Chapter 81: The Spirit Puppet
After securing the Nirvana Pills, Lin Langtian quickly moved on to other stone chambers. With his head start, he was in a much better position than Lin Dong from the original timeline, making it even more necessary to thoroughly scour this ancient tomb.
Unfortunately, most of the remaining chambers contained little of real value. The only place that caught his interest was a chamber full of demonic spirits. Yet, most of these spirits were weak, with a strength that maxed out at the Creation Realm. Lin Langtian felt a twinge of disappointment, though he wasn't surprised; the tomb's owner was only a Nirvana-level cultivator, so it would have been unlikely for them to subdue creatures of similar strength.
After raiding several more rooms without finding anything noteworthy, Lin Langtian turned his attention to the deeper passageways. There might be some unexpected treasures hidden in the depths of the tomb.
With that thought in mind, Lin Langtian didn't hesitate. Infusing Yuan Power into his feet, he shot down the passage at incredible speed.
About half an hour later, the passage opened up into a vast area with multiple branching corridors, twisting and turning into the unknown. Lin Langtian stopped, a bit surprised by the sudden change in terrain. Taking a few steps forward, he noticed strange, blackened fragments scattered on the ground.
Picking up a piece, he realized it resembled a broken human arm. The arm was completely black, extremely heavy, and seemed to be made of solid iron. Strange, intricate symbols were carved into the metal.
"This is… a puppet?" Lin Langtian muttered, examining the fragment in his hand. On the Tianxuan Continent, some masters specialized in crafting puppets, which were infused with powerful symbols, creating what was known as a "Rune Puppet."
As soulless constructs, rune puppets felt no pain or emotion, functioning solely as pure killing machines.
"This seems like a defective piece—not even a lower-grade puppet," Lin Langtian murmured, turning the broken arm over in his hands. He knew that rune puppets were generally divided into three grades: lower, middle, and upper. A lower-grade rune puppet was equivalent to the Yuan Dan Realm, a middle-grade one could rival the Form or Qi Creation Realms, and an upper-grade puppet was on par with a full-fledged Creation Realm cultivator.
Of course, puppets beyond these levels existed, but they were exceedingly rare in the Great Yan Empire. Beyond the empire, certain sects were famous for their mastery over these puppets. He recalled that one of the eight major sects in the East Xuan Region was especially renowned for its puppetry.
Shaking his head, Lin Langtian dismissed these thoughts and continued down the passageway.
Along the way, he encountered a few rune puppets. However, due to the time they'd spent gathering dust in the tomb, these puppets were as rusty and decayed as abandoned relics, barely functioning. After casually destroying a few, Lin Langtian quickly lost interest and picked up his pace.
Then, as he ran, a strange energy fluctuation from a nearby stone wall caught his attention, prompting him to stop.
"There's something odd about this wall," he said, narrowing his eyes at a seemingly ordinary section of stone to his right.
For some reason, passing by this wall triggered a subtle ripple in his mental energy, as though something sinister lay hidden behind it. Trusting his instincts, Lin Langtian summoned the Crimson Flame Roaring Sky Spear, gathering an immense amount of Yuan Power at the spear's tip.
As Yuan Power concentrated on the spear, it emitted an intense glow, and a fiery dragon materialized, roaring into existence.
"Break!"
With a cold shout, Lin Langtian launched the fire dragon, its terrifying heat sweeping through the corridor as it smashed into the stone wall.
A thunderous crash echoed as the stone wall crumbled under the assault, fragments flying everywhere as a large section of the wall collapsed.
"An Earth-level spirit weapon, indeed," Lin Langtian mused with a smile, admiring the damage the spear had caused. If he had relied on his own strength alone, breaking through this wall would have been challenging. But with the Crimson Flame Roaring Sky Spear, a single strike was all it took.
As the dust settled, a hidden cave, about three meters wide, gradually emerged before him.
"There really was something here…" Lin Langtian's eyes gleamed with anticipation. This cave, concealed so well, was bound to contain something valuable.
Proceeding cautiously, he first grabbed a rune puppet from a nearby passage and sent it into the cave to check for traps. After observing it for a few minutes without any sign of danger, Lin Langtian carefully stepped inside.
The cave was pitch-black, but Lin Langtian's sharp eyesight allowed him to take in the details with ease. The first things he noticed were enormous chains, each one thicker than a man, attached to the cave walls. These chains were covered in strange symbols, and thin, glowing lines of light ran along their length, giving the impression of a living, breathing entity.
His gaze lingered on the massive chains before shifting to their center. There, in the darkness, sat a massive figure bound by the chains.
Lin Langtian's eyes widened as he took in the sight of the creature suspended in the air, its limbs and neck tightly shackled.
"This is…"
The fierce aura radiating from the chained figure, even though it was unmoving, gave off an intimidating and brutal energy that seemed ready to shake the heavens.
"This… isn't human. It's a puppet!" Lin Langtian's eyes gleamed as he realized the truth.
"More than that—it's a Spirit Puppet!" he breathed, feeling the aura that was as powerful as his clan elder Lin Fan. He took a deep breath, his voice barely a whisper.
In addition to lower, middle, and upper-grade puppets, Spirit Puppets were even more advanced, rivaling Nirvana Realm cultivators in strength.
And here, right in front of him, was a Spirit Puppet.
(End of Chapter)
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