Chapter 606: The Path of Puppetry
Deep within the Void Lightning Pool, Xiao Ze did not venture to its deepest part to disturb the Nine Mystical Golden Thunder. Instead, he chose a location at the boundary between the periphery and the depths. Xiao Ze casually released a bit of the Nine Mystical Golden Thunder, immediately dispelling all the surrounding thunderbolts. Even the fierce Black Demon Lightning dared not approach.
The Primordial Emperor Flame appeared in his palm, quickly transforming from a small flame into a massive fire cauldron. Xiao Ze then took out a peculiar figure from his storage ring. Despite having been dead for some time, the body was still well-preserved, retaining the fierce might it had in life.
The robust body bore dark red bloodstains—remnants of dried blood. Even these seemingly ordinary stains contained potent energy. After all, this was the energy of the Taixu Ancient Dragon clan's blood, which the Northern Dragon King had not had time to assimilate fully.
Most notably, two fearsome heads were perched on the shoulders. One had its eyes tightly closed, while the other stared angrily with eyes wide open, seemingly retaining a trace of life even in death. It felt as if the deceased corpse was staring back at him.
Xiao Ze carefully examined the Northern Dragon King's body, circling it and using his soul power to sense its condition. When he had slain the Northern Dragon King, he had used the Nine Mystical Golden Thunder, which possesses unmatched destructive power against the soul, thus leaving no remnant soul within the body as depicted in the original story.
In the original, the Northern Dragon King's soul endured through the tempering by strange flames during puppet crafting. After all, creating a puppet is not merely about refining the body's surface and integrating materials.
After completing a puppet, it must be fully controllable, which usually involves re-forging even the marrow during the crafting process. Under such conditions, the strange flames must burn throughout the body, raising the question of how the remnant soul could withstand such tempering. Was the remnant soul truly impervious to both water and fire?
Xiao Ze brushed these thoughts aside, as the body in front of him contained no remnant soul. The destructive power of the Nine Mystical Golden Thunder was enough to obliterate all vitality and soul within the Northern Dragon King.
With a wave of his hand, thousands of materials appeared around him—metallic powders, cold iron jade hearts, and root-like materials that shone like gold and jade, all radiating an unusual brilliance. These materials made Xiao Ze look less like an alchemist and more like a blacksmith, as they seemed more suited for crafting weapons than for potion-making.
Typically, puppets lack a soul and thus rely solely on their formidable bodies. Crafting a puppet naturally involves reinforcing its physical structure. However, the enhancements brought through crafting have their limits. Thus, stronger bodies are sought to elevate the potential of the puppets.
The materials Xiao Ze chose were meant to further enhance the already formidable physique of the Northern Dragon King. Placing the fearsome body into the fire cauldron, the golden flames began to temper the Northern Dragon King's body.
Xiao Ze was not deeply versed in puppetry; in fact, he had hardly crafted any puppets himself. However, he did possess some secret techniques related to puppetry, including ancient methods of crafting human puppets. These methods were extremely brutal, forcibly extracting a strong person's soul and melding it into the puppet's body, allowing the crafted puppet to retain the combat skills and consciousness of the soul.
Xiao Ze did not favor these methods. While a puppet with a soul was more convenient to control and enhanced in combat, the increase in power was not worth the brutal extraction of a strong soul.
After re-melting the Northern Dragon King's body, Xiao Ze erased the fierce heads and crafted a new one with an unremarkable face that would blend into any crowd.
"This should be considered a preliminary completion of the crafting. Interestingly, the art of potion-making and puppet crafting do share some similarities," Xiao Ze mused. "While I haven't achieved much in puppetry, my skills in potion-making allow me to handle this process quite adeptly."
As Xiao Ze added the various materials into the cauldron, the metallic powders fused into the bones of the Northern Dragon King, strengthening them. The cold iron jade heart melded into his muscles and tendons, fortifying them, while the gold-like roots reinforced weaker areas, enhancing the body from the inside out.
This crafting process was time-consuming. After several days, all materials were completely integrated into the Northern Dragon King's body. The once massive and terrifying body had now shrunk significantly but appeared almost like an ordinary person, albeit unimaginably strong.
Even a regular Five-Star Dou Saint would suffer under a single punch from the now-crafted Northern Dragon King. The puppet, even more formidable than when alive, likely matched a Six-Star Dou Saint in strength—though, of course, it could not defeat one. Destroying it would require considerable effort from a Six-Star Dou Saint, equipped with numerous combat skills and abilities.
Xiao Ze pondered, "Perhaps on the Dou Qi Continent, there's a path of cultivation where one treats their own body as a puppet, using various heavenly materials to fortify themselves, making their bodies indestructible."
After all, the vast Dou Qi Continent harbored numerous paths of cultivation beyond the orthodox methods of cultivating Dou Qi—many of which were either extremely difficult or perilously dangerous. A dead body, like the Northern Dragon King's, could be enhanced with a wealth of heavenly materials to exceed its living strength. However, for a living person to meld such materials into their body would entail unimaginable pain and risk.
With these thoughts flickering through his mind, Xiao Ze stood up and flicked his fingers, turning the golden fire cauldron back into myriad flames, which he then absorbed back into his palm.
Looking at the cold, lifeless puppet, Xiao Ze nodded in satisfaction. As one of his rare forays into puppetry, he was pleased with this creation, especially given the quality achieved through the excellent base material of the Northern Dragon King's body.
"Since you have no consciousness, I won't bother naming you," Xiao Ze said as he controlled the puppet with his soul power and headed towards the Black Demon Lightning to further enhance the Northern Dragon King's body.
(End of Chapter)