Chapter 224 – Puppets? Nothing More Than 24/7 Alchemy Tool-Men! (5k)

Chapter 224 – Puppets? Nothing More Than 24/7 Alchemy Tool-Men! (5k)

Su Xing’s heart trembled, and he murmured with a mix of shock and pleasant surprise:

“If I trigger Essence of Strength… I should be able to one-shot Perfected One Myriad Wood, right?”

“After one-shotting Perfected One Myriad Wood, the Spirit Vein Dragon might not be exposed… and then Protector Dragon might never learn of the Spirit Vein Dragon’s emergence?”

Su Xing fell into deep thought.

But this was merely his speculation. As for how things would actually play out, he would need to test it in his next simulation.

“And then there’s the Dao of Puppetry… After two sessions of Ghost Granny’s instruction, my study of the Dao of Puppetry is still only at the Beginner-level, but it should be enough to operate ordinary puppets, right?”

Su Xing turned his gaze toward the eight puppets Old Dog Zong had left behind.

If he made some minor modifications to these eight puppets, he might gain an entire batch of free laborers for alchemy and farming.

And so, over the following week, Su Xing began his attempts to modify the living-dead puppets.

“These puppets are all combat-types… they weren’t specifically designed for alchemy. The abilities of humanoid puppets don’t differ much from what they possessed in life…”

Su Xing first consulted Old Dog Zong’s Diary and spent about an hour identifying the backgrounds of all eight puppets.

Among the eight, three possessed wood- and fire-attribute spiritual energy — Fairy Flower and two others.

One of them had even been an alchemist in life.

Once he knew these three puppets had the capacity for alchemy, the rest became much simpler.

Su Xing first erased the spiritual consciousness imprints Old Dog Zong had left on the puppets, then replaced them with his own brand.

Next, Su Xing opened the control core of the living-dead puppets, typically located in the puppet’s heart region.

A puppet’s capabilities were primarily determined by three components.

The first was Su Xing’s soul imprint — he could activate the soul imprint to issue commands to the puppet.

The second was the puppet inscription located at the control core.

There were many types of puppet inscriptions: combat-type, support-type, spirit-formation-type, alchemy-type, and talisman-crafting-type.

With different puppet inscriptions, puppets could carry out different tasks.

The third was whatever abilities the puppet had possessed before death, which would be retained to a certain degree.

Since Su Xing currently couldn’t independently create new puppet inscriptions to swap in, the only ones capable of performing alchemy were these three puppets that had once possessed alchemical talent.

Su Xing gave them names: Big One, Second, and Little Beauty!

Big One had been at Peak Nascent Soul stage in life. After being made into a puppet, he retained strength close to Peak Nascent Soul and had been an alchemist in life.

So Su Xing had no trouble teaching him the method for refining Fasting Pills.

After all, this was the lowest-grade pill. Forget a Nascent Soul puppet — even a Foundation Establishment puppet could refine them.

Second was also at Peak Nascent Soul cultivation. After being made into a humanoid puppet, he still retained his wood- and fire-attribute spiritual energy.

Though he was merely a combat-type puppet without spiritual intelligence or independent consciousness, he did possess the ability to learn through imitation.

So Su Xing had him follow behind Big One to learn Fasting Pill refinement. It shouldn’t take long before he picked it up.

As for Little Beauty — that was Old Dog Zong’s lover, Fairy Flower.

She only had Foundation Establishment stage strength, but her physical body was perfectly preserved, and there were even traces of residual consciousness. She was likely a supreme-grade puppet that Old Dog Zong had refined using secret techniques.

The weakest in strength, but not lacking in potential.

Su Xing temporarily had Little Beauty study Fasting Pill refinement as well.

As for the remaining five living-dead puppets, Su Xing assigned them tasks like farming and weeding.

This too could lighten Su Xing’s workload.

Living-dead puppets had no independent consciousness and required no rest.

They only needed periodic energy infusions — inserting spirit stones into their cores — to keep running indefinitely.

After some quick calculations, Su Xing discovered that for simple tasks like weeding, a single puppet only consumed one low-grade spirit stone per year.

Alchemy, however, required far more spirit stones — ten low-grade spirit stones per puppet per month.

But for Su Xing, who possessed hundreds of thousands of spirit stones, this was entirely affordable.

“It’s just… the spirit stones needed for puppet combat — now that’s truly expensive!”

“And then there’s that early Void Return stage puppet I obtained from the Myriad Wood Sect ruins. It’s essentially scrapped… Maybe I can try repairing it when I have time in the future?”

