Seeking immortality begins with daily intelligence reports.

Upon entering the village, one is greeted by the traces of battle and fighting, with the place in complete disarray.

The remains of puppets lying on all fours and fragments of broken magical artifacts were scattered along the way.

After carefully examining the area and confirming that there was nothing unusual, Li Shen collected all the puppet remains.

If I ever have the opportunity to get involved in puppetry in the future, these will be perfect for practicing.

As for those broken magical artifacts, they all became food for the spirit-devouring ants.

After searching around, Li Shen arrived at a spacious square.

The battle traces are the most intense here, and the relics are the most numerous.

He found quite a few storage bags, in particular, after searching them out; the number was roughly the same as the number of the zombie cultivators he had encountered before.

They were laid out in front of me, three whole rows.

Li Shen casually picked one up, examined it, and then carefully probed it with his divine sense.

The bag contained very few useful items; not only were there no spirit stones, but the pill bottles were also empty, let alone any magical artifacts or materials.

There were only a few scattered items, which barely allowed one to identify the owner.

Li Shen was already prepared for this.

After all, this secret realm only opens once every three hundred years, and these living corpse cultivators are at least three hundred years old.

This process was repeated, and seven or eight cases were checked in succession, all of which were more or less the same.

There were still no spirit stones left, but some magical artifacts could be found in some of the storage bags. However, they had obviously been through fierce battles, and their spiritual light was dim and they were covered with cracks, so they were not even worth repairing.

Li Shen gathered these broken magical artifacts together and released the Soul-Devouring Ant swarm.

The swarm of ants, dark and dense, rushed forward, their gnawing sounds dense and continuous.

While the Soul-Eating Ants were feeding, Li Shen picked up another one, and the situation remained the same.

Based on the information currently available, Li Shen can determine that this group of cultivators belong to a sect called the Myriad Puppet Sect.

Whether the Ten Thousand Puppet Sect is located in the Southern Wilderness is currently unknown.

Li Shen silently memorized it, but his hands did not stop moving as he continued to flip to the next page.

It wasn't until the eleventh storage bag that a different discovery was finally made.

The owner of this storage bag was clearly more particular than others; the items inside were neatly arranged in categories. Although there were still no spirit stones, there were four jade slips inside.

Li Shen took one out, examined it, and then probed one of them with his divine sense.

A moment later, a hint of joy flashed in his eyes.

This jade slip contains a detailed record of a technique called "Silk-Pulling Technique".

From how to connect with the puppet's core with one's divine sense to issuing commands and controlling the puppet to perform various actions, everything is written clearly.

Although it was only the basic method of the Myriad Puppet Sect, it was of great value to Li Shen, who had never been exposed to the art of puppetry.

The crystal was called a Soul Crystal, and its effect was the same as Li Shen had previously guessed.

A special technique is used to seal a wisp of the soul of a demon beast or cultivator within it, using it as the brain of a puppet.

The controller can establish a connection between their divine sense and the soul crystal, and then control the puppet as if it were their own arm.

The rank of a puppet depends on three factors:

The quality of the materials, the size of the soul crystal, and the strength of the controller's spiritual consciousness.

The form of the puppet depends entirely on the skill and imagination of the craftsman.

Li Shen shook his head inwardly as he recalled the ugly puppet with its four legs and flat head.

Calling this thing a puppet is an understatement; it's more like a hybrid of two halves, unable to even take on a human form, which shows how clumsy the creator was.

He then picked up the second jade slip.

This document records a technique called "Puppet Making Technique".

It involves everything from material selection and smelting to forging, joint assembly, and core inlay.

Li Shen found it more and more interesting the more he read it.

The art of puppetry shares some similarities with other miscellaneous disciplines such as weapon crafting, alchemy, and array formation. All of these require a deep understanding of materials, precise control of heat, and a powerful spiritual sense.

He carefully put the two jade slips away, intending to study them in detail when he had time later.

