Immortality begins with inheriting the myriad arts of cultivation.

Chapter 187 Puppet Inheritance

He sat cross-legged and pondered for a long time.

Li Ping shook his head, then got up and walked out of the house into the courtyard.

Now that Yan Liming's life force has been completely drained of its value, he believes it can be used as nourishment for the Tree of Inheritance.

"Whoosh!"

He took out a piece of thousand-year-old ironwood, about the thickness of a bowl and about ten feet long, from his storage bag and stood it upright in the courtyard.

Immediately afterwards, he took out another hundred thumb-sized, multicolored spirit stones and placed them next to the thousand-year-old ironwood. These were all mid-grade spirit stones of various attributes.

Then, Li Ping waved slightly, summoning the hardworking Wan Gong puppet over as well.

Finally, Yan Liming's soul was once again extracted from the jade bottle by him.

A section of thousand-year-old ironwood, a third-tier living soul, one hundred mid-tier spirit stones, and most importantly, the Wan Gong puppet, which embodies the proud techniques of generations of puppeteers from the Tianqiao Sect.

Li Ping has gathered all the nutrients needed to inherit the memories of a third-tier puppeteer, which were developed by the Heavenly Craftsmanship Sect.

In fact, Li Ping was quite reluctant to feed the Myriad Crafts Puppets to the Tree of Inheritance.

After all, the materials used to create this puppet were mostly of the third tier, but because it was destroyed, it could only exert the combat power of the second tier.

However, its hardness is still comparable to that of a magic weapon, barely qualifying it as a half-step into the third tier. It's quite a pity that it was melted down like this.

However, thinking that out with the old, in with the new, and that once he mastered puppetry, he could create not only second-tier puppets but even third-tier ones, Li Ping made up his mind again.

Let's begin!

He stretched out his hands, and countless transparent tendrils of energy spread from his palms, wrapping around the various items in front of him.

The transparent aura enveloped and absorbed everything in front of him, and Li Ping gradually became immersed in an illusion.

In this illusion, he became an ironwood tree that had grown for thousands of years.

Over thousands of years, it has lived on wind and dew, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth, growing step by step from a sapling into a towering tree.

On this day, a cultivator dressed in a pale yellow robe discovered him. The yellow-robed cultivator laughed twice, then spat out a cold light from his mouth, severing him at the root and taking him back to the sect.

"Haha... With this ironwood as the main body, I am confident that I can forge a third-tier puppet."

The maniacal laughter still echoed in his ears when, in a flash, Li Ping had transformed into a puppet with the beginnings of a human form.

A century has passed, and the yellow-robed cultivator has gone from being excited when he first created the puppet to being dejected.

Finding thousand-year-old ironwood as the main material to craft a third-tier puppet is just the most basic task.

For a puppet to possess combat power comparable to a Core Formation cultivator, it must have the ability to unleash the equivalent of a Core Formation cultivator's mana in a single instance.

The difficulty of crafting such a power core far surpasses that of creating a second-tier puppet.

The yellow-robed monk studied it his whole life but failed to achieve it, and in the end could only sit in meditation and die in despair.

"I will fulfill Master's last wish."

The yellow-robed cultivator passed away peacefully, and the unfinished puppet fell into the hands of a simple-looking young man. He focused on researching how to mobilize the spiritual power equivalent to that of a Core Formation cultivator in one go.

For this reason, he even neglected his own cultivation, and ultimately passed away with only the cultivation level of the early Foundation Establishment stage.

"Master is too stupid. It seems that only I can make this puppet."

The puppet was taken over by a quirky and clever girl. The first thing she did after receiving the half-finished puppet was to create a handsome face for it.

She nodded in satisfaction: "That looks much better."

Four hundred years later, the quirky and clever girl has transformed into a palace maid. She was also nearing the end of her life, but the problem of the puppets drawing spiritual power remained unresolved.

In the end, she passed away peacefully.

Before she passed away, she handed the puppet over to a kind-looking young man.

Nearly a thousand years of research by three generations of puppet masters has come to fruition in his hands.

He finally solved the problem of mobilizing the equivalent of a Core Formation cultivator's spiritual power at once, taking a firm step forward in creating third-tier puppets.

But the road ahead is still long and arduous.

One problem after another has kept generations of puppet masters of the Tianqiao Sect racking their brains.

Over thousands of years, through their persistent research, these problems were solved one by one.

A third-tier puppet has suddenly appeared!

The advent of this puppet also elevated the puppetry skills of the Tianqiao Sect to a new level.

The puppets were placed in the sect's Dharma Transmission Hall by the Tianqiao Sect for all puppeteers to reference and study. Occasionally, cultivators would submit their latest research techniques.

After discussion, rejection, and modification by the sect's puppeteers, once the requirements were met, the puppet master would refine it into the puppet's body.

Through this innovative, open-source approach within the sect, it has consistently represented the highest level of puppetry skills within the Tianqiao Sect.

Aerodynamics, circuitry, shields, array patterns, attacks... he constantly strives for perfection.

It became the embodiment of the Tianqiao Sect's puppetry technology. Generations of puppeteers learned the latest puppetry techniques from it and innovated upon them!

The best materials, the best technology, the best puppets!

……

In the courtyard, Li Ping slowly opened his eyes.

There was a hint of weariness in his eyes.

This illusion lasted a bit longer; when he woke up, a full three days had passed.

"For thousands of years, generations of talented puppeteers have painstakingly researched and developed... and this is how the Wan Gong puppet was created." Li Ping sighed slightly.

