Li Mu's silence made Li Xiaotian a little awkward.
Li Xiaotian looked at Li Mu, embarrassed to continue explaining, "Master Ye, the Nine Demon Sect will definitely not give up and will send Disciples to secretly monitor the movements of the Five Sects. If we go to Yu Ling Sect now, we might also be targeted by the Nine Demon Sect.
Master Ye, can the meeting with Heavenly Hong True Lord be postponed? Once Li handles the Family affairs, he will definitely make time to introduce you to Heavenly Hong True Lord."
Li Mu frowned, thought for a moment, and nodded in agreement, "Hmm, let's do as you say! This matter is not urgent."
A few months ago, when the Nine Demon Sect attacked Qingxuan Sect, Li Mu personally had a fight with that Tianjue Demonic Lord.
The Nine Demon Sect suffered a crushing defeat, with over twenty Nascent Soul Demon Lords perishing, and Tianjue Demonic Lord was even forced to abandon his body and flee, his strength greatly diminished; he would certainly not recover without a period of recuperation.
However, to be able to gather and integrate the forces of the Corpse Refinement Sect, Yin Soul Sect, White Bone Sect, Blood God Sect, Heavenly Demon Sect, Demonic Sound Sect, Heavenly Fiend Sect, Heartless Gate, and Evil Buddha Sect—the nine great Demonic Sects—it is absolutely impossible for there to be only Tianjue Demonic Lord as a Soul Transformation Cultivator; there must be even more powerful forces behind him.
Thinking of this, Li Mu couldn't help but recall the last time he rashly used the rank 7 Karma wondrous item, the star beast remnant pearl, to glimpse four future scenes from the river of time.
There were shadows of Battle Puppets everywhere, the sky was filled with dense warships, a war between external forces and local Cultivators, himself standing in mid-air in a black robe on a black Demonic Dragon, holding a green long sword, covered in wounds, and the ground was covered with corpses—tens of millions, hundreds of millions of Yao Beast corpses and Cultivator corpses spread across the battlefield.
It was as if in the entire world, only he remained, fighting that terrifying Devil King, yet he was surrounded by the Devil King's army, unable to escape...
Recalling those four future scenes again, Li Mu couldn't help but fall into a daze, his mood slightly heavy.
"Master Ye, although we temporarily cannot go to Yu Ling Sect to find Heavenly Hong True Lord, I will find a way to contact him.
If he goes out, I will inform you immediately!" Li Xiaotian did not notice Li Mu's distraction and gratefully indicated.
Li Mu suddenly woke up and looked at Li Xiaotian.
High-Grade Spirit Objects like Heavenly Fire are indeed difficult to obtain. Forget it, the matter of Heavenly Fire can only be considered in the long run.
"Alright!" Li Mu nodded cheerfully.
Li Mu indeed urgently needed to collect Heavenly Fire to Cultivate the Heaven Rank Artifact Refining method, but for now, he would first complete the repair of the Bloodthirsty Violent Dragon's Dragon bones to form the Two Dragons Binding Immortal Formation.
Coupled with the Five Elements Sword Formation, his combat power would greatly increase.
Then, he would refine a batch of High-Grade Battle Puppets using star wood, preparing more trump cards for facing enemies.
At that time, going to Yu Ling Sect would be fine.
After discussing the main business, Li Mu politely declined Li Xiaotian's valuable gift.
He drank Spirit Wine and tasted Spirit Fruit with him, chatting about interesting anecdotes, and the atmosphere was quite relaxed.
After chatting for a while, he sent Li Xiaotian away, and Li Mu once again entered the Cave Spirit Treasure, the Painting World Treasure Mansion, to harvest a thousand cubic meters of star wood and begin refining Battle Puppets.
In order to successfully engrave Puppet patterns on the rank 5 star wood, Li Mu specifically used hard, sharp rank 5 metal Artifact Refining Materials—Heavenly Meteorite Sharp Gold—to refine a set of rank 5 Puppet carving knives.
Inside the stone chamber, Li Mu devoted himself to carving the star wood Puppet body.
The carving knife, refined from Heavenly Meteorite Sharp Gold, was incredibly sharp, carving patterns and shaving wood as if it were mud.
