Immortality begins with meditation puppets

Chapter 287 The Earth Tyrant, Leopard Head Gallops!

The witch was unwilling to talk about her past, and Su Qing had no intention of becoming a son-in-law of a celestial family.

Right now, I'm selling myself and my life for the witch.

If you take some materials from her, you don't even need to say thank you.

Having obtained the witch's materials, I also acquired some third-tier materials from the evil spirit in the Lin family's treasury.

Now, the three third-tier demon king brothers have also sacrificed themselves.

Everything is ready; all he needs to do is draw the diagrams and refine the puppet!
It's true that the more Tier 3 puppets the better, but it also depends on whether his spiritual sense can handle it.

"After severing the spiritual connection with conventional puppets such as the Flying Dragon, with my current spiritual strength, apart from Tiger Egg and the Evil Refining Furnace Child, I can control at most two third-tier puppets!"
Furthermore, these first and second-tier spirit explosion puppets also require a portion of one's divine sense to control. Therefore, it would be best to refine one of the third-tier puppets into a spirit explosion puppet. Normally, it wouldn't need activation, and once activated, its divine sense could be immediately freed up after completing its mission!

Because his divine sense was insufficient to maintain five third-tier puppets online simultaneously for an extended period, Su Qing decided, despite the extravagance, to choose one of the three demon king materials to refine a spirit explosion puppet.

Part of the reason is that the power of the Deepwater Tyrant is truly enviable, capable of injuring the sect leader Bai Mei, who is close to the strength of a false infant!
Although a Tier 3 Spirit Explosion Puppet can only tremble once, that one tremor might be enough to decide the outcome of the battle!
He chose the Blackback Bear King.

The reason for choosing this Bear King is simple: its size is large enough to carry enough explosive stone golems. The greater the yield, the stronger the power, a principle that anyone who frequently works with explosives should understand.

They emptied the bear's belly and stuffed it with hundreds or thousands of explosive stone golems until it became a bloated bear, and then they stopped.

He then took out four more Spirit Explosion Rings. These auxiliary Spirit Explosion Puppets have the ability to enhance the power of Spirit Explosions. He attached them to the Gale Cannon and the Flame Cannon, and they shone brightly in the battle of White Cloud Immortal City.

Unlike other spirit explosion puppets that only produce one sound, this one can be reused, making it Su Qing's favorite type of spirit explosion puppet.

Previously, in Baiyun Immortal City, the evil spirits were fierce and the old evil one was ruthless. Now, he is about to break into the Nascent Soul Cave. There are many Golden Core cultivators, and the situation is dangerous. With his current abilities, conventional puppets are difficult to play a role in this level of battlefield. Helplessly, he disregarded the cost and created spirit explosion puppets to the point of exhaustion.

Otherwise, given the energy consumption of the Exploding Stone Golem and the Soul Exploding Lizard, he wouldn't be willing to refine either one.

Shao Delong was happily throwing stones, unaware that each stone golem he threw cost two or three spirit stones. While he was happily throwing stones, Su Qing, the arms supplier, was heartbroken.

Although most of these explosive stones were given to him by Gao Erqiang, what's given to him is his, so saving even one stone is his own!

"In the future, it's best to avoid large-scale conflicts unless absolutely necessary, as they are too expensive!"
"I could definitely go into the arms trade. My spirit explosion puppet, in the midst of that great war between the two sects, anyone who uses it will know how useful it is; I'm sure I won't have to worry about selling it!"

While pondering how to use the Spirit Explosion Puppet to earn spirit crystals and spirit stones, Su Qing placed four Spirit Explosion Rings on the Bear King's four limbs.

Last night, the Bear King brothers cooperated by offering themselves. In order not to disappoint them and to let their crippled bodies do their best, Su Qing even stuffed ten Thunder Serpents into their mouths. It was only because the Bear King's throat was thick enough that they could not be stuffed in.

They stuffed all sorts of spirit-exploding puppets into the Bear King's body until there was no more room left, leaving absolutely no space inside.

Su Qing then stopped, because the spirit explosion puppets were all under his control, so there was no need to worry about them suddenly exploding during the refining process.

Therefore, with a wave of his hand, he confidently allowed the large and small wood spirits to begin mixing the well-stirred explosive stone powder with third-tier earth obsidian to create a spirit explosion coating on the Bear King.

He himself, with all six hands working together, began to concoct various talismanic waters, including fourth-order spirit explosion and fourth-order demon beast talismans.

Both the large and small wood spirits were skilled workers and worked well together with him.

While the talisman water was being prepared, the coating was just finished being applied.

A completely new, even blacker and purer black bear king lay before him, allowing him to apply it as he pleased.

The fourth-tier demon beast runes awakened the Bear King's immense power from its previous life; a single bear hug from it was enough to prevent even a third-tier body cultivator, who prided itself on strength, from breaking free.

