"Let's find a hideout first. I want to try my hand at the spiritual race's secret skill,"
Austin said as he turned to the others.
"How do you feel now, master?
It took a while for you to snap out of it.
Is everything okay?"
Violet's relief at hearing Austin speak again was quickly replaced by concern.
The others, too, felt relief and concern in equal measure.
It had been terrifying to see Austin completely motionless for such a long time. It had never happened before.
"What happened to the spiritual race member you captured? Did you kill him?
I knew it wouldn't be easy even for the spiritual race to kill you, what with your spiritual tree and all!"
The Heavenly Majestic Pot crowed smugly.
"No, he's still alive. But we don't need to worry about him anymore. Everything's under control.
You'll see later,"
Austin replied.
It wasn't long before Austin and his companions found an isolated place around the town.
Under duress by Austin, the captive spirit soon revealed the spiritual race's secret skill called Puppet Strings.
It was believed that only members of the spiritual race could cultivate it, as it was a skill that required their blood essence to activate.
But the spiritual tree inside Austin turned out to be the holy tree of the race.
Through the tree, it should thus be possible for Austin to cultivate the skill!
Indeed, it only took a few hours for him to get the hang of it.
"The spiritual tree really can help me cultivate the Puppet Strings skill!" Austin pronounced triumphantly.
It took him a few tries, but he was thrilled to find his theory was correct.
"Well, well.
You're quite special, aren't you, human boy?
In the entire existence of our race, no other living creature has ever been able to learn the skill. It has remained our special secret all this time.
Who would've thought you'd be the sole exception? And all because of the spiritual tree! What dumb luck!
You'll go down in history for this.
What a world-changing record!"
Despite himself, the spirit captive had to admire Austin.
Austin only smiled in response. He then turned all his attention on mastering the skill.
Before long, a few more hours had passed by.
"I did it!"
Austin declared in short time. Even he was surprised at his progress.
In his Soul Sea, Austin had controlled twenty long red strings with his mind. The strings, emitting strange spiritual soul energy, would shoot out from the trunk of the spiritual tree and float aimlessly in the void.
Austin knew that once the spiritual soul of other creatures were entangled in the strings, they would fall under his control.
The red threads were like puppet strings, but for the living spiritual soul.
"Human, since you're able to cultivate twenty red strings, it means that you can control twenty spiritual souls at a time. Do you understand?"
The spiritual race member broke into Austin's thoughts.
"I get it now!
The tens of thousands of people in that small town earlier were under your control!
You were using the Puppet Strings to control them, weren't you?"
Austin said, the realization dawning on him.
"That's correct! Smart of you to catch on,"
the spirit replied with a nod.
"But what I don't understand is that your spiritual soul power is no stronger than mine.
So how could you possibly control tens of thousands of spiritual souls at the same time?
I'm stronger yet I could only produce twenty strings.
What am I missing here?"
Austin asked, puzzled.
"Don't be so greedy, human. This is your first time to cultivate the skill, after all.
And yet you were already able to produce twenty strings in half a day! That's already a great feat!
You'll laugh at me, but the first time I made these strings, it took me a whole year to produce just one!
But I worked hard on it. It took me more than ten thousand years to be able to produce that many puppet strings!"
the captive spirit pointed out.
"I see,"
Austin said, smiling at the story.
"Well, let's check this then!"
Austin concentrated his spiritual energy.
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