The so-called Six Paths of Pain plan was to combine one's unparalleled puppet mastery, forging techniques, soul manipulation, and illusionary arts into a team of top-tier automatons, controlled by one's spiritual power and guided by oneself.
The materials Lin Ran had gathered so far largely met the requirements, with the only missing components being things unobtainable under normal circumstances.
For instance, the souls of the strong—needed to form the most basic AI consciousness; combat imprints—to grant autonomous actions and behavioral logic for skills; and a spiritual space—a necessary means to develop spiritual power and ensure their absolute, eternal obedience.
These ethereal elements were not only crucial but also better the more of them one had.
Especially by merging these same types of components, Lin Ran was confident he could refine even more potent versions of them, assuring his complete satisfaction.
Finally, infusing these into the prepared physical spirit puppets would result in the birth of a perfect automaton.
Of course, these things weren't entirely impossible for highly skilled puppeteers.
What set Lin Ran apart was his Rinnegan.
Projecting the Rinnegan onto the spirit puppets not only significantly enhanced their combat power but also generated a visual sharing effect, and even allowed for their infinite resurrection through a life link.
As long as Lin Ran, the base station, could maintain energy supply, these spirit puppets would be terrifying beings that were unkillable and possessed infinite magic.
Especially when facing enemies unaware of their true nature, they were guaranteed to break their opponents' morale and send them fleeing in terror.
Now, after a prolonged and intense battle, Lin Ran's trials of the Ninja Heroic Spirits and the Green Dragon Soul had concluded, and he was quite satisfied.
The next step was to follow the energy veins and subtle traces on them to find the base stations of these Ninja Heroic Spirits and Green Dragon Souls, and to completely intercept them.
It was time to cast a wider net, so to speak.
Seeing the heroic spirits and dragon souls still relentlessly attacking him, Lin Ran first took out the Blade of Slaughter and threw it forward, forming a continuously spiraling circle around himself.
Then, he unsheathed the Sword of Victory and the Sword of Curses, unleashing a few slashes to temporarily repel the heroic spirits surrounding him, and followed this by unleashing the Nine Arrows of the Headhunter to drive back the dragon souls.
Finally, gathering all of this, he raised his hand into empty space and smiled faintly.
"Chains of Heaven!"
*Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!*
As countless dimensional gates opened, dark golden chains emerged from the void, rattling as they entwined all the heroic spirits and dragon souls.
Since these heroic spirits and dragon souls were born from ancient constructs, they naturally carried an indelible divinity. They were instantly bound tightly by the Chains of Heaven, rendered completely immobile.
On the other side, Yuan had initially believed the heroic spirits and dragon souls would be enough to stall Lin Ran, buying him enough time to escape.
But he never expected that Lin Ran, who had been evenly matched moments ago, would inexplicably produce a string of chains and instantly subdue all of those heroic spirits and dragon souls!
What the hell was this?!
These were ancient beings summoned through the Heroic Spirit Shrines! While their attributes were somewhat reduced due to being bound to his tattoos, they shouldn't have been so pathetically weak.
Yuan, his face turning ashen, almost forgot what he was doing, and the motion of drawing out the Spear of Destiny faltered.
But before he could recover, Lin Ran showed him an even more horrifying sight.
Under Yuan's utterly disbelieving gaze, Lin Ran stroked the heroic spirits and dragon souls one by one.
The moment the touched heroic spirits and dragon souls made contact with Lin Ran's palm, they rapidly withered and shrank, then dissipated into wisps of energy debris.
And the greedy Lin Ran wouldn't let even a single speck of debris go.
His palm seemed to possess infinite attraction, sucking up the debris with greater ease than a magnet drawing iron, devouring it all with a clatter.
Frankly, Lin Ran's speed wasn't particularly fast, but his unhurried, leisurely stroll was a unique form of torture for Yuan.
He could only watch in agony as his summoned heroic spirits and dragon souls were defeated one by one by Lin Ran's hands, transforming into strange energies within Lin Ran.
Soon, after absorbing all the heroic spirits and dragon souls, Lin Ran approached Yuan.
"Oh dear, still not out... Your arm strength is a bit lacking, young man!"
"What do you say, want me to give you a hand?"
Furious, Yuan writhed a few more times, finding the Spear of Destiny still immovably stuck. He decisively gave up and struggled, attempting to draw his sword to attack.
But unfortunately, with his chest pierced, he simply couldn't muster enough strength, only exacerbating his pain.
Lin Ran clicked his tongue a couple of times and placed his hand on Yuan as well.
"Never mind, never mind. Seeing you torture yourself like this is truly unbearable for me..."
"Then let me send you on your way properly."
Saying this, he decisively activated his Rinnegan.
Before this, Yuan had thought Lin Ran's method of annihilating the heroic spirits and dragon souls might be some sort of dark magic.
But as he experienced Lin Ran's energy extraction firsthand, he truly realized the terrifying nature of this technique.
Unable to resist, he could only watch helplessly as his energy and magic flowed out like an opened floodgate, completely consumed by Lin Ran.
And Lin Ran, on the other hand, was like an ocean that would never be satisfied with a trickle of irrigation, showing no signs of being filled.
In a mere ten seconds, Yuan felt that all his own power, along with the borrowed strength, had been completely drained by Lin Ran.
"I see... I've finally discovered something..."
"I wouldn't have thought you guys had so many tricks!"
"This energy is indeed quite interesting... It's quite different compared to your original forms!"
After absorbing Yuan's energy, Lin Ran combined it with other information he had obtained from the heroic spirits and dragon souls, finally beginning to grasp the source of this energy.
Yuan's expression changed drastically upon hearing Lin Ran's words.
At this moment, he thought that due to the energy being absorbed, Lin Ran had discovered something amiss within them.
If they were caught cheating in the competition, the repercussions would be too immense.
It would be unacceptable for the Sakura Nation, the event organizers, the heads of the major families, officials, and nobles. Even the Kanna Shrine Maiden would be against it.
Not to mention that they, the brothers, would inevitably become the targets of universal condemnation, and would be lucky to not be torn apart alive!