Immortality begins with meditation puppets

Chapter 259 Dragon Snake Wood Spirit
Wisdom Wood Spirit, an advanced puppet of Wood Spirit servants.

In Su Qing's vision, it should be an intelligent puppet that commands and motivates the wood spirit servants to work hard.

The Wood Spirit servant was actually very self-aware; the help he received from the Wood Spirits, both large and small, during the puppet-making process far exceeded that of the Ge family villagers below.

In his view, it was really unnecessary to assign supervisors to such self-disciplined puppets.

Especially after refining Hongshang, with Hongshang helping to oversee and plan, he lost all interest in refining Zhimu Ling.

As a result, the creation of this puppet has been delayed time and again, with its production constantly being replaced by other second-tier puppets, and it has yet to be completed and put into service.

After he established his foundation, he had too many spare positions, so he thought of giving one to him.

"Let's refine one first and see. If it's not very useful, we can retire it. I can bear this loss for now!"

Because the Lin family patriarch remained in seclusion, the Lin family's influence within Baiyun Immortal City continued to shrink, and they voluntarily relinquished market share.

With the introduction of new puppets, Qinghe, Geling, and Xiong Er, this puppet-selling trio has been quite effective, so much so that his Su Ji shop is now making a fortune every day.

Including the 80% of the profits from Pang Feifan's side, he earns anywhere from a dozen or twenty spirit stones a day to seventy or eighty. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he is rolling in money.

With his wealth increasing, he naturally became more willing to use more materials when crafting puppets.

He used the highest quality materials for refining the Wisdom Wood Spirit.

Second-tier low-grade wood-type spirit core?
The core of the second-tier superior-grade Dragon Snake Willow.

The core of this monster is a strange leaf that seems to have a thousand legs and a hundred arms, and moves like a dragon or snake, hence the name Dragon and Snake Leaf.

The leaves are reddish-brown and lack the vibrant feeling unique to wood-type elves, but instead carry a heavy, bloody stench as if they have been soaked in a pool of blood for many years.

This single dragon-snake leaf cost him twenty-three spirit stones. According to the current exchange rate in the Immortal City, where 30,000 spirit crystals are exchanged for one spirit stone, that's a sky-high price of 690,000 spirit crystals!

The main materials, acquired at great expense, have their own unique qualities.

For example, this dragon-snake leaf itself has the characteristic of transforming into a human form, having a thousand arms, each with the strength of a thousand pounds.

It is not only one of the most suitable materials for crafting defensive puppets, but also the main material used by many puppeteers to craft a combat puppet called the Twisted Tree Spirit.

He used this leaf as the main material, which is quite generous of Zhimu Ling.

"Using pure bamboo as a supplementary material is crucial because it is an intelligent puppet, and maintaining calm judgment at all times is especially important."

Then mix in Heavenly Spirit Gold and Blood Spirit Crystal. Actually, it would be better to use Wood Obsidian instead of Heavenly Spirit Gold, but I have a lot of Heavenly Spirit Gold and very little Wood Obsidian, so I'll make do for now.

Blood Crystals can grant it recovery abilities, while Heavenly Crystals can enhance its damage reduction abilities. Furthermore, I now have an extremely high success rate in drawing Tier 3 damage reduction runes, and both the materials and runes are suitable.

Using dragon-snake leaves as the main material, the best model for this project is the dragon-snake willow, with at least eighteen zhang (approximately 33 meters) long. Mixed with hundreds of spirit-connected wood logs, this would be sufficient to support the main trunk!

Although there are Zhi Muling's puppet blueprints, the required materials are also clearly stated.

However, he never followed the rules or adhered to old conventions when creating puppets.

In his view, as long as one understands the principles of a puppet, a puppeteer can innovate and modify existing puppets according to their own needs, skills, and materials, thereby creating the most suitable puppet for themselves.

For example, he is skilled in biomimetic runes, and combining them with these dragon and snake leaves to refine them into intelligent biomimetic puppets would be the best option.

For example, he would use Tier 3 damage reduction runes, which are more suitable for pairing with Heavenly Spirit Gold, rather than with Wood Obsidian, which requires Tier 3 Spring Wood runes.

