According to the “Great Development Technique”, after cultivating it to the first layer, splitting over ten strands of divine sense would be of no problem. After reaching the second layer, one could divide up to a hundred. Upon reaching to the third layer like “Senior Marial Brother Lin” had done, one could split their consciousness into several hundreds of strands.

When he thought of being able to control several hundreds of puppets in a battle after reaching the third layer, Han Li had felt a bit strange.

However, this abnormal feeling was due to Han Li being unstoppable among Foundation Establishment cultivators.

But once he reached Core Formation, he would have to refine several hundreds of puppets of grade three of higher, equivalent to the strength of Foundation Establishment cultivators. Otherwise, no matter how many he refined, they would unable to withstand a Core Formation cultivator’s attack. That scene where Fatty Lei had swept away several hundreds of the Thousand Bamboo School’s grade two puppets was still clear in his mind!

Since refining each grade two puppet required the materials for a high-grade magic tool, to refine an even higher grade puppet would require materials for a top-grade magic tool at the very least!

As such, if Core Formation cultivators who cultivated the puppet technique wished to suppress other Core Formation cultivators of the same strength, they would have to spend enough materials for several hundreds of top-grade magic tools at the very least. From this thought, Han Li could not help but be apprehensive for a long while!

Not to mention the materials that would be wasted from refinement failure, as well finding hundreds of strong enough souls.

This was also a major reason so few knew of the Thousand Bamboo School’s puppet technique.

After all, a sect’s strength was evaluated on the number of Core Formation cultivators it possessed. With regards to battles between Core Formation cultivators, the Thousand Bamboo School was powerless while other sects thrived. Even if their Foundation Establishment disciples were ferocious, they could only hole themselves up in a single region and become a mere local hegemon.

Naturally, this was just some speculation from Han Li after he cultivated the Great Development Technique and the puppet techniques!

However, this puppet technique would cause Han Li’s strength as a Foundation Establishment cultivator to substantially increase. This fact wasn’t false in the least! As of now, Han Li couldn’t be bothered with future deficiencies.

After all, this great war stirred across the cultivation worlds of several countries had just started!

Not long after Han Li started guarding this spirit stone mine, a great ambush had unfolded at some desolate desert mountain between the Six Devil Dao Sects and the Seven Sects of the State of Yue.

Han Li gradually came to know the specific circumstances. Originally, Spirit Beast Mountain of the Seven Sects was actually a branch of Devil Dao’s Controlling Spirit Sect, but the neutral sect had secretly eliminated the Devil Dao’s intermediaries several thousand years ago and buried them in the State of Yue.

As for this invasion of the State of Yue, the Devil Dao had planned to take advantage of their formal relationship and hoped to use the same tactic they had used to seize the State of Jiang and Che Ji to great effect.

But who could have known that the ancestors of Spirit Beast Mountain had passed on their unwillingness to be part of the Controlling Spirit Sect to their descendants through the past thousands of years? They were absolutely unwilling to have another overlord suddenly appear above their heads.

As a result, after Spirit Beast Mountain released this information to the other six sects, they used an unknown method to convince the Devil Dao sects to attack a stronghold of Seven Sect cultivators.

As they mounted a raid with several thousand cultivators, they were ambushed by a great number of Seven Sect cultivators on route. With the Seven Sect’s absolute advantage, the Devil Dao suffered a great loss, even losing two Core Formation cultivators during the fight.

This was a great blow to the Six Devil Dao Sects, and naturally it was greatly celebrated by the Seven Sects of the State of Yue, greatly boosting their morale. Humiliated, the Six Devil Dao Sects flew into a rage and began their large-scale assault.

Not to be outdone, the Seven Sects laid out their defensive formations.

Among the common border shared by the State of Yue and the States of Jiang and Che Ji, over ten great battles had occurred there, resulting in the deaths of over ten thousand cultivators. With the additional deaths of seven or eight Core Formation cultivators, the battles had been extremely desperate!

On the day a few cultivators came to pick up spirit stones, they told the guards this with lingering fear. This caused Han Li and other cultivators who heard this to become extremely apprehensive, secret rejoicing at not needing to fight in the war. Just by seeing how many Core Formation cultivators died in battle, one could imagine how dreadful the situation has become!

However, the Six Devil Dao Sects were one of the two great powers in the Heavenly South Region. Their strength truly couldn’t be compared to the likes of the cultivation world of the State of Yue.

After seven or eight battles, the Seven Sects clearly understood they would not be able to continuously withstand the opposition’s fierce assault. If the Seven Sects didn’t prepare and establish great restriction formations in advance as cornerstones of their desperate struggle, they would be defeated without much resistance.

But even if this were the case, the Seven Sects wouldn’t be able to withstand for long.