The fourth-tier spirit explosion rune caused a coordinated reaction among the spirit explosion puppets buried within its body, generating explosive damage ten times greater than normal. It also granted the ability to control the direction of the spirit explosions and to precisely and controllably self-destruct.

There's no way to upgrade to second-tier intelligent runes. If it were possible, Su Qing would have upgraded to third- or fourth-tier runes. Although the Bear King is a third-tier Bear King and its brain is much larger than that of ordinary demon bears, the contents of its brain are the same as those of other demon bears. It has some things, but not many, and not enough to support third- or fourth-tier intelligent runes.

The fourth-tier material rune, because many first and second-tier spirit explosion puppets were pre-embedded in the Bear King's body, meant that during the refining process, these puppets were already regarded as the constituent materials for refining the Bear King puppet. Drawing this rune can further improve the quality of these materials and their compatibility with the Bear King puppet, making its power even greater when it self-destructs.

The third-tier battle tool rune, the Bear King Puppet, is most powerful when it self-destructs, but Su Qing knows this while others do not. If it is equipped with a warhammer, enemy cultivators may mistake it for a combat puppet. Without any defense, they will be more likely to be hugged by the Bear King Puppet and receive the Bear King's full love.

I'll just draw these five runes; it's a piece of cake. Any more would be a waste.

The process of drawing the runes was thrilling.

Although there are failures with monsters, materials, and runes, at most it's just a waste of time and rune water, so it doesn't really matter.

No one can afford to be careless when it comes to Spirit Explosion runes.

His mastery of this rune is thanks to the explosive materials such as the exploding stones provided by Gao Erqiang. In the past year or two, he has crafted many explosive puppets. With the accumulation of experience and continuous improvement of his proficiency, his proficiency in this rune has reached the third level.

However, Tier 3 is not Tier 4. With Tier 3 proficiency, the success rate of drawing Tier 4 runes is difficult to guarantee.

If the Spirit Burst rune fails, the impact will be far greater than that of other runes.

Bang!
With a loud bang, the spiritual energy inside the cave where he was staying surged and sparks flew everywhere. He was so frightened that he trembled all over and clenched his hands together, using the power of mountains and seas to carefully subdue the turbulent spiritual energy and calm it down one by one.

Otherwise, the surge of spiritual energy generated by the failure of the Spirit Explosion Rune might trigger the Spirit Explosion Coating on the Bear King Puppet. Once the coating explodes, it could cause a chain reaction among all the Spirit Explosion Puppets inside.

Not to mention that Su Qing will be reduced to ashes, not a single one of the demon kings in the Hundred Beast Cave will survive!
At this moment, having eliminated the traitors within the demon race, the demon king brothers were enjoying a relaxed time of drinking and merrymaking.

How could Su Qing bear to let them perish in a puppet disaster? He could only bear the pressure alone, allowing his demon king brothers, sitting on the powder keg, to continue playing music and dancing as if nothing had happened.

With the help of Sheshan Hai, he overcame one failure after another in his attempts to create the Spirit Explosion Rune, and finally got lucky and successfully completed the fourth-tier Spirit Explosion Rune.

By this time, the Bear King Puppet had changed drastically.

Its body is jet black, majestic and imposing, with fiery red eyes and a fiery red heart. No one knows how much surging passion it hides within when it reveals its heart, nor who can bear such passion.

Telling him to restrain himself and not to hug others for the time being, Su Qing put him into her storage bag and put him away. A series of prompts sounded in her mind.

[Successfully crafted a Tier 3 Spirit Explosion-type Monster Puppet—Earth Tyrant. Success rate for crafting this puppet is permanently increased by 20%]

Therefore, the puppet was modified from the Deepwater Tyrant, and the new puppet was not independently developed by the host, so the corresponding blueprints could not be unlocked.

[Transcending Rank Puppetry: Puppet Master Proficiency +1000, Current Puppet Master Proficiency: 5000/5000 (Rank 2)]

[The Puppet Master's realm has been raised to Tier 3, permanently increasing the success rate of crafting all Tier 3 puppets by 10%.]

Please choose one of the following three puppet blueprints.

【One: Sea Patrol Yaksha (Tier 3 High-Grade Puppet)】

【Part Two: Inspiration Doll (Tier 3 Ultimate Puppet)】

【Three: Little Dragon Man (Tier 4 Ultimate Puppet)】

Given the superior user experience of the doll series, Su Qing directly chose the Inspiration Doll.

After glancing at the materials needed to create this doll, he was immediately astonished, thinking to himself that dolls are neither easy to make nor easy to raise, and he didn't know when he would be able to create this inspiration doll.

I put the inspiration doll design into my storage bag and then looked down.

Please choose one of the following runes and upgrade it to Tier 4.

