On the vast plain, a lizard several feet long emerged cautiously from beneath a rock that had weathered half away. Yet, just as it had crawled a few dozen paces from its nest and the rock, a monstrous yellow creature, measuring nearly ten feet long, suddenly burst forth from the sandy ground on one side. With both its forepaws and mouth, it seized the lizard firmly and effortlessly snapped its neck. Then, it carried the body swiftly toward some distant direction. This creature, also possessing four limbs and a tail with a pointed muzzle, resembled a large lizard—though its body was rigid and emitted a creaking sound as it moved, as though it were an intricate mechanical toy. After traveling over a mile, it reached the side of a yellow-robed figure seated in meditation on a flat stone. It deposited the body beside the figure and then resumed its swift retreat. The figure remained completely composed, showing no surprise. With a simple gesture of his hand, the yellow-robed figure summoned the lizard’s body, which then floated smoothly before him. Floating motionless at a height of several feet above the ground, the yellow-robed figure extended one finger, lightly touching the lizard's head and murmuring incantations. Soon, the finger gradually glowed, emitting a faint white light. As the chanting continued, the light intensified, eventually becoming so bright it was almost blinding. "Now!" the yellow-robed figure roared, sensing the perfect moment. A thin strand of white light suddenly shot from the tip of his finger, piercing deep into the lizard's skull. With great effort, he then slowly pulled it back, his expression tense and cautious. Under his careful watch, the white strand finally drew out a glowing green orb, delicate and only the size of a thumb. The yellow-robed figure, seeing this, was overjoyed. With the other hand, he activated a soft yellow glow, and a small jade bottle materialized in his palm. Then, with a soft burst, several beams of霞light shot out from the jade vial, wrapping the green light sphere and drawing it into its core. At this moment, the yellow-robed cultivator sighed in relief, wiping the fine sweat that had gathered on his forehead. It was clear that the just-completed sequence had required considerable effort. "This Soul-Calling Technique truly isn't something a Foundation-Level I cultivator can easily master. The success rate is so low—only once every three or four attempts. It seems we'll have to stay here all day." The yellow-robed man glanced at the small jade vial in his hands, murmuring to himself, his expression tinged with resignation. This man was Han Li, practicing the "Da Yan Ju." He had come to this remote desert, nearly ninety miles from the spirit stone mine, precisely as he had just done—collecting the souls of various animals. This feat, typically reserved for magicians of the Dao School, now occurs in Han Li's life solely because he has studied the "True Puppet Classic." Originally, after an initial exploration of puppet crafting techniques, Han Li discovered that creating puppets required not only the usual materials used in crafting magical artifacts, but also the souls of living beings, which had to be fused together with the materials during the process—only then could the puppets truly come to life. Otherwise, the resulting puppets would lack any spirit and be no different from ordinary dolls. The higher the rank of the puppet, the stronger the soul embedded within it had to be, in order to fully realize its potential. Therefore, the "True Puppet Classic" includes three essential spells—known as the "Soul-Drawn Technique," "Soul-Condensation Technique," and "Soul-Refining Technique"—commonly used by practitioners of the Dao School. Among these, the "Soul-Drawn Technique," which Han Li just performed to extract a soul from a corpse, is the one he has just demonstrated. This spell is not only weak in power and has a low success rate, but it can only be used on corpses that have just passed away. Compared to the specialized magical techniques focused on the spirit essence, its power falls far short—by a vast margin! However, its greatest advantage lies in the relatively low level of magical proficiency required; it can be effectively employed as early as the Mid-Foundational stage. Of course, a cultivator like Han Li, who is only at the Early Foundational stage, can勉强 use it, though with a significantly reduced success rate. After all, ordinary life souls simply wouldn't suffice to fuse with a puppet; some special techniques had to be employed to properly refine them. As for the mechanical beast resembling a lizard observed earlier, it was the very first mechanical puppet韩立 personally crafted after he began practicing the Daxian Technique and established his first independent divine consciousness. The souls he used to fuse it were merely a few yellow mice he casually gathered. However, prior to this success,韩立 had failed in crafting such puppets no fewer than seven or eight times, achieving only a modest success rate. When韩立 transferred his divided consciousness onto this puppet and commanded it to act, the experience was truly extraordinary—neither the elusive, floating sensation he usually felt when manipulating magical instruments, nor the tangible, physical sense of controlling limbs. In fact, his divided consciousness and the puppet seemed to hold a hierarchical relationship, with him issuing commands and the puppet responding accordingly. Yet the specifics of how the puppet executed those commands still depended entirely on the puppet's own capabilities. Yet, everything the puppet beasts could see and hear, Han Li could clearly sense. This left him