… Aside from Lei Dong, the progress of the others was also commendable. The greatest leaps forward were achieved by Lei Hu, Gui Ci, and Gui Ming.

Under Lei Dong’s attentive care, these three had enjoyed a considerable amount of Primordial Chaos Source. Furthermore, resources were supplied to them limitlessly. Although they frequently ventured out afterwards to sweep through Void Demon Beasts to accumulate assets, the intense life-and-death struggles also furnished them with rich experience for future breakthroughs.

To speak first of Lei Hu, he had already reached the peak of the initial stage of the Integration Period, just one step away from the middle stage. While this progress was directly linked to the resources supplied by Lei Dong, Lei Hu’s own desperate effort deserves no less credit. In terms of pure strength, he was slightly superior to that Bai Mu of the past.

As for Gui Ci and Gui Ming, both had advanced to the initial stage of the Integration Period, accumulating vast combat experience, and had truly become masters capable of firmly controlling any situation.

Moreover, Mo Ye was exceptionally fortunate. This was because Lei Dong discovered the long-sealed refining data for Gold-grade War Puppets within the memories of the Death God.

The Death God had never held any interest in mechanical puppets, but this did not prevent him from retaining such information. After all, the Puppet Arts studied by the Underworld Sovereign had originated from the Death God’s inheritance.

Thus, it was not surprising that this data resided in the Death God’s memory. Relying on his foundational knowledge of the Puppet Arts, Lei Dong spent several years immersed in dedicated research. He finally managed to piece together and repair several previously damaged Gold Puppets, reinforcing them with additional materials, ultimately producing two Gold-grade War Puppets.

One was naturally prepared for Mo Ye to inhabit once more. The other was modified by Lei Dong’s hand into a female puppet, dyed a lovely peach-pink color according to Mei Xiang’s unique specifications.

It was only after Lei Dong delved into the matter of Gold-grade Puppets that he understood: their combat strength was actually identical. The difference in the power they could display stemmed solely from the evolution of the controlling Intellect Spirits through independent combat.

The concept of the Intellect Spirit, as understood by the Crystal Ancient Race, turned out to be strikingly similar to the concept of the Artifact Spirit; it could grow gradually and eventually become an alternate form of life. The central goddess of the Crystal Ancient Race who was destroyed appeared to be such an Intellect Spirit, and very likely one that had survived the Great Tribulation of Heaven and Earth’s Reincarnation.

Otherwise, how could the Crystal Ancient Race have erupted with such potential and power in such a short span of time?

This realization made Lei Dong sigh at the vastness and endless variety of the world, while simultaneously cautioning him against ever underestimating Artifact Spirits again. After all, Artifact Spirits like Mei Xiang, Ming Ji, and Mo Ye possessed life; in what way were they different from true life?

Although they lacked souls, possessing only consciousness, cultivators who reached Lei Dong’s realm had long understood that consciousness alone was the root and essence of a living being.

Furthermore, with Lei Dong’s capabilities, he could now assist Artifact Spirits’ consciousnesses in achieving soul-possession through (duó shě - soul snatching/possession). Among them, Mei Xiang chose to possess the primordial spirit of a Void Refinement-stage female Asura whom she lured and killed.

As for Ming Ji, she expressed a preference for remaining within the Underworld Sovereign Banner, content with her current form and uninterested in venturing out. To each their own ambition, and Lei Dong would not force her hand.

Initially, when Mo Ye and Mei Xiang occupied the Gold Puppets, they could not even manifest the strength of the Integration Period. Through repeated cultivation, adaptation, and constant participation in battles, the puppets’ combat power gradually increased. Now, they could contend with ordinary initial-stage Integration Period experts.

The rest of the Hidden Dragon Army and Fierce Ghost Army already possessed strength at the Void Refinement level, with some of the stronger individuals reaching the middle stage of Void Refinement, and even a few reaching the higher tiers.

The strongest leaders—Chi Gui of the Fierce Ghost Army, and Situ Hao and Li Jun of the Hidden Dragon Army—due to accumulating various merits in battle, repeatedly received greater allocations of resources, ultimately succeeding in advancing to the initial stage of the Integration Period. Among them, Li Jun was a late bloomer; he was originally unknown within the Hidden Dragon Army, but through fierce combat, he repeatedly rendered great service. More merits naturally led to faster cultivation. By the end, Li Jun had become one of the deputy commanders of the Hidden Dragon Army.

This living example spurred both the Fierce Ghost Army and the Hidden Dragon Army to fight with exceptional ferocity.

Furthermore, Fairy Cang Lan and the Queen of Torment typically assisted Lei Dong in handling the sundry business of resource distribution and exchanging them for Chaos Crystals. All other time was almost entirely spent cultivating alongside Lei Dong within the Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land. In terms of resource consumption, these two, along with Lei Dong himself, were the biggest drains.

With changes to their innate aptitudes, their cultivation speed had surged dramatically. Through several tens of thousands of years of painstaking effort, consuming boundless resources, they had all become high-stage Integration Period existences. Given more time, they might break through the shackles and reach their peak.

This would have been unthinkable in the past. It was all thanks to the drastic transformation and hope Lei Dong had brought them. Consequently, even though they knew Lei Dong controlled them through dark arts, they genuinely, from the bottom of their hearts, held no aversion towards him, but rather staunchly supported him.

