Chapter 636 Master of Puppets
"So this is the design for the demon slaying swords?" I aske Y.
"Yes, it is. This is what Master Rain created me for. The swords themselves were artifacts that were used by giants that lived a long time ago in the Vast Expanse, that"s why they were obscenely large. And no man could wield them, so he created me to control all four of them. However, it is far below my current ability to use them right now."
"I see, however, your design itself matches the four sword style. So I"ll make new swords for you. My version of demon slaying swords was a bit brutish," I said.
"I enjoyed the chainsaw swords, my lord."
I smiled at Y"s statement. Although it was basically just flattery. The swords I made for him were not of a great quality. And they only worked due to them absorbing the excess heat that Y generated when he moved and acted. But now using new material, that side effect is gone. And I"ll need actual weapons.
Studying about weapon making isn"t something that would take small amounts of time. For a normal person that is. Using my own poisons, Doping, I was able to absorb knowledge like never before, fully integrating it with my own experience and allowing it to be a part of me.
Although it came at a great cost of mental fatigue, nothing a short one day rest couldn"t fix.
I"m not a person who likes to brag. Still, I"m pretty confident in my ability to craft things that I"ve seen once. And if I had the tools and methods to replicate a smelting technique then that makes crafting even easier.
With the vast sea of knowledge that is the Lord of Lord"s library, I was able to learn of many forging techniques. However, most of these techniques required an incredible control over fire. Though my own Veridian Heart Flame is powerful. It is nowhere near enough to act as a source of forge fire.
But the bottle of Veridian Soul flame that I obtained from the general is enough for the job. The only issue is, that he said that I needed to be at least at the Void stage to be able to consume it.
Yet, I"ve read records of smiths that had this level of flame at the Emperor level and even at the King level.
Reading through the books of the Lord of Lords, I understood many things about Soul Flames. First off, all the people who have this flame and that are below the Void level are all prodigies or the core disciples of a sect or an heir to one of the renowned clans of the beyond, past or present that is.
The record states that the clans and sects who cultivated these disciples would give them insane amounts of soul nouris.h.i.+ng pills so that they can obtain the blessing of the Soul Flame before they even reach the Void Stage.
Another thing about this specific flame is that they are basically an upgraded version of Heart Flames. They possess the same abilities as their lower counterpart with an additional boon to them.
For example, the Veridian Heart flame is the best for alchemy and poison making. The heat level it reaches is enough to process any spiritual herb. However, it is not intense enough to be used in forging weapons. You would need a more specialized heart flame for that.
Yet, the Veridian Soul Flame does not have that problem. Since at the void level, there exist some herbs that have properties that are comparable to the st.u.r.diest metals, and without enough heat, one cannot process them.
The Soul Flames, unlike the Heart Flames are powered by one"s own soul energy. And if there is anything I"m proud of, it"s the obscenely powerful soul I have.
So, if someone at the Emperor level had absorbed and tamed the Veridian Heart flame due to the power of their souls, why can"t I? They were powered by powerful clans and mighty sects. Yet I had this potently powerful soul since I could ever remember.
I pulled up the bottle that contained the Soul Flame and spoke addressing the automaton, "I"ll be leaving to absorb this. If Old Fu requests my presence, inform him if what I"m doing."
"What if someone comes looking for you in the guest room you"re in?"
"Ignore them, unless it"s urgent no one should come looking for us," I replied.
"As you command," the Automaton replied.
I then teleported out of the white zone of the paG.o.da, and headed up, to one of the newly opened s.p.a.ces.
The whole paG.o.da had nine floors. And so far, I only have access to five of them. The fifth being where the Primordial Dragon Serpent"s body is stored at. I wanted to head to the furnace area since it is the only place that can withstand heat without damaging anything else. However, I couldn"t since the puppets I ordered to make X"s body were still using it.
I had given them the template that they need to work on, so by the time I"m done absorbing this flame they should be done with making X"s body.
I headed to the open fields, and directly to the volcano area where flames and ruin was all one could see for endless miles ahead. Once I found a relatively remote and isolated island in the middle of a moving lava current. I sat cross legged in it and began absorbing the Soul Flame.
The method was simple. Basically, one needs to opened their mouth, drink the liquid flame essence, and subdued it using their own energy.
