Continent's spine airspace, God's Artificial God.

Tianqiong Zhuzai (Lord of the Celestial Dome) walked through the bottom of the tower and strode into the改造溶洞 (modified cavern) located underground.

Before this city was officially given the name God's Artificial God, it was one of the most famous cities in the Black Stone Domain, with a history of nearly a thousand years. It had visited this place more than once, and the complex cavern structure did not cause it any trouble. The only thing that annoyed it was the假面大君 (Lord of Masks) – Nasopele.

"My lord, my master is conducting a crucial experiment. Have you communicated with my master beforehand?" At the entrance of the testing ground, an Initial Ascendant blocked Haikezuode (Heikezuode)'s path. As a servant of the Mask, it had obviously chosen the same path as its master. Its two heads were forcibly connected by a magic stone device, making it look both deformed and ugly.

"Get out of the way!" Haikezuode (Heikezuode) didn't want to waste words with it at all. It raised its hand and knocked the servant to the ground.

If it were a combat-type Initial Ascendant, it might have to put in some effort, but the Mask had gone quite far on the path of modification. Most of the magic stones fused into its body were not suitable for combat, and the abilities of the Initial Ascendants who followed it were naturally predictable.

Probably realizing the suppressed anger of the Lord of the Celestial Dome, the servant wisely shut its mouth.

Haikezuode (Heikezuode) pushed open the heavy stone door and walked into the testing ground without looking back—it not using a Gate of Distortion to directly appear in front of the Mask and start fighting was already the greatest respect it could offer.

Behind the door was an extremely empty cave.

Tens of thousands of luminous magic stones were scattered across the cave ceiling, like a night sky full of stars. Underneath were dense Inferior Bodies—more numerous than the magic stones. The vast majority were worm-shaped, confined in fences like livestock, and subjected to repeated stimulation from magic cores.

Haikezuode (Heikezuode) couldn't help but frown.

Even among the Inferior Bodies, they were the most useless. Lacking hands and feet meant they couldn't work, and their extremely low intelligence made even domestication difficult. However, the unexpected discovery in the Carrier Experiment was that, probably due to their extremely primitive and simple meridians, they had the highest success rate when fusing with foreign objects, making them ideal parasites.

Of course, not every worm-like Inferior Body could survive to resonate with the "Growth God Stone." Those who died would serve as feed for the next batch of Inferior Bodies, and only those who successfully adapted to the symbiotic state could become qualified weapons.

The Lord of the Celestial Dome naturally wouldn't sympathize with these uncommunicative, low-intelligence creatures. Compared to their previous worthlessness, they could now at least contribute to the clan. What it found dissatisfying was the Mask's twisted tastes.

The modification process could clearly be carried out in a closed cavern, but the other party deliberately set it up in the most conspicuous area—four high-hanging suspension bridges extended from four directions over the heads of tens of thousands of Inferior Bodies, connecting to a stout stone pillar in the center of the cave. Every time one entered the center of the testing ground, they had to be forced to "appreciate" the other party's masterpiece.

The writhing bodies of the Inferior Bodies, their howls of pain, the pungent smell of excrement, and the decaying carcasses of various failed creations filled the entire cave with a smoky, negative atmosphere. No normal clan member could enjoy being in such a dark and negative place, yet the Mask insisted on setting up the laboratory on the stone pillar. Haikezuode (Heikezuode) even suspected that its head had suffered some kind of damage during the fusion process, causing it to become increasingly unreasonable.

Crossing the suspension bridge, it found Nasopele in the top-level modification room.

Upon seeing the scene before him, the Lord of the Celestial Dome immediately felt his anger flare up. The Lord of Masks was circling the wreckage of the Iron Bird that its subordinates had dragged back, looking it up and down. Several human nobles lay unconscious nearby, while the only one still alive was being held in the other party's hand, his face distorted with extreme fear, and obvious wet patches could be seen on his robe.

"Nasopele!" it roared, "Who allowed you to touch the people I brought? Even if you want to do experiments, you should ask my permission first!"

No wonder it was furious. It had painstakingly transferred land immigrants to the Great Rift, and then sent them to God's Artificial God, all to prevent Greymane from expanding its war potential and to replenish the city's labor force. It could be said to be a win-win strategy. Unexpectedly, just as it brought a batch of humans back to God's Artificial God, a noble from Eternal Winter came to its door with a worried face, saying that several companions had been kidnapped by guards and their whereabouts were unknown.

