Auction

"It was incredibly difficult to forge a puppet out of thin air. Even an ordinary puppet standing as tall as a person was no easy task."

"If I had a puppet to take apart and study at leisure, it might help me quite a bit."

After his ninth failure, Lu Qingfeng found Mu Yuanyi and asked him to purchase two low-level puppets from within the Spirit Mechanisms Institute.

Mu Yuanyi readily agreed.

However, the Spirit Mechanisms Institute was currently operating at full capacity. Under the Hundred Crafts Sect's command, it was constantly putting down one beast tide after another, while also clashing with experts from the Ghost Spirit Sect lurking in the shadows. Every disciple was living in fear, and all kinds of puppets were part of their strength. Naturally, they would not sell them easily.

Mu Yuanyi did not dare guarantee that he could buy them.

"This Ghost Spirit Sect!"

After hearing this, Lu Qingfeng could not help developing an even stronger dislike for the Ghost Spirit Sect.

If this had been a time of peace, with Mu Yuanyi's connections, purchasing two low-level puppets would have been as easy as turning over one's hand.

Now, though, it had become a difficult matter.

And even if he could buy them, the price would be several times higher than before.

No wonder Lu Qingfeng was dissatisfied with the Ghost Spirit Sect.

With no other choice, and with puppet samples temporarily unavailable, Lu Qingfeng obviously could not take the puppets in the Yuanyi Guild apart for casual study.

He could only continue trying to forge them himself.

There were many classifications of puppets.

In finer detail, one type required someone to reside inside it to control it; another could be controlled remotely through a Thousand Mechanisms Stone; and yet another could act independently according to commands.

According to their purpose, there were battle puppets, auxiliary puppets, special puppets, and so on.

According to their appearance, they could further be divided into humanoid puppets, beast-shaped puppets, and so on.

The first puppets Lu Qingfeng studied were still humanoid puppets.

To forge a humanoid puppet, he first had to construct a human shape out of metal, special materials, or a demon beast skeleton. Depending on the design, a puppet could be large or small.

For example, the giant puppet controlled by Mu Yuanyi was enormous, making it convenient to inscribe all kinds of talisman arrays. The more talisman arrays it had, the greater its power naturally was.

Lu Qingfeng had looked into it.

That giant puppet was a Sixth-Level Puppet. With Mu Yuanyi residing inside it, it could display the might of the Fourth Realm of Foundation Establishment—the Body Tempering Realm—and was virtually invincible among Foundation Establishment cultivators!

However, this kind of giant puppet was supported throughout by the skeleton of a Mountain-Pushing Beast. Its outer skeleton was made of Black Iron, while Cloud Essence Stone had been refined into the various internal joints. The tendons of fifth- and sixth-rank demon beasts, along with the Millennium Rubber produced by the Millennium Ancient Oak, connected its various joints.

Of these materials, Lu Qingfeng could barely obtain the Black Iron.

The rest—whether the Mountain-Pushing Beast skeleton, Cloud Essence Stone, the tendons of fifth- and sixth-rank demon beasts, or Millennium Rubber—were all extremely difficult to gather in Miaoyin City.

Not to mention the Mithril used to outline the talisman arrays on the giant puppet, or the spirit water used to tan the beast tendons!

Thus, he directly skipped over giant puppets.

For Lu Qingfeng, small puppets were the easiest to forge in the real world.

Three days passed in a flash.

Lu Qingfeng had gained a little more insight into tanning the tendons of ordinary beasts and first- and second-rank demon beasts. However, he still needed to practice diligently before he could refine talisman arrays into the tendons.

At this moment, a small auction jointly initiated by the major guilds of Sishui Town began.

Lu Qingfeng went there together with Mu Yuanyi, Zhang Zong, Wang Tao, and the other senior figures of the Yuanyi Guild.

Since coming into contact with cultivation, this was the first time Lu Qingfeng had attended an auction in the game, setting aside the real world!

An immortal martial world!

Before transmigrating, Lu Qingfeng had learned about it through various online novels. What had left the deepest impression on him was the chain of market towns in the cultivation world, along with the large and small black-market and open-market auctions found everywhere.

