A Waste of Heavenly Treasures!

Bai’s figure flashed, reappearing behind the Nascent Soul talisman puppet. He stared fixedly at the puppet without a word, a strange light gleaming in his eyes. His gaze seemed to pierce through its body, extraordinarily profound. Seeing this, Qin Sang held back his curiosity and stopped asking questions, quietly watching Bai’s movements. After a moment, Bai suddenly raised a hand and pressed it against the puppet’s back. A peculiar fluctuation radiated from his palm and sank into the puppet’s body. *Roar!* The Nascent Soul talisman puppet let out a shrill howl. Whatever Bai had done, the seal binding the puppet came undone. The runes across its body flared to life, and its expression instantly turned savage. It whipped its head around, brimming with madness and bloodlust, poised to lunge at Bai. Qin Sang knitted his brows slightly, but held back from intervening. With Bai’s strength, he ought to have the means to handle the talisman puppet. Qingjun parted her lips, about to warn Bai to be careful of puppet backlash, when she heard him give a cold snort. He brought two fingers together and tapped them heavily between the puppet's brows. *Whoosh!* A beam of blood light sank into the puppet’s body. The Nascent Soul talisman puppet stiffened abruptly. The vicious grimace remained frozen on its face, but the madness in its eyes receded like an ebbing tide, calming in the blink of an eye. A flicker of astonishment crossed Qingjun’s eyes. She could sense that the restless spirit inside the puppet had suddenly fallen dead quiet—whether soothed or suppressed, she could not tell—yet she could not discern what secret technique Bai had just employed. She and Qin Sang had required the aid of puppet seals to accomplish that, nowhere near as effortless as Bai’s display. Qingjun glanced toward Qin Sang. Qin Sang gave a slight shake of his head, equally unable to fathom Bai’s intentions. The two watched quietly to see how things would unfold. Having suppressed the puppet, Bai pressed his palm downward in an empty gesture, and the puppet obediently followed his command, sitting cross-legged upon the ground. Bai then sat facing it, pressing his finger firmly against the center of its forehead, and closed his eyes. In the blink of an eye, an hour passed. Both Bai and the talisman puppet remained motionless. Qin Sang drank several jars of peach blossom brew in succession, finding it sweet, crisp, and thoroughly refreshing, quite oblivious to his senior sister glaring at him with her almond eyes. Moments later, Qingjun simply engaged the restrictions on the wooden storehouse, cutting off his access to the wine entirely. Neither of them dared disturb Bai. They could only sense the puppet’s aura rising and falling; for all this time, Bai had been searching for something within it. Another hour slipped by. Bai pulled his finger back and opened his eyes, glaring murderously at the puppet as he barked in fury, “Unlearned and incompetent! What a waste of heavenly treasures! A wretched waste of heavenly treasures!” For the sake of a single Nascent Soul talisman puppet, Bai had lost his composure twice. With an angry snort, he rose to his full height, tossed the puppet back to Qin Sang, and slumped heavily into a wooden chair, muttering sullenly, “Pardon my loss of composure. I’ve made a fool of myself before you two.” The sealed puppet was merely the size of a palm. Qin Sang turned it over in his hand, realizing that Bai had just been cursing whoever had refined it. An ancestor of Shangyuan Qingjing Palace had crafted a puppet with power rivaling a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, yet in Bai’s eyes, they earned nothing more than a rebuke of being unlearned and incompetent. “Brother Bai, since you place so much value on it, the material of this talisman puppet must be extraordinarily rare,” Qin Sang remarked, having harbored his own suspicions earlier. Bai nodded. “Seeing the puppet stirred my dormant memories. I never imagined I would encounter such an object here. If it truly were that supreme treasure of legend, I could easily cast off this refined corpse form and return to being a normal human!” Qin Sang’s face was filled with shock. He knew that Bai had always yearned to escape the corpse dao. In Bai’s eyes, the corpse dao was nothing but a crooked, degenerate path. Yet having first been trapped by the Heavenly Corpse Talisman, and later practicing the bone curse to advance to Corpse King, the burden had long become too great, leaving him with no way back. No wonder Bai was so agitated. The talisman puppet