Chapter 515

Chapter 386: Preparation

Faced with the frail state of the Spiritual Threads, Dorothy found that even sensing the link to her target was nearly impossible; she couldn’t even determine the general direction.

Confronted with this phenomenon, Dorothy pondered for a long time, trying to find the cause, and considered several possibilities.

In Dorothy’s mind, her Zombie Bird must have been tampered with, and this tampering could only have been done by the Spider Fang Priest. He possessed the ability to use bl**d to corrode the puppets and the Spiritual Threads upon them, preventing her from severing the link. When he attacked the Zombie Bird with his claws, he likely injected a significant amount of his bl**d into it, which led to the corruption of the Spiritual Threads linked to the Zombie Bird.

Dorothy deduced that after her Zombie Bird was attacked and severely damaged from the fall, the Spiritual Threads should have automatically severed. However, because the Spider Fang Priest’s bl**d, which had been left inside the Zombie Bird, forcibly maintained the link, the severance was not complete, and a thin connection still lingered.

The Spider Fang Priest’s bl**d-induced corroding had two effects: one was that Dorothy could not control the puppet, and the other was that she could not actively sever the Spiritual Thread connection. If the Spider Fang Priest were to absorb the puppet, he could follow the Spiritual Threads back to her.

Dorothy had two ways to sever the Spiritual Thread: she could either disconnect it herself, or it could automatically sever after the puppet suffered severe damage. The condition of the Zombie Bird at the time fit the latter scenario.

However, the damage from the fall was not as thorough as if Dorothy had used Lightning Strike to incinerate it. When Dorothy used Lightning Strike to char a living organism, it was as if the “Cup” within had completely evaporated, but the damage from the fall left obvious remnants of the “Cup.”

Therefore, after the Zombie Bird was reduced to a mangled state, the strength of the Spider Fang Priest still lingered, stubbornly maintaining a faint and fragmented link of the Spiritual Thread, a connection so weak that Dorothy herself believed it was severed.

At this moment, this incomplete Spiritual Thread should be sustained by the “Cup” spirituality injected by the Spider Fang Priest into the Zombie Bird. He had absorbed all the puppets in the villa, leaving only this one Zombie Bird as a sort of insurance.

At that time, the Eight Pinnacle assassins likely collected the mangled Zombie Bird while returning, and after bringing it back, they probably attempted to strengthen the Spiritual Thread connection with some form of “Cup” power, wanting to use this link to find Dorothy’s true body again.

The fluctuating state of the Spiritual Thread that Dorothy had just sensed might have been the result of the experiments being conducted by the Eight Pinnacle Nest.

With the Zombie Bird’s fragmented Spiritual Thread, it was impossible for them to locate Dorothy. Thus, they aimed to strengthen this Spiritual Thread, allowing Dorothy to be located once more. After the strengthening, Dorothy would also be able to sense its presence again.

‘This is not good… I still have a fragmented Spiritual Thread in those guys’ hands, and they are trying to use it to locate me… Although right now, the strength of this fragmented thread is far from being able to pinpoint me, I cannot dismiss the possibility that their experiments might achieve a breakthrough and allow them to locate me again…

‘If that thread were truly strengthened to the point of being able to locate me, I could use damage conduction to retaliate, but since they have seen my conduction abilities, they would surely think of countermeasures.

‘In summary, while this fragmented Spiritual Thread cannot currently locate me or pose a threat, it remains a hidden danger, and I cannot allow it to develop into a significant problem in the future.

‘So… this Spiritual Thread must be severed!’

Sitting on the couch, Dorothy thought seriously. The current fragmented Spiritual Thread was sustained by the Eight Pinnacle’s active infusion of spirituality, so they were likely planning to use it against her. She couldn’t leave this hidden danger unresolved; it had to be dealt with immediately!

‘So… what method can I use to sever this corroded Spiritual Thread?’

Rubbing her chin, Dorothy contemplated for quite a while before arriving at a faint idea.

“Perhaps, if I run far enough, I can forcibly break this Spiritual Thread…”

Dorothy murmured to herself, correct, her proposed solution was to run far enough away! Far enough to snap the thread!

The Puppet Master’s control of puppets through Spiritual Threads had a distance limitation; ordinary puppets had a range of three kilometers, Dorothy, after mimicking the Puppet Master, extended this to ten kilometers, and now, having simulated the Line-Wielding Witch, it was twenty kilometers. While it was possible to extend the manipulation range for a single puppet by expending extra spirituality, there was still a limit.

The length of the Spiritual Thread was finite! Although Dorothy’s living puppets seemed to have no distance limit on the surface, that was not the case. The essence of the living puppets she controlled had its limitations, but this restriction was extended by the information channel.

Indeed, the original Puppet Master’s ability could not manipulate living puppets without distance limits; the maximal length of the Spiritual Thread connecting living puppets was the same as ordinary puppets. Dorothy could control a living puppet across the ocean due to the system; it was the information channel of the system that extended the manipulation range of the living puppet!

In earlier times, Dorothy was also puzzled as to why there was a distance limit when she used the Puppet Master ability on ordinary puppets while she had no limitations with living puppets until she simulated the Line-Wielding Witch. It was only after gaining a deeper understanding of the Spiritual Threads that she grasped the principle behind it.

Dorothy’s living puppet manipulation target had to be someone linked to her through an information channel or be near to someone linked to an information channel. Long ago, Dorothy’s Spiritual Threads inadvertently extended their range through the information channel; each of her information channels allowed a Spiritual Thread to extend infinitely.

Furthermore, only a genuinely living target with a soul could offer prayers to Dorothy, enabling her to establish an information channel with them. As a result, the inherently dead puppets could not establish such a channel with Dorothy, so the manipulation range of ordinary puppets remained limited by Spiritual Thread length. Living puppets could break this limitation, as a Spiritual Thread extending infinitely through the information channel could influence its surroundings from the target point.

Previously, Dorothy attributed the unlimited range of her living puppet manipulation to the Puppet Mark. However, it was now clear that while the Puppet Mark was still necessary, without the system’s information channel, the range of living puppet manipulation was similar to that of ordinary puppets; fundamentally, it was the system that was impressive.

Thus, according to Dorothy’s theory regarding Spiritual Threads, the manipulation distance was limited without the system’s support. Therefore, if she simply ran far enough away from the remains of the Zombie Bird, she could forcibly snap the Spiritual Thread.

“It looks like… I’ll need to go on a long trip soon…”

As Dorothy sat on the couch, she gazed at the world map on the wall, muttering to herself.

…

Finally, perhaps another volume of content had been completed. Next, Dorothy would be saying farewell to Tivyán for a while, heading off to explore other places.

As mentioned earlier, she might take this opportunity to request some time off for the New Year, smoothly organizing the plot, which would probably take about two or three days, depending on the situation—she would return as soon as possible.

In any case, today was New Year’s Eve, wishing everyone a Happy Spring Festival and may all your wishes come true!