Using living people to create puppets, the resulting strength will slightly increase. A practitioner of the first level of Martial Spirit, if cruelly turned into a puppet, could potentially reach the strength of the third or fourth level of Martial Spirit. Even if it's made into the worst quality, it can still retain the strength level of the first level of Martial Spirit. Coupled with the difficulty of dealing with puppets, it could even contend against a second level Martial Spirit practitioner.
However, creating puppets from living people is not easy; it's more than twice as difficult as making them from corpses. Living people have wills and will resist during the process. Without sufficient strength, it's impossible to create one. Moreover, most warriors, knowing they could be turned into puppets, would choose suicide, refusing to let others turn them into puppets.
Li Lin also knows that creating puppets from living people is the most difficult. However, the elder of the Jiuhua Sect is now in a vegetative state, not a corpse, nor a living person, which makes him the perfect candidate for puppet creation.
This is Li Lin's first time creating such a puppet, and he is somewhat nervous. He recalls the puppet-creating steps from the Heavenly Spirit Record, then takes out the Fire Dragon Cauldron.
"Begin creation."
With a gesture, Li Lin takes out a variety of materials from his body, all necessary for puppet creation. Although a Martial Spirit practitioner's body is already strong, it's not enough. A puppet requires an extremely strong body, necessitating many materials for assistance in its creation.
These materials were all found by Li Lin at the Treasure Gathering Gate, all of which he can now refine and are of high quality.
Spiritual power is injected into the Fire Dragon Cauldron, and a fierce flame starts to roar. At the same time, Li Lin has already thrown many materials into the cauldron.
Under the flames, the materials begin to slowly refine. This refining process isn't technically demanding but requires a lot of consumption.
After three full days, Li Lin has completely refined all the auxiliary materials. Inside the Fire Dragon Cauldron, a group of pure solution is rolling like magma. Once solidified, it will be much stronger than refined steel, all refined from top-quality materials.
"Second step."
With a change of hand signs, a beam of light wraps around the body of the Jiuhua Sect elder and directly throws it into the Fire Dragon Cauldron.
"Sss sss!"
As soon as the body of the Jiuhua Sect elder, an eighth level Martial Spirit practitioner, enters the cauldron, his clothes instantly turn to ashes, revealing his naked body. Then, the surface of his skin starts to emit a sizzling sound under the intense flames, as blood plasma continuously oozes out and is evaporated into white vapor by the high temperature.
Li Lin focuses on controlling the spiritual fire. Too much fire could burn the body to ashes, while too little won't remove impurities from the body, failing to meet the puppet-creating requirements.
As the spiritual fire refines, the body becomes a blur of flesh and blood, with blood oozing from within. Under the flames, the nervous system is not dead, twitching in pain. Li Lin can even see the heart beating faintly, looking cruel and bloody.
At this moment, Li Lin doesn't feel any cruelty or bloodiness. If his strength were insufficient, the roles between him and the opponent would be reversed. Everything depends on strength; the law of the jungle is just like this, without any cruelty. Humans killing chickens or fish is not considered cruel because humans stand at the top of the food chain, thinking everything is natural. If humans see large wild animals eating smaller ones, they call it cruel, not realizing they are much crueler.
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The principle of the survival of the fittest is something Li Lin has always understood, so at this moment, he doesn't feel any cruelty.
As the refining continues, Li Lin can feel the body of the Jiuhua Sect elder becoming stronger after refining the impurities within. The muscles and bones are tensing slightly, as if power is gathering, waiting to burst forth.
After three days of refining, Li Lin, sweating profusely and looking pale, realizes the consumption is significant. He is grateful he broke through before starting the refining process, or he might not have been able to sustain it.
At this moment, the body has turned dark black, all strength being internalized. Looking at this, Li Lin is satisfied. After three days of refining, the body is now covered with a thin layer of flesh membrane, its strength increased several times over, with muscles and bones thoroughly refined.
"Start the third step." Li Lin thinks to himself. At the same time, he changes his hand sign, and a beam of invisible energy bursts out from his brow, entering the body's forehead in the cauldron.
Li Lin calms his mind, and a spiritual force enters the brain of the body, immediately sensing a vast, white space, with a chaotic soul aura drifting about.
"So the soul was shattered into countless pieces, saving a lot of effort." Li Lin thinks to himself. The soul in the brain space of the Jiuhua Sect elder has been shattered into countless pieces by his own Soul Blade, no wonder he became a vegetative person.
"Hu hu..."
Feeling the intrusion of external force, these countless soul fragments start to collide and rush.
This is all within Li Lin's expectations. Why are puppets created from living people stronger than zombie puppets? It's because once a person dies, their soul shatters and disperses into the world, leaving only remnants in the brain that can be turned into ordinary zombie puppets by spiritualists.
But puppets made from living people are crucial for their soul force, retaining the original soul to maintain intelligence and reaction consciousness, while also retaining their martial skills from life, and absolutely obeying their master. This is truly terrifying, an absolute killing machine. Coupled with its strong body, its power is simply terrifying.
Li Lin's spiritual force instantly expands, wrapping the shattered soul fragments tightly.
"Hu..."
The soul fragments struggle, but these shattered pieces cannot escape and are tightly wrapped within.
"Refine..."
At this moment, Li Lin changes his hand sign again, and a spiritual fire bursts into the brain within the cauldron, sweeping out like a storm, instantly refining these soul fragments.
"Hu hu..."
These shattered soul fragments instinctively feel fear and dread, retreating in a swarm. But as the spiritual fire roars, all soul fragments are wrapped within, completely refined in a moment.
As these refined soul fragments turn into wisps of smoke, Li Lin's spiritual force instantly merges with them, finally entering the deep part of the body's brain.
"Puppet secret technique, condense for me."
At this moment, Li Lin's eyes open wide, and a sharp light bursts forth. As the hand signs change, the solution in the cauldron boils and is directly poured onto the body.
"Sizzle..."
The scorching solution pours onto the body, emitting a sizzling sound, and the temperature instantly rises again. The body, from head to toe, is enveloped in a scorching hot solution, causing the muscles and bones to twitch under the high temperature.
The solution envelops the body, instantly spreading eerie streams of light. At this moment, Li Lin's face is extremely pale, but still, he forms one hand sign after another, casting mystical lights into the body.
As time slowly passes, under the influence of these mystical and profound lights, the originally empty gaze of the Jiuhua Sect elder's body slowly reveals a cold, pale light, emitting a chilling coldness. At this moment, with the irrigation of the solution, the body turns a dark cyan, emitting a cold, metallic luster.
"Gather for me."
Li Lin shouts loudly, casting the final hand sign. At the same time, a massive, dazzling light strikes the puppet.
"Hu hu..."
Simultaneously, the aura around the puppet instantly surges, as if it had been injected with an adrenaline boost, unleashing a wild aura, even shaking the spiritual fire within the Fire Dragon Cauldron as if to extinguish it.
A terrifying aura emerges, and Li Lin, standing close by, feels an absolute oppressive force. The aura climbs relentlessly, as if unstoppable, a burst of wild power roaring to life, forcing Li Lin to counteract with his own power immediately.
"Bang..."
With a muffled groan within the cave's secret chamber, a majestic aura skyrockets, and an invisible airflow whistles through the chamber.
"The strength has increased." Watching all this, Li Lin can't help but feel ecstatic, the puppet he just refined has indeed become stronger.
The aura finally stabilizes after a long time. At this moment, the dark cyan puppet, with its smooth sheen, seems to contain explosive power throughout its body.