"The ultimate meat shield."
Watching Li Yaoqing get mobbed, Li Wei offered his assessment.
However.
Fortunately for her, Li Yaoqing had brought Li Yaotie and Bai Rourou along!
Among the children of the second generation, Li Yaotie was the only one who had not yet broken through to the Divinity Transformation realm.
Despite being an artifact refiner, he was the one in the family who'd had the fewest fortuitous encounters; he had spent most of his life standing by a forging platform and an artifact refining furnace.
Even after arriving at the Heavenly Light Grotto and studying under the Heavenly Light Grand Ancestor, most of his time was still spent on artifact refining.
An artifact refiner's method of cultivation is to circulate their True Qi while forging.
This process consumes their Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi, which then recovers, continuously expanding their Dantian's Sea of Qi and strengthening their physical body.
To reach the Divinity Transformation realm, one must become a fifth-rank artifact refiner.
A fifth-rank artifact refiner is capable of forging Dharma Treasures, and every Dharma Treasure possesses its own unique set of Rules.
At least two of the world's fundamental Rules are required to forge a single Dharma Treasure.
The Rule of Strength is essential, as without it, it is fundamentally impossible to temper the raw materials.
Most fifth-rank artifact refiners can only forge Dharma Treasures that correspond to the Rules they themselves have comprehended.
This is also why Dharma Treasures are typically passed down from one generation to the next; fifth-rank artifact refiners... are exceedingly rare.
Furthermore, forging a Dharma Treasure requires the ability to perceive things on a minuscule level, to peer into the very internal structure of the materials.
Li Yaotie had one foot across the threshold of a fifth-rank artifact refiner, but the final step was like crossing a heavenly chasm.
He was the stubborn type who wouldn't give up until he hit a wall, insisting on using the path of the artifact refiner to achieve his breakthrough.
And yet, despite all this.
Li Wei still felt that among the four siblings, Li Yaotie was the one with the most devastating offensive power!
"Rourou, get ready!"
Li Yaotie bellowed, hefting a war hammer that was taller than he was.
As the sky blazed with resplendent light, the fiery glow reflected and refracted off Bai Rourou's body.
She was now completely encased in molten iron that had cooled to a silvery-white, giving her an almost science-fiction-like appearance, a ghost-head greatsaber held in her hand.
As Li Yaotie's voice rang out.
From within the forest upon the Mountain God.
An ancient tree, empowered by Li Yaoqing's Primordial Spirit Art, was suddenly granted sentience.
Imbued with the spiritual power of heaven and earth, it uprooted itself and leaped into the sky. Entwined around its trunk was an iron man!
As the first tree took flight, more followed, and then more, until a thousand of them filled the air!
"Look out! Be careful—there's something strange about these ancient trees!"
As a thousand ancient trees ascended into the sky, the expressions of the cultivators changed.
The vines on the trees loosened, releasing the iron men whose bodies were now glowing red hot...
And flung them into the air!
And then.
"BOOM!!!"
The iron men abruptly opened their eyes, locked onto their enemies, and exploded!
Amidst the fiery light that filled the sky, Li Wei pulled up Li Yaotie's information panel.
[Inspired by you and the peculiarities of "Thunder Flame Fury Python," your descendant, Li Yaotie, came to understand the true meaning of explosions. He began researching a new type of spirit puppet, discovering that the force from a collision of thunder and fire could create a lethality that was multiplied many times over.]
[With the support of the family's vast material resources, he refined a seventh-rank spirit puppet with extremely low material costs: the Thunder-Fire Spirit-Seeker. It possesses minimal sentience. The collision of the thunder and fire power within its body produces immense lethality. Upon detonation, it throws the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi into chaos, interfering with all perception within the blast radius.]
At this moment.
Li Wei could feel it—the explosion from a single Thunder-Fire Spirit-Seeker possessed the destructive force of a peak Golden Core cultivator's self-detonation!
Moreover, these 'Thunder-Fire Spirit-Seekers,' which originally possessed minimal sentience, had been granted intelligence by Li Yaoqing's arts, allowing them to seek out the best targets before detonating.
