Time flies, three days have passed.

Li Mu successfully carved seven puppet source cores, and one puppet source core carving failed. At the same time, he also carved twenty blocks of spiritual peach wood into nine human-shaped combat puppet bodies.

Opening the hidden compartment in the chest of a combat puppet, he placed the puppet source core inside, then took five middle-grade spirit stones and embedded them into the drive spiritual array.

Li Mu stretched out his hand to inject spiritual power, and his divine sense covered the puppet source core.

In the next second, the puppet's array pattern on its surface flashed with spiritual light and disappeared, and the combat puppet came to life. With its limbs outstretched, it agilely sprang up and stood straight in front of Li Mu, the puppet's body emitting powerful spiritual pressure at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining.

A thought occurred to Li Mu, and he used his divine sense to manipulate the puppet to walk to the center of the courtyard.

The combat puppet moved with mechanical steps and quickly stood in the center of the courtyard, standing as rigid as wood on the ground.

"Come, let's have a fight!" Li Mu used his divine sense to issue a combat command to the combat puppet, ready to test its combat strength.

In the next moment, the combat puppet pushed off its feet and swiftly lunged forward.

"Smack!"

Li Mu dangerously reached out to block the puppet's thrusting punch, getting pushed back two steps.

However, before Li Mu could stabilize his center of gravity, the combat puppet followed with a sweep, a strong wooden leg swiftly coming into view with thunderous force.

Li Mu's expression changed, forced to defend with both hands.

"Smack!"

Li Mu blocked the puppet's attack with his hands again, getting kicked and sent flying, his arms stinging with pain.

"Stop!" Li Mu was startled and ordered the combat puppet to stop fighting immediately.

"Whew!" A wooden fist stopped just inches from Li Mu's face, the sharp punch wind blowing his bangs aside.

Li Mu narrowly escaped death, face pale as a ghost.

"Damn it! It hurts so much, it's all bruised!" Li Mu checked his arm, tearing up from the pain.

Li Mu had forgotten; he hadn't learned any close combat techniques, and he had always been farming on the mountain with little combat experience.

In the past, he managed to win two life-and-death battles relying entirely on Tier Two Spirit Talismans and Spirit Sword external aids. Li Mu himself doesn't have much combat talent.

However, the combat puppet was different. The puppet source core carved with complex combat puppet array patterns endowed the puppet with strong combat instinct, able to constantly absorb combat experience and refine its combat system, coupled with its hard wooden body and fearless of death attribute.

The contrast in combat quality was too great, couldn't fight at all!

Li Mu looked grim; the outer sect disciple assessment seemed to involve combat evaluation.

Li Mu thought of something, searched his storage bag and pulled out "Finger Snap Force" and "Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship," two mortal-level combat techniques, quickly learning them.

"Finger Snap Force," employs a clever force technique to shoot a burst of energy, suitable for both close-range and long-range finger techniques.

Li Mu followed the Finger Snap Force cultivation route, gathered spiritual true essence in his right hand, aligned his index and middle fingers together. With a "poof," a burst of spiritual true essence shot out along the two fingers.

A visible burst of true essence energy hit the ground, leaving a shallow imprint and kicking up some dust.

"This power is so small, this is mortal skills for you!" Li Mu frowned with dissatisfaction, then looked at the character's virtual panel.

[Ding, you have learned the mortal-level cultivation technique - Finger Snap Force, proficiency in Finger Snap Force +1.]

Li Mu immediately saw Finger Snap Force recorded on the character panel prompt, then added free skill points to it.

[Ding, you have consumed one free skill point, proficiency in Finger Snap Force +1.]

…

Li Mu used 9600 free skill points in one go to upgrade Finger Snap Force to level four, a wealth of Finger Snap Force usage experience and skill tips flooded his mind.

At this moment, Li Mu felt as if he had used Finger Snap Force thousands of times. With a casual point, there was a "whistle," and a sharp burst of true essence energy shot out, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

In the next second, with a "smack," a small half-finger-deep hole suddenly appeared on the ground.

Li Mu was overjoyed; this burst of energy was quite powerful, released skillfully and unexpectedly, potentially posing a significant threat to late-stage Qi Refining cultivators.

The power of level four Finger Snap Force satisfied Li Mu greatly, even a high-level mortal technique can provide decent combat power.

Next, it's time to cultivate "Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship."

Li Mu took a Tier One Profound Iron Sword from his storage bag and practiced the sword techniques of "Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship."

Perhaps, due to Li Mu's mastery of sword intent and sword domain, he immediately comprehended the transformation essentials of this swordsmanship. The Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship corresponds to the twenty-four seasonal terms: Lichun, Rain Water, Awakening of Insects, Vernal Equinox, Clear and Bright, Grain Rain,...

Lichun, all things gradually revive, the sword technique is gentle yet resilient; Rain Water, humidity gradually rises, frost dew often appears, the sword technique sometimes fast, sometimes slow, cold light explodes;…

[Ding, you have learned the mortal-level swordsmanship - Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship, proficiency in Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship +1.]

After finishing a set of "Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship," Li Mu immediately saw a new improvement in the character's virtual panel.

Li Mu activated the Illusion Breath Technique cultivation method to restrain the suddenly exploding sharp sword intent; finishing this set of "Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship" gave him a unique feeling, the swordsmanship seemed to carry a sense of nature, endlessly enjoyable.

[Ding, you have consumed one free skill point, proficiency in Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship +1.]

[Ding, you have consumed one free skill point, proficiency in Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship +1.]

…

Like Finger Snap Force, Li Mu also upgraded "Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship" to level four, acquiring massive amounts of "Twenty-four Seasons Swordsmanship" cultivation experience and the essentials of sword techniques, with no other special gains.

Li Mu frowned slightly, puzzled, feeling that this swordsmanship shouldn't be this simple.

Having learned two mortal-level cultivation techniques and upgrading them to level four, his original 20,350 free skill points are now reduced to 1,150 points, greatly enhancing Li Mu's close combat capability, incredibly worthwhile.

Li Mu stored the Profound Iron Sword in the storage bag, picked up a wooden stick, using the stick as a sword to continue sparring with the combat puppet. "Ping, ping, pong, pong,..." a man and puppet battled back and forth intensely in the courtyard, dust flying everywhere.

The battle lasted for half an hour, and Li Mu's sword intent inflicted injuries on the combat puppet's body, leading him to stop the duel with the puppet reluctantly.

Through this battle, Li Mu confirmed the real strength of a Tier Two combat puppet; indeed, it possesses the combat power of the ninth level of Qi Refining. Given an appropriate weapon, it should be able to fight against an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator for a while.

However, it just consumes too many spirit stones.

Li Mu took out the puppet source core, replaced it with a new puppet body, only to find that the five middle-grade spirit stones had notably thinned after the fierce battle, lasting no more than four or five hours.

Li Mu equipped the remaining six combat puppets with puppet source cores, embedded middle-grade spirit stones, and then stored them in the storage compartment, prepared to deploy them as trump cards in crisis situations.

Next, Li Mu began to create Tier Two Spirit Talismans and refine defensive spiritual artifacts, making final preparations for the upcoming journey to Gangyang City.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.