Chapter 36

The auction only delayed Lu Qingfeng’s progress for half a day.

When he returned to Singularity Mountain, Lu Qingfeng began a new round of cultivation and research.

After ascending into the Genuine Chi Phase, cultivation became even more difficult.

To get from Level 1 of the Genuine Chi Phase to Level 9 of the Genuine Chi Phase, a total of 100 levels must be passed before one could ascend into the Foundation Building Stage. As well, the experience points needed to gain a level had also increased from an additional five points per level to an additional ten points per level.

On the aspect of pills…

Yellow Dragon Pills and ordinary Golden Pith Pellets already had no effect on Lu Qingfeng’s cultivation. Only Special Golden Pith Pellets that had been enhanced five times, Chi Infusing Pills, Chi Cycling Powders, and such like could help his cultivation in the Genuine Chi Phase.

And his cultivation progress had undergone an inevitable plummet in its speed.

His experience points were growing considerably, but they weren’t reaching the amount of experience points required for each level. What’s more, each level was subdivided into ten stages.

“Primitive” has cultivation stages and levels partitioned extremely meticulously. Even if a cultivator stays in a phase for a very long time, they can perceive the progress of their cultivation from the visible data of experience points and levels. But, at the same time, it can cause despair.

Based on his current progress, if Lu Qingfeng doesn’t expend any experience points to perform ability upgrades, there was no hope for him to ascend to the Foundation Building Stage before the end of his life span.

It was said that there would be a small bottleneck in every three levels of the Genuine Chi Phase. From the Genuine Chi Phase to the Chi Drawing Phase, there was even a massive bottleneck that had hindered a huge portion of cultivators.

Lu Qingfeng wasn’t confident, even though after he had ascended into the Genuine Chi Phase, the upper cap of his life span had increased from 68 to 100.

“In cultivation, everything runs on fate.

“100 years in the game is merely a year in reality. Based on my current progression in reality, I won’t be hitting the Genuine Chi Phase for about three to five years.

“That means that in the game, I have the time of about three to five lifetimes to repeatedly cultivate in the Genuine Chi Phase and accumulate experience.”

If he couldn’t achieve a breakthrough in one lifetime, he’d use two!

If he couldn’t achieve a breakthrough in two lifetimes, he’d use three!

After several lifetimes of accumulating experiences, he would be able to break through the Genuine Chi Phase and ascend into the Foundation Building Stage.

His mind was at peace!

Cultivation unabated!

Should he have any doubts, he would go and ask Zhang Zong, Wang Tao, Lu Hongwen, Mu Yuanyi, etc., about constantly grinding out the various hindrances in cultivation, pursuing progress not too hastily, but trying to fully understand what he was going through.

On Puppet Crafting, Zhang Zong was able to provide him with a lot of help.

Zhang Zong himself was a top-level Tool Refining Apprentice. Having studied Puppet Crafting for more than 20 years, he had a rich experience. With his guidance, Lu Qingfeng made rapid progress.

Time flew by ever so quickly.

In a flash…

Ten years have passed since the first Mysterious Auction House.

…

Within the boundaries of Emerald Mountain…

On Singularity Mountain…

Located next to the Emery Pill Refining Chamber, another huge building had been erected in recent years. It wasn’t a Pill Refining Chamber, but a Tool Refining Chamber.

This Tool Refining Chamber had been built by Lu Qingfeng at his own expense and was named the Emery Tool Refining Chamber.

As he went deeper into Puppet Crafting, the number of times he went in and out of Zhang Zong’s Onyx Tool Refining Chamber became more frequent. Sometimes, when inspiration came over him, it was common for him to stay inside and not to come out for ten days or even 15.

Although Zhang Zong, Mu Yuanyi, and the others didn’t say anything about it, it was hard to guarantee that the others in Singularity wouldn’t develop an opinion about him.

Singularity had grown over the years and was no longer the same group of people it had been during the time when Lu Qingfeng had just joined them.

Lu Qingfeng was self-conscious.

So he built the Emery Tool Refining Chamber beside the Emery Pill Refining Chamber so that he could be dedicated to the study of Puppet Crafting.

On this day…

In the Emery Tool Refining Chamber, Lu Qingfeng held a Rune Needle, infused it with his Genuine Chi, and carved Runes on the chest of the metal puppet that shared the same height as him.

Lu Qingfeng was extremely focused.

Every time the Rune Needle fell, it did so with unparalleled accuracy. He was extremely particular about every single line and the pause at each node.

About half an hour later…

The Rune Needle in Lu Qingfeng’s hand carved out a beautiful curve. On the chest of the metal puppet, Runic Patterns were gleaming. It was simple yet mysterious, with the ability to keep anyone from looking away!

