Chapter 127: Chapter 126: Crafting the Vine Snake Puppet

A month and a half later, Lu Zhao sat cross-legged on the stone bed. Before him floated three newly crafted Puppet Cores for the Ice Wind Wolf Puppet. He tapped his finger lightly, and the Puppet Cores spun rapidly. His Divine Sense wrapped around them like silken threads, carefully perceiving the stability and flow of every Spirit Pattern within.

"Fifty-five percent..." Lu Zhao murmured to himself, a hint of emotion flashing in his eyes.

The improvement in his Divine Sense Realm had benefited his Puppetry far more than he had anticipated. Ever since cultivating the Thousand Threads Technique to the Eight Threads Realm, his Divine Sense had become comparable to that of an Early-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator. As a result, his fine control over Magical Power, his perception of the fundamental nature of materials, and his command over inscribing complex Spirit Patterns had all leaped to a whole new level. Now, when crafting the Puppet Cores for the Ice Wind Wolf Puppet, his success rate was steadily over fifty percent, and the quality of the finished products was also better than before.

’No wonder the ancient texts say that Puppetry and the Refining Spirit Dao complement each other and share similar roots.’ Lu Zhao’s understanding deepened. A powerful Divine Sense was like the most precise carving knife and the sharpest eye, allowing him to tread the Puppet Dao ever more steadily.

After his moment of reflection, Lu Zhao’s expression grew serious again. He waved his hand, putting away the Ice Wind Wolf Puppet Cores, and his gaze shifted to a corner of the stone room. There lay a piece of the Cyan Rattan Root Remains from Cyan Rattan Stream, dark cyan in color and covered in profound, natural wood grain. Next to it was a head-sized piece of Cyan Spirit Iron, dense and shimmering with a metallic luster.

Today, he would attempt to craft the Vine Snake Puppet—an idea he had conceived long ago, and one far more difficult than the Ice Wind Wolf Puppet. This puppet would use the Cyan Rattan Root Remains as its bones and Cyan Spirit Iron as its sinews, fusing the vitality of wood with the sharpness of metal. If he succeeded, its power would be far beyond that of an ordinary Tier One Middle-Grade Puppet; it might even touch the threshold of the High-Grade.

However, the materials were precious and rare. He only had four pieces of the root remains, and the amount of Cyan Spirit Iron wasn’t plentiful either. Each set of materials carried enormous risk and expectation.

Lu Zhao took a deep breath, suppressing the distracting thoughts in his mind. He first took the Cyan Spirit Iron. Pure Water Element Magical Power gathered at his fingertips, forming the faint blue phantom of a carving knife. When the knife descended, it wasn’t with brute force. Instead, like the most nimble embroiderer threading a needle, it followed the natural grain within the Cyan Spirit Iron, carefully excising impurities and guiding the Gold Spirit Qi inside to flow and take shape. He performed this step extremely slowly, striving for perfection, not daring to rush in the slightest.

Processing the Cyan Spirit Iron took him an entire day.

On the second day, he turned to the piece of Cyan Rattan Root Remains. Although the vitality it once contained was gone, its internal structure was complex. Lu Zhao’s Divine Sense was highly focused. Like peeling silk from a cocoon, he carefully stripped away the outer, decayed, and useless parts, preserving only the most central section, the one richest in spirituality.

At the same time, he had to nourish it with Water Element Magical Power to stimulate the Wood Spirit Activity within, preparing it for the subsequent fusion with the Cyan Spirit Iron. This step was even more perilous; the slightest mistake could damage the spirituality of its wood pith.

Processing the root remains took him another two days.

Three days later, when the core parts of both the Cyan Spirit Iron and the Cyan Rattan Root Remains were properly processed, Lu Zhao’s eyes were bloodshot, yet his spirit was unusually energized. He sat cross-legged and meditated for half a day, adjusting his condition to its peak before officially beginning the fusion and crafting process.

