Turtle Puppet
He headed straight to the Library Pavilion to receive instruction from Yeop Inyeong.
Upon arriving, he approached the monkey puppet blocking the stairs to the second floor. When he told it he had business with Yeop Inyeong, the monkey puppet gestured for him to follow and ascended the stairs.
Trailing the monkey puppet to the third floor of the Library Pavilion, he spotted Yeop Inyeong repairing a humanoid puppet. The puppet's right arm was shattered, and its massive phallus lay in ruins.
Once the repair of the broken arm with a new one was complete, Yeop Inyeong spoke.
"Yuseong, what brings you here?"
"Greetings, Pavilion Lord. As a reward for surviving the recent dispatch mission and returning alive, I wish to receive your personal guidance."
He offered a respectful cupped-fist salute.
"Hmm, is there something specific you desire?"
"I want to learn the Puppet Technique."
Yeop Inyeong gave him a puzzled look.
"You wish to learn the Puppet Technique?"
"Yes. This battle made it clear to me—the role of puppets or spirit beasts is crucial when facing multiple foes."
"True enough. The Phantom Beast Sect rose to become the top sect in the Gaun Mountains largely thanks to their spirit beasts."
Yeop Inyeong pulled out a jade slip, transferred information onto it via ritual, and handed it to him.
"If any other Unkak Sect disciple had asked about the Puppet Technique, I would have offered a different reward. But because it's you, I'm giving this. Keep it to yourself."
She was really teaching him the Puppet Technique... He'd been half-doubting whether she'd actually impart it before coming here, but to think she'd hand it over so readily.
"Thank you so much. I'll master the Puppet Technique diligently."
After expressing his gratitude to Yeop Inyeong, he scanned the jade slip with his spiritual sense. It didn't contain everything about the technique—just the basics, detailed enough for him to craft a puppet on his own. He wasn't her disciple, after all, so she had no reason to share her full knowledge.
As Yeop Inyeong repaired the humanoid puppet's genital area, she said, "The foundation of the Puppet Technique begins with spiritual sense, so train it diligently. Now go."
"Understood."
He bid Yeop Inyeong farewell, left the Library Pavilion, and headed to the Mission Hall for his other reward: the pill.
Park Eung, who always manned the Mission Hall, greeted him warmly.
"Junior Brother Yuseong! True to your word, your life really is tenacious."
"Pardon? Did Senior Brother Park think I was going to die?"
"Haha, of course not. Who could kill Unkak Sect's number one weed?"
Being called a weed didn't sting with "Unkak Sect's number one" prefixed to it.
"This time, I really came close."
Park Eung's expression turned grave.
"Ever since that incident, missions taking disciples outside the sect have dropped by eighty percent. They say it's to prevent clashes with other factions ahead of time."
"But with the Sect Leader back, won't things return to normal once he recovers?"
"It's a blessing the Sect Leader returned. No one says it outright, but everyone's anxious since the Supreme Elder hasn't shown himself in nearly a century."
If the Unkak Sect's sole Spirit Severing Realm powerhouse, the Supreme Elder, hadn't appeared in a hundred years, it was no wonder the disciples were worried. Other sects had their Spirit Severing old monsters holding the fort—without one, the entire sect could be devoured whole.
"Has Senior Brother Park heard anything from the Mission Hall Lord about the Supreme Elder?"
Park Eung stroked his goatee and spoke.
"I overheard him talking with Pavilion Lord Yeop. They mentioned the Supreme Elder's lifespan is nearing its end."
"What are the odds of the Sect Leader reaching Spirit Severing?"
"Hmm. With his lightning spiritual root, the Sect Leader advanced to late Nascent Soul far faster than ordinary cultivators. He'll likely attempt Spirit Severing within the next century."
Even a genius like the Sect Leader found Spirit Severing no easy feat. Still, he had the Yin-Yang Art. It let him break through realms more easily than others, and his pure, abundant mana allowed him to battle foes at higher realms. Spirit Severing was distant for now—better to focus on Qi Refining 10th star.
"I see. Ah, I came for my reward pill..."
Park Eung smiled and retrieved a jade box from behind the counter.
"Open it."
