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Chapter 185 The Role of the Hook Card

As it approached midnight, Su Daoshan washed up and lay on the bed, playing with the puppet-shaped talisman in his hand.

Like the Golden Abacus and the villain, half an hour ago, when he returned to his room and took the Puppet Hook from the dresser, his mind was overwhelmed by a violent consciousness.

If the villain's mental pollution is anger and madness, then the puppet's mental pollution is a perverse desire for control.

At that moment, Su Daoshan felt as if he had transformed into a monster with countless tentacles, his soul seemingly breaking through the dome and gazing down upon the entire Beizi Town with an incomparably cold gaze.

Whether it was the disciples of the sect in the post station, the soldiers in the barracks, or the caravans passing by on the street... all life was like ants in his eyes.

He felt neither sorrow nor joy, nor any desire. The only instinct rooted in his consciousness was control—as if everything in his sight was rightfully his to control and act according to his will.

However, just three seconds later, the pure spiritual power of the Dao Seed restored Su Daoshan's senses.

At this moment, the puppet hook card lay obediently in Su Daoshan's hand.

The sign is about the size of two palms and looks like a rectangular ping-pong paddle. The most eye-catching feature is the two rows of silver hooks along the edge of the wooden sign.

There were thirty-six hooks in total. However, now only eleven of them have silk threads on them.

Through the apocalyptic information in his mind, Su Daoshan knew that these eleven threads were the control lines he could currently use, given his current transcendental realm and the state of his puppet hook. To unlock other control lines, he needed to advance his transcendental realm and wait for the puppet hook to evolve further.

Many secret artifacts have room for evolution.

Song Xier's golden abacus was just like that. The beads for the ones, tens, and hundreds places each had different functions.

Compared to the golden abacus, the threads of the puppet's hook are much simpler. Each thread is like a tentacle. The number of threads needed varies depending on the object being controlled.

Generally speaking, one thread is enough to control ordinary objects. Controlling more complex objects or animals may require three or four threads. To completely control a person, a full eight threads are needed—two for the head, one for each hand, one for each leg, one for the chest, and one for the abdomen.

This means that once all 36 control lines of the Puppet Hook Card are fully unlocked, a total of four people can be controlled.

Thinking this, Su Daoshan's mind stirred, and the two invisible threads of the hook suddenly shot towards the table three meters away. One disappeared into the teapot, and the other into the teacup.

Immediately, Su Daoshan discovered a strange connection between himself and the teapot and teacup. Following his thoughts, the teapot seemed to come alive, pouring tea into the teacup. Then, the teacup flew towards him, directly to his lips; he only needed to open his mouth, and the tea flowed slowly and evenly into his mouth.

The entire process was seamless, with the angle at which the teacup was tilted and the speed perfectly controlled. It was even more precise than if I had done it myself.

The only drawback is that when one uses their mind to control the puppet to manipulate the token, the twenty spiritual essences in the seed of consciousness disappear at the same time.

"As expected, all secret artifacts are money-devouring beasts. Including the use of the villain just now, I've consumed twenty-five spirit essences from secret artifacts alone today. That's enough for a Spirit Realm ticket."

"Other newcomers who have just entered the Spirit Realm simply cannot afford it."

Since he had spent spiritual energy, Su Daoshan was certainly not doing this just for an experiment.

Under his mental command, the puppet put the teapot and cups back on the table, and then a silk thread stuck to the pouch placed next to the pillow.

This deerskin pouch was Su Daoshan's personal possession, usually used to store money and other miscellaneous items. Now, it contained the disciple's jade token from Han Gu, the cultivation technique token given by Xie Xunbai, the demon hunter's token given by Tang Mo'er, and a large stack of talismans.

The pouch floated into the air.

The next second, ten more threads burrowed into the pouch. A rustling sound of paper filled the air, and with a thought from Su Daoshan, the ten talismans scattered like flowers from a fairy maiden, flashing yellow light in the air before striking the walls, doors, and windows of the room with lightning speed.

Su Daoshan nodded in satisfaction. He then used the silk threads to retrieve all the talismans.

The ten talismans, like ten birds lining up to return to their nest, were neatly stacked in the air and returned to the pouch in an instant.

The ten silk threads worked together seamlessly, like flowing water.

"This way of using talismans is much more convenient than folding them into talisman bullets," Su Daoshan thought to himself. He could fully imagine how effective this "Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers" move would be if he were surrounded by the Mad Puppets.

Not only do I not need to make talisman bullets, retrieve talismans, or perform the series of actions like snapping my fingers, but I don't even need to change my movement techniques or martial arts skills. More importantly, I can see the threads connecting the puppet's hooks, while others cannot.

At that time, even if someone is watching intently, these exorcism talismans will simply appear as a strange yellow light in the void. Furthermore, once the talisman is attached to the mad puppet, it will shake out the parasites within its body, and the talisman itself will dissipate into dust. It will be completely undetectable.

This was the first use that Su Daoshan immediately thought of after receiving the apocalyptic information about the Puppet Hook Card!
After playing with it for a while, Su Daoshan stuffed the puppet hook into his sleeve. The next second, the hook, which was about the size of two palms, disappeared.

The Puppet Hook Card also possesses the attribute of being able to hide in the void.

Just like it appeared before in the wooden chest of a carriage or in the drawer of a chest of drawers in a room, it can be easily accessed and stored in a similar storage space. A pocket, a pouch, or even simply slipped into a sleeve will suffice. It will naturally disappear. When needed, a thought will bring it back.

These characteristics forced Su Daoshan to acknowledge the terrifying nature of this secret artifact. No wonder Feng Chao, after obtaining it, managed to earn the title of "Demon Watchman" despite being only a sixth-rank cultivator. Later, he became obsessed with this power, unable to extricate himself, and ultimately suffered a backlash due to his inability to control it.

