Li Chen had reserved ten interfaces on each Flying Disc, installing a full hundred and twenty Needle Launchers in total.
A single Needle Launcher was not expensive, costing only one Talisman Coin, but they were consumables, and he had used up over a hundred Talisman Coins in one go.
In all fairness, this manufacturing process was simply assembly. The market already had a sufficiently developed foundation of workshops and commercial distribution, employing standardized specifications and interfaces.
Accomplished high-level Puppet Masters could establish large workshops on their own spiritual peaks and blessed lands, developing extensive industries. Those at lower levels were more like skilled handicrafters, piecing together their own branded products from mature designs.
Aside from their cores, which cost fifty Talisman Coins each, all the other components of these Flying Disc puppets added up to only thirty-odd Talisman Coins. Thus, the cost of each aircraft's main body could be kept below a hundred Talisman Coins.
Next, Li Chen separately made two special Flying Discs. They looked exactly like the others, but their internal structures were more intricate and robust. Equipped with various reconnaissance and sensing components, these puppets possessed some scouting capabilities.
When Li Chen made one of the special Flying Discs take flight, he activated the Mechanism-Performance Method that Puppet Masters relied upon to control their puppets. Illusory images immediately surfaced in his mind, and a section of his vision seemed to become its perspective.
"Excellent. The goods I bought at the Market Fair are decent quality. The image is very clear."
He then controlled the extension and retraction of the Flying Disc's Eye Crystal. The image enlarged and shrank accordingly, as though he had fitted it with a telescope. He could see clearly even across a hundred-odd zhang.
The Eye Crystals used in these Flying Discs were high-end goods Li Chen had specially selected. Each one cost three hundred Talisman Coins, while the accompanying restrictions and components cost another several dozen, nearly a hundred. They therefore also offered night vision and the ability to lock onto living creatures' body heat.
This was equivalent to the infrared sensing technology of his previous life, making them exceptionally good equipment among low-level puppets.
Several days passed, all of them busy and fulfilling for Li Chen.
He was now absorbing all manner of technical knowledge with the hunger and thirst of a starving man, making the most of his years. As he happened to be staying with the Lei Family, there were quite a few commonly taught techniques and related books he could borrow. Naturally, he did not stand on ceremony.
During this time, he also reviewed the Puppet Dao cultivation methods he had learned over the years.
The cultivation methods of the Puppeteer Dao Path were somewhat unusual, relying primarily on the Dual-Certification Method.
The two certifications in question were empirical certification and mental certification. They were like two legs walking, advancing in alternating steps. Neither could be dispensed with, but neither had to come first.
Empirical certification could be understood as the various experiments conducted in reality using materials, money, manpower, and physical resources. Mental certification was naturally the subjective process of constructing things in one's mind, understanding them, and digesting them.
The two formed a single whole. At the instant empirical certification reached completion, mental certification was achieved as well, imbuing a Puppet Master's magical power with the corresponding laws and attributes, thereby making thought become reality.
By the same principle, if extraordinary inspiration and wisdom allowed someone to construct everything in their mind, deducing all aspects of empirical certification through imagination alone, they could likewise achieve empirical certification.
Both empirical certification and mental certification yielded Dao fruits: the milestones reached by walking on those two feet, the corresponding markers and research results.
For instance, forming a tangible object and crafting a Mechanism Puppet with a certain degree of combat ability or a standard practical function could be considered harvesting a Dao fruit. Mastering a particular Divine Ability or spell was also a Dao fruit.
Beyond this, Li Chen once again clarified a concept of extraordinary importance to Puppet Masters: the "Guiding Principles of the Three Deconstructions"!
These "Guiding Principles of the Three Deconstructions" were precisely the three methods of attaining the Dao through Body Deconstruction, Brain Deconstruction, and Soul Deconstruction along the great Dao of life. They roughly corresponded to the traditional cultivation stages of refining essence into qi, refining qi into spirit, and refining spirit to return to the void.
In plain, easily understood terms, this meant using empirical methods such as anatomy and neurology to thoroughly unravel the relevant mysteries of life, thereby strengthening the body, restoring essence to nourish the brain, and adjusting the primordial spirit...
Ultimately, different roads led to the same destination: a realm of everlasting immortality or enlightenment in the Dao!
"Deconstruction" meant dissection and analysis-the concrete methods employed in research.
