First Refining of a Lizard Warrior

[Lizard Warrior]

[Type: Biomimetic Combat Puppet]

[Grade: Tier-1 Mid-Grade]

[Function: A puppet capable of understanding its master's complex commands and engaging in combat. Driven by Spirit Crystals, it mimics a Tier-1 Mid-Grade Clawed Demon Lizard. Skilled in lizard combat techniques, it has high attack and weak defense.]

[Required Materials: Spirit-Calling Wood (eight feet three inches), Demon Lizard Claws (two), Mysterious Iron Crystal (15–300 jin), and various other materials.]

[Grade Requirement: Tier-1 High-Grade]

[Rune Requirements: Biomimetic Runes (Tier-2), Intelligence Rune (Tier-2), Immortal Path Rune (Tier-1), Combat Rune (Tier-1).]

[Usage Cost: Daily: 5 Spirit Crystals per day (absorbing moonlight can reduce consumption by 30%). Combat: 5–50 Spirit Crystals, depending on combat expenditure.]

Inside the Puppet Refining Chamber, before beginning, Su Qing looked over the panel's description of the Lizard Warrior once more, making sure he knew it inside out.

The difficulty in refining a Lizard Warrior lay in how well the puppet master had mastered Biomimetic Runes and Intelligence Runes.

Biomimetic Runes determined whether it could imitate the Clawed Demon Lizard's various abilities. The higher the degree of imitation, the more—and stronger—Clawed Demon Lizard abilities it could wield.

Intelligence Runes determined its ability to think independently, allowing it to take appropriate measures according to different environments without requiring additional commands from its master.

Compared to those two types of runes, the Immortal Path Rune—which let it absorb moonlight and slowly recharge, thereby reducing usage costs—and the Combat Rune—which allowed it to slowly grow during battle—had much lower requirements. Whether they were present or not barely affected the success rate of refining puppets.

"Of the four runes, only my Biomimetic Runes meet the standard. The other three are all a full tier short. The success rate for these early attempts is probably going to be painfully moving!"

Su Qing muttered under his breath, readying himself to lose money.

That was how puppet masters were.

When encountering a new puppet, they had to go through a period of investment at the start. The key is, there might not even be stable returns later on.

It was hardly uncommon to pour in a fortune and painstakingly study a puppet, only for the final Success rate to remain unsatisfactory and make profitability impossible.

This is also why, after puppet masters at a given realm had thoroughly mastered two or three types of puppets, they no longer touched New Type of Puppet.

Having only just escaped the poverty line with the Demoness Puppet, Su Qing dared to try a new puppet because as long as he raised his Proficiency, he would be able to steadily produce this type of puppet in the future. Making a profit would be ridiculously easy.

He took out a section of Spirit-Calling Wood and had the Wood Spirit Servants construct the Lizard Warrior's main framework according to the Blueprint.

There was not much technical skill involved in this process. It was much like carving wooden sculptures. The Wood Spirit Servants were small and dexterous, and they handled this sort of work far more delicately than he could.

Nor was he idle.

At the stone table in the center of the courtyard, he began preparing Talisman Water.

The red bottle held Biomimetic Talisman Water. Besides spiritual materials such as Spirit-Calling Wood and Clear Heart Grass, it also contained powder ground from every part of a Clawed Demon Lizard, mixed with demon lizard blood. It smelled entirely of Clawed Demon Lizard—pure, authentic flavor!

The blue bottle held Intelligence Talisman Water, made primarily from the brain fluid of a Tier 2 Demonic Beast and mixed with other spiritual materials.

The white bottle held Immortal Path Talisman Water. Su Qing could not yet prepare this Talisman Water himself, so he had bought it from Hundred Treasures Pavilion at eight Spirit Crystals per bottle.

The purple bottle held Combat Talisman Water. Su Qing could not prepare this Talisman Water either, but someone sold it in the Stall Area. He had purchased several dozen bottles at three Spirit Crystals each. After inspecting them, he found no inferior goods passed off as quality products, and the quality was trustworthy.

He had barely finished preparing the Talisman Water when the Wood Spirit Servants, who did not know how to slack off and worked tirelessly without complaint, had already erected two demon lizard wooden sculptures.

