"And?" Neo asked, looking straight at Veydran.

"I revealed Apollyon's betrayal to the Martial King. He's willing to help us take Apollyon down. He'll send some powerful Martial Artists to assist during the final battle," Veydran replied.

Neo didn't respond immediately. He kept walking, eyes forward, expression unreadable.

"And can the Martial Artists he sends stab us in the back?" Neo finally asked. "Because I'm not interested in repeating that mistake."

"No," Veydran said without hesitation. "The politics here aren't tied to our Cosmos. To them, Apollyon is just a Martial Artist who crossed a line. Betraying the Martial King to side with Apollyon wouldn't benefit them in any way."

Neo hummed quietly. That made sense.

At that moment, Vivi spoke up.

"The plan itself is simple. Once you regain enough strength, we gather all our combat power and ambush Apollyon. His act of contacting cultivators is a major form of treason here. No Martial Artist will stand with him after that."

"What about the cultivators?" Neo continued. "They're the real problem. If the Heavenly Sect sends even one Fourth Step Cultivator, the entire Righteous Martial Alliance can be crushed overnight."

At those words, Vivi's smile turned bitter.

Martial Arts (Extreme Arts) were powerful, but they had a ceiling.

No one could go beyond the Third Realm.

Those who tried died shortly after reaching it.

No one knew why.

Cultivators were different.

When a cultivator reached the Fourth Step, they underwent a qualitative change.

Their strength, mindset, and understanding all rose to a different level entirely.

It was widely known that even ten peak Third Step cultivators working together wouldn't be able to leave a scratch on a newly advanced Fourth Step.

A truly powerful Fourth Step Cultivator could crush the entire Martial Alliance alone, whether Righteous Martial Alliance or Demonic Martial Alliance.

The only reason cultivators hadn't already done so was Qi.

The lack of Qi in this world affected Fourth Step cultivators and above severely.

Sustaining their existence, let alone fighting at full power, consumed enormous amounts of energy. That was why most of them never left their abodes (home).

"They'll send Third Step Cultivators to capture you. We can deal with those," Veydran said.

"And if they send a Fourth Step?" Neo asked.

"I doubt it," Veydran replied. "A Fourth Step Cultivator fighting at full power would drain too much Qi from the environment. That would cause backlash from every other cultivator in the region. The elders and the Sect Master of the Heavenly Sect would be affected too. They wouldn't accept that kind of loss."

Neo nodded slowly.

"You know an awful lot about cultivators. And about what goes on inside their sects," he said.

Veydran tilted his head. "You don't know yet?"

Neo blinked, realizing all at once that he was missing something important.

Before he could ask, Vivi spoke.

"Dad, there's a Heavenbreaker inside the Heavenly Sect. He is the Third Heavenbreaker from our Cosmos. He's giving us information in exchange for help building the Ultris Golem."

Neo stopped walking.

"The Ultris Golem?" he asked.

A familiar image surfaced in his mind, sharp and unwelcome.

Veydran nodded. "The Machine God became the Third Heavenbreaker. Later, he was taken in by the Heavenly Sect."

Neo's expression darkened.

"What?"

He remembered the Machine God clearly.

During the war between the Universal Alliance and the Forgotten Suns, that man had supplied weapons in terrifying quantities.

Entire battlefields had been reshaped by his creations.

More than that, he was the one who created the Ultris Golem.

The same golem that had killed Neo's friends.

When Neo reversed time and dragged the universe back, he had tried to seize the temporal strand of the Machine God as well.

He failed.

At the time, he had assumed the man had simply escaped beyond reach.

Now he understood.

The Machine God had fled to the True Blessed Lands, likely before Neo went berserk, to save his skin.

"If the Heavenly Sect has a Heavenbreaker from our Cosmos, then why can't they just study the Machine God? Shouldn't they be able to figure out how he generates World Energy without a Spiritual Root?" Neo asked.

"It's complicated," Veydran said.

Neo glanced at him. "It always is."

"When the Machine God completed the Ultris Golem, he awakened the Dao of Machines. But the actual Heavenbreaker isn't the Machine God himself. It's the Ultris Golem."

Neo frowned. "Explain."

"The Machine God isn't a Heavenbreaker. Well, he is, but he doesn't have any ability of Heavenbreaker. Instead, he now has the qualifications to create Heavenbreaker Golems," Veydran said.

"And the time it takes?" Neo asked.

"It would take quadrillions of years to create a second Heavenbreaker Golem."

Neo absorbed that in silence.

"I see," he said eventually. "So the reason he's asking you for information about Ultris is…."

"To improve the existing golem and raise its rank," Veydran finished. "The golem isn't sentient. It can't cultivate or adapt on its own. If it's going to grow stronger, the Machine God has to do it manually."

"And the cultivators of the Heavenly Sect can't study the golem to learn how it generates Qi without Spiritual Roots?" Neo asked.

Veydran shook his head.

"From what I understand, the golem uses the mass of countless consciousnesses to form a fake Willpower Element Seed. That seed produces Qi," he said.

Vivi's gaze lowered slightly at that.

"Of course," Veydran continued, "those consciousnesses originally possessed Willpower Element. But since elemental abilities don't function properly here, the energy generation is extremely inefficient. Right now, the golem doesn't produce much Qi at all."

Neo stopped.

He turned slowly and stared at Veydran.

He had just heard something deeply wrong.

"How does it generate energy," Neo asked carefully, "if there is no Willpower Element here?"

Veydran studied his face for a moment, then asked, "You know about the Shadow Element, right?"

Neo didn't answer.

"Do you know how it was created?" Veydran continued.

Neo still didn't respond, and after a pause, Veydran took that as permission to explain.

"When you generate Divine Energy inside your Core, it's non-elemental at first. Only after that do you resonate it with your Elemental Seed, and that resonance gives it elemental property.

"Shadow Element was built on that resonance function," Veydran went on. "It mimics the resonance itself. That's why it can copy other elements."

Neo slowed his pace.

"What are you trying to say?" he asked, already dreading the answer.

Veydran didn't hesitate, and confirmed Neo's fears.

"I'm saying that elements can be "created" by unconventional methods instead of having to reach Stage 7.

"Resonance is one way.

"The Machine God discovered another.

"He gathers countless consciousnesses, compresses them, churns them together, and forces them into forming a fake Willpower Element Seed. With that, the Ultris Golem can generate Qi on its own."

Neo stopped completely.

"How does a Willpower Element Seed even function here? There's no Willpower Element in this world."

"Because it's being controlled by a Heavenbreaker," Veydran replied calmly. "You can use all of your elements without restrictions, can't you?"

Neo didn't deny it.

"The limitations only apply to Elemental Gods, Divinity Gods, and Realm Divinity Gods," Veydran continued. "A Heavenbreaker stands outside those rules. Of course, the Ultris Golem isn't truly sentient, and it's not a proper Heavenbreaker. That's why its Willpower Element Seed is weak."

Neo's expression hardened.

"As soon as the Heavenly Sect understands how to create a fake Willpower Element Seed, they'll…."

"They'll begin a slaughter. They'll kill countless people, harvest their consciousnesses, and create artificial seeds to generate Qi," Veydran finished.

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