This Spring Wood Rune originated from the Azure Emperor's Dao Pattern. Together with the Mother River Rune, Living Gold Rune, Nirvana Rune, and Earth Virtue Rune, it forms the five major runes of the Life System. All of them are third-grade runes, and without a special opportunity, he would never be able to come into contact with them.

He obtained all this information from the Heavenly Talisman Palace.

After verifying with the witch that there were no major problems with the Heavenly Talisman Palace, he activated the talisman.

Once the talisman was activated, the old Taoist Tong couldn't wait to approach him. After discussing things in secret, he told him about the many things to pay attention to after becoming a member of the Heavenly Talisman Hall.

His earnest teachings still echoed in his ears, but those harsh words that refused to let him borrow merit points on credit were what Su Qing resented the most!

The old Taoist priest needed his help, yet he was so stingy. How could someone with such a mindset accomplish anything great!

I despise it!

Fortunately, he knows people with a broad perspective.

The witch, who was now in the Hundred Beasts Mountain Range and appeared as the Fire Phoenix Demon Lord, communicated with him through their shared spiritual connection, allowing him to successfully add the witch's celestial symbol.

It is worth mentioning that the witch used the alias Xihe in the Heavenly Talisman Palace, and he quickly decided on his own alias—Dijun.

The cultivation level and appearance of everyone in the Left and Right Heavenly Talisman Halls were not visible. It was not shameful for Foundation Establishment cultivators to have the names of ancient great gods on their heads.

After successfully borrowing ten merit points from the witch, he exchanged them for a Daoist book called the Complete Book of Runes.

This book contains many known runes, and the various rune genealogies are also fully recorded, allowing him to follow the clues and gain a better understanding of runes.

From this, he learned that in the current cultivation world, based on the grade of the Dao pattern from which the rune originated, the power and efficacy of the rune, and other comprehensive evaluations, the quality of runes is divided into nine grades, with grade one being the most prestigious and grade nine being the lowest.

Among them, the five modern symbols, including intelligence and bionics, are all ranked in the second grade.

The divine beast runes, immortal runes, spatial runes, and five elemental runes are all of the second grade.

The Fire Rune and the Illusionary Heart Rune were both ranked as Grade Three.

Runes like "Soaring Through the Sky," "Moving Mountains," and "Driving the Emperor" are only fourth-grade runes.

Only Nascent Soul sects like the Penglai Sect or the earlier Talisman Dao Sect, which specializes in the study of runes, could possibly preserve the legacy of a third-grade rune like the Spring Wood Rune. However, it is clear that these sects would not casually pass on this precious legacy.

He could use his merit points to exchange for this rune inheritance from the Heavenly Rune Hall.

But a thousand merit points would be the death of him. He was used to getting runes for free, and he was unwilling to spend merit points, which were exchanged for spirit stones at a 1:1 ratio, to exchange for a rune inheritance.

But then he thought, if the Springwood Rune is so expensive, then the Fire Rune, Illusion Heart Rune, and Divine Beast Rune that he borrowed from the witch must be worth several thousand spirit stones.

Big profit!

My mood is improving!

Su Qing never made things difficult for herself. If she didn't know the Spring Wood Rune, she didn't know it. Even without this dish of vinegar, she could still eat dumplings!

"The Heavenly Spirit Gold version with the Wisdom Wood Spirit isn't necessarily inferior to the Obsidian Wood version!"

I gave myself and all the little wood spirits who were about to start work a pep talk, and everyone was in high spirits and ready to get started immediately.

The spirit wood, which had been processed by the Ge family villagers, was sent into the Hundred Blades Puppet, a puppet he had specially created to improve the efficiency of puppet making.

At first glance, it looks like a wooden stick with a dense array of swords stuck in it, covered by a thick black iron shield.

That is indeed the case.

This puppet has no ability to act independently; it is purely a tool for creating puppets.

He added material runes to increase its hardness, gold runes to increase its sharpness, and then combat skill runes, allowing him to unleash a yellow-level combat skill called "Summon Blade Storm" on the spot. The swords and blades became phantoms, greatly increasing the efficiency of cutting and mixing materials.

