Chapter 466: Seclusion Preparations, Changes Mid-Way

Nine Clouds City, City Lord's Mansion.

"We obey your command!"

Du En, having returned with the group, continued to occupy the magpie's nest, naturally summoning the heads and managers of various departments in the mansion to quickly arrange the many affairs from top to bottom.

No one spoke up, no one had any objections; even if there were any grumbling, it could only be done in their hearts.

Then, the City Lord's Mansion began to enter a state of being relaxed on the outside but tense on the inside, observing both inside and outside the city.

As for receiving those various people who supposedly had clues and came here to claim rewards, that was left to "himself" to be responsible for.

To be precise, it was Sheng Zhaoshui.

"I still have puppets and magical artifacts to refine, and Fellow Daoist An still needs to fully master the precious array. Right now, it seems only you, Senior Brother Sheng, appear to be at leisure. Moreover, as you arrived as part of the vanguard, you know the ins and outs of everything in Qingxuan and won't be easily fooled, so handing this matter to you is the most appropriate choice."

Faced with Du En's calm and matter-of-fact words, which faintly seemed beyond reproach, Sheng Zhaoshui was speechless for a moment, wanting only to say: so now you know to call me Senior Brother, huh?

In any case, the matter was settled just like that.

Sheng Zhaoshui replaced Du En in disguising himself as the Nine Clouds Venerable, responsible for receiving, identifying, and rewarding people, while also temporarily overseeing the internal and external affairs of the City Lord's Mansion.

As for the other person and the god, they each found a place to go into seclusion.

To tell the truth, the old guards felt very relieved all of a sudden.

Because Sheng Zhaoshui didn't pretend very well; his gaze and tone always carried a hint of laziness, which prevented them from feeling too much pressure.

Conversely, Zhu Qing became anxious.

In short, he had tasted a hint of unreliability from someone who was originally very dependable and could put him at ease. Therefore, although he did not act rashly or leave the City Lord's Mansion without permission, he could not help but pace around the edges and entrances, thinking that perhaps if he were lucky, he might hear news of his younger sister's whereabouts one day.

Du En actually saw all of this; after all, although his divine sense often glitched, it didn't always glitch, and under normal circumstances, it was still very useful.

Seeing that there was nothing he needed to pay too much attention to, he then put away the Spirit Resentment Crystal again.

That's right, during the first part of this seclusion, he took out this grotesque crystal again, observing and pondering it, appearing somewhat moved.

In short, he had a sudden whim to bury it inside the Divine Ability Death Ground to see if he could resolve the hidden dangers or even gain some unexpected benefits from it.

Yes, hidden dangers.

When he eliminated that Stele-Carrying Resentment Spirit, he relied on the causal fate connection brought by his divine ability to perceive that he had, unknowingly, become entangled with something inexplicable.

That was not something that had just appeared now, but something that had existed for a long time. As he eliminated the Stele-Carrying Resentment Spirit, it thickened even more obviously, and thus, ripples stirred, finally allowing him to perceive it now.

"An entanglement and binding that happened unknowingly, which even 'Burying Death and Flourishing Life' cannot eliminate—or rather, is it actually brought about by this divine ability and this principle? If that is truly the case, then there is no great surprise, after all, this divine ability was originally comprehended from the handiwork of a Supreme..."

He calmly pondered the situation that had begun to surface. Although he could not be completely certain yet, he still thought of this method of fighting poison with poison.

It was just that, given his current various conditions, it was not yet suitable to execute it.

So Du En put the Spirit Resentment Crystal away again.

He withdrew most of his attention from the outside world and turned to focus on the other matters of this seclusion.

The refining of puppets.

The refining of magical artifacts.

And, the re-cultivation of Daoist techniques.

Since preliminary investigation had confirmed that the general environment was still permissible and there was still some time before the merging and intersection of the surface and the interior, and they indeed needed to prepare for battle, then naturally, he had to make full use of this time.

Thus, he unfolded his plans in a tight and orderly manner.

First was the refining of puppets; to solve the problem of the resentment spirits, this work of mass production could not be lacking.

Because the space in the City Lord's Mansion was somewhat limited, he simply moved into the Kongsang Mountain to get to work.

It is worth mentioning that although this blessed land would theoretically be affected by the spatial environment of the Qingxuan Star Realm, for some reason, it was not affected at all. It simply detached from its original landing point and became a state similar to a portable hidden float, being pulled by him.

In short, there were no problems, and he could even add a few more "towing lines" during this seclusion.

As the preparatory work was completed, the divine fire began to burn within the blessed land, the firelight shining unceasingly, continuing day and night.

