The Soul-Harvesting Puppeteer - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 41
[This is no ordinary Blood Essence. Within it lies an enormous concentration of Demonic Energy and gifts from the other Constellations, all dissolved together like an extract.]
[Gifts from the other Constellations?]
At Han-eol’s question, several of the Constellations tensed their necks and shrugged their shoulders.
The Twelfth Constellation proceeded to explain a few of the gifts.
[For instance, the Third Constellation once engaged in a fierce battle with a Dragon Tribe leader-class individual who had ascended to the Fourth Continent long ago, and obtained his scales as war trophies. This Blood Essence here contains an entire pouch of Dragon Scales provided by the Third Constellation. Hehehehe.]
The moment the Twelfth Constellation finished speaking, the Third Constellation preened.
[Ahem. These are no ordinary Dragon Scales, I must emphasize. They were torn from a supreme-tier Dragon Tribe warrior on the eve of his ascension to the Fourth Continent. Hehehem.]
[A supreme-tier Dragon Tribe warrior?]
[Indeed. A supreme-tier Dragon Tribe warrior. I nearly met my end in that battle against that uncouth brute, I’ll have you know. Because obtaining them proved so difficult, I’ve cherished these scales dearly. If I may boast—merely wearing these scales alone would allow one to ignore every variety of physical attack and elemental assault that exists on this Fifth Continent. Ahem-hehehem.]
The Third Constellation cleared his throat several times as he elaborated on how extraordinary his gift was.
As his self-aggrandizement grew more pronounced, the Twelfth Constellation cut him short.
[Hehehehe. And surely the Third Constellation is not alone in his generosity. Our Ninth Constellation here has also contributed a supreme-tier Absorption Technique, which has proven quite instrumental indeed.]
[Oh?]
Han-eol’s eyes widened as he turned his gaze toward the Ninth Constellation.
Han-eol was already well acquainted with the Spirit Tribe’s Absorption Technique.
The Spirit Tribe employed a unique secret method called the Absorption Technique to extract strange options or functions embedded in Ruins and transfer them into their own bodies.
For example, using the Absorption Technique could extract the flame-projection ability from a sword imbued with powerful fire and graft it into one’s hand.
Han-eol had read about such things in the Droplet Library and taken great interest in them.
‘So this means I can actually try using the Absorption Technique myself?’
Han-eol looked at the Ninth Constellation with bright, eager eyes.
The Ninth Constellation folded her lustrous golden wings neatly, tilted her head to one side, and adopted a demure expression.
The Twelfth Constellation sang her praises.
[The Ninth Constellation’s Absorption Technique differs from all others. While ordinary Absorption Techniques achieve an absorption rate of merely fifty percent or so, the Ninth Constellation’s absorption rate approaches nearly one hundred percent. Of course, the Ninth Constellation produces so few of these exceptional supreme-tier Absorption Techniques that she guards them jealously, yet she has graciously offered one today for the Cultivator’s sake. Hehehehehehe. It seems our new Cultivator has quite captured the Ninth Constellation’s heart. Hehehehe.]
[My, my. Twelfth Constellation. There’s no need to say such things.]
The Ninth Constellation reproached him with a coy tone.
[Hehehehehehe.]
The Twelfth Constellation’s laughter only grew louder.
Beyond these two contributions, the other Constellations had also given various gifts in Han-eol’s honor.
But to Han-eol, the first two were what mattered most.
First, the supreme-tier Dragon Scales.
‘With just the supreme-tier Dragon Scales, I can dramatically increase my defensive power.’
And second, the Absorption Technique.
‘If I use the Spirit Tribe’s Absorption Technique to completely absorb the Dragon Scales and other items into my body, achieving perfect integration, that would be ideal.’
Han-eol saw no reason to hesitate further.
[This is a proposal I find quite agreeable. Shall I immerse myself in the Blood Essence right now?]
[Indeed, the new Cultivator is always decisive in such matters. Remove your garments and enter within, if you please.]
The Twelfth Constellation extended a hand of interwoven branches toward Han-eol, gesturing him toward the casket.
Eleven Constellations regarded Han-eol with eyes full of anticipation.
Han-eol felt some embarrassment at removing his clothes before them, but there was no help for it.
Han-eol undressed without hesitation.
However, he did not remove the Pyros Ring, the Skull Bracelet, or the Gilit Tribe’s Bark Skin—these he kept on.
He also did not take off his wristwatch.
‘Perhaps the Absorption Technique will transfer the functions of these artifacts into my body as well.’