He specially developed three or four kinds of such puppet-making tools. The distorted and obese armored war bears were the forging puppets he used to swing hammers and smash iron. The second-tier phoenix of the bionic fire phoenix was the fire-burning puppet he used to smelt materials.

To do a good job, one must first have the right tools. It took him a lot of effort to make these tool puppets, but the resulting increase in efficiency was well worth it.

Watching the large and small wood spirits shuttle back and forth, the tool puppets made a series of noises.

This vibrant scene reminded him of his past life working in a factory, except that in his past life he was a laborer, while now he was a capitalist.

"Having lived two lives, one has transcended social classes. So, in that sense, the previous life wasn't a wasted death?"
The most unscrupulous capitalists only show up when they're counting their money at the end.

Su Qing hasn't reached that level yet.

Because he still had to participate in the process of making the puppets.

Personally draw runes for the puppet!
Through the efforts of the villagers of Gejia Village and other basic laborers, the auxiliary puppets such as the large and small wood spirits, and the tool puppets such as the stirring puppets and the fire-starting puppets.

On the puppet-refining platform on the second floor, a dragon-snake tree spirit, about twenty feet tall, with wildly growing branches and hundreds of limbs, appeared before Su Qing.

Su Qing had already prepared the appropriate talisman water and was about to begin the final step.

With six hands holding three brushes, he immediately began drawing three third-tier runes simultaneously.

First, biomimetic runes allow it to repent and start anew as a tree.

Secondly, the intelligent runes enable it to hear and see clearly, and to have a clear mind.

Thirdly, the materials and runes allow them to unleash their potential and become physically strong.

"You started with a second-grade mortal rune of the third rank. You're really lucky, kid. You wouldn't have such good fortune if you fell into the hands of any first or second-tier puppeteer in the Western Sea!"

Su Qingliu was busy as a bee, but he didn't forget to enlighten Zhimu Ling, telling it to be sensible. He had given it such good treatment, and if it didn't behave well later, he wouldn't blame him for being ruthless in urging it to quit!
After advancing to the Foundation Establishment stage, drawing third-tier runes became much smoother and easier than before.

As for the two dual-wielding hands, since they are powered by spirit stones, as long as his divine sense is not tired, he can control these two puppets for a long time without them feeling tired.

Thus, they painted from day to night.

The three-dimensional, third-tier runes are all complete!
The biomimetic runes caused the Wisdom Wood Spirit to completely transform into a Dragon-Snake Wood Spirit.

The main trunk soars into the clouds, its branches twist and turn like dragons, and its dense growth resembles a swarm of pythons.

Once it moves, the roots that are firmly planted in the ground beneath the main stem burst forth from the surface, transforming into countless fine tentacles that enable it to move at high speed and with agility.

Leave the dragon and snake tree undisturbed for now, so as not to frighten the guests downstairs.

Let's take a look at the effects of the third-tier smart runes.

Although assigning personality attributes to puppets can cause some problems due to their individual personality flaws, they are not as useful as ruthless puppets in the short term.

However, puppets with personalities are more likely to develop self-awareness, becoming living puppets capable of self-cultivation, self-development, and being recognized by heaven and earth.

The story of how Xiong Er, a Buddhist bear, rose from an ordinary armored war bear that had been phased out of the puppet system, to a working bear is extremely inspiring.

This also made him willing to give other puppets this opportunity.

Because the dragon-snake wood spirit has a twisted and strange appearance, it cannot be too unconventional in personality, lest it be mistaken for an evil spirit and attacked when it appears in the future.

"I am the master of the Wood Spirit servants, and the servant of my master. I am willing to lead my servants to fight on the battlefield for my master, to be the first to charge and to be the general who cuts down the flag."

"We, the Wood Spirits, are invincible!"

It has a strong sense of belonging to the Wood Spirit clan. Although it is more like a Strength Wood Spirit than a Wisdom Wood Spirit, it is just a small accident in the puppet-making process and is acceptable.

Su Qing nodded silently, then looked at the other benefits that the Dragon-Snake Wood Spirit gained from the intelligent runes.

Upon seeing it, he smiled with appreciation for the puppet.

