When those words came out of his mouth, he used his will to fully push the hands of the puppet away from his body. 

After an hour of battle of will, Ming Li fully knew the capacity of the puppet. He tried to use his will to subdue the puppet, however he got no result.

Ming Li started to get impatient, so he pointed his fingers at the puppet and activated "Torment". Numerous symbols flew towards the puppet as it covered its whole body.

The puppet seemed to be unaffected by torment, which made Ming Li realize that it is not physically alive. Then he gripped the giant finger of the puppet as he activated the sun's wave. The fingers of the puppet started to glow bright red spreading throughout its body. Extreme heat emanated from the puppet, It was at this point that some threads started to melt.

Ming Li didn't hesitate and pushed his will to the limit as he tried to take control of the puppet.

"You're a puppet, so you are supposed to be controlled!"

Ming Li didn't stop until the threads holding him slowly began losing power. The puppet also tried to flee, however Ming Li gripped its hands tightly and said "You are now my puppet!"

When he was about to subdue the puppet, Ming Li suddenly woke up and saw the previously burnt book in front of him. The book was now in good condition. In fact it is in better condition than its previous state.

Ming Li felt the connection between him and the book, however it was just a very small connection. He realized that he only scraped a very small portion from the contents of the book.

He looked at the book and thought that, the puppet threw his consciousness out when it was about to be subdued.

When he was about to stand up. A huge boom suddenly sounded from his side. Debris of wood and dust flew towards him, and a figure emerged from the hole torn on the wall of his room.

The man wore a black robe with a spider engraved in it. He waved his hands and a strong wind bombarded Ming Li. Ming Li was caught off guard as he was slammed by the wind and passed through the wall, landing on the streets outside.

He was slightly injured with the surprise attack, but he immediately recovered his senses and attacked back using sun's wave. He waved his hand and extreme heat radiated from him flying towards the black robed man.

After the attack he looked at the opposite direction and tried to flee. Since he doesn't know if the enemy was alone he fled at top speed.

The black robed man blocked his attack and his eyes went wide. "This is sun's wave!" the man shouted in fury

The black robe man was an acquaintance of Ru Gao. When he heard about Ming Li, and that Ru Gao was killed by him. He immediately tried to find Ming Li's whereabouts.

Being on the same town as Ming Li, he heard rumors about someone named Ming Li creating a scene at the Ten Great Merchants Union. Because of his fury, he didn't wait for reinforcement to come and decided to attack Ming Li as soon he got news about his location.

When he saw Ming Li fleeing, his rage doubled as he used his wind attack to propel him towards Ming Li.

Ming Li felt the incoming black robed man and he pointed at him then hurriedly said "Torment". The face of the black robed man flickered as he tried to block Ming Li's attack. He was shocked that the attack slipped through his wind cannon with ease. The symbols surrounded him and etched itself in his skin.

The man felt extreme pain through his body, however he was still able to move.

Ming Li stepped back when he saw the man enduring torment. It just meant that the man in front of him is significantly stronger than him. His mind spun as he looked around if the man was with someone else. Luckily he sensed no one coming near them with killing intent.

Again he focused at the person in front of him and noticed the spider mark on his robe. Then he thought with hatred "It's them! I saw the same robe in Ru Gao's cube."

The man then attacked Ming Li with wind cannon while trying to withstand torment. He felt grave danger while facing Ming Li. It was his first time experiencing a skill like torment. If his level was equal with Ming Li, he would have been unable to fight it.

Ming Li swiftly dodged the attack while attacking back using sun's wave. Every time he waved his hands, extreme heat would be sent to the direction of the enemy melting anything it touched.

Ru Gao was only able to use it to enhance his weapon. However, Ming Li can use it as a long range attack, because he is already a seeker at the body tempering realm.

Ming Li and the black robed man exchanged attacks several times, but they weren't able to deal fatal damage to each other.

The townspeople started to observe their fight, but no one stopped them. In every town fighting is a common occurrence. Fighting to determine who is right is a rule in a world of power.

As the fight drags on, the black robed man became weaker since torment has taken more effect on him. He growled with pain struggling to fight with Ming Li.

When Ming Li saw this, a vicious smile appeared on his face. He opened his hands into a claw and directed it towards the black robed man. When his hands moved, a rift suddenly appeared beside him where a giant wooden hands came out doing the same motion as Ming Li's hands. The hand was as fast as Ming Li's hands as it tried to grab the black robed man.

The black robed man's pupils constricted when he saw the huge wooden hands. Everyone who was watching the fight also felt shocked of what they are witnessing. A person on the first level of body tempering realm is actually beating a person on the third level. This happens from time to time, however not many people are able to pull this off as easily as Ming Li.

The hands grabbed the man as the man bombarded it with wind cannon. However, Ming Li suddenly appeared beside him and touched his shoulder making him experience extreme heat.

The heat of sun's wave and the pain of torment combined caused him to lose focus which enabled Ming Li to fully grab him by using the wooden hand. The hand forcefully pulled him into the rift where he vanished from everyone sight.

Everyone who witnessed the fight was a bit astonished on how Ming Li overpowered someone with higher level, they were also amazed of his art. Not everyone can beat someone two levels higher than them. Also the way Ming Li beat his opponent was too bizarre. The opponent vanished from thin air and no one knew where Ming Li sent him.

Even the Ten Great Merchant Union who was watching the fight seemed to be in awe of Ming Li's combat ability. They chose not to lift a finger to help Ming Li, instead decided to observe Ming Li's skills. But If Ming Li used the symbol Great Elder Gu gave him, they have no choice but to assist Ming Li. They also felt perplexed about the last skill Ming Li used, the energy it emitted was close to the book Ming Li got from the holy inventory.

Since it wasn't long when Ming Li took the book, it would be unthinkable that Ming Li already mastered the art within the book.

Ming Li observed his surroundings and still saw nothing unusual. He heaved a sigh of relief and walked towards the exit of the town. He knew that his enemies already has information about his whereabouts and would soon send more seekers to kill him, which made him decide to immediately leave the town.

The town was like a bee hive with numerous caves on the sides of the mountains as houses and shops. Since these caves are connected inside the mountain with tunnels, Ming Li used them to hide as he tried to exit the town.

After some time, he made his way out of the town and started running through the forest.

Upon exiting the forest he found himself into a mountain range where his visibility would be high, however he had no choice but to proceed and run as far as he could to get away from the people trying to kill him.

Ming Li regretted that he have not bought any demon's grace before he left the town. He has no way of getting large quantity of demons grace on the empty mountain range. Also when he reached a high point in the mountain range, he saw no traces of the next town nearby  which made him frown in disappointment.