Outside the Heavenly Phoenix Secret Realm.
Xiao Tian Ce and his group had just emerged when the secret-realm entrance behind them began to churn violently. Had they been even a fraction of a later, they surely would have been directly swept into the spatial turbulence.
Spatial turbulence was extremely dangerous even for Dou Sheng experts; a moment of carelessness would tear one into shards with not a single bone left intact.
"Phew!"
"That was close!"
Xiao Tian Ce and Xiao Qing exchanged glances, both seeing lingering relief in each other's eyes.
Their harvest from this trip had been quite bountiful, so after resting briefly for a moment, Xiao Tian Ce turned his gaze to Xiao Qing and said, "Qing'er, have the guards go back first, and we'll set off straight away to return to Heaven Beyond."
"We're not going back to the Xiao Realm, Third Uncle?" Xiao Qing asked with some puzzlement.
"We won't go back just yet. We'll return to Heaven Beyond first and settle Senior Huang down before anything else," Xiao Tian Ce pondered aloud.
"Very well."
Xiao Qing walked off to the side and gave a few instructions to the men guarding the entrance before returning to Xiao Tian Ce's side. Then, she swept her hand through the air, and immediately spatial ripples began to stir.
After the two of them stepped into the space, they vanished in an instant.
One day later, Heaven Beyond.
The moment they returned, Huang Jiuji, who had been dwelling inside the storage ring, quietly appeared. His soul power had long since reached the mid-stage Heavenly Realm, so a single sweep of his soul power across the entirety of Heaven Beyond allowed him to comprehend everything with absolute clarity.
"Kid Tian Ce, is this the Heaven Beyond you mentioned along the way?" Huang Jiuji clearly sensed that there were simply no other Dou Sheng experts within this place.
"Senior, this place was just opened up, and our clansmen have not yet been brought over, so there are relatively few people. Later on, I will construct a palace anew for you, and if there are no matters, no one will come to disturb you," Xiao Tian Ce said with a respectful smile.
Huang Jiuji thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright. Oh right, give me that storage ring; I've already lifted the restrictive barrier inside it. Find some medicinal materials inside that can repair soul power. The old man here suffered a slight mishap when I previously passed on my cultivation to Qing'er."
After receiving the storage ring, Xiao Tian Ce nodded. Then, with a wave of his large hand and under the driving force of spatial power, a palace rose abruptly from the ground. Right above the lintel, Xiao Tian Ce waved his hand once more, and three gilded characters reading "Heavenly Phoenix Palace" appeared upon it.
"Senior, please go rest first. I will send the pill over to you once I finish refining it."
"Very well!"
Huang Jiuji acknowledged with a grunt, and his soul power directly shot backward toward the Heavenly Phoenix Palace.
At this time, Xiao Qing spoke excitedly, "Third Uncle, the harvest this time was simply too huge! Oh right, this is the physical body Master asked me to hand over to you."
The moment her voice fell, Huang Jiuji's corpse, wrapped in a crystal barrier, abruptly appeared before them.
"It's just that Senior Huang is magnanimous; if it were anyone else, I'm afraid they would have refused long ago!" Xiao Tian Ce sighed emotionally.
To tell the truth, Huang Jiuji was truly generous, not only giving them all the resources of the entire Heavenly Phoenix Secret Realm, but also contributing his own physical body.
After putting the physical body away safely, Xiao Tian Ce gave his instructions: "Qing'er, keep watch here for now. Once I finish refining the pill to restore soul power, you can go deliver it to your master in a bit."
"Understood, Third Uncle!"
With that, Xiao Tian Ce directly set to work.
From the Heavenly Phoenix Secret Realm this time, they had obtained quite a few good things, among which medicinal materials for soul recovery were also countless.
Compared to the Seven-Illusion Clear-Spirit Saliva that Xiao Yan used in the original text to help Yao Lao recover his soul power, he had even more and better choices-such as the Nine-Dragon Soul-Restoring Flower, which ranked among eighth-tier medicinal materials, and the Ten-Thousand-Year Nine-Colored Heavenly Soul Fruit, which ranked among ninth-tier medicinal materials. Both were peerless choices for repairing soul power.
Without hesitation, Xiao Tian Ce directly took out the supreme Ten-Thousand-Year Nine-Colored Heavenly Soul Fruit. Following that, using the Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame as a fire cauldron, he drove his soul power to wrap around the Ten-Thousand-Year Nine-Colored Heavenly Soul Fruit.
