This is a Puppet? This is a Peptide Bond!

Qin Muye was completely bewildered as he viewed the world through the new puppet's perspective.

Wasn't Pu Mingzhu supposed to be Li Xingluo's head maid?

What was the deal with this beautiful woman in palace attire?

He had racked his brains and gone through the boss-hiring process, only to realize he had targeted the wrong boss?

Qin Muye felt that this woman's mental state was a bit off; he wanted to escape, but he couldn't.

He only had two modes of operation for his puppets.

One was immersive control, which required the puppet to acknowledge him as its master, functioning almost like a clone.

The second was autopilot, where actions relied entirely on a copy of his consciousness etched into the spirit core, following the puppet master's commands. Aside from high-difficulty tasks like crafting puppets, it could handle almost anything else without issue.

Since the puppet hadn't acknowledged him as its master yet, he could only observe from the sidelines unless he forcibly activated administrator privileges.

Forcibly seizing control of the puppet to flee would have severe repercussions, so Qin Muye wouldn't do it lightly.

But what on earth was this woman trying to do?

Judging by the fanatical look in her eyes, she was surely up to no good.

Under his gaze, the woman in palace attire pricked her fingertip and gently touched it to the spirit core at the puppet's brow. The next moment, her blood merged into the core, and in an instant, the puppet acknowledged her as its master.

With a slight shift of her gaze, the puppet picked up a hairpin from the table and skillfully placed it in her hair.

It even picked up the tea from the table and handed it to her.

The woman in palace attire was overjoyed, yet she made no further moves.

Instead, she sat down cross-legged.

Qin Muye was puzzled. What exactly was this woman planning?

He saw the woman in palace attire flip her right hand, and a clump of yellow-white material appeared in her palm.

It looked a bit like...

Human skin!?!?!?

At the Weapon-Forging Platform, the Wooden Head had already put his bamboo hat back on.

Although every other artificer besides the Bamboo Hat Man had been eliminated, none of them had left. They all stood there quietly, waiting to see if the puppet crafted by the Bamboo Hat Man could be sold.

Gongshu Songting had already jumped down from the platform, staring at the Bamboo Hat Man with vacant eyes.

It wasn't that his Dao heart was fragile.

It was simply that the more knowledge a person possessed, the more they would feel awe toward the unknown.

His son, whom he took such pride in, possessed monstrous talent unseen in ages. Even before reaching adulthood, his understanding of weapon-forging already surpassed that of the clan elders.

But all Gongshu Xia had done was interpret the Gongshu Clan's traditions; while he had come up with many novel methods, he hadn't actually broken through the limitations of his predecessors' knowledge.

If one were to truly judge forging mastery, Gongshu Xia still had a long way to go before catching up to his own father.

That was why he could be fearless in his ignorance.

Puppets that acted like living beings were not unheard of in this world—the Gu Puppet of Nanzhao, the tiger-demon's thralls, and even some highly skilled corpse-drivers could achieve such things—but those were living creatures turned into puppets!

The materials used for this puppet were inanimate objects. To refine dead matter into something that acted like a living being was a technique he had never even heard of.

Gongshu Songting's gaze never once left the Bamboo Hat Man.

If one does not understand forging, seeing him is like a frog at the bottom of a well looking up at the moon.

If one does understand forging, seeing him is like a mayfly looking up at the vast blue sky!

So, how was this achieved?

While he was lost in his trance, Gongshu Songting suddenly noticed the Bamboo Hat Man looking at him, so he quickly cupped his hands and said, "Your methods are miraculous, sir. I am full of admiration."

A gentle laugh came from beneath the bamboo hat: "Clan Master Gongshu is too kind. I merely possess some strange talent for puppet-refining and had a bit of luck. On the contrary, Clan Master Gongshu, your forging mastery already possesses the bearing of a divine craftsman, and your son's talent is truly peerless. I was genuinely stunned by his performance today."

Gongshu Songting's expression softened slightly, and he gave a bitter smile: "Thank you for your praise, sir!"

In this Puppet Assembly, the Gongshu Clan had lost all face.

This man could be considered to have salvaged some dignity for them.

Gongshu Xia laughed heartily: "Brother, I'll take that as a genuine compliment!"

Luo Qing waited for the Bamboo Hat Man to praise him as well.

But he waited for a long time and heard nothing.

His face twitched. It was one thing for Gongshu Xia to ignore me, but on what grounds do you ignore me too?

They were all arrogant, insufferable jerks!

Staying any longer would only be asking for humiliation.

He snorted coldly and flicked his sleeves, leaving immediately.

Unexpectedly, just as he squeezed out of the crowd, he saw Bai Yuji linking arms with Qin Muye as they both boarded a carriage.

Luo Qing was already feeling stifled, and seeing this scene only made his chest tighten further.

Driven by an inexplicable impulse, he followed them.

Inside the carriage.

Bai Yuji asked with concern, "Are you alright?"

Back in the private room, Qin Muye's mental state had been listless, and he had barely watched the Puppet Assembly.

She had checked his pulse and felt his mental exhaustion was severe, yet she could not discern the source of the drain.

