This state of affairs persisted for a full day. Finally, the primordial giant's self-awareness completely dissolved, replaced entirely by the consciousness of the artifact spirit. Only then did Lei Dong heave a long sigh of relief. It was fortunate that his spiritual sense was incredibly powerful, and since the primordial giant was not a race adept at spiritual power, coupled with its inability to exert much strength while sealed within the Soul Sealing Orb, he barely managed to hold on.

Otherwise, he might have failed to seize the consciousness and even been counter-attacked by the primordial giant, forcing his retreat.

However, facing the primordial giant’s primordial spirit whose consciousness had been successfully usurped, Lei Dong broke into a relieved smile. The most arduous stage of repairing the puppet had been overcome. Next was the re-refinement of the puppet's physical body. Because this bronze puppet originated from the Pluto Era, many of the formations within its components were somewhat incompatible; thus, Lei Dong had to re-smelt certain component formations to allow them to integrate seamlessly with the newly forged puppet core.

This was a tedious task, but thankfully, over the past few years, Lei Dong had designed an entire set of modification and repair protocols. The only slight issue was that whether modifying and refining the puppet core or re-smelting the various components, fire was required.

Lei Dong's True Yin Fire was sufficient for refining items at the Foundation Establishment stage, or even the Golden Core stage. However, it was utterly incapable of refining puppet components even at the Nascent Soul stage. This was because achieving the standards required for a Nascent Soul-level puppet component demanded a much higher intensity of heat than his True Yin Fire could muster. When cultivators refine items, they need flames, either from their own magical techniques or from external sources.

For external fire, there were typically two types: one was natural fire, such as Earth Fire or Heavenly Fire. The other involved nurturing various monstrous beasts adept at spitting flames. In short, Lei Dong currently possessed none of these methods. The most reliable approach would be to locate a natural vein of fire.

Heaven and Earth are vast, and countless strange terrains exist. Fire veins are distributed to varying degrees across the Six Domains and Nine Continents, but the optimal locations for fire veins are found in the Purgatory Domain. In the Purgatory Domain, all manner of flames surge endlessly, and numerous heavenly materials and earthly treasures related to fire abound, such as the Purgatory Red Lotus Lei Dong had acquired before, which is a specialty of that region, though they are scarcer elsewhere.

Because the Nine Continents World, the Six Domains, and the Three Realms had endured countless chaotic wars. Throughout history, many military passages and teleportation formations had been constructed between the various domains and continents.

The vast majority of these were destroyed through warfare, geological shifts, and deliberate sabotage.

The few remaining passages are now controlled by various clans or specific sects. In Kangzhou, where Lei Dong resided, certain sects controlled passages leading to various domains; for instance, the Yinsha Sect held the passage to the Nether Ghost Realm. The former Purgatory Sect actually controlled a semi-abandoned passage into Purgatory. Of course, this passage now belonged to the Zai Sha Sect.

As the broadest and most powerful continent among the Nine Continents, Great Qian Continent naturally possessed several passages that could teleport one to various regions and domains.

Refining Divinity Transformation stage puppet components required flames far exceeding ordinary intensity. In Great Qian Continent, slightly higher-grade fire veins were invariably guarded by sects. The more superior the fire vein, the more firmly it was occupied by powerful sects. Although the guardians were usually not overwhelmingly strong, Lei Dong required a significant amount of time to refine the puppet components; he couldn't simply seize something and flee. Therefore, forcefully occupying a prime fire vein was entirely infeasible. He would likely be surrounded by the sect's main forces within a couple of days of occupation.

Journeying to the Purgatory Domain was unequivocally the best choice. There, countless natural, superior fire veins existed—so numerous, in fact, that one could easily find a secluded spot to diligently refine the puppet without disturbance.

Naturally, the Purgatory Domain was no sanctuary. As one of the Six Domains, it was teeming with intelligent races and countless powerhouses, rivaling even the Bright Holy Domain in might. But this didn't mean Lei Dong would be courting trouble or suicide by entering the Purgatory Domain. On the contrary, many Nascent Soul stage cultivators frequently ventured into the Purgatory Domain for exploration, and even Golden Core cultivators risked entering, hoping to stumble upon treasures or search for fire-attributed heavenly materials and earthly treasures.

Unlike the Bright Holy Domain, the races currently inhabiting Purgatory not only tolerated outsiders but actively welcomed them.

The reason was simple: the Purgatory Domain, a place of oppressive fire waves and extreme heat, was not suitable for long-term survival for all races. Even if a few powerful figures managed to establish a foothold there, no race would migrate there en masse. The presence of many outsiders and foreign travelers allowed the native races of the Purgatory Domain to trade for local specialties—which were scarce within Purgatory—at very low costs. This was because the Purgatory Domain possessed a singular landscape; while abundant in fire-related treasures, materials of other types were extremely rare.