The sculptures stood over eight feet tall. The instant they took shape, their tails began to sway mechanically and their heads to turn. As their lizard mouths opened and closed, two rows of sharp, slender wooden teeth could be seen inside. Their legs moved slowly, producing dull thuds.

This marked the puppet's initial formation. Su Qing did not dare to delay.

Holding a bottle of Intelligence Talisman Water and standing on a Triangular Ladder, he worked with both hands, his brush flying like a dragon and serpent, instantly drawing part of the runes onto the chests of the two wooden sculptures.

He infused spiritual power to activate the runes. The rune patterns glimmered faintly, and the two wooden sculptures immediately fell still.

Seeing that he had brought the two sculptures under control, Su Qing let out a slight breath of relief. He chose one sculpture and began drawing the remaining runes.

His right hand steadily guided the rune brush, linking together smooth lines. It was an exceedingly taxing process.

How much Talisman Water each line contained and how much spiritual power was infused into it all required precision. If even one stroke went wrong, the entire set of runes would fail.

Yet even though Su Qing had been sufficiently careful, Tier 2 Intelligence Runes ultimately exceeded the scope of his current abilities.

He had drawn less than a tenth of the runes when a line of text Appeared in his Sea of Consciousness.

[Failed to draw Tier 2 Intelligence Rune. Proficiency +3. Current Proficiency: 1896/3000 (Tier-1)]

"It failed already? I didn't even feel anything!"

Su Qing shook his head in frustration. One careless move and the whole board was lost. With the Intelligence Rune having failed, continuing to draw would doom this Lizard Warrior to failure as well.

An ordinary puppet master could have given up at this point and saved the remaining materials.

But Su Qing could not. The higher a puppet's completion level, the greater the Proficiency granted even upon failure. When the time came, the Proficiency of the corresponding runes would also receive another wave of improvement.

He knew very clearly that his purpose in refining Lizard Warriors now, besides increasing his own safety, was more importantly to lay the foundation for refining Meditating Dolls later.

Therefore, though he knew it would fail, he still had to continue.

He meticulously completed the remaining Intelligence Runes. Su Qing faintly sensed a few minor errors and omissions among them, but there were surely even more mistakes that had escaped his notice.

After spending A Little Half Hour, he finished drawing the Intelligence Runes.

The Biomimetic Runes that came next went exceptionally smoothly. Once the Lizard Warrior's entire body had been covered in red lines—

[Successfully drew Tier 2 Biomimetic Rune. Proficiency +10. Proficiency: 51/5000 (Tier-2)]

"If I keep grinding like this, by the time my Intelligence Runes reach Tier-2, my Biomimetic Runes might even be able to challenge Tier 3 Rune.

I'm getting ahead of myself. A single stroke of a Tier 3 Rune could drain all my spiritual power. Until Foundation Establishment, I shouldn't even think about it!"

As he spoke to himself, Su Qing began drawing the Combat Rune again.

Though it was his first time encountering a Tier 1 Combat Rune, he could infer the rest from one example. With his current understanding of runes, he produced something quite presentable the moment he started. Only after he had drawn about one-fifth of it did a failure prompt appear.

[Failed to draw Tier 1 Combat Rune. Proficiency +60. Proficiency: 60/1000 (Unranked)]

Su Qing was not disappointed by his first failed attempt. He was even somewhat delighted.

Although Proficiency became harder to raise the further it advanced, and unranked Proficiency rose somewhat faster than Tier-1 and Tier-2, gaining 60 points from one failure at least proved that he possessed some talent in Combat Runes.

The small pleasant surprise from the Combat Rune vanished into thin air when he drew the Immortal Path Rune.

"Damn it, I only drew one stroke! One stroke, and it was already wrong?"

Looking at the pitiful 10 points of Proficiency gained from the Immortal Path Rune, Su Qing suddenly realized that, given his cultivation aptitude was difficult to put into words—and thus his understanding of Immortal Path Runes was even worse than ordinary people's—raising his Immortal Path Runes to Tier-2 might be far more difficult than he had imagined.