Chapter 6: Refining a Puppet
Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Refining a Puppet
A faint sense of unease crept into Lu Zhao’s heart at the thought. He felt that something was amiss in the Marketplace recently, as if a major event was on the horizon.
But he quickly shook his head, pushing the feeling down.
Although he had mastered Tier One Puppetry, he was still only in the Early-stage of Qi Cultivation. In the dog-eat-dog world of the Cultivation Realm, he was powerless to change anything.
His most important task right now was to make Puppets and earn Spirit Stones. He needed to break through to the Mid-stage of Qi Cultivation as soon as possible.
After they had reminisced for about half an hour, Lu Zhao stood up to take his leave. "It’s getting late, and I still have to go to the mines, so I won’t disturb you any further."
Wang Yun nodded. "Why don’t you stay for lunch and try Sister Fang’s cooking?"
"I can’t." Lu Zhao waved his hand. "I have other things to attend to, so I won’t trouble Sister Fang."
Seeing this, Wang Yun didn’t insist. He walked him to the door and patted his shoulder. "Alright then, be careful out there. I’ll contact you as soon as I hear anything."
After leaving Wang Yun’s house, Lu Zhao headed straight for the Cold Iron Vein.
His luck today was clearly worse than yesterday. After four hours, he had only managed to mine six taels of Cold Iron.
’As for Companion Spiritual Objects... they aren’t that easy to come by. Finding two or three in a month would be considered good fortune.’
After his trip to the mines, he went to the Cold Pool to cultivate.
This time, he wasn’t as rash as he had been the day before. Instead, he slowly absorbed the Spiritual Qi, using a gentler method to wear down his cultivation bottleneck.
He estimated that if he kept up his current pace, he could break through to the Mid-stage of Qi Cultivation in about two to three months.
"I’m still short on Spirit Stones!" he sighed softly on the way back to his small courtyard.
If he could afford to take a Vessel-Protecting Pill every day, he estimated he could achieve a breakthrough in just over a month. However, the thought of the price of a single Tier One Lower Grade Vessel-Protecting Pill—twenty Spiritual Sand—made him quickly dismiss the idea.
’In the past, taking even one a month was considered a success.’
Back in the cellar of his courtyard, Lu Zhao wiped the Cyan Pattern Wood shavings from the table and checked his remaining stock.
"Three pounds left."
His fingertips brushed over the last few pieces of wood. He had traded for them bit by bit over the last three years. Every pound had been earned through blood, sweat, and tears.
And tonight, he planned to use it all.
Lu Zhao couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh as he recalled the hardships he’d endured searching for Cyan Pattern Wood. It wasn’t sold in the Marketplace at all; after searching for days without success, he had finally found it in the Black Market.
But the seller’s asking price had been exorbitant. Left with no choice, he had been forced to trade it for the Cold Iron he had privately mined and saved for over a year.
He was still trading with his private stash of ore now. It was just that he had been dipping into it more heavily in recent months, and with his recent bad luck, his official mining quota was now insufficient.
Lu Zhao took out his Carving Knife and began his daily routine of Puppet Making.
A quarter of an hour later, the tip of Lu Zhao’s knife suddenly snagged on the wood’s core. With a slight tremble of his wrist, years of muscle memory awakened. He followed a crack in the grain, and Cyan Marrow slowly began to seep out.
Six hours later, the Puppet Core was finally complete. He let out a long sigh of relief.
This was the third Puppet Core he had crafted. By applying just a few techniques from the Hundred Refinements Technique this time, his success rate had soared.
Once the Puppet Core was finished, Lu Zhao quickly formed a hand seal. A rat’s tail bone leaped out of a Pottery Jar and precisely fitted itself into a freshly carved groove.
As he fitted the final component into an eye socket, he cautiously embedded a thumb-sized Spirit Stone into the puppet’s abdomen. The Mouse Puppet suddenly stirred to life.
"Success!"
A moment later, the Cyan-striped Mouse Puppet leaped onto the tabletop. Lu Zhao carefully examined his creation.
The next morning, Lu Zhao returned to his usual spot in the West District to set up his stall.
He was about to head to his stall when he found his way blocked.
"Mr. Huang, could I trouble you to move aside?"
Hearing this, Old Huang moved. Lu Zhao brushed the dust off the stone steps and placed a Mouse Puppet on a beast hide.
At first, not many people paid attention, but soon, a crowd gathered.
A Demon Hunter with a bow on his back squatted down, poked the Puppet, and asked, "How fast is this thing? What about its strength? Can it be used for scouting?"