The sawdust of the star wood, heavy as iron, fell and scattered.
As time passed little by little, a star wood Puppet body, its surface 'dotted with silver stars' and covered with Puppet spiritual patterns, gradually took shape under Li Mu's nimble hands.
Soon, Li Mu reached out to open the Puppet array source of the star wood Puppet body, took out a Puppet core refined from rank 4 soul wood heart from the nine storage spiritual pearl, placed it into the Puppet's core array eye, and then took out twelve High-Grade Spirit Stones, embedding them into the Puppet's power array.
A powerful Spiritual Pressure rapidly emanated from the star wood Puppet, and its Spiritual Pressure quickly increased.
Soon, this Battle Puppet, refined from star wood, reached the Spiritual Pressure intensity of a Golden Core Peak Cultivator.
Li Mu looked at the seven-foot-tall Battle Puppet; the star wood was thick, hard, and exuded a mysterious aura, understated yet powerful.
Under the Divine Ability Talent - Identifying Myriad Spirits, the attribute information of this star wood Battle Puppet appeared in the character log box.
【Battle Puppet】
【Grade: Rank 4 Top-Grade Puppet】
【Characteristics: Starlight Gathering Power, Unparalleled Defense, Autonomous Combat, Star Gathering Shield, Ten Thousand Jin of Strength.】
【A Rank 4 Top-Grade Battle Puppet refined from Rank 4 soul wood heart and rank 5 star wood.
The soul wood core possesses autonomous combat consciousness.
The star wood Puppet body is arranged with: Star Gathering Shield Array, Star Power Gathering Array, Giant Strength Puppet Array, providing unparalleled combat power.】
Seeing the attributes of the star wood Battle Puppet, Li Mu couldn't help but beam with joy, feeling very happy.
Although this Battle Puppet was only rank 4 and did not reach rank 5, coupled with the special strength of star wood and several Puppet combat patterns related to Star Power applications, even though it only had the Spiritual Pressure of a Golden Core Peak stage, its combat power was comparable to an Early Stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
Li Mu possessed a large amount of rank 5 star wood and rank 4 soul wood heart, so he could refine many Battle Puppets of this caliber, assembling a Battle Puppet army would be effortless.
A large amount of rank 4 soul wood heart was obtained from the spoils of war after defeating the Nine Demon Sect's Nascent Soul Demon Lords and Tianjue Demonic Lord.
This type of High-Grade Yin-attribute wood is a common item for Soul Refining and Undead Demonic Cultivators, suitable for nurturing souls and refining souls, and also suitable for refining rank 4 Puppet cores.
During travel or leisure, Li Mu refined all the rank 4 soul wood heart into Puppet cores, numbering over a thousand.
Next, he only needed to refine a thousand rank 5 star wood Puppet bodies to assemble the Puppet army.
Thinking of this, Li Mu's heart stirred, eager to try.
Carving a single star wood Battle Puppet body took about half an hour, so refining a thousand star wood Puppet bodies would not take much time.
After refining the Battle Puppet bodies, the remaining scraps could be used to refine many self-detonating spider Puppets.
Ordinary rank 2 or 3 Spirit Talismans posed no threat to Nascent Soul cultivators.
At that time, he would need to upgrade the rank of the self-detonating Spirit Talismans and equip the self-detonating spider Puppets with some High-Grade Lightning Talismans and Fire Talismans.
Tsk tsk tsk! Once this batch of Battle Puppet army is refined, he will have another trump card.
Li Mu's heart stirred, and he quickly took action, immersing himself in the refinement of the star wood Battle Puppet bodies, staying in the secret room of the Li Family courtyard, furiously carving Puppet patterns onto one star wood after another.
...
Time flew by, and seven days passed in a flash.
Li Mu left the Li Family courtyard with a tired face and headed to Tianji Pavilion to purchase a batch of supplies.
These days, Li Mu worked tirelessly, refining a large batch of star wood Battle Puppets, and also, of course, refining self-detonating spider Puppets.
Next, Li Mu planned to draw a batch of High-Grade Spirit Talismans for the self-detonating spider Puppets, but he lacked the talisman paper needed for drawing rank 4 and 5 Lightning Talismans and Fire Talismans.
