“Master General, there is a situation!”

“What is it now? Can’t you fools handle a few weak cultivators without the main force getting involved?”

A group of men was sitting inside a large tent and looking over a large map. On the map there were pieces representing various locations, structures, and even armies. It was a war map created to document their progress and also for making strategies. Not that long ago their first failure had transpired as they weren’t able to push into the middle of the enemy defensive line as they had planned.

“What is it this time? A mysterious master on the level of the Emperor Appeared again? You already know what happened to the last group who spouted those lies.”

The man that entered was a high-ranking officer that was close to a general. There were five other people at around his level inside this tent all capable of dislodging his head if they wanted to. The leaders that retreated with their tales between their legs had been punished by getting their cultivation destroyed. They were then tossed out to wander through the wilderness and probably eaten up by the many beasts that roamed these lands. Retreat and failure was not allowed in this army and everyone was quickly becoming aware of it.

“This better be good.”

“Y-yes Master General, I’m here to make a report, our first defensive line has been attacked and we have lost some of the previously captured cities and strongholds…”

“We have lost our strongholds? Which ones?”

The man doing the report started to sweat but he had to continue. Even though he was scared of the people gathered here, if he didn’t do his job it was the same as signing a death sentence. Even these Saint Emperors that were at the pinnacle of power would be crushed under the Emperor’s foot if they failed.

Everyone had the incentive to win and conquer these lands. Back at the Emerald Phoenix Empire, there were many other warriors waiting to replace these that couldn’t take this chance and advance. Even spending a few days in this spirit energy rich environment could allow a person to break through a small realm. Everyone wanted to step into this region but there was a limited amount of space on which the Emperor decided on.

“The attacks started slowly, an unimportant outpost had been wiped clean by an unknown army of strange beings. They called themselves The Heavenly Revolutionary Army and were led by a strange powerful being calling themselves, Archangel Michael.”

“Archangel Michael?”

“Yes Master General, not much is known about this person just that they are capable of overwhelming even our Saint Emperor generals. Their forces started out small but with each passing day the number had been increasing, they have been targeting the metal mines that we had control of and we are sure that they will continue doing so.”

“They are after the mines? What of the spirit herbs?”

“They didn’t seem to be interested in them yet, however, we don’t know what they will do after securing all the mines.”

“Hm… Is that all?”

“No Master General, another force from the south has started pushing. It’s the people wearing golden armor, who had suddenly become active again we believe that they have something in common with this Archangel Michael as both sides use divine arts.”

“Hmm… first the Golden Dragon, now some Archangel… Do they take us for weak fools? I have made my decision, the High Generals will act, we can’t allow these people to embarrass us any longer, we will take care of them and make way for our Emperor.”

“For the Emperor!”

The man stood up from his throne-like seat and grabbed a large glave from the side. His physique was comparable to the demi-human emperor with muscles upon muscles. The other Saint Emperor generals followed after him while taking out their own weapon of choice. There was no way that they would let this stand, if their army failed then they would be the ones to pay the price. To take care of things without issue the decision was made, they would take on the unidentified force themselves and nip it at the bud before it became a real problem.

…

“Hm, It seems to be going well, this is the last mine in the area and the others are just small ones. What do you think Michael, should we change our target for now or just continue?”

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“Enemy forces are approaching, this unit proposes a defensive measure.”

“Is that so? Well, at least we forced them to split them up, Lucius and Argus better work for that Aegis shield. The bulk of their forces is coming here though, they probably don’t want me near those spirit herb gardens they had taken over.”

Zhang Dong looked at his map and could see a blob of red moving toward the northern parts of the eastern region where he was. A smaller group that looked like a red fog was going to the southern parts where Argus and the magical knights were attacking. He was using the fact that he had found another object they wanted, the magical holy shield. For it they would do almost anything, even attack the Emerald Phoenix Empire to lure some potential threats away.

This allowed him to take some heat from his new army which continued to quickly grow in numbers. Once his factory inside of his crafting abode ramped up in production it was easy to create his automatons. The regular units were mostly at the core formation level but just like their human counterparts, they could combine their power into formations.

