Immortality begins with meditation puppets

Those who don't take their opponents seriously don't deserve to win!
Zhao Shengli stared furiously at Su Qing and the others who had turned the battlefield into a business arena, feeling both angry and relieved.

What angered them was that Su Qing looked down on the four major families, daring to focus on business even on such a serious battlefield.

Fortunately, he didn't take this battle too seriously, which at least gave them a chance to turn the tide!

"Family members, cheer up! In today's battle, we are fighting with our backs to the wall, while our opponents are arrogant and complacent, becoming overly complacent after a temporary victory. With such a mindset on both sides, we will surely win this battle!"

Zhao Shengli boosted the morale of the tribesmen once again, but few responded. Those who did were not as enthusiastic and confident as before.

Zhao Shengli could only sigh helplessly at this.

After the first wave of attacks by the Shield and Axe Guards, the puppet army painstakingly assembled by the four families was rendered useless. The Shield and Axe Guards killed too quickly and with too much momentum, leaving the clansmen hiding behind the puppets looking crooked and dejected. Under such circumstances, it was necessary to launch a brilliant counterattack to turn the tide and boost morale.

The starting gun fired again, and the celestial phenomena on Obsidian Mountain changed dramatically, clearly indicating that the four major families had used new methods.

Gray thunderclouds gathered in the sky, and gray lightning bolts leaped down irregularly, landing in the ore below. Immediately, a bronze-colored mineral beast pounced out of the ground.

Mining beasts are not monsters, but rather a type of spirit. Because there are many spirit stones in the mines, the probability of spirits being born is extremely high, and most of them are the same kind of spirit. Therefore, people often name these spirits after the mines and are used to calling them mining beasts.

The mineral beast awakened by Zhao Shengli at this moment is the Obsidian Beast. Its body is red, with five tails and one horn. Its voice is like the clanging of iron and as sharp as the grinding of a stone. Because the spirit obsidian stone has the characteristics of being as hard as black iron and as soft as cotton, the obsidian beast formed from this mineral has both defensive power that makes third-level body cultivators feel troubled and agility that makes people's scalp tingle.

A single obsidian beast possesses third-tier combat power. Moreover, because this obsidian mine is located in the far west, and may even be the largest obsidian producing area in the entire Western Sea, tens of thousands of obsidian beasts are spawned within it. When they all surged out at once, the situation suddenly reversed.

The thousand shield-axe guards were indeed formidable, but they had just been through a major battle, and even though they had dealt with mostly weaklings, some losses were inevitable. In addition, Su Qing had finished demonstrating the puppet's capabilities and wanted to have them gradually retreat to give other puppets a chance to showcase their abilities.

Therefore, in the eyes of the cultivators from the four major families, including Zhao Shengli, the reason why the shield and axe guards retreated with their shields under the coercion of the obsidian beast was entirely because Su Qing had backed down and dared not confront the obsidian beast they had created head-on!
"Hahaha, this time it's finally our turn to win!"

"No one can defeat our Obsidian Beasts at my Zhao Family Obsidian Mine!"

"Let's show these outsiders what the power of our four families is!"

"If you know what's good for you, admit defeat now and have a proper talk with the four of us. You didn't even try to talk to me before, so how do you know we don't want to talk?"

The people of the four families were thrilled, but after the initial excitement, they all thought about practical issues.

The reality is that even if Obsidian blocked the charge of Shield Axe Guardian.

However, the four major families still lack the ability to fight Su Qing to the end. Today's battle is merely an attempt to promote negotiations through combat, to make Su Qing realize that they are not pushovers to be manipulated, and to secure more benefits for the four major families!

Surrender is an option.

But we cannot surrender unconditionally!

You can be a dog, too!
But the treatment of dogs varies drastically. These four families were once superior to others, and now that they are dogs, they want to be the best of the best!

This was something the four families had already discussed. Zhao Shengli didn't consult with the other three family heads at this moment, and wanted to take advantage of the small victory to make demands on Su Qing on the other side.

"Master Su, General Zhao, Elder Fan, and all the True Immortals who were in the far west before and have now come to the far west, I, Zhao Shengli, pay my respects."

Today, we had a misunderstanding and had a fight. It can be said that we became friends after the fight. However, our four families have always been good citizens of the far west and we really do not want to see our soldiers from the far west fighting each other and turning against each other.

"How about we both compromise? Our four families are willing to acknowledge Master Su as our master. If we encounter external enemies, we are also willing to provide manpower and resources to serve Master Su. We only ask that Master Su continue to entrust us with the control of these four mines that we have managed for generations!"

