When Ye Yunfei first saw these puppets, he had felt a sense of trepidation and caution. However, after receiving Wu Dechang's inheritance in the Puppet Art, all traces of fear vanished.
Ye Yunfei walked directly into the center of the square and sat down cross-legged. He began to perform the Puppet Art, attempting to inscribe his Soul Power mark within the bodies of the puppets in the square.
In fact, the principle of controlling puppets was similar to refining a magic treasure. It involved carving one's own Soul Power mark inside the puppet's core as the key point of control.
Of course, inscribing a Soul Power mark within a puppet was far more complex and difficult than doing so inside a magic treasure.
"Young Master Ye, what is he doing?" Xiao Xiao asked, puzzled by Ye Yunfei's actions, as she sent a sound transmission to Cui Hong.
"I'm not quite sure either. Could it be that Young Master Ye wants to control these puppets?" Cui Hong thought for a moment before answering.
"What? Young Master Ye wants to control these puppets? Is that even possible? These puppets were crafted by ancient puppeteers, and their rank should be quite high. Young Master Ye has never cultivated any Puppet Art—how could he possibly control them?" Upon hearing Cui Hong's words, Xiao Xiao immediately voiced her skepticism.
Because she was unaware that Ye Yunfei had cultivated the Soul Race's Soul Force Star Method and didn't know this technique could absorb memories through devouring, she found it hard to believe that someone who had never practiced the Puppet Art could control these puppets.
"I don't know either, but Young Master Ye's methods are truly profound. There are many times I cannot fathom him. Perhaps he really does have a way to control them?" Cui Hong replied, a trace of expectation in his voice.
Inside the square, Ye Yunfei sat cross-legged, unmoving, focusing his attention on a nearby puppet. He was carving a unique Soul Power mark inside the puppet's body.
"Although I've obtained Wu Dechang's Puppet Art, this is still my first time using the technique to control a puppet. I'm feeling a bit rusty," Ye Yunfei couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Wu Dechang's proficiency in the Puppet Art was extraordinarily high. After inheriting his legacy, controlling the puppets before him should have been a relatively simple task for Ye Yunfei. However, since this was his first time attempting to control such high-level puppets, his progress was initially a bit slow.
Roughly half an hour later.
"Finally, I can control this one! From now on, I can manipulate this puppet's every move at will," Ye Yunfei suddenly opened his eyes, an excited expression on his face.
Then, with a thought from Ye Yunfei, a puppet beside him suddenly took several steps forward.
"Look! That puppet moved! Could it be that Young Master Ye has already succeeded in controlling it?" Cui Hong exclaimed in astonishment upon seeing this.
"How is that possible? Did Young Master Ye previously cultivate Puppet Art?" Xiao Xiao found it difficult to believe.
At this moment, Ye Yunfei had already started inscribing a Soul Power mark inside a second puppet.
This time, his speed was much faster. In a mere moment, he succeeded in controlling another puppet.
In the time that followed, Ye Yunfei continuously inscribed his Soul Power marks inside one puppet after another. Thus, the number of puppets under his control steadily increased.
While carving the Soul Power marks, Ye Yunfei roughly counted the number of puppets in the square.
There were over thirteen hundred puppets in total. Among them, eight hundred were not fully refined, while five hundred were completed.
Of the five hundred completed puppets, roughly one hundred were at the Deity level. Among those, seventy possessed combat strength equivalent to a Primary Void God, while thirty matched an Intermediate Void God.
After roughly half a day, Ye Yunfei suddenly stood up.
In that half day, he had successfully inscribed his Soul Power marks inside twenty puppets.
Fifteen of these puppets had the combat strength of a Primary Void God, while five were at the Intermediate Void God level.
"Good. I'll slowly refine and control the other puppets when I have more time later," Ye Yunfei thought to himself as he stood up and glanced at the remaining puppets.
"Controlling puppets consumes Soul Force Energy. The stronger the Soul Force Energy, the greater the number of puppets one can control simultaneously. Fortunately, my Soul Force Energy is quite robust, so the number of puppets I can control at once shouldn't be small," Ye Yunfei mused inwardly.
Just like alchemy, the Puppet Art required powerful Soul Force Energy to sustain it.
"I'll take all the puppets in this square. Each one will become a capable subordinate for me in the future," Ye Yunfei thought as he looked at the over one thousand puppets.
During this half day, besides inscribing the Soul Power marks, Ye Yunfei had also examined and researched each puppet, figuring out their specific conditions.
