Immortality begins with meditation puppets

As a puppet, Xiong Er was the one who made Su Qing's life easier.

Since it was created, it has developed the good habit of bringing things home from outside. As it grew older, it took the initiative to go out and set up a stall to sell goods and earn money to support its family. After accumulating some start-up capital, it did not indulge in lavish eating and drinking like other puppets or people. Instead, it used its resources to start a money lending business, eventually opening Xiong Er Money House, which became the largest money house in the Tianyuan Realm and made great contributions to the construction of the Kaiyuan Immortal Kingdom.

Who wouldn't feel pain and love such a puppet?

Su Qing's love for Xiong Er even surpassed that for Hu Dan. If viewed from the perspective of a parent, he treated Hu Dan like a father would treat his son, hoping he would be independent and responsible, allowing him to participate in the fiercest battles and grow the fastest in those battles.

He treated Xiong Er like a daughter, taking great care of her and keeping her by his side. He would not let Xiong Er go to the battlefield unless he was in dire straits and could not protect himself.

Looking at the past few years, Tiger Egg has undergone nearly a hundred major repairs and upgrades, while Bear Two has hardly received any major repairs or maintenance, except for the routine upgrades he gives it each time his puppeteer skills improve. This shows the difference in how he treats Tiger Egg and Bear Two, and the treatment they receive from him.

As of now, Tiger Egg is cultivating alone at the Lingbao Sect. Su Qing is uncertain about its future achievements, but in the short term, he will not let Tiger Egg do anything to distract him. He will give it absolute freedom to pursue its own sword path.

However, Xiong Er was different. As one of his most important right-hand men, Xiong Er was indispensable to both him and the Kaiyuan Immortal Kingdom.

In the Kaiyuan Immortal Kingdom, the financial system dominated by Xiong Er Money House is an important pillar for the vigorous development of the various industries in the Kaiyuan Immortal Kingdom. The lives and fortunes of countless cultivators are now tied to Xiong Er Money House. The operation of this money house cannot tolerate the slightest mistake. If the slightest accident occurs, the current development of the Kaiyuan Immortal Kingdom will immediately stagnate or even regress by decades.

For Su Qing, the Buddhist fortune carried by Xiong Er is the best way for him to gain influence over the Buddhist sects of the heavens. Don't look at the current state of Buddhism, which is in decline and far from its former glory when it rivaled the Xuanmen in ancient times. After the ancient demonic calamity when the demonic Buddhas broke through Mount Ling and killed all the Buddhas into silence, Buddhism has not recovered to this day. In the present world, it is completely incomparable to the Daoist sect.

But even a broken ship has three thousand nails. No matter how desolate Buddhism is, it was once a top-tier lineage that, along with Taoism, held the reins of the Xuanmen (mysterious sect). With the revival of Tianyuan in this era, these Buddhist and Taoist disciples are very likely to rise up and revive Buddhism in all the heavens and myriad realms of Tianyuan.

As for the various sects in the heavens, because of the conflict between Buddhism and Taoism in the past, they have always been indifferent to Buddhism. They only restrained their murderous intent and did not take action against Buddhism because of the importance of the unity of all living beings in resisting demons. But to expect them to provide any support to Buddhism is a pipe dream and is simply impossible.

For Su Qing, however, there was no such concern. To date, no one could define which sect, clan, or clan he belonged to.

In terms of his origins, he is undoubtedly human and should stand on the side of human interests. However, his ambiguous relationships with the Witch Clan and the Dragon Clan raise doubts about the purity of his bloodline. Furthermore, in the competition for the Human Emperor's throne, some competitors have questioned whether he will consider issues and distribute benefits from the perspective of human beings when he becomes the future Human Emperor.

From a standpoint perspective, he established the Kaiyuan Immortal Kingdom, just like Shi Lijing and Gao Erqiang, all of whom were newly rising overlords of Tianyuan, representing the interests of the local heroes of Tianyuan. However, he was also the sect leader of Taiyi Sect and the Supreme Elder of Snail Emperor Sect. At times, he also had to speak up for the sects of the heavens and even took on the job of acting as the Heavenly Emperor. At certain times, he needed to set aside all his stances and consider the overall interests of heaven and earth and all living beings.

In terms of lineage, he is clearly the most outstanding in the art of puppetry. However, no one can say who or what school he studied under. Of course, nowadays, he is the most outstanding person in the art of puppetry in all the heavens and myriad realms, a leader, and no one cares about his lineage anymore. However, his performance in the art of magic cultivation and body cultivation cannot be ignored. Like in the art of puppetry, his lineage is also unclear. In fact, some people now doubt whether he has ever cultivated at all, as if he was born with knowledge. Even though he has not put time and energy into cultivation, his strength always makes a breakthrough every once in a while, which is astonishing.