During this time of certain crisis for the State of Yue, the Seven Sects had sent requests to the cultivators of the mid-level States of Yuan Wu and Zi Jin to come to their aid.

Before the Seven Sects had started their war against the Six Devil Dao Sects, it turned that they had already wisely sent eloquent messengers to the two country’s sects to request aid.

When the cultivation sects of these two countries received these letters, they were naturally afraid that after the Devil Dao seized the State of Yue, their countries would be the next ones to be taken over. Without having the messengers spend time pleading, they agreed to provide aid. Joined together against a common enemy, the two countries sent a majority of their cultivators to provide assistance during that starry night.

This new alliance greatly reduced the disparity in strength between the State of Yue and the Six Devil Dao Sects. By relying on the protection of their powerful great formations, they were able to firmly resist the Devil Dao’s assault.

As such, the Six Devil Dao Sects’ plan to seize the State of Yue in a single burst was naturally shattered. The war sunk into a deadlock and became a battle of attrition.

As a result, large decisive battles became less frequent while smaller scale surprise attacks at the rear occurred in great number on both sides, particularly at locations where materials and spirit stones were produced. These raids eventually became the primary objective of the Seven Sects and Devil Dao.

Perhaps the warfront was too far away, but this specific spirit stone mine had not yet suffered an enemy attack. This was nothing short of a miracle! After all, other equivalently-sized spirit stone mines had all already suffered three to four raids.

But the more the raids occurred, the more the Seven Sects became ill at ease. Half a month later, a group of twenty cultivators were dispatched as support, headed by a late Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Thus, the spirit stone mine naturally became far stronger! However, like a mountain longs for rain, Han Li felt a desire to cultivate the Great Development Technique even more diligently. The distance to break through to the first layer was still far away.

Among the second group of Qi Condensation disciples to come, Han Li unexpectedly came across an acquaintance, that ugly man Zhong Wu[1.Zhong Wu first appeared in the Trial by Blood and Fire, chapter 193] he previously met at the Trial by Blood and Fire.

Zhong Wu also recognized Han Li.

However, now that Han Li had a cultivation base at Foundation Establishment, his expression darkened all over, switching between shock, envy, admiration, as well as many other emotions. Seeing him once again truly astonished Han Li.

Finally, Zhong Wu bitterly smiled. He saluted Han Li in advance and somewhat unwillingly called him “Senior”.

Resisting a smile with difficulty, Han Li insipidly replied.

When Han Li thought of Zhong Wu’s many changing expressions as he sat in meditation, he couldn’t help but knowingly smile and opened his eyes. At this moment, his mood was truly unsuitable for cultivating the Great Development Technique; he would continue when his heart became tranquil!

……

Time passed by quickly. Spending a small portion of time on guard duty and the majority of his time cultivating the Great Development Technique and refining mechanical puppet beasts, a month passed for Han Li. During this time, Han Li could clearly feel that he was on the verge of breaking through the first layer of the Great Development Technique.

This caused Han Li to be pleasantly surprised!

With regards to Han Li’s cultivation of Five Element Daoist magic and the Azure Essence Sword Art, his aptitude toward them was shown to be inferior! However, he was able to cultivate this Great Development Technique extremely smoothly and without the slightest difficulty, feeling as if success flowed naturally. In addition to feeling happiness, Han Li also felt awe in his heart!

As for this first grade two mechanical puppet, after failing over ten times, he finally refined it two days ago. Although it was a bit crude when compared to the puppets of the Thousand Bamboo School and its strength was rather inferior, it caused Han Li to beam with happiness. After preparing materials brought to him by other cultivators, he started refining them in great quantity.

But today, just as Han Li was sitting in meditation in a quiet room, he heard an extremely sharp whistle from the outside. Then people loudly yelled, “Not good! The Devil Dao is attacking! Prepare to fight!”

Han Li’s heart trembled. His expression became solemn as he left the quiet room.

At this moment, the Seven Sect cultivators who were originally meditating and resting in the cave solemnly walked out just as Han Li had. After they mutually looked at each other, they walked out of the cave dwelling one after another.

The Masked Moon Sect’s late Foundation Establishment Xuan Yue and Spirit Beast Mountain’s Lu Tianmeng were expressionlessly floating underneath the offensive formations and looked up from the great canyon.

Over ten cultivators who were on duty stood behind him with anxious and frightened expressions. But after they saw Han Li and the others coming to support them, they became far more calm.

Han Li followed Xuan Yue’s gaze and looked up from the great canyon. As expected, there were traces of enemies, about twenty or thirty assailants.

However, Han Li clearly understood that since the enemy had dared perform a raid from such a distance, it was likely that they were all at late Foundation Establishment; they wouldn’t have brought any Qi Condensation disciples to weigh them down.

Thus, in terms of strength, they were absolutely weak in comparison! This battle was not likely to go very well!