Free Web NovelChapter 355: Still Wanting to Repair the golden puppet
Fang Hao trudged down the mountain, battling wind and snow that felt like knives. His ribs still throbbed with pain, and the chilling cold in his left arm hadn’t completely dissipated, making every step a painful ordeal that racked his entire body. As he walked, he stuffed Medicinal Pills into his mouth. The Chaos Derivation Art circulated rapidly within him, yet his mind was in turmoil, with thoughts bubbling up one after another.
"The Spirit Medicine for the nascent soul forming pill is complete, but Alchemy isn’t just tossing beans into a pot and calling it a day. Especially this nascent soul forming pill—it’s at the Peak of the fourth tier and might even touch the threshold of the fifth tier. Refining it takes seven days, and not a single mistake can be made during the process. My injuries haven’t fully healed yet, and I need to be fully focused on controlling the fire, melting the medicine, and forming the pill. What if, at a critical moment, some blind Demon Beast or remnants of Qingfeng Stockade show up..." The more Fang Hao thought about it, the deeper his frown became. He had witnessed Tiger Zhao’s madness and dared not underestimate the vengefulness of those desperate criminals.
"I need to find an absolutely safe place, and I need someone... or something to act as a Protector." The first place that popped into his mind was the Earth Fire Cave. That place was hidden, and its Restriction was powerful, but it was just too "empty." Being there alone, if something really went wrong, there wouldn’t even be anyone to keep watch.
As he thought, he subconsciously touched his Storage Ring and swept his Divine Sense over the "remains" of the golden puppet inside—the star core was dull and lusterless, the core components were severely damaged, and several main drive arms were broken or cracked; it was no different from a pile of scrap metal. Yet, this "scrap metal" had once been one of his greatest assets.
"If only Old Jin were here..." Fang Hao sighed. Back when he was on the chore Peak, this golden puppet had followed him to mine, fight, and explore Secret Realms. Although it couldn’t speak, it attacked wherever he pointed, could block blades at critical moments, and could help handle miscellaneous tasks; it was more useful than any spirit pet or Puppet. Especially its body, refined from special metal, had astonishing defensive power; even an Early Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator would have trouble breaking through it. With it by his side to act as a Protector, his sense of security would be absolutely maxed out.
"ten-thousand-year star wood..." Fang Hao muttered these four words, his eyes lighting up. True Man Tianzhu’s Immortal Cave might just have this! Previously, he had felt the Immortal Cave was too dangerous and wanted to form his Nascent Soul to increase his strength before exploring it. But now, thinking about it, the order could perhaps be changed.
"The nascent soul forming pill is important, but safety during Alchemy is also important. If the golden puppet could be repaired, even if it only recovered to sixty or seventy percent, it would be more than enough to act as a Protector for me. Besides, that Immortal Cave is right there; if I don’t go and try, I’ll feel like a cat is clawing at my heart..." He stopped, turned his head, and looked at the snow-filled, towering Heavenly Pillar Peak behind him. The entrance to the Immortal Cave was in that ice cave below. Although it required five tokens to open completely, he had one in his hand, which at least could open that temporary entrance—exploring the path inside should be fine, right? What if he were lucky and found a fragment of ten-thousand-year star wood on the outside? Even if he didn’t find it, figuring out the situation on the periphery of the Immortal Cave would make things more stable when he came back after collecting all the tokens.
"Yes! First, go explore that Immortal Cave and look for the ten-thousand-year star wood! If I can find it, even a small piece, I’ll try to see if I can preliminarily repair the golden puppet, just enough for it to move and keep watch. As for Alchemy, that can wait until Old Jin can stand up again!" Fang Hao slapped his thigh hard, which pulled at his wounds, making him wince in pain, but his eyes were exceptionally determined.
Thinking this way, the path of retreat became a path of advance. He no longer hesitated, identified the direction, and instead of continuing down the mountain, he followed the mountainside and circled toward the frozen platform he had discovered earlier. He remembered clearly that the entrance to True Man Tianzhu’s Immortal Cave was behind that platform.
This detour took another half-day. The wind and snow grew heavier, and the visibility was terrifyingly low; several times he almost took the wrong direction and fell off a cliff. By the time he saw that hundred-zhang-wide platform covered in ice again, it was almost dark. The cold wind howled, swirling snow foam on the platform, making wailing sounds like ghosts crying.