First, he placed the processed Cyan Spirit Iron above an Earth Fire Stone, heating it with a gentle flame until it softened to a malleable state. At the same time, he guided Water Spirit Power with his fingertips, forming the most precise of bridges to slowly channel the Wood Spirit Qi from the Cyan Rattan Root Remains into the softened Cyan Spirit Iron.

A radiance of cyan and blue light swirled and merged where the materials met, emitting a faint SIZZLE. Lu Zhao was completely focused, his Divine Sense locked firmly on the point of fusion. He constantly adjusted the intensity and frequency of his Spiritual Power output, guiding the two materials with vastly different attributes to slowly and arduously combine.

The fusion process lasted for the better part of a day. When the last wisp of Wood Spirit Qi had completely merged into the Cyan Spirit Iron, and faint, vein-like cyan wood patterns appeared on the originally gray-cyan metal surface, Lu Zhao finally let out a long sigh of relief. His temples were already covered in fine beads of sweat. The initial fusion was a success!

Next came the most critical steps: shaping and inscribing the Spirit Patterns. Lu Zhao took out his Cyan Heavy Iron Carving Saber. The tip of the blade gathered his pure Divine Sense and Spiritual Power as he began to sketch the skeletal frame of the Vine Snake Puppet on the fused material. In his mind, the complex diagram of the Vine Snake Puppet from his legacy appeared with perfect clarity. Every turn of a joint, every connection of a "Scale Armor," had to be executed with flawless precision.

The Carving Knife moved like a dancer on a cliff’s edge. The toughness of the fused root material far surpassed that of ordinary Ironwood, and it drained his Divine Sense and Spiritual Power enormously. Lu Zhao held his breath, concentrating fully, not daring to let his focus waver for an instant. Time flowed by in the silence. The nascent form of the Vine Snake Puppet gradually took shape under his blade—a winding serpentine body, a ferocious head. Though unfinished, it already exuded a faint, fierce aura.

However, just as the main torso of the snake was nearing completion and Lu Zhao was preparing to inscribe the core dual Spirit Patterns, "Wood-Metal Coexistence" and "Vine Entanglement and Strangulation," something suddenly went wrong!

Inside the material, at the very moment the core Spirit Pattern nodes were about to be formed, the forcibly fused Wood Spirit Qi and Gold Spirit Qi seemed to suffer a broken equilibrium. They suddenly produced a violent repulsion! The once-stable cyan-blue light shuddered violently, then erupted in a chaotic torrent of energy!

’Not good!’ Lu Zhao’s expression changed drastically. He instantly retracted the Carving Knife and fully activated the Jade Water Golden Scale Shield to protect himself.

PFFT!

With a muffled bang, the half-inscribed Spirit Patterns on the fused material shattered inch by inch. Several hideous cracks burst open where the Cyan Spirit Iron and the vine root had joined. A violent storm of Wood-Metal Spiritual Power, mixed with the residual fierce aura, erupted outward, blasting the unfinished prototype of the Vine Snake Puppet to pieces, leaving it scorched and blackened!

The first attempt at crafting was a failure.

The scent of burnt material and wood shavings filled the wooden cabin. Lu Zhao stared at the pile of priceless scrap on the floor, silent for a long time, before finally letting out a soft sigh.

’As expected... trying to craft it on the first attempt was too ambitious,’ he murmured, a trace of imperceptible fatigue and disappointment in his voice. Although he had been mentally prepared, knowing that crafting a puppet close to Tier One High-Grade was no easy task—especially a special puppet that fused different types of materials—the feeling of loss from seeing his hard work go down the drain still weighed heavily on his heart.

He didn’t immediately start a second attempt. Instead, he sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to meditate. His powerful Divine Sense meticulously reviewed every detail of the crafting process, from the material preparation to the heat of the fusion, and then to the inscription of the Spirit Patterns... he was trying to find the root cause of the failure. A moment later, he opened his eyes, his gaze clear once more.

