Chapter 273 - 259: Puppet and Spiritual Artifact

Chapter 273: Chapter 259: Puppet and Spiritual Artifact

A hundred li from Water Heaven Workshop, on an unnamed mountain peak.

A cave took shape with a flash of his saber. After laying down an isolating Gathering Spirit Restriction, Chu Mu stepped inside, and the entrance sealed shut.

The barren mountains offered meager conditions, obviously no match for those within the Marketplace.

But given the current situation, the Marketplace was clearly not safe either.

Water Heaven Workshop was adjacent to the front lines, and the slightest misstep could see it engulfed in the flames of war. There was a world of difference between actively choosing to participate and being forced into the conflict.

He sat cross-legged. With a slight turn of his thoughts, numerous Jade Boxes appeared before him.

From Tier One Upper Grade to Tier Two Upper Grade, all sorts of Spiritual Materials, packed in Jade Boxes of various sizes, were piled into a mountain.

He gazed at the Jade Boxes before him. The markings on each box, indicating the Spiritual Material within, were very clear.

As his eyes scanned them, one long-contemplated design after another surfaced in his mind.

He waved his hand, and a Jade Scroll appeared in his grasp. The Jade Scroll recorded several Artifact Refining Formulas he had painstakingly developed through his research.

The Second Generation Scout Dragonfly, the Second-Generation Fire Cavalry, and various Spiritual Artifacts he had redesigned, such as the Minghong Saber for Attack, and a Magic Robe and a Shield for Defense...

He had conceived many Artifact Creations, and he had collected a great deal of Spiritual Materials to match.

They were basically enough to meet the Refining requirements for the vast majority of his current designs.

The only variable was a matter of Grade.

After all, the quality of the Spiritual Materials directly determined the Grade of the finished Artifact Creation.

Whether it would be a Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact, or Middle Grade, Upper Grade, or even a Top Grade Spiritual Artifact...

The most important factor was the Spiritual Materials themselves; the relevant Artifact Pattern Array Prohibitions and Refining methods were secondary.

And the vast majority of the Spiritual Materials he had collected were only Tier Two Lower Grade, or Middle Grade at best. He had next to none of the Tier Two Upper Grade materials.

His thoughts turned, and with a slight stir of his Divine Sense, dozens of Jade Boxes floated before him.

The Jade Boxes opened, revealing dozens of types of Spiritual Materials.

He waved his hand, and a flash of fire appeared. A ball of Great Sun True Flame now hovered before him.

He pondered for a moment. His enveloping Divine Sense acted like countless invisible hands. Amidst the flickering flames, one Spiritual Material after another was roasted by the True Flame.

Melting, purifying, fusing...

One by one, metal components of various shapes appeared at Chu Mu’s side in this repetitive process.

At this moment, his enveloping Divine Sense was like a high-precision machine tool. Under its power, various Spiritual Materials were melted and cast, transforming directly from raw materials into their respective parts.

This process continued for a very long time.

「Several days passed.」

The flickering flames finally died down, and the process at last came to a halt.

He still did not rest. Various Spiritual Materials were fused with these components, and one by one, Artifact Pattern Array Prohibitions were meticulously inscribed onto each part under the guidance of his Divine Sense.

At the same time, flames would reappear to promptly cast and fuse some of the components together.

As this process continued, a Puppet slowly began to take shape before him.

It wasn’t until the eighth day that the commotion within the cave finally died down.

Chu Mu sat cross-legged, his eyes closed as he regulated his breathing.

Around him, aside from the mountain of Jade Boxes, stood a gleaming black Puppet.

Unlike the humanoid form of the first-generation Fire Cavalry, the Puppet before him was actually in the shape of a Demon Beast.

It had the overall shape of a Demon Wolf, identical to Wangcai’s physique right after it had evolved into a Demon Beast. Its gleaming black body added a grim, murderous air to the Demon Beast Puppet.

Seeing such a Puppet, Wangcai was also clearly curious. It walked over and circled the Demon Beast Puppet, sizing it up and letting out a whine or two, as if trying to gauge the threat level of this ’kinsman’.

An hour or so later, Chu Mu slowly opened his eyes.

He rose and studied the Beast-shaped Puppet before him, a hint of dissatisfaction in his expression.

The Second-Generation Fire Cavalry he had envisioned was, of course, not supposed to look like this; it was meant to be an advanced, humanoid Puppet.

As for this Beast-shaped Puppet before him...

’It can only be called a product of missing Spiritual Materials.’

All the Puppets he had refined before were, in fact, merely Fake Puppets.

The Cultivation Immortal Realm’s definition of a Puppet was a construct with its own Spiritual Power supply system and a basic autonomous control hub.

In layman’s terms, a Puppet did not need a Cultivator to control it with Divine Sense or supply it with Magical Power to move. It only required a Divine Sense Imprint, and the consumption of Divine Sense was minimal.

If he had enough Puppets, with his current Divine Soul strength, he could even control dozens of Tier Two Puppets.

In contrast, typical Magical Artifacts, Spiritual Artifacts, and even higher-level Magical Treasures all clearly required a Cultivator to control them and supply them with Magical Power.

Using a single Magical Artifact or Spiritual Artifact would inevitably occupy the vast majority of a Cultivator’s Divine Sense and also consume an enormous amount of Magical Power.

Let alone controlling dozens of Magical Artifacts or Spiritual Artifacts—that was simply impossible.

But with a Puppet, after its Refinement, one only needed to issue a command. The Puppet’s innate Spiritual Power and its corresponding autonomous logic program would then carry out the action.

Achieving these two points was not actually difficult.

For the Spiritual Power supply, it was nothing more than installing a few Energy Gathering Arrays, a compartment to hold Spirit Stones, and a Transformation Array Prohibition to draw and supply Spiritual Qi from the Spirit Stones.

This part was obviously very simple.

But as for the corresponding autonomous logic control hub—that was something he had overlooked this time.

In the Cultivation Immortal Realm, resolving this issue wasn’t difficult either.

He had all the necessary materials. Most importantly, he even had dozens of Soul Condensing Stones.