Chapter 253: Holy Puppet

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Hehe, let me give you guys a taste of these belts!” After coming to a decision, Yang Ling spoke as he picked up a Man-eating Vine, observing it closely. He then ordered the giant Man-eating Vine to act as it pleased.

In that instant, the giant Man-eating Vine’s mass of appendages moved in unison, entangling the curious Orlando like he was a rice dumpling!

“Ah, Sir save me, Sir save me…”

Caught off guard and unable to move after being bound by the giant Man-eating Vine, Orlando lost his voice in shock as he saw the many sharp spines and felt a wave of pain on his skin.

At the same time, the old butler Murbaqi at the side turned pale, dumbfounded as he pointed at the giant Man-eating Vine that seemed to have become a weapon of mass destruction in an instant. No matter what, he could never have expected the limp Man-eating Vines to instantly become this terrifying!

After ordering the giant Man-eating Vine to loosen its mass of appendages, Yang Ling laughed as he looked at Orlando who was pale in shock, “Hehe, Orlando, which one of the Man-eating Vines do you want as your belt?”

“Sir, this… I…”

After recovering from his shock, Orlando still felt his skin crawl as he looked at the red spots on his body and recalled the sharp spines of the giant Man-eating Vines. He instinctively jumped to the side after regaining his ability to move, fleeing as far away as he could from the terrifying Man-eating Vines. He felt incredibly awkward as he looked at the smiling Yang Ling.

“Murbaqi, treat these Man-eating Vines as ordinary plants from today onward, unless I say otherwise. Quickly get someone to plant them. From this day on, they will start to attack the servants or soldiers without plaques if they get too close to them, remember that!”

After giving the fearful old butler a few instructions, Yang Ling left quickly with a Man-eating Vine in hand. He wanted to return to the villa and research on how best he could turn these Man-eating Vines into the unique weapons of the hunters.

Behind him, Murbaqi finally steeled his nerves and called over a group of servants after observing the vines for some time and ascertaining that these limp Man-eating Vines temporarily posed no threat, ordering them to quickly plant the terrifying Man-eating Vines around the castle. He planted a vine at every other step, ordering the group to not get close to them in the future, unless any accidents happened.

After returning to his villa and sitting down on the ground cross-legged, Yang Ling closely examined the Man-eating Vines in his hand closely. Unfortunately, he could not find a way to solve the problem no matter how hard he tried.

The physical structure of the Man-eating Vines was weird. They would not die even after a large portion of their appendages were cut off, or even if they were cut into two. However, they could not be tamed like a Magical Beast, nor could them be summoned. Other than subjugating them with his blood, Yang Ling could not find a way to control them as he pleased.

Must I train every hunter into a Blood Wizard before they can use this unique weapon?

Looking reluctantly at the Man-eating Vine in his hand, Yang Ling shook his head, tossing aside that unrealistic idea. Nurturing a Blood Wizard was far more difficult than he imagined. Alice and Yuna was proof of that.

Furthermore, Wizard Techniques were his secret techniques. He could use it sparingly to nurture a group of hunters to form the backbone of the Hunter Association so that he could strengthen his control of the association. However, it was impossible that he could impart them to every hunter that joins the association.

Other than taming them, could he tamper the souls of these Man-eating Vines using the Soul Tampering Technique and get them to listen to the instructions of the hunters?

Yang Ling had a thought after a moment’s deliberation, recalling the Soul Tampering Technique that allowed him to directly tamper with the souls of any living thing.

Not only had his Wizard Power and mental energy been greatly boosted after having advanced to the level of Divine Wizard, his Soul Tampering Technique had also reached high-level. He could not only tamper with the souls of living creatures, he could also directly absorb and consume their soul energy.

The Man-eating Vines had powerful attacks, but their souls were relatively weak. After retrieving a Man-eating Vine that he had been unable to tame, Yang Ling silently recited the Wizard Mantra, subduing its soul in an instant. He could control their actions by injecting a streak of mental energy, his control becoming more fluid as the intensity of the mental energy increased.

On the battlefield, what was he going to do if he suddenly encountered an enemy with mental energy that was more powerful than his?

Yang Ling rubbed his temple after instructing the Man-eating Vine that has lost its individual will to coil around a small tree nearby, thinking about a new problem.

After having their souls subdued, even though the Man-eating Vines could now be controlled with mental energy, it did not have a way to recognize its master. This might turn against him if he encountered an enemy that had mental energy superior to his!

If I cannot have absolute control over the Man-eating Vine that had its soul tampered with, then would a similar problem exist in the puppets created using the Soul Tampering Technique?

Looking at the Man-eating Vine not far away, Yang Ling shook his head as he suddenly thought about a more serious problem. He remembered the Red-robed Cardinal Kayseri within the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda.

Even though he now had sufficient abilities to create puppets after having advanced to the level of Divine Wizard, he could not guarantee that he would have absolute control over the puppet. If that was the case, it was basically akin to planting a time bomb right by his side!