delighted. For the first time in commanding puppet beasts, Han Li was full of childlike enthusiasm. Besides the basic puppet he himself had crafted, he skillfully manipulated all the more advanced mechanical puppets on his person, thoroughly satisfying his long-held childhood dream of playing with dolls. While maneuvering these puppets, Han Li gradually became aware of certain limitations inherent in mechanical puppets. First, these puppets could only operate within a range of three li from him; beyond that distance, they would become immobile, and Han Li would have to return his focus. He suspected this limitation was related to the maximum distance his spirit could detach from his physical form. With further cultivation and advancement in his spiritual realm, this issue could still be improved. However, the next flaw—rooted in the very nature of puppetry itself—proved to be unchangeable. These puppets exhibit a delay between receiving commands and executing actions, making them unable to respond instantly—this gap could easily be exploited by the opponent in actual combat. Even with these two shortcomings, the puppetry technique remains remarkable. As long as the cultivator allocates additional divine awareness and refines the first layer of the Dàyǎn Decree, he can effectively match even the more accomplished cultivators at the Foundation Stage. With a team of ten or so assistants, even if their level is merely Qi Stage, he will be well-protected. At the very least, when trapped by the young master of the Gui Ling Sect, he will no longer fear the ever-growing ranks of blood ghost troops. After all, the movements of lower-tier mechanical puppets consume only lower-grade spiritual stones. Only the massive tiger puppet under Huang Long of the Qianzhu Sect, due to its immense power, demands mid-grade spiritual stones. However, Han Li estimated that it must have been a third-level or higher automaton beast—capable of withstanding even the combined protective shields launched by several foundation-stage cultivators, let alone its attacks. Its power was truly formidable. Unfortunately, the automaton had been completely reduced to ashes by his senior lightning master, who used a divine artifact to accomplish this. Otherwise, it would have been an exceptionally sharp and decisive asset. Whenever he thought about the advantages of that massive tiger automaton, Han Li found himself increasingly eager. He therefore became even more diligent in refining the automata. After successfully producing dozens of initial-level automata, Han Li decided to attempt crafting a second-level one—this was the type of main combat automaton previously used by the Thousand Bamboo Sect and others. As long as he could master this level, he would no longer have to worry about automaton consumption. Yet, producing second-level automata was far beyond what mere scrap metal and old materials could provide. All the materials used are nearly on par with those of a mid-tier spiritual artifact, especially the large quantities of iron and hardwood trees that serve as the primary raw materials—this comes at a considerable cost. In fact, if韩立were at his own dwelling, cultivating several mature iron and hardwood trees would be a trivial matter. However, due to his current responsibilities, he had to endure the expense of having others travel far to the market to gather these materials for him. Now that the materials are secured, suitable spirits still need to be collected. Originally, the most common and abundant yellow mouse spirits found in the valley were quite weak; even when combined, they failed to produce a significant enhancement. Thus,韩立set his sights on the yellow mice' natural predators—the desert lizards. After several months of dedicated training,韩立had already divided his consciousness into multiple parts. He then used these divided consciousnesses to control several low-level puppet beasts, dispatching them across the entire desert to locate and clear out lizard nests—this is precisely how the initial scene unfolded. After securing the vial containing the lizard's spirit, Han Li closed his eyes once more and continued practicing the "Dai Yan Ju," gradually strengthening his immortal spirit. This "Dai Yan Ju" was indeed the key to mastering the puppet technique—Han Li could not afford the slightest relaxation! Yet, when one thought about it, the "Dai Yan Ju" truly lived up to its reputation as the master technique of Qianzhu Monastery. Compared to ordinary divisional secret arts, it was truly nothing short of remarkable. Most divisional secret arts merely split off a portion of the original spiritual awareness through sheer force, with the amount of split consciousness depending entirely on the strength of the cultivator's immortal spirit—something that could not be altered after cultivation. In contrast, the "Dai Yan Ju" perfectly addressed this limitation. Through practice, it allowed the original immortal spirit to gradually grow stronger, eventually rivaling even cultivators with exceptionally strong innate spiritual potential. Moreover, the method it employed to split the spiritual awareness was far safer and more refined than conventional techniques. It allows the divine awareness to be divided into finer, more numerous segments without impeding the normal function of the immortal spirit. Thus, it becomes understandable why the thousand bamboo sect considers "The Great Derivation Technique" the foundation of their teachings, and why Master Lin keeps revisiting the last three sets of mantras. (I'm speechless! I wasn't in the right state this morning, and only finished writing this now—everyone has had to wait. I'm truly sorry!)