Zhu Luomu's eyes were already shining with a continuous brilliance.
The first half of his sentence was directed at Shuang Chongshan, while the latter half was said excitedly to Li Yan, completely forgetting the hierarchy between senior and junior.
"They just arrived, so of course the Sect Master doesn't know. I'll just go and tell him about this later!"
Li Yan, however, appeared very calm. He had to explain this matter to Xing Ming personally, and some things had to be made clear.
He also understood the reason for Zhu Luomu's excitement. If a second-rate sect had an extra grandmaster who could refine Foundation Establishment stage puppets, what would that mean?
Not only would the disciples' strength greatly increase, but the number of spirit stones the sect earned would also grow at an incredible speed, and cultivation resources would come rolling in.
Zhu Luomu could already imagine the scene of a dozen Foundation Establishment puppets entangling a Golden Core cultivator. Even if they couldn't kill him, they could play a crucial role.
As long as a puppet's formation core was not hit, it would continue to entangle the opponent.
The physical bodies of most Golden Core cultivators would not dare to let a Foundation Establishment stage magical treasure bombard them. This was the most terrifying and troublesome part.
In a great battle, this could often create a one-breath opportunity for one's own side's expert to kill the opponent.
Although he knew that refining a Foundation Establishment puppet would cost a massive amount of resources, as long as it could be done, it was all worth it.
On the side, Li Yan had already memorized an insignia he had just seen.
When Shuang Lianzhou took out the "Three-legged Green Luan," Li Yan's Divine Sense had also unceremoniously probed out.
The aura emanating from the "Three-legged Green Luan" had given him a faint sense of familiarity last time.
But Li Yan was sure that he did not know this family, and most of his knowledge of puppets came from Bai Rou. He had not communicated with other artifact refiners who were proficient in puppet arts.
So, after returning these few days, Li Yan had also thought about it, but had no clue.
Today, with this opportunity, he would of course unceremoniously release his Divine Sense again to carefully investigate.
"It should be that I have encountered a formation similar to the one inscribed in this puppet before, which is why I have this feeling!"
Li Yan scanned it again. He could not see the other party's refining technique, but he could sense the extraordinariness of the formation inscribed within.
At the same time, through this scan, he discovered a very faint pattern on a lifelike tail feather on the "Three-legged Green Luan's" tail vertebra, like a maple leaf, in a dark cyan color.
If one wasn't paying close attention, it would seem like a natural pattern on the Green Luan's tail feather, or that the pattern of the refining material itself had been left behind.
Li Yan was already deliberately investigating, so he still felt that this pattern was slightly abrupt.
In addition, he had heard Shuang Chongshan narrate his past, so Li Yan immediately realized that this might not be a pattern.
"This is very likely the insignia of the Duye Clan. It seems that Shuang Lianzhou is still obsessed with raising his artifact refining skills to a new realm and has secretly carved the clan's insignia on it."
"But that's understandable. This is his natal magical treasure. Generally, when a cultivator's natal magical treasure is snatched or destroyed, he is probably not far from death, so there is no need to keep any secrets."
"Is this insignia the same as the one said to be carved on the 'Crystal Snow Jade Spider'?"
Li Yan thought to himself, but he couldn't be completely sure. Perhaps this was just a pattern, and he was just overthinking it.
Or perhaps this pattern, although it was the Duye Clan's insignia, Shuang Lianzhou had carefully changed some of its characteristics, so what he had memorized was just something similar.
Afterward, Li Yan drifted away. He believed that after Zhu Luomu had witnessed the other party's puppet art, he would definitely treat them as core disciples.
But Li Yan still sent a secret voice transmission to Zhu Luomu before he left.
"Although these three are now 'Falling Star Valley' cultivators, don't disturb their quiet cultivation easily. It's enough for them to refine one or two mid-level puppets every two or three years!"
The meaning behind Li Yan's words was very clear. The Shuang family could work for the sect, but they could not be forced.