Under the scorching of the Heavenly Flame, the Nine-Colored Heavenly Soul Fruit seemed completely unaffected.
Yet he was not in a rush; after all, it was a ninth-tier medicinal material, so it required a relatively long time to be scorched.
Thus, half an hour later, the Nine-Colored Heavenly Soul Fruit finally yielded under the scorching of the Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame, revealing a green liquid from within.
With a wave of his hand, the green medicinal liquid was gathered into a jade bottle for preservation. Then, he took out over a hundred kinds of medicinal materials and began extracting their essences. Just like that, one day, two days, three days flashed by in a blur.
Until the fourth day, thunder rumbled across the heavens, and Eighth-Tier Eight-Colored Heavenly Lightning gathered together. The majestic heavenly might, resembling the scene of a world-ending apocalypse, was truly terrifying.
"Pill, form!"
Not long after, an Eighth-Tier Eight-Colored Pill bearing pill patterns was successfully refined. Seeing that it still wanted to flee, Xiao Tian Ce's soul power instantly enveloped it, and he immediately set about dealing with the lightning in the sky.
Very soon, the pill lightning dissipated, and Xiao Tian Ce handed the jade bottle over to Xiao Qing with instructions: "Qing'er, take the pill to your master. After he uses this pill, his soul power should recover very quickly. Afterward, ask him if I intend to use Senior Huang's physical body to refine a Heavenly Demon Puppet, and whether he has any objections to this side of things."
"A Heavenly Demon Puppet?"
After receiving the jade bottle, Xiao Qing was startled on the spot.
"Indeed. If Senior Huang's physical body is used to refine a beast puppet, it can at most retain the level of a five-star Dou Sheng. However, if it is refined into a Heavenly Demon Puppet, it can retain the strength of a mid-stage eight-star Dou Sheng. That way, our high-end battle power will basically be sufficient," Xiao Tian Ce said with a smile.
A Heavenly Demon Puppet required three things to gather: a physical body, a soul, and a magic core. Using the physical body as the vessel, the soul as the guide, and the magic core as the heart, matched with numerous materials, it would ultimately achieve the puppet of monsters.
The physical body was already in hand, and plenty of magic cores had also been acquired from the Heavenly Phoenix Secret Realm; thus, only the soul power was lacking.
Although the soul body used by Xiao Yan in the original text was a complete one, that was merely because the refining method for the Heavenly Demon Puppet he had obtained was somewhat incomplete and not whole.
On the other hand, the secret technique that Xiao Tian Ce had obtained from Xiao Xuan required only a sliver of soul power. Moreover, the soul power could be provided by anyone; as long as that soul power was injected into it, provided one did not directly erase the soul's sentience, it could basically be used as his avatar.
"Qing'er understands. Please wait a moment, Third Uncle, I'll go ask my master first!" Xiao Qing said, cupping her fists in salute.
"No rush. If Senior is unwilling, I can do it myself!" Xiao Tian Ce smiled.
"Yes!"
With those words spoken, Xiao Qing headed straight toward the Heavenly Phoenix Palace.
Before long, she returned and said to Xiao Tian Ce, "Third Uncle, my master said he doesn't want to inject his own soul into it. He feels it would be just like being controlled himself!"
"I understand. Go ahead and busy yourself!"
Xiao Tian Ce nodded. To tell the truth, he had also hesitated at first, but after thinking it over in the end, he still decided that he could use his own soul power to inject into it.
After Xiao Qing left, Xiao Tian Ce first set up a few arrangements, then directly waved his large hand. Following that, Huang Jiuji's physical body, a tier-nine Heavenly Phoenix magic core, alongside some rare metals and medicinal materials, appeared.
To ensure his success rate, Xiao Tian Ce prepared to steep Huang Jiuji's physical body in medicinal liquids first. That way, with the blessing of the medicinal properties, he would be able to better fuse the rare metals during the refining process.
With that thought, a huge iron vat used for soaking baths abruptly appeared. Then, Xiao Tian Ce pointed a finger at the crystal barrier encasing Huang Jiuji's physical body.
"Crack, snap!"
The crystal shattered at the sound. Using his soul power to support the physical body, he placed it into the iron vat, added water, and tossed in a batch of medicinal materials. Immediately afterward, the Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame in his palm suddenly materialized and plunged straight into the vat.
A moment later, the iron vat turned blazing red, and the medicinal water churned, looking quite peculiar-much like soup being boiled for consumption.
Three more chapters remain, updates starting at midnight.
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