Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 259: Grade 3 Combat Puppet

A Mortal Shedding Realm cultivator had been easily slain.

It had hardly taken any effort on Tang Jie’s part.

Though this was connected to the fact that Tang Jie’s Jewel Body was a natural counter to this Wanderer Pentavenom, Tang Jie’s strength was also quite shocking. The spectators all had shock in their eyes.

At this moment, the young girl from the Ayia Tribe, Cai’er, came out and saw this sight, gasping, “Wanderer Pentavenom? Tang Jie, you killed him?”

Tang Jie was in the middle of searching Wanderer Pentavenom’s body.

He wasn’t interested in killing people for their loot, but he didn’t mind taking the possessions of people who had been killed.

Alas, all this Wanderer Pentavenom had in his Mustard Seed Bag were poisons. He had bought these poisons at the secret market to feed his bugs, and there were all sorts that were quite expensive. Alas, no one in Tang Jie’s group had any use of them.

The six major sects had strict rules that forbade their disciples from using poisons.

“A pity… I’ll just have to find a place to sell them,” Tang Jie muttered. He then turned to Cai’er and said, “He wanted to kill us, so I had no choice.”

“This is a problem,” Cai’er said, stomping her feet. “This Wanderer Pentavenom is a guest elder of the Cloud Mountain Hall. The Cloud Mountain Hall won’t let you go now that you’ve killed him.”

Wei Tianchong curiously asked, “What is the Cloud Mountain Hall?”

Tang Jie replied for Cai’er, “It should be a gang like the Evil Dragon Gang. Some Wanderers without sects will often join a local gang to get what they need.”

“So it was just a local gang. I was worried for nothing,” Wei Tianchong said, pursing his lips.

Cai’er saw that they didn’t seem to care, and stomped her feet in anger.

She didn’t know that they were from Basking Moon. For the students of the six major sects, local gangs like the Evil Dragon Gang or Cloud Mountain Hall were like ants on the side of the road. They didn’t even compare to minor cultivation sects.

In Sageheart, they would just have to wear their uniforms to make those minor sects not even dare to try anything. And even in Duskland, they wouldn’t concern themselves with organizations like the Cloud Mountain Hall that didn’t even compare to minor sects.

It would be fine if the Cloud Mountain Hall chose to not make trouble, but if it dared to come and find them, Tang Jie and Wei Tianchong didn’t mind increasing their prestige among the people.

At this point, Cai’er could only have them get out of here as quickly as possible. As for the other Ayia caravan masters, they saw that Tang Jie’s group had caused trouble, and hastily left without a word, for fear that others would take them as being acquainted with Tang Jie’s group.

Tang Jie’s group didn’t care. They had bought what they had come for, so they went back to the inn in town to finish the puppet.

Wei Tianchong had basically finished carving the puppet on the road. What came next was the refining formation, which was Tang Jie’s job.

Ever since he had revealed his formation knowledge on Wind Devil Island, Tang Jie had decided to stop hiding it and confess that he had been learning formations in secret. So, why had he been learning in secret?

Ha! Weren’t Ye Tianshang, Su Xinyue, Liu Hongyan, and Ping Jingyue all experts hiding their ability? A person needed hidden cards so that they could achieve victory at critical moments. Other people could do it, so Tang Jie naturally could, too.

But this was precisely why Tang Jie wasn’t revealing that he had reached proficiency in Grade 4 formations and only dared to make Wei Tianchong a Grade 3 puppet. Fortunately, Wei Tianchong didn’t have the wealth to make a Grade 4 puppet.

It had to be understood that a single Grade 3 puppet had used up almost all of Wei Tianchong’s savings.

The puppet’s primary material was White Radiastone and a certain amount of meteoric iron. This had cost five thousand, and putting together the Softscent Jade and violet gold, the principal material cost rose to eleven thousand. Besides that, the refining formation materials cost five thousand, and they had only gotten around one thousand back by recycling the old puppet.

In other words, they had invested a total of 16000 coins into this puppet, and this wasn’t even considering the discounted prices they had gotten at the secret market and the labor of Wei Tianchong and Tang Jie. Wei Tianchong had spent more than a month sculpting this puppet, and this was after his strength had greatly increased. In the past, this would have taken three months to finish. And Tang Jie’s refining formation would also take many days to complete, with the services of a Grade 4 formation master only being more expensive.

Everything added together meant that the complete product would have cost more than thirty thousand spirit coins and could be sold for at least forty thousand.

On the day they returned to the inn, Tang Jie locked himself in his room and started on the refining formation. He had already finished the design on the road.

For the next few days, he hardly slept, and even his food and drink were delivered by Shi Meng.

On the evening of the seventh day, Tang Jie finally came out, his eyes bloodshot and his expression haggard. The impatient Wei Tianchong rushed up and asked, “Tang Jie, how is it?”

“It’s done,” Tang Jie replied.

“Wonderful!” Wei Tianchong and Shi Meng cheered.

“Shh!” Tang Jie placed a finger on his mouth and pointed at the ceiling. “Yiyi is sleeping. She’s been acting as my assistant these last few days and is tired to death.”

He smiled and said, “Follow me. I’ll show my handiwork.”

Tang Jie strode out of the room and into the courtyard.

