Ye Liuyun was now pouring celestial force into his xuanyuan like flooding water into a vessel. Even he hadn’t expected that his xuanyuan could still absorb this much celestial force.

And the stronger his xuanyuan grew, the more his attacks could harness the momentum of heaven and earth. He struck the door again and again with thunderous palms. His attacks now were nearly on par with a single strike from the firepower war chariot—it only took a few blows to blast one of the doors to pieces.

With the door broken, he swept a glance inside and found a metal puppet within, with a large stockpile of primordial force and crystal stones piled up behind it. The resources were indeed plentiful.

But he had no time to examine what was here—he only wanted to take advantage of the medicine’s effect while it lasted and immediately go blast open the last great door.

However, just as he was striking at another door, the metal puppet’s eyes suddenly snapped open. The puppet rolled its neck, flexed its arms and legs, and then leaped out from the cave.

Ye Liuyun was startled by the puppet that had jumped out. The moment it emerged, it swept its gaze across the situation. Apparently seeing Ye Liuyun attacking another door, it immediately threw a punch straight at him.

The force behind that punch already carried the offensive power of the ninth level of Guiyi.

Ye Liuyun felt the pressure and fully mobilized the momentum of heaven and earth, trading blows with the puppet. Even he hadn’t expected that, by channeling the momentum of heaven and earth against the puppet, he could barely manage to hold his own.

However, his xuanyuan was depleting rapidly, and he soon needed to replenish it using storage essence stones. He absorbed the power of the storage essence stones while using spatial force to evade the puppet’s attacks.

But to his surprise, the puppet was also capable of using spatial force to pursue him—and its spatial force was no weaker than his own.

Ye Liuyun immediately released his other two clones to fight the puppet in a relay battle. His perception of celestial force could be shared with the two clones, so both clones also unleashed their xuanyuan and celestial force together, blocking the puppet’s attacks.

With the three of them taking turns attacking and replenishing their xuanyuan, Ye Liuyun was confident he could drain the puppet’s energy dry.

As the fight went on, the puppet suddenly flashed and retreated back into the cave it had come from.

Ye Liuyun didn’t dare follow it in. He probed with his divine sense and discovered that the puppet had actually grabbed a piece of primordial force to replenish its own energy.

"What? This puppet has its own intelligence?"

The discovery startled him again.

But thinking about how even the pills here had developed a spirit of their own, it wasn’t entirely impossible that the puppet had also developed its own intelligence.

"In a moment, you two attack together with your blades and pin it down. I’ll go clear out all the energy inside that cave first so it can’t replenish itself anymore." Ye Liuyun transmitted his voice to the two clones.

The puppet quickly finished replenishing its energy and charged out again. However, since it had no Interspatial Ring and nowhere to store energy, it could only use what it replenished on the spot and return for more once it ran out.

When it came out this time, both clones drew their blades and slashed at the puppet. With blade intent added to their strikes, the puppet was actually driven back step after step.

Ye Liuyun seized the opportunity to rush into the cave, swept his hand, and cleared out every last bit of energy and resources inside, then immediately exited the cave to avoid being trapped by the puppet.

*Clang!* The first clone’s Tianshi blade slashed directly into the puppet’s shoulder—yet the puppet only stumbled back a few steps, with not a single mark left on its body.

The first clone was taken aback. His Tianshi was considered a prized weapon, and yet a full-force strike couldn’t even leave a scratch on the puppet.

*Clang!* Another clash of metal rang out as the second clone’s golden blade swept horizontally into the puppet’s waist, knocking it back—but again, not even a scratch.

"Bombard it!"

Seeing that the puppet couldn’t be damaged by blades, Ye Liuyun immediately ordered the firepower war chariot to open fire.

The firepower war chariot unleashed a barrage at the puppet, blasting it back repeatedly, yet failing to knock it down. The puppet resisted with all its might.

Ye Liuyun’s golden eyes tracked its energy consumption closely and saw that the energy it had just replenished was draining at a rapid pace.

When the puppet’s energy was nearly exhausted, Ye Liuyun called off the war chariot and charged forward, landing several more palms on the puppet to drain the last of its energy completely.

But the puppet, on its last sliver of energy, suddenly activated its spatial force and bolted back into its cave. However, the moment it entered, it froze—all the energy inside was gone.

Ye Liuyun stood guard outside the cave and slashed again, determined to bleed the thing dry.

Boom—the puppet’s power finally guttered out; the blade sent it crashing into the cliff face.

Even drained, its body was unscathed. It simply couldn’t stand anymore and slumped in a heap.

Suddenly a second, spirit-shaped puppet burst from the shell. The soul was weak, a fraction of Ye Liuyun’s size.

It shot straight into his sea of consciousness—and was instantly caged by the Myriad-God Token.

Ye Liuyun rifled its memories, learned its origin and the puppet’s quirks, decided it was useless, and erased it on the spot. He split off a strand of his own soul, fed it into the hollow body, pumped in a primeval energy unit, then tossed the puppet a Interspatial Ring stuffed with hundreds more so it could refuel itself later.

He recalled his clone at once and turned to blast the last gate—he wanted every second he could squeeze out of this new feeling of commanding heaven-and-earth momentum. A few strikes later the gate collapsed inward.

Behind it: only a single book.

“Huh?”

The Book Imp couldn’t wait; before Ye Liuyun stepped forward it dived inside the tome. The volume quivered twice, then fell still.

Feeling those tremors, Ye Liuyun guessed the book itself had spawned a spirit; whatever lived inside might be stronger than his imp. If the book could beat Book Imp, sending his own soul would be suicide.

He stowed every fighter and fire-chariot behind him and waited outside the cave.

Moments later Book Imp fluttered back into his consciousness—noticeably smaller, clearly drained.

“Done. The spirit’s gone; I need a nap. The art inside suits you—go practice.”

With that it fell silent.