Back when Wu Dechang had crafted these puppets and placed them in this square, he had attached special marks to each puppet to prevent theft. One needed to remove these marks to take the puppets away from the square. Otherwise, any attempt to forcibly remove them would trigger ferocious attacks.
Having inherited Wu Dechang's memories, breaking these marks was, of course, a simple task for Ye Yunfei. In this half day, he had already dispelled the marks from every puppet in the square.
Ye Yunfei stretched out his hand, revealing several black sacks. These were spatial magic treasures specifically used for storing puppets.
Ye Yunfei had found these black sacks earlier on Wu Dechang's corpse inside the thatched hut.
He hadn't damaged Wu Dechang's body, since he had obtained his Puppet Art inheritance and felt obliged to grant the corpse its final dignity.
Ye Yunfei made a throwing motion. Several black sacks soared into the air, hovering above the square. Their openings widened, releasing strong suction force that drew all the puppets inside.
"Young Master Ye, are you taking all these puppets away?" Cui Hong asked in surprise upon seeing Ye Yunfei's actions.
"Yes, elder. These puppets are quite good. I intend to take all of them," Ye Yunfei nodded.
Soon, all over one thousand puppets in the square were stored within the black sacks. With a beckoning gesture from Ye Yunfei, the sacks landed in his palm before being carefully stored away.
"Young Master Ye's methods are truly brilliant!" Cui Hong couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
Xiao Xiao was also thoroughly shocked.
After collecting all the puppets, Ye Yunfei flashed and appeared in the center of the square. He stomped his foot on a particular stone slab.
Rumble…
A tunnel entrance slowly opened on the ground of the square. Ye Yunfei walked inside and soon arrived at an underground palace beneath the square.
This underground palace was piled high with materials specially used for refining puppets. These materials were extremely valuable, more than half of them being godly-grade.
"With these materials, I can complete the unfinished puppets left by Wu Dechang," Ye Yunfei thought to himself as he stored away every last piece of material in the underground palace.
"Elder, Miss Xiao Xiao, we can leave this place now," Ye Yunfei said as he emerged from the underground palace.
"Young Master Ye, earlier I saw some puppets in the square moving. Does that mean you can already control them?" Cui Hong asked. Xiao Xiao also looked at Ye Yunfei with a curious gaze.
"Yes, I can control those puppets now," Ye Yunfei answered truthfully.
"Young Master Ye, did you previously cultivate any Puppet Art?" Xiao Xiao immediately asked curiously.
"No, I didn't have much knowledge about the Puppet Art before. However, I obtained the inheritance from the owner of these thatched huts," Ye Yunfei said without concealment.
"The owner of the thatched huts? Young Master Ye, you mean the fellow who invaded your Soul Sea trying to seize your body? You obtained the Puppet Art from him?" Cui Hong was taken aback for a moment before asking. Earlier, both Cui Hong and Xiao Xiao had helped Ye Yunfei fight against that old man.
"Exactly, it's that old codger. I got the Puppet Art from him," Ye Yunfei nodded.
"So that's how it was," both Cui Hong and Xiao Xiao nodded in understanding.
"Alright, let's head out now," Ye Yunfei said.
Thus, the trio left this Small World and returned to the outside of the cultivation cave.
Ye Yunfei noticed that many people were still searching everywhere within the ancient building ruins in the mountain range. Based on Wu Dechang's memories, Ye Yunfei knew this area of ruins was once the Puppet Hall specifically built for Wu Dechang by the True Phoenix Divine Clan.
Although the True Phoenix Divine Clan hadn't placed great importance on Wu Dechang, after all, he was a rather skilled puppeteer. Thus, the clan had constructed a Puppet Hall, appointing Wu Dechang as its hall master and having him lead the hall in crafting puppets for the clan's use.
This mountainous area with its ancient buildings was once the headquarters of the Puppet Hall.
Since the Puppet Hall was established under the support of the True Phoenix Divine Clan and could also sell crafted puppets, it was relatively wealthy. Many precious items were scattered throughout these ancient buildings, and most people who entered to search for treasure had gained decent rewards.
Suddenly, Ye Yunfei's eyes narrowed. On a flat area among distant hills, before a large palace, he saw three Advanced Void Gods fighting more than twenty puppets.
Those puppets all possessed the combat strength of Intermediate Void Gods. Due to their numbers, they were currently holding the three Advanced Void Gods to a stalemate. Of course, given enough time, the three Advanced Void Gods would surely prevail.
