However, the Underworld Sovereign’s approach seemed to go a step further. He directly separated consciousness, experience, and other components from the physical body, merging them with the control core. This meant that the moment the consciousness was extracted, that Ghost Emperor was already dead. What remained was merely his core consciousness, and this consciousness was certainly incomplete. While a select few elite puppets possessed awareness beyond mere combat, the vast majority of puppets were nothing more than fighting tools.

Of the two methods of entombment, which was superior? Lei Dong had not been deeply involved with either, making a firm judgment difficult. The only certainty was that he was incapable of employing either method. Lei Dong could not, nor did he possess the ability, to directly extract and filter components of a living being’s consciousness to merge with a puppet’s control core like the Underworld Sovereign did.

As for the Ten Thousand Puppet Sect’s method, while it was detailed in the Puppet Arts manuals regarding processes, Lei Dong was no fool; he would never willingly allow his Nascent Soul to leave its body and integrate into a puppet. Though this might temporarily grant him the strength of the early Soul Transformation stage, the resulting loss would be irreparable.

The method Lei Dong currently employed for instilling intelligence into his Soul Transformation stage puppets was the traditional approach of the Ten Thousand Puppet Sect, and indeed, that of most puppets: control via a spirit artifact (Qi Ling). Unlike the spirit artifacts used for lower-tier puppets, the requirements for a spirit artifact controlling a Soul Transformation stage puppet were exceedingly strict. While a subpar spirit artifact could control the puppet, it would drastically reduce the puppet’s combat effectiveness. Furthermore, for higher-tier puppets, the ideal situation was integrating a corresponding level of divine soul into the puppet core. For instance, a Nascent Soul stage puppet was best controlled by the demon infant of a monstrous beast or the Nascent Soul of a human.

Similarly, a Soul Transformation stage puppet naturally required a Primordial Spirit (Yuan Shen). Excluding Xuan Yuanzi, whom Lei Dong had refined into a Nascent Soul level "Big Belly Cannon Ghost," Lei Dong possessed two other Primordial Spirits: the separated Nascent Souls of the Crimson Refining Divine Serpent and the Primordial War Giant. Both of these were extraordinary entities. Although Lei Dong did not fully grasp the specifics of how a split essence (Fen Shen) was formed, he had some concept of it. Some supreme experts would isolate a portion of their divine soul and power, using their own essence blood as a catalyst, to cultivate a clone identical to themselves. Subsequently, the supreme expert would infuse their own divine soul, power, and experience into this newly formed clone. This clone could bear the original body’s various consciousnesses and experiences while remaining under the absolute control of the original.

However, in terms of essential theory, the split essence was an independent individual, possessing personality, awareness, joys, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. Yet, its disposition would largely resemble the master's, and its dominant consciousness would always believe itself to be the original owner’s clone. In reality, this was a conceptual error. Based on Lei Dong’s deductions from the knowledge provided by the Arena Spirit regarding the art of the split essence, the process where a supreme expert cultivated an identical body using their essence blood was essentially a self-cloning procedure. In the society Lei Dong came from in his previous life, there were endless ethical debates surrounding similar themes. But one thing was certain: a cloned human, despite possessing identical genes to the original, was absolutely two distinct life forms.

It was just that in the world Lei Dong currently inhabited, humans and other races had attained an extremely high degree of development and control over their power. They even possessed an absolutely complete system regarding the essence and growth of the soul. Concepts such as body, divine soul, consciousness, bodily power, soul power, and so on, were understood with extreme clarity.

Consequently, some supreme mighty beings could entirely erase and replace the potential self-awareness and personality that might arise in a split essence by excising parts of their own divine soul and consciousness. The portion of the divine soul infused would, during the merging process, gradually form a brand-new, complete divine soul.

This relationship, while seemingly complex, was not difficult to understand. This method bore some resemblance to possession (Duo She), where one replaced another's entire divine soul and consciousness. But refining a split essence involved splitting off a portion of the divine soul to grow into a separate divine soul, yet still utilizing the same dominant consciousness.

According to the knowledgeable Arena Spirit, after refining a split essence, periodic consciousness fusion and refreshing were necessary. Otherwise, after experiencing many events, a split essence might develop a secondary consciousness truly independent of the main body’s awareness, akin to forming a second conscious personality within the physical form. This independent secondary consciousness possessed self-recognition and the ability for self-thought. Over time and experience, it might eventually betray the original body, merging and consuming the primary consciousness, ultimately forming a truly independent life form.

Throughout history, this was not an uncommon occurrence.

