Chapter 487 - 446: Eating the Meat, Drinking the Soup

Chapter 487: Chapter 446: Eating the Meat, Drinking the Soup

At that moment, Chu Mu had no mind for the crowd’s attention, much less their envy.

His entire focus was already fixed on the Storage Ring.

All the Spiritual Materials needed to repair a Tier Four Soldier Puppet were contained within.

Even though he himself had drafted the list of required Spiritual Materials, his heart still betrayed him, pounding wildly as he sensed the mountain of materials piled within the Storage Space.

’These aren’t just some run-of-the-mill Low Tier Spiritual Materials!’

Almost every single one was Tier Three or higher, all rare treasures seldom seen in the outside world!

Repairing one Soldier Puppet involved over a hundred types of Spiritual Materials and Objects, and nearly half of them were needed in what could be considered vast quantities.

Among them, materials he was using as replacements, like Shoushan Red Copper and Nine Heavens Profound Gold, were no less rare than his Fiery Sun Fire Essence.

And now, all these Spiritual Materials were piled up inside this Storage Ring, forming small mountains.

Feeling the fervent gazes gathering on him, Chu Mu couldn’t help but feel it was a bit of a shame.

’If he were to complete the repair of this Soldier Puppet all by himself, he could undoubtedly guarantee minimal waste. The remaining Spiritual Materials would obviously be his for the taking.’

’But...’

Chu Mu looked at the Golden Core Cultivators who had yet to leave the hall. His idea was undoubtedly wishful thinking.

Besides him, there were eight other Golden Core Refiners!

’He might be getting the feast, but these eight Golden Core Refiners before him were surely eager to at least get the broth.’

"Let’s proceed with the repair plan as we previously discussed," Chu Mu said slowly.

"Agreed!"

"Let’s stick to the plan we decided on."

The Golden Core Cultivators spoke up one after another, some even seeming a bit impatient.

Seeing this, Chu Mu wasted no more words. He extended his Divine Sense into the Storage Ring. With a thought, mountains of Spiritual Materials fell into the hall. He distributed the numerous materials to the corresponding Golden Core True Masters according to the predetermined repair plan.

Once the distribution was complete, everyone walked out of the stone house, satisfied.

In just a few short moments, the mountain-like piles within the Storage Ring in Chu Mu’s hand had vanished, leaving it empty save for about a hundred Jade Boxes scattered in twos and threes.

Chu Mu wasn’t too torn up about it. ’He was getting the meat, so he had to let others have some of the broth.’

The changes to the repair plan and the substitution of the Spiritual Materials he required guaranteed that his cut of the meat would be the juiciest!

Clutching the Storage Ring, Chu Mu walked out of the stone house and, just like the other Golden Core Cultivators, went straight to where the damaged Soldier Puppet was located.

For one Soldier Puppet, each person had their own role.

Each Golden Core Realm Artifact Refiner was responsible for repairing a different section.

Chu Mu, on the other hand, was in charge of repairing the most critical component—the Puppet Core—as well as overseeing the final assembly.

The remaining Foundation Establishment Realm and Qi Cultivation Realm Artifact Refiners had already gathered in the square, eager to witness this rare sight: the repair of a Soldier Puppet of up to Tier Four by nine Golden Core Realm Artifact Refining Masters. To them, this was undoubtedly a heaven-sent opportunity.

Multiple layers of Memory Arrays had already been set up around the Soldier Puppet, surrounding it with almost no blind spots. Combined with the many spectating Qi Cultivation and Foundation Establishment disciples...

’That Demon Pattern Secret Door... if it didn’t come directly from the fragmented Refining method for the Soldier Puppet, it would be nigh on impossible to pull any tricks with a fixed repair plan and such a clear division of labor.’

At this moment, the Cultivators had no time for their usual idle chatter. Each was busy with their own work, ignoring all external matters.

Chu Mu studied the Soldier Puppet before him for a moment. After some comparison, the plan in his mind grew clearer.

He leaped up, hovering above the Soldier Puppet’s head to look down. The Puppet’s damaged control core was almost completely shattered.

He pondered for a moment, then with a wave of his hand, a faint wisp of Crimson True Flame appeared, hovering in his palm. Guided by his Divine Sense, the crimson wisp moved like a red fire serpent, coiling around the Puppet’s nearly shattered control core.

’With his background in Artifact Refining Skill, he might just barely be able to refine a complete Tier Four Soldier Puppet control core.’

’But with his Cultivation at only the Early Stage of Golden Core, he clearly couldn’t support the Refining of a complete Tier Four Soldier Puppet control core.’

’Just patching it up, however, was no big deal.’

Under his control, the crimson wisp attached itself to the nearly shattered Puppet control core—or rather, the Divine Soul Core.

Guided by his Divine Sense, he moved as if reeling silk from a cocoon, carefully peeling the control core away from the Soldier Puppet bit by bit.

’First, peel. Then, repair. Finally, re-inlay and fuse it back into the Soldier Puppet.’

It was a very clear process. Normally, it wouldn’t be difficult at all.

But now, with the Puppet’s control core shattered, the difficulty of the removal process had skyrocketed.

Although he had rehearsed this process countless times in his mind, when it came time to actually do it, Chu Mu couldn’t help but struggle.

A Tier Four Soldier Puppet possessed power comparable to that of a Nascent Soul Great Power.

Even damaged, its residual Spiritual Pressure might remain contained on a normal day. But when an external force intervened, the instinctive leakage of Spiritual Pressure was an unbearable burden for a mere Early Stage Golden Core Cultivator like him.

And while bearing this unbearable weight, he still had to maintain absolute focus to peel out the shattered Puppet control core piece by piece. One could only imagine the difficulty.

