Summoning the Disciples

Wang Ping was studying how to move a puppet's core from its head to its heart—or perhaps install two cores. It sounded simple, but carrying it out was exceedingly difficult.

The fixed rune circuits inside a puppet had been tested and verified by countless predecessors over thousands of years before they could allow a puppet to move like a human. If Wang Ping wanted to alter those rune circuits, the first problem he had to solve was energy balance.

Fortunately, with his current cultivation, he could simulate hundreds of circuit diagrams in his mind within a few breaths and find the optimal solution. What remained was to conduct experiments slowly. It still consumed a great deal of time, but compared to the time his predecessors had spent compiling the foundational knowledge of formation arrays, it was merely a drop in the ocean.

"You're here. Sit."

Still focused on the puppet components in his hands, Wang Ping gestured for Leng Kezhen and Qingjiang to sit opposite him.

Neither Leng Kezhen nor Qingjiang actually sat down. As they entered the small courtyard, Yulian descended from the clouds. She glanced at them, rolled over beneath the eaves, and fell asleep in the warm early-autumn sunlight.

By then, Wang Ping had assembled the puppet's arm component. He connected it to a puppet body whose core was located in its heart and asked, "You have both heard of the Star God Alliance, yes?"

"Yes!"

"I have."

The two answered at the same time.

Wang Ping activated the core in the puppet's heart to control the arm component. As he tested various movements, he recorded the data on bamboo slips. Though bamboo slips took up space, they were more useful than paper for cultivators, because cultivators used spiritual energy to engrave words. Paper was too thin