Chapter 1363: Demon Puppet Master 's

"Ah Hui said she was a widow, but Xiao An mentioned 'father' more than once, and even said he was very powerful and did terrible things to many people and animals." The mirror continued, "A peddler can't be considered powerful and terrible, right? I actually think, is she talking about the masked man from tonight?"

He Lingchuan gave an 'un': "Dong Rui also often does terrible things to people and animals."

Isn't this just the daily routine of a Demon Puppet Master?

Including the Ghost Ape and the bat, the appearance of every demon puppet was full of absurdity and strangeness.

In the eyes of a child, isn't this terrible enough?

"The little girl chased by the Demon Puppet Master thinks she comes from Xingyun Village, which perished twenty years ago; the Child-Ghoul always kills people where she has appeared, and then Xiao An disappears without a trace." Every element was a fragment, gradually piecing together a grotesque pattern in He Lingchuan's mind. "This might be another sad story."

"Ah, how so?"

He Lingchuan looked up at the swallow nest under the eaves again: "Indulging in a vanished past; you shouldn't be unfamiliar with this situation, right?"

"Me?" The Soul-Absorbing Mirror was very surprised. "What does it have to do with me?"

How could it circle back to it? "Isn't your mirror world just like this?"

The mirror let out a long 'oh': "You mean those?"

When He Lingchuan first entered the mirror world, those medieval ghosts and resentments were just indulging in the past, unable to extricate themselves.

A figure flashed outside, and Dong Rui returned.

He had two dark circles under his eyes and couldn't help yawning as soon as he entered the door: "Bring me a bowl of braised noodles, quickly! I'm starving."

"Get away!" He Lingchuan flashed three feet away and waved his hand in front of his nose a few times. "How many days have you not slept? Your breath is so stinky!"

"About two, three, four... seven days, I guess."

"You haven't slept since we parted at Location No. 3?"

"I took a few naps on the way." Dong Rui yawned again. "You know, when a person is underground in the dark, who cares about the passage of time?"

After he and He Lingchuan parted ways at Location No. 3, he drove the Snail Toad and took the Punishment Dragon Pillar straight to the Howling Forest.

The Ghost King's underground palace was his secret laboratory, and no living person was allowed near.

Reminded by He Lingchuan, he specifically dived into the underground cave of True Person Minghui under the water, using the deep pool water to isolate the tracking spells on the three demon puppets, just in case.

It was rare to get new toys, and they were the works of other Demon Puppet Masters, so he was a little excited and hadn't closed his eyes for seven or eight days.

The back kitchen of the Yangshan Society was always kept warm, in case distinguished guests wanted to order meals at any time.

So a quarter of an hour later, Dong Rui sat at the table, slurping down the freshly cooked braised noodles with pork intestines.

This braised sauce had a fresh, fragrant, wild, smooth, and spicy heat, which was exactly what his stomach was craving right now.

He lifted the large bowl and gulped down a few mouthfuls, letting out a long 'ah'; the fresh chili flavor rushed straight to his crown, and his whole body felt comfortable.

Only then did He Lingchuan sit down and ask: "Any new discoveries?"

"The manufacturing techniques of those three demon puppets are very rough; they are all semi-finished products, all stitched-together monsters." Dong Rui chewed the food in his mouth, his speech muffled; if it were someone else, they might not have understood. "Incoordination, understand? Incoordination!"

"Understand." When He Lingchuan first saw the Hinge-Tail Tiger, he felt it was light in the head and heavy in the tail; when running, it even had to press its tail down to prevent it from slowing it down. In contrast, Dong Rui's demon puppets usually didn't have this problem.

His works had strong coordination and consistency. This wasn't just an aesthetic issue; it actually affected the performance of the demon puppets' abilities.

"In other words, the opponent's technique is clumsy?"

"No, no, you can't say it like that." Dong Rui's scientific attitude had always been seeking truth from facts. "Insects have the most characteristics, but mixing insects with other demons is inherently very difficult; they don't really, really... you know, even if you manage to build them, they aren't stable, and the bodies will reject each other."

Not very compatible. He Lingchuan could only think of this word.

"Then what are these few strong at?"

"More stable than I imagined." Dong Rui muttered. "Actually, when I first started making demon puppets, I thought about mixing insects with other demons, but I tried twice, and the demon puppets collapsed rapidly, so I decisively gave up this direction. Now that I think about it, once successful, the adaptability of insects is actually very good."

"You know, right? Earthworms can grow into two if cut in half; some insects can live for seven or eight days even if their heads are cut off." The tenacity of insect life is hard for other species to match.

"So?" He Lingchuan still couldn't hear the point.

"Clumsy technique, but the core is solid." Dong Rui hit the nail on the head. "Either this guy is truly a genius who explored a unique path using his own clumsy methods, or—"

"Or?" This professionalism was too strong, and He Lingchuan could only listen.

Dong Rui took his time before smiling slightly: "Or, he also learned it ready-made from someone else. In other words, someone taught him!"

"Demon Puppet Master 's?" He Lingchuan looked him over. "Could it be that Demon Puppet Masters aren't all lone wolves?"

Before meeting him, Dong Rui had always been a lone wolf, even working as a killer to earn money for his research. He Lingchuan had always thought that all Demon Puppet Masters were like this.

It turned out there could be organizations, and they could pass on skills? "How would I know?" Dong Rui said irritably. "If there really is a group researching this, I'm also very surprised, okay?"

"Any other discoveries? You haven't slept for seven or eight days; you wouldn't have only dismantled this much, right?"

"This work is very difficult. If it were another Demon Puppet Master dismantling my work, let alone seven or eight days, even seventy or eighty days wouldn't be enough to dismantle much!" Dong Rui gave him a 'you're a newbie, you don't understand' look, letting him slowly comprehend. "Why do I say there might be more than one Demon Puppet Master? Look at the Child-Ghoul discovered by the sentries at Greenery Villa; it's absolutely not this kind of low-level stitched-together monster!"

"Hmm, correct." Although the Child-Ghoul's figure was different from the normal version, it was definitely not a simple patchwork of two or three kinds of monsters. "It can even suck souls."

"So, there must be a master among them!" Dong Rui clapped his hands in admiration. "My path is not lonely, my path is not lonely."

Your path isn't a good path either. He Lingchuan looked at him, but swallowed that sentence back.

"However, I still don't advocate using insects to make demon puppets, unless absolutely necessary." Dong Rui shook his head. "These things act purely on instinct; although they can be induced in various ways, their controllability is really too poor, and they often mutate excessively. Think about the seventy-year cicadas we saw in Rongshan."

He Lingchuan remembered the seventy-year cicadas that once plagued Rongshan; it was because the cicadas were contaminated with divine blood that they mutated on a large scale, leading to a disaster.

Dong Rui was right; the mutation of insects is hard to control.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1364 =====