This final heavenly thunderbolt was so powerful that even if Zhao used puppets, the Hunyuan divine light, and the Mengli sword, he couldn't guarantee a flawless defense.

  Not to mention that it was Icefrost Wyrm who had exhausted all his strength in the previous heavenly thunderbolt strike and could hardly even jump into the air.

  Zhao Di let out a loud shout and threw the Mengli sword in his hand into mid-air!

  At the same time, the heavenly thunder finally struck down. The electric arc as thick as a bowl mouth first hit the purple sword that came to meet it in mid-air, easily breaking through the surface layer of mixed yuan divine light on the sword body and sending the purple sword flying far away. Afterwards, it landed on the back of the Ice Wind Python.

  Before that, Bingfeng Jiao struggled to twist its head and sprayed a cold air towards its own body. A layer of ice, about an inch thick but exceptionally hard, covered its scales.

  A loud "crack" sounded, and the electric snake flew about wildly. The Ice Wind Python was struck and sent flying into the air, flipping over several times before crashing to the ground more than ten zhang away, where it lay motionless.

  The crocodile's back was a patch of charred black, obviously seriously injured, unconscious, but managed to survive this disaster. Zhao Di also let out a sigh of relief.

  This time's heavenly tribulation is too fierce, I'm afraid even the thunder tribulation of a transformed demon beast wouldn't be on this level! Zhao Di has hunted and killed many 7th-level demon beasts, in his view, none of them could withstand the final wave of today's heavenly tribulation.

  It seems that the more powerful a spiritual beast is, the stronger the heavenly tribulation it encounters will be.

  Zhao Di hastily walked to the side of Bing Feng Jiao, checking his injuries. Fortunately, he didn't suffer any fatal wounds, only the scales on his back and some flesh were charred.

  "Patter", "patter", a large number of pea-sized raindrops fell from the dark clouds, landing on the small island.

  After being drenched by the rain for a moment, the Ice Wind Python suddenly woke up, raised its head and opened its big mouth upwards to welcome the rainwater from the sky. The charred black area on its back, under the flushing of the rain, actually showed signs of slow recovery!

  "This rainwater is a good thing!" Zhao Di was overjoyed. Human cultivators knew very little about the tribulation of demonic beasts, and there had never been any records mentioning the existence of magical rainwater after the thunder tribulation.

  At that time he took out a large batch of bottles and jars, and together with You Lan and You Ruo, the two women collected rainwater falling from the dark clouds.

  He swept his sleeve, and a formless force rolled out, the rainwater within dozens of feet was rolled into a clear stream, all falling into a jade bottle. Then he galloped to another place, again waving his sleeves.

  Most of the rainwater was collected in several containers by Zhao. As the rain fell, the color of the dark clouds also lightened, and the sky became brighter and brighter. Finally, the dark clouds dispersed, and everything returned to the clear and sunny scene of half an hour ago.

  Zhao Di and the other three people poured the rainwater from the bottle, either feeding it to Bingfeng Jiao for drinking or gently applying it to its injured back. Before long, Bingfeng Jiao's back recovered as before, and even the scales grew out in full.

  Zhao Di also found that after being washed and nourished by the sweet rain, the ice wind python's scales became even thicker and more solid, its claws became stronger and more powerful, and even grew sharp fingernails. Even the horns on its head became more stable and took shape, with a harder texture.

  At this time, Bingfeng Jiao finally achieved true promotion and became a fifth-level aquatic demon beast!

  Bingfeng Jiao, after drinking a large amount of Tianjia Ganlin, was reborn with renewed vitality. It continuously circled around the small island, sometimes looking up at the sky and letting out a long howl, sometimes rolling over and over, sometimes baring its teeth and curling its lips, sometimes waving its claws, and occasionally spewing out ice pillars and whirlwinds, extremely excited.

  Suddenly, the icy wind swept across the giant python's tail fin, and a faint breeze drifted by. The entire massive python vanished into thin air, only to reappear in an instant over ten zhang away.

  "Wind Escape!" Zhao Di shouted with extreme joy.

  Just now, Bingfeng Jiao's display was actually a magical escape technique that only some high-ranking wind-attributed surname-changing variant demon beasts could master. It was unexpected that the fifth-level demon beast, Bingfeng Jiao, would have such a magical power.

  This Wind Escape Technique is an escape that follows the wind, soundless and formless with extremely high speed, almost no different from the legendary short-distance instant movement!

  Zhao Di lightly lifted his foot and floated onto Bing Feng Jiao's body. He gave a command to Bing Feng Jiao, who again lightly swung its tail fin. A gentle breeze blew by, and Zhao Di and Bing Feng Jiao simultaneously vanished into thin air. The next moment, they reappeared over ten zhang away in another location.

  "Haha, wonderful!" Zhao exclaimed with great joy.

  "With this spiritual beast's assistance, Master has gained another excellent means of preserving his life!" Yulan exclaimed with delight.

  "It's not just a lifesaving measure, if combined with this Wind Escape Technique to suddenly get close and launch a sneak attack, it's almost guaranteed to succeed!" You Ruo added.

  Zhao nodded, floating down from the Ice Wind Python, letting it continue to move for a while before collecting the scales and other things that had fallen off, leaving this place and flying back to Island No. 1.

  Zhao Di continued to return to the Starry Pavilion, continuing to cultivate the Xianyao Xinggong method in the wordless heavenly book. However, it's not just that he was having a hard time making progress, but rather he hadn't made even the slightest bit of advancement!

