(The title is wrong; it should be Chapter 229.)
Beyond the Nine Provinces World lay worlds of all sizes.
These small worlds were wrapped in vast, bubble-like Heaven and Earth Membranes and clung to the Heaven and Earth Membrane of the Nine Provinces World, like a cluster of little bubbles attached to a giant one.
One of them stretched more than ten thousand miles across. It had mountains, rivers, forests, grasslands, and deserts—a complete Nine Provinces in miniature.
Its strangest feature was its sky, which shimmered with streams of Flowing Light by day and night, a spectacle as uncanny as it was magnificent. That wonder had given the place its name: the Flowing Light World.
Several small worlds had been forcibly kneaded together through immense divine power, producing this strange sight. Each stream of Flowing Light arose where slight differences between the worlds' laws clashed and were reflected in the sky.
Only after endless ages, when those laws had fully merged and the worlds had truly become one complete world, would the phenomenon disappear.
At the center of the Flowing Light World lay a vast plain. Fields, villages, and workshops dotted it, but there were no grand cities, only small towns.
In the central square of the largest town, people of every age, men and women alike, sat at tables. With fine tools, they carved wood, joined threads, and made puppet after puppet.
It was delicate work, and their standards were clearly high. Every so often, someone finished a puppet, tried operating it, shook their head, then took it apart again for more careful adjustments.
At last, a middle-aged man found himself satisfied with his puppet. He carried it across the square and into a nearby courtyard.
The courtyard was spacious. A young man was drawing inside. Seeing him approach,