MJWCATFPITWOC Chapter 6
by VolareShen Yucheng’s spiritual power suddenly erupted within him, and he commanded the three giant beasts to stop. The beasts’ fists halted just before reaching Mo Yifeng.
Both of them were thrown to the ground by the momentum, while the three giant beasts stood still as if their acupoints had been struck. Mo Yifeng witnessed the entire process of puppetry for the first time, his eyes shining, and he uttered an untimely remark.
“Yucheng-ge, can you make them dance?”
Despite disliking Mo Yifeng, Shen Yucheng was intrigued by the suggestion and secretly curious. He issued the command, but the giant beasts remained motionless. Shen Yucheng’s golden glow intensified as he strengthened his spiritual power.
Finally, the giant beasts slowly swayed in front of them, making strange movements.
These giant beasts never imagined that they would one day be forced to dance in front of two “kids.”
However, before they could finish dancing, with a “snap,” Shen Yucheng’s golden glow suddenly disappeared, and the giant beasts’ movements halted as well. The next moment, they swung their fists at the two.
In a moment of peril, Mo Yifeng grabbed Shen Yucheng’s waist, dodging the attack, and asked, “Shidi, are you out of spiritual power?”
Shen Yucheng looked at his hands, feeling that his spiritual power was indeed depleted. Controlling the giant beasts consumed a large amount of spiritual power, not to mention watching a dance. It was expected that his spiritual power would be exhausted at this point.
The giant beasts seemed enraged, launching relentless attacks, forcing Mo Yifeng to dodge repeatedly while holding Shen Yucheng.
Shen Yucheng didn’t want to be carried around like a doll, and said displeased, “Let go of me.”
Give him some face, please.
Mo Yifeng didn’t lower his head, replying, “Really? But you have no spiritual power now and can’t fly. I have to protect my important Shidi.”
Shen Yucheng: “…”
He secretly mused that the “important” in Mo Yifeng’s words was only because he hadn’t told him about the golden light protection yet. Once that was done, he would definitely be annoyed incessantly.
However, what Mo Yifeng said wasn’t wrong. Without spiritual power, he couldn’t float in the air and had difficulty dodging the giant beasts’ onslaught. He had no choice but to be temporarily obedient.
Mo Yifeng indeed didn’t want to lose an important subject of observation. Seeing Shen Yucheng stay obediently in his arms, he felt inexplicably comfortable. He then clashed with the giant beasts again, injecting strong spiritual power into his longsword and splitting the giant beasts into several pieces with a single strike.
The two landed lightly, and Li Juemu rushed over from afar, shouting, “Watch out behind you!”
The two turned back vigilantly, only to see that among the pile of giant beasts, one hadn’t been cut open but had shrunk into a mini-giant beast, struggling to climb out from its limbs.
Shen Yucheng’s palm burned, and he unconsciously stepped forward, grabbing the giant beast with one hand. The moment they touched, the heat in Shen Yucheng’s palm disappeared, and a golden light appeared on the giant beast’s forehead, displaying a pattern.
He could now understand that it was the ancient rune on the wall in the ice xue. The text on the giant beast’s forehead could be interpreted as “Contract” in modern language.
This meant that he had formed a contract with the giant beast and could control the puppet at will in the future.
Information from the cave wall flashed through his mind. Ancient puppeteers had to defeat a spirit beast, and only when the opponent willingly submitted to being controlled could they form a “Contract.”
After thinking it over, the giant beast in his hand vanished into white mist with a “poof.”
.
Li Juemu arrived, followed by Yan Quanye, who had already woken up. He was about to praise their seamless cooperation when he suddenly noticed the change in Shen Yucheng’s aura and exclaimed in surprise, “Beauty, your cultivation… Foundation Establishment late stage?!”
Hearing this, Mo Yifeng also looked at Shen Yucheng. Facing the gazes of everyone, Shen Yucheng’s expression changed slightly, and he slowly said, “Some changes happened in the cave.”
Then, Shen Yucheng recounted what happened in the ice xue.
It turned out that after he drew the pattern on the tombstone, a golden pill appeared out of thin air. The pill melted upon touch, embedding itself into his chest, and his spiritual veins rose frantically, as if trying to reject it.
He was in unbearable pain, kneeling and unable to support himself, but soon he felt an endless stream of spiritual power coming.
Ancient information on the ice wall suddenly flooded his mind, all related to the Puppet Dao.
Thousands of years ago, the Puppet Dao was the strongest Dao in the cultivation world, capable of controlling all things. Powerful puppeteers could even control ancient demon kings. However, those who could awaken this Dao were as rare as morning stars, only one in a hundred, and it couldn’t be inherited, so there was never a Puppet family.
Mo Yifeng frowned in silence after hearing this, and to avoid revealing the secrets of the Puppet Dao, he dismissed the other two.
Shen Yucheng continued, “Later, people tried to create artificial puppets to control the Puppet Dao, but they failed. These artificial puppets could only control inanimate objects, and their abilities were greatly reduced. They were then divided into True Puppets and Red Puppets. Because natural puppeteers are rare, only Red Puppets remain in the cultivation world, and most of the classical records are about Red Puppet techniques.”
Shen Yucheng paused for a moment, as if considering his words, and then said, “The ice wall also recorded many cultivation methods for True Puppets, one of which is called ‘Puppet Dao Companion Contract,’ a contract at the cost of lifelong loyalty.”