This would undoubtedly disrupt the stable order it had worked so hard to establish.

What bothered Haikezuode (Heikezuode) the most was that it was one thing to grab commoners for experiments, but the other party insisted on grabbing nobles—and the latter were the key to controlling the lower classes. Without the nobles' call and appeal, relying solely on it to instruct tens of thousands of people would inevitably take several times the effort and time.

"Lord Haikezuode (Heikezuode)... Save me!" The surviving noble, as if seeing a savior, cried out with a sob.

"Ah... So it's Your Excellency, the Lord of the Celestial Dome." Nasopele turned around and said indifferently, "I must say this is a misunderstanding. I do like fusing essences, but that doesn't include insects—I already obtained their best parts six hundred years ago."

The other party took off a mask from its head, revealing the face of a female human underneath—it should belong to a witch, but now it had become a part of it.

And there were more than a dozen such masks. One could imagine how terrifying it would look if they were all removed. According to Nasopele's theory, the brain is the spirit of wisdom, more important than any other part of the body, and the more heads one has, the more one can obtain higher thinking efficiency. Therefore, a characteristic of a powerful race should be at least two heads, so that they can satisfy thinking about problems while resting, maximizing the use of time.

But in Haikezuode (Heikezuode)'s eyes, only ugly Evil Beasts and monsters from the Sky-Sea World would grow into this appearance.

A barely perceptible purple light flashed, and the mask in the Mask's hand was instantly cut in half. Then, a line of blood slowly bloomed on the female face, and dark blue blood flowed from the crack.

Probably not expecting Haikezuode (Heikezuode) to actually make a move, Nasopele's momentum suddenly faltered. It dropped the noble in its hand, covered its injured face, and suddenly retreated several steps. "Lord of the Celestial Dome, are you crazy? You actually attacked a Great Lord for the sake of insects? Don't forget that I am the creator of God's Artificial God, and also the hope for the clan to win the Battle of Divine Will. Could it be—you want to betray the King?"

Looking at the other party's panicked expression, a trace of pleasure surged in Haikezuode (Heikezuode)'s heart.

After becoming the commander of the Western Front, it hadn't encountered a single pleasant thing. The Nightmare Lord had mysteriously gone missing, the army had always failed to break through the humans' defenses, and now even as it painstakingly schemed for the clan to win, it was being undermined by the Mask from behind, which was simply outrageous!

Nasopele couldn't possibly not know that these humans were brought to God's Artificial God by it. Randomly kidnapping people without its permission was undoubtedly a blatant offense—it could only be said that in a series of defeats, it, Haikezuode (Heikezuode), had been underestimated.

This was neither the King's Dominating Throne, nor was the Mask a Demon Slayer. If it didn't give the other party a lesson, it was afraid that the other party would really think it was easy to deal with.

What was the use of emphasizing that having more heads was an advantage?

In the face of a huge disparity in strength, even more brains would be useless. It wanted to make it clear to the other party who was the commander of the Western Front Army.

"If you are truly loyal to the King, you should understand what things should be done and what things should not be done." Haikezuode (Heikezuode) withdrew the blade-like Gate of Distortion and said coldly, "These people are of great use to me, and to the clan. I hope you can understand this."

After the two Great Lords looked at each other for a moment, the Mask took the lead in backing down. "I was negligent... I will ask for your opinion next time."

"That's good." Haikezuode (Heikezuode) nodded. It didn't intend to force the other party too much—after all, God's Artificial God did need several Ascendants who were familiar with the magic core to control it, and they were basically all Nasopele's subordinates; at the same time, the symbiotic weapons that were essential for war still needed the other party to manufacture. It couldn't really do anything to the Mask, otherwise the King would be the first to not spare it.

"L-Lord... Waaah, it's so good to see you..." The noble crawled to Haikezuode (Heikezuode)'s side and tightly hugged its leg.

"We'll talk about this later," Haikezuode (Heikezuode) glanced at him, then looked at the Mask and said, "Since it wasn't for fusion, why did you bring the humans here?"

The Mask pursed its lips at the wreckage of the Iron Bird, "I just wanted to ask them how the core of this thing works."

Haikezuode (Heikezuode) followed the other party's gaze and saw a very delicate device placed in front of the Iron Bird's head.