Evil Spirit at the Door, Instant Kill!

[Armored War Bear]

[Type: Giant Combat Puppet]

[Rank: Tier-1 High-Grade]

[Function: A combat puppet with outstanding defense and immense strength. An opening in its chest can accommodate one or two cultivators hiding inside. Its eyes can emit Crimson Moon Demonic Light, with power equivalent to a Yellow Grade Mid-Grade Daoist art. It lacks the ability to comprehend complex operations.]

[Required Materials: Ironback Bear bones (one set), Profound Iron Essence (3,000–5,000 jin), Crimson Moon Stones (two), and various other materials.]

[Puppeteer Rank Requirement: Tier-1 High-Grade]

[Rune Requirement: Biomimetic Runes (Tier-2), Material Runes (Tier-2), Demonic Beast Runes (Tier-2), Combat Runes (Tier 1), Intelligence Runes (Tier 1)]

[Usage Cost: Daily: 30 Spirit Crystals per day (absorbing moonlight can reduce consumption by 30%); Combat: 300–1,000 Spirit Crystals, depending on combat expenditure.]

[Spiritual Sense Requirement: Dharma cultivator at the Mid Qi Refining Stage or above.]

Su Family Courtyard.

Su Qing looked at the colossal object he had bought at great expense, his expression deeply satisfied.

Size was combat strength.

That was somewhat biased, but it was not without reason.

The giant bear stood three zhang tall, clad in black armor with red eyes. Its arms were like pillars, and whenever its legs lifted and stomped down, the earth beneath its feet trembled faintly.

It was brimming with a sense of security!

"More than eight thousand Spirit Crystals for one. It's not exactly expensive to buy, but it's expensive to use!"

With thirty Spirit Crystals consumed every day, he could support ten Lizard Warriors!

But no matter how great the consumption was, since he had bought it, there was no reason to leave it idle.

He stuffed fifty Spirit Crystals into the Armored War Bear's lower leg and established a Spiritual Sense Link with it. Watching it move stiffly through the small courtyard under his control, he felt that it did not consume much spiritual sense and finally relaxed.

Cultivators controlled puppets with their spiritual sense. The strength of one's spiritual sense determined how many puppets a cultivator could command, as well as the puppets' strength.

Generally speaking, a cultivator at the Mid Qi Refining Stage could control at most one Armored War Bear. A cultivator like Su Qing, who had only just touched the threshold of the Mid Qi Refining Stage, risked becoming weak and drained at any moment even while controlling a single Armored War Bear.

Yet his spiritual root was poor and his natural endowment weak, while his spiritual sense was exceptionally powerful.

With his current spiritual sense, not only could he perform micro-manipulation on thousands of miniature puppets, but even while controlling twelve Lizard Warriors, he still had enough spiritual sense left to command one Armored War Bear. Controlling another two or three would not be a problem either.

That counted as one of this body's few advantages.

Then again, with poor spiritual roots and weak natural endowment, there couldn't possibly be people in this world who were useless at everything!

"The realm and rune requirements for refining this puppet—I'm only lacking the Demonic Beast Rune. Even if this is my first time refining it, I should still have a certain success rate. Should I gamble on it?"

Su Qing murmured to himself. He had not been willing to spend money on the Armored War Bear's blueprint, because reverse-engineering a blueprint was not difficult for him.

After all, the Armored War Bear was merely larger in size and more laborious to refine. Its technical complexity was not particularly high.

The reason he had entertained this thought—

Was because an Ironback Bear skeleton was lying in his Storage Bag. He had bought it from Tang Wanqing before, and it had been sitting idle ever since. If he could put it to use, of course he wanted to use it.

Thinking that he would be going to the Hunting Grounds in three days, and that he could not place his safety entirely in the hands of Hundred Treasures Pavilion, having one more Armored War Bear for protection could never hurt.

He made up his mind to produce the Armored War Bear within these three days.

As for what if he failed? If he failed, he would at least hear a bang. What puppet refiner had never failed before? Time to take a gamble!

He lay atop the Armored War Bear he had bought, carefully feeling it over and repeatedly examining it. Whenever he gained even a little insight, he hurriedly wrote it down on paper.

Once the blueprint had been reverse-engineered to a rough approximation, he took out bottles and jars and began Mixing Talisman Water. The Armored War Bear was large, so it required more Talisman Water, naturally making the work more intensive.

"No wonder it sells for so much. Including the skeleton, the material cost alone is over two thousand. Add the puppet refiner's labor and the risk of possible failure, and selling it for over eight thousand Spirit Crystals is truly a conscientious price!"