"Unfortunately, according to the information from the Apocalypse, if someone is controlled, the puppet will lose control once the puppet hook enters the void. This means that to control the puppet for a long time, one must carry the puppet hook with them at all times. But that would easily expose them..." Su Daoshan thought, considering whether he should make a larger backpack, when suddenly an idea flashed through his mind, and he remembered the kite doll.

"According to Ao Jiu, the kite doll naturally possesses the ability to become invisible and alter other people's senses and memories. If the kite doll and the puppet hook card are used together..."

This idea filled Su Daoshan with both novelty and excitement, much like coming up with a new solution to a problem in his past life.

After a while, Su Daoshan calmed himself down, closed his eyes, and began to carefully recall all his actions, emotions, and even the thoughts that had crossed his mind that day.

Through his conversation with Song Xi'er, he had come to understand that the Dao Seed was the key to controlling the secret artifact. The higher the grade of the Dao Seed, the stronger its resistance to contamination of the secret artifact.

This made Su Daoshan naturally realize the power of his twelve-grade Dao seed. Moreover, this power was confirmed through contact with the golden abacus, the villain, and the puppet hook.

Su Daoshan didn't know how strong other people's resistance was. But he himself could almost instantly eliminate the influence of the puppet's hook card, suppressing its mental pollution to the lowest level.

However, Su Daoshan did not let his guard down.

He built a firewall for himself by examining himself daily to ensure that his temperament, thoughts, and behaviors were not affected by the secret artifact.

Since he was dealing with demons, there was no harm in being careful and cautious. He certainly didn't want to one day unknowingly become the next Feng Chao.

Thump, thump thump... After confirming that he was not in any abnormality, Su Daoshan listened to the second watch drum outside the window, his consciousness sank into his sea of ​​consciousness, and followed the Dao Seed into the spiritual realm.

When Su Daoshan's spiritual incarnation appeared in the Ancient Banyan Village, he immediately spotted Mr. Qi reclining on a chair under the eaves, basking in the sun while drinking tea and reading. Just a window away in the classroom, a dozen or so children from the Ancient Banyan Village were reciting their lessons, swaying their heads as they did so.

Su Daoshan looked up at the sky.

The Spirit Realm has no sun; overhead, there is only an eternal blue-white light. Yet, it has all kinds of weather.

Looking around, Su Daoshan noticed that the Heavenly Dao Mountain, which was currently suspended in the air, was behind him. However, to his surprise, compared to his previous visits to the Spirit Realm, the Heavenly Dao Mountain today appeared much larger and its height had decreased significantly. It looked like a giant spaceship about to land.

“This is…” Su Daoshan said in astonishment.

As soon as Su Daoshan appeared, Mr. Qi saw him. He immediately went into the classroom, waved his hand, and let all the students go. Then, amidst the cheers and running of the children, he walked up to Su Daoshan and greeted him.

"Don't you know, Master? According to the real world, today is the fourteenth, the last day of the waxing gibbous moon. Tomorrow is the fifteenth, and the day after tomorrow is the sixteenth, which will be the full moon. And the two days of the full moon, and the one day of the new moon, will be the time when the Heavenly Dao Mountain opens." Mr. Qi looked up and gazed into the distance.

"It's about to begin?" Su Daoshan said with delight.

Having received the divine revelation information upon entering the Spirit Realm, he wasn't unaware of the opening time of the Heavenly Dao Mountain; he had simply forgotten about it for a moment, and being his first experience with it, he was inevitably somewhat surprised.

Su Daoshan quickly checked his Dao Seed.

The ratio of time in reality to time in the spirit realm is one to three. When I last entered the spirit realm, I had already begun to increase my combat power to the twenty-first meter, and now, the increase in combat power has been completed.

While converting his spiritual energy and beginning the twenty-second stage of his combat power enhancement, Su Daoshan was making calculations in his mind:
"Each stage of the Transcendent Realm can increase combat power to the same level as one's Dao Seed grade. My Dao Seed is grade twelve, and my initial combat power is also twelve meters. This means that before reaching the zero level of the Heavenly Dao Mountain, my total combat power can reach twenty-four meters."

"I've already raised my combat power to twenty-one meters. It will take ten days to reach twenty-two meters, a month to reach twenty-three meters, and three months to reach twenty-four meters."

Even if the time ratio is one to three, this is still a very long time.

"However, if I choose to ascend Tiandao Mountain now, according to the rules of the Spirit Realm, I would be giving up the remaining combat power at this stage."

This immediately put Su Daoshan in a dilemma.

To quickly improve one's strength, the best course of action is to attempt to ascend the Heavenly Dao Mountain. Once you reach the second level, you can elevate your extraordinary professional realm, thereby enhancing your professional characteristics and strengthening and comprehending more extraordinary techniques.

Moreover, once you enter the second level, the rate of increase in combat power will start calculating again. As long as you have enough spiritual energy, you can almost instantly increase your combat power to around thirty meters.

That's how it was when I climbed up from thirteen meters. It wasn't until after twenty meters that I slowed down.

However, this would mean that he would lose three meters of combat power. In other words, it would be like he was using a nine-bell grade Dao seed instead of a twelve-bell grade one.

Su Daoshan was somewhat frustrated. Others didn't share this worry. After all, either their Dao Seed grade was too low, requiring at least a month to advance even one meter, necessitating a slow and gradual process; or they lacked sufficient spiritual energy. Accumulating the 200 spiritual energy needed to advance one meter of combat power would take a very long time.

Since that's the case, then no one has any requirements regarding the timeliness of improving combat power.

"Is this the dilemma of genius?"

Su Daoshan sighed.

(End of this chapter)