After Zhao Shengli finished speaking, in order to make Su Qing better understand the strength of the four major families and make him understand what price he would have to pay for his strong attack today, he waved his hand, and the patriarchs of the Qian, Sun, and Li families, just like he had done before, took out jade seals, short flutes and other tokens, and also released the Xuan Tie Beast, Zi Jin Beast and Chi Xue Beast that the three families had fattened up.

Four types of mining beasts roamed the mountains and fields, emitting roars like wild beasts. Their momentum was several times stronger than the previous ragtag puppet army. This was to be expected, since the ragtag puppet army was just something that the four major families had hastily concocted with spirit stones. It was normal that they couldn't beat Su Qing, who specialized in puppets. On the contrary, these four mining beasts were the absolute trump cards that had allowed the four families to stand firm in the far west for tens of thousands of years!

Zhao Shengli had used both soft words and hard power. Seeing that Su Qing on the other side had not responded, he was not in a hurry. Surrounded by the four major families, he stood with his hands behind his back and waited quietly.

Meanwhile, Su Qing, after the shield-axe guards withdrew, delivered the goods to the group of wealthy customers who had just placed orders, making a fortune in spirit stones, and completely ignored Zhao Shengli!
From the perspective of the four major families, their demands were not excessive. In their understanding, these four mines had been owned by them since their ancestors' time, and were rightfully theirs. The fact that they nominally acknowledged Su Qing as their master was already a great honor for him. What more could he want?

But in Su Qing's opinion, they were simply naive!
It is true that there are countless mines of all sizes in the far west. After all, it was the location of the spiritual mountain of the Western Desert in the past. It is said to be the root of the Western Desert's earth veins and the source of spiritual energy. Even when the spiritual energy of the Tianyuan Realm was waning, the spiritual energy here was hundreds of times more abundant than that of other realms. If it weren't for the Eye of Returning to the Void attracting evil spirits and monsters to this place, the various immortal kingdoms of the Western Sea would probably fight tooth and nail to get here!

But precisely because the evil spirits and monsters are difficult to clean up, and the mines here are difficult to develop, these four mines, which are extremely rich in resources and have been cleaned of all evil spirits and monsters, are especially precious!

He, Su Qing, traveled thousands of miles to this far west to attract investment and oversee construction. How could he possibly let go of this perfectly good, ready-to-eat meat? There's no logic in that.

Furthermore, these four mines were cleansed of evil spirits and monsters thanks to the combined efforts of everyone in the Far West back then. According to the records of the Far West Elder Hall, as many as a million Far West cultivators died as a result, including three fourth-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

Originally, the fruits of victory should have been shared by the people of the Far West. However, because these four families harbored malicious intentions, they ambushed two fourth-level elders of the Elder Hall when clearing the last mine, Crimson Blood Mine. After several battles with the Elder Hall of the Far West, they completely seized these four mines for themselves!

Such behavior is no different from that of a thief!
Of course, intrigue and the survival of the fittest are common occurrences in the cultivation world, so it's not surprising. The Western Elders' Hall couldn't handle these four families back then, so these four families should have been riding on the backs of the Western Immortals for years. But since the Western Elders' Hall has transferred all their interests in the Western Regions to Su Qing, then Su Qing has to take charge!

For so many years, they have been stealing mines from my Suqing mine. Instead of returning what they stole and asking for forgiveness, they even sent people to provoke me. After I arrived at this mine, they even dared to send troops to fight me with real swords and spears.

Do you really think I, Su Qing, have a good temper?
There's no room for negotiation!
Seeing that the shield-axe guards were sold out, Su Qing patted his storage bag, and another batch of puppets made a dazzling appearance. Yao Guangquan and the others had just impulsively spent a lot of money, losing most of the spirit stones they had accumulated over the years. At this moment, they were calm and composed, vowing to cut off their hands if they acted impulsively again, and swearing that they would not make a fuss.

Even if Su Qing presented them with the most handsome and beautiful puppets, they wouldn't be tempted.

But they didn't expect that Su Qing would bring out a batch of puppets that were neither cool nor could they arouse any desire to buy them.

The tan-colored excavator, with its tracked wheels and powerful arm, can dig up tens of thousands of kilograms of soil with a single scoop.

A heavy-duty truck in sapphire blue, with a black iron cab and obsidian body, capable of carrying ten thousand bricks.

The matte black crane puppet has a long boom and powerful motor, capable of lifting tens of thousands of tons of ore at once.

There are also various sizes of forklift puppets, bread puppets, crane puppets, etc.

Are these puppets powerful?
That's really impressive!

It can be said that the reason why the city of the far west could be built so quickly, and why Su Qing has such prestige in the far west, is largely due to these puppets.

With his boundless imagination, he created these puppets that were not used for combat but focused on construction, putting the development of the Far West on the fast track. This earned him high praise from knowledgeable people like Ying Jueshen and Duan Yang, and amazement from the Far West elders who were more experienced but less knowledgeable.

