Gu Changge's gaze swept over the fifteen puppets standing quietly before him. Five were the original versions obtained from the celestial envoy, and ten were new products he had refined himself.
After a brief moment of thought, he took out fifteen Emperor-grade spirit veins that had been compressed to the extreme and exuded a pure origin aura, accurately inserting them into the core energy furnaces of each puppet.
As the spirit veins entered their bodies, runes flowed around the puppets, and their auras became majestic and stable, possessing an almost inexhaustible source of energy.
"Although Zizhu Peak is quiet, it still needs some protection."
With a light flick of his sleeve, the five optimized peak Emperor-grade puppets turned into streams of light and silently merged into the void around Zizhu Peak, blending with the mountains and earth veins to become invisible guardians.
Right at this moment, the light screen at the entrance of the Eternal Genius Tower fluctuated, and a figure was rather awkwardly "thrown" out. It was exactly Xuanyangzi.
His Daoist robe was torn, his face was bruised, and there was a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth. Obviously, he had suffered a great loss inside the tower.
He was just grimacing and drawing in cold breaths when he looked up and happened to see Gu Changge standing quietly in the courtyard.
"Junior Brother Changge?"
Xuanyangzi looked a bit embarrassed and quickly stood up straight, subconsciously adjusting his torn robes. Although Gu Changge had seen him in a sorry state many times, he still felt a bit ashamed.
Gu Changge's gaze swept over him. Seeing that although he was battered, his aura and foundation were stable and he had no serious injuries, the smile in his eyes deepened. He spoke, "Senior Brother, your aura is quite stable after coming out of the tower this time. It seems that your recent training in the tower has greatly increased your combat power, and you have gained a lot."
Hearing this, Xuanyangzi's face immediately looked a bit sheepish, but a trace of pride flashed deep in his eyes, hard to conceal.
He cleared his throat. He originally wanted to habitually say a few humble words like, "Not at all, I was just barely holding on."
But as the words reached his mouth, he remembered that relying on his Saint King realm cultivation and Emperor-grade cultivation technique, he had actually managed to last over a dozen more rounds against the ancient Emperor in the tower. Compared to the past when he was quickly sent flying, it was a world of difference.
This tangible progress made his desire to show off tickle his heart like a feather.
Thus, the humble words on his lips turned into a sigh with a bit of unconcealable emotion: "Ahem... Junior Brother must be joking. My meager cultivation is still not enough to look at in front of an Emperor. However..."
He paused, straightened his originally somewhat hunched back, and tried to make his tone sound flat, but it still revealed a bit of elation.
"This time, I indeed lasted a moment longer than last time. At least... at least I didn't disgrace the cultivation technique bestowed by Junior Brother."
After he finished speaking, he quietly observed Gu Changge's expression. He wanted to get his junior brother's approval, but he was also afraid that his "pride" was too obvious and would cause him to lose his demeanor as a sect master. His expression was temporarily caught between pride and restraint, looking somewhat comical.
Gu Changge took in Xuanyangzi's forced calmness and unconcealable joy, the smile in his eyes growing thicker, and he casually added another sentence.
"To be able to last a moment longer under the phantom of an ancient Emperor is already commendable. It seems that given time, Senior Brother might be able to match the Emperor's projection."
These words carried obvious teasing, but they also hit the deepest itch in Xuanyangzi's heart, making his old face heat up, and he quickly waved his hand.
"Junior Brother, don't make fun of me. That is an ancient Emperor... Ahem, the road is still long, the road is still long."
He was modest on the surface, but in his heart, because of these words, a trace of fiery longing involuntarily welled up.
Gu Changge smiled faintly and did not continue this topic. Instead, he casually raised his hand and pointed to one side of the courtyard, saying in a flat tone, "Senior Brother, you came at the right time. I will leave these puppets for you to handle."
Hearing this, Xuanyangzi was taken aback. He looked in the direction Gu Changge pointed, and only then did he shockingly discover that in the shadows of the courtyard, ten dark gold puppets were standing quietly at some unknown time!