[Material Rune (Tier 3, 878/1000), Weapon Rune (Tier 3, 688/1000), Flight Rune (Tier 3, 466/1000), Divine Beast Rune (Tier 2, 2218/3000)]

This choice requires little hesitation. With the other three runes already at Tier 3, the Divine Beast rune is the best option for maximizing cost-effectiveness.

"Besides, there will be many other places where I will need to use divine beast runes in the future. Among the blueprints that have appeared on the panel, those that I already own or are waiting to choose are several divine beast puppets such as the Crossing Sea Hidden Dragon, the Nether Sea Dragon Kun, the Dragon Island Bixi, and the Heavenly Turbid Bifang. Therefore, mastering fourth-tier divine beast runes will definitely prevent me from falling into the predicament of having no place to use my skills in the future!"

After the information of the fourth-tier divine beast runes entered his mind, it was as if he had obtained it through arduous cultivation.

He nodded in agreement. Thanks to his efforts, the witch no longer had the power to criticize him regarding this rune.

So it's normal for people to be suppressed by others. As long as you have ambition and work hard silently, you will eventually have a chance to suppress others.

Su Qing worked very hard.

Having just finished crafting a third-tier puppet, he didn't even have time to clap and celebrate with Hongshang before focusing all his attention on crafting the next third-tier puppet.

This time, he concocted a Tier 3 Yellow Leopard King.

This demon king is not only eloquent in his jokes, but also very skilled.

Its greatest ability is its lightning speed, which makes sense. If it weren't for the fact that there are victims who can't keep up with its speed, it wouldn't have survived to this day... or even yesterday, given its ability to spread rumors!
However, while they have plenty of speed, they lack the ability to overcome challenges.

It possesses neither the earth-shattering power of the Black Bear King, nor the domineering aura of the Tiger King and Lion King, whose roars shake mountains and rivers and whose claws cleave the heavens and earth.

As a puppeteer, Su Qing never made things difficult for himself or the puppet materials.

Since the Yellow Leopard King is not a puppet designed for direct attacks, it doesn't matter much if he is made into a puppet focused on desperate escapes.

This was only because of the limitations of Huang Baowang's own abilities, not because Su Qing was worried about defeat before the battle even started, or that he was thinking about escaping and betraying his teammates before even entering the cave!

Teammates should indeed be sacrificed when necessary, but what if your teammate is a witch?
"It can be sold even if necessary!"

Once the approach is determined, the drawings are prepared.

Using third-tier earth obsidian mixed with a small amount of third-tier spirit-severing soil and a large amount of second-tier heavenly spirit gold, the yellow leopard is painted into a black leopard, enhancing its defensive, magical, and offensive capabilities.

Without affecting the speed of the Yellow Leopard, four Spirit Explosion Flame Cannons were mounted on the front and back of the leopard to compensate for its lack of combat power.

Using the two second-tier magical artifacts—the Auspicious Cloud Fan and the Wind-Guiding Ring—scavenged from the evil spirits of the pavilion as the main materials, he began to refine the Auspicious Cloud Puppet. The puppet, which guided the wind, was attached to Huang Bao's neck and feet, giving it the ability to summon clouds and wind, making it even faster in the sky and on the ground.

Due to limited time and materials, the modification of the Yellow Leopard King has come to an end.

Because he didn't have much hope for its ability to overcome difficulties, Su Qing even took out the demon core from its body.

Thanks to the contributions of the Lin family, the evil spirits of the pavilion, and his demon king brothers, he now has over a hundred second-tier essence cores and second-tier demon cores in his storage bag, more than enough for his body cultivation needs.

However, he was not an ordinary second-tier body cultivator. Although he had not yet condensed the furnace lid and was unlikely to reach the third-tier body cultivator realm, condensing a tiger-shaped temporary furnace lid while wearing the tiger egg could still enhance his physical physique.

This kind of cultivation has great benefits, allowing him to temper his physical body to the third-level body cultivation level even before he has reached the third level.

However, the consumption is also enormous. The Nine Li's health-preserving effect makes the furnace fire burn frighteningly brightly every day, frantically burning energy for its own use. After the furnace lid is closed, it consumes a second-tier demon core every five days.

In addition, the tiger egg that forms a temporary furnace lid is in a state of combat at all times and requires a second-tier demon core every ten days.

Just for his own cultivation needs, he needs at least ten second-tier demon cores every month. If he were to refine a few third-tier puppets to supply their consumption, it would also be a considerable expense.

Therefore, even though he now has a lot of stock in his storage bag, he should be prepared for the worst and save where he can. The blood and energy contained in a third-tier demon core is equivalent to that of a hundred second-tier demon cores, so it's normal that Su Qing is reluctant to give it to the Yellow Leopard King.

Without the demon core, this puppet would hardly be able to subdue low-level cultivators, resist Golden Core cultivators, or withstand the pressure of third-level body cultivators.

