an attack.

Its massive fins swept and fanned, tearing apart the rain-laden dark clouds; the long howl transformed into a sonic boom that struck downward, easily obliterating the bone-flesh thickets and the many bone-flesh arrows that were shot.

It then flipped and leaped upward, bringing about a disturbance in the surface layer of space; dense cracks spread all around, causing the terrain to collapse with a roar, mountains to crumble and slide, and lakes to tear open and drain away.

A beam of blood-colored light struck from the valley, officially shattering space and aiming to strike down the Xiang Kun puppet, but it dodged it.

The vanguard troops of the Dark God raised their flags at this moment, no longer pretending or hiding.

Bloody and fleshy, painted with a lotus flower pattern.

White bones, red flesh, blood-colored spreading; clusters of bone-and-flesh branches grew out from the landslides in the valley fissures, covering all directions in the blink of an eye, forming clusters of obstructions and setting up a defensive position.

The patterns of the formation formed instantly, linking into a whole, appearing both sinister and sturdy.

Large groups of soldiers surged out from the valley in an orderly fashion, holding spears and drawing bows, wearing bone armor as if fresh blood had been poured over them; it was thick and red, the rain could not wash it away, and it only further set off the bewitching nature of the blood-light.

The enemy had arranged their troops in an instant, like an iron bucket filled with blood, leaving no further opportunity to exploit any loopholes.

(End of this chapter)