Chapter 4: Selling the Cyan-striped Mouse Puppet
Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Selling the Cyan-striped Mouse Puppet
Leaving the mine entrance, Lu Zhao slowly walked toward the Cold Pool. When he arrived at its edge, he found several people already meditating there.
After all, he wasn’t the Zhou Family’s only Honored Guest Elder. While Late-stage Qi Cultivation cultivators wouldn’t practice here, there were quite a few Early-stage and Middle Stage cultivators with the Water Attribute.
Lu Zhao’s gaze swept across the area. Most of the cultivators were gathered around the Cold Pool, each keeping a distance of several yards from the others. Cultivation was a private affair, and no one wished to be disturbed.
He chose an empty spot and sat down cross-legged. Spiritual Qi coursed through his meridians. As he formed a hand seal, he drew the Spiritual Qi into his body bit by bit, and it slowly gathered in his Dantian as the Little Spirit Rain Technique circulated.
Lu Zhao closed his eyes, turning his focus inward with Introspection. Three wisps of pale blue Magical Power swirled in his Dantian, but the Spiritual Qi he absorbed wasn’t merging with them. After more than an hour, he felt a stinging pain in his meridians.
He took out a porcelain vial, tipped out a single brown Pill, and swallowed it.
This was a Vessel-Protecting Pill, and its purpose was to double one’s daily cultivation time. Pills of different grades corresponded to cultivators of different Cultivation levels; for example, a Tier One Lower Grade Pill was for those in the Early-stage Qi Cultivation. Such Pills were indispensable for a cultivator’s training.
The amount of time a Qi Cultivation Stage cultivator could meditate each day was limited: about half an hour for the first layer, one hour for the second, one and a half for the third, and so on.
As the bitter taste of the Vessel-Protecting Pill dissolved on his tongue, a warm current began to envelop his stinging meridians...
After another hour and a half of cultivation, Lu Zhao slowly opened his eyes.
’It’s still not working. I don’t have an outstanding Spiritual Root, after all,’ he muttered to himself.
He had just attempted to break through to the Qi Cultivation Fourth Layer, but he had only reached Third-Layer Qi Cultivation Perfection yesterday. Although a Middle-Grade Spirit Root was unlikely to get stuck in the Early-stage Qi Cultivation, advancing to the Middle Stage wasn’t something he could achieve in just a few days.
’I have to take it one step at a time,’ he sighed. He stopped cultivating, rose to his feet, and left.
Lu Zhao first went to the Zhou Family’s Warehouse to make up for the Cold Iron Ore quota he had missed yesterday, then returned to his small courtyard.
Back in his courtyard, Lu Zhao entered the cellar and began processing the materials. He started by soaking the Mouse King’s Fang in Demon Liquid, and then...
Half an hour later, he had finished processing the materials. With a thought, the Tier One Puppet Inheritance surfaced in his mind. Lu Zhao quickly skimmed past the other information and found the Technique specifically designed for crafting Puppets—the Hundred Refinements Technique.
This Technique detailed Puppet classifications, the key points for carving different types of Puppet Cores, how to imbue Puppets with attributes, and the skills for assembly, activation, and control.
It even included a Magic for controlling Puppets—the Thousand Threads Technique—which allowed for the coordinated control of multiple Puppets in battle.
After reviewing the contents of the Hundred Refinements Technique, the refining methods for three types of Tier One Lower Grade Puppets surfaced in his mind:
Tier One Puppet, Initial Section: Ice Mouse Puppet (Tier One Lower Grade)
Materials: One Ice Condensing Stone, one Tier One Early Stage mouse demon corpse, Claw-embedded Ice Burst Talisman
Abilities: Lethal range of three yards, possesses the Breaking Technique and a freezing effect.
Ironwood Guard (Tier One Lower Grade)
Materials: Ten catties of Profound Iron, one hundred catties of Ironwood
Abilities: Body as hard as iron, immense strength; capable of engaging a Tier One Middle-Grade Demon Beast in close combat.
Flowing Cloud Sparrow (Tier One Lower Grade)
Materials: One Tier One Early Stage Sparrow Demon Beast corpse, half a catty of Wind Pattern Stone, wings inscribed with a Wind Spirit Pattern
Abilities: Can fly to an altitude of over three hundred feet; used for reconnaissance, surveillance, and early warning.
These were the three Puppets he could potentially refine in the near future. Compared to the Cyan-striped Mouse Puppet, they held clear advantages in combat, defense, and support.
