Substitute Puppet

Chapter 92 Substitute Puppet

Corpse Demon Mountain.

A certain cave dwelling on the shady side of the mountain.

Du Qiu was kneeling on the ground, his expression filled with deep respect.

"Elder Shi, Ji Yin has returned alive. It appears he managed to find some sort of spirit medicine to clear his mind and restore his sanity."

Shi Shou's body was wreathed in thick, black Corpse Fiend Qi, which billowed and churned with every breath he took.

His face was an iron-blue hue, and fangs over two inches long protruded from his lips. When he spoke, his voice was coarse and grating.

"Returned alive? Very good! It seems he possesses some actual capability. To suffer the contamination of the turbid qi in the Corpse Dismemberment Cave and still resolve it on his own is no small feat."

Pausing for a moment, Shi Shou continued, "How is his cultivation?"

"The fourth layer of Qi Refining."

"Still only at the fourth layer?" Shi Shou murmured softly.

"Then again, he only joined the sect two and a half years ago. To reach the fourth layer of Qi Refining in that time cannot be considered slow."

"You may leave. Keep a close eye on Ji Yin. The moment his cultivation breaks through to the sixth layer of Qi Refining, you must notify me immediately."

"Understood, Elder Shi," Du Qiu complied.

...

Back inside his own cave dwelling, Song Wen began to take stock of the items he had gathered from his venture outside.

First and foremost was the very reason he had risked his life to enter the cavern: the Empty Cicada Wood.

Judging by its appearance, this piece of Empty Cicada Wood was roughly three hundred and fifty years old, which would be more than enough to harmonize the Corpse Qi inside his body.

Aside from that, he had obtained a total of four Storage Bags, taken from Lao Chun, Zi Yi, and the two female rogue cultivators.

He had also gained three corpse-nurturing bags-two from Zi Yi and one from Lao Chun.

Inside these corpse-nurturing bags were three corpse puppets in total: two at the sixth layer of Qi Refining and one at the ninth layer.

The items inside the Storage Bags were quite miscellaneous, consisting of Spirit Stones, talismans, pills, magical artifacts, and various other goods.

The number of Spirit Stones across the four bags was substantial, totaling nearly four thousand.

Back in the underground caverns, Lao Chun, Zi Yi, and Xuan Ye had divided Yan Gu's Storage Bag among themselves, which explained why they held so many Spirit Stones.

As for the two female rogue cultivators, they had likely ambushed and killed numerous other cultivators, hence their wealthy savings.

However, Yan Gu's set of evil Buddhist magical artifacts was nowhere to be found, meaning they had likely fallen into Xuan Ye's hands.

Finally, there was the blood stone that Niu Ding had risked his life to obtain.

Song Wen had initially assumed the blood stone was a magical artifact or some treasure meant to boost cultivation. Yet, when he swept it with his Divine Sense, he discovered that the stone was actually an inheritance item containing a secret technique.

The Substitute Technique!

This was a secret technique where one refined a Substitute Puppet. In moments of fatal peril, a cultivator could trigger the technique, forcing the puppet to take the lethal blow in their stead. Simultaneously, the cultivator would be displaced to another location. This new position could be chosen at will, though it was strictly limited to the radius covered by the caster's Divine Sense.

It was an incredibly miraculous life-saving technique.

No wonder Niu Ding had been willing to face life-and-death danger just to secure it.

Song Wen immediately began studying the details of the technique.

Refining a Substitute Puppet could broadly be split into three steps.

First, one had to craft a puppet. It could take any shape and be made of any material, but it had to be capable of housing a cultivator's soul strand.

The second step was the most crucial, as well as the most perilous.

Soul shaving! This required stripping a strand of the soul directly from the cultivator's main spirit. It demanded a powerful soul and exceptional Divine Sense; otherwise, any reckless attempt at soul shaving would inflict severe damage. Minor failures would tear the soul and leave the cultivator a simpleton, while severe failures would scatter the soul entirely, leaving the cultivator dead without a grave.

The third step was to transplant the shaved soul strand into the Substitute Puppet, refining the two together until they became one.

