Chapter 3: Puppets

"Hahaha, I found them! Not even one is missing!" said Zixin while sitting alone in the hidden corner of the ground floor. 

Placed on the ground were five cultivation books with different names. Zixin then placed them in order because he remembered their descriptions. 

Primord Cultivation Technique, Horn Cultivation Technique, Ant Cultivation Technique, Dung Cultivation Technique and Bee Cultivation Technique. 

Except for the Ant Cultivation Technique, Zixin had read these cultivation techniques when he first came here. At first, he'd thought that these cultivation techniques were powerful but when he read them, he found that they were incomplete, couldn't be understood nor cultivated. But now, only now did he realise that they were somehow connected. 

Once Zixin placed them together, the cultivation techniques turned into texts in a hazy form of a beetle, then entered his mind through his glabella. Zixin immediately lost consciousness and the books turned to powder that scattered all over the floor. 

…

'It's time to close the Cultivation Pagoda, why hasn't Zixin come out yet? Three hours passed by a long time ago. Let me go and check.' thought Elder Choi. It was already nighttime and Zixin still hadn't left the pagoda. 

Elder Choi didn't linger on the ground floor and went directly to the first floor but there was no sign of Zixin. 

'Could he have gone to the second floor? That's not possible, an Inner disciple token is needed to enter the second floor so he should be around here somewhere.'

Elder Choi then double checked the second floor but still had no luck. He then checked the ground floor and finally found him unconscious in an inconspicuous corner. 

"Zixin! Zixin! What happened to you? Thank god there's a pulse!"

…

Yawn*

"Where am I?" said Zixin while looking around. He was sleeping on a bed which his cultivating cave didn't have and also the walls were white. 

"You're finally awake." sounded a female voice as someone opened the door and entered. It was a middle aged gorgeous lady wearing a flower patterns robe that exposed her thick thighs, her skin looked soft and supple and her cleavage made one's blood boil. 

"Disciple greets the Chief Elder of the Medicine Hall!" Zixin cupped his fists and greeted while trying to calm down his fast beating heart and stop his mind from having any inappropriate thought. 

"No need for formalities, you're still a patient. Tell me, how do you feel?" said the middle aged lady who was an elder apparently. 

"The wounds I got from Qi Deviation two days ago seem to have healed. I'm now in good condition." answered Zixin. 

"Well obviously, you drank the medicinal concoction of a hundred year old healing flower. If you didn't make a full recovery then, I'd suspect you for a monster spy."

"I assure Chief Elder, I'm not a spy and I'll never be a spy."

"Good. Now answer one question for me truthfully, why did you lose consciousness at the Cultivation Pagoda?"

"I lost consciousness at the Cultivation Pagoda…? Oh, now I remember, I was running around the first floor collecting Body Cultivation Techniques and when I was done, I lost consciousness before I even checked them out." answered Zixin. 

"I see, then you're free to go. By the way, you've been unconscious for a week." said the female elder while walking away and closed the door behind her. 

"He's clear." she said before suddenly vanishing from where she stood. 

…

Zixin then lay back on the bed and closed his eyes, he didn't know why but he had this feeling that simrjnr was stalking him. When he closed his eyes, big, bold and powerful words appeared in his mind. 

'PRIMORDIAL HORNED GIANT DUNG BEETLE TECHNIQUE'

'What's this? A cultivation technique?' thought Zixin while focussing all attention on it. The words then shattered and turned into many smaller ones and overwhelmed his mind because these small words were actually information. With his mind unable to process so much information in a short period of time, some of the information was sealed away by his mind to protect itself and Zixin lost consciousness again.

…

A few hours later, Zixin woke up and just left the room like nothing happened. He didn't talk to anyone until he reached his cultivation cave and locked himself inside. It was only after he was alone in his small cave that he heaved a sigh of relief. 

He then sat cross legged on the small Qi Gathering Array and sorted out his thoughts. 

'Oh my goodness! A complete Body Cultivation Technique, lady luck has blessed me good this time around or maybe I've used up all my luck just to obtain this technique!' he exclaimed inwardly. 

Zixin didn't know how many volumes it had because only the first volume was available to him. The first volume was all about strengthening the bones to insane levels. Cultivating the first volume though was easier said than done and it was very easy to understand. 

Zixin simply had to find a way to repeatedly break his bones and heal them until whatever means he used houldn't break them, only then would he have completed the first volume. For the next two weeks, Zixin stayed in his cave and didn't come out even once. Today marked the start of the third week, that's when he finally came out of his cave. 

Today, Zixin went to visit the Training Hall, one of the places for the disciples to hone their skills without endangering their own lives. At the Training, there were puppets that were very strong and durable. They were made from ten thousand years ice metal which was one of the strongest metals one could use to strengthen a weapon. 

Zixin found an empty training room and entered it,only a few people noticed him but they didn't care and just minded their own business. 

Inside the training room, a total of a hundred puppets stood in an organised manner and the training room was very big, about a hundred meters in height and size. 

"One Beginner Body Tempering Puppet, come forward." ordered Zixin. 

The humanoids puppet in simple design walked forward and stood in front of Zixin. It was about two meters tall and didn't have a face. 

"Punch me on the shoulder."

Bang! 

Zixin wasn't even pushed back by a single step by the puppet's punch. 

"Again!"

Bang!

"Again!"

Bang! 

'I see. The puppet is strong enough to hurt me but not break my bones. Let's see how strong it is at the advanced phase.'

Zixin then increased the puppet's strength to the Advanced Bones Tempering Realm and ordered the puppet to attack him.

BANG! 

Two punches collided and released some wind. In this collision, Zixin was forced back by a few steps and his hand was numb. 

"Two more puppets, come forward and all three of his increase your strength to the Advanced Meridians Tempering Realm and beat me till all the bones in my body crack! Don't stop till all the bones in my body are cracked." ordered Zixin ruthlessly. 

[Ding! The Host has successful captured punches from a Beginner Body Tempering Puppet! ×3]

'In this world, I won't allow myself to be bullied no matter the circumstance! Those who try shall suffer the conservatives!'