The craftsmanship of this puppet was exceptionally advanced. Its body was incomparably hard and engraved with complex runes, while its speed and defenses were both formidable.
Shang Shuangze fought it head-on. Even when Mingyun hacked directly into its body, the sword could not leave so much as a mark.
Xia Yunzhao protected himself carefully and watched the battle. He murmured, “This puppet is at Foundation Establishment… No, it might originally have been Golden Core and only fallen to Foundation Establishment after so much time.”
Naturally, the puppet was not Shang Shuangze’s match. But the puppet was dead while Shang Shuangze was alive. A puppet never tired and did not bleed when injured. Shang Shuangze did.
Xia Yunzhao’s mind raced. “How exactly does it sense people? Even the cultivation world has to obey some basic rules… Could it be spiritual energy?”
He watched Shang Shuangze narrowly avoid the puppet’s axe and thought, Forget it!
He reached into his clothes. “Pot, help me out!”
Xiao Qing: ?
Before Xiao Qing could react, Xia Yunzhao grabbed a large handful of spirit pearls and stuffed them into its belly. Then he rolled it away with a rumble-rumble, wedging it perfectly into a corner between the deck planks.
Sure enough, the puppet’s head instantly twisted a full hundred eighty degrees. It abandoned Shang Shuangze and chopped toward the corner.
Shang Shuangze seized the opening. With a flick of his sword tip, he detached one of the puppet’s arms at the joint. The limb, made of some unknown material, crashed to the ground along with its axe. Shang Shuangze immediately flipped forward, landed before it, opened some mechanism in its chest, and flicked out the spirit stone inside.
The puppet instantly collapsed as though its power had been cut.
Xia Yunzhao ran out from hiding. “Are you okay?! Hurt anywhere?”
Shang Shuangze reversed his sword behind him and shook his head.
Xia Yunzhao went to retrieve Xiao Qing. Xiao Qing had clamped its lid shut as tightly as possible and was rapidly digesting the spirit pearls inside its stomach. You gave them to me, so they’re mine! No taking them back!
Xia Yunzhao stared speechlessly. “Look at you.”
Shang Shuangze picked up the crystal from the ground. “A mid-level spirit stone. The spiritual energy inside has already been exhausted.”
Xia Yunzhao glanced at it. Sure enough, it was the same kind of crystal again. “So these really are spirit stones. I found half a low-level spirit stone before, and Xiao Qing evolved after eating it. This puppet actually needed a mid-level spirit stone to operate. Its original level must have been very high.”
Shang Shuangze nodded. “This puppet was probably at the Golden Core stage before. Without spiritual power replenishing it, it gradually fell to Foundation Establishment.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded. Exactly as he had guessed. “Come on. There are two rooms on this deck too. Let’s see what good things are inside!”
The two entered the first room. It was enormous—the largest single room on the entire vessel—with a front hall and rear chambers divided into several spaces. If he had not entered personally, Xia Yunzhao would have found it difficult to believe such a large room existed aboard the Floating Ark.
“This was probably the owner’s room.” Xia Yunzhao walked around and could tell the owner had been extravagantly wealthy. Everything from food to clothing had been extremely high-grade. Unfortunately, far too much time had passed, and all the spiritual energy had drained away.
Xia Yunzhao immediately plunged into the study.
The study contained many books and records. He skimmed through them. “This person was amazing. He was both a talisman master and an artifact refiner. He refined this Floating Ark himself!”
Sheets of blueprints covered the desk, depicting every part of the Floating Ark. Runes had been drawn across each section. Even the deck itself had lines of runes, but the soil covering them had prevented Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze from seeing.
“Looking at this, the Floating Ark must have crash-landed here at least a thousand years ago… No wonder all its spiritual energy is completely exhausted.” Xia Yunzhao held records that other people would barely understand and read with fascination. “Look, all these materials were meant to improve its defenses. This ship had extremely strong protection. I wonder what kind of enemy managed to damage it badly enough to force it down.”
The restriction protecting this study must have been the last one to fail. Otherwise, so much paper would have rotted into ash long ago.