The Guiding Principles of the Three Deconstructions primarily concerned methods of the Dao Path of life. During cultivation, however, they also involved research into materials science and engineering, such as the construction of puppet bodies, thus yielding results in other Dao Paths.
With the Creation-Promotion Secret Art as its main trunk, the Creation Sect naturally branched outward from the human body itself into other Dao Paths. This was a very clearly defined route.
During this period, Zhao Bin came to see him again, this time to tell him that he would be returning to White Rock Ward.
Zhao Bin took Li Chen to bid Master Artisan Lei farewell. Master Artisan Lei did not try to keep them, merely telling them that artisans from the Creation Sect might arrive in mid-March.
They would be three True Disciples dispatched by the sect to verify the diagrams Li Chen had submitted, serving in the role of instructors.
As Li Chen understood it, he would probably have to undergo a defense to prove that the Secret Art he had obtained was his own original creation, rather than something plagiarized from someone else-or even a fabrication intended to deceive the sect.
Before leaving for the time being, Zhao Bin made a point of testing his understanding.
Zhao Bin asked, "What do you think is the greatest difference between our Puppet Dao and the Outer Dao?"
Li Chen considered this, then said, "Setting aside all the outward manifestations-Mechanism Puppets, flying boats and warships, the techniques of the hundred crafts, as opposed to the Spell Dao's cultivation through seated meditation and circulating qi through the meridians, or its way of fighting by summoning spells at will-the greatest difference between the Puppet Dao and the Outer Dao should still be whether mighty power resides in oneself or outside oneself."
Zhao Bin nodded approvingly. "Correct. The Puppet Dao is a Dao Path that begins with controlling Mechanism Puppets, gradually extends into the entire realm of nature and creation, and pursues the great Dao of creation. The criticism most readily leveled against it is that it supposedly relies on external power, and that its mighty power does not reside in oneself."
"Yet this so-called mighty power residing in oneself-is it not also forcibly drawing upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for one's own use through the innate talents of one's spiritual root?"
"To this day, no one in the cultivation world has unraveled the essence of spiritual energy. Yet even in ancient times, the orthodox myths of our ancestors and the legends of humanity's creation described people as being pieced together from clay, wood, and stone, just like the puppets of our Puppet Dao. The composition of matter and energy follows the same principles of creation."
"The human body was born of dust and clay. Yet the Spell Dao has erased this legend and deliberately fosters the belief that relying on external power damages one's foundation and obstructs the great Dao, all to keep people ignorant. By now, many cultivators have suffered deeply because of it."
Li Chen nodded silently. The human body was born of dust and clay. The unity of humanity and heaven, the shared nature of all things-these were the orthodox views of cultivation, principles of creation that could be tested and understood, and that were open to falsification.
Whether one considered the legends of Pangu opening heaven and transforming into all things, or Nuwa molding humans from clay; whether one spoke of the innate qualities of the clear and turbid or the quantity of spiritual essence; or whether one approached it scientifically, calling them atoms and molecules, electrons and electric charges-all affirmed this point.
Puppet Masters habitually used external objects such as Mechanism Devices and puppets, placing even greater importance on the technical means by which those Mechanism Puppets were created. They could also turn themselves into puppets, or use genetic engineering and biological modification to strengthen and alter their bodies and souls. All of this was rooted in the same theory. As someone who had transmigrated, he found it very easy to accept, for it was practically a replica of a technological Dao Path. It merely added the unknown substance of spiritual energy, which immediately introduced many manifestations of supernatural power.
The essence of Qi Refining was likewise to temper oneself using external things such as spirit stones and spiritual energy. The Outer Dao failed to see this, emphasizing only the outward appearance of possessing supernatural power and being able to wield Divine Abilities and spells. Unable to see through appearances to the essence, it was simply covering its ears while stealing a bell.
Zhao Bin said meaningfully, "There has never been any such thing as the mighty power of Divine Abilities residing in oneself. That is an illusory fancy."
"Whatever it may be-summoning wind and rain, holding wind and thunder in your palm-it may look wonderfully impressive and powerful, but in truth, it is all borrowing the workings of heaven, earth, and nature for your own use. In essence, it is no different from using Mechanism Puppets, weapons, or magical treasures."
"We Puppet Masters place the pursuit of knowledge first. Knowledge is true mighty power; Divine Abilities and spells are not. I hope you understand that clearly."
Li Chen said, "I'll remember."