There is a progress bar in my cultivation of immortality

When Que Cai and Xuan Ling heard Wang Ping's promise, they felt a moment of disappointment and regret, but they quickly let it go.

After making his decision, Wang Ping waved the four away and, as usual, observed Yu Lian's condition. Once he confirmed that Yu Lian was alright, he returned to the spirit tree and sat down. He then saw the mirror array quickly appear around him.

He planned to send some puppets made of demonic energy to the rebels, and the bodies of these puppets were corpse soldiers that Zhi Xin had specially transported back from beyond the realm.

After years of cultivation, Wang Ping now possesses hundreds of thousands of puppets at his disposal, which are spread throughout every corner of the Xuanmen and Tianmen realms below the second level of cultivators. Even the demon race and the Star God Alliance have been infiltrated.

Wang Ping established a strict organizational structure for these hundreds of thousands of puppets. Their usual routine was to collect intelligence from various factions, then unify and summarize it, recording the meaningful information and storing it in an archive room specially built by Wang Ping. The archive room was located in the mountain stream of Jiuxuan Mountain and was guarded by a number of fixed puppets.

The process of Wang Ping sending these puppets to the rebels was carried out by the puppets themselves. Zhi Xin and Quan Xing only provided the channels, and the channels they provided were not controlled by themselves, but by other demon race true lords and extraterrestrial star gods.

Because of what happened to True Lord Huishan, Wang Ping will not display his puppet army on any occasion, nor will he actively monitor the secrets of the True Lords, because he knows that this is the bottom line for the True Lords.

As for those puppets that cultivated their Qi with demonic energy, they were naturally the experimental sites that Wang Ping built next to the Starry Sky Barrier. After assigning these puppets their delivery missions, his consciousness swept across the various experimental sites and quickly landed on the largest one...

The boundary of the star barrier is submerged in absolute cold darkness, devoid of matter, light, and heat, containing only space itself, eternally frozen.

Within the endless darkness of the frozen land, a cluster of emerald green light stubbornly flickered. This was an ecological zone stretching for thousands of miles, surrounded by a lush and vibrant forest. Every ten miles, there was a tower radiating an emerald green light, and inside the towers were magic arrays constructed by natural wood spirits.

The wood elemental energy generated by the magic array merged and multiplied, resisting the cold outside the ecological zone. However, large areas of forest were still frozen, radiating a beautiful reflection under the emerald light.

Further into the forest lies a river channel driven by a special gravity system. Within the river channel, every ten miles there is a natural water spirit array, which complements the forest's wood spirit array, providing the material foundation for this ecological zone.

Beyond the river lies the earth elemental energy of towering mountains, providing this world with earth elemental energy; further inward are metal and fire elemental formations, creating a situation of mutual suppression; at the same time, in the north and south of the ecological zone, there are corresponding yin-yang formations, keeping the five elements and yin-yang rules of the ecological zone in a delicate balance.

At the very center of the ecological zone is where Wang Ping's puppets attempt to cultivate demonic energy. In the center of the barrier array above the ecological zone, there is a channel specifically used to transport and refine demonic energy from outside the domain, allowing the puppets here to cultivate, gather, and build their foundation.

Meanwhile, puppets were also cultivating in other places, practicing corresponding secret techniques in their respective areas to neutralize the demonic energy cultivated by the puppets in the central area.

The data Wang Ping wanted to observe was whether the rules of destruction generated by demonic energy were integrated with or mutually exclusive with the rules of order in this starry sky. This was one objective. Another objective was to experiment with the rules of the Five Elements and Yin-Yang to see if they could completely eliminate demonic energy, but not at this experimental site.

Therefore, the puppets practicing demonic energy in the experimental site would periodically compete with the puppets practicing the Five Elements and Yin-Yang rules, allowing Wang Ping to better record various data.

Today is the time for another battle. The time for the battle is not fixed, but determined by the puppet's own consciousness. When a certain rule is exceeded by puppets who cultivate different rules, it will affect each other's cultivation. At the same time, they will subconsciously have the idea of ​​killing each other.

Wang Ping tried every possible way to eliminate their consciousness, because it would lead to endless war. He also wanted to cleanse the demonic energy by merging them together, but they were like water and fire, only able to restrain each other, with no room for merging or discussion.

As Wang Ping's will descended, two groups of puppets silently clashed on the desolate plain in the center of the ecological zone.

The puppet, which cultivated demonic energy, had an unnatural bluish-gray skin, and its body was covered with fine black lines, like cracks in a dried-up riverbed.

Their lives under the rules of the 'Heavenly Talisman' are very weak, with only one breath and one heartbeat every few dozen breaths, while the puppet opposite, which cultivates the rules of the Five Elements and Yin Yang, is as smooth as jade, with a faint spiritual light flowing under its skin, as if tiny runes are flowing in its blood.