Shang Shuangze walked inside, stood beside him, and helped organize the sheets.
Xia Yunzhao roughly flipped through the blueprints before putting them into his storage pouch. He intended to study them properly once they returned. They were not exactly artifact blueprints, yet they were nearly as useful as one and contained plenty of ideas for creating magical artifacts from scratch.
He continued flipping through other material and clicked his tongue. “The puppet was built by him too. He really was a Golden Core cultivator!”
The more Xia Yunzhao read, the more absorbed he became. Apart from the rune sections, which he could not understand, he could actually grasp the general idea behind most of the rest. He said regretfully, “Too bad I don’t know runes. Otherwise, maybe I could try repairing it…”
As he spoke, a book appeared beside him.
Xia Yunzhao looked up.
Detailed Explanation of Basic Runes.
He opened it and saw more than ten common runes illustrated inside. He immediately recognized several—they were engraved directly on the puppet’s body.
Xia Yunzhao scratched his head. “Even if I learn the runes, it might not help. This puppet needs a spirit stone as its core. Spirit pearls won’t work…”
Shang Shuangze extended a hand.
A sphere of spiritual power carried a spirit stone over.
Xia Yunzhao stared at him. “Did you find a treasure sack somewhere? Whatever I need, you happen to have?”
Shang Shuangze stepped aside with a faint smile. Behind him sat a jade-green box, itself a storage magical artifact whose restriction had already failed. Once opened, it revealed five or six scattered spirit stones and several sets of artifact-refining notes.
Xia Yunzhao immediately stuffed the spirit stones into Shang Shuangze’s storage magical artifact and picked up the records. “This is the biggest harvest of the entire trip! Wait here. I’m going to see if I can repair that puppet!”
With that, he happily ran toward the deck carrying the papers.
Shang Shuangze followed him out. Seeing Xia Yunzhao become completely absorbed in his research, he did not disturb him. Instead, he jumped from the ship, traced a circle around the surrounding area with sword qi, then returned and stood guard on the deck.
Xia Yunzhao noticed nothing. His entire mind had already been captured by the puppet’s construction. Originally, his interest in artifact refining had never been as strong as his interest in alchemy. But this puppet was far too fascinating, and the way its design combined artifact refining with runes was exceptionally clever. The more he studied it, the more completely he forgot the passage of time.
Who knew how long later, the sky seemed to darken briefly. Almost immediately, light appeared around him again.
Xiao Xia glanced over instinctively and saw a ring of Glow Moss arranged around the area.
So he ignored it and kept working.
A while later, a piece of beef roasted until oil dripped from it appeared beside his mouth, along with a tender piece of venison.
Since the food had practically been delivered into his mouth, Xia Yunzhao simply bit down. “Mm-mm, so good!”
The person beside him seemed to smile and brought over another piece of roasted beef. This one was slightly fattier, but also more tender.
Xia Yunzhao finished eating, wiped his mouth, and returned to fiddling with the puppet’s scattered arms and legs.
Once he became absorbed, he completely lost track of time. It was not until noon the next day that Xia Yunzhao finally shouted, “I fixed it!”
On the deck, Shang Shuangze opened his eyes. Mingyun and Xiao Qing both floated over.
Only after seeing everyone watching did Xia Yunzhao grin. “Look!”
He took out a spirit stone and inserted it into the puppet’s chest. The arms and legs lying on the ground immediately moved, assembling themselves in order before standing upright as a humanoid figure.
The puppet’s expressionless face turned toward Xia Yunzhao. It lowered its head and spoke.
“Master.”
Xia Yunzhao circled it. The puppet’s gaze followed him continuously, remarkably agile. “Too bad the spirit stones we found are all low-level. Right now it can only display Foundation Establishment strength. But it has an invisibility rune! Remember how it appeared in front of us out of nowhere? That was the invisibility rune working. Unfortunately, the invisibility lasts only about seven and a half minutes, and the moment it uses spiritual power, its body becomes visible again.” He looked at Shang Shuangze. “Well? Isn’t it clever?”
Shang Shuangze had no choice but to nod. “Very impressive. Fellow Daoist has excellent talent in the Dao of runes.”
