Cooperation

He Ping's expression grew increasingly solemn as he listened to Chixinzi.

"You mean to say that our common enemy is actually Wu Yousheng, and that our struggle against one another is meaningless? Yet, you also claim that we disciples of the Immortal Puppet Sect are nothing but venomous insects in a jar. How, then, am I to know if you, Chixinzi, are not simply trying to become the King of these Insects?"

A strange glint flashed in the murky yellow eyes behind Chixinzi's Wood-Carved Mask.

"Junior Brother's concerns are naturally well-founded. However, there are five disciples to whom Wu Yousheng has secretly imparted his teachings. If you and I fight to the death, leaving both sides crippled, who would that benefit? Compared to mutual slaughter in a bid to become the Insect King, my own thoughts are somewhat different."

"How so?"

He Ping asked coldly.

Chixinzi could feel the hostility emanating from He Ping within the sedan chair diminish significantly. The tense, hair-trigger atmosphere between them eased, and the muscles across his body gradually relaxed.

"I have often pondered whether the way the Immortal Puppet Sect passes down its lineage is somewhat peculiar..."

The Green-Robed Person sat atop the giant centipede, no longer cross-legged, but instead stretching his legs out in a relaxed manner and rubbing his knees a few times.

"For years, I have secretly inquired into the secrets of the Immortal Puppet Sect, yet I have found almost no clues regarding our sect's intelligence. As for other sects in the outside world, even the other factions among the Nine Evils of Longevity know very little about the inner workings of our lineage."

Chixinzi let out a dry laugh.

"Tell me, Junior Brother He, do you not feel that there are hidden keys here that others know nothing about?"

(Could this fellow Chixinzi actually know that I have been secretly investigating the Immortal Puppet Sect?)

Hearing this, He Ping had to admit that he was indeed curious about this point, and his hands, which had been tucked into his sleeves, dropped to his sides.

"I have also investigated privately. It is said that the Immortal Puppet Sect was formerly known as the 'Puppet Sect,' a heretical sect regarded as a thorn in the side of the Great You Dynasty. It was wiped out by the imperial army, and perhaps that is the reason for its disappearance."

"Haha, the imperial government has always regarded the Dragon Worship Sect in the north, the Mud Sect in the southern seas, and various rebel armies—the Gutless Army, Chuangta Tian, and the remnants of the previous dynasty—as thorns in their eyes and flesh. Yet, after all these years, when have they ever truly eradicated them?"

Chixinzi shook his head.

"The Immortal Puppet Sect has always acted in secrecy. To put it bluntly, this style of concealment has reached a pathological and absurd degree. You speak of Wu Yousheng as our master, but apart from him, have you ever heard of any other members of the Immortal Puppet Sect? Do you know of any other elders of the sect besides me?"

He Ping pondered this, attempting to grasp Chixinzi's line of reasoning, and so he followed up with a question of his own.

"This perhaps suggests that our Immortal Puppet Sect is simply a sect that uses a small number of disciples as 'insects,' maintaining a style of single-line transmission from beginning to end."

"If that were the case, then who was it that taught Wu Yousheng the Formless Secret Treasury? A master who has entered the Dao can live for at least two hundred years. The earliest record of Wu Yousheng's appearance was sixty years ago. What was the situation sixty years before that?

I have investigated for a long time and have heard no further clues related to this person. Furthermore, the imperial court claims to have wiped out the Immortal Puppet Sect a hundred years ago, yet there is no relevant information to be found. I highly doubt the records from the government side; I wonder how much of that 'extermination war' was fabricated."

Chixinzi said in a low voice, "Those in our sect are most skilled at the trick of 'substituting a peach for a plum'—the art of replacing the real with the fake. Did a sect truly exist in the previous generation of the Immortal Puppet Sect? Could it be that it was merely an empty shell hidden somewhere?"

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

He Ping was annoyed by his beating around the bush, his tone growing increasingly impatient.

"Wu Yousheng is not necessarily raising insects; he is merely treating us disciples as living puppets. When we reach the final moment of mutual slaughter, and when we have successfully refined our bodies with secret techniques, he will seize our consciousness and refine us once more with his secret arts."