"It’s as fast as a Rat King, though slightly weaker. But it retains the Rat King’s Breaking Technique characteristic," Lu Zhao replied. "It can be used for scouting. As long as it’s within the range of your Divine Sense, you can perceive what it detects."
After speaking, he formed a hand seal and awakened the Mouse Puppet. Its Cyan Pattern Wood claws scraped three white marks onto the stone slab. Then he cast a Water Curtain Technique and had the puppet bite it—the Water Curtain shattered instantly.
Half a quarter-hour later, the Demon Hunter tossed down ten Spirit Stones and left.
Old Huang stared at the now-empty spot on the hide and suddenly sneered, "You Puppet Masters sure have it easy."
"How so?" Lu Zhao asked.
"Look at this West Market." Old Huang’s withered finger swept across the entire street. "There are five stalls that mainly sell Fireball Talismans, three for Clear Heart Talismans, and even two stalls for the less popular Turtle Shell Talismans."
He rubbed the frayed edge of a piece of talisman paper. "Yesterday, the Protective Talismans that Cripple Li just made were sold for a full twenty percent below market price."
The fat man selling Talisman Grass next to them chimed in, "Isn’t that the truth! Old Zhao’s daughter just learned Talisman Making last month, and now the whole street is flooded with the Dust Avoidance Talismans she’s drawn."
Old Huang blew a puff of warm air into his palm. "Nothing like your exclusive business."
He pointed at the cyan glow circulating at the tips of the Mouse Puppet’s claws. "In this whole Marketplace, you’re the only one who can craft Entry Tier Puppets. The price is whatever you say it is."
Just as Lu Zhao was about to speak, the old woman selling Frost Grass suddenly leaned in. "I heard Lady Xue from the Zhou Family Medicine Hall ordered one from you to be a medicine-scouting puppet?"
"That’s right," Lu Zhao nodded. "I just received the order this morning, but she’s a bit short on Spirit Stones for now, so she just placed a pre-order."
"See that!" Old Huang slapped his thigh and exclaimed. "His customers come looking for him! Not like us Talisman Masters, who have to beg Wanderers to buy a couple of Protective Talismans for defense against Demon Beasts!"
"There’s no need to say that, Mr. Huang," Lu Zhao said with a smile. "It took me years of accumulated effort to learn how to make these Puppets. Do you think crafting them in the future will be this easy?"
"You Talisman Masters may have a lot of competition, but there’s also high demand. As for me, I may be the only Puppet Master, but how much demand is there really?"
"Right now, it’s just the novelty of it that makes them seem to sell well. In the future, things will go back to the way they were."
Hearing him say this, Old Huang nodded as well.
’If he only had the Cyan-striped Mouse Puppet, what he had just said would be true. Once the initial hype died down, he’d be lucky to sell one a month.’
’But he also had the Flowing Cloud Sparrow Puppet and the Ice Mouse Puppet. The former was for aerial reconnaissance, while the latter’s combat prowess was no less than that of a Tier One Lower Grade Demon Beast.’
’That was where his true potential lay.’
When the crowd had thinned a little, Lu Zhao remarked, as if casually, "I heard the Zhou Family’s Cloud Pattern Cavalry has been mobilized?"
"It’s more than that!" The fat man selling Talisman Grass lowered his voice. "My cousin supplies Spirit Grass to the Zhou Family, and he says a lot of the Cloud Patterned Horses are missing from the Marketplace."
Old Huang stroked his beard. "People have been talking about it for days. Yesterday, someone even saw seven Cloud Patterned Horses heading towards Celestial Cloud Mountain."
"Are they going to hunt a Demon Beast?" Lu Zhao added casually.
"Why would they need the Cloud Pattern Cavalry for an ordinary Demon Beast?" the woman selling Spirit Grass leaned in conspiratorially.
She said in a low voice, "I heard it’s related to Young Master Pingyuan’s injury. My nephew is a Spirit Doctor for the Zhou Family, and he says Young Master Pingyuan’s injuries are extremely severe—they might even affect his future Foundation Establishment."
"Watch your tongue!" Old Huang suddenly cut in sharply, his murky eyes glancing at a black-robed cultivator who flashed past the street corner. "There are some things you can’t talk about if you want to live a long life."
Lu Zhao followed his gaze. Three cultivators with the Zhou Clan Emblem embroidered on their sleeves were inspecting the stalls.
The man in the lead didn’t have a Guest Minister Wooden Token hanging from his waist, but a Gilded Copper Token—the exclusive status symbol of a direct member of the Zhou Family.