Fang Hao didn’t rush in. He first found a sheltered spot behind an ice mound to crouch down, recovering his breath while observing. Confirming there were no traces of other Demon Beasts or Cultivators active in the surrounding area, he then took out the black token and walked up to the ice wall.
As soon as the token approached, the ice wall reacted immediately, vibrating slightly, and cracks appeared on the surface ice layer again. The pitch-black cave entrance slowly opened, revealing the same downward-sloping ice path inside, which emitted an ancient and cold aura.
Fang Hao took a deep breath, adjusted his state to the best it could be, and stepped into the entrance. He had to hurry; who knew how long this temporary entrance would last.
This time, he was familiar with the path. He quickly descended along the ice path and soon arrived again at that massive ice cave with a projection of the "starry sky" on the dome. Starlight still flowed, and the remaining Spirit Medicine seedlings he hadn’t harvested seemed to have become more vigorous under the starlight. In the center of the ice cave, the frozen jade platform still stood quietly, emitting a mysterious aura.
Fang Hao’s gaze went directly to the deepest part of the ice cave, to that hundred-zhang ice wall that was as smooth as a mirror and carved with ancient patterns, as well as the tightly closed, frozen "portal" in the center of the ice wall.
This time, he didn’t linger in the ice cave and walked straight to the ice wall. He took out the black token again. The token vibrated slightly, and the corresponding groove on the ice wall lit up with a faint light, but the other four grooves remained dim, and that massive ice door remained tightly closed.
"As expected, one key is not enough." Fang Hao had anticipated this and was not discouraged. He began to carefully study this massive ice door.
The ice door was seamless, as if it and the entire ice wall had been carved from a single piece of ten-thousand-year mysterious ice. It was covered with naturally formed ice patterns and those ancient runes of the sun, moon, stars, mountains, and rivers. He tapped it with his finger, producing a dull sound; it was despairingly hard. He probed it with Chaos Spiritual Power, but the spiritual power was like a clay ox entering the sea, with no reaction at all. He scanned it with Divine Sense, but the Divine Sense was completely blocked and couldn’t penetrate even a fraction of an inch behind the ice door.
"This Restriction... is quite formidable." Fang Hao’s brows were tightly locked. This was not just physical solidity; it also contained a profound spatial isolation and energy protection Formation, and it borrowed the terrain of Heavenly Pillar Peak itself and the Power of the Stars. It was seamless and natural, with almost no flaws to be found. Forcibly break it? With his current level of Dao in Formations and strength, he reckoned he would die of exhaustion before opening it, and he might even trigger a counterattack.
He turned his gaze to the surroundings of the ice door, wanting to see if there were any other clues, like a small door, side door, dog hole, or something... The result was naturally nothing. This ancient Cultivator seemed to have designed only this one main entrance, and it required all five tokens to be collected before it could be opened.
"It seems there’s no hope of getting in through the main entrance." Fang Hao scratched his head, feeling a bit troubled. Had he made the trip for nothing?
He was unwilling to give up and stepped back a few more paces, looking up at the dome of the entire ice cave. The light from those flickering "star" projections seemed to be cast from the direction of the ice wall. A thought stirred in his heart: could it be that behind this ice wall was the true blessed land, and the ice cave before him was just a front hall or a buffer zone?
"Since I can’t get in through the main door, what about other places? For example... overhead? Or underfoot?" Fang Hao began to carefully check every inch of the ice cave’s corners. The walls, the ground, the junctions of the dome, and even behind those ice pillars—he didn’t let anything go.
Hard work pays off. When he checked the far right side of the ice cave, a corner blocked by several thick ice pillars where the light was dimmer, he suddenly felt a trace of extremely weak, almost imperceptible spatial fluctuation. This fluctuation was very subtle and intermittent; if his Divine Sense hadn’t been sharp and he hadn’t been familiar with the Power of the Stars, he would never have discovered it.
Fang Hao immediately leaned over and pushed aside the icicles hanging from the ice pillars. He saw that at the corner where the ice wall met the ground, there was an extremely fine crack that was almost integrated with the ice surface. The crack was very narrow, only as thick as a hair, winding upward and extending into the interior of the ice wall, leading to who knows where. And that weak spatial fluctuation seemed to be coming from the depths of this crack.
