Boom!

Boom boom boom boom boom… A string of explosions, deafening to the ear, and after the shockwaves spread, clusters of mushroom clouds erupted, surging straight into the sky.

The puppet factory that had once stood towering — under the frenzied demolition of the four platinum puppets Yue Yang now controlled — finally collapsed. Its aboveground portion and its exits were completely destroyed, genuinely reduced to a heap of scrap copper and rotted iron. Thick smoke rolled over the ruins, flames and post-explosion debris flung across the whole sky, and together with the wreckage of puppet beasts strewn every which way across the ground, the Tower Beyond the Tower battlefield now looked utterly devastated, a scene of ruin and desolation.

“That’s just incredible!” Never in his life had Hauge worshipped anyone this much. The Tower Beyond the Tower, which even Ji Wuri had been forced to flee in defeat, had now been taken down by this kid Titan single-handedly. How were all the so-called genius elite students of the world supposed to live with that?

“Keep going, keep advancing.” Mingzhu, too, was excited beyond words.

Controlling the platinum puppets and destroying the puppet factory were two entirely different matters. Using gold parasite spiders to control the four mindless platinum puppets was difficult, but not impossible for others — if Ji Wuri and Zhonghua had the same conditions, they could have managed it too. But apart from Yue Yang, even if someone else controlled the four platinum puppets, there was no way they could destroy a puppet factory.

The reason was simple: the puppet factory produced an endless, flood-like surge of puppet beasts, drowning enemies and protecting the factory from outside attack. And more despairingly still, this kind of puppet factory seemed protected by some mysterious power — even subjected to tremendous force and deformed in appearance, it would swiftly recover to its original state.

Ji Wuri had earlier put everything into a single stroke, cleaving the factory’s exposed portion in two. But before he could even withdraw from the Tower Beyond the Tower battlefield, the rift had already closed up, restored as if new.

Yet this puppet factory — which looked a hundred times harder to breach than a wall of bronze and iron — was destroyed in Yue Yang’s hands with hardly any effort at all. He’d merely released a slender black shadow, so fast that even the nearby Mingzhu couldn’t make out what kind of existence it was. Not long after the slender black shadow slipped inside, the entire puppet factory let out an earth-shaking drone, the ground trembling without cease, as though it were the mournful wail of its doom arriving.

A string of explosions erupted inside the puppet factory, and after that the four platinum puppets could easily tear down the factory’s exposed structures. Just like that, the puppet factory that had forced Ji Wuri into a bitter retreat collapsed before Yue Yang in under five minutes.

“What was that?” Mingzhu rushed over and gripped Yue Yang’s hand hard. Because Mingzhu had noticed that when the slender black shadow slipped back, it seemed to coil around Yue Yang’s wrist. Unfortunately, by the time Mingzhu grabbed Yue Yang’s large hand and looked it over left and right, the slender black shadow had already vanished.

“A secret. Why don’t we trade — one for one?” Yue Yang took hold of Mingzhu’s hand in return, making the proposal.

“As if I care.” Mingzhu slapped away that wolfish claw.

“One for two?” Yue Yang still wouldn’t give up.

“No!” Mingzhu lifted his chin, refusing this trap of a condition with real spirit, easily seeing through the wolf’s intentions.

“Following a monster like this, combat comes down to one word — easy!” Hauge, whose math teacher had clearly died young, was already so excited his words ran away with him.

Rumble, rumble, rumble…

Soon another puppet factory crumbled and fell. This time, Mingzhu was greatly surprised. What Yue Yang sent out to disrupt the puppet factory’s interior was no longer the slender black shadow from before, but a strange “blade.” This odd blade shot into the puppet factory like lightning, transforming along the way, taking on the form of a savage and hideously ugly primordial monster that opened a maw like a black hole and greedily devoured everything along its path. Charging into the puppet factory, it actually swallowed countless puppet beasts surging out whole, in a single gulp.

“Taotie — an earth divine soldier!” The Silver-Eyed Great Sage easily recognized this war beast.

