Substitute Puppet
Corpse Demon Mountain.
cave abode somewhere on the shady side of the mountain.
Du Qiu knelt on both knees, his expression respectful.
"Elder Shi, Extreme Yin has returned alive. It seems he has found some kind of spirit medicine to clear his mind and brighten his spirit."
Shi Shou was surrounded by a corpse aura, and the dark, dense Corpse-Baleful Qi emanated from his mouth and nose as he breathed.
His face was ashen, revealing fangs more than two inches long, and he spoke in a hoarse voice.
"He came back alive, very good! It seems he's quite capable; even with his mind corrupted by the turbid air of the Corpse Dissection Cave, he managed to resolve the situation on his own."
After a brief pause, Shi Shou continued.
"How is his cultivation level?"
"Qi Refining Fourth Layer"
"Is he only at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer?"
Shi Shou murmured softly.
"That's true. He's only been a beginner for two and a half years, and to have reached the Qi Refining Fourth Layer is already quite fast."
"You may leave now. Keep a close watch on Extreme Yin. When his cultivation breaks through to the Qi Refining Sixth Layer, be sure to inform me immediately."
"Yes, Elder Shi," Du Qiu replied.
Back in his cave abode, Song Wen began to take stock of what he had gained on this trip.
First, there was the purpose of his risking his life to enter the cave: the Sky Cicada Wood.
This Sky Cicada Wood should be around 350 years old, enough for Song Wen to use to harmonize the corpse energy in his body.
In addition, he received a total of four Storage Bag, from Lao Chun, Zi Yi, Bandit Cultivator's second sister, and his youngest sister.
And three Corpse-Nurturing Bag, two of which were obtained from Zi Yi and one from Lao Chun.
There are three Corpse Puppet in the Corpse-Nurturing Bag: two at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer and one at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.
The items in the Storage Bag were rather messy, including Spirit Stone, talismans, pills, Law Artifact, and so on.
The four Storage Bag a considerable amount of Spirit Stone, totaling nearly four thousand Spirit Stone.
While in the underground cave, Lao Chun, Zi Yi, and Xuan Ye divided Yan Gu's Storage Bag, presumably obtaining a considerable amount of Spirit Stone from it.
As for the two female Bandit Cultivator, they may have killed other cultivators, and their Storage Bag a considerable number of Spirit Stone.
However, Yan Gu's set of evil Law Artifact was not among them, which means that Xuan Ye must have obtained them.
Finally, Niu Ding risked his life to obtain that bloodstone.
Song Wen originally thought the bloodstone was a Law Artifact or a treasure to enhance cultivation, but after examining it with his spiritual power, he discovered that the bloodstone was actually a heirloom, containing a secret technique.
Substitute Technique!
This is a secret technique that involves creating a substitute puppet. In a moment of crisis, the technique is activated to allow the substitute puppet to take the fatal blow in place of the cultivator. At the same time, the cultivator will be transferred to another location, which is temporarily determined by the caster, but can only be within the caster's mental energy range.
This is practically a miraculous escape technique.
No wonder Niu Ding risked his life to obtain it.
Song Wen immediately began to carefully examine the Cultivation Method of the Substitute Technique.
The process of creating a substitute puppet can be roughly divided into three steps.
First, a puppet must be crafted. This puppet can be of any shape and material, but it must be able to hold the cultivator's soul.
The second step is the most important step, and also the most dangerous.
Soul Removal! This refers to the removal of the soul guide from a cultivator's soul. This requires the cultivator's spiritual power or soul to be strong enough; otherwise, forcibly removing the soul will damage the soul. At best, the soul will be incomplete, leading to mental impairment; at worst, the soul will be scattered, resulting in death without a burial place.
The third step is to transfer the soul guide to the substitute puppet, thus refining the soul guide and the substitute puppet into one.
In this way, the substitute puppet carries the soul essence of the cultivator and can die in place of the cultivator in times of crisis.
This Substitute Technique is good, but it's not without its drawbacks.
After repeatedly crafting substitute puppets, a cultivator's soul will gradually become weak, potentially affecting their consciousness and future cultivation.
But this was not a problem for Song Wen.
He can devour the souls of others to enhance his own soul and spiritual power; merely shaving off a soul guide poses no danger to him whatsoever.
However, Song Wen encountered difficulties in the first step: refining the substitute puppet.
This puppet was required to withstand the soul pull of a cultivator, and the soul pull had to remain intact, which left Song Wen somewhat at a loss.
Firstly, most of these treasures capable of withstanding soul-summoning are not cheap.
Secondly, he doesn't know any crafting techniques, and it would take him a lot of time to learn how to craft this substitute puppet from scratch.
What he lacks most right now is time. After all, Shi Shou is still a threat to him.
"By the way, puppets are difficult to make, but Corpse Puppet are easy. I can try using Corpse Puppet. Corpse Puppet are made from intact corpses and can hold the soul's energy without dissipating, so it shouldn't be a problem."
He decided to give it a try, as he happened to have three Corpse Puppet at hand.
That Qi Refining Ninth Layer Corpse Puppet is definitely not suitable; it would be a waste to use it to refine a substitute puppet.
Song Wen took out a Corpse Puppet at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer. It was a male corpse, and its body was intact and as solid as a rock, enough to bear the soul guide.
Next comes the most important step: stripping away the soul-guiding agent.
Following the method of separating the soul from the body recorded in the "Substitute Technique," Song Wen began to try it.
The process of separating the soul guide was more painful and difficult than Song Wen had anticipated.
Whenever Song Wen tried to forcibly separate the soul guide from his soul, a voice in his subconscious would tell him that the soul was the most important part of the human body and should not be touched rashly. This made Song Wen somewhat hesitant to separate the soul guide.
Moreover, the process of separating the soul guide is extremely painful, like someone cutting deep into the Sea of Consciousness with a knife. When the pain reaches its extreme, one will involuntarily stop casting the spell.
After trying dozens of times, Song Wen finally steeled his heart, cleared his mind of all distractions and reluctance, and forcefully cast the spell, finally succeeding in separating the soul guide.
At this moment, his clothes were completely soaked, and the place where he was sitting was also covered in water stains. He looked as if he had just been pulled out of the water.
Then, enduring the excruciating pain emanating from his Sea of Consciousness, Song Wen transferred his soul essence to the Corpse Puppet.
The process itself isn't complicated, but it's extremely time-consuming.
Two days later, Song Wen slowly opened his eyes.
The substitute puppet has finally been successfully created!
The excruciating pain in his Sea of Consciousness was gradually subsiding, and he could clearly sense that his soul was beginning to recover.
If he can devour the souls of several cultivators, his own soul will recover quickly.
While it may be difficult to find cultivators' souls elsewhere, they can be purchased in the markets of the demonic realm.
There are plenty of freshly created cultivator souls there, waiting to be sold.
Most of them are the souls of righteous cultivators. This is because the righteous Cultivation Method are vast and profound, which makes the souls of cultivators more gentle and pure, unlike the souls of Evil Dao cultivators, whose souls have been polluted by turbid energy and become filthy.
Just in time, Song Wen also needed to go to the market to dispose of some unused items and exchange them for some Cultivation Resources in preparation for refining and absorbing the Sky Cicada Wood and harmonizing the Corpse-Baleful Qi within his body.
Song Wen first went to different shops and sold unused Law Artifact, elixirs, talismans, spiritual herbs, and other items in batches, earning a total of 1,800 Spirit Stone.
Then, he spent several hundred Spirit Stone to purchase a batch of cultivation resources, as well as three cultivator souls.