Chapter 458: Mine Pit Outside the City, Demon-Possessed Beast

"Let's go."

Du En glanced at the City Lord's Mansion guards; their bellies were visibly churning with ill intent, but he gave them absolutely no opportunity to stir up trouble.

"Yes, yes!"

The guards' replies were somewhat chaotic and appeared absent-minded, but they quickly snapped back to reality, shuddered, and hurried to answer and follow while breaking into a cold sweat.

The group soon left the market area and headed toward the south of the city.

Old Daoist Chili watched those backs quickly moving away, his gaze and divine sense tracking Jiu Yun as he traveled far off and vanished; only then did he withdraw them. His initial excitement instantly dimmed, his eyes flickering, his thoughts unknown.

Glancing again at the crowd that had not yet dispersed, he remained completely indifferent to their envy, jealousy, and even the malicious gazes they couldn't help but reveal; with a mere wave of his sleeve, he left the spot.

The Dark God Rhombus Mirror spun around and followed after him.

That's right, he had left the group and stayed behind.

Because the clues provided by Old Daoist Chili were a bit too explicit and the problems were obvious at a glance, Du En and the others had just exchanged a look and tacitly decided to leave the Dark God behind to conduct surveillance here.

The two people and one god were all the type who could handle things on their own, so having more people meant things were easier to get done! After a while.

South of Jiu Yun City, the barren mountains were withered and dead.

Several hundred years ago, this place was still a beautiful region of green hills and clear waters, but once the various spirit mines underground were discovered, the situation changed immediately.

Under the instruction of Venerable Jiu Yun, with the City Lord's Mansion taking the lead, various aristocratic families, small sects, and even groups of rogue cultivators all wanted a piece of the pie, swarming over like starving wolves.

It took only a short amount of time to mine the spirit ores that had existed here for ten million years to exhaustion, and they were exceptionally predatory, leaving no room for recovery, causing the habitat to completely collapse and forming the dead, barren mountains seen today, leaving behind many abandoned mine shafts and pits that looked like scars unable to heal.

Following the clues provided by Old Daoist Chili, Du En acted decisively and brought everyone to this place.

Listening to Sheng Zhaoshui explain the basic situation he had gathered, and then comparing it with the information in the corners of Jiu Yun's memory, he understood the development of the situation here, but he had no time to lament such boundless greed, because the most urgent thing right now was to follow the vine to find the melon.

As one suspicious clue after another surfaced, a sense of urgency began to arise spontaneously!

What exactly was that Supreme's plot? This point urgently needed to be figured out!

Otherwise, he might really just be delivering nourishment from ten thousand miles away, and he would be swallowed and digested without even knowing it, without even a scrap left! "You all split up and search every abandoned mine shaft and pit in this area."

Du En did not hesitate or delay in the slightest, issuing this order to the City Lord's Mansion guards.

"Yes!"

The guard leader did not slow down or slack off; after receiving the order, he immediately made specific arrangements. The guards formed small teams, scattered, flew off, and quickly took their positions, beginning to explore the mountains and underground areas.

"This bunch of fellows has low strength and impure motives; they can only be used as vanguards and cannot be relied upon too much. Since my divine sense has already been proven to have areas that are not comprehensive enough, I want to refine a batch of puppets to expand the boundaries of my vision and let them serve as the main force for the search."

"Understood, understood. I will stand guard."

Sheng Zhaoshui expressed his understanding, but couldn't help but feel a bit concerned, "Although the Dao of Puppetry is relatively close to the Dao of Artifact Refining, I see that you seem to have quite impressive attainments in this field as well. Why haven't I seen you use it before?"

It was obvious that he had been bothered by seeing Du En casually molding puppets earlier.

And the "before" mentioned here was, of course, the only time the two had interacted: the grand competition.

In other words, Sheng Zhaoshui seemed to have become a bit competitive and resentful, feeling that Du En hadn't used his full strength in the competition and was acting.

Du En glanced at him and said casually, "I learned it in another star realm."

"So that's how it is."

Sheng Zhaoshui nodded, rubbing the stubble on his chin; he still looked like his usual superficial, devil-may-care self, making it impossible to tell what he was actually thinking.

Du En couldn't be bothered to care about him; in any case, he hadn't lied.

After letting Zhu Qing stay far away, he brewed his energy for a moment, his pupils faintly turning red.

The Three Truths Divine Fire didn't need such strong firepower; the Phoenix Red True Flame was sufficient.

The pure red phoenix fire was released, but the heat in the air did not spread, remaining confined to a small range—which also served as a warning boundary; otherwise, it could have been completely contained.

