Entering the Inner Palace was not as easy as entering the Outer Palace.
It required a proof that you were an Innate Ranker.
Throughout the years, maybe some Yue Clan ancestors had entered the Outer Palace before, but Yue Yang was certain that no one had entered the Inner Palace before him. The Three Hidden Treasures had never appeared in the world before, no one even knew whether the Ghost Genius Yue Gong had completed making them. Yue Yang summoned his grimoire and channeled his Innate Qi into the Heaven Runes at the entrance of the Inner Palace.
In an instant, a bright light flashed as the verification crystal succeeded in verifying the energy and immediately started the mechanisms to open the door to the Inner Palace.
The passage into the Inner Palace was accessed by a magical floating stone platform.
When Yue Yang gently stepped onto the platform, the magical stone platform slowly descended. After descending around a hundred metres, a new Palace Hall appeared before Yue Yang.
There were various types of equipments and apparatus scattered all over the hall. In the middle, there was a Crystal Pillar that looked familiar to Yue Yang. It was ten-metres tall and filled with energy. The Heaven Rune Seal on top of the pillar slowly emanated a glowing white light.
This Crystal Pillar was similar to the Teleportation Crystal Pillar that Yue Yang saw at Tong Tian Tower. It was also similar to the Crystal Pillar that sealed the Qilin girl in the Demonic Palace.
However, this crystal pillar was neither of the two.
Yue Yang realized that the energy in this Crystal Pillar was neither teleportation nor sealing, instead, it had a similar energy to a magic crystal cores. The thing that bewildered Yue Yang the most was that this crystal pillar was lacking a significant piece, as if someone had cut it using some kind of weapon. Could it be that the Ghost Genius Yue Gong had used a piece of this crystal as the puppets’ crystal core?
Yue Yang who had fought in the Demon Palace before knew how strong a Crystal Pillar was.
Even the Demon King’s Light Rays attack or the Qilin girl’s explosive power as she struggled to break free could not damage it at all.
How did the Ghost Genius Yue Gong cut this Crystal Pillar?
Furthermore, puppets did not need additional moving power to move, as long as one could arrange Dwarf Runes accurately in the correct combination, one could create a low-levelled Stone Puppet easily… The fact that Yue Gong needed to use a piece of the Crystal Pillar for additional moving power, what kind of machinery would that be?
Suddenly, the Quintet Golden Puppet Mice ran past Yue Yang and towards the Crystal Pillar.
Eh?
The pages on Yue Yang’s grimoire suddenly turned on its own.
On the Quintet Puppet Mice’s page, a line of words appeared: “Power source found, filling the energy reserves…”
The Quintet Golden Puppet Mice all moved closer to the hole in the Crystal Pillar. They joined their tails on the Heaven Rune inscription at the base of the Crystal Pillar. Bright light of energy shone out and flowed into their tails, entering their bodies wave by wave. At this time, the ordinary, unremarkable Quintet Puppet Mice’s bodies turned sparkling and translucent, as if they were turning into crystals too. Yue Yang was extremely bewildered. Puppets couldn’t level up, but could these Quintet Golden Puppet Mice that was created by Yue Gong actually level up automatically?
Could it be that this Crystal Pillar with a hole was actually one of the Three Hidden Treasures?
The five little mice might need more time to finish filling up their energies.
Yue Yang decided to look for the other hidden treasures first.
The Palace Hall was extremely big. The ceiling was dome-shaped, and rows of pillars created many rows and columns of divided spaces. Each space was filled with different beasts. There were human-shaped puppet dolls and humanoid puppet beasts. There were even beast-shaped mechanical beasts.
Here, the only type of puppet beast that wasn’t present was the Rogk Giant Puppets and other puppets that did not require additional moving power.
The Inner Palace was filled metal puppets of various types and shapes.
As Yue Yang approached a Silver-ranked Level 5 ‘Storm Soldier’, Yue Yang picked up the bottle that was placed at its legs. He then gently pour out a smooth, polished crystal ball inside the bottle. That crystal ball was the size of a ping pong ball and was filled with plenty of energy. The crystal ball was inscribed with the Heaven Rune ‘Wind Eagle’. Yue Yang experimented and placed the Wind Eagle crystal ball into the hole on the Storm Soldier’s forehead.
The mechanical doll’s eyes suddenly flashed with blue light. It gave off the feeling as if it had just woken up from its sleep.