“The only limitation is the power required to run them, this is the limit for now but… there is a way to expand this limit but the time isn’t right yet and I think we also have some guests.”

The flying puppets that were exuding radiant light turned in the direction of the incoming armies. Zhang Dong retreated inside the largest floating pyramid to act as the main source of power for these automatons. The army had become so big that he wouldn’t be able to control them otherwise. While inside he could monitor what they were doing and see if they were capable of defeating a large force made up of multiple Saint Emperors and quite a high number of Supreme Saints.

“Well, I’m not really controlling them, Bob is doing all of the heavy lifts, if I tried I think my brain would overheat.”

It was possible for a cultivator to control battle puppets like these. The more intricate the design of these automatons was, the more varied orders they could react to. Usually, they were only meant for battle and reacted to things like ‘attack’ or ‘protect’. However, with the help of his Ai, this could be taken to another level as a large number of them could coordinate with each other. In a sense, they could move like a trained army and carry out all sorts of battle tactics.

Then there was one of the greatest strengths of this robotic army. It knew no fear and didn’t question any of the creator's choices. Even if the plan required some to get destroyed they wouldn’t care. Their destroyed bodies could even be recycled or restored if it was possible. If half of them were destroyed in a victorious battle part of the puppets could be made whole again and their programming would continue to evolve. With each battle they would be able to read into the enemy formations more and react faster, this was the true power of this autonomous army.

“I might have created a monster if I use the Dolden Dong Palace as a source of energy and grab some other resources, this might become an easy victory…”

The battle had started and the swarm of puppets attacked the cultivators from the Emerald Phoenix Empire. Bob his Ai program had existed for a while and it was given a lot of battle dates through their travels. All of this data made it into the machines that he made and they were quite proficient at copying his fighting style. Even if they were a lot weaker then the original, the numbers made up for a lot. The bodies that would make body refiners jealous were also an added boon.

“What are these things?”

“T-there is nothing inside, these are battle puppets!”

Emerald Phoenix Warriors were being tossed around by the angelic army. However, some of them were also being destroyed and quickly it became apparent that they were some kind of automatons. After ripping out their heads the lack of flesh became apparent. The bodies looked bulkier on the outside but a lot of hollow areas existed inside. A slicked-jointed skeleton more similar to the usual wooden puppets was inside the armored suit that protected the automatons from harm.

“They must be being controlled by someone or something, find it!”

One of the generals shouted out while slicing up over ten of the warrior-type puppets with one swing of his large glave. Even when the swarm continued to come at him they were only turned to scrap metal. However to the man’s surprise, there was some suspicious movement, some of the automatons moved in to catch the destroyed bodies of their allies and flew off toward the large floating pyramids.

“What are they doing…”

He could see the large structures floating in the background. They were generating protective barriers that weren’t easily breached. Even their large ships and Saint Emperors that were trying to get through couldn’t. The damaged puppets were carried in through an entrance that opened and then from another one the man could see new metallic enemies emerging.

“Could they be…”

“Hm, did he figure it out with just one glance? Not bad, it would be better to get rid of someone like that…”

Zhang Dong witnessed everything while looking over this battle. He focused on who looked to be the commanding officer and with the help of the system could hear what he was talking about. In reality, the insides of these pyramids had been turned into puppet factories. The damaged bodies could be almost instantly melted down for resources and new models were assembled in their place. The loss of materials was high but thanks to this the army could maintain a high number of active units at all times.

‘They are already trying to break through the barricades, he is even willing to sacrifice his men to destroy the factories, I can’t let him do that… I guess it’s time.’

“Michael, you are up, go get rid of the enemy commander.”

The leader unit that he spent a lot of time designing released a radiant glow from its back. A golden aurora filled the whole area as a large set of golden wings appeared. In the middle, a warrior made of golden alloy appeared with a huge sword in its hand. The power it was exuding was at the level of a nascent soul master at the great circle realm and it was ready to chop its target up.