Published: August 25, 2025
Chapter 264: Mechanical Puppets and the Great Yin Technique
On the wasteland, a lizard several feet long cautiously emerged from beneath a heavily weathered rock, preparing to begin its day of hunting.
But just as it crawled out of its nest and was only a few dozen yards away from the rock, suddenly a yellow monster about ten feet long burst out from the sandy earth on one side. Using both its front claws and mouth, it fiercely pounced on the lizard, easily snapping its neck before swiftly grabbing the corpse and sprinting off in a certain direction.
This creature, with four claws, a long tail, and a sharp snout, also appeared to be a gigantic lizard. However, its entire body was hard as stone, and as it ran, it emitted a creaking noise—it was clearly some kind of mechanical puppet.
After dashing over a mile, the monster came to rest beside a Man in Yellow Robes who was sitting cross-legged on a flat stone, meditating. The creature then dropped the corpse beside him and quickly ran off again.
The Man in Yellow Robes showed no change in expression, not the least bit surprised.
Unhurriedly, he beckoned with his hand, and the lizard’s corpse floated steadily in front of him, suspended several feet above the ground without moving.
Then the Man in Yellow Robes extended his index finger and lightly touched the lizard’s head, murmuring incantations under his breath.
After a short while, the finger he had extended began to glow faintly with a pale white light.
As the chanting continued, the white light grew brighter, eventually becoming dazzling to the eyes.
“Now!” the Man in Yellow Robes gave a low roar, sensing the timing was right.
Suddenly, a thin white thread shot out from his fingertip, piercing deep into the lizard’s skull. Then he slowly and laboriously began to pull back, his expression tense yet extremely cautious.
Finally, under his careful watch, the white thread drew out a green glowing orb from the dead lizard’s body. The orb floated lightly, about the size of a thumb.
Seeing this, the Man in Yellow Robes felt as if he had obtained a priceless treasure.
His other hand suddenly brightened, and a small pale yellow jade bottle appeared in his palm. Then with a soft pop, several beams of colorful light shot out from the bottle, coiling around the green orb and absorbing it inside.
At this moment, the Man in Yellow Robes finally let out a long breath of relief, wiping the fine sweat on his forehead. Clearly, the process had consumed a great deal of his energy.
“This soul-drawing technique really isn’t something a foundation establishment stage cultivator in the early phase can perform easily. The success rate is just too low—only one out of every three or four attempts succeeds. Looks like I’ll be stuck here all day,” he muttered with a helpless expression as he looked at the small jade bottle in his hand.
This man was none other than Han Li, who was cultivating the Great Yin Technique.
The reason he had appeared here, nearly a hundred miles from the spirit stone mines in this wasteland, was because he was collecting the souls and spirits of various creatures, just as he had done moments before. This kind of task was usually only done by those on the demonic path, but Han Li was involved because he was studying the Puppet Scripture.
After initially studying the puppet refining technique, Han Li discovered that crafting puppets not only required the materials typically used for refining magical artifacts but also required the fusion of living beings’ souls and spirits alongside these materials to truly succeed. Otherwise, the puppets created would lack any spiritual qualities and would be no different from ordinary dolls.
The higher the level of the puppet, the stronger and more refined the soul condensed inside it needed to be, in order to maximize the puppet’s effectiveness. For this reason, appended to the back of the Puppet Scripture were three secret techniques commonly used by demonic path practitioners: the Soul Drawing Technique, Soul Condensation Technique, and Soul Refining Technique.