Mysteries of Immortal Puppet Master

Time was limited. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Sun Lingtong began to hand things over to Ning Zhuo.

He first took out a slender jade bottle and handed it over.

After Ning Zhuo received it, he uncorked the bottle and took a glance, immediately revealing a look of joy.

This was The Highest Good is Like Water, a supreme water-based treasure!

"Three drops are enough, enough to cleanse all the monitoring techniques off of me," Ning Zhuo said in a low voice.

Sun Lingtong cautioned him, "When to cleanse the monitoring is something that needs to be carefully considered. You can't be too reckless and optimistic."

"Although you have methods to hide from Zhu Xuanji's detection, unafraid of exposing your true cultivation level,"

"But once you wash off the monitoring techniques, the Golden Core Cultivators will certainly gather around you to investigate and question."

"You need to think about how to explain this!"

"What worries me more is that they might grow suspicious and secretly continue to place monitoring techniques on you."

"If that happens, your effort would be wasted. There are no more additional three drops of The Highest Good is Like Water for you to use."

"So choosing when to use these three drops of The Highest Good is Like Water is very critical. It requires the utmost caution!"

Ning Zhuo nodded heavily. "I understand!"

Then, Sun Lingtong took out portions of Heavy Thunder Beetle, Mist Rust Orchid, Heavenly Dew, and Special Grade Cloud Tea and handed them to Ning Zhuo.

"Since you will be wandering in the Magma Fairy Palace next, you might need these materials to create mechanism artifacts, so I am handing some of these to you first."

Ning Zhuo couldn't help but reveal a look of surprise.

He hadn't expected that the theft by Sun Lingtong and Yang Chanyu would yield such great results!

"It seems the strength of Song Fuli's Cloud Merchant group isn't that great after all, to lose so much..."

"No, perhaps Yang Chanyu played a key role in this," Ning Zhuo speculated internally.

He was very familiar with Sun Lingtong and knew the latter's limits.

Over the past decade or so, he had personally intervened to support and even rescue Sun Lingtong.

"If my guess is correct, it's no wonder Elder Sun would actively seek Yang Chanyu's help."

Ning Zhuo understood Yang Chanyu's significance.

Thinking it over, he flattered Yang Chanyu with a few words.

Yang Chanyu narrowed her eyes and scrutinized his face. "Little brother, you sure know how to talk."

"But just talking nicely is useless!"

"This time, your Elder Sun and I took life-threatening risks to steal within the Cloud Whale."

"You, hiding in the back without taking any risks, will end up getting such a large share."

"Haha, let's hope you live up to expectations later."

"If in the end, you don't show the expected value, making me feel you're not worth this much share, I certainly won't let you off!"

Yang Chanyu warned Ning Zhuo sternly.

Sun Lingtong laughed and interrupted Yang Chanyu's speech.

Ning Zhuo quickly expressed that he would do his utmost to demonstrate his value.

Finally, Sun Lingtong took out the mechanical puppet, Ru Die. "Little brother, look what I stole for you?"

"You'll definitely like it!"

Ning Zhuo saw Ru Die and was first stunned, then his eyes widened, sparkling with excitement.

"What, what kind of mechanical puppet is this?" Ning Zhuo could not contain his excitement.

"Quick, quick, put her down, let me take a good look!"

Ning Zhuo's reaction was exactly as Sun Lingtong had predicted.

Whenever Ning Zhuo saw exquisite mechanism artifacts, he would exhibit this kind of inner excitement and joy.

Sun Lingtong chuckled and placed Ru Die on a long, rectangular medical table.

Ru Die remained with her eyes closed, motionless, in a dormant state.

Ning Zhuo walked to the table, extending his hands to stroke her long dress and check her jade belt.

Ru Die's long dress and jade belt were magic artifacts. The dress had certain defensive capabilities, while the jade belt was used for storage.

Sun Lingtong chimed in, "Her waist and jade bottle have storage capabilities, but I checked, there was nothing inside."

"The jade bottle's function I figured out too; it's meant to collect sky clouds, with little offensive capability."

Ning Zhuo nodded slightly, speculating internally, "Could it be that this mechanical puppet's role, similar to my Explosive Flame Monkey, is designed to collect certain cultivation resources?"

Ning Zhuo continued his examination.

His gaze paused at the top of Ru Die's head, where a butterfly-shaped silver crown sat.

The silver crown was adorned with fine gems, sparkling from any angle, quite dazzling.

"What is this silver crown used for?" Ning Zhuo inquired.