It must be said that the cultivators of the Tianqiao Sect these days have a rather simple style reminiscent of the programmers of his world.

Wan Gong Puppet is a large-scale open-source project. After the verification machine is created, any puppeteer can propose directions for enhancement and improvement.

Once these directions are approved by most puppeteers, they will be incorporated into the verification machine to verify the feasibility of the technology, and at the same time, they can be used by all puppeteers for research and reference.

Therefore, the Wan Gong Puppet may not be the strongest Tier 3 puppet in the Tian Qiao Sect, but it is definitely the most technically comprehensive Tier 3 puppet, and also the 'best' puppet.

The Myriad Craftsmanship Puppet is the ancestor of all third-tier puppets in the Heavenly Craft Sect.

Li Ping digested and absorbed the technology of the Myriad Craftsmanship Puppet, which was equivalent to learning almost all the high-level puppetry techniques of the Heavenly Craftsmanship Sect, including those magical treasures suitable for puppet control.

Of course, the core of puppetry technology boils down to a few things: a power core, spiritual energy circulation, mana conversion, and divine sense control. Other miscellaneous technologies are merely icing on the cake; their absence wouldn't have a significant impact.

"Millennial ironwood, iron essence, earth core warm jade, third-order living soul..." Li Ping thought of the spiritual materials needed to refine a third-order puppet, and shook his head slightly.

These materials are basically the materials needed to refine magical artifacts. Where could he get them?

"Fortunately, I have the blessing of the Tree of Inheritance, so the success rate of crafting puppets is 100%." ​​Thinking of this, Li Ping focused his consciousness on the Tree of Inheritance in his sea of ​​consciousness.

now.

He successfully inherited the third-tier puppeteer skills of the Heavenly Craftsman Sect, and the inheritance tree grew much taller. Above the branches representing the second-tier superior talisman maker skills and the third-tier alchemist skills, another thick and long branch grew.

A line of mysterious characters was carved on the branch.

[Puppeteer: Tier 3, Low Grade.]

……

Coming to his senses, Li Ping shook his head inwardly: "Even if I could successfully forge it 100%, I wouldn't have enough materials to craft a third-tier puppet. However, crafting a second-tier puppet wouldn't be a problem."

The materials required to craft a second-tier superior puppet are roughly the same as those required to craft a superior magic weapon.

However, since puppets are much larger than magical artifacts, they require more materials. In addition, due to their complex functions, they also need to be infused with a second-tier high-grade soul as the puppet's spirit.

Li Ping did a quick calculation and found that the material value for crafting a second-tier high-grade puppet was roughly equivalent to crafting more than ten high-grade magic artifacts.

In other words, the materials alone would cost more than nine thousand spirit stones to purchase.

Moreover, the crafting technique for puppets is complex and the difficulty of crafting them is several times greater than that of crafting weapons. One wrong move and the materials will be ruined.

Taking into account material waste, labor costs, and the value of the materials themselves, the cost of a second-tier high-grade puppet is as high as 15,000 spirit stones.

So many spirit stones are enough to refine a magic weapon for a Core Formation cultivator, but to refine a puppet, one can only exchange it for a puppet with combat power comparable to the late Foundation Establishment stage.

Li Ping suddenly understood why the weapon-refining master of the Yinghai Chamber of Commerce had criticized the cultivators of the Tianqiao Sect for being "rigid and inflexible, wasting resources."

A Core Formation cultivator wielding a magical artifact can slice a second-tier high-grade puppet into pieces as easily as cutting melons and vegetables.

Compared to this combat strength, it's a huge loss!

However, Li Ping still decided that he had to refine the second-tier high-grade puppets. Moreover, he could control three at a time, and with the spares, he would have to refine at least five.

Just thinking about the sense of security that three late-stage Foundation Establishment experts would instantly appear beside him once the battle started makes the creation of this puppet worthwhile.

Anyway, he doesn't need to pay labor costs to refine it himself, and the success rate is 100%.

For him, a second-tier high-grade puppet would only cost nine thousand spirit stones, which was no big deal.

Not to mention his earning power through his numerous advanced skills, the spirit stones in his storage bag alone constitute a large sum.

Keeping spirit stones on your person is meaningless; it's better to convert them into your own combat power as soon as possible.

"Refine, I must refine! While the danger I sense isn't too intense yet, eh..." Li Ping suddenly frowned.

It was only at this point that he realized...

I don't know when, but the warning that had been constantly on my mind suddenly disappeared.

A danger warning would appear out of nowhere, only to disappear just as inexplicably.

Li Ping pondered silently: "Besides inheriting the third-tier puppetry skills of the Heavenly Craft Sect, I haven't done anything else during this time, so... is this danger related to Yan Liming's soul? This old bastard truly lives up to his reputation as a seasoned demon; he actually has the ability to ambush me while in a remnant soul state?"

The thought quickly crossed Li Ping's mind, and he realized that the problem must lie with Yan Liming.

Although he didn't know what methods the other party had.

"Fortunately, after I decisively searched his soul, I fed it to the Tree of Inheritance as nourishment!" Li Ping was shocked, but he couldn't help but feel fortunate.

At the same time, he was also secretly awakened to his own situation.

In the future, we should be more careful when dealing with demonic cultivators.

His previous bold move of placing Yan Liming's soul in a storage bag was clearly a bit too much.

This must never be done again.

The plot is heating up: Update! Come and check it out!