This contract had three rules:
First, Telepathy: There was a distance limit between the two parties, divided according to loyalty. The deeper the trust, the greater the range, and in times of crisis, they could hear each other’s thoughts.
Second, Shared Fate: Fifty percent of the injuries suffered by the partner would be transferred to the puppeteer, sharing the burden together.
Third, Never Betray: The puppeteer could control all things, except for the partner.
When Shen Yucheng received this information, his heart sank to the bottom, and he wanted to die. This Puppet Dao Companion Contract was clearly talking about the strange experience between him and Mo Yifeng.
The permitted distance between them was currently only a hundred meters, which showed that the trust between them was as thin as cicada wings, almost to the point where they could disintegrate on their own without anyone provoking them.
“Then how to dissolve the contract?” Mo Yifeng’s tone became extremely serious after hearing this, without his usual joking. Although it was a very interesting contract, he never thought of taking it upon himself.
Shen Yucheng was surprised by his reaction, and a complex emotion flashed through his heart. In fact, he had omitted one point about the Puppet Dao Companion Contract, which was shared fate.
This rule would actually affect his life and death. Although Mo Yifeng shouldn’t intentionally harm him, what if? Moreover, Mo Yifeng was a genius of the Lingfeng Sect, and he must have life-saving treasures on him. No matter what happened, the sect would do everything to help him. But he had nothing and wouldn’t easily entrust his weaknesses and fate to others.
“There’s no record of it here,” Shen Yucheng said. He had searched in his mind when he first learned about this contract, but unfortunately, it really didn’t say how to dissolve it.
Just when he found a clue, it was broken again.
Mo Yifeng thought for a moment.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration: “The Promotion Examination.”
“What?”
Mo Yifeng explained, “The champion of the Promotion Examination can ask the sect they’re admitted to for a treasure.”
Shen Yucheng understood his intention, “Even so, no one knows what kind of treasure can dissolve the contract, or where to find it.”
Mo Yifeng said in a deep voice, “So what we need is the Hundred Question Mirror.”
Shen Yucheng had seen it in the cultivation method. The Hundred Question Mirror was a rare treasure in the world, capable of answering all questions, but it could only be used once, usually in times of major disaster.
In that case, he had to aim for the top spot in this Promotion Examination.
.
After they finished talking, they walked down the mountain path and met Li Juemu on the way.
“It’s terrible, Yan Quanye is gone,” Li Juemu said with a pale face, panicking.
Shen Yucheng found it a bit strange. Just one person missing, was there a need to be so panicked? Maybe he just went back.
Li Juemu seemed to have guessed their doubts and explained, “It’s not an ordinary disappearance, but he disappeared out of thin air in front of my eyes.”
Shen Yucheng frowned, “What do you mean?”
No way, disappearing in broad daylight?
He actually believed that Li Juemu had misseen, after all, the other party looked like the type to mistake a snake for a dragon.
Li Juemu recounted the situation just now, “We were walking slowly, and Yan Quanye said that the giant beasts had disappeared, so he wanted to go home. So I planned to accompany him down the mountain. But when we reached the bottom of the mountain, he said that it was okay to leave him here, and then he disappeared little by little in front of me.”
…
Just when he thought everyone didn’t believe him.
“He’s an Earthbound Spirit,” Mo Yifeng said in a deep voice.
Everyone was silent for a moment, stunned.
“Earthbound Spirit? Is that the kind of ghost that can’t leave a specific location?” Li Juemu’s face turned pale.
Shen Yucheng wasn’t familiar with this. What Earthbound Spirit, isn’t that just a ghost?
“You fought with Yan Quanye,” Mo Yifeng looked at Li Juemu and asked, “What’s your cultivation level?”
Li Juemu replied, “Golden Core initial stage.”
Now that he mentioned it, he also remembered that Yan Quanye took the initiative to attack at the beginning, which was why they fought. But thinking about it carefully, how could an ordinary person fight a Golden Core cultivator? Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator couldn’t match him.
“But he does have the aura of a mortal.”
Mo Yifeng said thoughtfully, “It’s not surprising that he has it after wandering here for so many years.”
Shen Yucheng: “What makes you say that?”
Mo Yifeng smiled, “His clothes are obviously not from our era, but if we exclude that and assume that they are his family heirlooms, his reaction was extremely violent when the giant beasts first appeared. But after Shidi was pulled down into the cave, he was unusually quiet.”
Hearing this, Li Juemu also suddenly understood. Mo Yifeng was lying on the ground for two days at that time, but Yan Quanye was surprisingly silent, hardly speaking, only answering briefly when asked.
“He should have known about the existence of the giant beasts in the cave long ago. At first, he said that he came here because of the strange things happening in the village, so he came to kill the giant beasts,” Mo Yifeng pondered, “If he really hated the giant beasts so much, he could have left the Northern Region and found other more capable cultivators or exorcists, instead of staying here to pester Li Juemu. The only explanation is that he doesn’t want to leave, but can’t leave.”
“So he deliberately provoked Li Juemu, using us to get rid of the giant beasts,” Shen Yucheng followed up.
Mo Yifeng sneered, “But the most fatal thing is, you saw him disappear in front of you with your own eyes, and you still think he’s a human? How naive.”
Although Li Juemu felt offended, he had to admit that Mo Yifeng made a lot of sense. He looked towards the outline of the small village at the foot of the mountain, his heart filled with doubts. How could there be an Earthbound Spirit in Jitan Village?