Mysteries of Immortal Puppet Master

"Don't kill!" Sun Lingtong shouted.

No need for his reminder, Ning Zhuo had already given the order to the Battle Ape, Dasheng.

Yuan Dasheng was a martial arts master, able to act freely, and in an instant, he stopped his hand.

"Xiao Zhuo, use the talismans I gave you!" Sun Lingtong added.

Ning Zhuo nodded, "Don't worry, boss, I'm familiar with this."

Ning Zhuo took out several talismans, rushed to stand in front of Qi Bai, and stuck them on his three dantians and other vital spots.

The talismans took effect, the light they emitted intertwined and sealed Qi Bai completely.

"Hurry and go!" Sun Lingtong urged. After this, his eyes went dark, and he could no longer hold on, passing out.

On the peak of Mount Huoshi.

The outcome of this battle slightly surprised him.

When he saw that Ning Zhuo placed the talismans but didn't take Qi Bai’s life on the spot, his brows furrowed slightly.

Immediately, he murmured under his breath, sending a message out.

Chi Dun and Fei Si had been on standby.

Chi Dun instantly rushed into the sky, heading toward the location of Qi Bai's defeat.

Ning Zhuo’s retreat was very timely.

By the time Chi Dun descended to the ground, the place was already in ruins, with no one in sight.

"Sigh, too late." Chi Dun quickly used a spell, attempting to catch some clues.

How could Ning Zhuo have left any obvious clues?

Seeing Chi Dun’s movement, Zhu Xuanji, who was hundreds of miles away, immediately had a thought, "The City Lord’s mansion is starting to take action."

"Meng Kui's divine power technique is about to end!"

Zhu Xuanji immediately realized this.

When the entire fortune field was activated, the City Lord’s mansion, under Meng Kui’s order, had retracted all its influence, remained inactive, watching from the sidelines.

Zhu Xuanji understood: this was because the City Lord’s mansion and Meng Kui’s fortunes were connected, especially Fei Si and Chi Dun, who were Meng Kui’s right-hand men, their fortunes intertwined and inseparable.

If the two of them were drawn into the fortune field, Meng Kui would not sit comfortably and would be implicated as well.

"Meng Kui’s divine power technique this time ended much faster than I expected."

"According to past battle examples, he could continue for much longer. This time, he restrained himself a lot, likely out of concern for the citizens of Huoshi Immortal City."

"Perhaps, he’s also considering the Lava Immortal Palace."

"After all, Lava Immortal Palace’s performance under the siege of the beast horde was far below expectations. Sigh, it’s much weaker than I anticipated."

Zhu Xuanji stopped watching the battle and moved again.

He cautiously advanced toward Huoshi Immortal City. During this process, whenever the bell rang, he would stop and retreat a distance, ensuring his fortune was not affected.

Just as Zhu Xuanji had guessed, the intangible fortune field was rapidly shrinking. Moreover, the speed of this shrinkage was increasing.

Ning Zhuo put away the Battle Ape, Dasheng, and took Sun Lingtong and Qi Bai to an underground base.

For over a decade, he and Sun Lingtong had secretly sought out the cracks in the Immortal City, building more than twenty underground bases in secret.

Many of these bases had never been used since their construction.

In his daily life, Ning Zhuo mostly used only one of these underground bases—the one his mother had left for him, which had also once held Han Ming.

This underground base was small. Since it was built, Ning Zhuo had not returned to it.

Mainly, it housed a healing formation. Due to the solid materials used and the disregard for cost, the healing effects were outstanding.

At the beginning of his battle with Qi Bai, Ning Zhuo had continuously teleported, deliberately exposing over a dozen underground bases, trying his best to exhaust the powerful enemy.

This underground base, which was focused on healing, didn't need to be exposed. Such exposure would be a pointless giveaway, and Ning Zhuo wasn’t foolish.

Therefore, when Sun Lingtong woke up again, weakly opening his eyes, he found himself in a formation.

Countless green light spots gathered into his body, vigorously repairing the damage to his physical body.

As soon as Sun Lingtong woke up, he shouted, "Xiao Zhuo! Help me up, I need to disarm Qi Bai!"

Ning Zhuo immediately stopped the healing formation and brought Sun Lingtong out.

Sun Lingtong was extremely weak. In the recent battle, both his body and soul had suffered heavy damage, and his injuries were terrifying. If not for taking the Late Autumn Life Preservation Pill, he would likely have been dead by now.

Sun Lingtong, unable to walk on his own, leaned on Ning Zhuo for support, breathing rapidly, his face pale, and soon a layer of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Boss, can you handle it?" Ning Zhuo asked with concern.

Sun Lingtong stretched out his small hand, "Give me a Great Vigorous Pill."

This type of pill could allow a cultivator to explode with great power for a short period, rapidly restoring their mana, energy, and spiritual power, sweeping away any exhaustion. The side effect was that the user would fall into a state of extreme weakness and fatigue for a long time afterward.

In fact, Ning Zhuo had already taken one during his fight with Qi Bai.

At that time, he had controlled the Cang Tie Han Armor, bursting out with extreme power, but failed to hit Qi Bai’s fatal point, striking his chest instead.

Later, with Sun Lingtong’s reminder, Ning Zhuo had pushed himself to fight again, regaining his momentum and charging at Qi Bai among the ruins.

It was at that moment that Ning Zhuo, hidden inside the Cang Tie Han Armor, had secretly taken a Great Vigorous Pill.