Li Mu had to go out and head to Tianji Pavilion to purchase a batch of High-Grade talisman paper, or High-Grade Lightning-attribute and Fire-attribute Yao Beast corpses, to peel and make the talisman paper himself.
To avoid revealing his identity as 'Master Ye' at Tianji Pavilion, Li Mu changed into a black magic robe, deliberately altered the appearance of his Spirit Fox mask, adopted the image of 'Zhang Laotou', reversed his aura and cultivation, and reverted to the cultivation of an Early Stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
Soon, Li Mu, disguised, arrived at the entrance of Tianji Pavilion.
Inside Tianji Pavilion, the tea house lobby on the first floor was bustling, with dozens of tea tables filled with customers, almost none empty.
Behind a mahogany lecture table in the center of the hall, the Tea Master, as always, spoke with great fervor, recounting the current hot news.
"The next piece of news, I believe everyone present will be interested.
Have you all heard of the Ancient Abyss Battlefield?"
"Some Fellow Daoists present are still young and may not have heard of the Ancient Abyss Battlefield.
Here, I'll briefly introduce it: The Ancient Abyss Battlefield is located in the center of the Myriad Yao Ancient Wilderness Mountain Range, where there is an Ancient Abyss Plain.
Ten thousand years ago, our Human Race and the Yao Race had a great war, and the Ancient Abyss Plain was the most tragic battlefield.
It was the victory of that war that allowed our Human Race to gain a foothold in the Southern Spirit Domain..."
"Now, the Ancient Abyss Battlefield has been recaptured by the Yao Race, but it remains the most intense battleground for conflicts between our Human Race and the Yao Race.
Wars are constant, burying countless outstanding Human Race Cultivators, and also causing many Sects to disappear in this area...
Under the leadership of Sky Profound Sword Sect, the joint reclamation by the Five Sects was to take control of the Ancient Abyss Battlefield..."
"..."
The Tea Master spoke eloquently about the battles happening in the Ancient Abyss Battlefield, causing countless tea customers to prick up their ears, not daring to miss the exciting content.
Li Mu was not very interested in these Sect wars.
He walked directly towards the welcoming maid and, under her guidance, headed towards the Celestial Mystery Chamber on the second floor where intelligence was sold.
"Senior, please have a cup of spiritual tea first, and wait a moment longer.
The Celestial Evolution Master you wish to see is currently meeting guests!" The maid led Li Mu into the side hall to wait, then returned with a steaming cup of spiritual tea in both hands, respectfully handing it to Li Mu and explaining.
Li Mu nodded, took the spiritual tea from the maid, brought it to his mouth to taste, and waited patiently.
The Celestial Evolution Master Li Mu was scheduled to meet was Shi Hongyao.
Unfortunately, she was currently entertaining a guest, so he didn't know how long he would have to wait.
Inside the Celestial Mystery Chamber.
Shi Hongyao's eyes were slightly closed, as she communicated with the Celestial Mystery Mirror, the Legacy Treasure of Tianji Pavilion, to inquire about the intelligence the other party had purchased.
Venerable Linhai sat opposite Shi Hongyao, patiently waiting for her reply.
"Senior Lin, the intelligence you requested has been found, however, this person is skilled at disguise and has multiple identities, so his intelligence is not that precise." Shi Hongyao opened her eyes, ended her communication with the Celestial Mystery Mirror, and indicated to Venerable Linhai.
"Hmm! As long as the target is found, quickly give me his intelligence!" Venerable Linhai's face lit up with joy as he urged.
To purchase this intelligence, Venerable Linhai had emptied most of his fortune, but it was worth every penny.
Tianji Pavilion truly lived up to its reputation as a professional intelligence agency; they actually managed to pinpoint the Cultivator who killed Venerable Tianyun.
"Yes!" Shi Hongyao nodded cheerfully, picked up a brush, and began writing on the Xuan paper on the table.
"This person's characteristics: possesses all Five Elements, has Nascent Soul cultivation, is skilled in using the Five Elements Sword Formation, has extremely strong combat power, can defeat Soul Transformation Cultivators across cultivation ranks, used a mountain seal Magic Treasure and a lightning-attribute Magic Treasure during his battle with Venerable Tianyun, is decisive in killing, and has a cautious personality.