From a healer's perspective, symptoms with no identifiable cause were the most dangerous, especially since Qin Muye was still in the recovery phase.

She felt uneasy and had lost all interest in the Puppet Assembly, yet Qin Muye insisted on watching.

She did not want to dampen his spirits; after all, Qin Muye spent most of his time recuperating at home, and their outing was merely a performance—he truly wanted to experience the excitement of the Puppet Assembly.

Furthermore, not wanting to worry Qin Yanying, she had kept quiet, waiting only to whisk Qin Muye home as soon as it ended.

Qin Muye rubbed his head and shook it, saying, "It's nothing, you don't need to worry."

Refining puppets was a high-difficulty operation, especially when refining puppets through other puppets. His soul had only been at the seventh rank earlier, so he had indeed struggled, but now that it had risen to the fifth rank, his spirit had naturally improved significantly.

Bai Yuji glared at him. "How can I not worry? If something happens to you, my entire plan will be ruined. Do not leave the house for the next few days; stay home and rest. Do you hear me?"

Qin Muye curled his lip. "I'm really fine. If you don't believe me, check my pulse!"

Bai Yuji naturally did not believe him, but after her slender fingers rested on Qin Muye's pulse, she discovered that his heart rate had indeed stabilized significantly, and his eyes had regained some clarity.

She asked with some confusion, "Did you have something on your mind earlier? Why was your mental exhaustion so severe?"

"A little, perhaps."

"Then what were you thinking about?"

"Watching those people refine puppets, I felt that I am much like those puppets. I look like a person, I can eat, drink, and move, but in reality, my arms and legs are attached to countless invisible threads, held in the hands of different people."

"Some want me to go east, others want me to go west."

"I don't know when they might pull me in different directions."

"Other than ending up scattered all over the ground, there is no other outcome for me."

Qin Muye spouted nonsense.

His tone was calm, but the more he spoke, the more suffocated Bai Yuji felt, as if someone were gripping her heart tightly.

She felt that Qin Muye was pitiful. A few days ago, she had probed around Qin Yanying's side, and it was true that Qin Kaijiang rarely wrote to Qin Muye.

In the southwest, there was the biological father whose marrow he had once donated to save.

In the Capital City, there was the Emperor who viewed him as a nephew.

Both sides held the threads in their hands, trapping him in a cage where he could not move.

She looked at Qin Muye and found him leaning against the carriage window, eyes closed to rest.

She wanted to offer him a few words of comfort, but she could not bring herself to speak.

Because she, too, was one of those holding the threads; she felt she was unworthy.

Qin Muye kept his eyes closed, using the vision of his new puppet to guardedly watch the beautiful woman in palace attire.

"Rustle..."

The human skin was withered, and amidst the flowing true essence, it rustled like dry leaves in the wind.

But as the true essence was poured in, the dim, withered skin began to look like flowers and plants nourished by water, becoming fresh and vibrant once more.

Finally.

The skin looked as if it had just been peeled off a person, though it was only a large portion—presumably, it hadn't been peeled off completely.

The woman in palace attire unfolded the skin, looking at it with utter intoxication, then waved her hand to remove the puppet's clothing and draped the skin over the puppet.

Qin Muye: "..."

Damn it!

What kind of pervert is this woman?

And whose skin was this, anyway?

He hadn't seen clearly earlier.

But fortunately, the woman in palace attire was very considerate; she actually took the puppet by the hand and led it to a mirror.

Upon seeing the person in the mirror.

Qin Muye was completely numb.

Good heavens, my father?

The beautiful woman in palace attire embraced the puppet's waist from behind, gazing at the two of them in the mirror with a face full of bliss as she murmured, "Kaijiang! I have finally obtained you!"

Qin Muye: "???"

Because of the first-person perspective, he felt as though he were being molested.

Although this woman in palace attire was stunningly beautiful, her expression and gaze were those of a lovesick fool, giving off the vibe of a battle-hardened sugar mommy toying with a fresh-faced gigolo.

Just one look, and as a grown man, he felt violated.

While Qin Muye might have enjoyed adult films of this genre in the past, this scene had far too many layers of debauchery stacked on top of each other.

Lovesick woman, biological father, human skin...

Fortunately, he hadn't made the puppet too high-end; it only possessed basic tactile sensations.

Most importantly, this was a proper puppet; he hadn't installed any "equipment" down there.

Otherwise, something truly eye-searing would definitely happen in a moment.

Qin Muye gave himself a thumbs-up for his own wit.

But just then.

The woman in palace attire walked over holding an exquisite box, opened it, took out the contents, and began sewing them onto the puppet.

Qin Muye: "???"

Are you kidding me?

You spent four thousand spirit stones just to buy Purple Mood?

I worked so hard to refine this puppet, and you're treating it like a peptide bond?

This plot is way too wrong!

Qin Muye felt his own body acting up as well, so he hurriedly exited the OB System.

Then, he opened his eyes inside the carriage.

He happened to lock eyes with Bai Yuji.

Bai Yuji looked somewhat anxious: "Your pulse is very erratic; it should be the effect of this morning's medicine, but why is the congestion refusing to clear?"

Qin Muye: "???"

Wait, no?

Do I have such heavy tastes?