A Great Vigorous Pill could only be taken once a day; taking more would have no effect.

For those with weak constitutions, taking one rashly could lead to death.

Sun Lingtong had taken it many times.

When he had lost contact with his master and was saved by Ning Zhuo, he was only at the Qi Refining stage. In the vast Huoshi Immortal City, he had struggled to survive. Sometimes, when facing danger, he had no choice but to take a Great Vigorous Pill to deal with immense crises.

Because he had taken it so many times, Sun Lingtong had gained a lot of experience.

At this moment, after taking one, his breathing immediately deepened, his pale cheeks flushed again, and his energy and spirit surged dramatically, with light once more flashing in his eyes.

His hair stood on end as if he had been electrocuted.

He lowered his head, pulled open his pants, and glanced inside, nodding in satisfaction, "This pill is top grade."

A top-grade Great Vigorous Pill made everything on Sun Lingtong's body stand tall.

The middle-grade ones couldn't do that.

So far, Sun Lingtong had not taken a supreme-grade Great Vigorous Pill.

Supreme-grade pills were extremely rare and often had miraculous effects.

Sun Lingtong puffed out his chest, walking with great vigor to Qi Bai’s side.

Qi Bai had talismans pasted all over his body and was placed within the formation. He was unconscious, showing no signs of waking, and his energy, spirit, and three dantians were all precisely suppressed by the talismans.

Sun Lingtong stretched out his delicate little hand and gave Qi Bai a light slap on the cheek.

Qi Bai didn’t move at all, but the slapped part of his face visibly swelled up.

Sun Lingtong snorted angrily and sat cross-legged, hands clasped together, eyes closed, head lowered, chanting a profound incantation under his breath.

After chanting for a while, he slowly opened his eyes.

His whites and pupils were covered in spiritual light, his hands began to emit smoke, the smoke was wisps of white, like clouds and mist. Dots of silver light flickered in the smoke like countless tiny diamonds, brilliantly shining.

Sun Lingtong's chanting became softer and softer until it was nearly inaudible.

A few breaths later, his hands disappeared completely, replaced by two streams of cloud smoke connecting to his wrists.

No-Void Sect Technique—Sea-Gazing Cloud-Catching Hand!

The white cloud smoke touched Qi Bai’s body and quickly seeped into his upper dantian sea of consciousness.

The cloud smoke rolled in, continuously.

Moments later, the cloud smoke withdrew. Unlike before, it was now swollen, clearly wrapping around something.

Sun Lingtong controlled the cloud smoke, which floated to an empty spot beside him, then slowly dispersed.

A seal was revealed.

It was a square jade seal, its body as black as ink, cold and sinister. On the top of the seal was a human skull, like transparent crystal, clear and gleaming. Inside the skull’s teeth was a spiritual pearl, and within the pearl, a blue ghostly fire was burning.

The inscription on the

bottom of the seal was four characters—Underworld Ghost Deity!

The Underworld Ghost Deity Seal.

This wasn’t a magical instrument, but a treasure!

Qi Bai had relied on this treasure to summon the two avatars of Judge Cha and the Bull-headed Ghost Soldier.

This was Qi Bai’s most important treasure, the core of his overall strength, and the first thing Sun Lingtong took.

"This kind of jade seal can be refined as long as it’s infused with yin-attributed mana."

"Even though we aren’t ghost cultivators, if we ever explore the underworld, this will be a powerful weapon!"

"Seal it first."

Sun Lingtong took out talismans and placed them on the front and back of the treasure.

He once again summoned the white smoke, which surged into Qi Bai’s sea of consciousness.

Not long after, the smoke returned, bringing back a rattle drum.

It was the Soul-Stirring Drum that had given Ning and Sun such a hard time during the battle.

Like the Underworld Ghost Deity Seal, it was also a treasure.

Sun Lingtong easily sealed it with talismans.

After all, it wasn’t a spiritual treasure and didn’t contain any inherent spirit.

There were no more treasures in the upper dantian sea of consciousness.

But Sun Lingtong still extracted a lot of spiritual thoughts, storing them all in a jade slip.

Next, he used the Sea-Gazing Cloud-Catching Hand to probe Qi Bai’s qi sea.

There were no tangible treasures in the qi sea, but there were many spell seeds.

When a cultivator practices a certain spell to a certain level, it forms spell seeds. Continuing down this path, it can eventually develop into a divine ability.

However, the difficulty and cost far exceed natural talent. Moreover, the divine abilities formed in this way are often quite ordinary.

Natural talent is recognized as the soil for divine abilities, and the abilities condensed from it are either immensely powerful or uniquely extraordinary.

Sun Lingtong used the cloud smoke to gather the spell seeds, but he only obtained some of their shadows.

He took out talisman paper, and the cloud smoke deposited the spell seed shadows onto it, instantly transforming the paper into talismans.

"They’re all high-quality, they’ll fetch a good price!" Sun Lingtong nodded in satisfaction.

Ning Zhuo remarked, "It’s better to keep some on hand for ourselves first."

In the recent battle, he had nearly exhausted ten years’ worth of mechanical creations, leaving him feeling uneasy.

Finally, Sun Lingtong used the cloud smoke to extract a large amount of Qi Bai’s mana and infused it into a Spirit Storage Orb.

The cloud smoke officially entered the essence sea lower dantian.

Sun Lingtong fumbled for a moment, then suddenly his body shook, a look of delight appeared on his face, and he blurted out, "It’s actually this thing, what a treasure, what a treasure!"