Its eyes shone with a blue light as it scanned through Yue Yang’s body.
Faster than a lightning, the Storm Soldier pulled out the longsword attached at its waist and slashed it towards Yue Yang. Fortunately, Yue Yang was already on guard when he saw its eyes flashing with light just now. He immediately disappeared and flew in the sky, dodging the Storm Soldier’s attack.
That Storm Soldier then jumped twice and tried to attack Yue Yang. However, seeing that it was still unable to do so, it immediately changed its appearance.
Yue Yang was dumbstruck.
What the hell? Ghost Genius Yue Gong was indeed an extraordinary person. He could even make a metal puppet that could change its shape. That Storm Soldier quickly transformed into a mechanical Wind Eagle. When it flapped its giant wings, it immediately soared to the sky, slashing its claws at Yue Yang’s body. If it was another person, seeing such a strange phenomenon and receiving this kind of attack, he would have definitely died on the spot… Would a Silver-ranked Level 5 Puppet Beast pose as a threat to Yue Yang? Even if it could change its shape, Yue Yang could finish it in one move.
Yue Yang expertly avoided the attack, and in the instant that he moved, he reached out and took out the small crystal ball embed on the Wind Eagle’s forehead.
The mechanical Wind Eagle immediately fell to the ground and quickly reverted back to its original Storm Soldier’s appearance.
The blue light in its eyes dissipated and it became quiet once again.
Of course, it was not standing at its original position anymore. Instead, it was standing at one corner of the Palace Hall, about 10 metres from its original position. If Yue Yang had not seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t believe that Yue Gong could make such an extraordinary metal puppet that could transform. Its only weakness was that it was uncontrollable, it was unable to distinguish its friends or foes. This was rather problematic. How good would it be if there was a way to control this mechanical puppet!
Yue Yang searched through the palace hall for a long time before finally finding a wrist guard that had a slot that could be embedded by the crystal ball.
This was definitely a master-distinguishing equipment. When Yue Yang equipped it and tried to operate the Storm Soldier again, as expected, it didn’t try to attack him again. Yue Yang tried to lead the Storm Soldier with his will, and it obediently walked towards its original position.
It didn’t even resist when Yue Yang took out the crystal ball again.
“Wow, I never thought that Yue Gong would really solve the problem of controlling these transforming puppets.” Yue Yang respected Yue Gong deeply. He had also created a puppet beast before, so he knew how difficult it was to make one. Being able to make a puppet that can move was already very good. However, Yue Gong’s creations were not only able to use combat skills, they were also able to transform and adapt to various kinds of battlefield. Compared to Yue Yang who was a jack of all trades, Yue Gong was way more knowledgeable. Even though Yue Yang reeived the pitiful guy’s knowledge inheritance and had studied the puppet encyclopedia that Yue Gong left behind, with regards to making puppet beasts, he couldn’t even be compared to Yue Gong.
In the hall, there was a bottle at the leg of every puppet beasts. Those was their cores.
Silver-ranked Level 5 puppet beasts like the Storm Soldier just now only had slots on their forehead.
The Silver-ranked Level 6 and above had their slot inside their heart so that their cores would not be exposed. Puppets which were Gold-ranked Level 5 and below, for example the Gold Mammoth, had their core slots on their skulls. Seems like they wouldn’t be able to stopped unless their skull was crushed open. Moreover, the skulls of thess kind of beasts had the highest defense. Puppets which were Gold-ranked Level 5 and above such as Gold Titan, these kind of giant puppets, had two core slots on their heart and skull respectively. If either of one was destroyed, it would still be able to move.
The strangest thing was that for these kind of titan puppets, if they lost their limbs, they were still able to exchange their head and arms.
The moment they lost their battle power, they would automatically start the recovery process.
If they had spare parts, they would immediately exchange and used it. If they didn’t have any spare parts, they could also exchange the destroyed part with their comrades’.
Yue Yang couldn’t understand the Ghost Genius Yue Gong’s design at all. How did he design the puppets to be able to do these?
It was practically artificial intelligence!
He was indeed the Ghost Genius. That fellow was really extraordinary, there’s no arguing that.
