Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Shentu Yuan almost fainted at the sight of such a large piece of Mother Cloud Essence Metal.
For a puppet master to make a puppet from Mother Cloud Essence Metal was like for a chef to be able to cook with top-class ingredients, an opportunity that could only be come across, not sought.
But Mother Cloud Essence Metal was far too hard, which made processing it extremely difficult. A chop at it might leave the metal unscathed and the tool shattered. Tang Jie throwing out so much at once made Shentu Yuan feel like he was being buried under coins.
Shentu Yuan started to sweat as he squeaked out, "Mother Cloud Essence Metal is difficult to process. If you want it done before we head to the Inkcloud Abyss, I'm afraid it's not possible!"
As he spoke, he stared at the Mother Cloud Essence Metal, his eyes full of conflict and hesitation.
Tang Jie asked, "What if I were to melt it down?"
Shentu Yuan nodded. "It's possible, but the melting temperature of Mother Cloud Essence Metal is extremely high and no ordinary flame will do."
Tang Jie immediately said, "I know of a place that can melt down Mother Cloud Essence Metal."
Shentu Yuan was stunned. "Where?"
Tang Jie pointed at the sky.
Shentu Yuan was puzzled at first, and then he realized, "The domain Astral Winds!"
When Tang Jie had plunged into the Verdant Cloud Domain, the Astral Winds had melted down and deformed his armor made of Mother Cloud Essence Metal, leaving it useless. From this, one could see that the Astral Winds truly could melt down Mother Cloud Essence Metal, though it required some time. In truth, he could actually just do it with the Deicide Flame, but using it in this fashion was a little overkill. Moreover, refining metal took some time, and Tang Jie would find it difficult to maintain. In the end, it couldn't match the convenience of the Astral Winds.
As Tang Jie pointed upward, Shentu Yuan stood up and also gazed at the sky, muttering, "Using the world as a furnace, the Astral Winds as the flame, Mother Cloud Essence Metal as material… haha! haha! How did I not think of it? I can't even imagine how powerful a puppet made this way would be!"
He almost lost control of himself in his excitement. Even if he wasn't making this puppet for himself, as a puppet master, he would be content just to see a puppet like this born through his own hands.
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and he continued to mutter, "Mother Cloud Essence Metal's strong point is its toughness, but a puppet made purely from it would be too rigid, dumb, and inflexible. Some other materials are needed, like Mutton Fat Jade, Gravel Gold, Heavenstar Stone…"
Shentu Yuan named ten-some materials, all of which were top-class materials.
"What about Earthen Essence?" Tang Jie asked.
"'Earthen Essence'?" Shentu Yuan was delighted. "Nothing could be better! With this substance, the puppet's Earth-type spell arts will be much more powerful. I could even carve an Earth Escape Formation on it, getting rid of the regret of puppet makers of puppets being unable to use escape arts! Hurry, hurry! If you have anything else good, take them out now."
This person was just like Ye Xiao, forgetting about everything else when he got to talking about his field. Fortunately, Tang Jie didn't mind, taking out all the materials he had for Shentu Yuan to look at.
All the various rare materials dazzled the four.
They had known that Tang Jie had money, but not this much money.
The countless materials were piled up in a mountain, and Shentu Yuan's hands were shaking.
Thankfully, they were all experienced in the ways of the world and quickly calmed down. Shentu Yuan quickly selected some materials. As expected, he had extremely sharp eyes and only picked out the most valuable things.
Suddenly, Shentu Yuan picked something up and asked, "What is this?"
Tang Jie glanced at it and saw that it was the crystal core he had picked up from the Myriad Court fragment. "I forgot I had that. It's the core of a High Antiquity puppet, something I found on one of my past adventures."
"'The core of a High Antiquity puppet'?" Shentu Yuan grew excited. "Wasn't it a beast puppet? One that uses a crystal core rather than a formation to power it?"
"Precisely."
"Wonderful!" Shentu Yuan shouted. "This item contains the essence of High Antiquity puppetry. It's capable of taking in spiritual energy and outputting wind and lightning, its powers mysterious and countless. The method for making them has long been lost, and when they're combined with modern puppets, they can produce amazing effects. When I was exploring an underground palace, I managed to find one. Big Brother Tang, if you look at my strongest puppet, that was actually made with a crystal core as its power source!"
"That's quite the coincidence. I happen to have more than one." Tang Jie took out two more, the cores he had taken from the Taowu and Xiezhi he had killed when entering that central hall. Those puppets had both been peak Grade 6 puppets, so he was offering the best he had.
Shentu Yuan's eyes flew open.
Soul Transformation crystal cores, and two of them!
It had to be understood that the core Shentu Yuan had was only a Grade 4 core. With his current puppet techniques, he was able to unleash vast amounts of power from it.
Shentu Yuan took in a deep breath and looked at Tang Jie. "Big Brother Tang, which one of these two do you plan to use?"
Tang Jie asked, "Can't we use them both?"
"Two together?" Shentu Yuan was dumbstruck.
High Antiquity puppet cores only came as singles. No puppet had used two of them at once before.
Tang Jie's proposal had exceeded his imagination.