He then took out various fifth-tier materials, paired them with the sixth-tier materials that served as the key core, and they were quickly melted into essence, mixed, and transformed in nature.

With a flick of his fingers, he struck various restrictions into them, then solidified and combined them into shape, before beginning to dot and paint patterns in the air with his fingers, creating the key parts such as the mana and spirit Qi circulation channels inside the puppets...

The entire process appeared smooth and flowing, yet there was a faint sense of awkwardness.

It did indeed look like something he had just learned.

Sheng Zhaoshui nodded slightly, then his mouth twitched.

"You just learned it and you're already refining sixth-tier puppets? What kind of 'just learned' is this?"

That's right, since sixth-tier materials were being used, it naturally wouldn't just be to make fifth-tier puppets.

Otherwise, there would be no need for anyone to stand guard, and Du En could quickly mass-produce ones that would suffice.

Time passed quickly, and the bodies of several sixth-tier low-grade puppets had already been crafted.

Because they were in a hurry, there were no fancy tricks; they were just the most ordinary wooden-man-style puppets. As long as the cores were installed and the spines were assembled, they would be able to jump around immediately.

Du En intended to make two hundred for emergency use, and when he had time later, he would come back to craft high-quality combat puppets capable of providing significant combat power.

—The puppet-manipulation secret manual Meng Changqing gave him also included more advanced puppet-making techniques, clearly showing that he was well aware of the "ancient" nature of that ancient Puppet Sect.

Of course, even if they were for emergency use, sixth-tier was sixth-tier; they were units comparable to the Void Refinement stage. Even if they were only the weakest level of ordinary genius-tier Void Refinement, it was enough to sweep through a fifth-tier star realm invincible.

Boom!

Just as Du En was about to finish refining the puppet bodies, such a commotion suddenly erupted in a mine shaft in the distance. The brilliance of mana flickered faintly, revealing intense instability; it was clear that someone was casting spells and fighting.

Huh? This bunch of fellows actually found the real target? Originally, Du En had no expectations for them; he just brought them along because he had to, and couldn't let them sit idle. As it turned out, they produced such an effect. To be honest, the two of them only felt cautious at this moment, and their first thought was that it was a trap.

"Let's go over and take a look first."

Du En waved his hand to retract the nearly finished puppets into Kongsang Mountain, then grabbed the oblivious Zhu Qing, who had been right at his side, and rushed over with Sheng Zhaoshui. The other guards in various locations also heard the news and acted, gathering at the scene of the incident.

Before they even arrived, various sounds were already being captured.

"Evil beast! Die!"

"Ah! Damn it, these guys are so strong!"

"Hold on, the Venerable will be here soon!"

"Ahhh! Take my secret technique, Sky-Startling Thorn!"

The four guards here were noisy and panicked, unleashing all sorts of spells and methods, creating all kinds of commotion, but among them, the sound of shattering was the most piercing.

Bang! Slap! "No! My life-bound magical treasure!"

"Damn it! Take this move of mine!"

"Wait, no..."

Boom!

Black smoke billowed, and the firelight was deep.

It was unknown which guard had unleashed their trump card, but due to the constraints of the terrain, an unexpected situation formed; in a violent explosion, the mine began to collapse, and the ground in the entire area cracked along with it, about to cave in together.

Du En landed here at this moment, as if born from the earth, resonating and merging with it; in an instant, he stabilized the boundaries of this area, causing the scars to heal and the foundation to be repaired.

Besides his great magical power of the Nascent Soul stage, there was also the Earth-element resonance that served as the foundation of his cultivation technique; although it seemed particularly inconspicuous now, as if it had been abandoned, it was actually still the base point of his entire cultivation, impossible to disappear into thin air, merely silently supporting his current brilliance.

Therefore, it was truly appropriate that the True Monarch had given him that Profound Turtle Shield; using it now to prevent the scene from being destroyed was a situation where it could be put to good use.

With another wave of his hand, the thick smoke dissipated and the firelight dimmed; four disheveled guards, two of whom were even severely injured and unconscious, were snatched out from the air and tossed to the back, toward the gathered guards, who scrambled to treat them.

These guards of the City Lord's Mansion were usually pampered, overbearing, and preyed upon the city; having long forgotten various dangerous situations, they were now suddenly confronted with one again, and each of them was subconsciously shocked and furious.

Only the guard leader was secretly anxious and uneasy, looking at his severely injured and disheveled subordinates, deeply feeling the thorniness of the enemy.

—With the four Nascent Soul guards joining forces, even he would find it difficult to win easily; one moment of carelessness could even lead to being defeated in turn! Then, what kind of creature could it be that could reduce such four Nascent Soul stage experts to this state? "Heh..."

