The boat was seamless, without a single gap, and Ian Song couldn't even tell what material it was made from. There weren't any formation runes on its surface either, so he couldn't be sure whether it was a magic artifact or not.
Still, he figured he might as well treat it like a magic artifact and try refining it. He sliced his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the boat.
When the little boat absorbed his blood, Ian Song felt a rush of excitement—this proved it really was a magic artifact.
After the boat drank his blood, a subtle connection formed between Ian Song and the artifact. He gripped the boat and started channeling sword essence into it.
As he poured in sword essence, blurry formation runes began to appear all over the boat’s surface.
He counted them—there were actually hundreds of runes. Ian Song realized this little boat was an extraordinary magic artifact.
Magic artifacts are divided into treasure artifacts and spirit artifacts. Treasure artifacts have nine grades, with first-grade being the lowest and ninth-grade the highest. Spirit artifacts are also split into nine grades.
In the real world, Ian Song had obtained several magic artifacts, but they were all treasure artifacts.
This little boat might actually be a spirit artifact.
The more sword essence the boat absorbed, the tighter Ian Song felt his connection with it becoming.
Finally, after draining nearly half the sword essence from his lower dantian, the little boat flashed with light and suddenly expanded, transforming into a five-meter-long, half-meter-wide treasure skiff. At the same time, a stream of information shot into Ian Song’s sea of consciousness.
After reading the info, Ian Song couldn’t help grinning. This was a third-grade Spirit Boat called the Silverglow Skiff, and at full power it could hit a thousand li in a single breath.
To run it, he had to embed eighty-one spirit crystals into its array-eyes, and the minimum requirement was high-grade crystals. Good thing he’d just scored hundreds of thousands of them—otherwise, he wouldn’t have had the capital to use the Silverglow Skiff.
Without hesitation, Ian Song pulled out eighty-one top-grade spirit crystals and slotted them into the Silverglow Skiff’s array-eyes. With a thought, he activated the Skiff, shooting out of the cavern and soaring into the sky.
He kept the Silverglow Skiff’s speed at ten li per second for safety, then ramped it up to twenty, then thirty.
When he pushed it to fifty li per second, Ian Song realized that was his limit—any faster and the scenery blurred so much he’d crash into a mountain before he could react.
Even at fifty li per second, the speed was insane—fifty li a second meant three thousand li a minute, thirty thousand li in ten minutes, and one hundred eighty thousand li in an hour.
At this rate, it wouldn’t take long to circle the whole world.
He piloted the Silverglow Skiff back to the underground cavern, where the Heavensnare Order group was still waiting obediently.
Originally, he’d planned to go cause trouble for the Heavensnare Order higher-ups later, but they’d delivered themselves right to his doorstep.
But Puppet Mastery could only be used ten times a day.
So to fully control all twenty-three of them, he’d need two more days.
Ian Song waved Wan Tianchou over.
Wan Tianchou hurried over and bowed respectfully. "Subordinate greets Master!"
Seeing this, Serena Skye’s eyes went wide. How had her revered master ended up as Ian Song’s subordinate?
"Sit," Ian Song said, pointing to a rock in the cavern.
"Thank you, Master!"
"Tell me about your Heavensnare Order," Ian Song ordered.
"Yes, Master!" Wan Tianchou nodded and started explaining the situation in detail.
(Wan Tianchou begins his explanation of Heavensnare Order’s structure and strength.)
Half an hour later, Ian Song couldn’t help but marvel at how strong the Heavensnare Order was—just their ninth-stage Transforming-Gang experts alone numbered fifty-six.
Back in the real world, even the Zhao Family—one of the Ten Great Families—only had a single peak Innate Ninth Layer expert.
Even if all the Ten Great Families banded together, they probably couldn’t scrape up fifty-six peak Innate Ninth Layer experts.
Of course, Ian didn’t know everything about the real world—maybe there were hidden sects out there just like Heavensnare Order.
Besides that, Heavensnare had over a hundred eighth-stage experts, and close to two thousand Transforming-Gang realm powerhouses total.
If this was before, Ian wouldn’t have dared face Heavensnare Order head-on. But now, with the Azure Lotus Sword, his strength had skyrocketed again. Even if all fifty-six ninth-stage elders attacked together, he could wipe them out instantly.
He even suspected that early-stage Foundation realm experts wouldn’t be able to beat him now.
With a clearer picture of Heavensnare, Ian came up with a new plan: let Wan Tianchou run the Order as a front, and once Yanhuang Survivor Base hit a million people, merge it into Heavensnare.
Since Wan Tianchou was his puppet, Ian could make sure Coco Guan, Lillian Liu, Jewel, and the others would all be protected.
To be extra safe, he decided that once he visited Heavensnare headquarters, he’d enslave not just all the ninth-stage elders, but also the eighth- and seventh-stage ones too.
After waving Wan Tianchou off, Ian tapped the air and released Serena Skye from her acupoint seal.
Her expression was complicated. After a moment’s hesitation, she sat down beside Ian. Facing him again, she realized she didn’t hate him anymore—not because she didn’t want to, but because she was too scared. The way he’d silently taken over Wan Tianchou and the others terrified her.
After a long silence, she finally asked, "How did you control my master?"
"After midnight, I’ll show you," Ian Song said with a crooked grin.
A few hours flew by. After midnight, Ian’s Puppet Mastery refreshed again.
He got up, walked to the remaining restrained elders, and tapped them one by one, using Puppet Mastery. In no time, ten more of them were enslaved. He unsealed their acupoints and used Radiance of Life to heal their injuries.
"Greetings, Master!"
All ten dropped to their knees, faces full of respect as they greeted Ian Song.
Twisting someone’s mind and turning them into a puppet—this went way beyond martial arts. Serena Skye felt a chill run down her spine.
Ian Song looked over and saw the fear in her eyes. "Please don’t turn me into one of them, okay?" she pleaded.
Serena Skye begged, her face full of desperation.
"That depends on how obedient you are," Ian Song replied with a playful smile.
"As long as you don’t mess with my mind, I’ll do whatever you want!" Serena said through gritted teeth.
"Alright, come give me a shoulder massage."
"Yes!"
Serena didn’t dare resist. She respectfully walked behind him and started kneading his shoulders.
Seeing Serena so obedient, Ian actually found it a bit boring. After a while, he dismissed her and pulled out a piece of Soul Jade from his Storage Ring.
The Soul Jade was packed with pure soul power—absorbing it would directly boost his spiritual sense.
Twenty-four hours later, Ian Song got up, enslaved the last two Heavensnare experts, and sent all twenty-three out to stand guard outside the cavern. Now that the site was secure, he planned to take the Foundation Establishment Pill and try breaking through to the Foundation realm right here.