’The fusion point still wasn’t perfect. The Wood Spirit Activity was over-stimulated, causing the balance with the Gold Spirit Qi to spin out of control at the last moment... The design of the core Spirit Pattern’s nodes might also need some fine-tuning.’ He analyzed calmly, engraving the lessons from his failure into his mind.

After meditating for three days, Lu Zhao’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit returned to their peak. He took out the second set of materials and began his second attempt.

With the experience from his first attempt, the process of preparing and fusing the materials went much more smoothly. During the shaping phase, he was even more careful and cautious, his Saber Technique growing steadier. When the snake’s main body was formed once more and he began to inscribe the core Spirit Patterns, Lu Zhao’s Heart Spirit tensed to its absolute limit.

The tip of the blade danced across the fused material, and one after another, complex and profound Spirit Patterns gradually appeared according to his will. The wood and metal patterns intertwined, spreading across the material’s surface like living things. This time, he felt things were going much more smoothly. His grasp of the material’s properties and his control over his Spiritual Power output had both reached a new height. The network of the dual Spirit Patterns grew clearer, and he was on the verge of completing the most critical core node connection...

However, at that final, critical moment!

The intense mental focus over several consecutive days, combined with the Divine Sense consumption from wielding the Carving Knife to inscribe such complex Spirit Patterns, caused an irrepressible wave of fatigue to wash over Lu Zhao. In the instant before completing the final stroke, his fingertips trembled, minutely and uncontrollably!

It was this imperceptible tremor!

The tip of the blade carved a fine line at the core node, deviating from the intended path!

BUZZ—!

The light of the newly completed Spirit Pattern network instantly fell into chaos! The previously smooth-flowing Wood-Metal Spiritual Power suddenly clashed and ran rampant! A torrent of energy even more violent than the first time exploded within the snake’s body!

CRACK! PFFT!

Accompanied by a cringe-inducing cracking sound and the muffled bang of venting energy, the second prototype of the Vine Snake Puppet followed the fate of the first. It disintegrated before Lu Zhao’s eyes, turning into a scorched and blackened pile of worthless debris.

The second attempt at crafting had failed at the very last step! He had been defeated by a moment of carelessness at the final juncture, born from exhaustion!

Lu Zhao stood rooted to the spot, his face slightly pale, staring at the scrap on the floor without a word for a long time. The stone room was deathly silent, with only the eerie blue flames of the Earth Fire Stone flickering quietly.

’Looks like it’s time to dabble in the Path of Body Refining. I don’t need it for combat, just to increase the strength of my Flesh Body. The main reason for this failure was my weak body and insufficient stamina,’ Lu Zhao thought.

After a long while, he slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, forcefully suppressing the frustration and unwillingness in his heart. He sat down cross-legged again. This time, he wasn’t just recovering his Magical Power and energy, but also calming his state of mind.

’The first two times... the main reason was a lack of experience,’ he calmly reviewed. ’The first time, it was a lack of experience in fusing the materials and the Spirit Patterns, which led to an internal energy imbalance and collapse. The second time, I underestimated the sustained energy required to craft such a complex puppet. My stamina failed at the last moment, causing everything to fall apart.’

He carefully recalled every detail from the two crafting attempts, from the subtle changes in the Magical Power at his fingertips to every wisp of feedback from his Divine Sense Perception. He repeatedly mulled over and verified every step that could have led to failure.

’Technically, I didn’t make any unforgivable mistakes,’ he finally concluded, his gaze turning sharp. ’The main issue is still not having accumulated enough crafting experience. My mastery over this kind of High-Tier puppet hasn’t yet reached the point of perfection, where my heart and hands move as one. The timing isn’t right, but it’s not that the path is impossible.’

His gaze fell upon the last set of materials, and his expression became incredibly solemn. He silently vowed in his heart: ’This last set of materials... I will succeed in crafting the Vine Snake Puppet!’

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