He was immediately startled.
With his Saint King realm cultivation and divine sense, he had just entered the courtyard and talked with his junior brother for a while, yet he had not noticed the existence of these puppets at all!
They just stood there, but their auras perfectly blended with the surrounding stone steps and vegetation, as if they were originally part of this courtyard. If his junior brother hadn't deliberately pointed them out, he probably wouldn't have noticed them even if he brushed past them.
"This..." The pride and sheepishness on Xuanyangzi's face were instantly replaced by surprise. He subconsciously took two steps forward, his eyes sweeping over these ten puppets with doubt and astonishment.
He saw that these puppets were entirely dark gold, with simple and smooth lines. There was not the slightest fluctuation of spiritual energy or divine sense spilling out from them. If he hadn't seen them with his own eyes, they were almost no different from dead objects. But the more this was the case, the more awe-inspiring he felt.
To be able to conceal their auras to such an extent that even he couldn't detect them, the methods used to refine these puppets were simply appalling.
"Junior Brother, these are...?"
Xuanyangzi restrained his mind, his face showing a mixture of solemnity and curiosity as he looked at Gu Changge.
His mind raced: What is Junior Brother's intention in suddenly bringing out these things? Moreover, looking at this material, it is definitely not ordinary!
He took a few steps closer. His keen perception as a Saint King realm cultivator immediately made him aware of the extraordinary nature of these puppets.
With his experience, he couldn't recognize the dark gold material at all. He only felt that it was incredibly heavy and faintly emitted a Dao rhythm of eternal immortality. The internal structure was even more seamless, as if born from heaven and earth, definitely not something that ordinary artifact refining methods could achieve.
"A few little toys I obtained by chance," Gu Changge said in a flat tone.
Xuanyangzi reached out his hand and carefully touched the arm of one of the puppets. It felt cold and hard to the touch. When he probed with his divine sense, it was like a clay ox entering the sea; he couldn't sense any internal energy fluctuations at all, nor could he determine its specific level.
He frowned slightly, the shock and doubt in his heart growing even stronger. With his Saint King realm cultivation and his discernment as a sect master, he actually couldn't see through the depths of this puppet at all?
"Changge," Xuanyangzi withdrew his hand, the smile on his face growing wider, carrying a bit of probing.
"Give your senior brother a hint. These puppets... roughly how much power can they unleash?"
He calculated in his heart that for his junior brother to bring them out and place them in the courtyard, they must at least be at the Saint realm level, right? Perhaps they could rival a Saint King? That would be a tremendous boost to the sect.
Gu Changge glanced at him, the corners of his mouth seeming to curl up imperceptibly, and said casually, "It's hard to say exactly, probably... just a little bit stronger than you, Senior Brother."
A little bit stronger than me?
The smile on Xuanyangzi's face instantly froze.
He was now at the Saint King realm! A little bit stronger than a Saint King? Wouldn't that be... the Great Saint realm?!
Ten Great Saint realm puppets?!
Xuanyangzi gasped, his eyes suddenly widening!
This generosity, although he knew his junior brother was lavish with his wealth, ten Great Saint puppets, this was too...
His heart began to beat wildly and uncooperatively, and his breathing became a bit hurried. If this were true, the Azure Profound Sect's strength would skyrocket several times over!
However, just as this thought arose, another even more absurd thought that almost froze the blood in his entire body struck his mind like lightning!
Wait!
A little bit stronger than a Saint King... does it necessarily mean a Great Saint?
He suddenly recalled the items Gu Changge had casually produced in the past. A casually modified cultivation technique could directly reach the level of an Emperor Sutra, the tea leaves he gifted allowed the Ancestor to achieve a breakthrough, and the materials he brought out were things he had never even laid eyes on before...
When it came to this unfathomable junior brother, could his claim of being "just a little bit stronger" really be judged by common sense?
Could it be... could it possibly be... the Quasi-Emperor level?!
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!