"Slurp~"

Drip~

Low snoring sounds, the sound of saliva dripping, and bloodthirsty gazes emerged from the gloomy darkness inside the mine, approaching and walking out swaggeringly.

The silhouettes of human figures, either hunched or crawling, had various beast skins, shells, and thorns growing on their bodies, as if they were humans wearing fur and armor to dress as wild beasts; but looking closely, the details of neither their heads nor their limbs were what humans should have, but were instead the shapes of various monster beast parts.

So rather than saying they were humans, it would be better to call them a type of monster beast that failed its transformation? Transformation is a path of advanced study that monster beasts can choose to pursue once their cultivation reaches the fifth-tier Nascent Soul realm and they can be called Great Monsters.

Just as snakes and pythons can choose to transform into flood dragons or dragons, because the human race is powerful and is a dignified superior race, those ordinary monster beast groups, out of a psychology of admiring the strong and with many spirit beast predecessors setting the example, would choose to lean toward the human direction in order to obtain various corresponding benefits.

This often requires the Great Monsters to spend an entire major realm to carry out, constantly correcting, adjusting, and molting, gradually transforming from a massive beast form into a perfect human form.

But no matter which stage, normally it should not be the state before them, which looked like they had suffered from cultivation deviation.

Moreover, the strength of these demonized monster beasts was somewhat lacking; Du En could tell at a glance that before they were turned into this state, they only had the strength of the third or fourth tier, with the third tier being the majority, which could not satisfy the basic condition of a fifth-tier Great Monster at all.

However, after slightly raising his eyebrows, he nodded lightly in secret.

This is how it should be; anything related to the Supreme True Monarch must be this kind of strange, misshapen ghost thing.

To be honest, the Profound Mysterious Star Realm was so ordinary that it really made him feel a bit unaccustomed; encountering these weird things that were clearly the result of human interference and tossed together with evil arts, this could finally be considered finding back his previous feeling.

Sheng Zhaoshui's thoughts at this moment could be said to be not much different from Du En's state of mind.

Finally encountered an obvious problem; those who don't hide or conceal are good enemies! However, the guards did not have such a good mood.

Originally they were shocked and furious, just wanting to give the enemy a taste of their power so as to maintain their original status and dignity, but now that they saw the real master, their courage immediately dissipated by half, and they couldn't help but turn pale, gradually oozing cold sweat.

That malicious gaze, that surging demonic Qi, was simply not something that a normal thing should have! The bloodthirsty gaze cast upon them made them feel a chill down their spines.

Sensing that strange demonic Qi, even their Nascent Souls were trembling, as if they had encountered a natural enemy, and they couldn't muster any desire to resist at all.

Various thoughts flowed, all in the blink of an eye.

Just as the ordinary people here were lost in their own thoughts, those demonized monster beasts could no longer hold back; scarlet light flickered in their eyes, manic demonic power clamored, and without a shred of fear, they immediately charged out.

"Awoooo!"

Before Du En could make a move, once shone upon by the sunlight, these demonized monster beasts screamed one after another, as if they would die upon seeing the light, and black mist radiated from their bodies.

Du En paused his action of attacking, raised his hand to snatch, and a wisp of mist arrived in his palm.

It had no smell and was not demonic Qi; crushing it to examine it, it was more like the dissipation of the origin of life? He couldn't see through the specific situation for a moment, which was also normal, so he didn't pay much attention to it, only looking back at the demonized monster beasts after the black mist in his hand dissipated.

They had already retreated into the mine, their auras unstable, and the injured parts looked like melted asphalt, with even their bones melted; there was unwillingness in their eyes, but they still turned their heads and left, retreating into the depths of the mine.

"Exalted One."

The guard leader approached at this time and said, "Looking at the details of these grotesque monster beasts, they seem to be the monster beasts mentioned in the street rumors; what should be done next?"

"I see that they are overcome by sunlight, so the situation is simple; lead the sunlight into it, and you will naturally be invincible."

As Du En said this, he raised his hand and pointed at the high-hanging sun; a cluster of brilliant golden light immediately separated from the bright heat, and with another movement of his finger, rays of light fell upon the guards, making them look like divine soldiers descending to the world on the spot; each of them was bright and shining, and could be used as lighting fixtures at night.

A surge of courage welled up spontaneously; even the few who were injured shook all over, and those who were unconscious woke up on the spot, all of them glowing with courage.

Such an action had an obvious meaning.

You have been buffed, you have special attacks, go! The guard leader's eyes flickered, he gritted his teeth slightly, and waved his hand: "Charge! Clear out these things that dare to secretly occupy the area outside the city and have become a festering threat!"

(End of this chapter)