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Qi Chao found it hard to imagine how a stone could give birth to life, but this world was just that magical. As long as a mother stone was soaked in Soothing Fluid, then a dollmaker transmitted Mental Power into it day after day, once it received enough energy, the mother stone would be "awakened" and begin to beat like a heart.

This was the Puppet Heart.

Mother stones came from special mineral veins. According to forum users, most mother stones were now controlled by the Association, and those mother stones were only available to dollmakers certified by the Association. Dollmakers without Association certification who wanted a mother stone either had to pay out of pocket to dig for one in the mines or scour the black market.

Between the two, Qi Chao chose the former.

First, the black market was expensive, and Qi Chao had no money.

Second, he lacked experience and could easily get scammed at the black market. He would be better off going to a mine.

The nearest mine to Linjing District was the Iron Mountain Mining Area, two hundred kilometers away. It only took forty minutes by aircraft. Countless robots worked nonstop throughout the mining area, with only one or two staff members maintaining order.

When she learned why Qi Chao had come, the woman wearing a work badge was unsurprised. Although the Association provided mother stones, there were also many dollmakers dissatisfied with those stones. Many dollmakers like him came to the mining area every day.

She led Qi Chao into a mountain mine. A faint blue glow shimmered from the holes in the walls, and looking up at the cavern ceiling felt like gazing at a starry sky. It was beautiful.

Contrary to outside, there were only two or three robots inside the mine, but there were at least a dozen humans in sight.

Watching them hammering away, Qi Chao guessed that they were all dollmakers.

After bringing Qi Chao to a spot, the woman gave him a warning in advance. "Once you've picked a mother stone, go outside to have it weighed and pay for it. If this is your first time choosing one, I suggest you don't get greedy. Even at a mine, mother stones aren't cheap."

"Alright, thank you." Qi Chao nodded, grateful for her kindness.

After the woman left, Qi Chao crouched down and began sorting through the pile of stones.

That was right. The mother stones capable of nurturing precious life were not the blue-glowing stones embedded in the walls, but the dull gray stones on the ground that looked no different from clumps of dirt.

Mother stones came in three grades: high, medium, and low. Only after being "awakened" by a dollmaker would they reveal their unique colors. High-grade mother stones were red, medium-grade ones were blue, and low-grade ones were white.

The higher the quality of the mother stone, the longer a doll's lifespan; the lower the quality, the shorter its lifespan. On Blue Star, even the longest-lived dolls only lasted fifty years, while the shortest-lived did not even survive for an hour.

Before a doll was awakened, no one knew what grade its mother stone truly was. Perhaps after exhausting all one's Mental Power and finally awakening it, one would only get a pure-white piece of trash.

Qi Chao did not have much money. His budget could only afford one mother stone. Since there was no way to choose one, this made things simple: he would pick whichever one caught his eye.

In less than ten minutes, Qi Chao picked out a gray stone in the corner that closely resembled a heart. It felt good in his hand and looked rather nice too. At a glance, it seemed anything but ordinary. He casually slipped the mother stone into his pocket, dusted off his hands, and prepared to leave.

Qi Chao had arrived later than all the other dollmakers, yet he was also the first to leave.

A bearded man in the corner who was irritably selecting mother stones saw this and could not help sneering at his companion. "No wonder some people can't even become dollmakers. Look at him, he doesn't even take mother stones seriously. How could he possibly become a dollmaker?"

His voice was neither loud nor soft, just enough for everyone in the mine to hear.

The bearded man's companion, Aisli, immediately flushed red and rebuked him, "Bei Ge, what nonsense are you talking about?! Why are you meddling in someone else's business?"

Aisli regretted it to death. If he had not been unfamiliar with the roads, and if the other dollmakers he knew at the Association had not all been busy, he definitely would not have asked Bei Ge to come to the mine with him. No wonder no one liked this guy. He was perfectly fine otherwise, so why did he have to have such a mouth?

"Sorry, sorry. Please don't mind him, my companion doesn't mean any harm." Aisli hurriedly tried to make amends.

Qi Chao had not cared about those words to begin with. Only someone whose sore spot had been hit would get angry over them. Whether he was a dollmaker or not would not change because of a single remark from Bei Ge.

He smiled at Aisli and asked, "Are you all dollmakers from the Association?"

"Yes." Seeing that Qi Chao was not angry, Aisli let out a breath of relief and felt a little more favorable toward him. Curious, he asked, "Have you only just started learning to make dolls?"

"You could say that." Qi Chao smiled, his gaze falling on the armband on Aisli's right sleeve.

Every dollmaker in the mine wore the same armband. It was probably the Association's symbol. He was the only one there without one, no wonder that man had singled him out.

Seeing his companion actually chatting amicably with that person, Bei Ge was immediately displeased. He muttered to himself beside them for quite a while. Though his voice was low, anyone nearby could hear that he was cursing.

Aisli became even more embarrassed and hastily tried to smooth things over. "I'm a Level Three dollmaker from the Association. Although I don't have much experience choosing mother stones, if you need help, I can offer some advice."

The quality of an unawakened mother stone could not be determined, but experienced dollmakers who had seen many of them would develop a mysterious instinct. Although that feeling could sometimes be wrong, when there was no other way to choose a mother stone, that inexplicable feeling became the only method.

Naturally, Qi Chao would not refuse help offered right to him. He took out the mother stone he had chosen and let Aisli look at it.

Aisli frowned as he examined the mother stone. No matter how he looked at it, it did not seem very good. The feeling was just like the mother stones he had bought the previous two times: after two months of hard work, they had produced low-grade white ones.

Just as Aisli was about to tactfully suggest that Qi Chao choose another mother stone, Bei Ge saw the stone and burst into laughter. "That stone of yours will definitely be white, and the worst kind of white at that. If it turns out blue, I'll cut off my head and let you kick it around."

"Bei Ge!" Aisli was about to be driven mad by this guy. If he ever came out with him again, he would be a dog!