Jiang Chen's hand seals underwent a dramatic shift. The torrential, dragon-like momentum gave way to something gentle and flowing — like drifting snow, seemingly harmless at first glance.
Only Jiang Chen himself knew that his hand seals now incorporated the magnetism force. He had transformed it into waves of invisible binding power, channeled through each snow-like seal and continuously drawn outward, forming an invisible magnetic force field.
The martial technique was still the Azure Nether Life-Death Seal — but Jiang Chen had infused it with the magnetism force, weaving it into the seal to create a magnetic binding field.
Forget fighting in a sealed chamber — even in open combat, very few people would be able to make sense of what was happening here.
The sharpest-eyed observers would only be able to tell that Jiang Chen had used the Azure Nether Life-Death Seal to condense a force field of his own.
Before the magnetism force formed a proper field, its binding power was negligible. Drifting through the void, it was nearly impossible to detect in the heat of battle.
But once the magnetism force coalesced into a field, that binding power became truly terrifying.
It was only because Jiang Chen had refined the Heart of Magnetism not long ago that he couldn't do more. Otherwise, if he could have formed a small magnetism storm, he could have momentarily frozen the mechanical puppet in place.
Given even a split second of opportunity, Jiang Chen was confident he could destroy it.
The puppet's cultivation was comparable to the peak of the fifth stage of the Spirit Realm — that was no small thing. But even a human martial artist at the peak of the fifth stage wouldn't dare stand still and let someone at the third stage deliver a killing blow.
Unless they wore heaven-defying armor, or had cultivated some kind of body-fortifying divine ability.
Otherwise, a full-power strike from the third stage of the Spirit Realm was more than enough to shatter the defenses of someone at the peak of the fifth stage.
Of course, this was merely a pleasant fantasy. At this point, Jiang Chen's mastery of the magnetism force was still at a superficial level — forming a small magnetism storm was clearly far beyond his reach.
But at the very least, the continuous counter-currents of magnetism force could impede the mechanical puppet — slowing its momentum, reducing its speed. That much was achievable.
Once its speed decreased, the puppet's threat level would drop dramatically.
Sure enough, after the magnetism force field took shape, the situation began to change. The puppet had been carving up and sealing off the entire chamber with its relentless attacks — and that dominance started to crumble.
And Jiang Chen, who had been backed into a corner, gradually seized the initiative.
But this was the tenth trial, after all. Even constrained by the magnetism force, the puppet's frenzied attacks merely slowed down slightly.
At this rate, Jiang Chen wouldn't find it easy to destroy the puppet.
However, with the magnetism force lending a hand, Jiang Chen effectively had an extra layer of protection — while his opponent's strength was reduced by roughly thirty percent.
This put Jiang Chen and the mechanical puppet on completely even ground.
"Can't believe that even after deploying the magnetism force, I can only fight this puppet to a standstill. The highest difficulty really is no joke."
Jiang Chen mused as he continued to battle the puppet.
For a time, the two fought to a stalemate, neither able to gain the upper hand.
Jiang Chen's Azure Nether Life-Death Seal had indeed been pushed to its legendary tier — but the gap in cultivation between them was enormous. Combined with his inability to use other martial techniques or divine abilities, taking down this puppet seemed nearly impossible.
"Unless I can use the Ice Fire Demon Lotus. Or directly suppress it with the Magnetism Gold Mountain. Otherwise, relying solely on the Azure Nether Life-Death Seal — even at its absolute limit — would be far too little to bridge this massive gap in cultivation."
The difference between the third stage and the peak of the fifth stage of the Spirit Realm was simply too great.
As a result, the battle between them settled into a deadlock.
Three days passed...
Five days passed...
The battle remained fiercely contested, with no end in sight. Jiang Chen had consumed pills multiple times to replenish his spiritual energy, but the mechanical puppet seemed to have an inexhaustible supply — as if it would never tire.
"This fight has already lasted five days. I have at most one or two days left. Am I, Jiang Chen, truly unable to defeat a bloodless, soulless puppet?"
A draw wasn't something Jiang Chen found unacceptable in itself.
But for a martial artist driven to improve, accepting a meaningless stalemate was completely out of the question.
"The Reincarnation Path tempered my willpower. In the caves of the Heavenly Water Spirit Vein and the Heavenly Fire Spirit Vein, I absorbed vast amounts of heaven and earth spiritual energy — all of which still sits within my Spirit Sea, completely unrefined. If I could refine this celestial energy, my cultivation could surge directly into the fourth stage of the Spirit Realm — the Earth Spirit Realm."
"Once I enter the Earth Spirit Realm, my power will increase enormously. Right now, I'm dead even with this puppet — neither able to overcome the other. If my strength surges, destroying it would be virtually certain — nine chances out of ten. Do I take the risk, or not?"
Jiang Chen wrestled with the decision.
But for a bold warrior, this kind of choice wasn't hard to make.
Almost in an instant, he had made up his mind.
"A mere fifth-stage mechanical puppet — bloodless, soulless, witless — how dare it stand in the way of my trial?"
With this thought, Jiang Chen hesitated no longer. He decided that even at the risk of his life, he would press forward.