This was Han-eol’s hidden intention.
Chapter 7
Clang.
Han-eol lay down in the casket, and the heavy lid sealed shut.
Bubbles rose between Han-eol’s lips.
‘Huh? This is… fine?’
Unexpectedly, his breath was not cut off. Strangely, within the liquid metal that was Blood Essence, he could breathe as comfortably as in the open air.
At the bottom of the casket filled with Blood Essence lay round, flat, hard objects. When Han-eol felt about with his hands, he surmised these must be the supreme-tier Dragon Scales.
‘But where is the Absorption Technique?’
As Han-eol was feeling about in the darkness, the Twelfth Constellation completed a magical circle around the casket and announced the beginning of the Great Ritual.
[Now then, we begin. Are you prepared?]
[Of course.]
As soon as Han-eol answered, the Twelfth Constellation offered a brief explanation.
[Once the magical circle is activated, this old one’s medicinal Blood Essence will penetrate the new Cultivator’s skin and induce biological transformation. In turn, your skin and muscle will become far more resilient and elastic than that of the Dragon Tribe, and your strengthened body and soul will become intertwined like root vines. Meanwhile, the supreme-tier Dragon Scales and other items will penetrate your skin and achieve perfect integration with you.]
This was everything Han-eol had hoped for.
No—it was even more than he had hoped for.
‘Good. Very good.’
Han-eol smiled with satisfaction.
But the next brainwave from the Twelve Constellations wiped the smile clean from his face.
[Instead, during the Great Ritual, you’ll experience pain beyond imagination. Hehehehe. I’ve conducted some clinical trials on my slaves, and even sturdy Gilit or Cape specimens couldn’t endure the Great Ritual—they died in agony. Hehehehe.]
‘What—what did you say?’
Han-eol started in shock.
The Twelve Constellations continued, their brainwave tinged with generous laughter.
[Hehehehe. But of course we can’t compare our Spirit Tribe’s future—the new Constellation Raiser—with such pitiful slaves. Ehehehe. If the pain becomes too intense, simply step outside that body for a moment. Then you’ll be fine. Hehehehe.]
‘That’s nonsense. It won’t work. I’m not Spirit Tribe—I can’t leave my body.’
Han-eol tried to throw open the coffin lid and leap out before the Great Ritual began.
But he was one heartbeat too late. The Demonic Energy the Twelve Constellations had injected had already activated the magic circle.
Whoosh!
The entire coffin containing Han-eol erupted in a deep crimson glow, and in the next instant the Blood Essence inside began to churn and boil, bubbling violently.
In the sauna facility beneath the Sacred Group 1st Division building, there are bath pools that bubble and burst like this.
During his days with the 1st Division, Han-eol had occasionally soaked in such baths to ease the fatigue of training.
But this was entirely different.
As the bubbles burst in rapid succession, the heavy Blood Essence tore through Han-eol’s skin and burrowed into his body.
His skin shredded to tatters.
Blood drained from his entire body and mingled with the Blood Essence.
‘Arrrghhhh!’
The agony was so overwhelming that Han-eol could barely scream.
His mind bleached white. The world drowned in whiteness. It felt as though his brain was melting away entirely.
After his skin, the Blood Essence tore at his muscles and tendons.
It burrowed between the muscle fibers, coating them like a second skin.
His tendons soaked through with Blood Essence.
Finally, the Blood Essence enveloped even his bones.
Crunch, crunch-crunch.
Every bone in Han-eol’s body shattered at the molecular level, then fused back together.
It was as though his bones had been fed through a crusher, pulverized, then reformed like pottery in a roaring kiln.
His torn skin regenerated only to tear open again.
His muscles, tendons, and organs melted like paste, then stuck together in a tangled mass.
As his entire body underwent such total dissolution, the Pyros Ring could hardly remain unscathed.
This pair of rings—one male, one female—that Han-eol had seized from the Gilit Tribe and bonded to himself carried the following options.
First, a Stealth function that rendered the wearer invisible and concealed their presence.
Second, a function that dramatically increased movement speed.
Third, a short-range teleportation function.
Fourth, a Shove function that forcefully pushed back any enemy who attacked the wearer.
Fifth, a function that applied all four of the above abilities in passive mode.
Now the Pyros Ring on the middle finger of Han-eol’s left hand began to dissolve into the Blood Essence, its components entangling with his finger bones.
As his left hand then dissolved to the bone and fused back together, the ring’s material infiltrated his finger bones and muscles.
