Beastmaster of the Ages

”Something happened!” All three of them excitedly watched on.

The puppet floated on the surface of the Flameyellow Bloodsoul without sinking into it. It had gold hair, black eyes, crimson armor, and a bloody blade, a fitting look for flameyellow divinities. After he opened his eyes, he seemed to be looking at Wudi like an actual living person would. The three of them hurriedly knelt to show their respect.

”Descendant of Flameyellow, enter my divine body and sweep across the firmament!” the puppet said in a deep, booming voice.

Right as Tianming thought that Wudi would be crying tears of gratitude, only to hear him say, ”We’re both men. How do I enter you?”

Tianming almost coughed out blood. It was one thing for Wudi to be distasteful in his usual demeanor, but he didn’t expect him to be so juvenile! Fortunately, the puppet wasn’t an actual person with a soul, so he wasn’t able to communicate, even if he had the will of the senior.

When Flameyellow Bloodsoul filled his body and awakened the flameyellow bloodline of the puppet, his body let out a crackling sound. An opening appeared near his chest, glowing bright gold and crimson. Within it was a space that could hold a single person.

Xiaodao’s eyes shot wide open as he cried, ”Amazing! The Thousand Foundation Divine Puppet’s like a miniature divine astralship that can fight! Old Li, once you go in, you might be able to link up with the flameyellow bloodline and control it from within! You can use the puppet like your own body! I’ve never heard of the existence of a corpse puppet like this!”

”What? I’m supposed to go inside its belly? Like a baby in the womb? That’s awkward!” Wudi whined.

”If you don’t want to try, let my disciple go in,” Xiaodao said.

”Forget it. I need more tricks in my arsenal to secure my place as the top genius of the Infinitum Mundus. A father that can’t subdue his son is better off dead,” Wudi said.

”Stop boasting so much until you actually succeed!” Tianming mocked.

”Just you watch! You’ll be second place forever!” Wudi audibly gulped as he entered the chest cavity of the puppet. He hesitated for a moment, but entered the light all the same.

The entire process proceeded without issue, and in an instant, Wudi’s body had been subsumed by the crimson-and-gold light. He then smoothly slid into the puppet’s stomach. The giant was around five meters tall, so there was more than enough space inside for a man under two meters in height. After that, the chest cavity perfectly closed up without any sutures. The armor also seemed completely unbroken.

Tianming and Xiaodao watched on, curious to see how things would turn out. At that moment, the golden hair and black eyes of the puppet turned blood red and fiery. Its face also morphed to look like Wudi’s!

”Heavens....” Tianming didn’t know what to make of it. The giant suddenly seemed to gain a soul and looked like an enlarged version of Wudi, even able to emote like a living person!

”This definitely has something to do with the flameyellow bloodline. On some level, the divine puppet’s blood fused with my godfather’s, allowing him to completely assimilate the puppet’s power!” Tianming was filled with excitement. ”Godfather, how’re you feeling?”

”Hahahahaha!” The puppet waved the blade in his arm around. The cosmic impulse within it seemed to have been unlocked when the bloodline connection was made and it began pulsing with power. Every single scale of the armor also began glimmering, making it look like an awakening beast. ”I feel powerful!”

All of a sudden, he turned his blood-red eyes toward Tianming and snickered. ”Tianming, my son, you were talking big earlier, eh? Take my slash!” Wudi simply couldn’t wait to unleash the explosive power he felt surging through his body.

”What the—?!” Tianming didn’t expect that Wudi would be so competitive and actually charge in to attack him. But just as he was about to evade, he saw that the puppet suddenly stopped moving and the starlight that surrounded it dimmed as both arms weakly slumped downward, dropping its blade into the Flameyellow Bloodsoul. The chest of the giant opened up and a pale-looking Wudi dropped out of it.

Tianming frantically caught him and asked, ”What’s wrong, Godfather?”

”That damn puppet doesn’t have any energy at all. My cosmoforce was being absorbed! I almost got sucked dry and died!” Wudi cried.

Tianming was speechless. Xiaodao caught the puppet and said, ”Doesn’t that mean this thing’s completely useless unless you have enough cosmoforce to supply it with? But if you had that much of it, why would we even need the puppet?”

”That’s right!” Wudi whined.

”So much for wanting to show off, so-called top genius,” Tianming said.

”That’s right! Your smug expression is what I wanted to see!” Wudi jumped away and laughed.

”What? Are you broken in the head?” Tianming didn’t know how to react. Seeing Wudi behave like that, he guessed that there must be a way around it.

”Brother Li, tell us the secret already,” Xiaodao said, headache forming.

”Since you asked nicely, Brother Lin, I’ll stop messing with that foolish boy of mine,” Wudi said. ”My own cosmoforce is unable to move the Thousand Foundation Divine Puppet. I can’t do that with the Flameyellow Coffin either. However, I can tap into the nova source of the formation to move the coffin, so I should be able to do the same for the puppet.”

Tianming and Xiaodao’s eyes lit up when they heard that.

”Enough nonsense, let’s try it!” Xiaodao started the Gladean Ruins and flew it into the Flameyellow Guard Formation. Then a hatch opened up, letting energy from the formation into the secret room. As expected, the Flameyellow Coffin, being the core of the formation, began filling with power.

So what of the puppet, then?