After retrieving the unconscious Red-robed Cardinal Kayseri, Yang Ling knit his brows, thinking deeply about a way to solve this problem!

There were many factions in his territory. Other than the many troops around, there was also a large number of adventurers and mysterious figures. Amongst them included large factions like the Dark Association, Beastmen and Church.

It was possible for him to gain complete control over the situation if he could find out about core intelligence from within the factions and become clear of their plans and specific circumstances. He could even masterfully deal with the schemes of the Troop Association using the various other factions!

Even the sturdiest of castles can be broken from the inside!

It was undoubtedly extremely difficult to obtain core intelligence around the Church, Beastmen and Troop Association using his intelligence team Parrot.

But if he could allow the Beastman priest Augustus that he had tamed to return to the temporary outpost of the Beastmen, if he could allow the Red-robed Cardinal Kayseri to return to the main camp of the Church, it was not impossible for him to successfully find out about a few secrets. In fact, he could even masterfully manipulate them to create a conflict between the Beastmen, Church and the Troop Association.

There were no permanent allies between countries, only interest. The same logic also applies to the various large factions!

The Church had to have the Divine Weapons within the relic of the giant dragon, while the Beastmen also spared no effort, travelling tens of thousands of miles in search of the relic of the giant dragon; The influential Troop Association with a large web of intelligence would also naturally not miss the fabled Divine Weapons…

Since that is the case, there was already a fundamental conflict of interests between the factions. As long as he made use of that, it was not impossible for him to hasten the eruption of conflict between the factions. When that time comes, he would be able to reap benefits using his advantage as a leader, using the might of the other factions to deal with the Troop Association that saw the Hunter Association as a thorn in its flesh.

Both taming with his blood and creating puppets had their respective advantages. The crux in scouting for intelligence within the Beastmen faction lies in disguising the faint mark left behind on the forehead of the Beastman priest Augustus after he had tamed him.

The key to scouting for intelligence within the Church lies in training the responsiveness of the puppet Red-robed Cardinal Kayseri, as well as how he could establish absolute control over him. Otherwise, if Kayseri was to encounter a powerful fighter within the Church, he would lose his control over him. That would be inviting trouble for himself.

Hmph, it would all work out when the time comes!

Even though he could not think of a way to solve the problems for the time being, Yang Ling did not give up. He slowly turned the Red-robed Cardinal into his first puppet using the Soul Tampering Technique by following the explanations on the stele. He created his first Holy Puppet using the Red-robed Cardinal before him.

He silently recited the Wizard Mantra, and with preserving the memories of the other party as a foundation, erased his soul and individual will, then injected a bolt of his own consciousness…

Left turn, right turn…

Jump, somersault to the side…

…

After instructing the puppet to do a few simple actions, Yang Ling gradually issued a few more complicated orders.

At the start, the puppet Kayseri was jumping around like a zombie, unable to bend its limbs or maintain fluidity in its motion. Sometimes, it would not be able to complete an action for the longest time, sometimes it would decide to stop moving, not reacting for the longest time…

However, after gradually increasing the intensity of the consciousness he injected within the puppet and training him for two hours, the actions of the puppets slowly became more gentle, no longer looking too strange and rigid!

“Group Holy Shield, quick!”

Through the Soul Tampering Technique, Yang Ling successfully obtained the Kayseri’s memories. After a few preliminary training, he gradually closed in on training the puppet in what he used to specialize in. He summoned a team of Magical Beasts to train together with the puppet. He would sometimes instruct the puppet to dodge the attacks of Magical Beasts; At other times, he would instruct the puppet to cooperate with the Magical Beasts in battle, casting Holy Shield and Holy Barrier on the Magical Beasts.

He could slowly correct the rigidity in the motion of the puppet through training, but Yang Ling was incredibly disappointed when he saw the puppet display various emotions!

In over four hours, the puppet had been unable to show even a smile, the rigid muscles on its face as if made from calcified stone. He could not get the puppet to show emotion even after working on it for a long period of time. The puppet looked no different from a cold robot.

Rigid expression, dull reactions, lifeless eyes, coupled with the threat of not being able to fully control it…

After training with it for a few hours, Yang Ling knew that the puppet was far from mature enough. Allowing this guy to scout for information within the Church was basically asking for death! Perhaps, the powerful fighters of the Church would be able to find out who was behind this, inviting trouble for himself if he was not careful enough!

However, even though the puppet was far from optimized for the time being, that did not mean that there was no place for it in his plans! As long as he used the puppet well, he might perhaps manage to achieve unexpected effects.

Furthermore, according to the explanation of the stele, high-level puppets not only had a wide array of emotions, it also possessed the abilities of its owner, as if it were a clone. The more powerful the abilities of its owner, the more powerful the abilities of the puppets would be. With the mysterious, obscure Wizard Techniques, Yang Ling was confident that he would be able to create a high-level puppet in the future. He was confident that he would be able to create a killing machine unlike the Magical Beasts he tamed!

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