Of course, traveling to Purgatory was not as safe as taking a vacation abroad. Purgatory was also a multi-racial territory, with the dominant strong races locked in continuous warfare. Various powerful monstrous beasts also emerged incessantly. But more prevalent were bandits of all kinds—encounters in the wilderness where the strong preyed upon the weak, and so on. Overall, however, it was significantly safer than the highly exclusionary Bright Holy Domain.

Furthermore, Lei Dong's purpose for going to the Purgatory Domain was not to steal treasures from Purgatory powerhouses, but merely to find a superior fire vein to refine puppet components. Divinity Transformation stage experts certainly existed in the Purgatory Domain, but they were hardly everywhere, wandering about where one might casually run into them.

Among the Purgatory race, there were only seven or eight named Divinity Transformation stage experts—slightly more than the Nether Ghost Realm, and slightly fewer than the Bright Holy Domain. In the vast Purgatory Domain, the probability of Lei Dong encountering a Divinity Transformation expert just by wandering around was lower than him winning the lottery in his previous life.

Moreover, various domains were connected by multiple passages. Lei Dong might be able to borrow a route to return directly to Kangzhou, avoiding the tedium of crossing the sea.

Thus, with all preparations finalized, Lei Dong made some inquiries and discovered that the Great Qian Continent had no fewer than ten famous passages leading to Purgatory. However, seven of these were heavily guarded by major sects, while three were in a semi-open state, allowing entry upon paying spirit stones. Naturally, Lei Dong chose the passages accessible simply by offering spirit stones.

However, before heading to Purgatory, Lei Dong had a few matters to settle. First, he visited the Gongsun family, quietly settling his residual affairs and secretly bestowing a large sum of spirit stones upon Old Man Gongsun. Several years had passed, and the Gongsun family remained unharmed, indicating that Elder Li had kept his promise, even handling the affairs of "Gongsun Dong." It was reported that "Gongsun Dong" perished during a group skirmish while adventuring elsewhere.

This was not uncommon; any genius, before truly growing into an unparalleled master, had the potential to die in any accidental mishap. The exceptionally gifted "Gongsun Dong" would only elicit minor regret from his well-wishers, and in a few more years, perhaps everyone would forget this person entirely.

After settling his own "posthumous" affairs, Lei Dong embarked on a new journey. Along the way, he employed various disguises, moving stealthily, and would rush to super-large marketplaces to make extensive purchases. The items he bought were either highly valuable goods from Purgatory or rare, supreme-grade elixirs. Simultaneously, he refined a batch of supreme-grade spirit ghosts and occasionally sold one.

Selling a supreme-grade spirit ghost naturally caused an immense sensation, and its price was instantly driven to an abnormally terrifying level. But by the time the news spread, Lei Dong was long gone. Many who secretly sought to assassinate Lei Dong for quick riches were either lured into a trap by Lei Dong deliberately exposing his whereabouts and subsequently killed by him, or they were easily evaded.

Lei Dong's current strength was not to be trifled with. Any Nascent Soul cultivator below the Divinity Transformation stage seeking trouble with him, provided they weren't in a group, usually faced complete annihilation. Any incoming Nascent Soul figures, or Soul Beasts, were fed entirely to the Soul Devouring Shadow Tiger. Their flesh and blood were given to a brand-new ghost servant to enhance its power.

That new ghost servant was a supreme-grade ghost servant Lei Dong had re-blood-sacrificed on his journey back after Ah Chou’s death. With his Nascent Soul stage strength, upon initial refinement, the entity immediately became a Ghost General after absorbing Lei Dong's essence blood. Over the years, its growth was slow, and by the time Lei Dong left the Myriad Puppets Sect, it had yet to break through to Ghost King.

However, along this journey, the new ghost servant rapidly improved after devouring the blood and flesh of numerous Nascent Soul cultivators, easily ascending to the initial Ghost King stage. Its sentience greatly increased, and Lei Dong instructed Ghost Thorn to teach it some Netherworld-series magical arts. This new servant differed from Ah Chou; right after the blood sacrifice, it was a ghost servant highly adept at various Netherworld-series spells, with all its innate talents leaning towards Netherworld magic. After it focused on mastering Lei Dong's Netherworld spells, its power proved astonishingly terrifying, far surpassing Ghost Kings of the same rank.

This led Lei Dong to speculate whether the essence blood absorbed during its initial blood sacrifice contained the essence of his own Netherworld physique, thereby granting this ghost servant a portion of the Netherworld physique? Naturally, there was no way to verify this for the time being. Although Lei Dong grieved Ah Chou’s demise, he was extremely satisfied with this new servant.

Because of its particular proficiency in using Netherworld magic, Lei Dong named it Ghost Ming. The now increasingly seasoned and mature Ghost Thorn took on the responsibility of teaching.