Just as Li Fan was feeling perplexed, he suddenly sensed something. His expression shifted slightly as he looked around.
From all directions across the deep sea, tiny specks of blue light were converging.
They flew straight toward Master Tianyang's cave abode.
Li Fan reached out, intercepted a blue speck of light, and examined it in his palm.
"Pure water-attribute spiritual energy..."
A thought struck him in an instant, and Li Fan understood.
Without hesitation, he made the wisest choice.
Activating the Shadow Following Art in an instant, he turned into a blur and shot into the crater.
The other cultivators were still marveling at the gathering blue lights.
"A Water Spirit Body! Zhang Haobo actually has a Water Spirit Body!"
Someone finally realized, crying out in shock.
"I get it now! A Water Spirit Body means an inherent affinity for water spiritual energy. As long as he's on this vast ocean, he never has to worry about running out of spiritual energy. Even if he expends it rapidly, the omnipresent water-attribute spiritual energy around him replenishes it just as fast!"
"Doesn't that mean..."
"Damn it, someone beat us to it!"
"Charge, fellow Daoists!"
Having come to their senses, the Qi Condensation cultivators scrambled after Li Fan, rushing into the volcanic crater to seize whatever opportunities they could find.
Having moved a step ahead, Li Fan had already passed through the magma inside the volcano and reached the interior of Master Tianyang's cave abode.
Slipping past Zhang Haobo and the mechanism puppets locked in combat, Li Fan swept his divine sense outward, searching for any trace of He Zhenghao's remains.
However...
After several fierce battles, the place was already in utter ruins.
The full might unleashed by seventeen Nascent Soul puppets was truly terrifying.
The hard stone floor of the cave abode looked as if an entire layer had been sheared away by sheer brute force. Forget intact remains—there was not even a storage ring in sight.
All that could be faintly discerned were scattered fragments and powder on the ground.
Li Fan's eyelids twitched at the sight. Seeing the other cultivators already catching up from behind, he could not afford to be picky. He simply swept up all the debris in one clean sweep.
Then, he charged deeper into the cave abode, hoping to see if anything else of value remained.
Right at that moment, an ancient, mechanical voice suddenly echoed within the cave abode.
"Tian..."
Li Fan froze in his tracks, a wave of unease abruptly surging in his chest.
He looked toward the source of the sound—it was coming from one of the mechanism puppets.
Having been suppressed by Zhang Haobo's Water Dragon's Chant the entire time, something seemed to have shifted within these dark-red puppets.
Fury was building within them.
Like a volcano slumbering for thousands of years suddenly roaring awake.
Cracks began spreading across the puppet's body, revealing an ominous, eerie black from deep inside.
"Yang..."
Seeing this, Zhang Haobo intensified the attack of his Sea-Calming Swords.
It turned out that even after such an intense battle, he had still held strength in reserve.
The puppets remained at a disadvantage, yet the sense of dread in Li Fan's heart grew stronger by the second.
Without hesitation, he cut against the tide of incoming cultivators and tried to retreat.
"In all..."
More and more fractures spread across the puppet's body until it resembled cracked porcelain, ready to shatter at any moment.
"His life..."
With a loud crash, beneath the onslaught of the Water Dragon's Chant, those mechanism puppets said to possess Nascent Soul strength began shattering one after another.
Like porcelain vases smashed onto the ground, they instantly burst into countless tiny fragments.
The swarm of flying water swords abruptly halted.
Zhang Haobo stared in astonishment, stunned on the spot.
"How is this possible?"
Not just Zhang Haobo—every cultivator present was dumbfounded by the sight.
Their gazes darted between Zhang Haobo and the sea of fragments on the ground, their minds filled with bewilderment.
Were these mechanism puppets merely hollow shells?
Or was Zhang Haobo only a Qi Condensation cultivator on the surface, while secretly an almighty expert concealing his true cultivation?
Li Fan was equally stunned by this unexpected turn of events, halting his retreat.
Staring at the shattered puppets across the ground, his thoughts raced.
In the dead silence, all the fragments began to vibrate.
"Bowed..."
The mechanical voice sounded once more.
This time, it came from every single fragment simultaneously.
Tens of thousands of voices resonated in unison, booming throughout Master Tianyang's cave abode.
"To..."
Amidst the bone-chilling hum, the red-and-black fragments quivered like living things, slowly creeping and congregating together.
With faint, grating creaks, the pieces merged back into one.
"No..."
A piercing sense of crisis flared in Li Fan's heart.
He accelerated violently, bolting toward the exit of the cave abode.
Passing by the dazed Zhang Haobo, he shifted his path slightly, reaching out to grab him.
"Fellow Daoist Zhang, run!"
To prevent him from struggling, Li Fan instantly triggered the Insect Binding divine ability, immobilizing him.
Zhang Haobo, still mesmerized by the strange behavior of the puppet fragments, only registered a voice out of nowhere before losing all control over his body.
Utterly horrified, he calmed slightly upon hearing what the stranger said.
Looking at the person holding him, he saw that the man's face and form were concealed.
Yet this person had subdued him with a casual gesture, leaving him not the slightest room to resist.
His strength had to be...
Fathomless.
Filled with awe and apprehension, Zhang Haobo allowed the mysterious figure to carry him straight through the magma, out of the crater, and back into the deep sea.
"Man!"
As the fragments finished recombining, a colossal, cracked black hand materialized before everyone.
A dazzling, brilliant dark-crimson glow coursed through the hand's fractures.
A mechanical, furious roar tore from the giant hand.
"Tian... yang... in... all... his... life..."
"Bowed... to... no... man!"
Like the roar of an ancient primordial beast, the giant fingers snapped shut into a massive fist.
And swung forward.
Li Fan, fleeing for his life with Zhang Haobo in tow, blanched and pushed his speed even further.
A thunderous, cataclysmic boom erupted from inside the volcano.
Amidst the violent detonation, billowing black smoke shot straight upward.
In an instant, it burst from the seabed and broke the ocean's surface.
Surging straight into the high heavens.
After a fleeting silence...
An even more terrifying rumble thundered from the ocean floor.
Dense black clouds rose from the depths, rolling and bursting as they expanded in every direction.
Like a stampeding horde of beasts, they surged onward, wave upon wave, tearing across the waters in a frantic frenzy.
Explosions resounded ceaselessly; with every blast, the expanse of the black cloud doubled in size.
From the towering pillars of smoke piercing between sea and sky, streaks of crimson shot outward in all directions.
Sprinting at top speed, Li Fan finally brought Zhang Haobo to a safe distance.
Looking back at the raging earth fire, a lingering fear gripped his heart.
Yet all of this seemed to be only the beginning.
Heaven and earth shook, and the entire Congyun Sea appeared to tremble.
Like beacon towers lit in succession, pillars of volcanic smoke erupted violently one after another, starting from Master Tianyang's cave abode!
Amidst this apocalyptic cataclysm, the mechanism puppet's furious roar managed to overpower the undersea eruptions.
"Throughout his life, Tianyang!"
...
"Bowed to no man!"
...
A mechanism puppet, buried deep within the earth's ley lines for thousands of years, absorbing the energy of the earth fire day and night to temper itself...
Tore through the layers of undersea mountain ranges and rose tall in the Congyun Sea!
Towering between heaven and earth, it roared with unrestrained fury!
Chapter 102