But what was Su Qing going to do with these things at this time?

"Master Su, did you pick the wrong puppet because you have too many?"

"They must have picked the wrong thing. These construction puppets are great at working, but fighting is not their forte!"

"I heard these puppets are quite expensive to make. The cheapest bulldozer puppet costs at least 30,000 spirit stones. If they are damaged, Master Su will be heartbroken!"

"Sigh, I, Liu Qianpiao, don't understand what you're saying. What are these puppets for? They're all quite big, with wheels and shovels on them, they don't look like proper puppets!"

"You don't need to understand. All you need to know is that any one of these puppets is better at carrying bricks than you, Master Liu!"

The cultivators touched these large creatures and discussed them animatedly. However, they were only touching them because Hongshang had previously refused to let them, and they were now indulging in their desire to handle them. They had no desire to buy them, as these creatures were not only expensive, but also costly to maintain and repair, and they consumed a lot of spirit stones, starting at a hundred spirit stones per day. Even if they could afford to buy them, they couldn't afford to keep them.

Besides having no desire to buy them, they also didn't understand why Su Qing would bring out these puppets. Fan Chunxiang and Xiao Lang looked anxious.

They knew the benefits of these puppets. The most capable bricklayer in the Far West couldn't even match the efficiency of one of these excavator puppets in a year. So they were even more afraid that something might happen to these puppets and delay the progress of the Far West's project, and even volunteered to join the fight.

"Master Su has been traveling in the Western Sea for a long time and has not had time to refine puppets. At this moment, he has no puppets to use and can only send out these construction puppets. We understand this situation, but it is a waste to use construction puppets in battle. Our Western Elder Hall is willing to fight for these construction puppets! We would rather die than let these construction puppets die!"

His words were so sincere and heartfelt that Su Qing was at a loss for words.

"You can all rest assured. Who told you that these puppets are only good at construction? When it comes to fighting, especially in the mines, they may not be any worse than the shield-axe guards from before!"

Su Qing told them not to worry unnecessarily, and with a thought, he started digging earth puppets. The heavy truck puppets then began to rumble and start moving under the worried gazes of the elders from the far west.

The puppets, equipped with Tier 4 intelligent runes, all possessed autonomous driving capabilities, traversing mountains as if they were flat ground, forming a steel torrent that fiercely charged towards the horde of mining beasts.

"Are they going to fight again?" Qian Henduo, the head of the Qian family, shrank back and asked somewhat timidly when he saw this.

"If they want to fight, then let them fight! Let's fight until the world is turned upside down, and see who prevails!"

Zhao Shengli was furious when Su Qing showed him no respect. He shouted, and the mining beasts burst forth like tigers from their cages, tearing at the steel torrent from all directions.

Just as they were about to rush towards them, the steel torrent revealed its ferocious fangs.

The heavy truck puppet was twisting, transforming, and emitting its battle roar!
"Heavy Truck Puppet Transformation - Optimus Prime!"

The mecha giant, with the Fire Source that Su Qing exchanged from the Heavenly Talisman Palace embedded in its chest, uses the core of an ancient star as its fire source, and its energy is inexhaustible. Its body is over a hundred feet tall, and it holds a two-handed heavy sword. It gracefully dodged the pounce of a stone beast, and suddenly slashed down with its sword, splitting the leopard's body in two.

The obsidian beast's corpse, broken on the ground, still tried to twist and rejoin itself, but Optimus Prime simply stomped his foot and crushed it into dust. He then turned and charged at another mineral beast with his sword.

It's not just the heavy truck puppet that's capable of transformation!

The excavator tiger, with a tiger's head and a human body, carrying a heavy mechanical cannon, roared with ferocious laughter as it fired wildly at the mining beasts.

The towering, mountain-like hook golem unleashes a barrage of spirit-blasting lasers from its obsidian-forged eyes, dealing devastating damage that leaves any mining beasts caught in its wake either dead or severely injured.

The bulldozers transformed into humanoid bulldozers. Compared to their companions, they were relatively short, only a dozen feet tall, and were poorly equipped with no weapons. However, each of them was a master of combat skills, possessing Vajra Palm, Subduing Demon Fist, Great Compassion Scattered Hand, and all kinds of Buddhist combat techniques. Having received the true teachings of Xiong Er, they could fight ten against one even when trapped in a horde of mining beasts!

The most numerous were the bread puppets, which also transformed into humanoid mechs. Their chests were empty, but instead contained furnace chambers. Any mining beasts temporarily incapacitated were cruelly stuffed into their chests and smelted into refined ores, allowing them to fulfill their proper purpose. (End of Chapter)