Chixinzi shook his head again, his smile fading as he spoke softly.

"This way, without much effort, he gains a puppet with strength comparable to one who has entered the Dao. If he is lucky, he can harvest the other disciples he killed to create a powerful Dao-level puppet."

He had deliberately lowered his voice before, but now his tone rose to a sharp pitch.

"What if, from the very beginning, this so-called Immortal Puppet Sect never had a single legitimate member, but was entirely composed of successive batches of living puppets? What if Wu Yousheng himself is just a puppet? Above him, there is an invisible hand manipulating everything, generation after generation, controlling the so-called members of the Immortal Puppet Sect like marionettes. We, our predecessors, and the generations before them—we are all just dolls on this puppet stage. Everything, absolutely everything, is just making wedding clothes for someone else."

Hearing this, He Ping felt a chill run down his spine.

Admittedly, Chixinzi's claims might not necessarily be true, but the implication behind them caused a bone-deep chill to permeate from his back to his very marrow.

"Junior Brother He, as I said before, I intend to give you some compensation for today's events."

Chixinzi changed the subject.

"I see that although you suffer from 'Blood Leakage Syndrome,' when you fought me and channeled your energy, your intent was complete and without the slightest hesitation. I suspect you are practicing the Soul-Forging Palace technique known as the 'Nine Palaces Bright Moon Ascension Method'."

He took an object from his sleeve—a thin, yellowed booklet with aged paper—and spun it through the air, where it was caught by a paper doll in the distance.

"This is another internal cultivation method from the Formless Secret Treasury that Wu Yousheng passed on to me. I observe that your cultivation should have already completed all nine Soul Palaces, yet you have nowhere left to advance. This is because the Formless Secret Treasury contains five volumes of internal cultivation methods, and the Soul-Forging Palace is only one of them.

The secret technique recorded in this thin yellow booklet is called the 'Body Cultivation Furnace.' It specializes in cultivating the 'four limbs and five senses' and can compensate for some of the flaws in the sect techniques you have learned."

The yellow booklet landed in the hands of the paper doll, which inspected it thoroughly before delivering it into He Ping's sedan chair.

Once he had it in his hands, he flipped through the pages. He discovered that the yellow booklet contained extensive text, complete diagrams, and annotations in red ink, detailing the 'Body Cultivation Furnace' method for cultivating the 'four limbs and five senses.'

The meaning of the Body Cultivation Furnace: the 'four limbs' refer to the hands and feet, while the 'five senses' refer to color, sound, scent, taste, and touch.

This internal cultivation method differed from the 'Soul-Forging Palace' in its approach, yet they led to the same destination. One focused on condensing the spirit and soul, while the other treated the physical body as the primordial fetus of one's nature, following a path of transforming the form and quality to rectify innate defects.

"Color, scent, taste, and touch have not yet left the dust; the clear intent naturally transcends the empty wheel. The spirit platform sings in harmony, and the grid is balanced; bright as ice cores nestled in frost-covered bamboo..."

After reading the preface of the yellow booklet, He Ping felt he had gained immensely.

"Indeed, if the Soul-Forging Palace method gains the assistance of this Body Cultivation Furnace, transforming the form, shedding the old, and aligning the physical body with the Dao, it could truly complement each other perfectly... Wait a moment. The secret technique in this booklet is of great use to me. Why is Chixinzi being so generous? What is his intention?"

Thinking of this, He Ping lifted the sedan curtain, his sharp gaze piercing the Green-Robed Person sitting atop the Red-Scaled Earth-Armored Centipede Dragon.

"Junior Brother He, rest assured. This is merely a small favor to build goodwill."

Chixinzi naturally understood his intent and wore a smile.

"By the way, I wonder if you are interested in the matter of the 'Life-Stealing Bone Bowl'? Your Senior Brother here possesses quite a bit of important information—for instance, the origin of that bowl and its current whereabouts. Does Junior Brother have any interest in discussing this in detail...?"