Immortality begins with meditation puppets

Chapter 460 Nine-Headed Exploding Dragon Puppet, Puppet of Tender Affection
The wages of avarice is death.

Su Qing was certain that the Land of Despair offered an opportunity for a new life.

Those two cloud dragons and the Lingbao sword cultivators smuggled themselves into this Land of No Breath to play. Could the 17th brother have gone there just to play?

Although he was taken there by someone, let's say the 17th brother, who was transformed from the Daoist pattern of seeking profit, is there at this moment?
With this treasure-hunting beacon, not only will there be opportunities in the Land of Despair, but these opportunities will be substantial!

Is Su Qing's journey to the Land of No Return solely for this opportunity?

Yes and no!

Admittedly, the known treasure ship of the Prisoner Ox alone was extremely tempting to him, not to mention the other opportunities within it.

However, Su Qing's situation today is very different from before. Although the Qiuniu Treasure Ship is related to whether he can collect the Nine Dragon Ships and then refine the fifth-order puppet True Dragon Puppet, for him, it may be the fastest way to compete with Erqiang to see who is stronger. Possessing the power of the fifth-order Nascent Soul level, he can make great strides in the early stage of this great calamity and is not afraid of being tricked by the fifth-order ancestors of any sect or clan.

However, Su Qing himself would refuse to risk going to that place where he was almost certain to die just for the sake of this Treasure Ship of the Prisoner of the Ox.

The Prisoner's Treasure Ship is good, and the True Dragon Puppet is wonderful. With his skills, he can refine puppets step by step and urge the meditating doll to cultivate in a consistent manner. In as little as ten years or as long as a hundred years, he may be able to refine a fifth-order puppet and advance to the fifth-order Nascent Soul stage.

In short, the bigger the waves, the more valuable the fish. In the past, Su Qing was just a small, broken boat, so he would take a risk and gamble. But now he is a luxurious treasure ship, and the bigger the waves, the less willing he is to take risks!

It was a pity that Master Tong had calculated again and again with the crystal ball, saying that Tong Chang had no other choice this time. Even though he knew that the place of death was extremely dangerous, he still had to go there.

Su Qing was no different. In recent days, he had used the Nine Li Zhu You Technique, mixed with the Heavenly Master Dao Pattern, and struck the heavens and earth with his head several times. The result was always the same: Su Qing really had no choice but to go to this Land of No Breath!
"According to the calculations of the Zhuyou Hammering Technique, if this place of death is left unattended, a calamity may occur that will affect the entire Western Sea, causing countless deaths and injuries, and I, Su Qing, will certainly be among them, because the Dao patterns on my body are an incomparably delicious delicacy in the eyes of any evil spirit!"

Su Qing's brows furrowed, and he was also very irritable. Cultivation was for the purpose of longevity. He was already a Nascent Soul cultivator, with more than ten million years of lifespan remaining. However, he was like a wound-up toy, with one deadly thing after another happening. If he died but still had his lifespan left, that would be a tragedy!
Even more tragically, he not only has a long lifespan left, but he has also accumulated quite a few spirit stones over this period of time.

There are over 14 million of them!

"It's a pity we're at sea right now, and there's nowhere to spend money along the way. Otherwise, even if we were to waste these spirit stones at a place like Red Sleeve Pavilion, we would never let them benefit someone else after we die!"

Bah! What do you mean by "die"! That Land of Despair only has two Nascent Soul Cloud Dragons, four true disciples of the Spirit Treasure Sect sword cultivators, and the remnant souls of ancient dragons that may awaken, as well as countless high-ranking demons who have escaped from confinement and been suppressed by many ancient dragons for many years, with heavy resentment and strong baleful aura!

Is this difficult to handle?

That's too difficult to handle!

Su Qing knew that the best time to deal with the high-ranking demons who might escape from the Land of Despair was now, while they had only recently escaped and the four demons had not yet recovered their former strength. He needed to strike them hard in the heart. If he waited for them to scatter and plunder the life essence of living beings throughout the Western Sea, then unless there was a powerful and intelligent true dragon in the mortal world to help suppress them, the current Western Sea Penglai Thousand Islands, including Su Qing and his gang, truly had no power to turn the tide!

But how can we solve this?
The good news is that because he carries Dao patterns, when he goes into the mist, he doesn't need to actively seek out and kill the demons; the demons will come to him on their own.

The bad news is that he's the bait the angler throws out; it's sure to attract fish, but whether he'll actually catch them or whether the bait will be eaten is uncertain.

That's how things are. Although Su Qing felt very upset, she could only focus on dealing with it.

"Based on all the intelligence, the main adversaries of the Land of Despair are the many high-ranking demons who were suppressed by the ancient dragons in the past. Their numbers should correspond to the Nine Dragon Ships. Or it is these nine high-ranking demons who corrupted the Four Imperial Dao Pattern True Dragon Dao Patterns and divided them into nine, transforming them into the Nine Pirate King Ships. They used Qiuniu to remotely control the other eight pirate king ships, allowing these eight pirate king ships to plunder the blood and energy of living beings outside, in order to support the demons inside to fight against the ancient dragon seal!"
I wonder how many demons have broken free. If all nine come at once, I can't handle it. And what about the remnants of those ancient dragon souls? If they haven't been corrupted, having them as support would be alright. But if they have been corrupted, then the difficulty will be much greater!