actually possessed such divine efficacy! “This puppet was refined from an exceptionally rare spiritual root of heaven and earth—and what is more, from an entire divine tree,” Bai explained, his gaze complex. “This divine tree is known as the Dao Manifestation Tree. Though not counted among the Ten Great Divine Woods, in Daoist lore, it surpasses them!” “The Dao Manifestation Tree?” Qin Sang turned the little figure over in his hands. It seemed like wood yet was not wood, its surface bearing a glazed sheen and feeling pleasantly warm to the touch. No matter how one looked at it, it bore no resemblance to a tree. Just by its name alone, the Dao Manifestation Tree sounded extraordinary. As Qin Sang scrutinized the little figure, a thought suddenly crossed his mind: could this be integrated into the ebony sword? Seeing right through Qin Sang’s thoughts, Bai snorted. “Even among the Ten Great Divine Woods, not all are meant for artifact refining. Legends regarding the Dao Manifestation Tree are vague because virtually no one has ever laid eyes upon it. Rumor has it that a fully matured Dao Manifestation Tree serves as the finest vessel and medium for certain supreme Daoist divine abilities, yielding twice the result with half the effort. One can only imagine its astounding value! Furthermore, it possesses another function—the very thing I have dreamed of. The Dao Manifestation Tree is a rare spiritual embryo of heaven and earth. Stray spirits and wandering souls can borrow its form to be reborn without any loss to their cultivation, gaining a Dao-wood spiritual body and countless unforeseen benefits! The only reason souls can be preserved within this talisman puppet is precisely because of this.” Qin Sang and Qingjun were both stunned, staring blankly at the talisman puppet. Neither had imagined this unassuming little figurine possessed such an astonishing origin. The supreme Daoist divine abilities Bai spoke of were certainly not limited to the mere Nascent Soul realm; they were bound to exist at a level far beyond their imagination. A spiritual embryo of heaven and earth was something unheard of altogether. Qin Sang had never anticipated that in merely attempting to foil Dongyang Bo’s schemes, he would end up acquiring such an extraordinary treasure by pure coincidence. Where had Shangyuan Qingjing Palace obtained the Dao Manifestation Tree in the first place? Qin Sang surmised that it had either come from Ziwei Palace or been unearthed from the ruins of the Ancient Immortal Battlefield; it could not possibly have grown on its own in the present age. Using it to refine a Nascent Soul talisman puppet was indeed a profound injustice to the Dao Manifestation Tree. Yet the prospect of a supreme treasure did not turn Qin Sang’s head. Picking up on Bai’s unspoken implication, he asked in return, “Is this an immature Dao Manifestation Tree?” Bai gave a low affirmative grunt. “A fully matured Dao Manifestation Tree nurtured by heaven and earth stands three chi tall. Yours falls far short of that.” “Can it be nurtured further?” Qin Sang let his imagination wander. What a pity that his Three Lights Jade Liquid was entirely depleted; otherwise, it would have been worth an attempt. “Perish the thought,” Bai replied, his tone still tinged with indignation. “Do you know that the Dao Manifestation Tree possesses another trait known as the Unblemished Body? Its true form is the purest substance in this world. Once its vessel is tainted by any outside secret technique or foreign power—even by a single, negligible wisp—it becomes completely solidified and irreversible. Heaven is jealous of supreme treasures! Since ancient times, the Dao Manifestation Trees brought forth by heaven and earth might not have been few, but whether even a single one has ever reached full maturity is entirely unknown.” “This…” Qin Sang was taken aback, finally understanding why Bai was so utterly furious. The talisman puppet had first been branded with talisman seals, then infused with countless souls, and now he and Qingjun had converted it with puppet seals. It had long been altered beyond recognition. A magnificent spiritual root of heaven and earth was now reduced to existing solely as a puppet. It was truly a wretched waste of heavenly treasures. Qin Sang looked down at the talisman puppet with mixed feelings, though he could hardly say how disappointed he truly felt. After all, with his current horizons and cultivation, he had no way of measuring just how immense the value of a mature Dao Manifestation Tree would be, nor what kind of boundless benefits it could have brought him.