He stared at the metal puppet in front of him without saying a word. He prompted his consciousness, and, all of a sudden, his vision altered, and he saw a young man who was pretty handsome standing in front of him staring blankly into the air.

This was Lu Qingfeng establishing a link with the Twin Stone within the metal puppet. Via the Spirit Control Runic Array inside the Twin Stone, his consciousness had entered the puppet and given him control over it.

His vision was shared with the puppet. Hence, he was seeing himself as if he was looking in a mirror.

This was the same method that Mu Yuanyi and the others used to control their puppets.

All sorts of visions and methods of surveying came from the Runic Arrays on the puppet.

Lu Qingfeng manipulated the metal puppet, raised its left foot, took a step, and actually managed to move it half a step backward!

The puppet didn’t stop. It continued to move.

Suddenly to the left, suddenly to the right.

Forward, backward, jump, flip…

Lu Qingfeng kept trying. This seemingly heavy metal puppet was as flexible as an ordinary person. The unique metal on its body could shrink and extend at will like skin and flesh. It could perform all kinds of actions that ordinary people could, and even actions that ordinary people couldn’t. It could execute actions that exceeded the limitations of human biology.

Lu Qingfeng returned to his consciousness, took a few steps forward, and slammed his palm on the metal puppet.

The puppet took three steps backward immediately while a scalding palm print appeared on its chest, which looked terrifying. But the puppet halted its backward motion and could still move about freely. It wasn’t affected at all.

Lu Qingfeng didn’t stop.

Smoldering Palm!

Yang Finger Technique!

Fireball!

Frostbite!

…

He unleashed techniques and spells, striking every part of the puppet’s body. After a series of brutal attacks, the puppet’s body was full of dents and scratches. It already looked as if it had been tragic for a very long time.

However, the joy on Lu Qingfeng’s face intensified.

When the last kick was delivered, the metal puppet was hurled away dozens of feet before it dropped to the ground. The metal puppet bounced back and stood up again.

“It is done!”

Lu Qingfeng didn’t go after it this time. He stood in the same place with an extremely excited expression!

18 years had passed in his life.

For the first eight years, Lu Qingfeng had begun to study the basics of Puppet Crafting.

He’d learned the various basics of Tool Refining, the handling processes of ores, metals, materials, and so on.

Then he learned the Art of Mechanisms.

After the various basics had been consolidated and the principles clarified, Lu Qingfeng began to formally delve into Puppet Crafting.

First, he obtained the most widespread puppet-refining methods from Singularity and Zhang Zong.

That included the overall structure of puppets, the construction of various Runic Arrays inside and outside the puppet, including the refining of the Spirit Core Runic Array, the Spirit Control Runic Array, the refining of an ordinary Twin Stone, and dozens of other Runic Arrays.

This kind of puppet was limited by the Twin Stone. It would only allow cultivators to enter and then manipulate the puppet to fight via physical contact with the Twin Stone.

Hence, the puppets were huge, at least 20 feet tall.

Lu Qingfeng started his research with this kind of puppet, and after he obtained the Huang’s Puppet Handbook at the first Mysterious Auction House, he then turned to study small puppets.

For ten whole years…

During the first seven years, he was constantly drilling Runic Array after Runic Array and the structure of every part of a puppet. Then he got into being able to refine a puppet with a complete structure, yet that was plagued with a plethora of problems.

He was repeatedly failing, repeatedly starting over!

Although the materials he used were very ordinary, all these countless experiments still cost a lot of money. Lu Qingfeng’s income from Pill Refining was all used by him to craft puppets.

Based on Lu Qingfeng’s attainments in Pill Refining, his Yellow Dragon Pills, Golden Pith Pellets, Chi Infusing Pills, Chi Cycling Powders, and other pills were very sought after. Every year, he would earn at least ten Spirit Stones.

Over the course of ten years, that would mean more than 100 Spirit Stones.

This was enough to buy several Tier 1 Magical Artifacts or dozens of Level 2 puppets!

Seeing the hefty investment it cost him, it was no wonder that Zhang Zong ultimately chose to give up after more than 20 years of research, and why the 100 Art Sect established themselves as a sect of puppets, yet kept their high-end methods of Puppet Crafting an extremely deep secret, allowing only a very few Tool Refiners in the sect to learn how to craft puppets.

The reason was simple.

It cost too much!

The direction of Lu Qingfeng’s research was ordinary puppets in Level 1 and Level 2 that were made with materials that were common and cheap. And because the puppets were small in size, they used fewer materials.

If he had been researching larger puppets or high-level puppets, he would have needed to spend ten or even 100 times as much.

Recalling the hardships of the past ten years and then looking at the puppet before him, Lu Qingfeng laughed to himself with joy.

…