Tang Jie said, "Yes, if we can use one, why can't we use two? We can have a dual core. Wouldn't it be better to have double the power?"
This "dual core" concept had Shentu Yuan feeling dizzy with ideas.
This guy grappled with the idea for some time before nodding and saying, "It seems plausible. If it works, the puppet will be able to stay in battle for much, much longer. But this would require a lot of modification."
He got down to the ground and started to draw on the paving stones, the various formation diagrams clearly attempting to find out how the cores should be arranged. Tang Jie also understood puppet formations, so he decided to join Shentu Yuan in exploring the possibility of a dual core.
As they went back and forth, exchanging ideas, they seemed like bosom friends.
After arguing back and forth for quite a while, Shentu Yuan said, "Putting the Yin Yang Cycle Formation at the access point, having the two cores acting like the sun and moon, switching between each other, one going in combat while the other recharges, will let this maintain constant activity and win every battle! Brother Tang, your idea is amazing! It seems entirely possible to me."
After resolving the dual core problem, Shentu Yuan began to look for more materials, asking as he did, "Right, I recall that Big Brother Tang has quite a few fiend corpses. Do you still have the corpse of the Heaven Swallowing King?"
"You're talking about the toad? I cooked and ate it a while ago," Tang Jie replied.
"Alas, what a pity!" Shentu Yuan stomped his feet. "That's a Soul Transformation fiend king, and its body is extremely valuable. If you had given it to Brother Ye Xiao, he could have refined it into a ghost general for you, which we could then merge with a puppet. This would have made the puppet much stronger!"
These words made Tang Jie recall that Shentu Yuan had many puppets that were half-biological. Compared to ordinary puppets, those puppets were clearly much more adaptable and stronger.
He then said, "Isn't that simple? I can just kill another fiend king and have the two of you refine it."
At this moment, the ghost guard suddenly walked over and stood in front of Tang Jie.
Startled, Tang Jie looked at the ghost guard and asked, "What are you doing?"
The ghost guard pointed at the Mother Cloud Essence Metal. "I… want… to merge."
Everyone was startled, and Ye Xiao even jumped up and pointed at the ghost guard. "It… it… it's intelligent."
Tang Jie had found that the ghost guard was much more intelligent after its time with the Blood River Lord, and it was now able to talk and think. But it didn't like to talk, so outsiders didn't know it was capable of it.
He hadn't expected it to come forward and speak up, and to ask for something so big.
Tang Jie looked at it and said, "Do you know what you're asking?"
The ghost guard's body swayed as it struggled out, "Get… stronger!"
Get stronger!
Was this what it was asking for?
Tang Jie silently contemplated the ghost guard.
Deep down, he actually had his misgivings.
After all, the ghost guard had been refined from Mei Huaping. As the ghost guard grew more intelligent, would Mei Huaping's memories reawaken? If that was the case, would he resent him?
He listened to his orders now, perhaps not because he didn't hate him, but because he couldn't beat Tang Jie and had no choice but to obey.
If he were fused with the Mother Cloud Essence Metal puppet, his strength would soar, and if he had the ability to fight against Tang Jie, would he officially rebel? Even if he did rebel, he was still no match for Tang Jie, but that stab to the back would still be very painful. And even if he did resist that stab, it might result in all his investment into the puppet coming to nothing.
As Tang Jie was thinking, he silently stared at the ghost guard.
The ghost guard silently looked back.
But Ye Xiao and Shentu Yuan were jumping in excitement, shouting:
"Hurry and agree! A Mind Opening ghost has the potential to grow stronger! The puppet can serve as its armor!"
"The ghost guard as the bones, the puppet as the skin! More flexibility, more power!"
"No, no, the ghost guard is the core, and it can just use the puppet as a suit of armor!"
"Bullshit! It's clearly the puppet that's the main thing. The ghost guard is only there to control it!"
As the two urged Tang Jie to agree, they also argued about which part contributed more, not caring at all about Tang Jie's internal conflicts.
He and the ghost guard stared at each other for a long time. Finally, Tang Jie said, "Shentu Yuan!"
Shentu Yuan shut his mouth and looked at Tang Jie.
Still staring at the ghost guard, Tang Jie said, "If the fusion happens, how will I control the puppet?"
Shentu Yuan curiously asked, "Why do you need to control it if you have the ghost guard controlling it?"
Tang Jie firmly said, "You have to add a method that grants me control, and one that can control it absolutely."
"Is that so…" Shentu Yuan scratched his head and finally nodded. "It's not impossible, but that would definitely take more resources."
"Then that's what we'll do." Tang Jie then said to the ghost guard, "If you want to get stronger, I can agree to that. But I hope you understand that no matter how powerful or smart you become, you will always be my subordinate, my ghost guard!"
The ghost guard nodded and silently retreated.
There were no words, no argument. He silently stood there as if stating that loyalty did not require any sort of impassioned speech.
Upon seeing this, Ye Xiao and Shentu Yuan seemed to somewhat understand what was going on.
Translator Notes
Is the ghost guard going to remain Tang Jie's loyal soldier for the rest of the story? Or will he one day rise up against his master?
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