This extraordinary phenomenon occurred thanks to the Absorption Technique dissolved within the Blood Essence.
The supreme Absorption Technique that the Ninth Constellation had treasured transferred every option of the Pyros Ring directly into Han-eol’s fingers.
Fifth Highland Expedition IV — Dialogue with the Dragon Tribe
Chapter 1
A similar phenomenon unfolded with the Bark Skin.
The Bark Skin, Han-eol’s other prize, was an artifact that enhanced his defense and resistances.
Now that Bark Skin dissolved at the molecular level and infiltrated Han-eol’s epidermis, granting his skin itself tough defensive properties and elemental resistance.
On top of that, Han-eol’s wristwatch also began to dissolve.
This timepiece, provided by the Sacred Group Artemis Order, contained clock hands forged from Mithril.
By wearing these Mithril hands, Han-eol had been able to visit the Ruins of the Fifth Continent—places where Mithril could be found.
This was the principle of Guided Transmission.
But now that Mithril had bubbled and melted, fusing with Han-eol’s wrist.
So if Han-eol succeeded in the Great Ritual—if fortune smiled upon him—he would no longer need to wear the wristwatch. He would be able to perform Guided Transmission and discover the Ruins of the Fifth Continent on his own.
Similarly, the Skull Bracelet had dissolved into the Blood Essence.
The Skull Bracelet on Han-eol’s wrist was an artifact woven from three hundred tiny skulls, each smaller than a flea, within which six hundred malevolent spirits were bound.
As the bracelet melted away in the Blood Essence, those spirits lost their vessel.
Panicked, the spirits fled into Han-eol’s body.
But that body too was dissolving beneath the Blood Essence.
Keeeee—
In the end, the spirits were consumed and absorbed into the Blood Essence, melting, crumbling, fusing with one another.
In this process, the number of malevolent spirits dropped dramatically.
Instead, new demons emerged—each one a single body bearing three faces.
One face stared straight ahead.
The other two faced left and right respectively.
Six arms sprouted from each merged form.
The grotesque fusion of these demons evoked the image of Asura, a figure widely known throughout the Midland Asia Region.
Yet as six hundred malevolent spirits forcibly melded and welded together, their numbers collapsed to a mere one hundred and eight.
A howl tore through the darkness.
Unable to withstand the agony inflicted by the Great Ritual, the fused demons flailed about in search of escape, only to be swept into Han-eol’s Soul Sea within his Upper Dantian.
While one hundred and eight demons—their spirit forms crimson as blood, their features twisted into Asura-like visages—infiltrated his Upper Dantian, Han-eol found himself utterly powerless to resist.
‘Stop! Stop it! Please, let me live. No—just kill me. Please, just let me die.’
Han-eol’s mouth hung open in an endless scream.
Now he understood with desperate clarity why the Gilit and Cape tribes, subjected to the Twelve Constellations’ vivisection experiments, had perished during the Great Ritual.
No.
At this moment, Han-eol could not even summon thoughts of Gilit or Cape.
His body was torn apart and remade in an agonizing cycle, so relentless and vicious that his mind simply could not function.
He could only pray that this torment would end.
Or that his breath would cease, sparing him from further suffering.
The only reason Han-eol survived at all was because, in his desperation, his instincts drove him to absorb the energy of Blood Essence into his Upper Dantian.
The Blood Essence crafted by the Twelve Constellations was saturated with Demonic Energy.
More than saturated—it contained a quantity of Demonic Energy unprecedented in the history of the Fifth Continent.
In truth, the Twelve Constellations had never anticipated that Han-eol would absorb this power.
Their calculations had been far simpler: while Han-eol, a Spirit, temporarily fled the agony by leaving his body, the Blood Essence would reconstruct his physical form once.
In other words, this Blood Essence within the vessel was not meant for Han-eol alone, but for future use by the Twelve Constellations themselves and other descendants of the Spirit Tribe.
Yet Han-eol had disrupted all of this.
Han-eol possessed a truly unique trait: he could absorb the Demonic Energy of demons and demon beasts to fill his own Soul Sea.
In the grip of unbearable agony, this innate characteristic awakened.
A rushing sound, a deep rumble—
The moment Han-eol opened his Upper Dantian in a desperate attempt to ease the pain, the immense torrent of Demonic Energy contained within the Blood Essence came rushing in, flooding his Soul Sea.
The Puppet Master Who Harvests Souls
Author |
Jyunon
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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