If that were the case, the Shuang family's joining the sect would be equivalent to imprisoning themselves, turning themselves into puppets that could reap a large number of spirit stones. The nature of it would change.
Li Yan did not want the people he brought into the sect to end up as marionettes enslaved by others.
With Zhu Luomu's intelligence, with this instruction, he would naturally balance the pros and cons and help the Shuang Chongshan family fend off a lot of troublesome matters that were difficult to refuse.
...
Here, the peaks rose one after another, each a dark black color, like cold, dark beasts crawling between heaven and earth.
Large patches of black rock were exposed on the mountain peaks, with sparse vegetation. The mountains rose steeply upwards, like sharp, black iron divine weapons, soaring into the sky and piercing the clouds.
The sunlight in the sky was dim, and black air currents swirled around. These black air currents contained rolling demonic qi, so substantial that it seemed it could turn into raindrops and fall at any time.
If one were to look down from the sky, one would find that among these mountains, which were like a forest of giant stone stalagmites, there was a huge chasm, stretching for one hundred and seventy thousand li.
It was as if it had been split open by a giant's axe, bottomless. As far as the eye could see, apart from clusters of extremely dense demonic qi churning and rising, there was only a stretch of darkness below.
This was the most famous and dangerous place on the Forsaken Continent---the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss."
It was a place that the cultivators of the Black Demon Clan both loved and feared. They loved it because by training here, they could obtain unexpected gains.
Besides various rare herbs, it was possible to capture both second and third-rank demonic beasts.
It was just that the demonic beasts under the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss" had been nourished by the purest demonic qi in the world for many years, and their actual combat power was simply unpredictable.
Even a cultivator as strong as those from the Black Demon Clan would likely die more often than not when facing one of the same realm.
The demonic beasts under the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss" were not only powerful but also incomparably brutal.
If you had heavenly abilities, you could even find a fourth-rank Nascent Soul stage demonic beast in the depths, or kill it to obtain precious fur, blood, and flesh, and other high-grade materials.
You could also sign a master-servant contract with it and obtain a demonic beast with outstanding combat power as a companion.
But from ancient times to the present, only two people had been able to sign a contract with a fourth-rank demonic beast.
One of them was the Black Demon Ancestor, Xiahou Shangxie. His companion demonic beast was a Heaven-Confounding Profound Gold Dragon, fierce and boundless. It was said that it could easily tear the heavens and split the earth, and roam the nine heavens.
It accompanied Xiahou Shangxie in his campaigns across the world. Countless cultivators from the White Demon Clan died at its hands, including nine Nascent Soul stage cultivators, which was enough to show its boundless ferocity.
The other cultivator who had signed a master-servant blood contract with a fourth-rank demonic beast from the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss" was a Spirit Transformation expert from the Black Demon Clan ten thousand years ago.
He was also the most brilliant and talented Black Demon God of his generation, apart from Xiahou Shangxie. His achievements were profound.
With his mid-stage Spirit Transformation cultivation, he went deep into the bottom of the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss" alone and fought a fourth-rank, initial-stage Thunder Roc for nearly five months before finally subduing it and making it his mount.
No one knew how many demonic beasts were under the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss"!
No one knew how large the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss" was either!
Even someone as strong as Xiahou Shangxie could not explore its full extent. In his words,
"Its depth may reach the Asura Underworld, and its breadth of ten million li is but a drop in the ocean!"
Although there was certainly an element of exaggeration here, these were the words of Xiahou Shangxie!
According to later records, after Xiahou Shangxie had descended to a certain depth in the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss," even with his heaven-and-earth-shattering abilities, he did not dare to go half a foot deeper.
He only dared to move horizontally within a certain range to explore the vastness of the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss." And after only a month or so, he and that Heaven-Confounding Profound Gold Dragon also flew out in a hurry. After that, he never told anyone what he had seen there. Everything was like a fog.
However, there was a well-known concept about the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss": the deeper one went, the higher the rank and strength of the demonic beasts one encountered, and at the same time, the greater the chance of obtaining various rare herbs.