Inside the jade box, spiritual energy poured from a white pill.
"This... could it be a Cloud Condensing Pill?"
"Indeed. When you've reached the peak of Qi Refining 10th star, consuming it will boost your chances of breaking through to Core Formation."
With his core technique, the Yin-Yang Art, even one Cloud Condensing Pill would make a big difference. At Qi Refining 9th star now, Core Formation was just around the corner. The realm he'd desperately craved since joining Unkak Sect felt tantalizingly close now, stirring fresh emotions.
"With so many Qi Refining and Core Formation disciples lost on this dispatch, they're releasing stockpiled Cloud Condensing Pills to bolster our Core Formation numbers."
"Makes sense. To think the sect had this many hoarded—Unkak Sect's foundations are impressive."
"Unkak Sect's history in the Gaun Mountains is among the longest, so we've accumulated plenty of spirit stones, pills, and treasures. Of course, the mountains' vastness and abundant spiritual energy help too."
After a brief chat with Park Eung, he returned to his cave.
Lying on his stone bed, he pored over Yeop Inyeong's jade slip again, studying the Puppet Technique. To craft a puppet, he needed tough materials like black ironwood, with requirements scaling by puppet type. Finally, a soul core was essential.
Soul cores could be harvested from demon beasts, but even a basic monkey puppet demanded heaps of materials. Now he understood why no one in Unkak Sect besides Yeop Inyeong practiced it—the resource cost was brutal, and spirit stones drained fast in combat.
Next up was the turtle puppet, and luckily, the shell from the water armor ghost he'd slain under the Phantom Beast Sect cultivator could serve as material. Toss in parts from Rank 2 demon beasts, and it might just meet specs.
Main materials were key; auxiliaries could be substituted with similar properties.
Once materials and soul core were ready, divide one's spiritual sense, implant it, and control.
He hadn't learned sense division during the Soul Capturing Ecstasy Technique, so he read intently. First, materialize spiritual sense—like when Hwang Danha attacked him and it formed gray threads.
Sitting cross-legged, he practiced materializing his sense. It took a week of effort to succeed.
Then, he split the materialized sense into strands—another week to get proficient.
Without a puppet to test, he couldn't be sure, but he felt ready to control one.
As he trained, he'd replenish depleted sense via meditation cycles. Stronger sense meant more puppets; consistent training to expand it was the Puppet Technique's foundation.
Now to craft the turtle puppet and snag a soul core.
Using the water armor ghost shell as main material and Rank 2 parts as auxiliary, it took another week. His foundational forging knowledge kept it from wasting materials or taking longer.
His first puppet lacked aesthetic flair—an ugly turtle.
...Who cared if it was ugly? Performance mattered.
A sudden thought: Why did Yeop Inyeong craft handsome, buff humanoid puppets? The jade slip said nothing about looks affecting power. Personal taste? Made sense—pull out a ridiculous-looking puppet in battle, and foes might laugh. He didn't care, but women might.
To get a demon beast soul core, he ventured outside Unkak Sect. Higher-realm beasts yielded larger, stronger cores; might scaled with core strength, limited by puppet materials.
This basic turtle could handle a fist-sized core.
Sleepless, he roamed Gaun Mountains near the sect, extracting and merging cores from Rank 1 and 2 beasts.
Rank 1 cores were finger-tip tiny; Rank 2, finger-sized. After a week, he had a fist-sized one.
Back at his storage pouch, he inserted it into the turtle puppet, divided a sliver of sense to implant, and added five low-grade spirit stones.
Testing control, it obeyed perfectly. Seeing his handmade puppet move filled him with awe.
To gauge power, he ordered an attack skyward—a indigo beam shot from its mouth, comparable to a standard Qi Refining 10th star strike.
Pummeling it with punches revealed defense as its specialty, thanks to the shell.
"Haha, perfect."
Admiring the finished product, he stroked its head affectionately.
"Feels good, right?"
He manipulated its sense to nod.
The novel feel of controlling via sense prompted practice—making it dart around. Precision improved with reps, the turtle growing nimble.
Satisfied, he returned to Unkak Sect. Days of sleepless beast-hunting had worn him out.
He collapsed onto the stone bed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep instantly.