“The Dao of Puppetry begins with the very Origin of the Heavenly Dao itself! I have exhausted my life’s energy, yet I have only glimpsed the threshold. I failed to touch the core, the most profound power of the Origin. I leave this legacy in the hope that a destined successor may inherit my will, walk further upon this path, and climb higher, proving that my path is not walked alone!”

“If you, young friend of a future generation, are fortunate enough to learn my ‘Xuan Huang Puppet Technique’ and master the essence of the ‘Human-Puppet Creation Technique’… I have an unreasonable request. My three beloved wives and I were obsessed with the Dao of Puppetry our entire lives. We are willing to offer our bodies as sacrifices to this path, to explore the secrets of life and death, and the transformation of eternal spirituality.”

“I earnestly beseech you: use the ‘Human-Puppet Creation Technique’ to transform our four mortal remains into puppets! If this art can truly stir a trace of reincarnation’s opportunity—if it can preserve or reshape even a shred of spirituality to allow us to ‘revive’ as puppets and continue our exploration of the Heavenly Dao—then even if our souls scatter to dust, we shall be grateful for your kindness. We shall smile, even beneath the Nine Springs!”

“If your strength is insufficient, or if this path proves impassable… do not burden your heart. To obtain my legacy is fate enough. I only hope you treat this art well and do not let it gather dust.”

Chen Ping’s Divine Sense withdrew from the jade slip. He remained silent for a long time.

He lowered his head, staring at the four peaceful bodies lying on the stone beds. A tempest raged in his heart.

Revival?

Rebirth through puppetry?

The obsession and vision of this cave master completely shattered Chen Ping’s understanding of the craft.

Was this still about creating tools?

No. This was a challenge to the iron law of life and death. This was an attempt to usurp the authority of the Creator!

The audacity of the concept and the madness of the goal sent a chill through Chen Ping’s bones. He stood rooted in place, digesting the shocking information.

The cave master had failed to achieve this wish despite a lifetime of effort. The difficulty was unimaginable.

But the man had left behind a precious Earth-grade secret art and attached this seemingly impossible request.

Chen Ping’s eyes flickered. He was a practical man.

The value of the Xuan Huang Puppet Technique was indisputable. Even if the theory was beyond him now, it represented a massive opportunity for the future.

The cave master’s wish sounded like a fantasy, but… what if?

What if this Human-Puppet Creation Technique truly held a sliver of possibility?

Though absurd, the thought fell into the soil of his heart like a seed.

Even if the path ultimately proved dead, the process of attempting it would force him to deepen his understanding of the Xuan Huang Puppet Technique. It was a form of tempering.

“Fine,” Chen Ping thought, his expression settling into calm resolve.

“I have accepted your secret art, so I shall honor your request. As for whether it succeeds… that depends on your fate.”

He hesitated no longer.

With a thought, he connected to the Jade Pendant space. His powerful Divine Sense swept out, enveloping the entire puppetry area.

First, the two crucial jade slips—the Xuan Huang Puppet Technique and the Essentials of Four Types of Puppet Preparation—were gingerly transported to a secure corner within his dimensional space.

Next were the well-preserved brackets, operating tables, and the scattered assortment of odd, unidentified components. Although he couldn’t discern their functions yet, the fact that the cave master had stored them alongside his ultimate technique implied they were valuable.

Chen Ping swept them all into the Jade Pendant space in a single wave.

Finally, his gaze landed on the four stone beds.

He stepped forward, clasped his fists, and bowed slightly to the leading male corpse and the three women beside him.

“Senior, forgive the offense.”

His Divine Sense wrapped around the four bodies and the heavy stone beds beneath them. In a flash, they vanished.

Inside the Jade Pendant, four stone beds appeared side by side on the Black Earth. The bodies lay peacefully, as if they had merely changed the location of their eternal slumber.

The beds took up a significant amount of acreage on the Black Earth. It was a waste of fertile planting space.

‘In the future, I’ll need to move the beds out and preserve the bodies in thousand-year cold jade coffins,’ he noted.

With the task complete, Chen Ping returned his attention to the outside world.

The puppetry workshop was now barren, save for the outlines in the dust where the furniture had once stood. He exhaled a breath of turbid air, turned, and walked toward the final section of the cave—the Cultivation Area.

The Cultivation Area was the most austere region of the entire dwelling.

