Splash
The life-bound puppet turned into a stream of water, returning to the cave on the deserted island and landing before Li Ye.
The black-blue liquid flowing over its surface now appeared noticeably dimmer. If one were to open its chest cavity, one would see the Blackwater Pearl at the core responsible for controlling all techniques just moments ago its spiritual light now greatly faded.
Fatigue was also written clearly on Li Ye's face.
Although most of the energy in that earlier battle had been supplied by the grand formation, the constant coordination between his puppet and the other battle puppets inside the Blackwater Giant still drained him considerably.
Moreover, Li Ye had to personally control the Blackwater Giant in battle while simultaneously managing the Mystic Water Tidal Formation, an immense strain on his focus and spirit.
If not for his cultivation in the Heavenly Craft Scripture, coupled with the peculiar Thousand Thoughts Divine Refinement Technique, even with his years of cultivation and spiritual sense nearing the Golden Core stage, it would've been impossible to command such power with apparent ease.
The life-bound puppet opened its chest and handed over a storage jade pendant and a thumb ring to Li Ye everything seized from the previous battle lay within.
The thumb ring, however, couldn't be stored in the jade pendant. Most likely, it was Jiuding Master's personal storage artifact.
Li Ye sent his spiritual sense into it and, as expected, found a defensive spiritual imprint guarding the interior, the spatial boundaries faintly discernible.
"As expected of a fake Golden Core. The imprint's strength doesn't come close to a proper one..."
He shook his head and sneered.
The spiritual imprint on the ring had already weakened greatly after Jiuding Master's death, and even at its peak, it hadn't been much stronger than Li Ye's own.
It just went to show how watered-down a pseudo-Golden Core truly was.
"If a real Golden Core cultivator had come instead, just relying on the array's power to force a standoff and negotiate would already be a good outcome. Taking them down like I did Jiuding? That'd be near impossible..."
"But if that were the case, all those talismans I've prepared would finally see some real use!"
With that thought, Li Ye decided not to tamper with the ring for now.
The situation was still too unstable. As the tides of battle shifted, a chase could easily spill over into his direction.
He rose to his feet, erased all traces of his presence, and silently slipped away from the island.
At this moment, Thousand Isles Lake was in complete chaos.
A flood of Jiuding Sect cultivators were fleeing the city like stray dogs, scrambling to escape the lake region.
Hot on their heels were the furious Thousand Isles City cultivators, seizing this chance to cut down as many enemies as possible.
The once solemn lake now rang with screams, battle cries, and the violent clash of spells and magical weapons.
But none of this concerned Li Ye.
He wrapped himself in the water-form of his life-bound puppet and dove deep into the lake, using water-escape techniques to retreat swiftly.
Before long, he had completely left the Thousand Isles region and casually followed a small river, continuing to put distance behind him.
By now, even the Wu Kingdom cultivator army that had surrounded the area had mostly vanished.
They had likely received news of Thousand Isles City turning the tide and had since withdrawn.
With Jiuding Master an elite Golden Core cultivator no longer around, the city's third-rank Black Flood Dragon was once again free to wreak havoc. And with no one to stop it...
Anyone not fleeing now was practically volunteering to become Flood Dragon food!
Along his route, the land was in utter turmoil. Cultivators retreated in a frenzy many still looting and pillaging on their way out.
Li Ye watched it all coldly, with little emotion, never once stopping.
Had he not intervened, the state of Jing Kingdom would likely be even worse than it was now. As for the power struggle between these two nations it was no longer his concern.
Without delay, he piloted his flying boat back to the Chidi Mountains, entered Pingyang Mountain, and finally relaxed upon feeling the embrace of the surrounding flora.
Only then did he begin to ease his spirit.
He immediately entered his cave abode, sat in meditation, and began closed-door cultivation to fully restore his condition.
......
"Whew..."
His eyes snapped open, radiating a dazzling brilliance that seemed almost tangible.
Li Ye was in excellent spirits, and fully recovered. He took out the storage ring.
"It's time to see what kind of wealth Jiuding Master left behind. Hopefully, there's something like the root of the Dragon-Suppressing Tree…"
He extended his spiritual sense, continuously striking and grinding away at the imprint left inside the ring.
After several hours, a faint click echoed Jiuding Master's spiritual imprint finally dissipated, and the storage ring became ownerless.
Li Ye wasted no time and began rummaging through its contents.
Unsurprisingly…
As a pseudo-Golden Core cultivator with a considerable remaining lifespan and the head of a sect, the resources inside this ring were far superior to what the late Bihu Sanren who had already passed most of his belongings to his disciples had left behind.
There were over a hundred thousand spirit stones alone, and a generous collection of tier-three spiritual materials, all neatly stored.
But ironically, not a single spiritual plant!
Naturally, there was no sign of the Dragon-Suppressing Tree that Li Ye had hoped for.
Perhaps it was because Jiuding Master had reached a cultivation bottleneck and had no interest in collecting them or maybe the plants were all being cultivated back in the sect.
There was, however, no shortage of cultivation manuals and scriptures.
There was even a collection of confidential documents detailing the secrets of the Jiuding Sect, all well-organized.
Just a glance gave Li Ye substantial insight. With this information, he could easily send people to raid each of those secret bases one by one.
What excited him even more was the mention of locations where tier-three spiritual plants had been discovered.
As long as he could find viable seedlings, with his current capabilities, cultivating them himself was well within the realm of possibility!
Among those plants was none other than the Dragon-Suppressing Tree he had long been interested in!
Finally, Li Ye allowed himself a moment of genuine excitement.
Given the tree's unique nature, who knew what kind of properties or effects its spiritual essence might hold? At the very least, it was known to be highly lethal to draconic beasts. If it offered other unexpected benefits it would be a tremendous bonus!
It would surely prove invaluable.
With that sorted, the rest of the ring's contents were mostly trivial pointless writings penned by subordinates trying to flatter and praise their sect master. Useless junk.
What surprised Li Ye, however, was that for someone as self-indulgent as Jiuding Master, there wasn't even a self-written autobiography filled with grandiose boasts. That would've been a convenient way for Li Ye to understand the distinctions between pseudo-Golden Core and true Golden Core cultivators.
"Jiuding Sect isn't like Thousand Isles City, which was established later as a Golden Core power. Their inherited Jiuding artifacts don't have central control access to their sect's grand formation as the Blackwater Pearl does…"
"And Jiuding Master didn't even carry the formation's command token. Could it be that he foresaw possible failure? That he feared his death might render the entire formation defenseless?"
After inspecting everything Jiuding Master had left behind, including the golden cauldron, Li Ye shook his head in mild disappointment.
"I'd hoped to use this chance to clean out their sect's treasury. But without a formation map or a control token, it's far too risky…"
Finally, he took out the Dragon-Suppressing Spike and the Frost Condensate Water.
"This Dragon-Suppressing Spike isn't a one-time-use artifact, but its spiritual essence has diminished after one use at most, I might be able to use it one more time. Still, the blood of that tier-three Black Flood Dragon on the spike has considerable value. If I can get blood from a tier-three tiger demon too, I might be able to unlock the Dragon-Tiger divine power in my Ten Thousand Beasts Physique ahead of schedule…"
"As for this Frost Condensate Water…"
Li Ye carefully opened the Coldjade Pure Bottle. Inside was a dense, frost-like spiritual liquid that radiated a chilling aura but his eyes burned with anticipation.
"A Golden Core breakthrough treasure... I've finally acquired one!"
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