"Could it be... a flaw left behind when the Formation was set up? Or perhaps a weak point formed later due to crustal movement and ice layer compression?" Fang Hao’s heart stirred. The ancient Formation was certainly powerful, but after experiencing long years and the operation of heaven and earth’s power, it wasn’t impossible for a tiny gap to appear.
He tried to probe a wisp of Chaos Spiritual Power, like a fine needle, carefully into the crack. As the spiritual power entered the crack, it felt like passing through a layer of extremely viscous jelly; the resistance was great, and it was intermittent, sometimes there and sometimes not, as if the space on the other side was unstable.
"There’s a chance!" Fang Hao’s eyes lit up. Although the crack was extremely small and the internal space was unstable, it was at least a hope! Chaos Spiritual Power had the characteristics of evolution and inclusion; perhaps it could temporarily pry open this crack?
He dared not try to squeeze through with his Physical Body directly; if he got stuck or was swept away by spatial turbulence, he would be done for. He thought for a moment, then took a Low Grade Magical Artifact he had obtained from some unlucky person out of his storage ring—a pitch-black metal short rod. He controlled the Chaos Spiritual Power to wrap around the short rod and slowly inserted it into the crack.
The short rod entered the crack a little bit and immediately encountered huge resistance, making it almost impossible to advance. Fang Hao increased the output of his spiritual power, and the Chaos Spiritual Power formed a tiny, continuously rotating sharp cone at the front of the short rod, diligently "drilling."
This process was extremely slow and consumed quite a bit of energy. Fang Hao was fully focused, and sweat gradually appeared on his forehead. It took a full stick of incense’s time for the short rod to struggle forward less than a foot. However, just as the tip of the short rod seemed to touch the space on the other side of the crack—
"Hum!" The short rod vibrated violently, and the Chaos Spiritual Power wrapped around it seemed to have a strange resonance with some kind of power on the other side of the crack, and the resistance in front suddenly loosened! Immediately following, a weak suction force came, and the short rod was "whooshed" into the depths of the crack and disappeared! And that wisp of Divine Sense that Fang Hao had attached to it was also severed and annihilated the moment the short rod disappeared.
"It went in!" Fang Hao felt a joy in his heart, but immediately frowned again. The short rod had gone in, but his wisp of Divine Sense had been destroyed, and he didn’t know what the situation was on the other side, or if it was safe.
"Fortune favors the bold! I’ve already made it this far; if I don’t go in and take a look, I won’t be able to sleep tonight!" Fang Hao gritted his teeth and decided to take the risk. He first slapped seven or eight defensive Talismans on himself, and then activated the "Black Turtle Spirit Armor" he had obtained from Tiger Zhao, which could withstand a full-force blow from an Early Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, and put it on. After thinking for a moment, he also summoned the "Black Cloud Banner" with decent defensive power that he had obtained from Mo Yunhe to protect himself in front.
Prepared, he took a deep breath, circulated the Chaos Derivation Art, and mobilized a large amount of Chaos Spiritual Power to the surface of his body, especially his hands. Then, he stretched out his hands and carefully inserted them into the edge of the hair-thin crack. With all ten fingers exerting force, the Chaos Spiritual Power gushed out like two tiny chisels, beginning to slowly, bit by bit, pry the crack open.
This process was even more difficult than testing with the short rod just now, and the consumption of spiritual power was also greater. Fang Hao felt as if he were using his hands to push open an ice door weighing ten thousand jun; every bit of expansion was extremely strenuous. Sweat quickly soaked his back and was frozen into ice shards by the cold air of the ice cave.
It took a full half-hour before he barely managed to pry the crack open to a width that could accommodate a person squeezing in sideways. Inside the crack was a piece of unstable, twisted darkness, where one could vaguely see fragmented spatial cracks and chaotic energy flows, which was unsettling.
Fang Hao knew he couldn’t keep prying it open anymore. If he continued, either the crack would collapse, or he would be exhausted and collapse first. He took one last look at the ice cave behind him, gritted his teeth, restrained all his aura, flattened his body as much as possible, and like a loach, dove headfirst into that twisted, dark crack!
