In Anchor Year 9, Tian Yang’s cave dwelling had not yet emerged into the world. It lay hidden deep within a dormant underwater volcano.
Using the Earthfire Elevation Array he had obtained from Tian Yang’s Eternal Remnant Will, Li Fan finally pinpointed the cave dwelling’s location after considerable effort.
After activating several protective spirit talismans, Li Fan cautiously infiltrated the dwelling.
The current Reverend Tian Yang existed in a peculiar state, neither fully alive nor completely dead.
From the Eternal Remnant Will, Li Fan had learned the truth.
Back in the ancient era, apart from Tian Yang, every other member of the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect had gone to participate in that great war. None had returned.
Tian Yang alone had clung to the belief that his master and senior brothers would surely come back.
Fearing they would not find him upon their return, he had stubbornly remained within the sect’s cave dwelling, refusing to leave.
Unexpectedly, a few years later, intruders forced their way in. The young Tian Yang had tried to resist but was no match for them. Only by relying on an artifact his senior brothers had left behind before their departure had he barely preserved his life.
Thereafter, the young Tian Yang began a life of wandering through the cultivation world.
Through his struggles, he slowly came to understand that his aptitude was nothing like what his senior brothers had claimed—that he was a prodigy, the hope for the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect’s revival.
Never mind comparing himself to his senior brothers. He likely couldn't even match an ordinary Golden Core cultivator.
And yet his master and senior brothers had entrusted him with the sect's final hope.
Whenever he recalled their words to him—"Tian Yang, your aptitude is second to none in this world. Get well soon, the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect is counting on you"—and contrasted them with his current reality, where he couldn’t even protect his own sect’s cave dwelling, his heart would fill with bitter hatred for his own incompetence.
But facts remained unmoved by emotion.
Tian Yang estimated that, barring some miraculous encounter, the Golden Core realm would likely be his limit in this lifetime.
To live up to the trust placed in him by his master and senior brothers, Tian Yang decided to gamble everything. He would defy the heavens and alter his fate by discarding his mortal flesh and completely transforming into a puppet.
The latter half of his life was spent entirely in preparation for this endeavor, searching for a suitable location to deploy the Earthfire Elevation Array, gathering materials, refining the puppet, etc.
When all preparations were complete, Tian Yang resolutely carried out the human-to-puppet transformation.
Afterwards, he sank into slumber deep within the earth veins, intending to use the power of earthfire to temper and refine the puppet, elevating its level.
If nothing went wrong, Tian Yang would complete his metamorphosis within five hundred years at most.
He would become a formidable existence whose power was no less than that of a Spirit Transformation Immortal Eminence.
But unfortunately, things did not go as planned.
Over those five hundred years, dragons and serpents rose from the land, while mountains transformed into seas.
Shifts in the earth veins drastically reduced the efficacy of the Earthfire Elevation Array, and the materials Tian Yang had used to refine the puppet were all ordinary.
As a result, the Tian Yang puppet's cultivation progressed at an exceptionally slow pace. What had been estimated at five hundred years stretched into several thousand.
Across the vast expanse of time, Tian Yang’s consciousness was slowly eroded even in slumber.
He lost the vast majority of his subjective will, leaving behind only the stubborn obsession that "Tian Yang is not weaker than others."
Li Fan speculated that it was likely the Heaven-Overturning Palm—the very strike that had flattened the Congyun Mountain Range into the Congyun Sea—that had ultimately caused Tian Yang’s plan to fail.
Tian Yang is not weaker than others... Li Fan shook his head and arrived outside the cave dwelling.
After scrutinizing the layout for a moment, Li Fan’s form shifted, transforming into a thin line. Then, he began weaving through the bends and turns.
Eventually, Li Fan smoothly arrived at the deepest part of the cave dwelling without triggering any traps or restrictive arrays.
There, seated upright, was a skeleton the size of a child.
In the actual version of events, because Tian Yang's prenatal deficiencies had never been remedied, he had always remained the same size physically.
Li Fan raised his guard and slowly approached.
Suddenly, a grating, creaking sound rose from beneath the earth.
Li Fan's heart stirred, and his body shot backward.
Immediately after, seventeen black-and-red mechanical puppets burst out of the ground.
Li Fan activated his Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect technique and shouted loudly, "Little Junior Brother, don't you recognize me?"
The mechanical puppets paid him no heed, their attacks utterly merciless as they assaulted Li Fan in unison.
Fortunately, they possessed the characteristic of "weak against the weak, strong against the strong."
A flash of sword light forced the puppets back. Li Fan weaved through the gaps between them, calling out Tian Yang's name.
Slowly, the movements of the mechanical puppets grew somewhat hesitant.
At this moment, Li Fan took out a projection stone, casting Ling Xiao's final work into the air.
The mechanical puppets gradually ceased their attacks.
They tilted their heads up, gazing at the text and images in the air.
"Sec...ond...
"Senior...Brother?"
A slightly sluggish, composite mechanical voice sounded.
Li Fan laughed heartily. "Little Junior Brother, it’s been thousands of years, I trust you've been well!"