He took out the puppet token and waved it. Wei Tianchong and Shi Meng watched with widened eyes, but they didn’t see anything.

“Why is there nothing?” Wei Tianchong asked in surprise.

Tang Jie mysteriously smiled and snapped his fingers. Weird ripples appeared in the air, and then an enormous figure abruptly appeared in front of the pair.

Wei Tianchong was startled, and then he realized, shouting, “A concealment spell art? It’s a concealment spell art!”

Tang Jie had not told Wei Tianchong what sort of refining formation he would use, only that he wouldn’t be disappointed. This had left Wei Tianchong itching with anticipation, but he hadn’t expected such a wonderful surprise.

It was obvious just how useful a puppet that could conceal itself was, and it would undoubtedly be a very worthwhile ally.

This puppet was 2.1 meters tall and broad like a strongman. Its body was white tinged with a faint golden gloss. This was the effect from melting down the violet gold and applying it to the puppet. The stone face was well defined, and if one didn’t look closely, one would take it for a real person. Only the two eyes made from Lightning Seeds exposed the truth.

Paint had been used to draw out strange images on it, like large tattoos.

“What is this?” Shi Meng said, pointing at the images on the puppet.

Tang Jie explained, “These images are used to obscure the formation lines. The refining formation was more complicated this time, so complicated that even I wasn’t able to entirely hide it. The formation lines will flash when the puppet moves around, and a cultivator with sharp eyes can very easily tell the exact location and structure of each refining formation from the flashing formation lines and the ability the puppet is using at the time, thus allowing them to find a solution. These images are used to fool the senses. In the future, if we can get it some armor, we’ll be able to hide the lines even better.”

“Formation lines that can’t be hidden?” Wei Tianchong immediately noticed a problem with Tang Jie’s words. Even the most ordinary student of formations could hide formation lines. For a “Grade 3” formation master like Tang Jie to not be able to hide the formations meant that this formation was more than just complex.

Sure enough, Tang Jie replied, “Mm, there are somewhat more refining formations this time.”

“How many?”

Tang Jie chuckled and said, “Twelve.”

Tang Jie had racked his brains to make a puppet that could be considered truly outstanding.

This puppet had twelve refining formations in all. Five were basic function formations, responsible for energy supply, operation, order reception, and other such functions. This meant that the puppet’s abilities were better, as was its foundation.

The previous puppet could only mechanically carry out orders, and its fighting style was rather inflexible. Formidable basic functions meant more flexibility and better execution.

As a visual example, the previous puppet could be compared to a zombie, only able to walk and wave its arms to attack. This puppet was like a real person, able to run, jump, and do somersaults.

The other seven refining formations granted the puppet other abilities.

On the head, there was the “Minor Lightning Fall Formation”. It could cast the Lightning Fall spell for long-range attacks.

On the left arm was the “Demon-Conquering Martial Formation”. It could cast the True Martial Divine Strength spell to bolster its strength.

On the right arm was the “Profound Gate Triple Variation Formation”. It could cast the Profound Court Battle Saber spell and allowed for modification of the primary weapon.

On the left leg was the “Thousand Mile Windchaser Formation”. It could cast the Swiftwind spell and allowed for greater sprinting.

On the right leg was the “Lightscatter Cloak Formation”. It could cast a concealment spell to hide the puppet.

On the chest was the “Everlasting Battle Formation”. It cast the Everlasting Shield, providing defense.

On the back was the “Sandstir Formation”. It could cast the Quicksand spell for self-repair.

These seven formations covered all aspects: attack, defense, speed, long-distance attacks, and close-distance attacks. Comparing it to Wei Tianchong’s old puppet was like comparing night and day.

Twelve refining formations on every part of the puppet’s body left even Tang Jie with an enormous challenge, and he also needed to stack some of the formations.

Fortunately, back in the Celestial Defense Hall, he had thoroughly studied those Blackplate Soldiers, and learned his method of stacking formations from them.

Even so, Tang Jie still found that he couldn’t completely hide the formation lines. In the end, he had come up with a compromise, using tattoos to hide the formation lines. This was something he had actually learned from “Prison Break”.

(TN: In the show “Prison Break”, the main character’s tattoos actually contain the plans he uses for breaking out of prison.)

As the Rosecloud Domain didn’t have the concept of tattoos, no one had ever thought about using this method to resolve the problem.

In this matter, Tang Jie had essentially been a pioneer.

Wei Tianchong and Shi Meng were thoroughly stunned when they learned that Tang Jie had carved twelve whole formations into the puppet.

If it had been a three- or four-meter-tall puppet, ten-some refining formations would have been plausible. But they had never heard of a two-meter-tall puppet being able to hold twelve refining formations.

After listening to Tang Jie’s explanation, Wei Tianchong was so excited that he could barely form sentences. “Twelve refining formations… seven spell arts, seven spell arts, haha! This is huge!”

He was madly laughing and his mouth was watering. He looked like he had gone mad.

It was eventually Shi Meng who reminded him, “Young Master, what are you still waiting for? Let’s try it out.”

Wei Tianchong came to his senses and said, “Yes, try it out. I should definitely try it out. Tang Jie, come on and fight with my puppet!”

“I had exactly the same idea.” Tang Jie smiled.

The moment he finished the puppet, he had wanted to test its power.