"Don't tell me? Those three have been here all this time and still haven't managed to enter that palace?" Ye Yunfei couldn't help but sneer coldly.
Earlier, Ye Yunfei had also wanted to enter that palace on the flat ground, but he had been driven away by those three Advanced Void Gods.
At the time, the three Advanced Void Gods were jointly attempting to break the ancient formation at the palace's main gate. However, after they managed to dismantle the formation, a large group of puppets suddenly charged out from inside, launching a frenzied attack on them.
Although these puppets were all only at the Intermediate Void God level, their numbers were great. Thus, the three Advanced Void Gods were trapped there, unable to advance or retreat, forced to fight the puppets until now.
Initially, there had been over thirty puppets with Intermediate Void God combat strength. Some had already been destroyed by the three Advanced Void Gods, leaving just over twenty remaining.
"Those puppets are of a high grade. It would be a shame if those three ended up destroying all of them!" Ye Yunfei watched from afar as the puppets besieged the three Advanced Void Gods. He also saw the scattered remains of many puppets that had already been smashed to pieces littering the surrounding ground and felt a pang of heartache.
However, with three Advanced Void Gods there, Ye Yunfei understood that if he approached now, he would undoubtedly face their combined assault.
"I hope those puppets aren't all destroyed," Ye Yunfei shook his head.
Suddenly, Ye Yunfei's eyes narrowed again. He saw three deities emerging from a building in the distance.
All three were Primary Void Gods from the Guardian Faction. They had just emerged from that building, clearly having gained some rewards, as they all wore satisfied smiles.
Just as Ye Yunfei noticed these three Guardian Faction deities, the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm spotted them as well.
"Didn't I say before? Whenever we encounter these guys from the Guardian Faction, if there's an opportunity, we'll rob them," the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm sent a sound transmission to Ye Yunfei.
"Good. Let's go over and deal with those three now," Ye Yunfei nodded.
"Then let's move immediately! Whenever these Guardian Faction guys encountered you before, they'd rush forward yelling and itching for a fight. I've long been sick of them. We'll give them a taste of their own medicine; now it's our turn to take the initiative," the Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm said with a laugh.
By this time, Ye Yunfei had already sent a sound transmission to Cui Hong and Xiao Xiao.
Both Cui Hong and Xiao Xiao immediately agreed. They knew Ye Yunfei had just obtained a large batch of puppets, which would cause his combat power to skyrocket.
Thus, Ye Yunfei, Cui Hong, and Xiao Xiao immediately employed their movement techniques, stealthily rushing towards the three Guardian Faction deities who were just emerging from the building in the distance.
"Hahaha… not a bad haul! To think this building held so many divine crystals!"
"Not just divine crystals. I also found two very good divine pills inside, and even a magic treasure. A pretty decent haul, I'd say."
"Anyway, this whole area is filled with various precious metals, pills, and magic treasures. Whatever we find belongs to us. It feels just like picking up treasure from the ground—so satisfying!"
The three Guardian Faction deities were chatting and laughing, each satisfied with their recent gains.
"Alright, plenty of people have been rummaging through this ancient building area for quite some time now. I reckon the remaining treasures aren't many. Let's hurry and move on to check other places. We shouldn't waste too much time here," one of them spoke up.
"Look, Master Yin is still over there and hasn't managed to breach that palace yet. That palace's defenses are too tight. Three Advanced Void Gods working together still haven't gotten inside even now."
Noticing the three Advanced Void Gods on the distant flat ground, these Guardian Faction deities sighed.
"It's precisely because the palace's defenses are so tight that it definitely must hold extremely precious treasures inside. Otherwise, those three Advanced Void Gods wouldn't be so persistent—they're no fools. Anyway, let's not concern ourselves with Master Yin's business. We should think about how we can get more loot ourselves. After all, opportunities to explore and seek treasure in a forbidden land like the True Phoenix Tomb are rare. We must cherish it well," one of them said.
At that very moment, five puppets suddenly appeared around the three men. Each puppet emanated fierce, murderous auras as they moved to surround and attack the Guardian Faction trio.
"Not good! How come there are so many puppets here? Let's run! These puppets are strong!"
The three men turned pale with fright upon seeing the five puppets. They knew the puppets in this ancient building area were all formidable.
Over on that distant flat ground, three Advanced Void Gods were being besieged by over twenty puppets! What chance did they, mere Primary Void Gods, have? Their first thought was naturally to flee.