But the moment I drank the liquid, it felt as if I had opened my mouth to the gates of h.e.l.l itself. The liquid came down in like molten lead down my throat, but I could resist nor should I have done so in the first place.
My Dantian felt as if it was being burnt as a ma.s.sive wave of green energy was was.h.i.+ng over it. Burning the entire sea of Qi into smoke as it was moving toward my mental fortress.
My own Veridian Heart Flame came in to combat the Soul Flame, however it was as if a candle flame was trying to fight against the burning sun. The outcome was obvious as my own Veridian Heart Flame was instantly absorbed into the powerful incoming wave of Soul Flame.
Yet I didn"t feel any anxiety or worry at the incoming tidal wave of burning death. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The existence which was my condensed dragon like soul shot forward into the incoming wave. And soon, a powerful soul energy was released from within the wave.
Instantly subduing it and forcing it to merge with the endless seawater.
The whole thing took less than few seconds. And the Soul Flame was mine.
Having already subdued the flame I opened my eyes to see how powerful this flame was.
Yet something felt wrong. The entire area I was in had froze over. The majority of it, and it was slowly melting back into magma once again.
Unable to understand what happened, I called the automaton.
Soon, he appeared in front of me.
"What happened here?" I asked.
"You finally woke up, Master," he said.
I frowned unable to understand what he meant.
"You"ve been meditating for a year my lord, that"s how long it took you to absorb the Soul Flame. The fire energy that you absorbed allowed your body to take in more from the Yang Qi that is in this fire region. You almost exhausted all the Yang Qi that the Lord of Lords had placed here."
"What do you mean almost?" I questioned.
"You already consumed the equivalent power of a Planet Heart by yourself just to stabilize the Soul Flame. Which is impressive in its own way."
I stood up, frowning at how I lost an entire year here, which is pretty d.a.m.n long… well kind of. But something caught my eyes.
"There is a mountain missing…" I said. "I didn"t destroy that while I was meditating, right?" I asked quite worried that I might have.
"Oh, no, that was the work of the puppets... well, the new line of them that is…"
"Why the h.e.l.l would puppets destroy a mountain, and I"m sure that even with all the weapons they have they should be able to…"
"Oh, no, they didn"t destroy it with weapons, they actually dug through the entire thing… it would be better if you see for yourself."
I flew up to see what was going on and was awestruck to see thousands of puppets that looked like a miniature version of Y holding pickaxes and carving mountains. They were digging for mineral reserves within the mountain.
"What the h.e.l.l happened in a year?!"
"When you left you forgot to give them the command to stop after finis.h.i.+ng up X"s body… And I didn"t stop them since they were pretty proficient at creating other puppets. When the materials that were needed to make X"s body were done, they began digging minerals through the landscape, they processed them, and repurposed them. Although the version of puppets they made is of a lesser quality than Y and X, they are still all at the emperor level…"
"…"
"They also have the same Reactor that Y and X have…"
"Don"t tell me…"
"No, they couldn"t make the Law Core and the inscription cube. Those required understanding of law. Even Y tried to replicate it and failed,"
"Thank G.o.d…" I said.
"I thought you"d be happier with the result…" he said.
"Frankly speaking, this is a good thing, however I"ve seen too many movies where stuff like this went really, really wrong. Anyway, I suppose they"re going to keep working on creating other puppets…"
"They will unless commanded otherwise."
"What"s the total number of produced puppets?"
"Forty-two thousand and sixty-nine puppet,"
"Nice…How many of them are capable of combat?" I asked.
"Not many, about a thousand at most, they"re lacking Saint Qi crystals. As for the rest, they"re using spiritual stones to supply themselves with power. Although the reserves are diminis.h.i.+ng greatly. We"ll need more Saint Qi to supply the whole army…"
"Army… I suppose," I sighed as I didn"t expect this.
"Where is Old Fu?" I asked.
He left a while ago, he already successfully reached the Origin Realm. He"s also outside taking care of the elders that had insistently requested your presence."
"Give the order for the puppets to stand down. If they keep this up they"ll probably raze the entire paG.o.da to the ground. I"ll be back later…"
I shook my head as I left the area… an actual army of Y… that"s a lot of power… I should keep this on the low end. Having too much power at my current level will only get more eyes on me… although it is impressive in its own right, it"s not something I should expose right now…