Xia Yunzhao could not handle the way Shang Shuangze praised him with such complete seriousness. Embarrassed, he said, “I’m not that impressive. I was basically just following the blueprints step by step… Maybe only a tiny little bit impressive.”
Shang Shuangze shook his head. “Every artifact refiner and rune master begins by following diagrams. How many could reproduce them as well as Fellow Daoist?”
Xia Yunzhao began floating from all the praise and hurriedly dragged his heart back down. “Right. While I was studying the blueprints, I also figured out the structure of the Floating Ark. The control room is over here.”
He turned and headed toward the second room on the deck.
There was another Alarm Talisman outside, though it had already been damaged. Inside, spiritual power was weak but chaotic and could barely affect either of them.
Xia Yunzhao said, “This Floating Ark must have encountered an enemy while flying. The enemy’s spiritual power was extremely strong and directly destroyed its spiritual-power system, which is why it fell. Its core should already be broken.”
Sure enough, when they entered, the core chamber looked as though a tornado had passed through. Marks left by rampaging spiritual power covered everything.
Xia Yunzhao stepped around a large patch of damaged runes and pressed one mechanism.
It shattered immediately.
Several white crystals were exposed inside. Xia Yunzhao gathered them, and the entire Floating Ark suddenly began trembling.
He spun around, rushed to Shang Shuangze, grabbed him, and ran. “It’s collapsing! Move!”
The moment they reached the deck, the chamber behind them collapsed. They jumped from the deck to the ground, and the entire Floating Ark caved in with a deafening series of rumble-rumble-rumble crashes.
Xia Yunzhao watched until the dust settled.
Shang Shuangze had just opened his mouth when Xia Yunzhao rolled up his sleeves. “Charge, Xiao Qing! Time to pick through the trash!”
Xiao Qing’s lid opened and closed with a clack-clack: Charge!
Even Mingyun followed after them to join the excitement: Charge!
Shang Shuangze: .
One man, one furnace, and one sword plunged into the ruins. Xia Yunzhao even turned back to call him. “Come on, Shang Shuangze! We need your storage pouch!”
Shang Shuangze suddenly smiled and slowly walked over to help him pick through the trash.
The Floating Ark had lain here for nearly a thousand years. Almost every restriction had failed, and its spiritual power had vanished. Even so, a starving camel was still larger than a horse. Careful searching still turned up quite a few materials that remained usable… Of course, “usable” in this case meant usable as food for Xiao Qing.
After overturning the entire wreck, Xiao Xia emerged covered in dust. “Cough, there probably… cough-cough… isn’t anything left.”
Shang Shuangze shook his head helplessly and formed several spheres of spiritual power to blow the dust from Xia Yunzhao’s body.
Xia Yunzhao shook out his hair and swept a hand. Spiritual power rolled soil over the ruins of the Floating Ark and buried them. After thinking for a moment, he chuckled, found a wooden board, and carved a grave marker:
Tomb of the Floating Ark.
Beside them, the puppet silently watched.
Xia Yunzhao turned toward it. “I don’t know what you were called before, so I’ll give you a name. Hmm… Xia Da? No, no. Sounds too much like ‘scared silly’… How about Yun Yi? What do you think?” He looked at Shang Shuangze.
Shang Shuangze thought surnames Xia and Yun both sounded good, so naturally he nodded again.
Xia Yunzhao said, “Then Yun Yi it is. When I get a second puppet, that one can be Yun Er.”
The puppet’s voice remained flat. “Yes. Yun Yi greets Master.”
With one major matter settled, Xia Yunzhao felt relaxed. “Come on! Let’s go home!”
Mingyun and Xiao Qing enthusiastically jumped up in support.
Home!
They had barely finished celebrating when a tremendous explosion came from the distance, startling a flock of flying slaughter beasts into the sky.
Xia Yunzhao hurriedly covered his ears. “…What was that?! An earthquake? A landslide?”
Shang Shuangze’s gaze swept across the birds overhead and turned in one direction. “Cultivators.”