“Earth divine soldiers can be used in Human Valley?” Phantom, Blood Shave, and the others looked at one another, taken aback. They hadn’t known earth divine soldiers could be used in Human Valley.

“No way — you have an earth divine soldier?” Hauge felt that while earth divine soldiers weren’t as rare as sacred beasts or divine beasts, they were absolutely not the kind of cheap goods hawked on the street. Forget the lower realm — even in the Heavenly Realm, how many people possessed an earth divine soldier?

“No…” Phantom, Blood Shave, and the others all shook their heads. They had things resembling earth divine soldiers — “half divine soldiers” — but no genuine earth divine soldier. An earth divine soldier wasn’t merely a divine weapon; it was a true metal life-form. Only a wholly new kind of metal life — created by a master with supreme ability, or created by ancient deities and handed down through the ages — was called an earth divine soldier.

Not every spirit-bearing divine weapon was an earth divine soldier. An earth divine soldier possessed not only both divine-weapon and war-beast forms, but genuine life — it counted as a “living creature.”

In the Heavenly Realm, many people possessed “false earth divine soldiers,” or rather half divine soldiers — divine weapons in hand with decent spiritual awareness, even capable of transforming or fighting independently in war-beast form. But they weren’t true earth divine soldiers. Because they had no genuine life. They were metal — but not metal life. This was the greatest difference between false earth divine soldiers and earth divine soldiers, and the chasm between them that could never be crossed.

Back during the hundred-day war, everyone had thought they’d seen every treasure, ability, and combat strength Yue Yang possessed. But who’d have imagined that only today would they discover this kid still had so very many things he hadn’t brought out.

When Yue Yang next commanded the Star Scorpion and the Heaven-Devouring Beast to advance on two more puppet factories and wreck their internal structures, everyone watching broke into a frantic sweat. Even the most composed Silver-Eyed Great Sage couldn’t help asking, “Little Titan, just how many earth divine soldiers do you have on you?” His implication was that for another person to possess a single earth divine soldier was already lucky enough to make their ancestral graves smoke with good fortune — yet Yue Yang had at least four on him. How was anyone else supposed to live?

That earlier slender black shadow, which no one had seen clearly, was probably the strongest “earth divine soldier” — the one he was most reluctant to show others. The Silver-Eyed Great Sage even suspected that the slender black shadow, which even he couldn’t see through, might be a legendary heavenly divine soldier.

The three out in plain sight — Taotie, the Heaven-Devouring Beast, and the Star Scorpion — any one of them was enough to make people drool with envy. Having a single earth divine soldier was already plenty. And yet to monopolize so many alone — was he asking for heaven’s punishment? Most unbearable of all, every one of Yue Yang’s earth divine soldiers possessed supremely high intelligence, which made people so envious they wanted to slam their heads against the wall.

“It’s just an ‘earth divine soldier’ — what’s there to make such a fuss over?” Qingmo gave a cold snort, raised his hand, peeled off a black glove, and revealed a blood-red demon-eye ring. That demon-eye ring rapidly transformed into a bizarre frog-shaped little earth-divine-soldier beast. Hauge drooled with envy, nearly cascading down three thousand feet, and clamored at Qingmo in a rush: “Qingmo, if you get me an earth divine soldier too, then from now on you’re my boss!”

“Get lost!” Qingmo sent the wishful-thinking Hauge flying with a kick.

“Your earth divine soldier seems to have suffered some special wound that’s extremely difficult to self-heal?” With one look from his Heaven’s Eye, Yue Yang discovered that this little frog earth divine soldier’s strength was greatly diminished, as though it had taken some fatal injury — Qingmo had narrowly saved it through some secret method and his own life force. No wonder Qingmo, however difficult things got in Human Valley, never used this little frog as support.

“You have a way to heal it?” Mingzhu felt this was the best chance to improve relations between Yue Yang and Qingmo, and hurried to create the opportunity.