The sky filled with spreading firelight and billowing smoke.
But this was still not Li Yaotie's true killing blow.
"Kill!"
As the fiery light spread, Bai Rourou shot out from the mountain, transforming into a streak of light and appearing beside a Nascent Soul cultivator in an instant.
Formations instantly materialized upon her silvery body, and runes spread across her entire form.
In that moment, she was a supreme-grade spirit artifact!
As a red light pulsed from her eyes, the cultivator before her died a violent death.
And what's more...
She was unleashing all sorts of techniques that did not belong to her. In fact, they were the very techniques once used by Tian Xing's many avatars!
[Your descendant, Li Yaotie, obtained many of the techniques inherited from Tian Xing. Unable to preserve these techniques directly, he sealed them within the blood and bones of Tian Xing's avatars, treating them as raw materials. He then melted down the various Dharma Treasures and spirit artifacts used by the avatars to forge the puppet's body. After thirty years, he successfully refined a peak sixth-rank spirit puppet—the Sky-Walker!]
[The Sky-Walker is a liquid-form puppet that uses a person as its core, enabling the host to use numerous techniques.]
This was also a result of Li Yaotie's artifact refining skills not yet being perfected; otherwise, this 'Sky-Walker' could have even reached the fifth rank!
But even as a peak sixth-rank puppet.
When Bai Rourou wields this spirit puppet, she can instantly kill a Nascent Soul cultivator!
As for Li Yaotie...
He was truly worthy of his title as number one on the Nascent Divinity List!
When he broke through to the Nascent Soul realm, he had refined his own body as if it were a supreme-grade spirit artifact, granting him a special physique: the Unorthodox Artifact Body!
He could also... control a countless number of spirit artifacts!
"BOOM!"
As Bai Rourou shot into the sky, Li Yaotie followed, his war hammer in hand.
"How is this possible? Impossible! A peak Nascent Soul cultivator... how could he possibly control so many spirit artifacts?!! And your body..."
The three Divinity Transformation cultivators, who had originally intended to take down Bai Rourou, were now frozen in mid-air.
Li Yaotie appeared before them.
At that instant, Li Yaotie's body began to change, just as Bai Rourou's had. His very flesh was like a supreme-grade spirit artifact.
But at the same time.
As he hefted his hammer, a legion of spirit artifacts materialized behind him. Each one began to erupt with spiritual power that had been stored within it for who knows how long.
A dazzling radiance bloomed at Li Yaotie's back, so vast that it seemed to occupy half the sky!
Among the legion of artifacts.
A silver flood dragon materialized beside Li Yaotie. It was none other than Li Wei's former mid-grade war puppet.
It had been destroyed on the battlefield long ago, but now it had reappeared by Li Yaotie's side in a new form. Arcs of lightning crackled around the silver flood dragon's body.
[Your descendant, Li Yaotie, salvaged the mid-grade war puppet and reforged it in the Heavenly Light Grotto with the Heavenly Light Grand Ancestor. With the Grand Ancestor's aid, he created a fifth-rank spirit puppet: the Divine Puppet!]
[The Divine Puppet is a sentient creature that can exist in the world to slay enemies. It possesses the 'Streak of Light' technique, inherited from the Heavenly Light Grand Ancestor's refinement process. Thanks to Li Yaotie's special forging method, it can transform into armor and enter a host's body, merging with the 'Unorthodox Artifact Body' to multiply its wielder's power!]
Facing three Divinity Transformation experts, Li Yaotie did not dare to hold back.
The Divine Puppet began to dissolve, flowing onto Li Yaotie and encasing his entire form in a suit of silver armor.
He gripped his giant hammer, and behind him, dozens of spirit artifacts began to glitter with a brilliant light.
With a savage expression, Li Yaotie glared at the three Divinity Transformation cultivators, whose faces had gone pale.
"I gave you a chance to piss off and stay home where you belong, but you just had to force me to slaughter every last one of you!"
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