The blueprints for the three Puppets flashed through his mind, and Lu Zhao immediately formulated a plan:
Tomorrow, he would sell a Cyan-striped Mouse Puppet for some Spirit Stones to buy Wind Pattern Stone. On the fifth day of the month, he would go to the Zhou Family Warehouse to redeem an Ice Condensing Stone. As for the Ironwood Guard, its materials were expensive and the required skill level was high, so he would set it aside for now and reconsider it once he had enough Spirit Stones.
The next morning, before the mist had scattered, Lu Zhao was back in the West District. Old Huang stared at the Mouse Puppet on Lu Zhao’s stall, which glowed with a faint cyan light, and the talisman paper in his hand slipped to the ground. The ’Spiritual Pattern Inference’ on the Puppet’s claws was the mark of an Entry Tier Puppet Master.
Old Huang exclaimed in astonishment, "You’ve actually reached the Entry Tier?"
"Mr. Lu actually received a true Puppet Inheritance?" the old woman selling Frost Grass also cried out, nearly spilling the Spirit Grass from her basket.
A stir went through the crowd of onlookers. Lu Zhao, his expression unchanged, formed a hand seal. The Mouse Puppet on his stall suddenly raised its head and stood up, looking remarkably lifelike.
Half an hour later, Lu Zhao weighed the ten Spirit Stones in his palm. Seeing the astonished looks from the crowd, the corners of his mouth lifted in a slight smile.
Entry Tier Puppets were extremely rare in Changfeng County. There were no rumors of even the overlord Zhou Family having an Entry Tier Puppet Master, so when a finished Puppet appeared, someone bought it immediately.
Lu Zhao was pleasantly surprised by this outcome, but his brow furrowed when he thought about the astonishing amount of materials Puppetry consumed and the limited utility of the Cyan-striped Mouse Puppet. ’If not for the Puppet Bead’s help, I would never dare hope to use this path for Breaking Realms.’
Still, when he recalled the words "Tier One Lower Grade Puppet Master" on the Puppet Bead’s glowing panel from the night before, he couldn’t suppress a feeling of joy.
Following the plan he had made the day before, Lu Zhao visited shop after shop throughout the Marketplace but couldn’t find any Wind Pattern Stone. Finally, he learned that the Nine Abyss Pavilion might have some in stock.
The sculpted Taofeng Beast on the flying eaves of the Nine Abyss Pavilion seemed to breathe out clouds of mist. As one of the Zhou Family’s many enterprises, it was also the largest shop in the Marketplace.
As he stepped through the door, an attendant in blue-green robes approached him. The attendant was no more than sixteen or seventeen, with a Cultivation at the Qi Cultivation First Layer, and had a clean, pleasant face.
"I am an attendant at the Nine Abyss Pavilion. May I ask what brings you to our establishment, sir? Are you looking for Magical Artifacts, Spirit Pills, or Spiritual Materials? Our shop has everything you could need."
"Do you have Wind Pattern Stone?" Lu Zhao asked directly, not bothering to beat around the bush.
Hearing this, the attendant’s brow furrowed slightly. He sighed. "That item is of too high a grade and is extremely rare. It’s beyond my authority to handle. Please, follow me to see the Shopkeeper."
He then led Lu Zhao to the counter, where an old Shopkeeper was resting with his eyes closed. When told of Lu Zhao’s request, the old Shopkeeper opened his cloudy eyes.
"You wish to buy Wind Pattern Stone? That is a Tier One Middle-Grade material. It won’t be cheap."
"I wouldn’t have come to the Nine Abyss Pavilion if I wasn’t prepared," Lu Zhao replied calmly.
The Shopkeeper nodded, then turned and went into the back courtyard. A short while later, he returned to the counter carrying three boxes. He opened them one by one and set them in a row on the countertop.
The first box contained a fist-sized, pale green stone—a Wind Pattern Stone. The second was the size of a chicken’s egg, and the third was the size of a pigeon’s egg.
"The first piece weighs five catties and four taels and costs twenty-five Spirit Stones. The second weighs two catties and one tael and costs ten Spirit Stones. The third weighs nine taels and costs four Spirit Stones. Which one would you like?"
A quarter of an hour later, Lu Zhao walked out of the Nine Abyss Pavilion. He looked at his nearly empty pockets and gave a wry smile. "Spirit Stones really don’t last long."
In the end, he gritted his teeth and bought the last two pieces of Wind Pattern Stone. After haggling with the Shopkeeper for a good while, they settled on a price of thirteen Spirit Stones.
He now had fewer than five Spirit Stones left, leaving him practically penniless.
Having bought the Wind Pattern Stone, he decided to look for an old acquaintance—a Demon Hunter named Wang Yun.