  He clearly practiced walking steps and used book scrolls according to the instructions of Gong Fa, but couldn't see any effect at all.

  Two years later, Zhao Di still couldn't see any hope and simply gave up on this book. He then started to prepare some puppets and spiritual tools for his journey to the Tongtian Tower a few years later.

  His puppet troops have gone through many battles, and now there are less than ten of them that are intact.

  This is his ultimate move to maximize his own strength, and of course, he must rebuild a large-scale, powerful puppet army before the extremely difficult task of Tongtian Tower.

  Having obtained countless sixth and seventh grade demon beast materials, as well as a large number of high-grade spirit stones cultivated during this period, Zhao Di can easily produce a batch of superior quality top-grade spiritual tools and puppets equivalent to the late stage of foundation building.

  If it weren't for the puppet's demand for extremely rare auxiliary materials like thousand-year-old iron wood and thousand-year-old jade glue, which even spirit stones can't buy, he might be able to try refining some puppets with real power at the Congealing Dan stage!

  Of course, the method of refining a Jiedan period puppet is available to him, but it is obviously much more complicated than that of a Jianji period puppet. Even if he happens to have all the materials, he doesn't dare say that he can definitely refine one.

  Refining equipment was Zhao Di's old trade, and he had everything he needed in his storage ring. Whether it was the spiritual silk cushion that could withstand high temperatures, which he used most often, or large jugs of Spiritual Spring water, as well as various auxiliary materials, they were all fully prepared.

  With a "clatter", Zhao Ti poured out a pile of colorful demon beast materials from his storage ring.

  "Hmm, this is the dorsal fin of a 7th-level demon beast Silver Fin Shark. It's incredibly hard and suitable for making a defensive spiritual artifact!"

  "This one-eyed demon's eyeball contains extremely powerful water-attributed spiritual powers. Together with my Blood Crystal Stone, it can be made into a top-grade spiritual artifact similar to the Cold Condensation Mirror, and its power should not be underestimated!"

  "This pair of giant teeth from the sea otter can be made into a complete set of attack spiritual tools, I don't know if one puppet can withstand it."

  "This pair of venomous sacs contains extremely violent spiritual energy and highly corrosive poison, which can be used to refine two powerful killing artifacts at once."

  With his current understanding of the demon beasts and rich experience in refining spiritual artifacts, these materials were just a glance away from being put to their most suitable use, with even the detailed refinement methods appearing clearly in his mind.

  After that, Zhao Di spent two or three years refining and creating fifty to sixty top-grade spiritual artifacts and dozens of foundation-stage puppets, as well as forming a combat squad consisting of fifty puppets.

  The strength of this team is comparable to a team composed of fifty well-trained, tacitly cooperating, and powerful magic-wielding cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage.

  This is the current limit of Zhao Di's puppet troops that can be proficiently manipulated in the foundation period. If there are more, he will find it difficult to meet the requirements of the puppet army and achieve a harmonious advance and retreat, mutual complementarity between front and back. Even if the number doubles, the power of fifty puppets formed into an army is not as strong as this one.

  It will take several years for Tongtian Tower to open, so Zhao Di continues to cultivate his relatively talented technique, "Mindful Spirit Seal".

  Wholeheartedly cultivating, time always passes especially quickly. From the moment he closed his eyes to sit in meditation until he opened them again, several years had already passed!

  If it weren't for his Tian Xing Order reacting, he still wouldn't have opened his eyes.

  Because he cultivated the second layer of the "Mind Seal" technique, a year ago he had already reached the final bottleneck, but in this year he continued to practice and comprehend continuously, yet still failed to break through successfully and complete the second layer of cultivation.

  But he felt that this was not an insurmountable bottleneck, and he believed that as long as he was given another year or two, he would definitely be able to complete his training.

  Only on the triangular token in his hand, a faint golden light was appearing, which meant that the Heavenly Tower had been activated, and the entrance to the inner Heavenly Tower would open! So Zhao Di could only temporarily put down his cultivation of the Taoist method.

  Zhao Di and You Lan You Ruo gave a command at the same time, and also put Bing Feng Jiao into the spiritual beast bag at his waist. After cleaning up everything in the mansion, Zhao Di left Xing Chen Pavilion wearing a bamboo hat.

  After leaving the Starlight Pavilion, Zhao Di took out the Heavenly Command Token. According to the spiritual light displayed on it, the location of the Heavenly Tower should be on the east side of Island No. 1, about a distance of 10,000 to 30,000 miles.

  Time was ample, Zhao turned into a blue light and flew eastward at a steady pace.

  Along the way, Zhao Di saw a scene of unusual busyness on the first island below him. What was particularly striking was row upon row of queues composed of ordinary people, stretching for hundreds of miles to the east, transporting batch after batch of supplies, totaling no less than tens of millions of people!

  There were also many lower-ranking cultivators, stepping on various flying magical instruments, shuttling back and forth among these ordinary people, apparently coordinating and directing these ordinary people.

  Zhao concentrated his mind and looked carefully, these ordinary people transported not only food such as grain and livestock, but also huge trees and stones with unknown uses. The quantity of these things was enormous, and it was difficult to transport them even with storage bags. Only an astonishing number of ordinary people could do this, and almost all of these ordinary people were strong young men, with hardly any old or weak people!

  Zhao Di flew for about half a day, and when he was about to leave the range of No. 1 Island, he suddenly saw a bright light in front of him, his heart surged with excitement, and he involuntarily stopped his escape!

  （）