It was speculated that the shape of the entire "Demon-Swallowing Abyss" should be like a vertical gourd. The mouth of the gourd was small, and the deeper one went, the wider the area became, expanding by ten or even a hundred times.
And the chasm exposed on the surface alone was more than one hundred and seventy thousand li. If this was just the mouth of the gourd, then the area below was truly as Xiahou Shangxie said, "a breadth of ten million li is but a drop in the ocean!"
On this day, on a cliff overlooking the "Demon-Swallowing Abyss," a slender and tall figure stood, listening to the faint roars and hisses of demonic beasts coming from the abyss below.
The figure's hands gently swung the crescent moon handguard sabers, creating two streams of water-like light at her side. She closed her eyes and focused her Divine Sense to probe carefully below.
The wind blew through the mountain pass, dispersing the churning, dense black demonic qi, revealing her appearance.
She looked to be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with exceptionally exquisite features. Her nose was high, and her pair of slanted phoenix eyes were filled with a murderous aura as she looked around. Her lips were tightly pressed together, her pretty face cold and proud.
A set of exquisite beast-hide sleeveless armor clung tightly to her body, accentuating her full, rounded peaks. With each breath, the deep cleavage would rise and fall slightly, bottomless under the armor's wrapping.
Apart from her chest, abdomen, and some parts of her legs being covered, most of her skin was exposed.
Her limbs were slender, with tight, flowing vertical muscle lines. Her long hands each held a crescent moon handguard saber in a reverse grip. When she occasionally stopped swinging the sabers, the tips would point upwards, close to her elbows.
The skin outside the sleeveless armor shone with a dark light. Her skin also did not have the common patterns of the Black Demon Clan. As her spirit power flowed, the luster on her skin was like that flowing over porcelain.
Her long legs were as smooth as black, soft silk, full of elasticity! Faint vertical muscle lines would occasionally appear on her thighs, making her legs look exceptionally rounded and powerful.
Her figure was truly like a demon descended, or a god of war standing by the abyss.
"This is the place where Ancestor Xiahou descended into the abyss back then, and it's also the legendary place where the 'Demon-Swallowing Abyss' is most likely to have a Heaven-Confounding Profound Gold Dragon."
"If I go deep enough from this place, I might be able to encounter the legendary Heaven-Confounding Profound Gold Dragon."
She withdrew her Divine Sense and muttered to herself with a frown.
If Li Yan were here to hear this voice, he would definitely wake up from a midnight nightmare.
This voice had sounded so close to his spirit several times, stirring his heart.
And it was the owner of this voice who had nearly killed him in some nameless mountain.
She was the Nascent Soul stage Demonic General surnamed Mu who had been guarding the "Heaven-Shaking Thunder" at Windy Cool Mountain, the female cultivator from whom Li Yan had scammed a pile of important magical treasures.
Afterward, when she followed the traces and found Li Yan fleeing all the way, she had chased him down and nearly killed him with her own hands.
At a critical moment, the Nascent Soul cultivators from the South Sea happened to attack with their troops. The great battle broke out, which forced the Demonic General surnamed Mu to give up the chase and turn back to face the enemy, thus allowing Li Yan to escape that fatal disaster.
But this incident had left a deep mark on Li Yan's heart, like a nightmare where death was so close.
The Nascent Soul stage Demonic General surnamed Mu was named Mu Guyue. She had, of course, personally experienced the final great battle. The final battle was exceptionally tragic, and the result was unexpected for both sides.
On the demonic side, a group of Demonic Generals, powerful Nascent Soul cultivators like Tie Dong, fell one after another. Mu Guyue and two other Demonic Generals joined forces and only then managed to escape from Windy Cool Mountain.
Although each of them was severely injured, and one Demonic General even lost his physical body, leaving only his Nascent Soul, they ultimately survived.
Next, the five of them took a portion of the remaining Demon Lords and Demonic Soldiers and went into hiding, trying to find a remote place to hide in, so as to wait for an opportunity to counterattack in the future.