Number one didn't wait for orders. Once it grew a fourth tail, it became even more ferocious and rushed further in to intercept two more Scorpion Golems.
Although it was two against one, number one was dominating the fight.
With a feral fighting style, it lunged at its opponent without care for its own safety.
Pincers, stingers, mouth, legs. Every part of its body turned to a deadly weapon. Although Bian knew he wouldn't get hurt by it, he was reluctant to get near such a violent display.
Four rods shot out of its stingers, pinning one Scorpion to the ground while it pounced on another, and forcefully subdued it.
Number one opened its mouth wide and bit at the base of the Scorpion's back, eating the core within.
The other Scorpion managed to escape its restraint at this moment. It did not fear death and recklessly attacked number one who was growing bigger and nurturing a fifth tail.
"Can it get stronger indefinitely?"
As the consumption of ink did not increase, Bian didn't mind how strong number one became.
With five tails, it handled the other Scorpion in five moves and swallowed its core, growing a sixth tail.
Now number one was double the size of the other Scorpion Golems. Bian dispelled the additional effects, 'Stalwart', 'agile', 'mighty'.
Number one was more than capable of handling those average three-tailed Scorpions with its own raw power. Bian was able to witness a massacre as it killed and ate the cores of three more golems and grew its ninth tail.
Then when it destroyed one more golem and ate its core, the soul of that golem seeped out of its body and moved to another Scorpion.
"There's a limit?"
Although Bian sounded astonished, he wasn't slow in his movement. He sent the Solum Mirror to absorb the soul before it could enhance a three-tailed scorpion golem.
[Silver Solum Mirror]
[Retaliation: 300/300]
[Soul Capacity: 253/300]
Bian looked at the massive nine-tailed scorpion golem, Number One. It was now sixty meters in length and fifteen in height.
"It's not going to be enough to hold back those Stone Knights."
Thinking of this, Bian simply wrote 'wait' to immobilise it and found another Scorpion Golem to enhance.
Naming it number two and giving it strengthening alterations it soon started a massacre and became nine-tailed.
Then came number three, four, five,... all the way to number sixteen.
There were hundreds of Scorpion Golems left, capable of forming over a dozen nine-tailed Scorpion Golems should Bian wish to do so, but he wasn't one to place all his eggs in a single basket.
Instead he calculated how many souls he needed to raise the Altering Brush to Gemstone rank, and ensured he spared more than enough golems.
"Number one, crush them!"
Bian made some adjustments to the words on his numbered nine-tailed golems. Though he couldn't directly write something like 'follow my orders' he was able to come up with a line of orders, akin to programming which made controlling the numbered series easier.
Number one didn't dilly dally when its name was called. It immediately went up and snapped the feeble three-tailed scorpion golem in its pincers.
What followed next was a massacre where Bian didn't have to get his hands dirty, but simply ordered his numbered series to deal with all the small fry.
He first levelled the Silver Solum Mirror, now turning it into the Gold Solum Mirror, before he gathered the seven hundred souls needed to advance the Altering Brush to gemstone rank.
[Gold Solum Mirror]
[Retaliation: 300/700]
[Soul Capacity: 700/700]
[Advance / Transfer]
[Maximum Soul Capacity Achieved. Advance the Solum Mirror?]
As the last Scorpion Golem fell, the counter on the Gold Solum Mirror rose from 678 to 700.
Now both the outer and middle section of the Golem Valley were cleared out completely, however Bian didn't rashly advance to face the Stone Knights yet.
"Numbers one to fourteen wait. Number fifteen and sixteen, follow me!"
'It truly is a relief that I took my time to fine tune the alterations I made on them.' He felt happy about this, but he would sigh whenever he recalled that this method would only work on golems or machinations. He couldn't control actual living creatures as easily.
It had been almost a week since Bian left the Dust-Air shelter. He spent days in Golem Valley, mainly waiting for the ink of the Altering Brush to refill itself.
He made the markings on the Scorpion Golems permanent. While the consumption was large, he was now reaping the fruits of his labouras the ink was not constantly drained.
Each of the numbered series was equal to a sacred-blood creature, a strong sacred-blood creature. Bian only brought two, because he didn't need to conduct a massacre, he only required a distraction.
If he showed up to the shelter in plain sight, they would probably lock down the geno core storage which would prevent him from strengthening his gold geno cores.
"As for that super creature. I don't believe they will disturb it recklessly as long as number fifteen and sixteen don't show their full strength."
...
"Yes, we haven't seen any geno core that matches a mirror, cauldron or a brush." Nuigu said to a spirit with fox ears.
"This so called organisation has found a way to hack the leaderboards. They can also raise geno cores from one rank to another at lightning speed. We need to get our hands on their secret by any means necessary. Didn't you say a weird individual came to your shelter before and another human came there recently?"
The spirit looked impatient as he questioned Nuigu.
"Yes, two humans had come before, but one used a circular geno core while the other used a black sword. Both were also chased away by the holy beast."
The spirit scoffed, "You don't think they could have deceived you with a spare geno core?"
Nuigu was about to respond when his face suddenly changed.
"I'm sorry, but I must go now."
He didn't wait for the reply of the senior spirit before he left the geno core storage.
"Who could be attacking us during the important meeting of the Hundred Tribes?"
He questioned the soldier who had called out to him from outside the geno core storage.
"Sir. It's two golems that attacked, one from the North and the other East. They can't penetrate our geno cores just yet, but our forces are growing weak."
"Golems? Could it be that woman?" Nuigu shivered, a bit of fear evident in his voice.
Even the spirit that spoke to him quivered just by hearing him mention that woman. Still being a warrior, he steeled himself and affirmed that she wasn't around. These golems seemed to be strays.
As the two left, a shadow crept up behind the guards protecting the geno core storage and knocked them out.
It was very hard to spot Bian as long as he was being sneaky, especially with the Dongxuan Sutra masking his presence.
"Sleep and stand."
Bian wrote these two words on the guards and immediately, they both rose back to attention.
As long as someone didn't pay close attention, they wouldn't notice the two guards were actually sleeping on the job.
Bian snuck into the geno core storage and re-evaluated the Gold Solum Mirror. Very quickly he ascended to first place with the nine enhancements.
Alas, he couldn't quit fast enough as tons of battle invites poured in.
"What a headache."
Bian accepted a random invite from a spirit.
He was transported to a rocky terrain and the spirit emerged from the other side.
An indigo hue covered the battle ground while the Gold Solum Mirror flew to Bian's front.
"What a strange power, you better tell me your secrets before you die!"
The spirit had a gold shield which filled him with confidence. He figured that he could use his background to pressure Bian, after all, he would just return to his spirit stone if he died.
"Sorry, but I'm in a bit of a hurry. Retaliation!"
The surface of the gold mirror turned brighter than the mid-day sun firing a square beam of incandescent energy at the spirit.
With a scoff, the spirit lifted up his shield transforming it to a tower shield and slammed it down into the ground.
"Steady Mountain Wall!"
Bian emptied the retaliation counter so he could fill it up back at home. By the time the Solum Mirror was done, a portal opened behind Bian for him to return.
"A pity, that looked like a nice shield."
Upon returning, he immediately assessed the Altering Brush, gaining first place and the nine enhancements. As expected, the battle invites came in yet Bian was surprised when he saw a particular name there.