Nine stars appeared in Tong Ruobing's eyes as she used one of her unique talismans–the Star God Talisman. The origin of the talisman is from studying the body of her Dao Companion–Mu Lei.
Tong Ruobing was not a body refining. Although her fleshly body was excellent compared to ordinary cultivators due to the runes, it was still not on par with true body refiners, let alone True Power Dao cultivators.
As such, she created this special talisman to increase her physical prowess–including defense, stamina, and regeneration–when needed for battle.
Regardless, after destroying Chen Chen's body for the third time, Tong Ruobing was not happy as she knew things were not so simple. And as expected, another crack appeared with another Chen Chen.
Tong Ruobing swiftly flicked her fingers to create a sword slash that left a mark on Chen Chen's body. Then, in less than a second, the wound naturally healed.
'The Duyu Realm is useless against him,' she analyzed as she sensed how fast and easily Chen Chen healed from her attack. 'The main reason seems to be that he can replace his injured body parts with already created replacements.'
Tong Ruobing frowned as she felt Chen Chen's method of fighting was too expensive. How many other parts did he have, and why were they all Immortal Tier?
'Has his refining achievement reached the stage where he could easily create Immortal Weapons?'
Based on the given fact, this was the most logical conclusion. However, Tong Ruobing had a hard time believing this fact. She knew how hard it was for mortals to refine any Immortal-related products. This fact was true for her and someone like Yan Liling.
'No, something else is at play,' she thought. 'Chen Chen disappeared before the clean-up, so this should be the time he received his fortunate encounter.
'From that time to now, only about 200,000 years have passed. So, even if he used time dilation, it was impossible for him to refine so many Immortal Weapons.'
Tong Ruobing knew that Immortal Venerables could not easily create Immortal Products for many reasons. The first one is that it took time to refine these things. The second reason is that they need to use a lot of Immortal Qi in the process.
A few talented Immortal Venerables can resonate with the Source Qi Space and use the Immortal Qi from there. But even then, their refining speed would not allow them to refine as many items as Chen Chen.
'If I want to find the truth, I must focus on discovering Chen Chen's ability.'
Tong Ruobing waved her hand to use a [Super Gravity Talisman] to crush Chen Chen's new body. Then, she focused on the space crack that sent his body.
She swiftly used her Divine Sense to detect the spatial energy released, trying to detect where this space was connected. Unfortunately, a mysterious power bounced her Divine Sense.
Furthermore, her actions seemed to have activated something. The surroundings changed as thousands of space cracks appeared, followed by millions of Chen Chen.
Tong Ruobing's face changed before calming down. She sensed that only a few hundred Chen Chen had the aura of Immortal Venerable, and the highest was still 4-Leaf, while the rest were between 1 to 3 Leaf. Meanwhile, most of the Chen Chens were peak Quasi-Emperors.
"Thunder-Sword Rain Array." said all the Chen Chens in a strange harmony. Then, they raised their hand to each manifest seven swords. All the Immortal Venerable Chen Chen had Immortal Artifacts, and Tong Ruobing noticed these artifacts were on par with 6-Leaf.
The swords then formed an array that showered Tong Ruobing with countless mighty thunder swords.
'Damn it,' thought Tong Ruobing as she watched the sky covered by powerful thunder and lightning swords. Her analysis of Chen Chen was that he was a lightweight and only relied on the weirdness of his body. But now, she realized he had means on par with her 7-Leaf strength.
'The previous conversation affected my state of mind.' She realized Chen Chen's accusations affected her on a subtle level. She was angered and thus decided to defeat him effortlessly to show the difference between the two.
However, such a mindset made her underestimate her opponent and become careless. So, Tong Ruobing reigned in her mind and entered a state of focus. Now, she only had one job–to destroy her opponent by all means.
[Elemental Immunity Talisman]
Tong Ruobing placed a talisman on her forehead. Then, with her current fleshly body on par with Mu Lei, she rushed into Chen Chen's group, intending to annihilate them one by one.
Her slim and petite body blocked all the swords and thunder, rushing forward with unparalleled momentum.
The armies of Chen Chen then suddenly changed tactics. Their Sword Array no longer released thunder attacks but focused on the sword's sharpness. This method rendered Tong Ruobing's elemental immunity useless.