“More cultivators fighting? With that much noise? Their cultivation must be high…” Xiao Xia looked that way too and could vaguely sense waves of spiritual power. “It’s pretty close. Want to take a look?”
Shang Shuangze had no objection.
The two silently approached the source of the sound. When they arrived, they stopped.
“…That’s a lot of people.”
This was the first time Xia Yunzhao had seen this many cultivators gathered anywhere in the Liancui Mountain Range.
The location was a valley. Two forces faced one another across its entrance, one inside and one outside. Around the perimeter hid plenty of people who, like Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze, had come to watch the excitement.
Xiao Xia first looked at the cultivators inside the valley. Their leader was actually a monk, and his cultivation was not low! Behind him stood more than twenty people, and even the weakest was at the sixth layer of Qi Refining.
Had a force this large really come to Liancui Mountain?
Xia Yunzhao whispered, “Monks can cultivate too?”
Shang Shuangze also lowered his voice. “I have heard of several Buddhist-cultivator sects. Their disciples cultivate Buddhist methods and observe Buddhist precepts. Although this cultivator has ordination scars on his head, his cultivation methods are mixed. He probably did not come from one of those sects.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded, then felt puzzled. Heard of? Had Shang Shuangze never actually met one either?
The one-eyed cultivator shouted toward the group outside. “Si Kongzhuo! If you’ve got the guts, come in here! Stop barking like a dog outside!”
Opposite him stood more than thirty cultivators wearing uniform magical robes, each hem embroidered with the character “Si.”
Xia Yunzhao swept his eyes across them and clicked his tongue again. Even the weakest among them was at the seventh layer of Qi Refining!
No wonder they could produce such a huge disturbance. Their cultivation was extremely high.
He looked at the Si family group. “What force is this? Did they come to Liancui Mountain simply for treasure?”
He looked at Shang Shuangze.
Shang Shuangze looked at him.
After a long silence, both shook their heads.
No idea.
Xia Yunzhao backed up a few steps. “Let’s go. It has nothing to do with us… Wait. Is that—?”
From his new angle, he could just see farther into the valley past the monk and One-Eye’s group. Three female cultivators had been tied together and gagged. They were staring anxiously outward, their faces now visible.
Xia Yunzhao recognized them immediately.
Weren’t those the cultivators gathering Spirit-Eroding Vines for him?
They had been captured?!
Shang Shuangze followed his gaze. “You know them? Rescue them?”
“Wait. Don’t rush.” Xia Yunzhao thought. “There are too many people on the other side. Charging in head-on definitely isn’t the answer. Let’s do this…”
＊
Wei Xuening was beside herself with anxiety. She knew this group of cultivators. They had previously operated around Beiliang City, committing every kind of evil and specifically targeting solitary cultivators. Killing people for treasure and robbing other robbers were commonplace.
It was precisely to avoid them that Wei Xuening and her companions had left Beiliang City for Qingxi City. She never expected to run into them as soon as the Mist-Barrier Period began.
What could they do now…? According to rumor, not a single wandering cultivator who fell into their hands ever escaped!
Even cultivators with sect backing could fall into their traps if they were not careful! Wei Xuening bitterly hated how low her cultivation was. If she possessed Golden Core cultivation, she would tear apart the magical artifact binding them and slaughter every last one of these villains!
The poor woman was already so frantic she had lost all reason and completely forgotten that if she were a Golden Core cultivator, this group never would have dared target her in the first place.
Just as she was about to lose her mind, a voice whispered softly behind them. “Fellow Daoists, keep quiet.”
All three immediately froze, their struggling stopping.
The voice continued, still very low. “Do the three Fellow Daoists remember me?”
Wei Xuening’s heart moved.
She remembered.
It was that strange Senior who bought Spirit-Eroding Vines!
She made a faint sound through her nose.
Xia Yunzhao continued, “In a moment, I’ll place a talisman on one of you. If all three of you hold hands, you’ll disappear at the same time. Follow me carefully and make no sound.”
All three immediately nodded like chickens pecking grain.
A talisman appeared in midair and attached itself to Wei Xuening. The three hurriedly took one another’s hands. The magical artifacts restraining them seemed to be cut by an invisible blade and dropped away.
