[Physique: Celestial Thunder Body, Mutated Five Elements Body] [Materials: One piece of Tier Three material "Red Gold Glaze Stone", ten pieces of "Sun Black Stone", one piece of "Taiyin White Stone", sixty-four pieces of "Celestial Thunder Stone", and other various Tier Two and Tier One materials] [Puppets: One Tier One Advanced Puppet Mechanism Beast, ten Tier One Junior Puppet Mechanism Beasts] [Forbidden Artifacts: One Tier Three Samadhi True Fire Talisman, Jade Pendant] [Tokens: Shenxiao Dao Sect Inner Disciple Token, Seven-Star Palace Jade Scroll, Treasure Pavilion Silver Member Token, and several other confiscated identity tokens] [Vice Positions: Tier One Senior Rune Master, Tier One Advanced Array Master, Tier One Advanced Artifact Refiner, Tier One Advanced Puppet Master, Tier Two Junior Alchemy Master] [Industries: Qiuwu Manor, Star Moon Trading Company (Red Sun Market Store, Myriad Swords City Store)] [Spirit Beast: One Demon Beast Egg] Li Yunjing couldn’t help but sigh as he looked at the many treasures piled before him. The day of the "Treasure Pavilion" auction was drawing near. When the time came, Li Yunjing planned to go to the "City of Glory" to broaden his horizons. Li Yunjing intended to sell off some of the resources he had accumulated to gather some middle-grade spirit stones. He planned to make a grand appearance at the "Treasure Pavilion" auction. By selecting a few decent items, he aimed to further enhance his strength. "Hmm? This demon beast egg seems to be stirring?" As he pondered, Li Yunjing tossed the demon beast egg up and down, suddenly noticing a slight movement within the egg. This unusual sensation instantly caught Li Yunjing’s attention. Li Yunjing was very curious about this demon beast egg, having nurtured it for a year with no sign of hatching, even with the previous owner’s care. Clearly, there was something extraordinary about it. In the Cultivation Realm, the more powerful the creature, the harder it is to hatch and produce offspring. Despite Li Yunjing’s various attempts to accelerate its growth using the "Spirit Gathering Array" and nourishing it with mana, the demon beast egg had remained unhatched. Clearly, this demon beast egg was extraordinary, potentially harboring a rare type of demon beast offspring. This stirred Li Yunjing’s interest greatly! He was determined to uncover the secrets within the egg and discover the treasures it contained. However, he knew that it wouldn’t hatch today. The movement indicated it needed more time before it could fully hatch. "While I have plenty of materials, I should refine some puppets and elevate my puppetry to Tier Two!" After placing the demon beast egg in the "Spirit Gathering Array" for further nurturing, Li Yunjing considered his various vice positions and decided to enhance his second vice position. Currently, he had so many materials at hand that selling or trading them would seem wasteful. Li Yunjing gathered numerous Tier One and Tier Two materials suitable for puppet refining, preparing them meticulously. These were precisely the materials Li Yunjing had chosen for practice. Li Yunjing had already amassed considerable experience in puppet refining. Whether it was crafting the bodies of puppet mechanism beasts or designing the control systems for puppet movement, Li Yunjing was highly skilled in all aspects. Puppetry was a highly complex vice position, involving various elements. Similar to artifact refining, refining puppet mechanism beasts was just one aspect. There were grand divine techniques such as Scattering Beans into Soldiers and Yellow Turbans Strongman, renowned puppet classifications within the Profound Sect. Another method involved refining live beings into puppets. This technique required extreme mastery of spiritual power and was highly domineering. Any living creature with spirituality and wisdom could be enslaved and refined into a puppet. Even cultivators and living humans could be refined into puppets. There were various techniques involved, and each major sect had spiritual divine techniques for enslaving cultivators, such as conversion, worship, and other methods. Despite appearing gentle and spreading faith subtly, these methods were extremely cruel, erasing a being’s self-awareness. There were several such divine techniques in the "Shenxiao Dao Sect" as well. Many influential figures had cultivated these techniques. However, these divine techniques were labor-intensive, offered minimal combat benefits, and thus were seldom used by members of "Shenxiao Dao Sect" on living beings. Li Yunjing was one such member. He despised these special methods for their time and effort inefficiencies. The enslaved cultivators had inferior spiritual wills and combat abilities compared to him. What was the use of such puppets? Moreover, refining living humans into puppets felt too malevolent to Li Yunjing. Another reason was there hadn’t been anyone he hated enough to go to such extremes, to truly refine them into puppets. Opting against live targets, Li Yunjing chose to refine puppet mechanism beasts instead. Refining puppet mechanism beasts greatly benefited artifact refining as well. Get full chapters from 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭·𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢·𝗇𝗲𝘵 Both techniques complemented each other. Successfully refining excellent puppet mechanism beasts required outstanding artifact refining skills. Li Yunjing began melting Tier One materials using "Nine Yang Fire," forming sturdy composite materials, and crafting various puppet mechanism beasts using artifact refining techniques. Lions, white bears, tigers, eagles... many types of puppet mechanism beasts were crafted by him. Li Yunjing integrated activation mechanisms, power systems, offensive methods, and centers capable of housing spiritual imprints into these puppet mechanism beasts. If he chose, he could embed a spiritual imprint and use spirit stones as energy sources to animate these puppet mechanism beasts... Refining puppetry also served as excellent practice for artifact refining and strengthening divine sense. Once Li Yunjing could craft Tier Two puppet mechanism beasts, his artifact refining skill advanced to Tier Two Junior Refiner. Li Yunjing’s ability to animate Tier Two puppet mechanism beasts also qualified him as a Tier Two Junior Puppet Master. After completing these tasks, Li Yunjing’s vacation was over. This time, however, he didn’t need to patrol the streets. A new batch of reinforcements from the "Shenxiao Dao Sect" and various factions of the Great Ming Dynasty had sent their armies. A coalition of twenty thousand, mostly Qi Refining Realm cultivators. These newcomers could serve as patrols, responsible for daily patrol and city defense tasks. The main army of "Shenxiao Dao Sect" continued its unstoppable advance, capturing three provinces of "Youyue Country." At this point, the "Shenxiao Dao Sect" halted its progress. Apart from fully occupying "Black Mountain Province" near "Shenxiao Pass," the remaining two provinces "Black Dragon Province" and "Mo Yun Province" became battlegrounds for both sides. The "Shenxiao Dao Sect" permitted forces from "Netherworld Ghost Sect" to enter "Black Dragon Province" and "Mo Yun Province" to engage them, dragging their main forces into prolonged conflict. This allowed the "Shenxiao Dao Sect" sufficient time to consolidate control over "Black Mountain Province" and "Shenxiao Pass." This consolidation marked the bottom line for "Shenxiao Dao Sect," integrating the occupied territories of "Netherworld Ghost Sect" within the Great Ming Dynasty. This victory was already significant! Remember, "Youyue Country" had only ten provinces. In less than half a year, capturing three provinces, the "Shenxiao Dao Sect’s" triumph had already reverberated across the entire Southern Heaven Continent. Numerous countries and countless sects and clans sent emissaries to discuss this matter with prominent figures of the "Shenxiao Dao Sect." When Ming Lingchuan confirmed that the scale of the war would be limited to the current scope, other factions refrained from involvement.