“Please, call me ‘the Omnipotent, Miracle-Working, Cure-On-Contact, Handsome and Debonair Jade-Faced Little Physician.’ There’s nothing in this world I can’t handle!” Yue Yang’s boasting had soared straight into the heavens.

“Hmph.” But Qingmo didn’t ask Yue Yang to step in, instead turning the little frog back into the demon-eye ring and putting the glove back on.

“Coffin-face, now’s not the time to play it cool — open that golden mouth of yours. Moving your lips won’t kill you!” Hauge fretted on Qingmo’s behalf. We’re all our own people — is there any need to be this aloof, making things so strained? Besides, just look at little Titan’s breadth of spirit. Seeing us all scraping by, knowing how hard it is to save up for even one puppet beast, he hands out gold puppet constructs the moment he acts — and two at a time, no less. And you, with your face wrapped up all day, keep playing it cool. Is that any way to treat friends?

“Let’s flatten the puppet factory first — no rush, no rush!” Ren Tiange, the former leader, hurried to smooth things over. Asking Qingmo to speak up publicly and request that Yue Yang heal his earth divine soldier was probably harder than killing him — it simply wasn’t going to happen; they’d have to find a way privately. Besides, Qingmo probably wasn’t willing to accept too many favors from Yue Yang. If there was a chance to do something for Yue Yang, he’d likely accept the healing — after all, anyone’s earth divine soldier was their precious darling; no one could bear to watch it stay wounded with their own eyes.

With earth divine soldiers wrecking the puppet factories’ core structures from within, the four platinum puppets tearing down buildings like a demolition crew, and the combined assistance of super-experts like Ren Tiange, the Silver-Eyed Great Sage, Qingmo, Hauge, Phantom, Blood Shave, and Golden Bones, the remaining three puppet factories around the puppet academy were soon leveled one after another as well.

Just as Hauge, in high spirits, was declaring he’d flatten every last puppet factory in one go — thumping his chest and volunteering to be the vanguard, ready to march at once on the puppet factories of the eastern, southern, western, and northern peaks — Yue Yang’s face changed color, and he cut Hauge off mid-sentence. “If you don’t want to die, retreat right now. Any later and there won’t even be ash left of you!”

“Whazzat?” Hauge mimicked Yue Yang’s speaking style, indicating his confusion.

The situation right now was like entering the bridal chamber — the red veil already lifted, the nuptial cups already drunk, the clothes already off. Just one last step left. At a crucial juncture like this, they were supposed to withdraw the troops?

Yue Yang couldn’t be bothered to explain — he just grabbed Mingzhu and ran.

The Silver-Eyed Great Sage’s expression suddenly changed too, and he cried out in alarm, “Move, now! A divine-tier will is descending, and we’re the target. Once it locks onto us, we’ll be damned beyond redemption!”

Hauge was scared witless. Mother of—! Whether in Human Valley or anywhere else, what did a powerhouse of Hauge’s caliber fear most? A single word: god.

At Hauge’s tier, they appeared lofty and high above on the surface — even in the Heavenly Realm, they were powers and overlords of their own domains. Yet for all the multitudes who worshipped them from below, they all understood one thing: compared to a true divine-tier, they were still a vast distance away. Only those powerhouses who’d reached the divine tier could be called genuine members of the ranks of the “invincible.”

Just as Yue Yang and the others were sprinting at top speed toward the transport gate inside the puppet academy, a shadow suddenly appeared in the sky. Larger than a mountain. Blotting out the sun and sky as it bore down.

Immediately after, a terrifying sound reached everyone’s ears — a sound a thousand, ten thousand times more shocking than a meteorite tearing through the air in a high-speed plunge. Mid-sprint, Hauge looked up and was so frightened he nearly wet himself.

What he saw was an unimaginably enormous giant hand pressing straight down. That hand — merely one of its fingers — was as huge as a mountain. All Hauge could see was the fingertip, a peak-like finger jabbing straight down. Were that giant hand to press squarely upon him, Hauge figured there wouldn’t be so much as crumbs of him left.

(End of Chapter)