The demonic puppet raised its hand and a jet of black mist shot out, leaving nothing but barren vegetation and fine ice crystals on the ground. The mist did not spread but condensed into long, thin arrows that shot straight toward the throat of the Five Elements Yin Yang Puppet.

The Five Elements puppets neither dodged nor evaded. Some of the puppets' palms glowed with a faint earthen-yellow light. Suddenly, a low wall rose from the ground. The black mist arrows pierced the earthen wall, making a corrosive "sizzling" sound, but ultimately failed to penetrate it.

On the other side, a Five Elements Puppet clasped its hands together, and a wisp of crimson fire burst from its fingertips. The fire thread was as thin as a hair, yet it precisely wrapped around the arm of a Demonic Puppet.

The demonic puppet's arm was instantly charred black, but it felt no pain. It grabbed the fire line with its backhand, and the black energy backfired along the fire line, gradually devouring the flames.

The battle was not intense, even somewhat clumsy, because these puppets lacked the immense magical power of high-level cultivators, nor did they possess sophisticated spells. They merely mechanically employed the most basic methods: demonic energy corrosion, flame burning, earthen wall defense, and water mist envelopment…

Strangely, the spiritual energy on the battlefield did not become disordered due to the fighting. Instead, it presented a strange balance: when the demonic energy dissipated, the spiritual energy of the five elements filled the gap; when the power of the five elements was eroded, the demonic energy would naturally dissolve. The two rules were not mutually exclusive, but like two intertwined rivers, washing each other away, yet depending on each other.

The vegetation on the plains was not completely destroyed by the battle. Instead, under the alternating erosion of demonic and spiritual energy, it grew into a peculiar form, with decay and vitality simultaneously entwined on its branches. Even the soil on the ground became soft and moist under the scouring of the two forces, as if this land was meant to be this way.

Wang Ping watched all of this calmly.

The battle ultimately ended in a draw. When the power of the demonic puppets was depleted to a certain critical point, they would retreat on their own. The five elemental puppets would not pursue them either, but would simply silently withdraw their spells and return to their respective areas.

The battlefield quickly returned to calm. Wang Ping's clone descended into the sky above the ecological zone and used the 'Heaven-Stealing Talisman' to forcibly lock and define the rules of demonic energy, attempting to merge it with the rules of the Five Elements and Yin-Yang. However, in Wang Ping's view, the vast network of rules interwoven with the stars and the universe still could not connect with the demonic energy.

They are two parallel tracks that will never cross. This is a fundamental rule of the universe and a fact that cannot be changed by human power. They monitor, repel, and dissolve each other, thus maximizing the stability of spiritual balance.

Deep down, Wang Ping was happy to see this happen, because it meant that this starry sky could indeed extend outwards in the future. However, he couldn't accept it either, because he wanted to control everything, ideally even the rules of destruction outside the realm. Although he knew it was impossible, Wang Ping still tried relentlessly. His clone carefully observed every corner of the ecological zone, then dropped thousands of new puppets before leaving with the help of a transfer array.

When Wang Ping's consciousness returned to his body, he discovered that the fusion progress of his 'Stealing Heaven Talisman' had increased by one point, reaching (57/100). According to the information fed back by the rule network, he knew that this was caused by his forced definition of the extraterrestrial demonic energy.

"It's a good time to cultivate oneself."

His consciousness once again immersed itself in another ecological zone next to the star barrier. This was the place Wang Ping used for his fusion attempt, where he fused extraterrestrial demonic energy and the five elements of Yin and Yang spiritual energy.

This ecological zone also floats in eternal darkness, but it is much smaller than the previous one. It is a perfect sphere, covered with a translucent silver film. Fine rune chains flow on the film, completely isolating the interior space from the outside world.

There are no mountains or rivers inside the ecological zone, only a flat, grayish-white land, with crisscrossing gullies carved into the ground. These gullies form a huge magic array covering the entire ecological zone.

Each ravine flows with energy of different attributes: crimson fire spirit, azure water spirit, verdant wood spirit, brownish-yellow earth spirit, pale gold metal spirit, and the ever-surging yin and yang power in the central area.

The five elements and yin-yang energies they generate surge outwards, clearing and neutralizing the demonic energy seeping into this starry sky from beyond the realm, and attempting to construct an order similar to the inner ring star field to prevent the infiltration of demonic energy from beyond the realm.

Dark gray demonic energy surged in the starry sky like a struggling beast. The colorful light emanating from the ecological zone spread gently yet firmly, melting away the darkness wherever it went, like spring snow.