Soon, the week passed.

Su Xing’s spirit field grotto-heaven now boasted eight free puppet laborers.

Among them, Big One performed admirably — in just one week, he could provide Su Xing with an extra thousand Fasting Pills, with a chance of producing Supreme-grade Fasting Pills.

Second was slightly worse, producing roughly five hundred Fasting Pills per week.

As for Little Beauty, she only managed around a hundred Fasting Pills per week, with an extremely high failure rate.

But Su Xing was patient, treating it as an investment for the future.

As long as he had enough puppets, Su Xing could potentially gain tens of thousands of extra Fasting Pills in a single week!

This week, Su Xing had been busy modifying puppets and teaching them alchemy, so he himself had only refined fewer than two thousand Fasting Pills.

It wasn’t until the day he was to meet Jin Congxue that Su Xing disguised his appearance, concealed his aura, and headed for the villa district.

Inside the villa, Jin Congxue had been waiting for quite some time.

The two sat across from each other, eating and chatting.

Jin Congxue produced a storage ring she had prepared in advance and said:

“Here’s the new week’s goods. The output from that second-order exotic metal mining zone is included as well… From now on, we’ll be able to provide a stable supply of second-order exotic metal every week!”

“Also, I’ve already coordinated with Xia’s military. Going forward, as long as our Tarot Society exclusively supplies Fasting Pills to Xia’s military, we can obtain mining rights to one second-order exotic metal zone for every fifty thousand Fasting Pills!”

Su Xing nodded slightly upon hearing this, then said after a moment of deliberation:

“That sounds about right… I’ll temporarily stop refining Beauty-Preserving Pills and focus entirely on Fasting Pills going forward!”

“Exotic metal mining will become the primary business direction for our Tarot Trading Company in the future!”

Jin Congxue didn’t object, merely saying:

“Of course. The Tarot Society was founded by the two of us, and I’ve never minded major strategic decisions like these…”

“Besides, the Tarot Society’s business operations have basically stabilized — we no longer need massive capital injections. As for Beauty-Preserving Pills, you just need to refine some occasionally to satisfy certain clients’ requests.”

Su Xing nodded. Jin Congxue’s thinking aligned perfectly with his own.

After chatting for a while longer, Jin Congxue seemed to suddenly recall something amusing and said:

“Oh right, have you heard the latest? The Pearl Trading Company, the Northern Yuan Trading Company… even my grand-uncle — they’ve all apparently been searching for some legendary reclusive supreme expert!”

“As for why they’re looking for this expert, the reason isn’t clear yet. Supposedly it has something to do with longevity?”

At this, Jin Congxue burst into laughter:

“You should have seen my grand-uncle — a man of over five hundred years old, a dignified Heavenly King-stage powerhouse… and he was so anxious that he tripped and fell multiple times in a single day!”

Su Xing’s mouth twitched slightly at this. He asked probingly:

“Oh? Have they found any leads on this expert?”

Jin Congxue shook her head:

“Not at all… That senior comes and goes without a trace, leaving behind no clues whatsoever. The trading companies even enlisted a Legendary-stage powerhouse from Demon-Sealing Pass to perform divination, and even that turned up nothing about the senior!”

Su Xing felt considerably relieved upon hearing this.

Being investigated after that incident was entirely within Su Xing’s expectations.

But this investigation was destined to yield no results. Su Xing had Shielding Heavenly Secrets, acted covertly, and simulated everything in advance — virtually eliminating one hundred percent of the risk. How could anyone possibly find him?

And among Great Xia’s population of over a billion, no one would ever connect the target to someone as insignificant as a college student like Su Xing.

Soon, their conversation concluded.

Su Xing took the new week’s goods and discreetly returned to his spirit field grotto-heaven.

The new week’s goods provided Su Xing with 150 million simulation energy.

Much as Su Xing had anticipated — a single second-order exotic metal mining zone instance could generate nearly 50 million simulation energy in pure profit per week!

With this, Su Xing’s simulation energy reached 2,968,230,000 points.

On December 16th, 2024, of the New Era, Su Xing prepared to begin a new round of simulation.

Before starting, Su Xing established his objectives for this simulation.

“My comprehension of Essence of Strength must advance to Minor Mastery-level as soon as possible… Only then can I break through to Body Integration stage quickly!”

“Beyond that, I need to further refine my puppet techniques. If I can create more puppets in the future, I’ll be able to obtain even more simulation energy. By the time I need simulation energy for Body Integration stage, I should have enough…”

With these thoughts in mind, Su Xing turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

“Begin simulation!”

