Though the Blood Spirit Orb, in both essence and name, belonged to Mochou, Blood Demon was actually delighted to see his only disciple become so powerful, even surpassing him. From the information contained within the Orb, he learned it was an extraordinary artifact, a Chaos Spirit Treasure forged by a great master named Ancestor Blood River from the Demon Spirit Realm, who spent tens of thousands of years gathering countless rare materials. There were twelve such Orbs in total.

Ancestor Blood River inscribed his entire life's achievement, the Blood River Divine Art, into these twelve Blood Spirit Orbs. Consequently, each Orb concealed a portion of the cultivation method. More crucially, the Blood Spirit Orbs themselves were extremely potent auxiliary spiritual treasures. Each one could accelerate the master’s cultivation of the Blood River Divine Art, and further, allow the master to refine special Blood Puppets and incorporate them into the Orb's internal space. Upon entering battle, with only a small cost, these Blood Puppets could be summoned to fight. Of course, if the number of summoned puppets vastly exceeded the caster’s tolerance, the caster would suffer a severe backlash, heavily wounding themselves.

Back then, Blood Child's clone relied on this very Blood Spirit Orb to bring down a massive contingent of Nascent Soul-level puppets. Had he not encountered the monstrous Lei Dong, that entire host of Nascent Soul puppets could have rampaged through the Nine Provinces and Six Realms, slaying anything and anyone in their path. Alas, that powerful Blood Child clone met its bane, dying before achieving success.

Panic gripped the capital city. Though powerful experts continuously fought back against the Blood Puppets, occasionally slaying some lower-tier ones, they were soon overwhelmed and consumed by stronger puppets. The only solace was that despite worshipping the law of the jungle, Mochou retained a sliver of compassion; while the Blood Puppets slaughtered, they did not target the defenseless civilians.

Given enough time, all experts at the Foundation Establishment level and above within the capital would gradually be wiped out.

However, this was the capital of the Faxi Empire, and the elite troops stationed nearby, having received the imperial summons, immediately rushed toward the city center. This army was the Faxi Empire's strongest and most prized national guard, numbering only thirty thousand, but the weakest among them was at the Foundation Establishment level, and they boasted over ten experts at the Nascent Soul stage. It was precisely because of this Guard that the Faxi Empire stood as the strongest nation on the Continent of Dawn.

Yet, it seemed this army would be unable to reach the capital to defend the nation. For as soon as they left their camp, they were struck by a ferocious assault unlike any seen before. Towering earth giants, each the size of a small mountain, raised their hands from afar, summoning colossal stones that rained down upon the national guard like a violent storm.

How powerful were these earth giants? The vanguard of the national guard suffered immense casualties instantly. But this army was forged through countless campaigns and slaughters; immediately, they commanded their Battle Masters to charge, with the Mage Corps providing ranged support from the rear, unleashing arcane spells.

Even more unusual was a small contingent of cultivators dressed in immaculate white robes, radiating an ethereal and transcendent aura. They began chanting hymns in praise of the Dawn King, and with collective power, they cast a semi-transparent white shield over the Mage Corps.

Subsequently, the rain of massive stones struck the white shield, shattering upon impact as if creating countless ripples on a pond’s surface.

Mages—a cultivation method looked upon by cultivators of the Nine Provinces as inherently unhealthy—demonstrated considerable might in this moment. By forsaking excessive physical development and directing most of their attention to refining the Divine Soul, they used soul power as a foundation to communicate with the laws of heaven and earth, triggering various potent spells. It was, truly, a marvelous approach.

And these spells, conjured by communing with cosmic laws, carried significant power. With resounding crashes, fireballs like meteor showers streaked towards the earth giants, exploding upon contact. While they couldn't inflict a devastating blow, they certainly disrupted the earth giants’ formation and rhythm of attack. Some Golden Core-level earth giants even perished under the might of these powerful spells.

Watching from above, Lei Dong frowned deeply. When fighting the Iron Blood Knights, there had also been mages, but those mages seemed to have been eliminated quickly before displaying much power, which had led Lei Dong to underestimate them somewhat.

But he never expected this.

These mages, dedicated entirely to the study of spells, were unleashing magic of considerable power, especially when leveraging the tactical advantage of acting as living artillery batteries.

A moment of thought brought some clarity. Those mages focused on refining their Divine Souls and researching the underlying laws of heaven and earth. When casting, they used their divine sense and voice to communicate with these laws, triggering spells that vastly exceeded their inherent strength. However, this method of spell activation was relatively slow; the more powerful the spell they needed to manipulate beyond their own level, the more time the casting demanded.