Sun Lingtong replied, "I didn't study this in detail. So far, I've only examined her silk clothes, waist belt, and jade bottle."

At that moment, Ning Zhuo's thoughts moved, and he pressed on a talisman on the table, channeling mana into it.

The table immediately glowed, and then many mechanism tools appeared.

These tools floated out from the table and hovered in the air, surrounding Ning Zhuo.

With just a thought, these tools would fly to his hand automatically, very convenient.

They were now in the highest-standard treatment room of the medical facility.

Ning Zhuo selected a tool from among many and held it over the silver crown.

He activated the tool, conducted a preliminary examination, and got some preliminary results.

"This silver crown can be used for detection, and it also has controlling capabilities, though what it needs to control remains unclear."

Ning Zhuo didn't delve deeper.

His gaze moved downwards, quickly scanning Ru Die's body.

He reached out and grasped Ru Die's delicate hand, inspecting it, then gently squeezed her arm.

"Her skin is made of a mixed material, with the primary component being high-cloud cotton."

"This material can automatically absorb spiritual energy from the air, and is as soft and elastic as clouds."

Ning Zhuo opened a lamp-like mechanism tool and shone it on Ru Die's arm.

Where the light shone, previously invisible details appeared.

Ru Die's inner arm skin faintly showed a layer of intricate silver array patterns.

The silver array patterns interwove to form tight diamond-shaped meshes.

Ning Zhuo focused, pondering for a moment and muttering, "Her entire skin can automatically gather external spiritual energy."

"This design indicates that this mechanism artifact has a high demand for spiritual energy."

"The skin may seem soft and fragile, but hidden beneath it is a layer of defensive array."

"The array designer's skill is exceptional; I can see the patterns but cannot deduce the array's fundamental structure."

"This array craftsmanship is at least Grandmaster Level, capable of transforming the normal array through relative changes in key points, thus reshaping the entire array."

"Here, the array maker tailored the array to fit Ru Die's form."

"I can only determine that when she fights, this array will activate, creating a protective spiritual light to defend her completely."

After examining the skin, Ning Zhuo began checking Ru Die's hands and feet.

Although Ru Die appeared lifelike, her body temperature was very low, giving a cold, icy feel to Ning Zhuo's touch.

He found Ru Die's hands and feet to be extremely flexible, constructed with meticulous precision, comparable to real human limbs, only smaller.

The Explosive Flame Monkey's hands could also perform delicate actions, with several nested arrays for picking Fire Persimmons.

But compared to Ru Die's hands, the difference was stark and obvious.

After a rough inspection, Ning Zhuo took out a headband and put it on.

The medical facility's tools were of top quality. Wearing this headband allowed Ning Zhuo's divine sense to interweave, forming a temporary divine sense.

His temporary divine sense enveloped Ru Die, then penetrated her body.

In an instant, a faint white light covered Ru Die.

Sun Lingtong and Yang Chanyu's expressions turned serious, becoming alert.

Ning Zhuo's brows furrowed slightly.

He hadn't expected that just a slight probe of divine sense would trigger Ru Die's protective spiritual light.

From this, though it couldn't determine the exact defensive strength, at least her defense sensitivity was very high.

Most of Ning Zhuo's divine sense was blocked; he could only barely see some parts.

For instance, he discovered that Ru Die's hands had no complex arrays nor the structure of normal human bones, but a dense network of intersecting threads.

Ru Die's feet had a similar structure, though hidden in her soles were two talismans.

These two talismans looked identical. Ning Zhuo couldn't fully understand them but recognized them as Martial Arts Talismans.

This piqued his curiosity: he wondered what kind of power Ru Die would display when using these talismans.

Through the temporary divine sense, Ning Zhuo barely discovered that Ru Die's body contained "blood".

Her blood appeared milky white and semi-transparent, reminding Ning Zhuo of high-quality stalactite.

Ning Zhuo pondered for a moment, and a hollow needle flew into his hand.

He inserted the needle into a vein in Ru Die's arm.

In the next moment, the protective spiritual light surged, breaking the needle and ejecting it.

Yet, in that short time, Ning Zhuo achieved his goal.

He collected Ru Die's milky white blood from the broken needle.

After testing, Ning Zhuo confirmed it was a composite material.

The milk substance contained abundant vitality, having strong restorative effects on her skin, bones, and other mechanical components.

Additionally, this milk substance could hold considerable amounts of mana.

This carrying capacity was comparable to a blank top-grade crystal stone!

Clearly, the mechanist who designed her deliberately pursued this result.