Konoha, reported by the Fourth Hokage at the start.

Chapter 278 is too difficult.

P.S.: It's almost Chinese New Year, and I've got a lot going on at home, so there will only be one update today.

Having sorted out his thoughts, Li Yaofeng completely relaxed his mind about creating a clone and quietly waited for Scorpion's success.

At this moment, Scorpion had no idea that he had just escaped death.

His current state is strange; he is somewhere between life and death.

Without consciousness, the soul gradually transforms into spiritual energy, which is absorbed and converted by the puppet array, just like re-nurturing a soul. Success brings life, failure brings nothing.

Thump...

Finally, with the last heartbeat, Scorpion's heart turned to ashes and disappeared completely, and his soul was also completely transformed into spiritual energy and absorbed by the puppet array.

"It's done!"

Li Yao's Wind Release clone's brows furrowed. In his soul perception, a ball of chakra flame emerged from the center of the round hole in his chest. Sasori's soul aura completely solidified, transforming into a ball of soul flame and merging with chakra.

Sasori's current state is exactly the same as when Li Yao's original soul merged with chakra; he has also become a different kind of chakra life form.

I just don't know if he can have the same powerful illusion immunity as Li Yao's original self.

However, even if he can't compare to Li Yao's true form, ordinary illusions probably wouldn't work on him.

At this moment, the soul flame formed by Sasori's soul merging with chakra was still burning continuously.

Without a continuous replenishment of chakra, his soul would burn out in a few years at most.

Fortunately, Scorpion had a countermeasure.

The Puppet Heart Seal engraved on the outer wall of the round hole in his chest emitted a faint glow. Then, the natural energy that was omnipresent in nature gathered there, and after being transformed by the Puppet Heart Seal, it turned into Sasori's chakra and continuously merged into the chakra flame inside the hole.

With the chakra input obtained from the transformation of natural energy by the Puppet Heart, the chakra flame suddenly expanded and solidified, and soon its flame shape could no longer be seen, becoming a light blue ball of light.

Li Yao's Wind Release clone could sense a massive amount of human chakra, roughly equivalent to dozens of Kakashi's, far exceeding the chakra of an average Kage-level powerhouse.

Li Yaofeng laughed as he used his clone to create a clone. The current Scorpion was practically a biological version of Iron Man.

"My lord, I succeeded!"

The humanoid puppet scorpion opened its eyes and emitted a frenzied joy. Upon seeing Li Yaofeng's clone, it couldn't wait to share its happiness at his success.

"Yes, you succeeded." Li Yaofeng's clone nodded with a smile.

Scorpion spread his arms, lifted his feet, twisted his body, and felt the new puppet body. He felt nothing unusual. He could sense and have absolute control over every single screw inside the body.

Complete control over the body is an ability that can never be achieved in a physical body.

Feel the chakra orb within the round hole in your chest, and feel the solid and weighty feeling of your soul after receiving a continuous supply of chakra.

A sudden realization arose from the bottom of my heart: from now on, my fate is in my own hands, not in the hands of heaven.

From then on, he could forever pursue eternal art.

"Sir, did you sense any natural energy just now?"

After a while, his excitement subsided, and Scorpion immediately looked nervously at Li Yaofeng's clone.

"Sigh!" Li Yaofeng, using his clone, sighed softly and shook his head, saying, "No."

"This..." Scorpion didn't know what to say. After a year of research, he also understood the difficulty of perceiving natural energy.

If Li Yaofeng's clone couldn't sense it even at such close range, then there's basically no hope.

"It's alright." Li Yaofeng spun his clone and laughed, "I can't use the Puppet Heart, but I'm very interested in your soul replication technique."

"I'll get it for you right away, sir." Scorpion stretched out his left hand, his five fingers suddenly extending out like lines, opened a cabinet in front of him, and took out a scroll from it.

Scorpion handed the scroll to Li Yaofeng's clone, saying, "The research records of the Soul Replication Array are all in here."

