Sword Immortal Puppet
The Sword Immortal Puppet is a blood-personalizable combat body made by Jiang Lan and given to Qin Yu. Qin Yu controls it with a portion of his soul, alters its face when needed, and creates the public sword-immortal persona Lan Feng; Lan Feng is therefore a disguise of the puppet under Qin Yu's control, not an independent biological person.
History
Jiang Lan's gift and the Lan Feng persona
Jiang Lan gives Qin Yu the black-robed puppet together with one top-grade elemental holy rock. The puppet can be personalized by blood and absorbed like an immortal item, but its combat power depends on a nine-position Multiplying Elemental Holy Formation rather than its own cultivation. Jiang Lan presents it as a last-resort means of protection and deliberately limits the initial fuel so that Qin Yu will not depend on borrowed power. (Chapter 223)
Qin Yu later puts a thread of consciousness into the puppet, names its invented identity Lan Feng, and uses that supposed Golden Immortal to take back the Heaven-Sundering Diagram from Ming Liang's faction. The deception works because the puppet speaks and acts through Qin Yu while appearing to outsiders as a separate sword immortal. Qin Yu then auctions the diagram for thirteen finest-grade elemental spirit stones, giving him enough fuel to operate the puppet at its full ninth-tier Golden Immortal level. In that state, Lan Feng kills Hua Yan, Ao Feng, and Du Zhong Jun with three sword-energy attacks. (Chapters 261, 275, and 307)
Combat shell, damage, and diminishing value
The puppet becomes both a combat shell and a decoy body. Qin Yu can lodge a fragment of his soul in it, hide his original body in another artifact, and change the puppet's face to impersonate himself or another identity. Its endurance lets him survive attacks that his developing body could not yet bear, but it does not negate differences in skill, domains, gravity, or available energy. Once its stones are exhausted, it can be knocked down like an inert body, and when Qin Yu is unconscious it cannot act by itself. (Chapters 271, 330–336, and 355)
Zhi Bai eventually opens a large bleeding wound in the puppet's back, disproving Qin Yu's earlier belief that the body was invulnerable. Nine top-quality stones restore only about a tenth of that injury, while a small amount of Life Elemental Energy from the Meteoric Tear repairs it completely. Later, the crushing gravity of a Fourteen Star Emperor-level Dark Star leaves the material undamaged but prevents a fully powered puppet from taking even one step. (Chapters 338–339, 360, and 443–444)
As Qin Yu's own body and power surpass the puppet's ninth-tier Golden Immortal ceiling, it ceases to be useful as his principal combat body. He gives it to Qin Zheng, supplies 150 top-quality elemental spirit stones and operating instructions, and designates it a secret inherited treasure of the mortal Qin clan, to be passed from one Great Elder to the next and used only in a clan crisis. (Chapter 465)
Abilities and properties
- Its nine-position Multiplying Elemental Holy Formation—later called the 9-by-9 Spirit Array—sets its offensive tier by the number of top-grade elemental holy rocks or top-quality elemental spirit stones installed: one powers level-one Golden Immortal offense and nine complete the formation for level-nine offense. (Chapter 223)
- The puppet contains the nine-move Heaven-Sundering Sword Art. The ninth move can consume roughly eighty percent of one top-grade stone, so its strongest attacks are expensive and finite rather than freely repeatable. (Chapter 223)
- Qin Yu controls it through soul or consciousness lodged in the puppet and can change its face. If he loses consciousness or withdraws control, the body has no independent agency. (Chapters 261, 271, and 336)
- Its material is extremely durable and its dantian formation is specially protected, but sufficiently strong sword energy can wound its flesh-like interior and make it bleed. Damage to the 9-by-9 formation could destroy the puppet. (Chapters 332 and 338–339)
- Ordinary energy-stone repair is inefficient, while Life Elemental Energy can restore severe damage rapidly. Exhausted stones leave the puppet powerless even when its body remains intact. (Chapters 339, 355, and 360)
- Its maximum power is fixed below Qin Yu's later level, and environmental force can immobilize it without breaking its material. (Chapters 443–444 and 465)