As the energy of the Five Elements and Yin-Yang intensified, countless tiny points of light emerged from the demonic energy. At first, there were only a few scattered points, but they quickly merged into one. These points of light greedily devoured the surrounding darkness, becoming brighter with each portion they consumed.

At this moment, the ecological zone is like a patient fisherman, weaving the halo into a net and gradually pulling it in. The demonic energy trapped in the net twists violently, and the black surface bulges and collapses repeatedly, eventually turning into nothingness.

Wang Ping's clone didn't pay attention to the confrontation between the two forces; he only went into the ecological zone to review the recorded files.

Just as he imagined, the demonic energy at the outer border could not be forcibly intervened with magic. Even if the rebels were wiped out, a second wave of rebels would inevitably appear within a few thousand years, and so on, until one day this starry sky was destroyed, or it had the ability to expand outward.

"Perhaps it is truly possible to cultivate a Demon Lord using secret methods from beyond the realm to restrain the demonic energy at the border?"

Wang Ping suddenly thought of the extraterrestrial secret technique that Yuan Wu had sent back, and naturally, he subconsciously wanted to use his puppet to cultivate a demon lord with the same strength as the True Lords.

But he quickly suppressed the idea. The warning from the rat demon Quan Xing forced him to consider it carefully, because if he took the wrong step, he would fall into endless darkness.

After all, he still has experiments to conduct with Xuanqing and Lieyang. He'll take this step first and see what happens. Time is the one thing Wang Ping has plenty of right now.

As his consciousness returned to his body, Wang Ping immediately entered a state of 'self-discipline,' using his powerful will to forcefully digest some tempting thoughts. By the time all his thoughts returned to calm, half a month had passed.

At this moment, the decree issued in the name of the True Lords has been delivered to the headquarters of the Dao Palace. Three days later, the Earthly True Lord personally visited the headquarters of the Dao Palace. The dispute between Linshui Prefecture, Zhenyang Sect and Vajra Temple ended because of this decree, and Zang Yi and Zhu Wu's supervision and investigation of the Dao Palace also naturally stopped.

The massive Dao Palace coalition has regrouped, and this time the scale of the coalition is ten times that of the last one. The number of cultivators below the second realm has increased a hundredfold, and the number of flying boats is also incomparable to the last one.

Extraterrestrial planet.

On the outer orbit, countless flying ships obscured the starry sky. Millions of cultivators gathered at the temporary port, and a series of magic arrays were connected around it to defend against rebel attacks. Colorful cloud bridges shuttled through these magic arrays.

This was only a small portion of the cultivators who had gathered. Many more cultivators were gathered at the orbital port of Da Luo Star, among whom the most eye-catching were naturally the orthodox cultivators of the five sects of Xuanmen and the two sects of Tianmen.

The array of cultivators from the Vajra Temple was the most dazzling, with tens of thousands of golden cultivators seated on golden lotus platforms, each platform radiating blinding Buddhist light; the Taiyan Sect's fleet of warships resembled a moving forest; the Linshui Mansion's deep blue fleet of warships was like a floating ocean, with water spirit energy constantly pouring down from the hulls and flowing upstream; the Zhenyang Sect's crimson flying shuttles burned with inextinguishable spiritual flames; and the earth cultivators of the Earth Cave Gate were making devout prayers on their flying boats.

The Jade Purity Sect's army radiated a purifying glow; the Taiyin Sect remained hidden in the shadows, their presence only occasionally revealed by glimpses of moonlight.

Wang Ping's puppets were scattered throughout the army, constantly bringing him updates on the army's mobilization at the front. To Wang Ping's surprise, the Vajra Temple sent Wang Qing, who was in meditation, to the front, while the True Yang Sect was not to be outdone, sending Wang Ping's old friend Rong Yang.

After Wang Qing arrived at the front line, he kept his presence hidden and moved around, seemingly observing something. Upon arriving at the front line, Rong Yang immediately visited Li Miaolin and Miao Qing, as well as Yu Xing and Huai Mo from the Yuqing Sect.

Ignoring the collusion among the various factions, Diwen Zhenjun immediately took some files from the Dao Palace headquarters and went to the outer planet frontline, forcing the main force gathered near Da Luo Star to advance towards the outer planet at the first opportunity.

The fastest to act were naturally the cultivators of the underground cave sect, as well as the snake demon Bai Xin and the monkey demon Hou Ji and their clansmen.

Wang Ping thought this war would be like the one he organized a thousand years ago, giving him enough time to do some things. But he was wrong. Just as he was about to enter meditation, the earth elemental energy of the entire starry sky suddenly became restless and converged towards the outer star.

This Earthly True Lord actually planned to personally intervene at the very beginning of the war! (End of Chapter)