Once completed, the Substitute Puppet would carry the exact soul aura of the cultivator, allowing it to act as a death substitute in times of crisis.

While the Substitute Technique was magnificent, it was not without its drawbacks.

Refining a Substitute Puppet multiple times would gradually thin out a cultivator's soul, which could permanently impair their consciousness and hinder future cultivation breakthroughs.

However, for Song Wen, this flaw was completely irrelevant.

He possessed the ability to devour the souls of others to strengthen his own spirit and Divine Sense. Shaving off a single strand of his soul posed absolutely no danger to him.

The real problem that stumped Song Wen lay in the very first step: crafting the puppet.

The puppet had to be capable of holding a soul strand without letting it dissipate, which left him at a complete loss.

For one, materials capable of housing a soul strand were far from cheap.

Furthermore, he knew nothing about the art of artifact refinement. Learning how to craft a Substitute Puppet from scratch would require a massive investment of time.

And time was the one thing he lacked most, especially with the looming threat of Shi Shou.

"Wait. Puppets are difficult to forge, but raising corpse puppets is something I know well. Why not try using a corpse puppet? They are refined from intact human bodies to begin with, so housing a soul strand without letting it dissipate shouldn't be an issue."

Deciding to test his theory immediately, he looked at the three corpse puppets currently in his possession.

The one at the ninth layer of Qi Refining was out of the question; using it for a Substitute Puppet would be far too wasteful.

Song Wen pulled out one of the corpse puppets at the sixth layer of Qi Refining. It was a male corpse with a perfectly intact physique, and its flesh was as tough as granite-more than sturdy enough to hold a soul strand.

Next came the most critical phase: stripping the soul strand.

Following the exact methods outlined in the Substitute Technique, Song Wen began his attempt.

The process proved to be far more agonizing and difficult than he had anticipated.

Whenever he tried to forcibly tear a strand away from his soul, a subconscious voice would scream within him, warning him that the soul was the absolute foundation of the human body and must never be tampered with. This instinctual resistance made his movements hesitant and fearful.

Moreover, the pain of soul shaving was excruciating, feeling as though a blade were slowly carving through the deepest depths of his Sea of Consciousness. The sheer intensity of the torture nearly forced him to halt the technique multiple times.

After dozens of failed attempts, Song Wen finally steeled his resolve. Banishing all stray thoughts and hesitation from his mind, he ruthlessly forced the technique to its conclusion, successfully severing a strand of his soul.

By then, his clothes were completely drenched in sweat, and a literal pool of moisture had gathered where he sat cross-legged. He looked as though he had just been dragged out of a river.

Enduring the agonizing tremors racking his Sea of Consciousness, Song Wen proceeded to transplant the severed soul strand into the corpse puppet.

Though this final process was not overly complex, it was incredibly tedious.

Two days later, Song Wen slowly opened his eyes.

The Substitute Puppet was finally complete!

The throbbing pain in his Sea of Consciousness had mostly subsided, and he could clearly sense that his damaged soul had begun to heal.

If he could devour the souls of a few more cultivators, his spirit would recover in no time.

While finding cultivators' souls might be difficult in other places, this was the territory of the demonic path. One could easily purchase them at any local marketplace.

There were always plenty of freshly harvested souls waiting to be sold there.

Most of these souls belonged to righteous path cultivators. Because righteous path cultivation techniques were pure and grand, the souls of their practitioners were exceptionally gentle and clean. They were unlike demonic cultivators, whose souls were frequently corrupted and dirtied by turbid qi.

As it happened, Song Wen also needed to visit the marketplace to liquidate the mountain of useless items he had acquired. He could then exchange the earnings for cultivation materials, preparing himself to refine the Empty Cicada Wood and neutralize the Corpse Fiend Qi within his body.

Song Wen spent the day bouncing between various shops, selling off his unwanted magical artifacts, pills, talismans, and spirit herbs in small batches, pulling in a total of 1,800 Spirit Stones.

He then spent several hundred of those Spirit Stones to buy a fresh supply of cultivation resources, alongside three intact cultivator souls.

88.181.249.5

ns88.181.249.5da2