According to the descriptions in the "Great Development Technique," once the first layer was mastered, the primordial spirit would have no problem producing spiritual sense. At the second layer, one could split off over a hundred strands, and at the third layer, one could split off several hundred at once, just like "Senior Brother Lin."
Just imagining controlling several hundred mechanical puppets to fight enemies simultaneously after reaching the third layer, Han Li himself felt it was somewhat outrageous.
But according to Han Li's estimation, this kind of outrageous power would only let him run rampant for a while within the Foundation Establishment stage.
Upon reaching the Core Formation stage, unless one could refine several hundred rank-three or higher puppets on par with Foundation Establishment cultivators, no matter how many puppets one controlled, they would not withstand a single full-power strike from a Core Formation cultivator. He still remembered all too clearly how Fatty Lei had swept away several hundred rank-two puppets of the Thousand Bamboo Sect that day!
Since refining even a rank-two puppet required materials from high-grade magic tools, then refining a puppet of a higher rank would naturally require materials from at least top-grade magic tools!
In that case, for a Core Formation cultivator who practiced the puppet arts to overpower Core Formation cultivators of other techniques the way he had during the Foundation Establishment stage, he would need at the very least several hundred sets of top-grade magic tool materials. This thought left even Han Li shaken for quite a while!
Not to mention the materials wasted through failed attempts, and the several hundred powerful souls that simply could not be found anywhere.
This was probably the main reason why the Thousand Bamboo Sect's puppet arts were known to so few.
After all, a sect's strength was still measured by the number of its Core Formation cultivators. Since the Thousand Bamboo Sect was too weak to contend with other sects in battles between Core Formation cultivators, then no matter how formidable its Foundation Establishment disciples were, it could only hole up in one corner and dominate a single region.
Of course, all of this was merely Han Li's own speculation after cultivating the Great Development Technique and the puppet arts!
But there was nothing false about the fact that the puppet arts had greatly raised the strength of Han Li, a Foundation Establishment cultivator. That was exactly why Han Li could not be bothered with the rights and wrongs of the future for now.
After all, this great war that had stirred up the cultivation worlds of several kingdoms had only just begun!
Not long after Han Li arrived at this spirit mine to serve as a guard, a great battle of ambush and counter-ambush broke out between the Six Devil Dao Sects and the Seven Sects of Yue, on some remote, desolate mountain.
Han Li had gradually come to learn the details. It turned out that the Spirit Beast Mountain among the Seven Sects had originally been a branch of the Spirit Controlling Sect of the Devil Dao—a hidden agent planted in the Kingdom of Yue by Devil Dao cultivators thousands of years ago.
Now that the Six Sects had invaded the Seven Sects, this hidden card naturally had to be played, and the Devil Dao hoped it would produce the same startling effect as when they had taken down the Kingdom of Jiang and the Kingdom of Cheqi in one stroke.
But who could have known that the upper echelons of Spirit Beast Mountain, over these thousands of years of inheritance, had long since refused to consider themselves part of the Spirit Controlling Sect, much less accept some supreme overlord suddenly thrust above their heads.
As a result, after conferring with the other six sects, they somehow used some method to convince the Devil Dao it was true, inducing them to send people to launch a sneak attack on a stronghold of the Seven Sects' cultivators.
The several thousand cultivators who had come to launch the sneak attack were ambushed halfway there by the cultivators of the Seven Sects, who had lain in wait. With an absolutely superior force, they dealt them a heavy blow, making the Devil Dao suffer a considerable loss—even two Core Formation cultivators were killed on the spot.
This head-on blow to the Six Devil Dao Sects naturally sent the Seven Sects into celebration, and their morale soared! The Six Devil Dao Sects, furious with shame, then came attacking in full force.
Nor were the Seven Sects to be outdone; they deployed their formations to meet the enemy.
The two sides clashed repeatedly at the two border regions between the Kingdom of Yue and the Kingdoms of Jiang and Cheqi, fighting more than a dozen major battles in a row. The cultivators killed or wounded already numbered over ten thousand, and even seven or eight Core Formation cultivators had fallen—it could only be described as utterly brutal!
When the cultivator who had come to deliver spirit stones that day told them about it, the lingering fear on his face left Han Li and all the other cultivators present deeply alarmed, secretly thanking their luck that they did not have to be in a battle of that scale. One had only to look at how many Core Formation cultivators had died to imagine how terrifying the scene must have been!
However, the Six Devil Dao Sects deserved their reputation as one of the two great powers of the Heavenly South; their strength was truly not something the cultivation world of the Kingdom of Yue could compare with.
After seven or eight battles, the Seven Sects were clearly no longer able to hold out under the enemy's furious assaults. If the Seven Sects had not set up several large restriction formations in advance on their own territory, allowing them to rely on the formations for a last-ditch defense, they would probably have long since collapsed in defeat.
But even so, the Seven Sects could not hold on much longer.
Yet just when the Yue side was in dire straits, at the Seven Sects' invitation, the cultivators of two medium-sized kingdoms neighboring Yue—the Kingdom of Yuanwu and the Kingdom of Zijin—finally arrived to lend their support.
