He Ping's plan was to modify his left hand. The Immortal Puppet Sect's cultivators relied entirely on their hands to control puppets. He hadn't yet mastered the ability to command his own puppets with his toes, so modifying both hands at once would be tantamount to cutting off all his escape routes.
The "Severed Ghost Hand" Chixinzi had given him came with a catalog containing detailed blueprints, internal mechanisms, and material specifications.
He had examined it over and over, yet found nothing amiss. Still, he didn't dare bet that Chixinzi hadn't secretly played some trick on him.
Following the designs in the catalog, he first built a simplified version and put it through a round of tests.
To be safe, he added some extra features of his own—precautions against hidden traps—and built a budget version of the "Severed Ghost Hand"...
The newly made puppet prosthesis lay on the table. Its appearance was somewhat rough, nowhere near as finely constructed or perfectly shaped as the puppet hands Chixinzi used. But He Ping had changed some of the design, so he wouldn't have to worry about anyone controlling him through it.
Beside the puppet prosthesis, a guillotine blade sat on the wood-grained table. The room also contained a surgical cot and the needles, thread, knives, and tools he had prepared well in advance. There were bottles of wound-healing and bone-setting medicine, along with a copper bowl simmering over glowing red coals.
To replace his left hand with a puppet prosthetic, he first had to cut off his own hand.
He took out several slender golden needles, each a few inches long, and drove them one after another into the acupoints along his shoulder and left arm. The moment he did, sensation in his left hand seemed to vanish.
"Not being able to use anesthetics to put myself under is a real nuisance. Still, this method can at least numb the pain for a while."
He had had a skilled artisan specially forge the slender needles. They were hollow inside, with a potent anesthetic mixed into them. Stuck into the acupoints, they could temporarily cut off sensation in the arm and relieve the pain as well.
He laid his numb left hand on the guillotine blade, then directed a paper puppet to force the blade down.
With a dull thud, the blade severed his left arm at the elbow, bone and all. The lower half of his arm slid off the table.
Even with the golden needles and anesthetic, He Ping could still feel the pain of losing his hand. Fortunately, he could just barely keep it under control.
He picked up the copper bowl, red-hot from the brazier, and cauterized the wound to stop the bleeding. With a sizzle, the flesh seemed to burn like roasted meat, and the air filled with a stench of charred flesh.
At least the bleeding finally stopped. He Ping's brows knitted tight as the anesthetic from the needles began to wear off. In an instant, a surge of pain coursed through his body like an electric current, and his teeth chattered.
But that wasn't the worst of it. The real danger was the drowsiness brought on by the pain.
I can't afford to fall asleep now.
Afraid he wouldn't be able to endure it, he hurriedly pressed a hand to the space between his brows and circulated the "Nine Palaces Bright Moon Ascension Method," forcibly driving his vital essence into the Upper Origin Palace between his brows. At once, his pale cheeks flushed crimson.
"Whew!"
He Ping exhaled a breath of stale air, steeling his resolve as he fought down the pain.
"...I still have to scrape away the charred scab from the cauterized wound."
He Ping knew there were still many steps ahead. Forcing himself to stay alert, he muttered to himself as he lifted his severed arm and examined the wound.
Inside the cross-section of his left elbow, he could glimpse reddish-black muscle, bone, and charred flesh from the burn. Cauterizing the wound with the copper bowl was certainly the fastest way to stop the bleeding, and it could prevent him from losing too much blood and fainting into shock. But such a crude approach had left the wound badly burned.
He took the short knife beside him and scraped away the charred flesh left by the heat, then picked up a dose of snow-white salve he had prepared. The salve was stored in a bamboo tube. It was a secret medicine of the Immortal Puppet Sect, with the miraculous ability to reconnect severed limbs and restore flesh to bone.
He set to work, spreading the salve evenly over the cut surface. It gave off a faint medicinal fragrance. After it had been on for a while, the wound turned a pale grayish white, and the textures of the bone and flesh across the cut grew much less distinct.
Astonishingly, He Ping felt little pain during this time. It was as though the pain in his arm, which had returned as the anesthetic wore off, had disappeared as well.
Next, he picked up the puppet prosthesis he had prepared and aligned the back half of the "Severed Ghost Hand" with the cut on his left arm, fitting it directly into place.