As time passed, the pile of materials given by the True Monarch decreased at a speed visible to the naked eye, and at the same time, his proficiency in puppet-making began to rise.

Half a month passed quickly.

【Hundred Arts: Puppet Making (Mastery 30/500)】

Three hundred sixth-rank combat puppets were freshly produced; even those he had previously intended to use to make up the numbers were melted down and dismantled, and invested into this.

"It's unexpectedly material-consuming..."

He had originally planned to create an army of a thousand puppets, but now, having invested half a mountain of materials, he had only made three hundred combat puppets; this situation was somewhat beyond his expectations.

However, there was really no other way; to form an effective suppression against those Stele-Carrying Resentment Spirits, relying solely on ordinary sixth-rank low-grade puppets would not be enough.

Because although the sixth rank corresponds to the Void Refinement stage, those Stele-Carrying Resentment Spirits were powerful existences equivalent to weak geniuses at the Great Perfection of the Spirit Severing stage, while ordinary sixth-rank items were basically equivalent to ordinary genius Void Refinement cultivators.

Although there was an advantage in realm tiers, under the increase and decrease of talent correspondence, they could actually only barely match up, estimated to be a fifty-fifty or forty-sixty split.

So Du En could only pile up materials, pushing the puppets to at least sixth-rank mid-grade, and they couldn't just be ordinary sixth-rank mid-grade; they had to have combat power equivalent to strong geniuses at the mid-stage of Void Refinement to ensure there were no mistakes.

"With three hundred of them, it's actually barely enough."

Du En finished checking his new puppet army and was quite satisfied.

Next was the refining of artifacts.

Another half month later.

【Hundred Arts: Artifact Refining (Mastery 200/500)】 He consumed ninety percent of the remaining half-mountain of materials and produced two thousand sixth-rank magical artifacts.

These were not magical artifacts endowed with expectations like the Mirror-Reflecting Armor; they were just meant to serve as the backbone for controlling artifacts, would not hesitate to self-destruct when necessary, and were fast-refined finished products that could serve as a piercing force.

As for the main body for self-destruction, it was of course the fifth-rank top-grade magical artifacts provided by the Earth-Wood Sacred Refining. It was purely a matter of quantity, occupying seven days and seven nights of the half-month, piling up to a full million. At this time, they were stuck everywhere, making the entire Kongsang Mountain look like a mountain of swords.

"With these magical artifacts, it should be considered barely enough."

Faced with an ordinary sea of resentment spirits, there was actually no need to directly self-destruct; using the controlled artifacts as the main source of damage would suffice. Although those resentment spirits appeared endless, having a million of them as spiral wings was enough to turn into a spirit-grinding machine that they could not solve!

Even if these wings suffered damage and had to self-destruct, the replacement and renewal of these fifth-rank top-grade magical artifacts were things he could perform on the spot; there was no need to worry about running out, he only feared the sea of resentment spirits wouldn't be enough for him to consume.

"However, wanting to perfectly control a million magical artifacts at once is already somewhat beyond my power with the current Earth-Wood Sacred Refining, not to mention having to split my focus to control the puppets; the sixth-rank mid-grade ones also put a not-insignificant burden on me..."

This was the flaw in an otherwise perfect situation.

However, since Du En had prepared in this way, he naturally had his own method of resolution.

Bridge Control!

When those sixth-tier magical artifacts were refined, some puppet-making methods had already been incorporated, and targeting the technique of controlling artifacts, the art of puppet manipulation was adjusted and added in; in this way, by using those sixth-tier magical artifacts as a transit bridge, he could reduce his burden by thirty to forty percent, and be able to perfectly and easily control a million-level quantity of magical artifacts of the same tier!

"Come to think of it, although the Ancient Puppet Sect seems old-fashioned, their top-tier puppet manipulation art is not without its merits; this part that does not limit the number of puppets and only looks at the strength of divine sense and mana control is truly very suitable for me."

His divine sense was extraordinary, his mana was ceaseless, and after applying it, as long as one aspect was not cut off or interfered with, he could easily control a million puppets of the same tier, and as his hard foundation strength increased, it would continue to stack upward...

"It stops before the Integration Stage, because after that is the domain of heaven's pride experts, and various corresponding things are the same; for instance, puppets, I reckon that a single seventh-tier puppet could be comparable to at least ten thousand sixth-tier puppets, and the burden and consumption would naturally have to increase synchronously, or even more than synchronously."

Actually, even now, the control of the sixth-tier puppets still had some small problems.

While controlling a million magical artifacts and three hundred puppets at the same time, it occupied ninety percent of his energy; as such, if a real fight broke out, he would appear to be standing still, without enough remaining leeway.