"He has the ability to lead, which can relieve the pressure on my divine sense. He can not only help me control thousands of wood spirit servants, but also control three to five hundred other puppets below the second rank."

"Dragon and Snake, be patient for now. When I rise up, you will surely have your chance to lead an army and achieve great merit!"

"As you command, Master, I will train my men and horses well and live up to your expectations!" All of my branches withdrew, and my main trunk bent slightly.

After only one bow, the second-tier spirit house that Su Qing bought, Su Ji Xiao Lou, began to shake violently, startling the guests on the first floor into a panic.

Su Qing, however, had no time to care about them at the moment.

As the first dragon-snake wood spirit that could help him share the burden of his divine sense and control low-level puppets.

Its appearance was of epoch-making significance to him.

His spiritual strength is now comparable to that of a cultivator who has just entered the Golden Core stage.

Due to the bonuses from the Puppet Master profession, the number of puppets that can be manipulated is even greater than that of a Golden Core cultivator.

But ordinary Golden Core cultivators don't know how to make puppets, let alone so many puppets!
There are so many puppets that my divine sense is never enough!
In order to maximize the value of his divine sense, he has been carrying out necessary layoffs and optimizations for some time now.

For example, he had already eliminated a batch of the original annihilation puppets and replaced them with the stronger Falcon King puppets.

Characters like the Dual-Blade Lizard, the standard Lizard Rider, the Armored War Bear, and even the Hammer War Bear have been phased out of the puppet lineup.

These first-tier puppets, especially the first-tier ultimate puppets, are not as useful as second-tier puppets, but they are still the result of his hard work, and it would be a great pity to let them gather dust in his storage bag.

Having this dragon-snake wood spirit to help him share some of the burden would be excellent.

The intelligent runes were unexpectedly good, which also made him understand why the Wisdom Wood Spirit was called "Wisdom".

It is a type of puppet that can help puppeteers expand their puppet arsenal and command lower-level puppets.

He delegated control of all the large and small wood spirits to the dragon and snake wood spirits, and his divine sense relaxed.

Seeing that the Dragon Serpent Wood Spirit could still withstand it, he gave it thirty Extreme Lizard Knights and one hundred Enhanced Lizard Knights.

This dragon-snake puppet became his first leader puppet capable of leading troops.

After seeing the surprises of smart runes, let's take a look at material runes.

Tier 3 runes can bring out the full potential of Tier 1 and Tier 2 materials.

The biomimetic abilities of the Spirit Wood and the inherent talents within the Dragon and Snake Leaves have all had their potential fully explored by the material runes.

In addition, the Heavenly Spirit Gold coated the entire body of the Dragon-Snake Wood Spirit with a golden film, giving it the ability to mitigate damage. Of course, it is not obvious at the moment, and the effect will be more significant after drawing third-tier damage reduction runes.

The properties of the Blood Spirit Crystal were also absorbed by the Dragon-Snake Wood Spirit. Now that it is rooted in the ground, it can absorb the essence blood on the battlefield to replenish itself through its root system.

To be able to compete with evil spirits like Gao Erqiang for food, you have to say how powerful he is!

Because the Dragon-Snake Wood Spirit was so promising, Su Qing decided to give it the opportunity to become a five-star leader.

The fourth rune is naturally a damage reduction rune; as a leader, one cannot afford to die easily.

His original plan was to inscribe weapon runes on the fifth third-tier rune.

The Lin family's previous Eight-Armed Demon King only had eight weapons at most. With his extraordinary talent as a Dragon-Snake Wood Spirit, he should be able to wield even more weapons with so many hands!

But after he saw that the Dragon-Snake Wood Spirit had the ability to regenerate severed arms, he changed his mind again.

It's definitely not because he's reluctant to part with hundreds or thousands of weapons!

He applied a Tier 3 Spirit Explosion Rune to the Dragon Serpent Wood Spirit!

He was looking forward to the moment when his opponent severed his dragon-serpent branch hand, only to have to endure the damage from its spirit explosion.

It's insidious and vicious.

But he didn't mind, nor did the Dragon Serpent Wood Spirit, and presumably his opponents wouldn't mind either.

(End of this chapter)