Lu Qingfeng felt somewhat expectant.

"At this auction, besides all kinds of demon beast materials, there are also quite a few damaged puppets and magical artifacts. Old Lu, you've been obsessed with puppets lately, so you can broaden your horizons." Zhang Zong walked shoulder to shoulder with Lu Qingfeng as he spoke.

"Old Zhang is right."

"Although those puppets have no value to repair, buying them to study or dismantling their components to repair other puppets would still be making the best use of them."

Hearing Zhang Zong's words, Mu Yuanyi turned around and smiled at Lu Qingfeng. "Old Lu, if you make a bid and win one, after you finish studying it, you can consider selling the components to the guild at a low price."

The Spirit Mechanisms Institute ruled over three hundred li of mountains and nine great cities.

The various guilds were the vanguard in handling the beast tides.

Faced with endless beast tides, even puppets with formidable defenses might be destroyed through one moment of carelessness, or suffer various irreparable damage and thus be scrapped.

Abandoning scrapped puppets would inevitably be wasteful.

If they belonged to the guilds, their useful components would be dismantled and reused. Some people also directly sold damaged puppets through various channels.

There would certainly be no shortage of these damaged puppets at this small auction in Sishui Town.

After hearing this, Lu Qingfeng grew even more expectant.

Soon, they arrived at Sishui Town.

The auction venue was located in Sishui Town's central square, which already looked nothing like it had when Lu Qingfeng first arrived.

"Towering buildings rise from level ground!"

"What a grand undertaking!"

Lu Qingfeng looked up at the tall building before him and could not help sighing.

The formerly empty square had been built over the years into a large pagoda-shaped structure. The First Layer below still had a spacious appearance, with the various guilds stationed there.

The Second Layer and Third Layer consisted of rows of seats.

When there was no auction, these seats became small stalls, just like the market in Black Sand Town. Once the various guilds held an auction, the seats would be temporarily requisitioned and used as VIP seats.

When Lu Qingfeng and the other senior figures of the Yuanyi Guild entered, they went straight to the Third Layer.

On the same layer as them were the seven old-established guilds of Sishui Town, the top eight guilds of Pingshan Town, and disciples from the Spirit Mechanisms Institute.

The Second Layer was for the emerging guilds of the two towns and the well-known rogue cultivators from nearby.

The First Layer was for rogue cultivators with no backing whatsoever.

Lu Qingfeng looked toward the First Layer. Seeing that hundreds of rogue cultivators had already arrived before long, he could not help asking in surprise, "There are so many rogue cultivators near Sishui Town?"

He did not often travel outside, so he truly did not understand these circumstances.

"Of course there are."

"Ever since the Spirit Mechanisms Institute occupied three hundred li of Emerald Screen Mountain, and then Sishui and Pingshan gradually took shape, the number of rogue cultivators gathered nearby has continued to rise. After the various guilds were established, the rise and fall of the guilds caused cultivation methods to spread everywhere, and rogue cultivators multiplied explosively. That was how today's scale came about." Mu Yuanyi explained from beside him.

Among these rogue cultivators, if one or two managed to make something of themselves, they would establish a lineage. If it happened to be passed down, that would become the embryonic form of a cultivation lineage.

Besides this source, disciples of the Spirit Mechanisms Institute might also marry, establish careers, and support their descendants in cultivating and entering the Dao. Over time, this could also form a lineage bound together by blood.

At present, the Spirit Mechanisms Institute had only been established for a short time, and no cultivation lineages had yet emerged.

However, within the Hundred Crafts Sect, there were quite a few cultivation lineages that drifted between the sect and the outside world.

Likewise, cities such as Dusk Mountain City had cultivation lineages settled within them. These cultivation lineages were often not very strong. Although they had many descendants, very few could truly embark on the path of cultivation and become Foundation Establishment Grand Cultivators.

"I see."

Listening to Mu Yuanyi, Wang Tao, and the others explain and elaborate, Lu Qingfeng gained a deeper understanding of this world and became even more integrated into it.