Su Qing paced back and forth in the puppet-making room, pondering the opponents he might encounter on this trip, and then he began to consider the strength of his own faction.

"Old Master Tong is unfathomable. Since he dared to board my ship and take the initiative to go to that place of no breath, he must have something to rely on. He must have obtained some unknown benefits in the Celestial Master's Ruins and is carrying some good treasures left to him by the Four Celestial Masters of ancient times!"
If the two cloud dragons and the Lingbao sword cultivator were to meet in other places, it would be uncertain whether they would be enemies or friends. However, if they were to meet in that Land of Despair, facing the ancient demons who are the common enemy of all living beings, they would likely stand with me, or perhaps I could borrow their strength.

As for the two True Immortals, Subduing Dragon and Tiger, in such a high-level situation as the Land of Despair, their role without wearing the Styx Robes is just as that Spirit Treasure Sword Cultivator said. It's best for them to stay outside, lest they go in and be of no help but become blood bags for the demons. If they were wearing the Styx Robes…”

Su Qing shivered involuntarily, making up his mind that once they reached the Land of Despair, he would send the Dragon-Taming Tigers on their way and part ways with his brothers who were willing to risk their lives to play with snakes.

After this deliberation, he realized that his side was not entirely incapable of fighting.

"That's true. If it were truly a situation where there was no chance of survival, Heaven's instructions would not have sent me and Old Daoist Tong to this place to die!"

For me, the key to this trip is rescuing Brother 260!

To be precise, Brother 260 doesn't need to be saved. With his ability to avoid disasters, even if the sky were to fall, he would just happen to fall into the pit. It is Su Qing who must reunite with Brother 260, just like when he led Brother 260 out of Baiyun Immortal City back then. He must bring this mascot to cross this Land of No Return again!
"In terms of strength, I just broke through to the fourth level of Nascent Soul. The smoke from the meditation dolls makes it difficult for me to make further breakthroughs in my cultivation. Alas, each version has its own god. In the last version, a fourth-level Nascent Soul cultivator was a giant. How come I'm already falling behind the version now that I've broken through to the fourth level of Nascent Soul!"

Su Qing shook his head in frustration, having no time to complain about fate, and simply took out two ghost and god masks from his storage bag.

"The judge of the underworld and the prison-guarding god, wearing these two masks, can no longer be human and become a god. However, I have no incense or divine power. Wearing these ghost and god masks consumes my own merit energy every moment. It can only be used for emergencies and cannot be maintained for a long time."

The mask is a good mask, it can give a fourth-level Nascent Soul the power of a fifth-level deity, but it is too detrimental to one's merit. Su Qing kept the Ghost God Mask close to his body so that he could take it out whenever needed. So what if it detrimental to merit? It's better than losing his life.

"Besides these two ghost masks, which possess fifth-tier power, if I were to unleash the Nine Li Dao Patterns and wield the Xing Tian Blood Axe as the Great Witch of the Nine Li, I could also unleash a small portion of its power. It would also have fifth-tier power against demons. However, I do not have the inexhaustible essence of heaven and earth within my body, and the essence required to wield this axe must be supplied by the alchemy furnace. I wonder how many times the hundreds of third and fourth-tier demon cores I have prepared will be enough for this blood axe to lash out!"

The Blood Axe is indeed a good Blood Axe; it can penetrate the defenses and increase damage against evil spirits and demons. However, it is too taxing on the body. Su Qing is not Xing Tian, ​​nor even Jiu Li; he only has a fourth-tier body. If he wants to use this axe to unleash the power of the fifth tier blood, he can only take pills and rely on external aids. "Unfortunately, the many fifth-tier treasures I obtained from the Heavenly Talisman Palace cannot be refined into fifth-tier puppets in a short time. Apart from this Ghost God Mask and the Xing Tian Blood Axe, I have no other reliance comparable to the fifth tier."

There are quite a few fourth-tier puppets, including the Four Great Demon Gods, Xiong Er, Hu Dan, Yu Long Wu, and others, totaling seven or eight. These puppets can all play a certain role in the Land of Despair, but they are unlikely to be the decisive force in determining the outcome!

Su Qing knew that the eight Nine-Dragon Ships and these fourth-tier puppets allowed him to speak with authority in front of Penglai and Thousand Islands, but their effectiveness would be extremely limited when facing the high-ranking demons in the Land of Despair.

"We can't create a fifth-tier puppet for now, but we can refine a couple of functional puppets!"

Su Qing's expression hardened, and he no longer cared about cherishing the materials. He took out all the precious materials and the corpses of the two fourth-tier exotic beasts, the Nine-Headed Flood Dragon and the Black Ape King, from his storage bag.

Looking at the nine-headed dragon, whose body was covered with dragon scales and which was already exuding a bit of dragon might, it was only one step away from transforming into a dragon.