“Follow me.”
The voice guided them from ahead. All three walked with extreme care, trying not to produce the slightest noise.
Sure enough, One-Eye’s group never noticed their escape. Every bit of their attention was fixed on the Si family in front.
They continued all the way toward the back of the valley, where a vine hung down the cliff.
“Quickly. Climb.”
The three gritted their teeth, loosened their hair and tied it together so they could remain connected, then climbed the vine at the same time. Someone was even waiting above to pull them up, and the vine rapidly rose.
The instant the three reached the top and saw a figure, they hurriedly cried, “Senior is still below!”
The words had barely left them when two figures came climbing up from the bottom hand in hand.
So the vine had only been prepared for them.
“Huh? The Invisibility Talisman wore off?” Xia Yunzhao released Shang Shuangze’s hand. “That was close.”
What they had used was the invisibility rune Xia Yunzhao learned from the puppet. He had drawn blank talisman paper from the furnace before and tried reproducing the rune several times. To his surprise, he had actually succeeded. Unfortunately, he only possessed two sheets of blank paper and therefore only two Invisibility Talismans.
Luckily, his experiments had shown that people holding hands could become invisible together. Otherwise, he would have needed another plan.
Shang Shuangze slowly withdrew his hand and gave a quiet sound of acknowledgment.
Once Wei Xuening and the others saw that the two had safely climbed up too, they hurried over and gave a deep salute. “Thank you, Senior, for saving our lives again!”
Ying Yanyu said painfully, “Unfortunately, we hadn’t even had time to put away the Spirit-Eroding Vines we gathered for Senior before those people caught us! We found so many this time—about five full portions!”
Xia Yunzhao calculated. According to their previous arrangement, one portion of Spirit-Eroding Vines was enough for Xiao Qing to make roughly two pulls. Five portions… Wasn’t that an entire ten-pull?
His heart began hurting too. “…I-It’s fine. Being alive is what matters.”
Ying Yanyu nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes. Spirit-Eroding Vines really aren’t rare. There are even more now that the Mist-Barrier Period has begun, and nobody else wants them! Senior, next time we collect more, we’ll bring them to you for free.”
Yu Fanyang nodded repeatedly behind her and said softly, “Yes. Free.”
Xia Yunzhao still had not recovered and pressed a hand to his chest. “All right. Just be careful.”
Wei Xuening was somewhat more mature than her two companions. After thinking, she took out a small cloth pouch. “A plant cultivator wanted to buy seeds from low-level spirit herbs, so we accepted the job and gathered these. Those evil cultivators considered them worthless and did not take them. Please accept them now as thanks for risking yourself to save us.”
“This is actually useful.” Xia Yunzhao did not stand on ceremony and accepted the pouch. It was not a storage pouch, but the fabric was clearly unusual and contained abundant spiritual power.
“This pouch is woven from silk spun by Jade-Bearing Silkworms,” Wei Xuening explained, seeing his curiosity. “When used to store spirit plants and spirit seeds, it prevents their spiritual power from dissipating.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded, then asked, “There are plant cultivators in Qingxi City?”
“Yes,” Wei Xuening said. “That plant cultivator runs a shop in the underground market called Qingmu Pavilion, specializing in buying and selling spirit plants. The prices are very fair.”
Xia Yunzhao thought he should look for the place next time he went to the underground market. He had plenty of spirit plants he could not use and needed somewhere to sell them. Running a stall was one option, but he wanted his stall to remain specifically a pill stall. Selling every random thing he owned there would look rather low-class.
He opened the cloth pouch. Many kinds of seeds had been mixed together. He did not recognize quite a few, but one variety… Although he had never seen the seed itself, the medicinal properties felt extremely familiar. He exclaimed, “Are these Dew-Condensing Grass seeds? How come I’ve never seen Dew-Condensing Grass produce seeds?”
Xia Yunzhao had handled more Dew-Condensing Grass than he could count, yet he had never even seen it flower, much less produce seeds. He had always assumed it was simply the wrong season.