He has now fled to an unknown location."
"The person highly matching these characteristics is: Li Mu, the Artifact Crafting Elder of Qingxuan Sect.
He is also an Artifact Refining Guest Elder of Wanbao Pavilion.
Additionally, another identity is: Jian Chen.
As for what other identities he has used, it cannot be ascertained."
"This person acts extremely cautiously and keeps a low profile, having hidden in Qingxuan Sect for nearly a hundred years.
No one in the Sect, from top to bottom, knows his true cultivation.
He is skilled in Artifact Refining, setting up Sword Formations, and the Dao of Puppets.
It wasn't until the Nine Demon Sect attacked Qingxuan Sect that this person, with the Aptitude of a hundred-year-old bone age, advanced to Nascent Soul and successfully Underwent the Nine-Nine Nascent Soul Tribulation.
"After this person Underwent the Nascent Soul Tribulation, he single-handedly fought Tianjue Demonic Lord, with their strengths being evenly matched.
After nearly a quarter of an hour of battle, he prevented Venerable Qingyun from assisting, and with one move of the Thousand Swords Array, he successfully annihilated Tianjue Demonic Lord's Dharma body, causing the Nine Demon Sect's attack on Qingxuan Sect to fail completely."
"When this person was at Golden Core cultivation, it is suspected that under the identity of 'Jian Chen', he fought one against nine, annihilating several Nascent Soul Demon Lords of the Nine Demon Sect, including Blood Shadow Demon Lord, White Bone Demon Lord, Heaven Corpse Demon Lord, and nine other Demon Lords, saving the five Nascent Soul True Lords of Qingxuan Sect."
"When this person was at Golden Core cultivation, before Undergoing the Nascent Soul Tribulation, he somehow stole something from Shanhe Sect's Fire Tian Venerable and was pursued by Fire Tian Venerable for decades.
However, due to his cautious nature and his skill in disguise and hiding, he remained hidden and was never discovered by Fire Tian Venerable..."
"After this person advanced to Nascent Soul, he defeated Tianjue Demonic Lord and his true cultivation was exposed.
He then decisively left Qingxuan Sect and headed straight for Huanlang Spiritual Mountain.
Based on a comprehensive judgment from time, combat power, characteristics, and many other aspects, this person is the culprit who fought Venerable Tianyun and successfully killed him."
...
While writing down Li Mu's intelligence, Shi Hongyao explained and introduced it in detail to Venerable Linhai.
A piece of Xuan paper was filled with intelligence information, including concrete examples, estimations, analyses, deductions, and various other types of collected intelligence, all summarized together, almost clearly analyzing all of the target's intelligence.
If Li Mu, waiting in the lounge outside the secret chamber, were to see this intelligence, he would surely turn pale with fright.
Tianji Pavilion had almost stripped him bare; his abilities and information, which he had painstakingly hidden, were almost all presented on the intelligence paper.
Shi Hongyao handed the densely written intelligence paper to Venerable Linhai, smiling as she indicated, "Senior Lin, this is the murderer who caused Senior Tianyun's demise.
Please take a look."
Venerable Linhai took the intelligence paper, his face solemn, as if he had received a hot potato.
He had originally thought that Venerable Tianyun had underestimated his opponent and, due to carelessness, was counter-killed by a mere Nascent Soul cultivator.
Who knew that this Nascent Soul cultivator was practically a Prodigy!
At Golden Core cultivation, he could fight nine Nascent Soul True Lords alone.
Furthermore, he Underwent the Nascent Soul Tribulation with a hundred-year-old bone age, and after successfully Undergoing the Tribulation, he could fight evenly with the veteran Soul Transformation Cultivator, Tianjue Demonic Lord.
Venerable Tianyun's death at this guy's hands was not due to carelessness at all, but rather, he fought tirelessly and ended up perishing.
Since the Cave Spirit Treasure of Celestial Evolution Divine Lord had been obtained by this Prodigy, did they still have a chance to get it back?
Thinking of this, Venerable Linhai's face turned as black as the bottom of a wok, and an unprecedented sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart when facing such a Prodigy.
