Chapter 11: Puppetry

Inala currently had three advantages: Toxin Refinement, Elixir Condensation, and the knowledge honed in his previous life.

Toxin Refinement allowed him to cause a reaction within a toxin and receive products that were tonic in nature. It was best geared towards Mud Vipers.

Elixir Condensation causes the contents of the Elixir to directly be stored in Spirit Containers, just like Prana. From here, whenever the cultivation technique is practiced, the Elixir’s effects would circulate alongside Prana.

This suppresses the Elixir’s contents from being used to mend the body’s damage to the absolute minimum, allowing absorption to be maximum. With the technique, he would have been able to gain 80 Prana from that Elixir.

The effects of the two Skills were spectacular. A cultivator can only use Skills derived from their cultivation technique. Therefore, these two Skills, derived from the Mystic Bone Art would help him irrespective of his cultivation Stage. It paved the foundation to create his own Skillset.

He had been studying these two techniques for the past month. From the principles with which they functioned, how they varied with respect to various variables, the formulae they behaved upon, etc.

There were plenty of principles that combined together to form a Skill. He dissected them and first focused on the parts that took priority. He studied them zealously. At the end of it, he created a Skill of his own.

Puppetry!

Through Mystic Bone Art’s refinement technique, he refined a piece of bone into a miniature skeleton. It was a Spirit Weapon or rather, a bunch of Spirit Weapons joined into a whole.

In terms of battle power, it had none. Not only were the Spirit Weapons tiny individually, but they also required complex motions to move the puppet. The efficiency fell drastically. So, it moved slowly.

Battle wasn’t its intended purpose though. Using a portion of the Elixir Condensation Skill, he created tiny compartments within each piece of bone forming the skeleton. Through a portion of Toxin Refinement Skill, he stored the Mud Viper’s toxin within.

The function of the toxin was to soften the Mud Viper’s hardened mud. He had refined the toxin to only include the softening property. Moreover, its degree of potency varied in every container.

Following that, he mixed the toxin in the hardened mud and used Toxin Refinement on it at varying levels, finally obtaining the ratio to create clay.

Being a shut-in for six years, to pass the time, Inala took on art as his hobby. Sculpting was his favourite. Therefore, building a body on the skeleton using clay took less than a day.

Mystic Bone Art—Puppetry!

He infused his Prana into the puppet and watched it come to life. The lips on its face slowly widened to form a smile. The emotion wasn’t perfect, but it was a start.

Facial expressions required the muscles to move. For that, he created the face using different compositions of clay. For the emotion of happiness, the respective compartment within the skull would release the toxin into the face, causing each clay to react in a certain way.

They harden and soften at varying degrees, thereby contracting and expanding accordingly, creating the expression of happiness. This took him lots of trial and error to achieve. To avoid wasting materials and his limited Prana, he stuck to miniatures. At present, all the puppet could display was the emotions of happiness and sadness.

This was already the limit within the time constraints. But, he was happy with the result.

On the flat rectangular board made from mud, he began to carve a realistic background. ‘Dabbling in art for six years came in clutch.’

After practicing for two days, he was ready.

Evening, the next day. Right as the day’s classes ended, he hurried to his room and returned with a large suitcase. Inala began setting up a stall in the academy’s open ground. After classes, the orphan students generally practiced there, for there wasn’t enough open space anywhere else.

‘Okay, none of them are here.’ He was looking out for the reincarnates. They would obviously be aware of what he was doing and might interrupt or sabotage his efforts.

Thankfully, they were all busy preparing for the event that would happen the next day. It was why he picked such an evening to test out his card.

“Come one, come all!” He shouted, mimicking the fish market vendors from his previous world. There wasn’t any sense of professionalism involved here, but it did the job of getting one’s attention.

There wasn’t any entertainment in their daily lives, so the students were curious about his hollering. Soon, about ten people had gathered before him, one of which was an instructor who happened to pass by.

“Please be seated, everyone. I’ll entertain you with a fun little something.” Saying so, Inala patted the cuboidal box on the stall he had set up. It spanned a metre in width, forty centimetres in height, and twenty centimetres in thickness.

The entrance was a thin wall of hardened mud, acting as a curtain. Embedded in its centre was a tiny slab of bone—a Spirit Weapon. Inala moved it up with his Prana, raising the curtain, revealing a mini theatre.

The background sported trees, a pair of hills, and a river. It was a classic picture that everyone drew at first. All Inala did was portray it realistically to give a sense of depth, like an optical illusion. 𝒐𝑽𝑙𝒩xt.𝗇𝓔t

There were some props strewn on the ground, mostly rocks. Two puppets stood amidst them, one big, one small.

The big one spanned a height of thirty centimetres, appearing like a giant in the scene. The small one spanned ten centimetres. Both were humanoid in shape and appearance, but the design wasn’t very human. It was a caricature at best. At his infusion of Prana, the scene began to play out.

One day, while walking, the big one became tired and decided to rest while leaning on the hill. But using it as a home was the small one that felt disturbed by the big one’s presence. It came out, looking sad. But upon seeing the big one’s feet, the small one became happy as it picked up a needle from nearby.

It then slowly approached the big one’s feet and poked it with the needle. The big one comically flew into the air and slammed into the ceiling. It then fell to the ground, resulting in a loud splash.

The small one ran into its house using the chance. The big one got up and stared in confusion as its face was compressed like a spring from the impact. A few seconds later, it sagged, unable to recover.

“Hahah!” Its stupefied face elicited mild laughter from a couple of students. Inala noted down the response, ‘Okay, it’s working. But there needs to be some changes to the delivery of the jokes.’

The big one and small one were straight-up plagiarised from the infamous cartoon, ‘Tom & Jerry.’

It was a trial and tested series, so he couldn’t go wrong with it. Even without music, it was working to make the viewers laugh, not to the extent he hoped, but it worked. As long as he improves his craft, things will get better.

Inala had prepared a script for ten minutes in total. Once he was done, there were cheers from the students.

“That was refreshing.”

“It had been years since I last laughed.”

The instructor got up, calmly nodded at Inala, and walked away, confusing the latter, ‘What does that reaction mean?’