It turned out that long before the war with the Six Devil Dao Sects broke out, the Seven Sects had very wisely sent silver-tongued messengers to both kingdoms bearing pleas for reinforcements.
As soon as the various sects of these two kingdoms received the letter, they naturally feared that if the Devil Dao took the Kingdom of Yue,
their own two kingdoms would be swallowed up next. The messengers did not even need to waste their breath—the two kingdoms, sharing a common enemy, gathered the majority of their cultivators and rushed to the rescue by night and day.
With these two kingdoms' cultivators joining in, the gap in strength between the Yue side and the Six Devil Dao Sects was finally not so wide. Relying on the power of their defensive formations, the Seven Sects really did manage to blunt the Devil Dao's offensive.
As a result, the Six Devil Dao Sects' plan to take the Kingdom of Yue in one vigorous push naturally fell through. The fighting between the two sides sank into a stalemate, becoming a war of attrition.
Battles of such scale grew rare, but small-scale surprise raids, by tacit agreement on both sides, multiplied in the rear areas of the Kingdom of Yue and the Six Devil Dao Sects. In particular, sources of raw materials and spirit mines became the prime targets of sneak attacks by both the Seven Sects and the Devil Dao.
Yet Han Li's spirit stone mine—whether because it was simply too far from the battle lines—had to this day never once been harassed by the enemy, which could only be called a miracle! One should know that other spirit stone mines of comparable size had already been raided three or four times.
But the more this was so, the less at ease the people of the Seven Sects felt about this place, and half a month ago they had dispatched another squad of more than twenty cultivators as reinforcements, led by a late Foundation Establishment cultivator from Spirit Beast Mountain.
With that, the mine's defenses were naturally greatly strengthened! But Han Li sensed in it a feeling of an impending storm, and he cultivated the Great Development Technique all the more diligently. His breakthrough to the first layer was now well within reach.
Moreover, among this second batch of Qi Condensation cultivators who had come as reinforcements, Han Li had unexpectedly run into an acquaintance—that ugly fellow Zhong Wu, whom he had seen once during the Blood-Colored Trial.
Zhong Wu had recognized Han Li as well.
But facing Han Li's present Foundation Establishment cultivation, this man's face changed repeatedly—surprise, jealousy, envy, and other emotions surfacing in turn—truly leaving Han Li inwardly amazed.
In the end, Zhong Wu gave a bitter smile, stepped forward, and made a salute to Han Li, calling out "Senior" with no small reluctance.
And Han Li, suppressing his urge to laugh, acknowledged him with an indifferent sound.
Whenever Han Li, sitting in meditation, recalled Zhong Wu's kaleidoscopic expression that day, he could not help a knowing smile spreading across his face, and he opened his eyes. At such a moment, his state of mind was truly unfit for continuing to cultivate the Great Development Technique; he might as well wait until his mind had calmed down!
...
Time flew by. Han Li passed yet another month in this fashion—spending the smaller part of his time on rotating guard duty, and the greater part cultivating the Great Development Technique and crafting puppet beasts. By now, he could clearly sense that the first layer of the Great Development Technique was approaching completion.
This filled Han Li with both surprise and delight!
Come to think of it, whether Han Li was cultivating the Five Elements techniques or the Azure Essence Sword Art, the aptitude he displayed was somewhat poor! Yet cultivating the Great Development Technique went smoothly to the extreme, without the slightest difficulty—it felt as natural as water flowing into a channel. This excited Han Li, and at the same time he inwardly marveled!
And the first rank-two puppet beast, after more than a dozen failures, had finally been successfully refined two days ago. Although it was somewhat cruder than the puppets of the Thousand Bamboo Sect people and its power seemed slightly inferior, this still left Han Li beaming with joy, and he planned to have the other cultivators bring back more materials before making them in large numbers.
But today, just as Han Li was meditating in his quiet room, an extremely sharp shriek suddenly sounded from outside, followed by someone bellowing frantically:
"Trouble! The Devil Dao is attacking! Everyone out—prepare for battle!"
Han Li's heart shuddered, and he walked out of the quiet room with a grave expression.
At this moment, the cultivators of the Seven Sects, who had been resting and meditating in the various earthen dens, all walked out with the same solemn air as Han Li. They exchanged a glance with one another, then filed out of the cave dwellings.
Xuan Le of the Concealed Moon Sect and Lü Tianmeng, the late Foundation Establishment cultivator of Spirit Beast Mountain, were floating expressionlessly beneath the Four Fiends Formation, gazing up toward the top of the great canyon.
The dozen or so cultivators on duty behind them all looked somewhat uneasy! But when they saw Han Li and the other reinforcements come out, their expressions calmed considerably.
Following the gaze of Xuan Le and the others, Han Li indeed spotted the enemy above the great canyon. Their numbers did not seem large—only twenty or thirty or so.
But Han Li knew very well that anyone daring to strike deep behind enemy lines from such a distance had to be at least of late Foundation Establishment caliber; they would not possibly have brought along any Qi Condensation deadweight.
Thus, in terms of strength, they were still at an absolute disadvantage! This battle, he feared, would not be an easy one to fight!