The moment ancient corpses, covered in tattered armor and with soul-fires burning in their eyes, surged out from the rock walls and ground like a tide, completely blocking the cave exit, Ling Chen’s pupils suddenly constricted!
It wasn’t out of fear, but because this familiar yet eerie scene abruptly triggered a fragment deep within his past life’s memories!
The Soul Jade Physique’s cold will frantically operated, instantly matching the scene before him with a record from the distant past, concerning a forbidden technique!
“Spirit Puppets! It’s actually Spirit Puppets!”
A tempest raged in Ling Chen’s heart.
“Zhang Liang… he actually partially succeeded?! No, it’s a semi-finished product! Or rather… an out-of-control defective product!”
In his previous life, when he reached the pinnacle and explored numerous ancient ruins and lost secret realms, he once discovered some incomplete jade slips deep within an extremely dangerous forbidden area called the “Thousand Puppet Cave.”
The jade slips were not cultivation techniques, but research notes left by an ancient powerful being who called himself an “Artificer.” They mentioned several long-lost forbidden puppet techniques involving soul and energy manipulation.
One of them was called the “Undying Spirit Puppet”!
Its core principle was not simple necromancy or undead summoning, but rather centered on an extremely special, almost Evil soul rune, combined with a special alloy capable of perfectly preserving soul energy as a skeleton and armor, and then powered by a complex geomorphic energy circulation system for long-term operation.
It forcibly imprisoned and modified the soul fragments and combat instincts of powerful ancient warriors, turning them into terrifying war puppets that were almost eternal, absolutely loyal, immune to pain, and capable of constant repair and regeneration within a specific energy field!
It could be seen as a form of mechanical ascension, where supernatural abilities replaced modern technology.
The production process was extremely cruel, requiring the live extraction of powerful warriors’ souls, refined through secret methods of torment, with most personal consciousness erased, retaining only combat experience and killing instinct, then sealed into a specially made rune core.
The rune core was then embedded into that special alloy skeleton, which could resist the erosion of time and perfectly conduct spiritual energy.
Once successful, the Spirit Puppet legion would be tireless and fearless of death; as long as the core rune was not destroyed and the energy field remained, they could continuously revive over long years, annihilating all intruders who trespassed into the forbidden area!
However, the notes also clearly stated that this technique carried immense risks, with extremely stringent and almost perverse requirements for the drawing of soul runes, the refining of the alloy, and the construction of the geomorphic energy circulation, making failure highly likely.
Once a flaw appeared in the rune or energy circulation, the Spirit Puppets would lose control, becoming terrifying existences that only knew how to kill, even devouring each other to evolve, and ultimately turning against their master!
Therefore, it was considered forbidden and had long been lost.
Ling Chen never expected to see what appeared to be “Spirit Puppets” here, in this world!
The ancient corpses before him, their tattered armor plates and faintly exposed skeletons, shimmered with a dull, strange metallic luster that was neither gold nor stone—precisely the “Soul-Sealing Spirit Metal” described in the notes, used to make Spirit Puppet skeletons and armor!
The eerie blue soul-fire burning in their eyes was not a true soul-fire, but a phenomenon produced when the soul rune core was driven, burning spiritual energy!
Their awakening from the rock walls and ground was precisely because this “Martial Arts Cave Heaven” itself was built on a geomorphic node, and within it, there must exist a geomorphic energy circulation system providing energy to these Spirit Puppets!
Although it might be unstable due to age and damage, it was clearly still barely functioning!
Zhang Liang!
This Sage of Strategy, he was not only deducing the “Path to Heaven,” but he was also secretly attempting to create the forbidden “Undying Spirit Puppets”!
What did he intend to do with this immortal army? Guard his research findings? Or… were there more terrifying uses?
Judging by the state of these Spirit Puppets, it was clear that Zhang Liang’s experiment had not been entirely successful. Their movements were stiff, the light from their rune cores was dim, and their energy supply seemed intermittent, making them more like defective products activated by lingering obsession and instinct.
But even so, their sheer numbers and the cold killing intent and death energy they exuded, which had not dissipated after a thousand years, were enough to send shivers down one’s spine!
“Damn it! They’re ancient guards! Protect the Professor! Form a defensive array!”
Gao Zhan’s roar pulled Ling Chen back from his momentary recollection to reality.
Gao Zhan’s entire body erupted with lightning, and he swung his twin hammers, smashing them violently into the first few Spirit Puppets charging forward!
