A blessing in disguise

"Bang!"

Fortunately, though, the mountain god was merely experiencing its final flicker of life...

After attacking Little Fu, it toppled headfirst to the ground and never moved again!

Only then.

Did the two souls and one ghost finally let out a great sigh of relief!

"Kid, that was one impressive scheme!"

The Daoist lay on the ground, looking in astonishment at the mountain god and the headless dried corpses strewn everywhere. "You actually managed to make that mountain ghost work for you, and took out two experts single-handedly. Impressive, truly impressive!"

"Daoist, let me ask you something." Ye Qianfan had wanted to ask this for a while, but had never had the chance. Now that they had time, he hurriedly voiced his question. "Why did I receive all of Ye Fu's memories?"

"Well..."

The Daoist thought for a moment. "Most likely, when Ye Fu offered himself as a sacrifice to the immortal, the two of you had already become a single entity. But your interference caused his sacrifice to fail!"

"So the immortal returned what belonged to him, but it ended up with you instead. That's why you have his memories, while he became a mountain ghost whose mind has yet to awaken."

"You've actually found a blessing in disguise!"

"You call being stuck in this sorry state a blessing?" Ye Qianfan sat up again. "If... and I'm only saying if, I found a suitable body, could I become human again?"

"Rebuilding your fleshly body, you mean? It's difficult, but with enough materials, it isn't entirely beyond our Puppet Sect's abilities."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ye Qianfan's eyes lit up. "We have the Exquisite Heart now, and the military school's talisman-paper umbrellas. Let's get out of here and find the materials to rebuild my body!"

"Easy for you to say. You think those materials are easy to find?" the Daoist grumbled. "Oh, never mind. Let's get out of here first!"

"All right. How do we make a Paper Puppet?"

Ye Fu's memories contained no puppet-making methods. Apparently, that was an ability belonging to a different sect.

They would still have to rely on the Daoist to make the puppet.

"First, strip the canopies off those Talisman Paper Umbrellas. Then use the ribs as its frame and the paper as its skin!"

The Daoist directed Ye Qianfan, and Ye Qianfan directed Little Fu.

Soon, working together, the three nonhumans assembled something resembling a robot's skeletal frame. Then Ye Qianfan ordered Little Fu to dig out the mountain god's heart and place it inside the frame.

What Ye Qianfan had not expected was that the mountain god's heart was only the size of a human fist. It looked rather like jade, its surface even shimmering with flowing colors. It was beautiful.

Strangely enough...

When Ye Qianfan placed the mountain god's heart inside the frame, and the frame grew into the heart...

"Thump!"

"Thump-thump!"

The heart actually began beating again.

"Paste on the paper!"

The Daoist gave the order.

Ye Qianfan immediately controlled Little Fu, having him pick up the umbrella canopies from the ground one by one and carefully paste a layer of yellow paper over the frame.

Naturally, the slime covering Little Fu's body served as the paste!

As the sheets of yellow paper went on...

The frame began looking more and more like a person.

Just then, however, the Daoist suddenly turned into a wisp of blue smoke and poured straight into the paper figure!

Ye Qianfan's pupils contracted, and he shouted angrily, "Daoist, what are you doing?"

"Don't panic!"

The Daoist waved his hands repeatedly, stopping Little Fu, who was about to attack him. "I need to borrow the paper puppet's shell to perform the final two steps!"

"I can't borrow power from the Patriarch or perform the Eye-Dotting Art through someone else's hands!"

"You really weren't planning to steal it out from under me?"

Ye Qianfan raised an eyebrow, not quite believing the Daoist.

After all, Ye Fu had already tricked him once. Naturally, Ye Qianfan would not readily trust a wandering soul he had only just met!

What was more...

Just like him, this wandering soul happened to need a physical body!

"I did consider it, but I couldn't beat you and Little Fu with this paper puppet."

The Daoist moved the paper figure, making it creak and crack. "So I thought it through. Rather than go to all the trouble of taking this paper figure, I'd be better off borrowing your strength to get back to the Puppet Sect!"

"Once I return to the Puppet Sect, what kind of puppet couldn't I have?"

"Why fight you to the death over a barely usable Paper Puppet?"

"At least you're honest."

Ye Qianfan found that, rough as the Daoist's words were, his reasoning was sound.

Besides, he had made no attempt to hide his greed, which made his words seem less like a lie.

Only then did Ye Qianfan wave his hand and have Little Fu stand down!

Otherwise...

Even if it meant the fish dying and the net breaking, Ye Qianfan would never have let the Daoist succeed!

"There's no need to lie to you. Besides, we're grasshoppers on the same boat now. If one prospers, we all prosper; if one suffers, we all suffer."

The Daoist smiled. "Rather than cross a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers back to the Puppet Sect in this lowest-grade paper puppet, it would be easier to borrow Little Fu's strength to get there."

"Why abandon the near path to seek the far one?"

With that!

The Daoist's voice suddenly turned solemn, and he controlled the puppet's hands to form seals.

Since the Paper Puppet was still extremely crude, however, the Daoist formed those seals like a robot with faulty programming. His movements could only be described as comical!

"By decree of Wood God Jumang: Five-Element Borrowing Technique, let all things grow!"

"Swish, swish, swish!"

Golden light suddenly flared.

Ye Qianfan saw what looked like branches growing continuously beneath the Paper Puppet's yellow paper!

It was as though the bamboo twigs used to build it were rapidly sprouting new branches. These eventually became meridians and bones over the frame, a dense network that filled out the entire yellow-paper skin.

If the paper figure had not still had yellow-paper skin and no facial features, Ye Qianfan would have thought it had truly come alive!

"Thank you, Patriarch, for granting your art! Paper Puppet, let sinews and bones take form!"

After shouting this, the Daoist made several more gestures before withdrawing his divine power.

But the instant the Paper Puppet's sinews and bones took shape...

The Daoist's seal-forming became fluid. His movements flowed like drifting clouds and running water, leaving Ye Qianfan dazzled!

"Next, I need to find some hair, and a little blood!"

The Daoist controlled the Paper Puppet and walked toward the Patrol Soldiers' scattered limbs and flesh. He picked up one Patrol Soldier's head, cut some hair from it, then snapped off a section of umbrella rib to make a human-hair brush!

"Come in!"

After crafting the brush by hand, the Daoist actually beckoned to Ye Qianfan. "I'm going to dot the puppet's eyes. Once I do, its soul will be sealed inside."

Hearing this, Ye Qianfan hurriedly guided his incorporeal body into the Paper Puppet.

Still controlling the Paper Puppet, the Daoist plunged the brush in its hand forcefully into a large pool of half-congealed blood on the ground!

"By decree of the Immortal Elder of the Supreme Ultimate's Left Palace, Inner Minister of Heaven's Mysteries in the Thunder's Mysterious Secretariat, True Lord of Responsive Aid and Protection: let the brush bring forth divine essence! Borrow power—Painted Skin!"