【Ding! This simulation consumes 6,600 energy points. Remaining energy: 2,968,230,000 points. Remaining simulations: unlimited.】

【Simulation begins!】

【Drawing a purple talent costs 100,000 energy. Drawing a gold legendary talent costs 1,000,000 energy. Would you like to draw?】

“Draw a gold-quality talent!”

Su Xing said without the slightest hesitation.

【Ding. Congratulations, you have obtained the purple talent Peerless Spearmanship. The probability of receiving a gold talent next time is 50%…】

【Peerless Spearmanship】: Your comprehension of the spear surpasses that of ordinary people. Your talent in spearmanship is several times that of a normal person.

Looking at the newly drawn talent before him, Su Xing shook his head without surprise.

Sure enough, it wasn’t a gold talent.

“Spearmanship, huh… not bad, actually. But among a hundred different weapons, how could anyone master them all? Even I… can’t be proficient in everything.”

Since he had already devoted himself to studying the way of the sword, Su Xing had no plans to take up spear cultivation for the time being.

With that thought, Su Xing turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

【In the spirit field grotto-heaven, you became aware that you were in a simulation.】

【Over the next half month, you refined pills while accumulating the Great Wisdom state enhancement.】

【After half a month, you set off to head for the Luotian Assembly dungeon.】

In the Real World, Su Xing nodded slightly upon seeing this. For this simulation, he planned to continue receiving Ghost Granny’s guidance and study the art of puppetry.

“Activate immersive simulation… duration twenty-four hours!”

【Ding. You have successfully activated immersive simulation… remaining energy: 2,965,830,000 points.】

…

Soon, the immersive simulation ended. In this simulation, Su Xing had once again gained a wealth of knowledge about the Dao of Puppetry from Ghost Granny.

“Although I haven’t yet reached Minor Mastery-level… my comprehension of the Dao of Puppetry has advanced by a huge step!”

Su Xing nodded with satisfaction, then turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

【One month later, you met Luo Shuying as promised and joined the Advent Cult.】

【Luo Shuying had already become a Legendary-stage powerhouse by this time, and you quickly gained a large following of admirers within the Advent Cult.】

【For the next year, you spent every day in the Advent Cult refining pills and studying the Dao of Puppetry.】

【In the second year, you carved out time once more to head for the Luotian Assembly dungeon.】

“Activate immersive simulation…”

【You have successfully activated immersive simulation… remaining energy: 2,963,430,000 points.】

…

After a day of immersive simulation, Su Xing quickly returned to the Real World once more, his mastery of the Dao of Puppetry having risen yet another level.

“Not bad. In this simulation… I might actually be able to reach Minor Mastery-level in the Dao of Puppetry!”

“When that time comes, I should be able to independently craft puppets capable of refining pills…”

With that thought, Su Xing turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

【You stayed in the Advent Cult for another year and successfully refined a sufficient supply of pills.】

【Because your objective in this simulation was to accumulate Origin Force as quickly as possible, whether or not you defected from the Advent Cult didn’t matter. To gather more intelligence, you decided to remain within the Advent Cult.】

【In the third year, you handed over the two hundred thousand-plus pills you had accumulated to Xia’s military.】

【In just one year’s time, Xia’s military gained many additional powerhouses.】

【Although the Advent Cult was deeply troubled by this, they never once suspected you, because you had never revealed your alchemy abilities.】

【And so, you continued to diligently practice the art of puppetry, and on each year’s day of the Awakening of Insects, you contemplated the Essence of Strength.】

【Like this, another three years passed.】

【In the sixth year, your mastery of Origin Force improved. The duration you could continuously use Origin Force increased from three breaths to five breaths.】

【This was nearly enough to allow you to throw two full-power punches in combat.】

【Yet you were not satisfied with this. You continued to study the Dao of Puppetry while also contemplating the power of Origin Force.】

【Like this, another two years passed.】

【In the eighth year, you had preliminarily mastered the crafting of puppet inscriptions. Based on the memories in your mind, you were already capable of converting ordinary combat puppets into specialized alchemy puppets.】

【And so, you attempted to modify the remaining five puppets in your possession.】

【This research took another three years.】

【In the eleventh year, through your continuous research, you finally modified the remaining five puppets into alchemy puppets as well.】

【With this, you now had eight puppets working for you around the clock, twenty-four hours a day, refining pills without rest.】

【You had them attempt to refine Fasting Pills…】

【After two months of testing, you found that the eight puppets combined could produce a total of fifty thousand Fasting Pills per month.】

