When Li Chen walked out of the academy, the midday sunlight shone through gaps in the trees, falling upon him like a beam of golden light.
At once, his dark blue-green robe caught the blazing sunlight and gave off a faint shimmer. The Dao patterns upon it seemed to come alive, winding and flowing, lending him an air of transcendence beyond the mortal world.
Zhao Bin and Artisan Lei, who also wore Puppet Master's Robes, stood to one side, watching with smiles. They could not help recalling their own younger days.
The three Instructor envoys, however, found nothing unusual about it. They traveled all over the continent conferring artisan status, personally witnessing the birth of a new Puppet Master every so often. What was there to marvel at?
To avoid any appearance of impropriety, they declined Artisan Lei's invitation to lunch and went to the Commandery Governor's Office on their own. Artisan Lei could only invite the city's academy head and Zhao Bin instead, taking them to the Lei Family's residence to celebrate Li Chen's achievement.
"Here, Brother Li, let me toast you. This is your big day, so you must enjoy yourself to the fullest."
"Thank you, thank you..."
At the Lei Residence, amid the mingling of cups and dishes, several of the Lei Family's young masters and young ladies also came out to meet him.
Artisan Lei's name was Lei Jincheng. He had married three wives and fathered twelve children. Of those, his eldest son was away inspecting their businesses, his second son had gone far afield to study a craft and had yet to return, and the other children were either too young to join the banquet or had already married into other families.
His fifth son, however, was a young man around Li Chen's age. Seeing Li Chen wearing a Puppet Master's Robe, he could not help feeling intensely envious.
They were children of an aristocratic clan, but they were not yet official Puppet Masters and held no artisan status. Out in the wider world, their standing would actually be lower than Li Chen's.
After the banquet, Lei Jincheng took everyone to visit his workshop. In the center of its spacious main hall stood a nearly completed Mechanism Beast.
"Take a look. This is what I've been working on these past few days: the Mechanism Beast Mountain Boar."
This puppet, named Mountain Boar, had a shape resembling a wild boar. Though bulky and sluggish, it could carry thicker armor and stronger weapons, making it a fairly powerful two-star Battle Puppet.
The city's academy head was not particularly interested in it. After all, it was neither especially difficult to make nor particularly rare. Instead, he turned his gaze toward something hanging on a nearby wall. "Fellow Daoist Lei, is that the hide of a Red-Eyed Boar Demon?"
At those words, Li Chen also looked away from the Mechanism Beast. Sure enough, a hide taken from a Red-Eyed Boar Demon hung there.
It seemed to have been treated with a specially formulated solution. Rather than showing signs of drying out, it retained a measure of vitality.
Li Chen asked, "Is that the one you bought at the Market Fair at the beginning of the month?"
Lei Jincheng smiled. "Indeed, this is that very Red-Eyed Boar Demon hide. What a coincidence it was, too. Just as I was planning to drape it over the Mechanism Beast Mountain Boar I'd built, the Instructors came to confer artisan status upon you, my worthy nephew-and you chose the Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting Secret Art."
"Now that you're an artisan who has received the true transmission, your Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting divine ability is countless times more powerful than the Skin-Painting Art commonly used in our trade. Why don't we discuss and examine this craft together?"
The city's academy head smiled. "Artisan Lei, aren't you putting our young friend Li on the spot? He only just learned the Secret Art. Even with a transmission of true intent, he couldn't progress that quickly."
Lei Jincheng said, "We're only discussing it. That doesn't mean he has to put it into practice."
He thought for a moment, then said outright, "I have to do this job sooner or later anyway. Since my worthy nephew is here, I might as well finish it now for him to see."
Seeing that he intended to demonstrate the Skin-Painting Art from the Art of a Hundred Crafts, Li Chen readily agreed.
What Lei Jincheng had said earlier was quite true. Having received the true transmission, Li Chen could already be considered a professional Skin-Painter. In the field of painting and fitting skins onto Mechanism Puppets, he possessed methods far beyond those of ordinary practitioners.
However, he had only just learned the Secret Art, and his practical experience remained at the level of his apprenticeship in White Rock Ward. He really did want to observe the process closely.
Since no Secret Art was involved, Lei Jincheng had no intention of keeping anything hidden. He rolled up his sleeves and began preparing the boar hide in front of everyone.
As he took down the hide, an Azure Glow gathered in his palms. He kneaded it to loosen its fibers while explaining, "Over the past few days, I've already treated this with a special solution I purchased. Only the final step remains: cutting it precisely to fit each section and securing it snugly."
With a large pair of iron shears, he cut the hide cleanly and decisively, trimming the edges and preparing the seams beneath the belly according to his design. Then he took out several bottles and jars and poured their contents onto its inner surface.
He also fitted the metal shell over the Mechanism Beast's body. After moving over a hook and hoisting the beast into the air, Lei Jincheng poured solution over every part of it-top and bottom, left and right, front and back-and brushed it on evenly. A peculiar pattern resembling muscle fibers appeared across its surface.
It looked exactly like a large wild boar that had been stripped of its skin.
As Lei Jincheng aligned the pieces and gradually applied the Red-Eyed Boar Demon's hide, the great wild boar seemed to come alive, as though its skin had grown back.
Apart from the obvious traces at the seams and the unavoidable exposure around its head and face, the entire Mechanism Beast looked like a living demon beast suspended before them.
While brushing another solution onto the seams, Lei Jincheng explained, "This is a vitality-activating secret medicine formulated by Skin-Painters. But it's merely a method used by rogue cultivators. Most of what they've inherited consists of Forged Legacies, so it certainly can't work as well as the secret medicine you now command, worthy nephew Li!"
Li Chen said, "Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting relies on a divine ability to complete the whole process in one seamless effort. It doesn't use secret medicine."
"Hmm?" This lay beyond Lei Jincheng's knowledge. Still, after a brief exclamation of wonder, he accepted it.
No matter how miraculous the Creation-Promotion Secret Art passed down by their founding master might be, it was only to be expected.
"Once you've mastered it, I truly hope I'll have a chance to see it."
When Lei Jincheng finished his work and assembled the puppet, a lifelike great wild boar appeared before everyone.
They stepped forward to inspect it. Its form and appearance were exquisitely faithful to life. Only up close could they make out a little of the stiffness peculiar to Mechanism Puppets. If they suddenly encountered it in a mountain forest, they would surely struggle to tell whether it was real.
The city's academy head said, "Truly marvelous. Artisan Lei, your inheritance is the Thunder Gang Arts, yet you've also studied the craft of skin painting."
Lei Jincheng laughed heartily. "Isn't it all so I can craft better puppets?"
Zhao Bin said thoughtfully, "In ancient times, when our founding master practiced Creation, he proposed the idea of supplementing form with form, and the world followed his example."
"From our present perspective, aside from helping mechanical creations acquire emotions and self-awareness after their intelligence has been awakened at higher realms, it also improves defense and reduces damage even at lower realms."
"This is because a living outer skin can connect with active Gang essence, granting a Gang Qi shielding ability comparable to that of living creatures."