In the center lay a massive bluestone slab, polished until it was smooth as a mirror. Upon the stone sat a solitary, grayish, utterly unremarkable meditation cushion.

There was nothing else.

Chen Ping approached, his eyes scanning the area around the cushion.

Faint, circular marks marred the surface of the bluestone, suggesting that jade bottles, small cauldrons, or other cultivation aids had once rested there. But the ravages of time had erased them completely, leaving not even dust behind.

Only the cushion and a single jade slip tucked beneath it had survived the ages.

He reached out, gingerly touching the jade slip first. It felt warm and smooth, its texture unique. Clearly, it was no ordinary object if it could withstand the decay of ten thousand years.

He picked it up but didn’t inspect it immediately. Instead, he turned his gaze to the unassuming cushion.

Instinct told him that for a cushion to survive when stone and metal had rotted away, it must be extraordinary.

He pressed his hand against it.

Solid. It didn’t crumble into powder.

Chen Ping sat cross-legged upon it.

The moment his weight settled, a cool, refreshing sensation rose from beneath him, instantly flooding his entire body. His mind cleared, and the ambient Qi seemed to sharpen.

He began to cycle the Evergreen Art. After just one Circulation Cycle, his eyes snapped open in shock.

His cultivation speed was more than fifty percent faster than usual!

This cushion was a top-grade auxiliary Dharma Artifact focused on gathering Qi and focusing the mind.

For a cultivator, its value might even surpass a powerful offensive weapon. Time was the one resource money couldn’t buy, and this cushion effectively bought him time.

Suppressing his excitement, he stored the cushion in the Jade Pendant space and finally immersed his Divine Sense into the jade slip he had found beneath it.

The information within answered the burning questions from his exploration of the Spiritual Medicine garden.

First, the identity of the scorched branch.

That three-inch, withered stick was confirmed to be a seedling of the legendary Enlightenment Spiritual Tea Tree!

This tree was an absolute rarity in the cultivation world. Its tea leaves contained fragments of the Great Dao. Consuming them allowed a cultivator to permanently enhance their connection to the laws of Heaven and Earth—essentially, increasing their “Comprehension” stat.

Its value was incalculable. Wars would be fought over a single leaf.

Tragically, this seedling had suffered a catastrophic blow from some terrifying thunder-fire tribulation, severing its life force. When the cave master found it, it was already dying. He had tried countless methods to revive it, all in vain.

In the end, he could only seal it in a thousand-year cold jade box, hoping to preserve that slim thread of vitality for a destined successor. Until his death, the seedling had remained dormant.

The second item—the grayish-brown seed, the size of a soybean and covered in profound patterns—had an even more mysterious origin.

According to the records, the cave master had discovered it within the core Tree Heart of a colossal, sky-piercing giant tree—referred to as the “Sky-Piercing Jianmu” remnant—while exploring an ancient ruin.

He had expended immense effort to extract it, yet he couldn’t identify the species.

He had soaked it in spiritual liquids, used secret growth catalysts, and even transplanted it onto top-grade spiritual veins. The seed remained silent as a stubborn stone.

The cave master speculated it was the remnant seed of some extinct Primordial Divine Tree, but with no way to wake it, he had helplessly sealed it alongside the tea tree.

Finally, the jade slip explained the purpose of the “Heaven Ascending Ladder” outside.

The cave master confessed that while he had pursued the Dao of Puppetry his entire life, he deeply understood that the Divine Soul was the true foundation of a cultivator.

The staircase leading to the mountain peak was a trial ground he had constructed using immense Magic Power and the rules of the secret realm. Its core test was the strength of one’s Divine Sense and the tenacity of their will.

The dual pressure on spiritual power and the Divine Soul was designed to increase exponentially with each step.

His intention was to screen for a specific type of successor: a peerless genius who, even at the Qi Condensation stage, possessed a Divine Soul foundation comparable to, or even surpassing, his own from back then.

Only such a monster would be qualified to inherit the Xuan Huang Puppet Technique. Only someone with that level of mental fortitude could hope to touch the ultimate mysteries of the puppetry path without going mad.

Reading this, the hand holding the jade slip trembled slightly.

A chill mixed with disbelief rose from the depths of Chen Ping’s heart.

Climbing that ladder… was only the baseline requirement to match the cave master’s foundation?

Just how terrifying was this man’s talent?