He Ping's expression grew ever more solemn as he listened to Chixinzi.
"You mean our true common enemy is Wu Yousheng. In other words, there's no point in fighting among ourselves. But you also said that we disciples of the Immortal Puppet Sect are all venomous insects in a Gu. How can I know you, Chixinzi, don't want to become the king of this Gu?"
A strange glint flashed in the murky yellow eyes behind Chixinzi's Wood-Carved Mask.
"Your concerns are only natural, junior brother. But Wu Yousheng secretly passed on his teachings to five disciples. If we fight one another and end up both badly wounded, who benefits? Compared with slaughtering each other to become the Gu King, I, your senior brother, have a different idea."
"How is it different?"
He Ping asked coldly.
Chixinzi could sense that the hostility coming from He Ping's sedan had diminished considerably. The tense standoff between them had eased, and the muscles taut across his body were gradually relaxing.
"There's something I often wonder about. Isn't the way the Immortal Puppet Sect passes down its teachings rather strange?"
The Green-Robed Person sat astride the giant centipede. He no longer sat cross-legged, instead stretching out his legs in a relaxed manner and rubbing his knees a few times.
"For many years, I've secretly investigated the Immortal Puppet Sect's secrets, yet I've found almost nothing about our own sect. As for other sects in the outside world, even the other forces among the Nine Evils of Longevity know little about the inner workings of our branch."
Chixinzi gave a dry chuckle.
"Tell me, Junior Brother He, don't you think there's some hidden catch that others don't know about?"
Could this fellow Chixinzi know that I've been secretly investigating the Immortal Puppet Sect?
Listening to him, He Ping had to admit that he was indeed curious about this as well. His hands, hidden in his sleeves, dropped to his sides.
"I've investigated it in private too. They say the Immortal Puppet Sect was once called the Puppet Sect, an evil cult considered a grave threat by the Great You Dynasty. The authorities sent an army to wipe it out. Perhaps that's why it vanished without a trace."
"Haha, the authorities have always regarded the Dragon Worship Sect in the northern lands, the Mud Sect in the Southern Seas, the rebel armies across the land, the Gutless Army, Chuangta Tian, and even the remnants of the previous dynasty as thorns in their side. But after all these years, when have they ever eradicated them?"
Chixinzi shook his head.
"The Immortal Puppet Sect has always acted in secret. To put it bluntly, this secrecy has reached a pathological and absurd degree. Take Wu Yousheng, for example. He's our teacher, but apart from him, have you ever heard of any other members of the Immortal Puppet Sect? Do you know of any other elders from our sect besides me?"
He Ping thought it over, trying to follow Chixinzi's reasoning. Then he turned Chixinzi's question back on him.
"Perhaps it means our Immortal Puppet Sect uses its few members as Gu, maintaining a tradition of passing its teachings down through a single line, from beginning to end."
"If that's the case, who taught Wu Yousheng the Formless Secret Treasury? Those who enter the Dao can live for at least two hundred years. Wu Yousheng first appeared sixty years ago. What was happening before then?
"I've investigated for a long time, but haven't heard any further clues connected to this person. And the court claims it wiped out the Immortal Puppet Sect a hundred years ago, yet there's not a trace of evidence related to it. I greatly doubt the official records. Just how much of that campaign of extermination was fabricated?"
Chixinzi said gravely, "Our sect excels at replacing one thing with another, passing off the false as true. Did the previous Immortal Puppet Sect really exist as a sect? Could it have been nothing but an empty shell hidden somewhere?"
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
He Ping was getting annoyed with Chixinzi's evasions, and his tone grew increasingly impatient.
"Wu Yousheng may not be raising Gu at all. He may simply be treating us disciples as living puppets. When we reach the final moment of slaughtering one another, when we successfully refine our own bodies with secret arts, he'll seize our consciousness and refine us with his own secret arts."
Chixinzi shook his head again. His smile faded as he spoke softly.
"With little effort, he'd have a puppet as powerful as someone who'd entered the Dao. If he's lucky, he might even claim the others after they kill one another, gaining a mighty puppet on the level of someone who's entered the Dao."
He had deliberately kept his voice low before, but now it rose to a sharp pitch.
"What if, from the very beginning, the so-called Immortal Puppet Sect never had any real disciples? What if they were all living puppets, replaced by another batch whenever one was used up? What if Wu Yousheng is only a puppet too? Above him, there might be an unseen hand manipulating everything, generation after generation, controlling the so-called disciples of the Immortal Puppet Sect like puppets on strings. We, the generations before us, and the generations before them—we're all just dolls in a puppet theater, preparing the wedding clothes for someone else."
Hearing this, He Ping felt a chill creep over him.
Of course, Chixinzi's theory might not be true. But the possibility it suggested sent a bone-deep coldness seeping from He Ping's spine through all his limbs.
"Junior Brother He, as I said earlier, I owe you compensation for what happened today."
Chixinzi changed the subject again.
"I see that you suffer from Blood Leakage Syndrome, yet when we fought, your mind and intent were perfectly aligned as you circulated your power and arts, without the slightest hindrance. I suspect you practice the Soul-Forging Palace technique called the Nine Palaces Bright Moon Ascension Method."
He took an object from his sleeve: a thin, yellow booklet. He tossed it into the air, and a paper doll in the distance caught it.
"This is another internal cultivation method from the Formless Secret Treasury Wu Yousheng passed on to me. I can see that you've probably already formed all nine Soul Palaces, but can advance no further. That's because the Formless Secret Treasury contains five volumes of internal cultivation methods, and the Soul-Forging Palace is only one of them.
"The other method recorded in this thin, yellow booklet is called the Body Cultivation Furnace. It specializes in cultivating the Four Limbs and Five Senses, and can make up for some of the flaws in the techniques you've learned from our sect."
The paper doll caught the booklet and examined it. Only after confirming there was nothing amiss did it hand the booklet to He Ping's sedan.
Once it reached him, he turned the pages. He discovered that the thin, yellow booklet recorded the Body Cultivation Furnace method in meticulous detail, with sweeping passages of text, complete diagrams, and annotations in red ink. It was a method devoted to cultivating the Four Limbs and Five Senses.
In the name Body Cultivation Furnace, the "four limbs" referred to the arms and legs, while the "five senses" were sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.
This internal cultivation method differed from that of the Soul-Forging Palace, yet both paths led to the same destination. One focused on tempering the soul, while the other treated the body as the womb of one's innate nature, taking a path of reshaping and transforming the body to make up for acquired flaws.
"Sight, smell, taste, and touch remain bound to the dust; a clear intent rises of its own accord beyond the wheel of emptiness. The spirit platform's song rings in even measure, bright as an icy core clasped within frosted bamboo..."
After reading just the preface of the thin, yellow booklet, He Ping already felt that he'd gained a great deal.
"Indeed. With the help of this Body Cultivation Furnace method, the Soul-Forging Palace technique could reshape and shed the body, strip away its mortal form, and bring the body and the Dao into harmony. They might truly complement each other... Wait. This method would be of enormous use to me. Chixinzi is being so generous—what is he really after?"
Thinking this, He Ping lifted the sedan curtain and fixed a keen gaze on the Green-Robed Person seated atop the Red-Scaled Earth-Armored Centipede Dragon's head.
"Rest assured, Junior Brother He. I'm only doing you a small favor."
Chixinzi understood his intention and smiled.
"By the way, I wonder if you're interested in the Life-Stealing Bone Bowl. Your senior brother here has quite a bit of important information—including the bowl's origins and whereabouts. Would you be willing to discuss it in greater detail?"