【This was equivalent to gaining the output of one additional second-order exotic metal mine dungeon every single month, just from these eight puppets alone!】

【You were greatly pleased by this.】

【But at the same time, through your continuous research, you also discovered something extraordinary about the puppet designated as Little Beauty.】

【The other seven puppets, though all at Peak Nascent Soul, had limited potential and would struggle to break through.】

【Yet Little Beauty, of all puppets, was actually capable of self-improvement, continuously breaking through her own limits… from initially refining one hundred pills per week, she could now refine over a thousand.】

【You realized that this was perhaps because Little Beauty’s body still retained traces of the soul imprint from her previous life. And so you attempted to implant a higher-grade puppet inscription.】

【Through your repeated attempts, Little Beauty indeed showed potential for further development. Even the puppet’s cultivation level could be raised!】

In the Real World, Su Xing was quite astonished by this.

“A puppet… can also advance in cultivation?”

Based on the information Su Xing had acquired, to strengthen a puppet’s power, one either had to use more precious natural treasures to sacrifice-refine the puppet, or equip it with more powerful magical artifacts.

But for a puppet to be able to cultivate on its own — this was something Su Xing had never known.

“Could this be… the legendary puppet cultivator?”

Su Xing’s eyes went wide.

One had to understand: ordinary immortal cultivators were known as human cultivators. However, after a cultivator died, they might possibly transform into a ghost and continue to cultivate — this was known as ghost cultivation!

And if a cultivator refined themselves into a puppet, there was an extremely slim chance they could become a puppet cultivator!

And right now, Su Xing’s Little Beauty puppet seemed to have undergone exactly that transformation into a puppet cultivator.

“Hiss… this is quite an incredible discovery!”

Su Xing murmured, then turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

【You quickly realized that Little Beauty might be one in ten thousand — a puppet cultivator born through some serendipitous convergence of circumstances…】

【But you didn’t know how to help Little Beauty recover the rest of her self-awareness, so you could only set the matter aside for now.】

【And so, for the next three years, you continued studying the art of puppetry daily while also contemplating the Essence of Strength.】

【In the fourteenth year, your mastery of the art of puppetry could be described as having achieved a degree of Minor Mastery.】

【You decided to try crafting an instrument-puppet on your own.】

【Instrument-puppets were different from human-puppets — they were forged from metal ores and similar materials, making them closer to mechanical beasts or automatons…】

【And before you could craft an instrument-puppet, you first had to learn artifact refining.】

【Thus, you began studying the path of artifact refining…】

【You had no particular talent for artifact refining, but fortunately, what you needed to craft was merely the most basic instrument-puppet, which didn’t require especially advanced refining techniques.】

【Referencing the jade slips left behind by Old Dog Zong, you began learning the way of artifact refining.】

【You possessed the Separation Fire Technique — in addition to being an excellent fire for alchemy, it could also be used for artifact refining… saving you a great deal of effort.】

【As for the materials needed to craft the puppet, you quickly settled on fourth-order exotic metal!】

【You directed the Separation Fire onto the exotic metal, forging it into a humanoid shape… This process demanded extremely precise control over spiritual sense, spiritual energy, and flame.】

【After several months of attempts, you finally managed to produce a human-height puppet that was only roughly humanoid in shape.】

【Though in appearance, this puppet bore absolutely no resemblance to a human being.】

【But you didn’t care about that, because as far as you were concerned, as long as it worked, that was enough.】

【Next, you began crafting the puppet core and puppet inscriptions for this instrument-puppet, and embedded your own puppet inscription within it.】

【Inside the puppet’s body, you arranged a spirit formation of wood and fire attributes, facilitating its conversion of wood- and fire-attribute spiritual energy…】

【You then engraved fire talisman inscriptions onto the puppet’s core, allowing the puppet to autonomously emit flames.】

【You placed several spirit stones inside the puppet to supply the energy it needed.】

【Next came the most difficult part of the entire art of puppetry — teaching the puppet to perform a specific task.】

【Puppets lacked the ability to learn on their own. You had to implant the process of refining Fasting Pills into the puppet’s core, then make adjustments through practical trials, so that it could gradually master the Alchemy Art.】

【This process… lasted an entire month.】

【One month later, you finally taught this puppet the Alchemy Art. This puppet could produce two thousand Fasting Pills per month!】

【The efficiency wasn’t high, but you were quite satisfied…】

【Because next, you would attempt the mass production of alchemy puppets…】