However, these matters were currently irrelevant to Lei Dong, as preliminary splitting could only begin once he reached the Void Refinement stage and his Primordial Spirit was nearly fully mature.

The only thing somewhat related to Lei Dong now was that the two captured Primordial Spirit level divine souls were not ethereal, illusory things. They were fragments grown from the divine souls of supreme experts, and inherently constituted an independent Primordial Spirit.

Furthermore, the consciousnesses residing within these two Primordial Spirits were also infused from the supreme experts. Although this consciousness was unlikely to be the complete version of the supreme expert, it was undoubtedly powerful in terms of combat experience, combat awareness, spells, and techniques. Lei Dong and Xie Feng had both thoroughly experienced this.

Therefore, the true value of these two Primordial Spirits was not the Primordial Spirits themselves. Even though they were divine souls grown from fragments split off from supreme experts, they were fundamentally still initial-stage Primordial Spirits without any great uniqueness. Their preciousness lay in the vast combat experience, spells, and awareness they had shared from their original bodies.

The trouble, however, lay in the fact that within the consciousness residing in the Primordial Spirit, besides the elements Lei Dong desperately desired, there was also a significant portion he desperately wished to avoid: the self-awareness within the consciousness. This self-awareness even dominated everything else. Using conventional methods, one could easily erase this self-awareness, leaving only combat experience and instinct.

Unfortunately, despite Lei Dong’s repeated attempts using conventional methods, he could not eradicate or alter the self-awareness of that Primordial War Giant. It was tenacious, truly too tenacious. It was worthy of being a fragment of a supreme expert's consciousness, firm and obstinate to a frightening degree.

Unless Lei Dong was willing to erase all its consciousness in one go, which would be equivalent to obtaining a mere walking corpse. This left Lei Dong somewhat helpless. Fortunately, the Arena Spirit later proposed an astonishing yet genuinely feasible solution.

That solution was for the Arena Spirit, having developed its own self-awareness, to separate that awareness from its core and use it to invade and replace the self-awareness of the Primordial War Giant, while preserving all consciousness beneficial to combat. It was slightly complex, but to Lei Dong, it sounded like it truly possessed possibilities.

The Arena Spirit was akin to an artificial intelligence, initially lacking self-awareness. But somehow, it had evolved into an independent self-awareness, much like a true life form. It had resided within Lei Dong's Nascent Soul for a long time and was now feeling restless, eager to become a genuine life.

The self-awareness of the Primordial War Giant was incredibly strong; external attempts to erase it without damaging other parts had failed. However, attacking and devouring it from the inside was clearly much easier, especially with Lei Dong assisting the external control. After careful consideration, Lei Dong decided to give it a try. Allowing a spirit artifact possessing self-awareness to reside within his Nascent Soul—the deeper Lei Dong understood divine souls, memory, and consciousness—felt increasingly less trivial.

Lei Dong first took out the Soul Sealing Orb and used his divine sense to brutally suppress the self-awareness of the Ancient Giant Dana, ignoring the threats, pleas, and temptations transmitted through fluctuating waves. Lei Dong summoned the Arena Spirit from his Nascent Soul; the spirit, resembling a faintly luminous, shimmering white orb, swiftly submerged into the Soul Sealing Orb and, aided by Lei Dong’s suppressive power, smoothly integrated into the Primordial Spirit of the Ancient Giant.

Because it had somewhat degraded, the Primordial Spirit of the Ancient Giant was translucent, sealed within the Soul Sealing Orb and compressed to the size of a fist. Yet, it was extraordinarily lifelike, closely resembling the primitive form of the Ancient Giant. A Primordial Spirit differs from a Nascent Soul; although both are referred to as divine souls, the maturity of a Primordial Spirit far surpasses that of a Nascent Soul.

For example, the Nascent Soul currently hidden in Lei Dong's Purple Mansion was already mid-stage, yet it remained chubby, rosy, and soft, resembling a baby. If separated from the body, aside from escaping quickly, it would face certain death against cultivators of the same rank. A Primordial Spirit, however, is different. While weaker in the initial stages, the more advanced it becomes, the more potent its Primordial Spirit divine abilities grow, allowing it to exert significant combat power even without bodily support.

Therefore, Lei Dong treated these Primordial Spirits with extreme caution. Capturing them initially was only possible because numerous masters were present in a closed environment.

Once the Spirit registered its integration into Dana’s Primordial Spirit, the spirit immediately began to tremble violently. On the giant-like face appeared expressions of rage, madness, and even despair. Under the external pressure exerted by Lei Dong, its core consciousness could not muster any power to resist, forced to watch helplessly as its self-awareness slowly decayed and weakened.