Chapter 309: Puppet Doll

The item Chunyangzi discovered was a piece of metal named: Life-Generating Creation Iron! Although it was only the size of a fist, it was extremely precious!

If this iron were used to forge things like Magic Treasures, it would not be considered very outstanding, but it has a special use: it can be used to refine a type of puppet named: Puppet Doll!

Puppet Doll—this name sounds very ordinary, but only Chunyangzi knows its marvelous uses. If this puppet is crafted and refined into the body, and continuously tempered with Pill Fire for a certain number of years, it will develop a spiritual connection with its master. Once the master is attacked, if they activate the Puppet Doll, it will help the master escape a disaster!

Turning his head to glance at Zhang Nuo, he saw that he had already entered a state of meditation, his eyes tightly shut, paying no attention to Chunyangzi at all!

"Kid! Once you enter the late stage, this old man will give you a big gift!"

Pondering in his heart how to refine a Puppet Doll, Chunyangzi continued to examine other items in the Cave Abode!

The Spiritual Qi in this underground Cave Abode was much denser than on the surface. After Zhang Nuo had been meditating for several days, his body adapted to the surrounding environment, and he suddenly opened his eyes!

With one hand, he pointed at the 'Nine Dragon Sword Case' in front of him. With a 'whoosh', the sword case flew into mid-air, and the nine dragon carvings on its surface all poked their heads out.

With all dragon mouths wide open, streams of Spiritual Qi like flowing water poured into Zhang Nuo's body! His hands quickly changed hand seals, and as the nine streams of Spiritual Qi were absorbed into his body, he began to silently circulate the 'Shangqing Sword Art', guiding these Spiritual Qi to flow continuously through the meridians according to the technique! Finally, they all returned to the Golden Core.

Having reached the Fifth Layer of the Shangqing Sword Art, it was even more handy to circulate. The endless flow of Spiritual Qi was bursting within Zhang Nuo's body, and the unprecedented sense of fullness made him feel very comfortable!

Half a month later, when the Spiritual Qi inside the sword case was exhausted, Zhang Nuo finally stopped. While stabilizing his cultivation, he let the sword case gather Spiritual Qi again. After repeating this for two years, on this day, he finally felt a sign of a breakthrough!

A flash of spiritual light appeared in his mind. Even with his eyes closed, Zhang Nuo felt a brightness before him, and the flickering Spiritual Qi around him felt as if it could be touched by hand! It was a feeling of unity between heaven and man, a feeling of breaking through current constraints to reach another realm!

The opportunity was fleeting, allowing Zhang Nuo no time to think. Suddenly, he let out a soft shout, and the Nine Dragon Sword Case in front of him flew high up, spinning rapidly in mid-air. In the blink of an eye, it turned into a sphere, and countless Spiritual Qi were surging toward this sphere!

Inside the sphere, nine dragon forms that seemed to have come alive constantly waved their dragon claws, quickly mixing the absorbed Spiritual Qi together!

At this moment, a circular transparent ball of Spiritual Qi appeared on Zhang Nuo's body, covering his entire person. Wisps of scorching silver flames lingered on the surface of the light ball! The space around where Zhang Nuo was located also became distorted, and the entire scene looked very eerie!

Chunyangzi was bowing his head, researching something, when he suddenly felt the restlessness of the surrounding Spiritual Qi. When he looked up, he was startled! Although he had secretly calculated Zhang Nuo's breakthrough time, he had never imagined it would be such a scene!

Why would merely breaking through the bottleneck of the Golden Core Middle Stage cause such a great commotion? Putting down the things in his hands, Chunyangzi carefully watched the process of the breakthrough.

The sphere formed by the Nine Dragon Sword Case remained in mid-air for about two hours. It had absorbed the Spiritual Qi from over a hundred miles around, and the blinding white light was like the sun! Even Chunyangzi dared not look directly at it!

And inside the purple pill furnace in the center of the hall, the Earth Fire Spirit seemed to have sensed something unusual and suddenly became quiet! It became just like an ordinary small flame!

With a 'whoosh', without any warning, the Nine Dragon Sword Case that had turned into a sphere instantly submerged into Zhang Nuo's body. Following this, the light ball on Zhang Nuo's body became restless, with crackling sounds ringing out incessantly, and the silver flames on its surface became even more violent! They turned into dragon shapes, trying to rush out of the surface of the light ball.

Zhang Nuo kept his intent on his dantian, his facial expression stiff, and the hand seals formed by his fingers trembled slightly, as if he were enduring immense pressure.

Beside the Golden Core within his body, the Nine Dragon Sword Case had returned to its original appearance, the nine dragon carvings stretching their necks and continuously spitting out Spiritual Qi! Dozens of Flying Swords were circling around the sword case, hovering like small dragons.

If it weren't for having cultivated the 'Immovable Underworld King' technique to the first layer, Zhang Nuo's physical body would likely have exploded long ago. Even so, he was still secretly a little afraid! The Spiritual Qi forcibly gathered was not very stable, and one or two accidental outbursts were enough to make his heart jump with fear!

The Spirit Power within Zhang Nuo's body climbed continuously, and the Sixth Layer of the 'Shangqing Sword Art' was circulating rapidly. After breaking through to the Golden Core Late Stage, his body would open the Fifth Divine Sea. This was a crucial link; many cultivators, despite their cultivation having reached the late stage, failed precisely because they could not open the Divine Sea!

For this, Zhang Nuo had made many preparations. Even the 'Purifying Underworld Divine Tree' had been temporarily moved by him to the area around the Divine Sea. Once the opening failed, he would borrow the power of the Divine Tree to forcibly break open the Divine Sea. Although doing this had certain risks, it was still much better than failure.