In contrast, the power used by human cultivators of the Nine Provinces primarily derived from their own True Essence, with minor assistance from incantations. Therefore, the cultivators' spells were swift and rapid, though their sheer destructive force was slightly inferior.

Of course, it went without saying that in a pure one-on-one duel, those mages would likely be no match for a Nine Provinces cultivator of the same rank. By the time the mages took the lengthy duration required to unleash a high-power spell, the cultivator would have already killed them many times over using faster methods. But in specific environments, granted sufficient distance and time to cast, mages could unleash formidable arcane power, capable of killing enemies above their rank if they disregarded the consequences.

This observation gave Lei Dong some inspiration. He was never one to cling rigidly to tradition; any useful principle he would absorb. Indeed, the mages' method of cultivation was an emasculated path, maliciously engineered by the Winged God Clan.

However, after countless generations, the mages of the Light Domain, forced by their extremely peculiar environment, had forged a path entirely their own. Lei Dong resolved to capture some mages for his personal research.

The only minor regret was that in the Light Domain, the number of mages was significantly smaller than Battle Masters, perhaps only one percent. Cultivating the Divine Soul, it seemed, demanded great talent and patience. Moreover, at a low personal level, learning to communicate with the laws of heaven and earth, even the most basic ones, required exceptional comprehension—something many Nine Provinces cultivators failed to achieve even at the Golden Core or even Nascent Soul stages. This was because Nine Provinces cultivators could rely entirely on their own strength to cast spells, leading them to dedicate less research to this specific avenue.

The thirty-thousand-strong elite force, besides the few dozen light-aligned mages in white robes, still possessed about three hundred other mages. Protected by the Light Shield, these mages bombarded the earth giant formation without restraint. Especially formidable was the leading figure: a tall, thin old man with white hair and beard, clad in gray robes.

Judging by the aura emanating from his Divine Soul, he was no less powerful than a human cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage. Because of his intense refinement of his Divine Sense, the strength of that sense rivaled a high-tier human Nascent Soul cultivator. This was the first time Lei Dong had encountered a low-tier Nascent Soul soul possessing the might of a high-tier expert, excluding himself.

Clearly an experienced practitioner, he calmly held a staff made of unknown material, rapidly and steadily chanting incantations. Suddenly, the space in the sky was torn open. A meteor, about ten yards wide and trailing a long plume of fire, plummeted down with the speed of lightning.

It smashed heavily into the earth giant formation. With a thunderous roar, the meteor struck the ground, sending a violent shockwave radiating outwards in all directions. At least a dozen earth giants were shredded or killed by the wave generated by this single impact, while dozens more sustained various injuries.

Lei Dong's brows furrowed heavily, feeling a pang of distress. These earth giants were a force he highly valued. The battle had barely begun, and dozens were already lost. If this continued, what hope was there? Although these earth giants were under Lan Qisi’s command.

"Kill!" The Battle Masters in the national guard vanguard, shielded by surging Battle Qi, fearlessly charged into the earth giant ranks, forcing the giants into close combat. Fortunately, the earth giants were formidable both at range and up close. They immediately activated Gravity Spells, slowing the Battle Masters to a crawl. Then, wielding their barbed maces, they swung to strike. The mountainous bodies of the earth giants contained terrifying strength; one blow was enough to turn even Great Battle Masters into pulp.

Perhaps Lan Qisi also felt the loss of the earth giants keenly, as she began to command the Zerg Swarm to attack. Instantly, swarms of Ravagers, covering the landscape like a tide, charged in from all directions. Ravagers were incredibly fast and possessed a fierce and terrifying momentum.

The enemy commander clearly noticed this shift and hastily ordered his troops to adopt a defensive circular formation. The Battle Master soldiers raised their shields, setting up a ring to encircle and protect the light mages and the general mage corps within.

Lei Dong had immense confidence in the Ravagers. He believed that once these hundreds of thousands of Ravagers were unleashed, the thirty thousand national guardsmen would instantly be annihilated. However, the unexpected occurred once more. It was still that old mage—no, more accurately, a Spell Saint.

But this time, he was not casting alone. He had channeled the divine thoughts of over a hundred mages together, beginning a long, drawn-out chant. Lei Dong chose not to interfere, preferring to observe, though his Divine Sense had already instructed Zhen Yao to intervene immediately once the enemy’s spell manifested.

Boom! A hole ripped open in space, and searing, scorching flames burned out from the void. A giant hand, wreathed in fierce flames, reached out from the rent in the sky and slapped down toward the ground.

"Ants, perish!"