If it were actually crafted, in independent combat, it might only be slightly superior to second-tier ultimate puppets like the Flying Dragon.

However, Su Qing himself was wearing the tiger egg and already possessed the third-level tiger might. Whether or not he had the third-level leopard might to enhance his power was not something he cared much about.

He took out the demon core, had the large and small wood spirits apply a coating to it, equipped it with the Spirit Explosion Flame Cannon, put the wind-guiding ring on the leopard's head, and stood on the auspicious cloud fan.

The main structure of the Yellow Leopard Puppet is complete; all that remains is for him to draw the runes.

Having just acquired a fourth-tier divine beast rune, which is a superior rune among demon beast runes, and having already taken the demon core of the Yellow Leopard King, he was inherently lacking in materials, so he naturally had to upgrade the rune to the best quality.

He didn't know how to make the fourth-tier divine beast talisman water, nor did he have the materials to do so. The only bottle he had was a gift from the witch.

Su Qing did not thank the witch for her generosity. After all, he was prepared to risk his life for her, along with his puppet. No matter how generous she was, she was not as generous as Su Qing.

"If she had any conscience at all, she should have offered herself to me after this matter was over and she became a Nascent Soul cultivator!"

"I wonder when she'll reach the Nascent Soul stage? Normally, it takes three to five hundred years, or even seven to eight hundred years, for a Golden Core cultivator to reach the Nascent Soul stage. Isn't this cultivation time too long?"

Su Qing shook her head as she thought about it, while applying runes to Huang Bao.

As soon as the fourth-tier divine beast runes were drawn on his body, the Yellow Leopard King underwent a dramatic change in appearance.

Its yellow body turned white, and blue wings sprouted from its back. As the blue wings fluttered, the wind surged like a tide inside the cave, and auspicious clouds appeared around its limbs, as if to carry it to the sky.

The Spirit Explosion Flame Cannon, which originally seemed somewhat out of place on his body, has transformed into white leopard bones, ready to spring into cannons at any time and unleash their firepower.

"Is this the divine beast Mengji?" Su Qing exclaimed in surprise as she looked at the leopard puppet whose appearance had changed drastically.

The mythical beast Mengji resembles a leopard, with white markings on its body, and is adept at both running and crouching!
This divine beast is not outstanding among the ancient divine beasts; it cannot compare to the Fire Phoenix, much less to the divine beast Lu Wu.

But it is still a divine beast. Even a lower-level divine beast is considered a higher-level demon beast if it falls into the demon race. Su Qing is not disappointed about this.

Because he had transformed into Meng Ji, the fourth-tier battle equipment, fourth-tier materials, and other runes he had prepared had to be changed.

"Mengji rides the wind and mist, and speed is his strength. Although I don't know the fourth-order extreme speed rune, I can draw a fourth-order air-riding rune for him, so at least his speed in the sky can't be slow."

Meng Ji is skilled in concealment and hiding, so it should be given a fourth-order shadow rune. I currently only have a third-order proficiency in this rune, but if I just blindly try to draw it, even if I fail dozens or hundreds of times, I will eventually succeed.

With these two runes as the rulers, and runes like Illusionary Heart, Materials, and Damage Reduction as subjects, supplemented by second-tier speed runes and second-tier intelligence runes, this puppet should be able to unleash its full potential!

Su Qing was very shrewd. He knew that after taking the Yellow Leopard Pill, the puppet's materials were no longer sufficient to support him in drawing too many fourth-order runes.

The key is to focus on shadows and aerial runes, allowing it to move silently and incredibly fast. That should be enough.

When you're trying to escape, you don't have time to think about anything else.

Because of the limited number of runes, drawing fourth-order shadow runes was somewhat difficult, but with a little more effort, it was eventually possible to complete the crafting.

When he finished refining the third-tier mid-grade puppet—Leopard Head—he unexpectedly received a pleasant surprise.

[Successfully crafted a new type of puppet—Leopard Head Runner (Escape-type Divine Beast Puppet). The success rate of crafting this puppet is permanently increased by 50%.]

[Puppeteer proficiency +10, current proficiency: 13/3000 (Tier 3)]

[Unlock three different types of puppet blueprints.]

【One: Skyrocket - Escape-type bionic puppet (Mid-grade Tier 3)】

【II: Swift Traveler - Escape-type Humanoid Puppet (Tier 3, High Grade)】

【Three: The Mirror Maiden of Three Lifetimes - Escaped Artifact-Type Puppet (Low-Grade Fourth Tier)】

"Unfortunately, there is no third-tier monkey king here to refine this Skyrocket Monkey. Otherwise, with this puppet's ability to break through restrictions and escape, ignoring terrain and environment, and just soaring into the sky, it would be not far from being comparable to the Substitute Doll!"

(End of this chapter)