As soon as the rear end of the "Severed Ghost Hand" connected, several spider-leg-like structures emerged from the prosthesis and pierced the flesh of his upper arm, above the elbow. They merged beneath his skin like parasites. Then the "Severed Ghost Hand" turned once on its own, and a silver metal ring appeared around the joint where the prosthesis connected to the elbow.
He yanked the puppet prosthesis off. A metal disc now covered the cut at his elbow, with several connecting holes visible on its surface.
He fitted the prosthesis back on. The instant it connected, the metal disc and the prosthesis seemed drawn together by a magnetic force. They locked firmly in place, fitting together so seamlessly that not even the slightest gap remained.
He began moving the newly attached puppet hand. At a thought, its five carved wooden fingers moved. Clever mechanisms inside the Severed Ghost Hand let him open and close the fingers or rotate the wrist with nothing more than a thought.
"Excellent!"
He was quite pleased with the newly attached puppet prosthesis. He clenched the five fingers into a fist, and a faint golden glow shimmered across it. The carved wooden hand looked as if it had been coated in dark gold lacquer, radiating a feeble spell's power.
This was "Armor-Clad Spirit Light." Once the Severed Ghost Hand was successfully attached, it could be grafted with the unique spiritual light of paper puppets and spirit puppets.
He Ping could feel the immense strength contained in the prosthetic hand. Grabbing a wall and crushing rock, or gripping iron and grinding it to mush, would be child's play.
"It's even better than the one I tested earlier. It can be used almost as soon as it's attached. But to be safe, I'll test it for a while longer. Once I'm sure there are no other problems, I'll replace my right hand too!"
He Ping privately thought the puppet-style prosthesis, the "Severed Ghost Hand," still had room for improvement. For instance, he could install a large charge of explosives, turning it into a flying rocket fist or even a finger missile.
"Better yet, I could modify it into a drill. Wouldn't that let me break through the heavens?!"
Lost in wild thoughts, he kept moving his new prosthesis as he turned toward a table behind him.
The table held some of the other spoils from his trip to Four Peaks Mountain. After killing the Mountain Demon and transporting it back to Suian City, he had skinned it and chopped it up, obtaining its demon sinews and bones.
Demon sinews, demon bones, and the internal organs of other monsters were useless to ordinary people. The Mountain Demon's blood and bodily fluids contained some poison, so its flesh couldn't be eaten either.
But for cultivators, these things could still serve a purpose if prepared with secret methods.
For cultivators of the Immortal Puppet Sect, demon sinews and bones were especially rare materials for making puppets.
As for the most precious item, its inner core, he had handed it over to Chixinzi as agreed. That was undoubtedly a pity.
"But this thing is of little use to me. Still, I can't just leave it lying at the bottom of the valley."
He Ping looked at a long copper case on the table. It was called the "Viper Spirit Nine Arrows," a strange magical artifact.
Ordinary cultivators' magical artifacts were generally driven by divine sense. This odd copper case, however, was operated by a mechanism. It had clearly been designed for mortals.
"The design is pretty ingenious. Too bad it's a little too weak for cultivators. The few iron arrows are cursed with blood magic, so they'd be somewhat useful against cultivators whose souls aren't fully developed. They wouldn't do much against a formidable opponent."
For someone who didn't understand spellcraft, this thing had some power. But for him, it was more or less useless.
(The structural design of this copper case does have a few points worth borrowing. Could I use it as a basis for an improved version...? No, the material itself is too low-grade. There's no point modifying it. At most, I could use it as a basis and build an entirely new one...)
As He Ping pondered, a plaque-like object hanging at his waist trembled a few times. The vibration was faint; unless it had been fastened against his body on his belt, he would never have felt it.
He reached out and picked it up. It wasn't a waist plaque at all, but a little red clay figurine. This, too, was a form of puppetcraft called a "Clay Voice-Transmitting Puppet," a puppet spell used exclusively by the Immortal Puppet Sect to send messages.
The little clay figurine's mouth opened and closed a few times, and Chixinzi's voice came from within.
"Junior Brother He, I have something urgent to discuss with you..."
"Senior Brother Chixinzi, what exactly is it? Can you give me a hint first?"
He Ping was quite displeased by Chixinzi's deliberate suspense. Unfortunately, Chixinzi didn't seem to realize it.
"This isn't something I can say to your face. All I can say is... Junior Brother He, you may have brought a great calamity upon yourself this time."
Chixinzi said this with a sly chuckle, leaving He Ping absolutely furious.