I happened to have collected quite a few wreckage pieces to use for practice.

The third jade slip contains information about the distribution of demonic beasts and spiritual materials in a mountain range near the Wan Kui Sect.

Li Shen glanced through them and found that most of the items were needed for the Qi Refining stage, but he didn't know where they were or how valuable they were.

The last jade slip made Li Shen pause slightly.

This jade slip is grayish-white in color and its material is different from others. It feels warm and smooth to the touch, and is obviously more refined.

Li Shen probed into it with his divine sense, and the next moment, passages of text appeared in his mind.

It turned out to be a diary.

"...Day three. I saw Junior Sister Fang today; she's indeed well-behaved and adorable!"

"...Day five. Today I learned how to craft puppets. The elder said I don't have much talent and my future achievements are limited. I saw my junior sister's pitying look, and I told her that this is only temporary. In the sect's grand competition three years from now, I will show them that they should never underestimate a young man's potential!"

"...Day 8. I have high aspirations, but unfortunately I don't have enough spirit stones. I need to hurry up and earn more spirit stones in the future."

"...Day one hundred. I'm really lucky today. I got the same sect mission as Junior Sister Fang. Don't worry, Junior Sister, I'll protect you!"

"...Day 115. It's over, my junior sister has been dragged away. Why did she encounter a late-stage second-tier spiky sandworm? I heard her screams, but when I got there, all I found was her storage bag and a pool of blood."

"...Day 118. Junior Sister Fang is dead. How could this happen?! I want to keep Junior Sister by my side forever."

"...Day 120. Failure. The puppet was created, but my junior sister's soul is too weak, only instinct remains. She can only say three words, 'Hello, brother.' Those were the words she said to me most often when she was alive."

"...One hundred and twenty-one days. I'm not reconciled. I want to start over. This time, I'll use better materials and purer soul crystals. Even if it means sacrificing my own cultivation, I will..."

The diary ends here.

The following content describes how this person obtained the opportunity to enter the Suspended Mountain Secret Realm. After going through many twists and turns to enter, the entire sect began to fight each other as soon as they entered the secret realm, and they died without knowing why.

Li Shen put down the jade slip and remained silent for a long time.

He finally understood why the puppet had called out "Hello, brother" in a childish voice.

A mediocre cultivator attempted to use puppetry to keep his deceased junior sister alive, but he failed.

What was produced was merely an ugly, unrecognizable creature that could only mechanically repeat those three words.

The reason for the formation of those zombies remains unanswered.

After a moment's thought, Li Shen had a guess in his mind.

Most likely, it was the person who set up the maze here, causing these cultivators to fight each other and eventually turn into living corpses.

As for the purpose, Li Shen looked up in the direction of Xuanshan Mountain, and perhaps he would find out when he got there.

He carefully put away the jade slip containing the diary and then continued to look through the remaining storage bags.

In the storage bag behind, Li Shen found more jade slips and books related to puppets.

There is a technique called "Soul Imprinting," which explains how to completely seal a soul into a puppet crystal, preserving some of its memories and intelligence from its previous life.

There is also a manual called "Human Puppet Technique," which records how to create humanoid puppets.

Unfortunately, most of these books are incomplete, with many key parts missing.

After all, the highest cultivation level among these cultivators is only at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, so their access to information is limited.

Even so, it was already a considerable gain for Li Shen.

He carefully collected these valuable jade slips one by one.

The Soul-Devouring Ants had almost finished devouring everything. Li Shen stood up and subconsciously glanced at the sky.

All I could see was a hazy gray, and I couldn't tell what time it was.

Li Shen shook his head and gave up.

By updating the intelligence, we can at least find out how many days have passed since we arrived.

"We still have a long way to go to reach Xuanshan, so we need to hurry."

Li Shen put away the Soul-Devouring Ants, his eyes flashing with a blue light, and turned to walk out of the village.