"Indeed, if we had enough Deity-level puppets to form a full army, few forces would be able to match them."
The Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm listened to Ye Yunfei's plan and immediately became interested.
"However, the prerequisite is to gather a sufficient quantity of materials," Ye Yunfei said.
Ye Yunfei immediately emerged from the Phantom Tower and found the high-ranking members of the alliance's forces.
They had all been in closed-door cultivation because during this period, Ye Yunfei had been consistently providing them with specialized Divine Pills. These pills significantly aided their cultivation, prompting each of them to choose secluded training to enhance their strength. Now, having received Ye Yunfei's message, they all came out of seclusion.
Ye Yunfei gathered these leaders in the council hall, listed out the various materials he required, and gave the lists to the alliance's high-ranking members, instructing them to dispatch people to collect them.
At Ye Yunfei's command, every faction within the alliance sent personnel to stealthily leave the Xuanhuang Continent and gather the materials Ye Yunfei needed.
"I should go out personally to gather materials as well," Ye Yunfei thought. He then left behind several Doppelgängers in a cultivation chamber to refine Divine Pills day and night without pause.
After leaving the Xuanhuang Continent, Ye Yunfei immediately used a secret disguise technique to transform into a strange-looking elder, and used the Jade Ruyi to thoroughly conceal his original aura.
"From now on, my identity is that of an alchemist who has been in seclusion for a very long time and only recently emerged into the world," the elder transformed by Ye Yunfei said softly, standing in the void of the Sixth Void.
Before long, several large trading houses in the Sixth Void received a visitor who called himself the Master Wonderful Hand, a Divine Pill Master.
This Master Wonderful Hand deposited a large batch of Divine Pills for auction at each major trading house, among which were even True God-level pills.
Moreover, Master Wonderful Hand offered large sums to each trading house to collect various artifact-forging materials on his behalf—the more, the better.
"Could it be that Master Wonderful Hand is also a forging master?"
At the headquarters of a trading house named the Qianxia Trading House, a high-ranking member listened to the scouts' reports about Master Wonderful Hand and couldn't help but speculate.
Since Master Wonderful Hand's appearance was too abrupt, and the Divine Pills he produced were not only extremely numerous but also of high quality, causing a sensation among the various trading houses, every trading house was secretly sending people to investigate Master Wonderful Hand's background.
But no matter which trading house's scouts, none could truly ascertain Master Wonderful Hand's real origins. Master Wonderful Hand claimed that he had been in secluded cultivation all along, devotedly practicing alchemy, and only chose to emerge after achieving some accomplishments in the craft.
"Whether he is a forging master or not, this Master Wonderful Hand is worth our Qianxia Trading House befriending.
Dispatch people immediately to gather the artifact-forging materials Master Wonderful Hand requires. Do your utmost to satisfy him, so that he will continue to entrust more high-quality Divine Pills to our trading house for auction in the future. This is a major business opportunity for our firm.
Especially those True God-level pills—they are extremely precious throughout the entire Sixth Void."
After pondering for a moment, this high-ranking member of Qianxia Trading House gave the order.
Every other major trading house acted similarly. The high-ranking members of each firm issued commands, demanding every effort to help Master Wonderful Hand gather the materials he needed.
With these large trading houses personally taking charge, the various artifact-forging materials Ye Yunfei collected grew at an astonishing rate.
Aside from being able to supply large quantities of high-quality Divine Pills for auction by major trading houses, Master Wonderful Hand also publicly proclaimed his proficiency in both alchemy and medicine, capable of treating various strange and difficult illnesses, although his consultation fees were relatively high.
At first, due to Master Wonderful Hand's high prices, no one sought him for treatment. But gradually, as Master Wonderful Hand deposited large batches of high-quality Divine Pills for auction at every major trading house, his reputation spread, and people finally started coming to him for treatment.
The result was that Master Wonderful Hand displayed superb medical skill. Many severely injured people treated by him showed improvement in a short time. As word spread, more and more people sought treatment from Master Wonderful Hand.
However, the treatment fees were quite high, primarily consisting of various precious or even rare artifact-forging materials. Many people, seeking treatment from Master Wonderful Hand, exhausted every method and spent vast sums of wealth, going to any length to gather the various artifact-forging materials he required.
Gradually, the quantity of artifact-forging materials collected by Master Wonderful Hand grew larger and larger.
This Master Wonderful Hand was, of course, Ye Yunfei.
As a True God-level Divine Pill Master, Ye Yunfei could naturally cure common ailments with ease.
Generally, alchemists were all skilled in medicine. Ye Yunfei possessed a large number of ancient, long-lost healing pill formulas. The healing pills refined using these formulas had particularly good effects.
Thus, within a short time, Ye Yunfei had collected an astonishingly large quantity of artifact-forging materials in the Sixth Void.