Boom! Crack!
Lightning exploded, and those few Spirit Puppets were sent flying backward, their armor shattering to reveal dark metal skeletons with faint runes shimmering within!
But they only struggled on the ground for a few moments, the soul-fire in their eyes suddenly brightening, absorbing the chaotic spiritual energy in the air, and then they staggered back to their feet!
The broken bones and armor emitted a grating, teeth-aching sound, as if slowly healing!
“They can’t be killed?!”
Leimeng roared, his half-bear transformed giant palm crushing a Spirit Puppet’s head, but the headless Spirit Puppet still swung its rusted weapon and stumbled forward!
“Their core isn’t in their head!”
Ling Chen immediately shouted a warning. He couldn’t directly reveal the secret of “soul runes” and “spirit metal skeletons,” so he could only make quick judgments based on observation.
“Attack their chests or spines! There’s an energy reaction there! Or completely destroy them!”
At the same time, he yelled at Su Qing and Wang Yuan: “Liu Feng! Disrupt their formation! Hui Xiu! Sense the point of most concentrated energy, it might be the control core or energy source!”
Su Qing rapidly waved her hands, and sharp wind blades whistled out. Although they couldn’t completely destroy the Spirit Puppets, they could knock them off balance, disrupting their attack rhythm.
Wang Yuan, with his eyes tightly shut, his nostrils flaring intensely, struggled to discern amidst the chaotic energy field.
“Front-left! Behind the rock wall! The energy is densest there! It looks like… it looks like an altar-like object!”
Ling Chen’s eyes sharpened! An altar? That was very likely one of the nodes of the geomorphic energy circulation system, or even the central control for these Spirit Puppets!
“Commander Gao! Brother Leimeng! Cover me! I’ll go destroy that energy node!”
Ling Chen roared, his figure like lightning, charging directly towards the direction Wang Yuan indicated!
“Kid! Be careful!”
Leimeng roared, fully transforming into his beast form, crashing through the obstructing Spirit Puppets like a tank to clear a path for him. Gao Zhan also instantly erupted with even greater lightning power, temporarily clearing an area.
Ling Chen controlled the Mud Swamp Domain to a very small area, affecting only his feet and the front, greatly slowing down the approaching Spirit Puppets.
He weaved through the stiff, sluggish Spirit Puppet horde like a fish, his gaze fixed on the rock wall to his front-left—
—There, indeed, was a square platform half-embedded in the rock wall, made of the same material metal. The platform was covered with complex rune lines, and at its center was a groove, currently emitting a faint energy fluctuation, originating from the same source as the soul-fire in the Spirit Puppets’ eyes!
That was it!
Just as Ling Chen was about to rush to the platform, an anomaly suddenly occurred!
The rock wall around the platform suddenly exploded! Three Spirit Puppets, noticeably taller than the others, with relatively intact armor and deep purple soul-fire in their eyes, burst out like elite guards!
Their weapons, though rusted, shrieked as they tore through the air, sealing off all of Ling Chen’s advance and evasion routes with a precise combined attack!
Their speed, strength, and coordination were far beyond those of the lesser puppets!
Ling Chen’s pupils constricted! These three Spirit Puppets were probably relatively well-preserved “finished products”!
There was no avoiding it!
A cold light flashed in Ling Chen’s eyes, and he was about to unleash more of his power as a Mutant, regardless of exposure—
Just then!
A scorching, milky-white beam of light, containing purifying power, descended like divine punishment, accurately striking the center of the three elite Spirit Puppets!
Boom—!!!
Holy light erupted, and the death energy and soul-fire on the three Spirit Puppets violently fluctuated as if encountering a nemesis, emitting a silent, mournful shriek, their movements instantly stiffening and slowing!
Ling Chen suddenly turned his head, only to see several figures appear at the cave entrance at some unknown time!
The leader, dressed in a silver-white, gold-trimmed priestly robe, held a scepter emitting a soft yet powerful light. That purifying beam of light was precisely what he had unleashed!
“Temple Knights?!” Gao Zhan’s surprised voice rang out.
Reinforcements? Uninvited guests?
Ling Chen had no time to think. Seizing this fleeting opportunity, he surged past the three purified elite Spirit Puppets, and with the spiritual energy he had already condensed in his hand, containing a trace of the Soul Jade Physique’s annihilating power, he fiercely slammed it into the core groove of the metal platform!
“Break for me!”