AnalogHorror: Rule Kaidan 4016
Chapter 1000 - 466: Constructing "Puppet"_2

Chapter 1000: Chapter 466: Constructing "Puppet"_2

He manipulated his perceptual tendrils to seep out from the skeleton, continuously releasing them around him.

This approach was like using his own body as a terminal, then gradually delegating perception.

His perception quickly covered the scattered flesh and blood, and then, like matching a port, began to selectively pick out the pieces of corpse.

His method of selection was extremely bizarre; what he picked out were not the corpse pieces, but muscle fibers...

The muscle fibers he selected wriggled as if brought to life and crawled toward the skeleton.

The sight of countless muscle fibers crawling together was like countless tiny tendrils of flesh, an image so repulsive that just seeing it made one’s scalp tingle.

However, Lin Yi, who generally abhorred such sights, did not feel any unusual emotions while manipulating these muscle fibers.

At this moment, he was as cold as an unfeeling machine.

The countless muscle fibers gathered together, like weaving, gradually covering the skeleton, and from a distance, it looked as if flesh and blood were sprouting from the skeleton.

During the process of flesh covering, Lin Yi secretly injected ashes into it.

Gradually, a skinned muscle man appeared there, and strangely, every piece of flesh on its body seemed to harbor some remnants of consciousness, writhing irregularly and, with such movements, emitting faint murmurings, like the sobs of a girl, the cries of a baby, and... some wailing ghostly lament drifting from a mass grave in the dead of night.

Lin Yi felt this strange body, and even though he was the instigator, he still felt a creeping chill from the evil will derived from the flesh of this body.

He attempted to perform some simple body movements, and the body followed suit, swaying like a malfunctioning robot with poor signal...

But when the range of motion was too large, the muscles would still snap; they appeared very fragile.

"Muscles might not be necessary... bones are what matters."

"The muscles were just being used by the ashes and supernatural power..."

Lin Yi was, of course, most aware of his own creation.

"I still need to fix the head a bit..."

The skull could not be sculpted using the bones originally present in the roots, so he found some petrified corpse fragments, selected a relatively intact piece, then directly crushed it, using extraordinary material as adhesive to piece together a helmet-like skull head.

"There’s really no head to use; this will have to do."

He muttered to himself as he looked at the skull head.

Then he seemed to see the jaw of the skull move, as if saying, "Thank you."

"You’re welcome."

He murmured to himself as he pressed the skull head onto the end of the spinal column, then walked to the vessel containing the last part of the extraordinary material, lifted it over his head, and poured all the remaining extraordinary material over his body like taking a shower.

The extraordinary material was unusually viscous, sliding down slowly like pouring down raw white chocolate.

Overall, it looked like a giant human-shaped cake was being made, and even Kuai Hongji couldn’t help but mock, "Old Lin, it’s a pity you don’t go and become a chef with this skill."

Lin Yi said nothing in response, merely absorbing these extraordinary materials in silence. Soon, they covered the muscle man’s body surface like a thin film, making it look like a snow-white person.

By now, Lin Yi’s creation finally resembled a "puppet," worthy of being called a template.

The "Puppet Lin Yi" had no face, nor any lines on its body, standing there like a bald "New Fish Head Hot Mom."

It stood for an unknown length of time before finally bending down to rummage through the remaining pile of corpses.

He didn’t know where he found an eye, plucking a murky eyeball and inserting it into the crack of the apical bone, the eyeball "plunked" into the eye socket like a billiard ball into a hole, and immediately, the end of the eyeball melted into silvery nerves that eventually grew onto the skull.

This eyeball still bore the same gray, lackluster look, without any spirit, but at least it had an eye.

Lin Yi felt something was still missing, and he controlled the "Puppet Lin Yi" to turn back to where his actual body was, his attention slowly settling onto the backpack beside him.

Tian Bufan seemed to understand something and glanced at Kuai Hongji.

Kuai Hongji sneered twice but still walked over.

He grabbed the backpack but didn’t completely unzip it; rather, he very straightforwardly reached inside, extracted a tomato, and threw it toward "Puppet Lin Yi."

The "Puppet Lin Yi" seemed to have slow reflexes; the tomato hit it, and it didn’t catch it, instead letting it drop into the pile of corpses with a "plop."

Seemingly tainted by the odor of corpse fragments, the tomato began to look more vibrant and alluring, its surface seemingly brushed with a layer of eerie radiance, and it even faintly appeared to have a slight pulsing, as if coming to life.

The flesh and blood in the corpse pile started writhing, extending countless tendril-like buds toward the tomato.

Just as they were about to touch the tomato, "Puppet Lin Yi’s" hand made contact with the tomato.

It picked up the tomato and slowly brought it to the height of its chest.

The ribs at its chest opened like a carnivorous flower, a fleshy limb reaching out, the end of which slowly opened like a mouthful of sharp teeth, revealing stamen-like flesh buds.

These flesh buds wrapped around the tomato, and the mouth-like organ followed suit, slowly closing, the fleshy limb retracting, bringing it to the heart’s position.

Finally, the chest cavity began to close, and as it did so, coral-like capillaries endlessly sprouted from within "Puppet Lin Yi," connecting like a core.

The chest cavity closed completely, and everything seemed as if nothing had happened.

"Puppet Lin Yi" still stood silently, but the surrounding thick black mist began to shrink, drawing toward its body.

As this process unfolded, the chest of "Puppet Lin Yi" began to show a beating pulse, with supernatural power flowing like a gentle stream within it, all the muscle fibers on its body commenced autonomously writhing, forming a physique slowly shaping into a basic human silhouette.

The eerie atmosphere, with the complete shaping of the "Puppet Spirit," gradually disappeared, like tide qi retreating, and the layer filled with disintegration thereby slowly restored.

When the last wisp of eeriness completely dissipated, a faint golden light began to emerge in the gray stone bead-like eyes of the "Puppet Spirit," its jawbone started squirming, splitting a mouth on its faceless head.

Its chest cavity began to vibrate, a hoarse and eerie voice resonating between the diaphragm, like singing from hell:

"Lin Yi... I am Lin Yi..."

"Lin Yi..."

On the other side, the real Lin Yi, half-sitting on the ground, also opened his eyes, gazing at the zombified "Puppet Lin Yi" repeatedly murmuring "I am Lin Yi," his heart clutched by an indescribable eerie sensation.

His expression was extremely odd, showing some distaste: "This thing... looks markedly different from what I envisioned."

If one had to say, it was like Nezha "polishing" his lotus incarnations; clearly, the idea was good, but the execution left much to be desired.

"As long as it works, it’s a one-time thing, after all," Kuai Hongji said coldly.

"That’s true..." Lin Yi nodded, thinking as long as the firewood burns, who cares how well it’s stacked?

Tian Bufan spoke up, "Since the preparations are complete, let’s begin."

"Okay." Lin Yi replied.

"Check the time." Tian Bufan reminded.

Lin Yi glanced at his watch: "It’s now 13:16... Damn, I spent that much time?"