“My time, there’s not much of it left. However, my research has only started to make progress. I really wished that I could live for another hundred years, even ten years is also good enough. It’s a pity that my body has reached its limits… Heaven Runes are really good stuff. Learning it feels like I have become a toddler, who is able to learn something new everyday. This kind of feeling is the best… It’s a pity that I couldn’t tell anyone about this, there’s no one I could share it with. The Heaven Runes combination feels like human’s language, but it is much more complex and perfect, just like a human’s poem, no, it’s more like a summoning method. It is actually some kind of special summoning technique, as long as one could learn this summoning technique, he would be able to solve difficult arrangement problems easily… My research has just started. God has given me a thinker brain, but he didn’t give me a long life. Sigh, this is all heaven’s will…”
“The real Puppet Encyclopedia?” Yue Yang realized that the treasure that Yue Gong had left behind was a Puppet Encyclopedia that was similar to Yue Yang’s Lich Ring.
When he turned over the pages of this Puppet Encyclopedia, he realized that the knowledge recorded inside was too complex, making him dizzy.
Compared to the Puppet Encyclopedia he had in his ring, it was like it was a primary school textbook.
Inside this real Puppet Encyclopedia, there were no basic knowledge at all. Everything that was recorded was the crystallization of the Ghost Genius Yue Gong’s last research. It contained the research and manufacturing process of each and every puppet beast, the arrangement of runes, the distributon of power, the transformation design, battle capabilities and combat skills etc… Yue Yang was very excited when he read it. With this Puppet Encyclopedia, he would not need to worry about lacking in puppet beasts!
Inside the Puppet Encyclopedia, Yue Gong recorded his regrets at the end, “In my whole life, I have created countless puppet beasts, but none of them is a successful product. Each of them contains different regrets, they are all failed products in certain aspects. I wanted to create a perfect puppet beast. If I have another ten years, or even three years, I could have walked a few more steps away from this regret… Right now, I am only filled with regrets, I will never rest in peace… If my future descendant ever saw this book, I hope that you could continue my research and create a perfect puppet beast… I hope that in another thousand years or ten thousand years, a talented younger generation will appear and complete my wish of creating a puppet that could speak, learn and feel emotions. If you could create this kind of human-like puppet beast, bring it to my crystal coffin, and tell me this piece of good news, I would be smilling even in the underworld…”
After reading that, Yue Yang muttered to himself for a long time.
In the end, he slowly nodded, “Although I think that your wish is a mission impossible, I will try my best to fulfil it.”
Before keeping the Puppet Encyclopedia into his Lich Ring, Yue Yang discovered another conspicuous Rune Diagram. If one didn’t have the ability to recognize Heaven Rune, they wouldn’t know its uses at all. However, Yue Yang recognized this Heaven Rune, and its meaning was ‘Secret Door’. When Yue Yang discovered its existence, his heartbeat quickened. Could it be that there was still another secret door?
Yue Yang pressed his hand onto the Heaven Rune and channeled Innate Qi.
The Heaven Rune shone and at the same time, behind the Crystal Pillar, on a wall, a secret door was suddenly revealed. It opened and showed the secret room inside.
Other than the Power Source Crystal Pillar and the real Puppet Encyclopedia, the third treasure was inside this secret room.
When Yue Yang entered the secret room and saw clearly what the third treasure was, he was completely shocked speechless.
Yue Yang then vowed sincerely with a sincerity that he never had before, “Elder Yue Gong, I take back the words I said just now. Your will, I will definitely complete it for you. I will not only try, but I will complete it for sure! No matter if I have to spend a thousand years or ten thousand years, I will definitely help you realize your goal!”
Coming out from the Puppet Palace, Yue Yang returned to the Little Flower Garden. When he was telling the girls about what he found, he told her about the Power Source Crystal Pillar and the real Puppet Encyclopedia.
However, he didn’t mention the third treasure to them.
The girls had no problem with that.
They knew that if they needed to know, he would definitely tell them…
Ghost Genius Yue Gong’s will was definitely related to the third treasure! This was Yue Gong’s secret. Yue Yang must protect his secret on his behalf.
Until he realized Yue Gong’s will!
After he finished exploring the Puppet Palace, Yue Yang felt that no matter it was in his knowledge and experience or his mental state, he had grown a lot. Faintly, he could sense that he would be able to break through the sixth layer of Innate Invisible Sword Qi soon!
Would he be able to do it before attacking the Prison Emperor Divine Palace?
Yue Yang hoped for the best. After all, every additional strength he gained would increase their chances of winning!