The body became a sword, and the sword took human form. The transformations between substance and illusion, between human souls and artifacts; the techniques for imbuing remnants of souls and wills, and nurturing magic power; the methods for controlling a Human Vessel's personality and memories-all these remained unfamiliar territory to Li Chen.
This already touched upon the mysteries of Divine Soul power in the Nascent Soul Realm, the power of extraordinary cultivators who, as their cultivation deepened, gradually mastered transformations governed by the mind.
A Core Formation Cultivator could not possibly comprehend and integrate all of this. But the Puppeteer Dao Path excelled at finding shortcuts. By combining the ancient corpse-refining and soul-refining methods of the Corpse Soul Sect and the Profound Yin Sect with the Artifact Dao's secrets for cultivating soul-path weapons, its practitioners had actually devised this sinister yet powerful method of ritual refinement.
This was precisely why human souls had to be harvested and refined. Nurtured by Heaven and Earth and born of natural creation, human souls were inherently materials of the finest quality. Even ordinary mortals were treasures from head to toe in the eyes of Puppet Masters intent on probing the mysteries of life.
After Lin Yuetang took hold of the sword, his aura erupted. Although his cultivation was only at Foundation Establishment, it was as though he had broken through to Core Formation in an instant and attained the Dao Fruit of core condensation.
His mighty magic power became thunder. With a sweep of his hand, a Lightning Gleam slashed straight at Li Chen.
Li Chen felt a scorching aura rush toward his face. Amid its blazing brilliance lurked a hint of charred dryness, instilling an overwhelming, involuntary terror of being struck into charcoal by thunder and ground into dust.
Li Chen gathered gang