All three female cultivators laughed. “Senior must be joking. Gathering spirit seeds requires a technique. You can’t simply pluck them like ordinary grass.”
Xia Yunzhao felt sheepish and looked back at Shang Shuangze. Didn’t the two of us just pluck Scarlet Berry seeds by hand? They came right off.
Shang Shuangze immediately said, “Not every spirit seed requires a technique. Seeds from higher-level spirit plants can sometimes be gathered directly.”
He had barely spoken since appearing, but his sword-cultivator aura was unmistakable. Wei Xuening and the other two were somewhat afraid of him and immediately said, “Yes, Senior is correct. Our knowledge was too limited. Please do not take offense.”
Xia Yunzhao waved. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I really don’t know much about this. Is the technique for gathering seeds difficult? Where can I buy the cultivation method?”
“No need to buy one,” Ying Yanyu said with a smile. “I can teach you.” She casually found a spirit plant, formed a hand seal, and recited two short mnemonic lines. Sure enough, the plant moved and two seeds floated into her palm. “That is all.”
Xia Yunzhao copied it twice and found it extremely easy. “Right, I have something else I’d like to ask. Do you know where those two groups below came from?”
Naturally, Wei Xuening and the others would not refuse. They explained carefully.
“The people who captured us are wandering cultivators from Beiliang City. They gathered together and commit every kind of evil. Their leader is a monk named Hu Sha, at early Foundation Establishment. Rumor says he used to be an outer disciple of Fumo Temple, but no one knows what he did to get expelled. Afterward, he became a wandering cultivator. Every person in that group has killed countless people.”
“Oh, but the one-eyed cultivator isn’t one of them,” Ying Yanyu added. “We never saw One-Eye while we were in Beiliang City. From the way they speak, they seem to have encountered him only after arriving at Liancui Mountain.” She turned toward Yu Fanyang, and Yu Fanyang nodded. That was what the group had said.
“As for the Si family…” Wei Xuening asked, “Senior, do you know there are three cities around the Liancui Mountain Range?”
Xia Yunzhao nodded. “I’ve heard that. So far I only know Qingxi City and Beiliang City. I don’t know the third.”
“The last is Baishuangnan Prefecture, which is larger than Qingxi City and Beiliang City combined. Baishuangnan Prefecture is Si family territory. The Si family is an affiliated family of Yunjiangguan, and with Yunjiangguan behind them, their word is law throughout Baishuangnan Prefecture.”
Wei Xuening continued, “That one-eyed cultivator seems to have offended the Si family. He happened to flee into Liancui Mountain during the Mist-Barrier Period. From the way he acts, I suspect he wants to provoke Hu Sha’s group into fighting the Si family so he can profit from both sides.”
Xia Yunzhao analyzed what he had just learned. “Forget Hu Sha’s group for the moment. What kind of reputation does the Si family have?”
Ying Yanyu thought. “They are a powerful family, but as far as I know, they don’t behave very differently from other cultivation families. I have heard that Si Kongzhuo, the man leading the pursuit, has a decent reputation.”
Once Xia Yunzhao had asked everything he wanted to know, Wei Xuening and the others tactfully said farewell and left.
After the three were gone, Shang Shuangze, who had been silent all this time, asked, “Home?”
“Not yet.” Xia Yunzhao raised a hand and summoned Yun Yi.
Yun Yi had been the one pulling the vine and helping the three female cultivators up earlier. Xia Yunzhao had deliberately kept the puppet far away, so they never realized what it was and merely assumed another eccentric Senior had been helping them.
Xia Yunzhao instructed Yun Yi to guard the surroundings, then simply pulled Shang Shuangze down to sit. “Do you think the two groups below are going to fight?”
Shang Shuangze placed Mingyun on his other side and looked at Xia Yunzhao. “Hm?”
Xia Yunzhao rubbed his ear and said furtively, “I looked into the valley earlier. There’s such a huge patch of Spirit-Gathering Grass! There might be more than a thousand plants!” His heart ached. “If they fight, they won’t destroy all those spirit herbs, will they?”
He held up one finger for emphasis.
A thousand.
A whole thousand plants!