With too many factions, unclear stances, unknown identities, and unclear lineages, it's like having too many lice and not feeling the itch. It doesn't seem abrupt at all for him, this unclear and ambiguous person, to go and befriend Buddhist forces.

He may be willing to befriend the Buddhist community, but the Buddhist community may not accept him. Therefore, Xiong Er from the Buddhist community is an excellent intermediary.

Through Xiong Er's control over the Buddhist fortune and the right to interpret scriptures, he entrusted Xiong Er with the task of transforming and influencing Buddhist cultivators, so that Buddhism could become one of his forces in reforming the cultivation world in the future.

Thus, Xiong Er's importance was greatly enhanced. To prevent any mishaps, Su Qing even arranged a luxurious lineup of eighteen shadow guards for him during his sermons, allowing him to carry out his sermons with ease and composure in most Buddhist realms.

Now, Xiong Er has perfectly completed his mission, spreading the concepts of the Kaiyuan Immortal Kingdom throughout the Buddhist realms. Just as Xiong Er said in his divine message, he does not seek immediate results, but only hopes that they will bear fruit one day.

As long as the main task is completed, things like how Xiong Er extorts and demands bribes within the Buddhist Realm are minor issues that he doesn't care about. The Buddhist sects in the Heavens are even worse than the Daoist sects in the Heavens. These are Buddhist cultivators who are utterly devoid of all vices, whom even the ancient Spirit Mountain was unwilling to accept. They were all fat and bloated in ancient times, and during the great calamity of antiquity, they fled far away from the Heavens. If they weren't still useful, Su Qing would have simply eliminated them, let alone taken anything from them.

While he was pondering, he heard an intelligent servant carrying a tray enter. On the tray were the Buddhist treasures that Xiong Er had presented to him.

"Those who know understand that this is Xiong Er's way of showing respect to its master, but those who don't might think that I conspired with it to plunder the entire Buddhist realm and then divide the spoils afterward!"

Su Qing shook his head and chuckled. He didn't care about the things covered by the red cloth on the tray. With his current status, strength, and power, there were very few things in the myriad worlds that could catch his eye. He didn't think that the few things on the tray could be worth his attention.

The size of the gift reflects Xiong Er's goodwill, and whatever it is, it's a token of his respect. I should still take a look.

Upon lifting the red cloth, my mind was immediately jolted.

On the tray, under the red cloth, there was nothing else but three bright red, radiant Bodhi fruits!
"It's as if even Heaven doesn't want me to cultivate on my own. The Bodhi fruit that I've been longing for has actually fallen into my hands in this way. I myself wouldn't believe it if Heaven and Earth hadn't helped me!"

With the Bodhi Fruit, the Enlightenment Doll could begin refining, greatly accelerating its own progress on the path of cultivation. The Kaiyuan Immortal Kingdom's mission to lead the current cultivation trend could also begin as soon as possible. Everything was developing in the direction Su Qing had hoped for; how could he not be overjoyed?

While overjoyed, he also realized that the three Bodhi fruits had been obtained in a strange way.

According to Xiong Er, he obtained this Bodhi fruit from a Buddhist temple in the heavens. This temple was not very popular and had few monks. There were only three monks in total, including the senior monk and the junior monk. The senior monk was drowsy and looked like an old man who might fall asleep at any time. The senior monk was tall and strong and had the ability of a sixth-level body cultivator. However, he was a little dull and did not seem very smart. In fact, he was not very smart when he got to know him. The junior monk had bright eyes, was naturally intelligent, had a high level of Buddhist enlightenment, and had a lot of Buddhist nature.

These three monks together constituted the entire staff of the temple called Little Confused Temple. The invitation to Xiong Er to give a sermon was made by the old monk, who wanted to give sermons to the young monks. Because they were not well-known and their numbers were too small, the Buddhist realm had not even remembered to record their information when inviting Xiong Er to tour and give sermons. It was the old monk who sent the senior monk to Xiong Er with a foolish yet sincere attitude to invite him to their Little Confused Temple.

Just like when Xiong Er was setting up a stall to lend money, he treated everyone equally and did his best to do his job well, regardless of whether you were rich or poor or powerful. As long as you were his customer and within his business scope, he would do his best to do the business well.

Therefore, after arriving at Xiaohutu Temple, it treated the young monk the same way it did other major Buddhist temples and realms, explaining Buddhist scriptures in a simple and easy-to-understand way. The young monk absorbed Buddhist knowledge like a sponge, and his cultivation level visibly increased and broke through. After one lecture, his cultivation level jumped from the second-level Buddhist cultivation to the fifth-level Buddhist cultivation. The speed of his improvement amazed even Xiong Er, the lecturer bear. He immediately used this as a typical case of successful lectures and often inadvertently brought up this case when giving lectures in other Buddhist realms. Invisibly, this played a key role in making the young monk famous throughout the heavens.