As a puppet refiner facing soaring prices, Su Qing could curse talisman masters for being unscrupulous and Artifact Refiners for being heartless, but when it came to puppet refiners, he only felt that they had set their prices too low.

Muttering under his breath and secretly lamenting how his peers had squeezed the profits of a common puppet like the Armored War Bear too thin, he worked for two nights and a full day before finishing the preliminary preparations.

And that night.

The moon shone bright amid sparse stars, its light spilling into the small courtyard and coating the Ironback Bear bones on the ground in a thin layer of silver armor.

Although Su Qing had been avoiding working outside at night lately—

The Ironback Bear bones were simply too large. The Puppet Refining Chamber could not hold them.

Coupled with his need to make progress, he had no choice but to work through the night in the courtyard.

"The Wood Spirit Servants are watching outside, while there are Lizard Warriors and an Armored War Bear in the courtyard. Nothing should happen!"

Su Qing listened intently for a while. Even the nearby spirit dogs were unusually quiet tonight. It seemed that tonight ought to be peaceful.

Once Su Qing had calmed down, he began inscribing runes onto the Ironback Bear bones.

The first rune he drew was the Intelligence Rune he was most skilled at.

Unfortunately, the Ironback Bear's demonic bones could not bear Intelligence Runes above Tier 1, and he could not discard its demonic bones and replace them with other materials. Thus, he could only apply Tier 1 Intelligence Runes and make it a dim-witted brute.

Tier 1 Intelligence Runes came effortlessly to him. Failure was impossible.

The Tier 1 Combat Runes and Tier 2 Biomimetic Runes that followed were the same, presenting almost no difficulty to him.

Next came the Tier 2 Material Runes. These runes allowed the Ironback Bear bones to fuse with other materials. For instance, the Crimson Moon Stones before him and the Hiding Cave in its chest could not be installed without the support of Material Runes.

He had already raised this rune to Tier 2 as well, so he handled it easily.

Only when it came to the final Demonic Beast Rune did he become cautious.

Living in Cloud Mountain Market and being neighbors with Hundred Beasts Mountain, no profession could avoid dealing with demonic beasts.

Over the past half year, he had refined many puppets that required demonic beast materials and Demonic Beast Runes, such as Jumping Rabbits, Little Flying Eagles, and Bumping Oxen.

Therefore, he was not completely ignorant of this rune. He now had Tier 1 proficiency in it.

With Tier 1 proficiency, drawing a Tier 2 Demonic Beast Rune naturally carried no small risk of failure. This was also the only difficulty in refining this puppet.

Fortunately, perhaps the night was too quiet, or perhaps the breeze was just right. In any case, after more than an hour, he smoothly completed the Tier 2 Demonic Beast Rune.

At this point, all he needed to do was apply the Profound Iron Essence step by step, install the Crimson Moon Stones, and open a cavity of his preferred design according to his own needs. Then this puppet would be complete.

"No surprises, absolutely no surprises. I told myself I could do it!"

Looking at the Armored War Bear, now mostly formed, Su Qing was immensely satisfied with his achievement.

And just then.

A sudden series of bangs rang out from the courtyard gate!

Damn it, who was knocking at the door so late?

Why had none of the Wood Spirit Servants noticed?

While he was still wondering, a gust of sinister wind suddenly swept through the courtyard.

It sent a chill through him.

He remembered the knocking from the last time an Evil Entity had come to his door.

Not daring to be careless, he instantly crawled into the chest cavity of the Armored War Bear he had bought.

Only then did he control a Lizard Warrior to open the courtyard gate.

Whoosh!

Outside was a vast expanse of hazy white, with no figure in sight.

Just as the Lizard Warrior was about to close the gate—

A headless figure suddenly materialized.

Whoosh!

The headless corpse swung an arm, slicing across the Lizard Warrior's neck like a blade or an axe.

A cold gleam flashed.

Before the Lizard Warrior's head could even hit the ground, the headless corpse snatched it up and put it on its own neck.

Then it said in frustration:

"This isn't my head either. Fellow Daoist Su, could you lend me your head for a while? I want to see whether that is my head."

"Borrow your motherfucking ass!"

Su Qing roared. The Armored War Bear raised its right arm, and at some point, two Exorcism Talismans had been affixed to its palm.

Bang!

Its palm came crashing down.

As the bear paw descended, the Headless Evil Spirit's body slowly turned translucent, seemingly trying to evade the damage that way.

But at that moment, the Exorcism Talismans on the bear paw lit up with Yellow Light.

The Yellow Light pinned the Headless Evil Spirit in place, leaving it nowhere to hide. It could only let the bear paw slam down upon it.

When the bear paw rose again—

Other than a massive bear-paw print, there was only a pool of foul-smelling black blood on the ground!