Legend of the Paladin
This is pretty crazy... so Chen Ling... is part of slow witted song, probably by ghost spirit contract. And the Wielder of the will used other fragments to create a new Heavenly Emperor, which is why Slow Witted Song could control her somewhat. So Slow Witted Song is using Cheng Ling to attack Cheng Ling and the Heavenly City? I guess it makes more sense why she hates the heavenly city so much.
1’st weilder: Mysterious 2nd weilder: Loved eyeballs. Made the cult that now hates the divine beast sect and their eyeball planet ruler. Do i remember right that this one also invented the Sage Speech? 3rd: One legged dragon. Made the lotuses but abandoned. Creates divine ghost Cheng for reasons unknown. Evil counterpart saved and has a lotus world hidden beneath the sea. 4th: Unknown 5th: Unknown 6th: White beats everyone, then gives up position to the monk. Monk creates virtue bodies and probably the Immortal Merchant’s cape 7th: White, probably. Got bored and left, but created the Mary Sue White as a placeholder (?), netherworld White still exists and somehow retains his powers 8th: Sage loses, metal ball wins. Missing anything?
As an antagonist, Metal Ball feels lacking, figuratively. Metal Ball also considers itself to be lacking, literally. But it seems to spend so much time trying to fix this that it has no real actual goal. A lot of the time, villains like this aren't the actual villain, they're just tools, programmed or created to accomplish something while the real mastermind hides in the background.