This Little Confused Temple was the only realm where even Xiong Er himself was too embarrassed to ask them for gifts. In the end, however, they took the initiative to give Xiong Er five priceless Bodhi fruits. Xiong Er ate two of them himself and gave the remaining three to his master.

"Little Confused Temple? I wonder if they're really confused or just pretending, to come up with such a name for a temple!"

Su Qing said in a low voice, but he knew very well that a force that could casually produce five Bodhi fruits could not be as simple as it appeared.

In ancient times, the Bodhi tree was controlled by the Buddhist sect of Mount Ling. Only Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who were valued by the Buddha could obtain a Bodhi fruit. They either had sufficient strength and status or great achievements and potential. In short, not just anyone was worthy of enjoying this thing.

This little confused temple took five coins at once, and who knows how many more he had in his hands. This gives us a glimpse into how much the Buddha favored him in ancient times.

Even if such a power were to fall into obscurity, it would never be as obscure as it is now, with no one in the heavens knowing anything about its lineage or origins.

Su Qing guessed that this temple must have powerful cultivators or unpredictable methods such as magical treasures and secret techniques, making it impossible for others to see its origins. Such actions meant either that the monks possessed great secrets or had grand schemes. In short, Xiao Hutu Temple was not confused at all, and the three monks were definitely not simple.

"Speaking of Xiao Hutu Temple, it reminds me of an old friend. The Xiao Hutu Immortal in the Heavenly Talisman Hall was my pen pal for many years, sending me numerous Daoist books and scriptures. He had extremely high attainments in Xuanmen Daoist arts and Daoist lineage. Occasionally, a few words from him could have an enlightening effect. I originally thought he must be a high disciple of the three major Daoist sects, such as the Yuanshi Sect and the Taishang Sect. However, after interacting with the younger generation of cultivators from these three sects, I still couldn't tell who he was. Now that I think about it, is he actually a monk practicing Daoism, a dual cultivation of Buddhism and Daoism?"

Su Qing suspected that the little monk who had benefited greatly from Xiong Er's chanting was likely the Little Fool Immortal who had been helping him throughout his years of cultivation!

"He helped me achieve enlightenment, and I helped him achieve it with Xiong Er. If that's the case, then it's a matter of give and take, a perfect match of cause and effect, which is wonderful and excellent!"

Su Qing nodded and smiled slightly, not intending to delve into the background of this Little Confused Immortal, nor to thoroughly investigate this Little Confused Temple.

It's rare to be muddle-headed in worldly affairs, and he also handles Buddhist matters casually, without forcing anything.

For him now, the most urgent thing is to make use of the three Bodhi fruits he has as soon as possible.

"Three Bodhi Fruits can theoretically produce three Enlightenment Dolls, but I have only recently advanced to the seventh-tier puppeteer level and have only just successfully crafted the Lingxiao Palace Puppet, a seventh-tier puppet. The success rate for seventh-tier puppets has not yet been improved. If I rashly start crafting, there is no guarantee that there will be a risk of failure!"

For puppeteers, failure is commonplace when crafting puppets. It's not uncommon for a puppeteer to lose everything by creating a single puppet. Therefore, most puppeteers approach the crafting of new puppets with extreme caution, fearing that a single misstep or incomplete mastery of a particular rune could lead to utter failure and devastating losses.

For Su Qing, with the proficiency system at his side, he has gradually become less worried about puppetry over the years. He can easily handle fifth-tier puppets and is almost certain to master sixth-tier puppets. But now, when he encounters a seventh-tier puppet, he still has to be as cautious as other puppeteers.

Because the materials used to refine this Enlightenment Doll are too rare, unlike other materials, even if the refinement fails, at most you will lose some money and you can always save up and have a second chance. The materials used to refine the Enlightenment Doll, Bodhi Fruit, Innate Spirit Essence, and Innate Body, are the three core materials. If they are lost, they are truly lost. It is very difficult for him to make up for them, at least in the short term.

The consequences of a failed attempt to create the puppet are significant, but the success of its creation is equally important.

It concerns Su Qing's cultivation progress, the stable development of the Kaiyuan Immortal Kingdom, and even the future direction of all the heavens and myriad realms.

With an excited heart and trembling hands, no matter what, I still have to try to refine it, because the most useless puppeteer in the world is the one who is afraid of failure and dares not try! (End of Chapter)