The two women of the Immortal and Demonic paths were now Lei Dong’s most formidable subordinates.

These constituted Lei Dong’s direct command structure. Counting them up, excluding Lei Dong himself, he commanded exactly ten direct subordinates at the Integration Period.

Then there were the two non-direct races: the Giant Giants and the Butterfly People.

They were not given special treatment; instead, they were sent out to plunder various resources on their own and then pay tribute to cultivate within the Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land. The difference was that Lei Dong clipped their resources by a staggering seventy percent.

Yet, even with this arrangement, those two races were overwhelmingly grateful. This was because, under the Death God’s command, there had been countless races, and the Death God, preferring research over management, had left the Sacred Domain in utter chaos and disorder.

Furthermore, the Barbarian races lacked Chaos Crystals. However, after Lei Dong claimed some of their powerful souls, he would grant them Chaos Crystals and some exceedingly precious Primordial Chaos Source.

Chaos Crystals were relatively manageable; they occasionally obtained resources of that nature. But Primordial Chaos Source was something the Giant Giants and Butterfly People could never have touched before; the Death God valued this resource more than his own life.

Naturally, these Barbarian fellows gradually became genuinely loyal to Lei Dong, their reverence and devotion growing, rather than simply being compelled by the final wishes of their Great Ancestral God.

Lei Dong was stingy and clipped their share severely, but the Death God was even more stingy. No, to be precise, the Death God was too poor.

The Giant Giant race possessed formidable strength; besides Tai Ming, who had Quasi-Saint strength, they boasted seven or eight Integration Period experts and nearly a hundred Void Refinement experts. The Butterfly People were more numerous, with approximately tens of thousands below the Void Refinement level. However, those above the Void Refinement level were comparable in number to the Giant Giants.

It was just that the Butterfly People were an extreme race; even at the Integration Period, their destructive power was not high. But when paired with the physically powerful Giant Giants, their strength amplified immensely, making the combined tactics of these two races a major headache for the allied armies.

It was precisely this symbiotic relationship that allowed these two races to survive until now without being wiped out by the allied forces. Moreover, in the recent few millennia, thanks to the presence of the three great moles—Lei Dong, Cang Lan, and the Queen of Torment—the Three-Race Alliance frequently suffered heavy losses against the Barbarians during their campaigns.

Having exhausted the resources in hand, Lei Dong was compelled to venture out again. However, this time his ambition was considerably larger; he set his sights on the entire Three-Race Alliance.

With his increasing strength, Lei Dong’s perspective had naturally undergone a significant shift. Especially now that his forces were robust and he himself was a peak Integration Period superpower, he no longer feared existences like the Destruction Demon Emperor. Instead, he had subtly begun to regard them as prey.

In the years prior, Lei Dong had managed to kill one high-stage Integration expert. Using that high-stage expert’s primordial spirit, Lei Dong directly refined several thousand Chaos Crystals and one Primordial Chaos Source. Coupled with his spoils worth tens of thousands, this sufficiently filled Lei Dong’s coffers for a considerable period of consumption.

Time waits for no one; the deadline given to him by Ji Ziyan was now less than five thousand years away. Lei Dong urgently needed to acquire enough resources in a short time to sustain tens of thousands of years of cultivation within the small world.

With his current strength, dealing with Ji Ziyan should not pose a major problem. But the entire Demon Spirit Realm was not solely comprised of Ji Ziyan, nor was the Sparrow Clan the only power.

Setting aside the numerous other powerful and miscellaneous races, there was the Mother of Ten Thousand Spirits, a Supreme-level existence, an ancient monster who had lived for untold ages—someone his current self certainly could not handle.

Thus, despite his massive surge in power, he was still far too weak to counterattack the Three Realms. Conversely, the Three-Race Alliance, having waged war against the Barbarians for so many years, had plundered countless spoils of war. Every one of them was wealthy, especially the supreme leaders of the three races, the peak Integration Period powerhouses, who had reaped immense benefits from this protracted conflict.

Lei Dong certainly would not pass up this piece of rich meat. Strong as Lei Dong was, he had no intention of engaging the entire might of the Three-Race Alliance in a decisive battle; that would be pure suicide.

Therefore, continuing the previous fishing tactic remained the supreme path. Utilizing that ruin of the Crystal Ancient Race, he would gradually lure over those greedy individuals, and then ambush them.

This maneuver had become incredibly proficient over the last few millennia. A full dozen or so Integration Period experts had met their end within this very trap.

As expected, whether human, demon spirit, or fiend, they were all susceptible to avarice. Integration Period experts, given something sufficient to ignite their desires, were naturally brimming with greed. After merely presenting a small glimpse of the treasures and images obtained from the Crystal Ancient Race’s sacred ground,

Lei Dong and his group easily lured another ten-plus Integration Period experts into the sacred grounds. Subsequently, they bared their fangs, trapping them within a small space and annihilating them one by one.

Huge fortunes in resources thus fell neatly into his hands. However, Lei Dong did not absorb the primordial spirits of these ten-plus Integration Period experts; instead, he handed them over to the overjoyed Ming Ji.

…(To be continued)RQ