Du En judged clearly, and so, having just finished lamenting that the top-tier puppet manipulation art was quite meritorious, he turned around and changed this puppet manipulation art.

To be precise, it was advanced training and switching cultivation.

"Divine Machine Puppet Manipulation"

A puppet manipulation secret art that Meng Changqing had obtained for him, which was comparable to a Profound-grade Daoist art from the start; according to the description, when cultivated to the deepest level, it could be called unfathomable and traceless, capable of easily controlling all kinds of things and treating all phenomena as puppets.

"This secret art wouldn't be something created by True Monarch Chengru, and then used to treat me as a lab rat, would it?"

After carefully looking over this secret art, Du En couldn't help but suspect this.

It seemed that True Monarch Chengru was quite keen on creating new arts, perhaps to resist the Supremes; Sheng Zhaoshui was covered in new and strange cultivation arts and Daoist arts, and from the inside out, he was filled with the smell of a lab rat.

Now, this excellent secret art that was extorted by Meng Changqing did indeed look very wonderful at first glance, but upon deep investigation, it was clearly specious and completely followed a puppet manipulation path that was diametrically opposite to the Ancient Puppet Sect.

Although the Puppet Sect was basically declared to be behind the times after its main body was destroyed by the Rotten Forest Immortal Gate, to tell the truth, the foundation of the puppet path had still been passed down, and it was actually difficult to change.

And then it was changed by True Monarch Chengru.

"It really is a drastic measure; if it weren't for the fact that my Earth-Wood Sacred Refining is already at perfection, allowing me to easily control nearly a million magical artifacts at once, and my top-tier puppet manipulation art is also at perfection, making it easy to control a million-level number of puppets, it would truly be impossible to get started with this secret art in a short time."

Du En did not hesitate and immediately threw himself into the switch of cultivation.

After all, there were traces of Meng Changqing's inspection, and half of it had been revised by him; thinking about it, even if there were any hidden traps, it wouldn't be a problem.

Moreover, he didn't need to rush to fully cultivate it; when he reached the Void Refinement and Integration stage, he could also change it himself according to the actual situation.

In short, let's switch cultivation.

It took eight days, and it was not difficult to successfully switch cultivation.

【Spell: Divine Machine Puppet Manipulation (Initial Glimpse 0/20)】

"Only an initial glimpse; as expected, the further back you go, the more obvious the gap, even with a foundation, one cannot directly achieve small success; fortunately, the liver-grinding conditions for this secret art are very ordinary, it's just that there are more objects to control."

Du En made a slight attempt and felt it was acceptable.

Using it to control puppets could reduce the original ninety percent occupation to seventy percent.

Leaving thirty percent of spare energy was enough for him to advance and retreat with ease in a battle! Then, he began to prepare intensively for the switch of cultivation for the other four Daoist arts and one secret art.

However, at this moment, he sensed something, flashed, and appeared outside Kongsang Mountain, in the closed-door cultivation secret chamber.

It was a very subtle situation change in Nine Clouds City that forced him to come out of seclusion to take a look.

Fortunately, the switch of cultivation for the remaining Daoist arts and secret arts was just the icing on the cake; the key preparatory items had actually been done, and even if some accident occurred right now and he had to continue the action immediately, there would be no substantial impact!

Thinking this, he left this secret chamber and came to the east gate of the City Lord's Mansion.

The corpse hanging on the archway outside the gate had long been taken down, and in its place was a platform built under the building, specifically used to receive those who came from afar and wanted to rely on clues to claim a reward.

All four gates had such a platform; for more than a month, Sheng Zhaoshui had actually done quite well and with great fanfare, except for his behavior of liking to sneak a drink here, as if he treated this place as some kind of pleasure quarter.

It was a pity that although many people came to claim rewards, there was not a single valuable clue! It was as if they knew the three of them were huddled and not moving, so everything had calmed down, unlike before, when Du En and the other two arrived, things that had no progress immediately had a clue.

It was no wonder that the Dark God Society felt that their actions were actually just a puppet show on stage.

"Then, is the next act of this play already brewed and ready, needing us puppet actors to go on stage again?"

This was what Du En was thinking in his heart at this moment.

And his appearance, because it was not concealed, also startled the guards secretly guarding the door.

"Exalted One, do you... do you have any instructions?"

At a glance at Du En, meeting those calm eyes, the old guard's heart skipped a beat, and he secretly thought, 'Not good.'

With Sheng Zhaoshui's slacker appearance, these guards had long realized that he was not Du En, nor was he the Nine Clouds Venerable; of course, he could also be the Nine Clouds Venerable, anyway, they were all serving a Transformation Deity Great Cultivator, so whoever came could be the Nine Clouds Venerable.

(End of this chapter)