Seeing that Scorpion took out his core soul replication method without the slightest hesitation, Li Yaofeng's clone smiled with satisfaction, took the scroll, and this time he did not look at it immediately.

Instead, he glanced around and said, "You have the materials to make the Puppet Heart here, right?"

"Yes, it's all ready." Scorpion smiled and led Li Yaofeng's clone to another long table, where all the materials for making the Puppet Heart were readily available.

"My lord, what do you want to do?" Li Yaofeng's clone was about to make one himself when Ye Yi panicked and quickly grabbed Li Yaofeng's clone's arm, looking at him with a pleading expression.

Li Yaofeng, using his clone, patted his secretary wife's hand and said, "Don't worry, I don't want to become a puppet. I just want to create a puppet heart myself and see if I can make it."

"Really?" Ye Yi asked.

"Really." Li Yaofeng used his clone to create a clone.

"I... understand." Only after receiving confirmation from Li Yaofeng's clone did Ye Yi release Li Yaofeng's clone's hand.

The materials used for the Puppet Heart are all special chakra metals, possessing the best chakra storage and conductivity.

The puppet heart cannot be formed in one piece, or rather, it cannot be formed in one piece. It must be assembled into the desired shape by using precise puppetry techniques.

After assembling, disassemble it and then inscribe a portion of the Puppet Heart Seal on each cuboid block.

This must be disassembled for inscription, because the six faces of each cuboid must be inscribed with the relevant puppet heart's seal.

Then assemble these cuboid blocks into shape, and finally activate the form that binds the Puppet Heart to form the Puppet Heart.

The most difficult part of this process is how to decompose the Puppet Heart Seal into individual cuboid blocks, and then connect the seals on these cuboid blocks to form the real Puppet Heart Seal.

Even with Li Yao's control over the chakra of his Wind Release clones, he still struggled at this step.

Li Yaofeng used his clone to inscribe the Puppet Heart Seal while listening to Scorpion's instructions.

He had fully understood the Puppet Heart Seal and had also seen the seal inscription inside the huge Puppet Heart in the outer hall.

Logically, you should just engrave it according to the scale reduction.

But no.

Each Puppet Heart Seal is uniquely engraved because you can't guarantee that all the chakra metal blocks in a rectangular box are exactly the same.

Therefore, you need to feel the magic seal inscription on each cuboid block yourself, so that the Puppet Heart magic seal inscribed on the cuboid block can form a whole.

Among these, subtle differences will appear in the engraved patterns of the puppet seal.

These subtle differences will affect the overall layout of the cuboid blocks.

Simply put, the number of cuboid blocks required for each puppet heart can be different or the same.

However, even if the quantities are the same, the arrangements will not be the same.

The three puppet hearts created by Scorpion have different internal cuboid layouts, and the positions of the engraved seals on the puppet hearts are also different.

Simply put, it's like a picture pasted on a sphere. It can be viewed from countless angles, and although they may look the same, their actual positions and angles in space are different.

Three hours later.

After failing to create a clone fifty-two times, Li Yaofeng finally managed to create a puppet heart.

Of course, because he couldn't sense natural energy, this puppet heart was just a shell.

Whether it can be used or not, we'll have to see if Sasori can use his chakra to activate the Puppet Heart Seal.

Sasori immediately channeled his chakra into the Puppet Heart as a catalyst, and instantly the entire Puppet Heart lit up.

Even though he couldn't sense natural energy, Li Yaofeng's clone could still feel energy being absorbed by the Puppet Heart.

Within minutes, the entire Puppet Heart transformed into something identical to the enormous Puppet Heart outside the hall, its interior imbued with Sasori's chakra.

"It's a success!"

Li Yaofeng used his clone to pick up the puppet heart and examine it.

It's not easy!

Li Yaofeng sighed as he used his clone to escape.

Indeed, no powerful ninjutsu is so easy for anyone to master.

(End of this chapter)