Xie Zhaolin's spirit surged, her movement faster than ever!
She weaved between the remaining five iron soldiers, fingertips darting in precise strikes. Every touch landed squarely on their energy nodes! In just a few breaths, the last five iron soldiers froze and collapsed, scattering into six heaps of scrap across the stone platform.
But before she could catch her breath, the edge of the platform flared with light once more. This time, nine iron soldiers appeared. Two of them were noticeably larger, wielding rough iron blades, their spiritual energy reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.
More enemies, stronger enemies.
"Endless, huh…" Xie Zhaolin's eyes darkened. She activated her baleful qi vision to its fullest and charged forward again!
She held nothing back. Liuyun Ribbon danced with deadly precision, dismantling enemies with high efficiency. Yet the number of puppets kept steadily increasing, from nine to twelve, then fifteen… Soon, ranged archers shooting weak fireballs and shield-bearing defense puppets appeared!
Within moments, dozens of varied basic puppets swarmed the platform like a tidal wave, converging on Xie Zhaolin!
She pushed her Misty Step to its limit, darting and twisting among the horde. Her baleful qi condensed at her fingertips, each strike guaranteed to destroy one puppet.
Beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Maintaining baleful qi vision while fighting at full intensity drained her spiritual energy and divine sense, but her gaze stayed cold, her mind sharp, constantly analyzing and memorizing the new puppets' energy nodes and attack patterns.
This wasn't just a battle of endurance; it was a high-speed study of puppet weaknesses in real-time!
After an indeterminate time, she shattered the 108th puppet, including one equivalent to late Golden Core stage. At last, no new light flared at the platform's edge. The remnants of every destroyed puppet dissipated as streams of light, vanishing entirely.
Only Xie Zhaolin remained, breathing lightly.
"First stage, Puppet Breaking, passed."
The old voice echoed, cold yet faintly approving.
"Your ability to discern a puppet's weaknesses in battle… is acceptable."
Xie Zhaolin steadied her breathing, understanding the lesson. The first stage tested more than raw power; it measured the ability to quickly identify and exploit an enemy's weak points under pressure—a skill every puppet master must master in complex combat situations.
Still, a flicker of excitement rose in her chest. If basic puppets could reach late Golden Core strength… then at Nascent Soul or even Divine Transformation stage… could puppets reach such heights too?
Before she could dwell on the thought, the scene rippled like water.
The huge stone platform vanished, replaced by a pristine, spotless white space. At its center floated a massive jade platform, crowded with over a thousand puppet components of every shape and kind. The materials varied—metal, jade, wood, bone, even translucent crystals. They appeared scattered, emanating faint and mixed spiritual energy.
"Second stage, Micro Discernment."
The old voice sounded again, emotionless.
"There are 1,360 puppet components here, belonging to thirty-six types of basic puppets of varying rank and function.
Within six hours, classify them correctly. One mistake, one component is removed. Lose all components, or exceed the time limit, you fail and die."
Xie Zhaolin's pupils contracted. The difficulty had spiked dramatically!
Not only did this require extreme observational skill and deep knowledge of materials, it demanded divine sense micro-control to process massive information simultaneously. A wisp of green-tinged incense lit itself in the void. The test had begun.
Xie Zhaolin's gaze sharpened, giving no room for error. She immediately extended her divine sense, enveloping the thousands of components.
Her heart sank.
Though seemingly ordinary, the components' spiritual energy, internal structure, and material patterns were subtle and nearly identical. Many differed only in the tiniest ways, like variants of the same puppet or intentionally designed to confuse!
Ordinary cultivators—even those versed in puppetry—would find it nearly impossible to complete such fine discrimination in six hours.
But Xie Zhaolin was no ordinary cultivator.
In her past life, she had been the chief disciple of the Hehuan Sect, highly respected, backed by deep sect heritage. As a future leader of the sect, her training wasn't limited to a single field. She needed knowledge across all cultivation arts—not mastery in everything, but broad understanding.
Alchemy, artifact forging, talismans, formations, spirit plants, beast control… even niche skills like puppetry, poison arts, and sound arts were core courses for top disciples. This ensured that when they traveled outside, they could identify rare materials, seize opportunities, and gauge opponents' techniques.
The "Micro Discernment" stage tested exactly this breadth of knowledge and keen insight.
"Good thing…" Xie Zhaolin thought, feeling a flicker of relief.
Had she been a cultivator focused only on combat, she would've been helpless here. She calmed her mind, eyes sharpening. Her vast past knowledge whirled through her mind at incredible speed. She didn't rush to sort the parts, starting with a macro scan for quick categorization. Her divine sense swept over every component, initially sorting by broad material and energy pattern:
"Components with sharp metallic qi and killing patterns are likely attack-type puppets…"
"Those with thick earth energy and defensive runes are defense-type…"
"Light, airy patterns with wind or sky attributes belong to reconnaissance or speed-type puppets…"
"Those with obscure fluctuations, stealth or illusion effects, are support or trick-type puppets…"
Soon, the thousands of components were divided into broad categories.
Next came the second round, focused on minute distinctions within the same material type.
For example, obsidian iron fragments differed in microscopic crystalline structure—some tougher for joints, some slightly magnetic as mechanism cores, some bearing faint burn marks from fire puppets.
Jade components, though similar, showed subtle differences in internal energy flow and node placement, indicating different crafting styles or functions.
Her hands moved faster, ten fingers darting through the void, guided by divine sense, placing each component into increasingly precise categories.
Time passed as incense burned.
Sweat beaded on Xie Zhaolin's forehead again. The mental strain from high-speed divine sense analysis was intense, but her gaze remained clear, movements steady.
Six hours were tight, but…
Enough for her.
As the incense burned to its last stub, the floating components had been divided into thirty-six distinct heaps!
A hum sounded—then all components flashed and vanished.
"Second stage, Micro Discernment, passed."