The "Spiritual Radiance Blessing" had long since descended. Yet, just at the beginning of the removal process, veins were already bulging on Chu Mu’s forehead, a clear sign of the immense pressure he was under.

Even though he was under immense strain, the wisps of True Flame he applied were still nearly perfect.

Each wisp of True Flame was like a delicate scalpel; every burn, every fusion, was perfectly executed.

In the eyes of outsiders, this removal, performed under such heavy strain, looked like a fantastical display of Artifact Refining Skill, dazzling and leaving them speechless with admiration.

The Soldier Puppet repair on Celestial Secret Island could be said to have gathered the most elite Artifact Refining Skills in the entire Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World.

And Chu Mu’s presence, among them, was still at the very top.

This was no secret on Celestial Secret Island.

Even throughout the Demon Suppression Islands, the name of Master Chixia True Understanding Pavilion, the top Artifact Refining Master of the Vast Sea, had long since spread.

Even though Chu Mu had only been on Celestial Secret Island for a few short months, people had already come seeking his Artifact Refining services, drawn by his fame.

On Celestial Secret Island, a place where Artifact Refiners gathered, Chu Mu had become an almost undisputed authority in just a few months.

For all these reasons, at this very moment, the vast majority of attention was naturally focused on Chu Mu.

The Imaging Arrays circulating around the Soldier Puppet seemed to be focused on him, with wisps of the Memory Array Prohibitions nearly enveloping him completely.

Chu Mu could no longer pay any attention to the outside world.

As time passed, the terrifying Spiritual Pressure leaking from the Soldier Puppet grew thicker, weighing down on him like a mountain. Beads of sweat dripped from his brow, and even his breathing became unsteady.

But Chu Mu didn’t dare to delay for even a moment. The Soldier Puppet’s core was already on the verge of shattering. Once he started peeling it away, he had to finish in one go, or else he would cause irreversible secondary damage.

And if the Soldier Puppet’s core suffered secondary damage, this repair, which had just begun, would likely have to be declared a failure before it even got started.

The True Flame blazed as he delicately reeled the silk from the cocoon. As time trickled by, the damaged core, once hidden within the Puppet’s body, slowly began to take shape before Chu Mu’s eyes. At the same time, thanks to the focused Memory Array Plates, it was also revealed to all the Cultivators watching.

Compared to the Soldier Puppet’s massive body, this Puppet Core was only the size of a human head.

It was pitch-black, and as a jade-like luster shimmered across its surface, faint wood grain patterns became clearly visible.

Even though it was damaged and shattered, a single glance gave it an inexplicable, beautifully fractured aesthetic.

The so-called control core of an ordinary Puppet was nothing more than a core program composed of several Array Prohibition Inscriptions. It could only understand and execute rudimentary commands, its behavioral logic largely dependent on the control of a Cultivator’s Divine Sense.

A higher-level Puppet, however, involved Soul Refining and Soul Condensation. Using special Soul Nourishing Spiritual Materials like Soul Condensing Stones, a simulated human Sea of Consciousness was refined and filled with a Blank Divine Soul, transforming it into a control core in the truest sense.

The quality of a Puppet Core at this level depended on two things. First was the quality of the Soul Nourishing Spiritual Materials, which was equivalent to the quality of the constructed Sea of Consciousness.

The higher the quality of the Sea of Consciousness, the stronger the Divine Soul it could naturally bear.

The most common Soul Nourishing Spiritual Materials were Spirit Ores like Soul Condensing Stone, which formed in places steeped in Yin Qi. As for Upper Grade ones, there were countless varieties—bizarre, rare, common, or even things of pure legend.

The second factor, naturally, was the Divine Soul housed within the Sea of Consciousness.

And Divine Souls were divided into two types.

One type was a complete, single Divine Soul, usually extracted directly from a Cultivator or a Demon Beast, then cleansed and turned into a Blank Divine Soul.

The other type was forged from multiple Divine Souls. Compared to the former, this method was obviously less pure.

But the latter method was often a necessity.

After all, a Tier Two Puppet often required the Divine Soul of a Tier Two Cultivator or Demon Beast, which was equivalent to taking the life of a Tier Two Cultivator or Demon Beast—a task of no small difficulty.

Therefore, fusing multiple Tier One Divine Souls into a single entity could serve as a passable Divine Soul Core for a Tier Two Puppet. This was also the most common method of constructing a Puppet’s Divine Soul in the Cultivation Immortal Realm.

As for the current Tier Four Soldier Puppet, Chu Mu speculated that its original Puppet Core’s Sea of Consciousness was constructed mainly from Ten Thousand Years’ Soul Nourishing Wood, and its Divine Soul Core should have been a genuine Tier Four Divine Soul.

With such a core shattered, repairing it obviously required Spiritual Materials of a corresponding grade.

Thus, this repair plan also used Ten Thousand Years’ Soul Nourishing Wood as the main component. The Divine Soul, however, would be of a slightly lower grade—several Tier Three Divine Souls would be fused together to replace the original, annihilated Tier Four Divine Soul.

The Puppet Core is the control center of a Puppet, and for any Puppet, it is obviously of paramount importance.

Therefore, the protection of the Puppet Core was second in importance only to the core itself for every Puppet.

However, for this Soldier Puppet, the Puppet Core was already shattered, so its protective barrier had naturally long since dissipated.

Chu Mu inspected the shattered Puppet Core from the inside out. It was severely damaged, its own Array Prohibition Inscriptions completely scrambled.

It was impossible to tell if the Demon Pattern Secret Door was even there.

With a wave of his hand, Chu Mu swept the extracted Puppet Core into his Storage Space. He then leaped up and landed before the gate of his residence.

Ignoring the expectant gazes of the numerous Cultivators, he took a step inside. The door closed behind him, and Array Prohibitions activated, completely blocking out all prying eyes that wished to observe him...

...