Cen Qing stared blankly at her husband, Xiangli Wei, her eyes filled with heartbreaking sorrow.
The night breeze swept through the waterside pavilion, stirring her long, ink-black hair. A few strands clung to her bloodless cheeks, adding to her fragile beauty.
Her red lips parted as if she wanted to explain something, but in the end, all that escaped her was a barely audible whimper.
A crystalline tear slipped from the corner of her eye. The instant it left her lashes, it solidified in midair into a flawless pearl. With a soft plop, it rolled to the bottom of the pool.
That pearl struck Xiangli Wei's heart like a heavy hammer.
He couldn't help but falter.
Seeing his wife looking so heartbreakingly vulnerable, memories of their past flooded his mind.
She had used the wealth of the Shark Person clan to make their residence splendid, sparing him the burden of mundane affairs so he could focus on Mechanism Art;
She had gently encouraged him whenever one of his experiments failed and left him disheartened;
And she, a princess, had managed the household for him and navigated the undercurrents of officialdom...
She had personally experienced the First Emperor's cruelty toward the Shark Person clan. Faced with the emperor's impending arrival, she was afraid and wanted to flee. He couldn't entirely blame her for that...
A trace of regret and compassion quietly stirred, overwhelming his initial fury.
Xiangli Wei's tense expression softened slightly. Without thinking, he took a small step forward and reached out to touch Cen Qing's trembling cheek, as though he could erase their bitter confrontation and return to how things had been.
"Qing'er, I..." His voice lowered.
But just as his fingertips were about to touch her icy skin—
A sudden change!
The tearful vulnerability vanished from Cen Qing's eyes, replaced by the cold, ruthless gleam of a beast!
Her mournful expression twisted into a sneer full of scorn and murderous intent.
"Heh..."
A brief, cold laugh forced its way from her throat.
Then she lunged forward, like a venomous snake that had been coiled and waiting, and burst into action with astonishing speed!
She opened her mouth. Her teeth, once as white and even as polished shells, had grown long and sharp, glinting coldly. With blinding speed, she sank them into Xiangli Wei's unguarded neck.
They were too close, and it happened too fast!
Xiangli Wei could even smell the faint briny scent of the sea on her breath. He could see her pupils, right before him, contract into dangerous slits.
"Chomp!"
The sound of teeth sinking into flesh made one's own teeth ache.
Warm blood gushed out, soaking Xiangli Wei's collar and staining Cen Qing's lips and teeth...
Blue-gold mechanisms burst skyward from beneath the residence, while a colossal wave shaped like a fish swallowed the pavilions and terraces of Xiangli Residence.
Pillars snapped, the roof was torn away, and the rockeries and potted landscapes crumbled to dust. The clash between Mohist mechanisms and Shark Person secret arts erupted in an instant!
"You received guidance from Jiang Yan, the current Libationer of Jixia Academy. You unlocked Mechanism Art specialization."
"Current Mechanism Art specialization: 10%"
"You received guidance from Jiang Yan, the current Libationer of Jixia Academy. Your Mechanism Art specialization increased by 12%."
"Current Mechanism Art specialization: 22%"
"..."
"Current Mechanism Art specialization: 70%"
I didn't expect the 70% bottleneck in Mechanism Art specialization to break through so easily. Could I really be a genius?
Unable to wait any longer, he picked up the two bamboo slips beside him.
Essential Art of Puppetry
Category: Skill Visualization Object
Quality: Rare
Records the method of inscribing a spirit and opening a pivot, binding a soul within an aperture. Use spiritual jade as the heart and draw talismans as veins, allowing inanimate objects to briefly gain spiritual awareness and obey commands.
Spend Yanfu Points to study this text and perform a skill visualization. There is a chance of obtaining a related skill. Visualized skills do not occupy skill slots. The chance of success is related to the Walker's relevant specialization.
Each visualization costs 50 Yanfu Points.
Basic requirements: Ancient Text specialization 50%, Mechanism Art specialization 70%
Puppet Form Technique
Category: Skill Visualization Object
Quality: Rare
Discusses the construction of mechanical bones and joints, and the transmission of power. Using the essence of metal, stone, and wood as a foundation, one can imitate birds, beasts, or human forms to create puppets for patrolling, hauling, and combat.
Spend Yanfu Points to study this text and perform a skill visualization. There is a chance of obtaining a related skill. Visualized skills do not occupy skill slots. The chance of success is related to the Walker's relevant specialization.
Each visualization costs 50 Yanfu Points.
Basic requirements: Ancient Text specialization 55%, Mechanism Art specialization 70%
Yanfu explained "visualization" as an opportunity to experience a skill deeply: the force and technique involved in using it, the toll it took on one's energy and spirit, the strain it placed on the body, and even the desperate urgency of standing on the brink of life and death.
A skill visualization might let one grasp the skill directly, or even draw inferences from related principles and comprehend a skill of one's own. Of course, it might also come to nothing.
Chen Jin focused his mind and began visualizing Puppet Form Technique.
His consciousness seemed to be drawn into a microscopic world made of gears, bearings, and spirit threads.
At first, simple skeletons of walking beasts and flying birds took shape before his "eyes," jointed together and demonstrating the most basic principles of balance and power transmission.
The scene shifted, and the designs grew increasingly complex and ingenious. They began to imitate the legendary Azure Dragon, its serpentine body exerting force segment by segment; the White Tiger, whose joints exploded into motion as it pounced; the Vermilion Bird, whose wings rode the currents of air; and the Black Tortoise, whose shell formed the basis of a defensive puppet...
Each divine beast represented the pinnacle of mechanical design.
As he visualized Essential Art of Puppetry, his perspective shifted inside a humanoid puppet.
He "felt" how the spirit jade heart pivot was carved and made to pulse, supplying energy to the entire body;
He "saw" how the "veins" of inscribed runes channeled energy precisely to every fingertip and heel;
He "experienced" how, when specific sequences of runes activated different "apertures," a puppet could perform techniques even its creator might not have mastered. A puppet designed specifically for swordsmanship, for instance, had arm joints that moved and exerted force in perfect harmony with the essence of a certain sword style. A puppet made for alchemy could control the heat with a precision and consistency beyond the reach of human alchemists.
As he grasped the core "power source" of puppets, Chen Jin clearly sensed the difference between the Qi Mohists and the Qin Mohists.
The Qin Mohists' mechanical creations, such as the [Xuanhu Armored Warrior] and the [Vermilion Bird Annihilation Wing] he had seen, drew much of their immense power from their connection to the ubiquitous Law Eye system in the sky. They could draw almost limitless energy from the empire's legal network to drive their massive frames through high-intensity combat.
The Qi Mohists, by contrast, wielded a more ancient method, one closer to nature: "Draw in the essence of the sun and moon, absorb the spiritual workings of heaven and earth, store them in the core, and let the puppet move on its own, enduring through the years."
In short, they made a core for the puppet that could absorb and store solar and tidal energy, then use it as a power source.
Though this power source might initially be less overwhelming than the Qin Mohists' Law Eye supply, it had the advantage of being self-sustaining and independent of outside forces.
Understanding the principles gave him the confidence to put them into practice.
Aside from eating, sleeping, washing, and other necessities, Chen Jin spent almost all his time in the Library Pavilion over the days that followed.
He selected suitable materials and, guided by the "feel" he had gained through visualization, began turning the blueprints in his mind into reality, step by step.
The air was filled with the fragrance of spiritwood, the chill of metal, and the distinctive fluctuations of energy as he carved runes. Immersed in the study and invention of Mechanism Art, he worked tirelessly.