Swish
Blazing Verdant Spirit Light flickered brightly, splitting into several streams that weaved through the air like flying swords, cleanly slicing apart the incoming fire beasts.
In this subterranean world filled with crimson lava and solidified black rock, the scene was nothing short of dazzling.
Moments later, the Verdant Spirit Light swept up a few crimson crystal cores and returned.
It passed through the Flowfire Barrier and the condensed water layer, merging directly into the protective aura around Li Ye, becoming part of his defense.
Within the layers of protection, Li Ye's eyes glowed with spiritual light as he gazed into the distance.
There, deep within the lava, was a puppet squad of varied forms surrounding a puppet that looked nearly human in shape. It wore a heavy suit of pure black stone armor.
Faintly, spiritual light connected them, forming a battle formation that instantly boosted their power.
Their movements were fluid, far more agile than before as if they were living beings. They deftly avoided formation traps and took out fire beasts along the way, progressing swiftly.
From within the puppets, all kinds of formation tools popped out at calculated moments, falling precisely into predetermined spots.
Once everything was in place, Li Ye, standing at a distance, quickly formed a hand seal and shouted softly:
"Activate!"
Silver and red lights flickered. One by one, runes melted into the surrounding formation traps, calming the chaos, stabilizing the turbulence, and establishing a relatively safe area.
Li Ye wiped a bit of sweat from his brow and nodded.
"One more node temporarily stabilized…"
He retracted his gaze and scanned the area.
Within his line of sight, the black-and-red landscape now had several stabilized silver-red nodes scattered across it, each reinforcing the surroundings.
These nodes echoed and coordinated with one another, creating a noticeably calmer zone completely different from the turbulent upheaval elsewhere.
This was the result of Li Ye's efforts over the past period.
But if one zoomed out using spiritual sense, they'd realize that this little area, compared to the vast, chaotic underground lava world, was nothing more than a tiny, insignificant corner.
"My efforts here are just a drop in the bucket…"
Li Ye shook his head with a wry smile.
"But then again, I never planned to resist this unstoppable tide all on my own!"
"As long as I can carve out a clear path so the puppet squad can reach that island, it'll be enough!"
A faint smile appeared in his eyes.
Since the emergence of the Lava Palace was now inevitable, he naturally intended to extract as much benefit as he could beforehand.
Just as he'd guessed earlier, the disruption in the formation traps wasn't entirely a bad thing.
While it did pose the risk of prematurely exposing the palace, it also caused the terrain to shift and churn bringing several hidden structure islands to the surface.
To this day, Li Ye still hasn't figured out what materials those islands were made of. They had incredibly high resistance to formation energy and, despite being submerged in lava for countless years, remained largely intact.
He had tried various methods to break them down, but only the Wood God's True Flame with its woodification ability had any noticeable effect causing very minimal damage.
Their defense was truly astounding clearly of a high grade!
Yet when he took some fragments back and tried to refine them, he discovered that his mana wasn't powerful enough to process them, and using true fire to smelt the materials for other purposes was also impossible.
In the end, he had no choice but to pick fragments of suitable size and slowly wear them down using Wood God's True Flame, reshaping them to fit his needs relying purely on the material's raw toughness.
The armor worn by his main puppet was created this way.
The violent upheaval of the formation traps had limited impact on the structural integrity of the island buildings, but it wreaked havoc on the protective wards that once made them so dangerous. As a result, many powerful formations that had once guarded these structures were significantly weakened.
Several spirit items that had withstood the torment of the formations began to surface during this process, promptly discovered by the insects Li Ye had placed as scouts.
Many of the island structures that had once been completely off-limits even with a Core Disciple's token in Li Ye's three years of "scavenging" were now within reach, becoming viable targets for exploration.
One building in particular had drawn Li Ye's attention years ago a structure suspected to be part of the Artifact Crafting Pavilion, surrounded by incredibly dense restrictions once he approached. He had no idea where it had been separated from, but his Core Disciple token proved useless there. Whether due to insufficient access level or because the area wasn't within the scope of his token's jurisdiction, Li Ye had ultimately been forced to give up.
Another structure seemed to be part of a Trial Hall. While it did match some known features, it was far less impressive than the first fragmented building. The trial mechanisms had failed, and after a thorough search, he found nothing of value. It was likely just a chunk from some insignificant corner.
These back-to-back failures and the lack of any lucky breaks like the artificial intelligence incident from before left a lasting impression on Li Ye. In the three years since he had only gathered minor scraps and gains.
But this time, amid the chaos of the formation traps, the ruined Artifact Crafting Pavilion's defenses were severely disrupted its formations now unstable and riddled with visible gaps.
Even more telling, faint flashes of spiritual light and muffled sounds echoed from within, as if some precious treasure was being activated under the pressure of the volatile formations.
And this was only one such location observed through Li Ye's methods there were likely several others hinting at hidden treasures or unique structures being revealed. Even if he could secure just one or two, the benefits could be substantial.
As he continued to stabilize node after node, his puppet squad advanced deeper and deeper.
Ever since cultivating the Heavenly Craft Scripture and Crafting his life-bound puppet, Li Ye hadn't yet shown its full combat potential but in terms of exploration, it had already proven immensely helpful.
Through his special connection with the life-bound puppet combined with its ability to command other puppets the range of Li Ye's spiritual control had drastically increased.
This gave him a massive boost in terms of safety while exploring the lava palace.
Before long, the puppet squad followed a previously cleared safe route and arrived at the entrance of the ruined Artifact Crafting Pavilion.
The life-bound puppet stepped forward and presented the Core Disciple token. The defensive formation reacted faintly but still did not allow direct passage.
Next, the puppet linked with the others, and using both itself and the token, it recreated a battle formation recorded in the Heavenly Craft Scripture, probing the outer restrictions.
This time, the result was noticeably different. The token's authority wasn't low, and when the battle formation interfaced with the now-chaotic warding system, it triggered an immediate reaction causing ripples across the formation.
Using the token as leverage, the formation was gradually unraveled, allowing the puppet squad to slip inside.
Swish
Li Ye, controlling the puppets, had just passed through the barrier and stepped onto the building half of which was still submerged in lava.
When suddenly, a strange noise rang out.
It was accompanied by a series of crashing sounds items breaking, formations disturbed, and a burst of radiant light.
A blazing spiritual light shot out from an unknown location with terrifying speed and force, hurtling straight at the puppet squad!
"A self-born spirit?! That's impossible!"
Li Ye cried out in shock.
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