This figure was not a physical entity like the other puppets, but rely an extrely faint phantom.
Its state was highly unstable, as though it might shatter and vanish at any mont.
“But it truly appeared within the Fangcun space, which ans…”
“Does that an it’s possible to turn him into a puppet?”
Li Shun’s heart imdiately stirred.
There was no need to question Shentu Xin’s strength.
With a single glance, he had subdued Jiang Chongguang. He had set the imperial mausoleum ablaze, and no one had been able to stop him. At the very least, he had to be a powerhouse in the Celestial Phenona Realm.
“If I could gain a puppet like this…”
Li Shun hurriedly gathered even more calamity ash drifting down from the sky.
As more and more ashes were collected into the Fangcun space, Shentu Xin’s phantom gradually beca more stable.
But Shentu Xin’s had long since been reduced to countless specks of calamity ash by the all-consuming heavenly flas. It was impossible for Li Shun to collect him in his entirety.
Thus, when those giant golden hands appeared once more, tearing apart the heavens and turning the pages of the Heavenly Codex...
The Shentu Xin’s figure within Fangcun had solidified to less than one-fifth of a normal puppet.
The pages of the Heavenly Codex turned.
Ti itself flowed backward.
Once more, everything returned to the day before the burning of the imperial mausoleum.
The fifteenth day of the sixth month.
Fang Xun, who had previously been blasted into scraps by Jiang Chongguang, ca back to life.
He behaved exactly like everyone else in the imperial mausoleum, as though he had no awareness whatsoever that ti had reversed.
anwhile, inside the Fangcun space, Li Shun stared blankly at Shentu Xin’s phantom.
“It worked... and yet it didn’t.”
“Perhaps this can be called a half-puppet state.”
Li Shun felt deeply disappointed.
Under normal circumstances, once soone was taken into the Fangcun space as a puppet, Li Shun would gain access to all of their mories.
But now, he could not extract even the slightest fragnt of Shentu Xin’s past.
“Thankfully, I can still summon him into the real world.”
With a shift of thought, Shentu Xin appeared at his side.
Li Shun reached out and touched him.
Within the Fangcun space, he had already existed only as a phantom. Once manifested in reality and weakened by half again, he was reduced to little more than a faint layer of light.
“There isn’t a trace of life essence inside him.”
“He can’t even speak.”
“This deal... was an absolute bloodbath of a loss!”
“Can I just get rid of this puppet?”
Li Shun imdiately regretted his decision.
After all, opening up a single plot of land within Fangcun was no easy feat. Yet after being collected, Shentu Xin was completely useless while still occupying one precious slot.
But inviting a god in was easy. Sending one away was another matter entirely.
Up until now, Li Shun had never discovered a way to expel a collected puppet from Fangcun.
After fruitless experintation, he could only give up for now and return Shentu Xin to the space.
“Shentu Xin, the dignified heir of Great Jun... and you’re actually less useful than so random Lengshan laborer?”
Inside Fangcun, Li Shun stared at the silent Shentu Xin standing motionless in the sixth plot of land, finding him increasingly unpleasant to look at.
Still unwilling to give up, Li Shun projected his divine sense into the figure.
The phantom remained utterly empty.
No images.
No mories.
Nothing.
Left with no other option, Li Shun focused entirely on the phantom itself.
He firmly believed that if it truly held no value at all, it should never have appeared within Fangcun in the first place.
His consciousness gradually sank deeper.
Li Shun forgot his own identity.
It was as though he himself had beco this solitary phantom.
A long ti passed.
Then suddenly—
Shentu Xin’s figure rippled violently, like disturbed water.
A dark crimson streak of light shot rapidly out from the phantom figure’s body, crossing the distance in an instant and arriving at the central core of the Fangcun space, the region where Li Shun’s own consciousness resided.
The streak flickered like living fire, leaping endlessly as it faced the two stone statues from afar.
Yet within that dark crimson radiance, Li Shun discerned four words.
[Life Qi Furnace]
“What is this…”
Li Shun’s brows furrowed slightly, his expression turning unreadable.
This was the only truly unusual thing he had discovered within Shentu Xin’s phantom body.
The flas continued to pulse, almost like a beating heart.
“Life Qi Furnace. It can perhaps be regarded as so kind of unique bodily trait possessed by Shentu Xin.”
“Although I only collected a small portion of his remains and ashes, this trait…”
“Even with only a fragnt of his ruined body, it still remains active.”
“But why has it co to the center of the Fangcun space?”
Li Shun was puzzled. Nothing like this had ever occurred when he absorbed the previous two puppets.
“Could it be that, like Threefold Self-Reflection and the Heavenly Codex puppet, it intends to resist and contend for ownership of Fangcun?”
A sharp glint flashed in Li Shun’s eyes as his consciousness imdiately enveloped that patch of dark crimson fire.
A mont later, his anger turned into delight.
“So that’s how it is! Fangcun actually has such a wondrous use!”
The instant enlightennt struck him, the entire Fangcun space rumbled violently.
The region where his consciousness resided expanded outward once more in both directions.
Although it advanced only a short distance before eting overwhelming resistance and being forcibly halted, Li Shun’s mood remained exceptionally bright.
His gaze locked firmly onto the crimson streak representing [Life Qi Furnace].
“Fangcun is my heart.”
“My heart gives birth to my body.”
“Although only my consciousness transmigrated here, attaching itself to the aged body of Great Qian’s Li Shun, I can actually use the mighty power of Fangcun to reconstruct a new body!”
“However, with my current strength and understanding, if I truly attempted such a thing, it would be like a child playing with mud. At best, I could mold so grotesque imitation. It would be utterly unusable, perhaps not even worthy of being called a proper fleshly body.”
“But…”
“I can draw experience from the puppets I have absorbed.”
“Even their traits.”
“Life Qi Furnace. A body that no longer resembles flesh and blood, but instead a colossal furnace constantly burning with blazing life qi. For one possessing this trait, the life qi within the body no longer circulates in a calm state, but exists in a perpetual state of violent combustion.”
“One’s lifespan is drastically reduced. Though one may possess a hundred years of longevity, one would only live ten. But correspondingly…”
“The activity of Principle Qi rises dramatically, just like the apocalyptic Burning Mausoleum world I witnessed. Chaotic. Violent.”
“Shentu Xin’s constitution could be called a heaven-born inheritance suited for the Jun Clan. Unfortunately, it does not suit .”
Li Shun shook his head slightly in regret.
“I have no desire to beco so short-lived wretch.”
“However…”
Li Shun’s gaze suddenly shifted.
The brilliance of [Life Qi Furnace] instantly descended onto Fang Xun’s body.
In the next mont, Fang Xun’s entire aura underwent an indescribable transformation.
Originally, Fang Xun had been calm and profound.
But after being infused with the trait of Life Qi Furnace, he seed, without realizing it, to beco just as frenzied as Shentu Xin.
“While puppets remain within Fangcun, they exist in an eternal state beyond life and death. So long as synchronization is not perford, they remain forever as they were the mont they were taken in. Even with Life Qi Furnace imposed upon them, no obvious change can be seen.”
“But in the outside world…”
In Dongshan Town, Fang Xun, who had been working within the governnt office’s study, vanished in an instant.
Then, in the very next mont, he reappeared.
As though his disappearance had rely been an illusion.
The entire process lasted no more than a single breath, yet his whole bearing had undergone a subtle, inexplicable transformation.
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