After watching for a while, Chunyangzi saw that nothing unusual was happening to Zhang Nuo, and only then did he set his mind at ease. After all, in his view, breaking through to the Golden Core Late Stage was a very common thing in the Immortal World. If Zhang Nuo couldn't even pass this hurdle, there was no need to talk about future cultivation!

Picking up the things in his hands again, he was preparing a big gift for Zhang Nuo!

A few days later, the silver flames on Zhang Nuo's body had quieted down a lot, and the light ball circling around him was slowly shrinking, finally sticking almost to Zhang Nuo's body, forming a faint film of light!

At this time, however, inside Zhang Nuo's body, it was like a stormy sea. Dozens of Flying Swords firmly wrapped around the Golden Core, the nine dragon carvings on the sword box were almost about to fly out, each of them emitting dragon roars from their mouths, while the 'Purifying Underworld Divine Tree' had landed beside a Divine Sea, its roots stuck straight into it, as if it were struggling to open something.

Things were just as Zhang Nuo had expected; he had entered the Golden Core Late Stage very smoothly. However, opening the Fifth Divine Sea was a very troublesome matter. Logically speaking, the opening of the Divine Sea should be a natural process, but an accident happened to him: the Divine Sea, which was halfway open, closed up due to insufficient Spirit Power.

Fortunately, Zhang Nuo was observing carefully. Just as the Fifth Divine Sea was closing, the Divine Tree suddenly rushed over and directly blocked the Divine Sea that was about to close.

However, at this moment, the Spirit Power in Zhang Nuo's body was almost exhausted, but opening the Divine Sea still required powerful Spirit Power. Unknowingly, he discovered that the energy in the Golden Core was surging toward the unopened Fifth Divine Sea, which gave Zhang Nuo a great shock!

Having finally raised the Golden Core to the late-stage level, if the power were to be drained away by the Divine Sea again, he would completely fall short of success. Not only would the Divine Sea fail to open, but the cultivation he had achieved would also fall back to the middle stage!

In his anxiety, Zhang Nuo had no choice but to use the Flying Swords to protect the Golden Core, preventing its energy from leaking out, while simultaneously forcibly activating the Nine Dragon Sword Case to squeeze out all the Spirit Power inside it.

Due to the many days of cultivation, the inside of the sword case was already empty, and even though Zhang Nuo forcibly urged it, he couldn't squeeze out much more Spirit Power! The situation was deadlocked at this point!

The Purifying Underworld Divine Tree would not let the Fifth Divine Sea close, but Zhang Nuo's body lacked Spirit Power and had no ability to open it! The other four Divine Seas had long since become dim and were completely dried up!

If this continued for a long time, Zhang Nuo would definitely not be able to hold on! Anxious in his heart, he thought of many methods in his mind in an instant, but none of them worked!

The Golden Core above the Divine Sea trembled violently, and a large amount of Spirit Power began to erupt from its surface!

"Not good!"

Zhang Nuo secretly said to himself; it looked like the late-stage Golden Core couldn't hold on much longer either! In his extreme anxiety, Zhang Nuo suddenly discovered that on one of the branches of the 'Purifying Underworld Divine Tree', there hung something resembling a fruit! It looked like it hadn't matured yet!

Puzzled in his heart, this tree had grown in his body for such a long time, and he had never felt anything unusual. Looking carefully under internal vision at the thing that looked like a fruit.

The fruit was like a small sphere, its surface emitting a faint golden color. Although it hadn't taken shape yet, even the prototype felt like a cultivator's Golden Core!

With his thoughts turning rapidly, Zhang Nuo thought of a question: the Purifying Underworld Divine Tree had swallowed the physical bodies of many Golden Core stage cultivators. Could it be that after dissolving the physical bodies, the Golden Cores within the cultivators would bear fruit on the tree crown?

If this were true, the fruit borne by the Divine Tree must possess extraordinary power! Like a drowning man grabbing a straw, Zhang Nuo gritted his teeth, drove a Flying Sword, and directly chopped the fruit off the Divine Tree.

Although it was an immature fruit, as soon as it detached from the tree body, it immediately burst into dazzling Golden Light, and then this fruit slowly fell into the half-opened Fifth Divine Sea!

What happened next was even more mysterious! The Fifth Divine Sea, which was about to close, suddenly erupted with a ray of spiritual light from within, directly knocking the Purifying Underworld Divine Tree away!

Zhang Nuo was startled and hurriedly steadied the Divine Tree. Under internal vision, he saw that the inside of the Fifth Divine Sea was filled with ten thousand rays of light. The Divine Sea that was about to close instantly regained its vitality, and pieces of dark things were torn apart by the spiritual light erupting from the Divine Sea!

It was like boundless Spirit Power surging inside the Fifth Divine Sea. Zhang Nuo felt a sharp pain in his dantian, and the sound of 'rumbling' rang out incessantly!

The restlessness of one Divine Sea drove the other four Divine Seas to become agitated as well. More and more scorching spiritual light erupted from the Fifth Divine Sea, heading straight for the Golden Core above it!

'Boom!'

Breaking through the protection of the Flying Swords, the spiritual light from the Fifth Divine Sea struck directly onto the Golden Core. In an instant, the surface of the Golden Core erupted with blinding light again, and the raging Pill Fire, like thousands of fire snakes, made 'hissing' sounds as it detached from the surface of the Golden Core!

Zhang Nuo frowned deeply! Just a moment ago, it was because of insufficient Spirit Power that he couldn't open the Fifth Divine Sea, but now, because the Spirit Power inside the Divine Sea was too violent, it was about to burst the Golden Core alive! The tragedy of the pill being destroyed and the person dying was about to happen!