“Aaaaah!!”

As if expecting this, a bloodcurdling scream erupted as the pillar of light burned away the arm of the cultivator until his entire body suffered the same fate soon after.

****

“This weapon erupted from a rank four magical beast. Going by the same classification system as in the past, this should be a low-rank mortal-grade spiritual artefact. Even if it's the weakest spiritual artefact, do they think it’s as simple as grabbing it and using it!? Hmph!” Savage Taitan crossed his arms with an expression filled with disdain.

Chen Jie’s eyes narrowed, and without a word, he stomped on the ground. Leaping through the air, he released a punch without fanfare on the light pillar!

“Look out!”

Someone shouted when they saw Chen Jie heading towards the pillar of light. The scene of someone being incinerated before was still fresh in everyone’s mind.

Psssh!

However, to everyone’s surprise, once Chen Jie’s fist landed on the pillar of light it shattered into a million light shards.

In one fluid movement, he snatched the truncheon before deftly landing back in his original spot.

He swung the truncheon once to see its effects, and a terrible pressure emanated from it.

After testing it out for a while, he threw it to a random demon cultivator without so much as a second glance.

This demon race cultivator was shocked in the beginning, before happiness took over. However, a chill ran down his spine not long after when he turned around to see several eyes of greed staring him down.

Realising the danger he was in, he immediately took off. When he left, a few stragglers disappeared as well. No one needed to say the reason for this sparse exodus.

He then looked to Savage Taitan, commenting, “I thought you would want this to better equip your Iron Blood Legion.”

Savage Taitan scoffed at this before replying, “My men only accept weapons that they earned with their own hands!”

“I-Incredible!”

A demon said with a startled look on his face. Chen Jie’s actions were truly remarkable.

“So this is the number one genius of the Infernal Myriad Ground Clan!? He’s on an entirely different level from the rest of us!” Another said with a pensive look instead.

The other races that arrived to see this said nothing, but it couldn’t be hidden from their faces the impact Chen Jie’s strength had on them.

When the demons saw this, they couldn’t help but feel their chests swelling with pride. Interracial conflict could always be swept aside where other races were concerned.

For other races to see just how powerful the geniuses of the demon race were was a thing to be proud of, after all.

Shing!

Another pillar of light shot up, one just as bright as the one that Chen Jie claimed. Below it was the corpse of a sinewy humanoid creature.

“Muscle Bound Freak!” Savage Taitan was moved that there was a person who could take down one of those.

The muscle-bound freak was a particularly savage and bloodthirsty magical beast. Its savagery made it a beast that few people wanted to fight against.

Suddenly, a robotic-looking contraption of sorts leapt into the air before landing a punch on the pillar of light.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Several blows landed on the pillar of light before finally it shattered. Unlike Chen Jie who was able to break the entire pillar of light into tiny motes of light, this one was only able to break a small hole in the pillar and that was only after landing a countless number of punches at the same time.

Nevertheless, once the hole was made, that was all the contraption needed and before long it grabbed the spiritual artefact from within.

This one appeared to be a small shield only as big as a chest. Despite its size, no one dared to look down on it. Appearances were a poor indicator to judge a spiritual artefact. The mere fact that this was in a pillar of light spoke volumes of its potential.

After the contraption shattered the pillar and retrieved the weapon, it then landed beside an average-looking cultivator who just placed his hands at his side.

He was part of a group, many of whom wore the same sect robes he did. They all had similar-looking robotic automatons. Furthermore, based on his position within the group, he was nothing more than an ordinary cultivator within this group.

When this was seen, not just the demons, but even the other races were shocked by this. An ordinary cultivator from this group was able to take a spiritual artefact for himself.

Moreover, what was that robotic-looking thing that made a move for him?

“The Divine Puppet Sect!” a random cultivator yelled when he recognised who these people were.

The Divine Puppet Sect was one of the ten great sects. They practised an esoteric method of cultivation where puppets were used. No one knew how they created these puppets or even what materials were used.

However, what was undisputed was that these puppets were extremely powerful, and there were several grades to go by. Going from the weakest to the strongest, there would be the beast puppets, mortal puppets, earth puppets, and heaven puppets.

Within each of these grades were several levels that one needed to rise through if one wished to grow stronger.

Even the weakest beast puppet was comparable to a one-core martial adept. What made these puppets even more terrifying was the fact that they never tired out, their lack of compassion or emotion and their absence of pain.

Because of this, they could continue to fight from now till thy kingdom come, without experiencing any drop in combat power. Plus, they suffered none of the hesitation that flesh and blood lifeforms were prone to. It was these qualities that made the Divine Puppet Sect a force to be reckoned with. No one wanted to be embroiled in a fight with a non-tiring puppet. Plus, with some experts in this sect capable of controlling more than one puppet, it was easy to see why they were feared all over.

Of course, there were downsides to these puppets. One of the downsides was that the puppets were powered by spirit stones, making each puppet essentially a money-burning machine.

Even if the Divine Puppet Sect was one of the ten great sects with control over hundreds of spiritual ore deposits. It was not easy to maintain the expenditure that these puppets required.

The other downside was that the skill of these puppets was directly proportionate to the skills of the puppet master.

When the expert put his hands down earlier, that was after he had finished controlling the puppet. Hand signs were the Divine Puppet Sect’s version of puppet strings.

If the skill of the puppet master was lacking, then that would directly translate to a lacking puppet.

It was because of all this that the Divine Puppet Sect possessed one of, if not the most stringent requirements for not just entering the sect but remaining in it. With even the lowest level disciple being capable of controlling a puppet that was as strong as a one-core martial adept, it was no guess why they were one of the ten great sects.

“Only the rabble of the demon race would be surprised by something like this,” sneered the same cultivator that was responsible for taking that spiritual artefact.

The second he said this, the expressions of the demons present changed.

Bam!

A loud blast went off from the demons’ side, drawing everyone’s gaze over to a giant crater a short distance from Chen Jie.

“Up there!” an unexpected shout echoed out, which caused everyone’s gaze to shout upwards.

There, falling at an extreme speed, was Savage Taitan! His aim was nowhere else but the camp where the Divine Puppet Sect’s people were!

Boom!

He landed in the centre of their midst with a loud crash. He rose among them with a menacing mien.

His roaring blood qi caused most of them to go pale and their legs to turn into jelly. This was another weakness of the disciples of the Divine Puppet Sect.

Because most of their time was spent cultivating and training with their puppets, their bodies were fairly weak, weaker than even normal spiritual cultivators. For them to bear the brunt of Savage Taitan, a genius in the realm of body cultivation, there was no comparison to be had.

So even though Savage Taitan wasn’t from a great sect like they were, the pros and cons were clear to see here.

The expert who spoke earlier slumped down on his butt in the face of Savage Taitan’s overbearing, tyrannical aura.

“W-What are y-”

Bam!

Not giving him a chance to finish, he hefted his large battle axe and wordlessly slashed sideways, tearing the expert who spoke earlier apart!

“Savage Taitan! What do you think you’re doing!?” A roar filled with fury erupted over in the distance where a monstrous contraption came charging towards Savage Taitan.