Su Qing couldn't help but feel sorry for it; this dragon was useless in life, but it should have been of great use after it died.

Just as it was born at the wrong time and was ruined by Su Qing before it could live a good life, after its death, Su Qing originally planned to find some good materials to make it into a puppet of the fourth-order limit level. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to slowly figure it out.

He now needs to make the nine-headed dragon work!
"Even if crudely made from its corpse, it can still possess fourth-order power. However, ordinary fourth-order puppets are of little help to me. To make it effective, I need to refine it into a spirit explosion puppet!"

Fourth-tier divine beast type spirit explosion puppet!
Su Qing was truly going all out this time, actually willing to use the rare fourth-tier dragon-type demon beast corpse as a one-time spirit explosion puppet.

"The corpse of the nine-headed dragon alone could fetch five or six million spirit stones at any auction. Add to that the talismanic water and various precious materials I'm about to put into it, and this explosion could wipe out seven or eight million spirit stones in a flash!"

My heart is bleeding!

But that's the only way!
A fifth-order being, belonging to the realm of gods!
He wanted to create a method to target fifth-order gods in a short period of time. Creating gods out of thin air would certainly come at a price.

In his plan, he intended to refine this nine-headed dragon into a nine-headed exploding dragon puppet!

This Exploding Dragon Puppet will have a large number of exploding stone puppets buried in the nine dragon heads. It is decorated with fifth-tier spirit explosion runes to increase its spirit explosion damage, fifth-tier divine beast runes to unleash its dragon might, and newly acquired fourth-tier execution runes to give it the effect of exorcising evil.

Once refined in this way, even without exploding, it possesses power comparable to the Four Great Demon Gods. In battle, it will have seventy to eighty percent of its former abilities. If it is required to self-destruct, it can inflict damage on high-ranking demons comparable to that of a fifth-tier demon!
"To be honest, the Spirit Explosion Rune was developed by me, Su Qing, on my own. There was no such thing in ancient times. The four demons were dazed and confused by the Deep Water Tyrant's blast, which shows that those high-ranking demons also do not know the wonders of this rune. I can definitely use it to my advantage to trick them!"

Thinking about how it could be used to trick people, Su Qing suddenly didn't feel so heartbroken anymore. Following the blueprints he had drawn up long ago, he began to refine the Nine-Headed Exploding Dragon Puppet step by step.

When it comes to crafting spirit explosion puppets, Su Qing would not be modest to say that he is invincible in all the heavens and myriad realms. In just three days, the nine-headed explosion dragon puppet that he had placed high hopes on was completed by him, and he solemnly placed it in a special storage bag and marked it.

His gaze fell upon the Black Ape King, who was so majestic in life and whose power remained even in death, his eyes wide open like copper bells, refusing to close even in death.

This Black Ape King may have originally been just an ordinary water monkey, but after it gained the favor of the Great Sage Who Overturns the Sea, it became no longer an ordinary water monkey.

He received the empowerment of the Great Sage Who Overturns the Sea and had his essence and blood alter his aptitude, making him a unique species among monkeys, seemingly showing a tendency to evolve into the ancient great demon Wuzhiqi.

Su Qing originally intended to modify it into a fourth-tier water-controlling puppet, which could replace special forces puppets and perform underwater special missions such as reconnaissance, treasure hunting, searching, and bomb planting.

But for now.

He was even willing to refine the nine-headed dragon into a spirit-exploding puppet!
This Black Ape King has to explode!
It seems that since it burned its own body for its master, the Great Sage Who Covers the Sea, before it died, it should also self-destruct its remaining body for its current master after death.

Compared to the Nine-Headed Flood Dragon, who was born into wealth and status, Su Qing only needed to unleash its physical potential to create the Nine-Headed Exploding Dragon Puppet. The Black Ape King, on the other hand, achieved his later success only through a combination of guidance from a benefactor and his own hard work.

Its special feature lies in the fact that it received the empowerment and teachings from the Great Sage Who Overturned the Sea, and cultivated day and night to acquire the supernatural powers of Heaven and Earth and the past and future staff techniques.

Therefore, Su Qing's focus in refining this puppet was on how to combine its strengths to unleash the power of the spirit explosion rune.

After several hours of revising and rewriting on the blueprints, a fourth-tier combat tool-type spirit explosion puppet named "Tender Affection Puppet" was finally born.

The power of this puppet lies in its ability to range from tiny as hairs on a cow to massive as a mountain. Once it locks onto an opponent, it will relentlessly pursue them, using past and future staff techniques to entangle them until it is captured and annihilated, unleashing its most intense and unrestrained power.

By creating these two fourth-tier spirit explosion puppets, he undoubtedly gained two more trump cards to deal with fifth-tier Nascent Soul cultivators and high-ranking demons.

But that's not enough!
With a few days left...

He wondered if he should make the inspiration doll first.

The land of desolation is affected by the ancient calamity energy, and the heavenly secrets are in chaos. Whether it is him or Tong Laodao, they will be at a loss if they go there. Su Qing is really worried if he does not prepare a powerful reconnaissance method. As someone who often schemes against others, he does not want to be schemed against by others!

(End of this chapter)