Tong Ruobing followed them and blessed her with a [Physical Damage Immunity Talisman]. However, Chen Chen's group would respond by changing their mode of attack; their way of fighting was as versatile as hers.
Unfortunately for Chen Chen, Tong Ruobing's current state was the embodiment of what made body refiners terrifying–they were unkillable. No matter the obstacles or power thrown at them, their flesh can block it.
As such, although Tong Ruobing's progress was slow, she was steadily approaching the army. Then, when she was only a few kilometers away, Chen Chen changed his formation.
The Immortal Tiers one moved to the back while the Quasi-Emperors one moved to the front.
'Do he want to consume my stamina?'
Normally, Tong Ruobing would have sneered. After all, once cultivators reach a particular realm, numbers of lower Tiers simply do not matter. It's a fact that billions of Quasi-Emperors cannot kill even the lowest 1-Leaf Immortal Venerable.
However, she also knew there was no absolute between Heaven and Earth–she knew anything was impossible. So, she was on guard, which was the correct decision.
After punching the first Quasi-Emperor Chen Chen, she discovered their bodies were refined with the Absorption Rune with the purpose of draining her. She even deduced Chen Chen might have planned this battle down to the tiniest detail.
'Two can play at this game,' thought Tong Ruobing before taking out a talisman from her space ring. This talisman was not created by her Dao or using Law Resonance; this talisman was one of the physical Immortal Tiers talismans she refined.
[Clone Army]
Millions of Tong Ruobing manifested around the main one. So, a weird scene formed on this battlefield where an army of Chen Chens and Tong Ruobings faced each other.
'Although these clones have 50% or less of my strength, it's enough,' thought Tong Ruobing before ordering them to attack.
Eastern Quadrant:
Wang Wei had opened his eyes, gazing at the battle between these two. However, he had a pondering frown.
'Why is Chen Chen's fighting method, no, his essence, so similar to Cyborgs or robots from Earth?'
Cyborgs, robots, and puppets might seem the same thing from different civilizations, but Wang Wei knew their essence and ideologies were different.
Puppet Dao's origin was to create artifacts that imitated creatures, and the way Puppet Masters fought was similar to summoners.
'The way Chen Chen fights is similar to the robot of Skynet instead of a Puppet Master,' analyzed Wang Wei, who felt something important was at his grasp but could not catch it yet.
'Moreover, his mindset is also similar to robots who believe flesh life forms are limited.'
Wang Wei felt Chen Chen's last humanity was due to his obsession with defeating Tong Ruobing. Otherwise, this symptom would have been even more prominent.
'Am I overthinking about this, or is there really a mystery?' thought Wang Wei, his frown deeper. He decided to investigate.
Most of the time, when his mind cannot stop working, it usually indicates he is about to create some fantastic idea or theory.
Although the majority of the time, these theories are nonsense. But the time he was correct, he usually discovered some of the fundamental truths of the universe.
Wang Wei tried the easy way out and divined the answer he wanted. Of course, he found nothing; he expected this outcome, but he hoped he would be lucky and had to skip all the work his brain was about to do.
Then, he used a Karman Thread connecting Chen Chen to the Mechanical Puppet World. His eyes penetrated infinite distances and saw this Heaven Will in a far-distant World Community.
Wang Wei became cautious and read a small section of the entire world's Fate Line. He experienced countless battles with the people of this world.
'This world is weird, and Chen Chen is even weirder.'
The cultivators in this world developed Puppet Dao to the peak. And what Wang Wei found weird about them is the way they battle is not like typical summoners. Instead, they fought similarly to Iron Man, where their puppets were their exoskeleton suit.
'People and civilization change, so it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility for changes to occur,' analyzed. The cultivator world is very pedantic and obstinate, for lack of a better word.
So, it's normal for the way they do things to not change after trillions of years; this fact can be seen as one of the prices for their long life and immortality.
So, Wang Wei did not rule out that someone would have introduced a new method or ideology for Puppet Dao. Such a genius appeared in the shape of his ancestor, Qiyuan, who defined the entire civilization.
'However, Chen Chen's mindset is indeed different from the rest.'