During this process, many major powers sent people to find Ye Yunfei, attempting to recruit him into their forces.
A divine alchemist was an object of competition and courtship by every major power, regardless of which void they operated in.
However, Ye Yunfei rejected each of these solicitations from major powers. Even the Guardian Faction sent someone to find Ye Yunfei, offering tempting conditions to join them.
Subsequently, the Yin Corpse Hall also sent people to Ye Yunfei, wanting to recruit him. Ye Yunfei, of course, directly refused.
Before leaving, the Intermediate True God from the Guardian Faction who had come to recruit Ye Yunfei left a statement tinged with threat, telling Ye Yunfei to think it over carefully and seize the opportunity, or he would certainly regret it later.
Ye Yunfei originally wanted to kill this Intermediate True God, but fearing premature exposure of his identity, he forcibly restrained himself.
As time passed, the quantity of various artifact-forging materials collected by Ye Yunfei continued to grow.
Thus, a rumor spread through the Sixth Void: that the suddenly emerged Master Wonderful Hand might also be an artifact-forging master; otherwise, why would he collect such enormous quantities of forging materials?
"It's about enough. I can go back and refine a batch of puppets," Ye Yunfei thought to himself after leaving the headquarters of a major trading house.
"Someone's tailing you, probably people from the Qianxia Trading House. These trading houses have been investigating your background all along," Hun Lao suddenly sent a voice transmission to Ye Yunfei.
"It's fine. Let them follow," Ye Yunfei said.
His Soul Power energy sensed backward, and he immediately detected several figures hiding in space behind him, monitoring his every move. However, during this period, Ye Yunfei often encountered such situations and was no longer surprised.
A suddenly emerged divine alchemist had attracted the attention of many major powers in the Sixth Void, and quite a few were investigating the origins of this Master Wonderful Hand.
In fact, before entering the Qianxia Trading House headquarters, Ye Yunfei had already made various preparations.
Subsequently, Ye Yunfei utilized one teleportation formation after another, along with teleportation arrays and the effect of the Jade Ruyi. Before long, he shook off all his pursuers.
Then, Ye Yunfei secretly returned to the Xuanhuang Continent.
"Young Master Ye, these are the artifact-forging materials our alliance has gathered during this period."
After Ye Yunfei returned, the alliance's high-ranking members came to find him one after another, presenting the artifact-forging materials collected during this time.
"Excellent!"
Ye Yunfei gathered the materials collected by these leaders and found the quantity quite considerable. He nodded in satisfaction.
The artifact-forging materials Ye Yunfei had personally collected, combined with those gathered by the alliance's high-ranking members, amounted to an astonishing quantity.
Next, Ye Yunfei entered the cultivation chamber, then went into the Phantom Tower to begin closed-door refinement of puppets.
Ye Yunfei's puppet inheritance was obtained earlier in the True Phoenix Tomb. Wu Dechang was a deacon of the ancient Tianlei Sect. He stole the Tianlei Sect's core puppet inheritance before fleeing, eventually reaching the territory of the True Phoenix Divine Race to seek protection. There, within the True Phoenix Divine Race, he established a Puppet Hall, constantly refining puppets for them.
Now, the Tianlei Sect's core ancient inheritances left behind by Wu Dechang had all fallen into Ye Yunfei's hands.
Ye Yunfei mobilized a Soul Body along with thirty-plus Soul Power planets, simultaneously interpreting and comprehending the techniques while beginning practical refinement.
Since Ye Yunfei had previously refined some semi-finished puppets into complete ones, he had accumulated a certain amount of experience.
Therefore, after some time, Ye Yunfei began to gain some insights and understanding.
At first, Ye Yunfei refined some Heavenly Immortal-level puppets, then some Demigod-level ones.
Ye Yunfei found refining puppets of these two levels quite easy.
However, what Ye Yunfei truly needed were Deity-level puppets, so the number of Heavenly Immortal-level and Demigod-level puppets he refined was relatively small.
Next came the Primary Void God-level puppets.
Ye Yunfei said softly, then took out a large pile of artifact-forging materials and placed them in front of him.
Several large furnaces were also placed before him—these were the forging furnaces.
Refining pills required pill furnaces, refining artifacts also required forging furnaces, because like alchemy, refining artifacts also needed flames to melt the materials.
The various alien flames Ye Yunfei possessed could be used for both refining pills and forging.
Ye Yunfei reviewed the various puppet refinement inheritances obtained from Wu Dechang once more, then officially began refining Primary Void God-level puppets.
The difficulty of refining Deity-level puppets was indeed much higher, but Ye Yunfei was psychologically prepared for this.
Inside the Phantom Tower, six years passed.
"I've finally successfully refined a Primary Void God-level puppet. This means I can now independently refine Primary Void God-level puppets," Ye Yunfei said, looking at the puppet standing before him, an excited expression appearing on his face.