On the first day of the third month, a sharp spring chill lingered in the air. Dressed in a long robe with a treasure pouch tucked at his waist, Li Chen stood outside the gates of Heavenly Crafts Academy, waiting.
A group of apprentices, packed and ready to leave, approached. They were rather surprised to find him there.
"Brother Chen, what brings you here?"
"Did you hear we were going to Yong City for our exams and come specially to see us off?"
They had known each other for years. Though they were not classmates, they were as close as classmates, so the apprentices and Li Chen naturally knew one another.
Li Chen said, "Everyone, I have some business in Yong City. Master Zhao gave me permission to hitch a ride."
"Huh? I thought you'd come specially to give us a rousing send-off. Turns out you're just hitching a ride!" said a clever-looking youth. His name was Zhao Xin, the unlucky boy who had misspoken that day and been scolded by the Master Artisan.
Li Chen smiled. "Of course, I also wish you all success in the major exam. May you win victory as soon as your banners rise."
In his mind, it was much like the college entrance exam in his previous life. It determined whether the academy's apprentices qualified to join the inner sect, and for many, it was a turning point in their lives.
Zhao Xin huffed. "Could you be any less sincere? This is just a mock exam! The major exam is in the middle of the year, in the sixth month!"
"Oh, is it? I forgot," Li Chen replied offhandedly.
As they chatted, Zhao Xin slung an arm around Li Chen's shoulders. "You haven't been straight with us! I heard you recently gave up the lease on your shop and sold all the spirit materials and mechanical parts inside to Old Shang on the street out front. Did you hook up with some wealthy family's Young Miss at the Commandery Seat? Planning to marry into her family?"
The apprentices erupted. "What? Brother Chen's going to the Commandery Seat to become a live-in son-in-law?"
"Wow, you're going to strike it rich!"
"If you come into wealth and honor, don't forget us."
Li Chen grabbed Zhao Xin's silly head and vigorously ruffled his hair. "Bullshit. Get lost!"
Everyone burst out laughing, filling the air with a merry atmosphere.
Amid the commotion, a Chariot over thirty feet long came rumbling down the Imperial Road and stopped at the gates.
Seated in the front row, Zhao Bin poked his head out of the window and asked, "Is everyone here?"
An apprentice with a somewhat mature-looking face stepped forward and bowed respectfully. "Reporting to Master Zhao, all eighteen members of the class are present."
"Then get aboard." Zhao Bin's gaze seemed to linger on Li Chen for a moment, but he said nothing more and drew his head back inside.
"All aboard!" Everyone climbed in.
Once everyone was aboard, the Chariot set off under the control of the servant-like Controller beside Zhao Bin, speeding along swiftly and steadily.
Zhao Bin seemed prone to motion sickness and was resting with his eyes closed. Li Chen did not feel it appropriate to approach him about contributing his Secret Art just then, so he looked around idly.
To him, this Chariot was nothing more than an ancient wooden version of a bus. In this world, however, it was a genuine creation of Mechanisms, invented by Yan Shi, the founding patriarch of the Creation Sect and a grandmaster Puppet Master.
Two utterly different civilizations, with vastly different ways of harnessing energy, had somehow developed things of similar appearance. The coincidence was truly remarkable.
Still, once his initial astonishment had passed, he had come to take it in stride.
Although the Puppet Masters of this world drove vehicles instead of using things like escape lights and flying swords as the Outer Dao did... this really was merely a statistical coincidence. Of course, fundamental factors such as universal gravitation and the shape of the human body might also have played a shared role.
The land he now lived in was called the Eastern Victory Continent. After the final tribulation of the late ancient cultivation world, it had been the first region to embark on revival and development.
This land revered the Art of a Hundred Crafts and Mechanisms, extending them into the great Dao of creation. It was the birthplace of the Puppeteer Dao Path and frequently fought with the lands of the Outer Dao, which venerated other Dao Paths.
The Puppeteer Dao Path seemed similar to the technological civilization Li Chen knew, yet he always felt that its development was severely distorted, shaped by cultural factors and the extraordinary power of divine abilities and spells.
For example, manufacturing a car normally required the development of modern industry and access to materials such as petroleum, steel, plastic, and glass.
The Chariots of this world, however, were Mechanisms and could also be classified as Artifact Dao magical treasures.
Their construction could use spirit-imbued ironwood, which was tougher than steel and could also be inscribed with restrictions and infused with Spirit Essence and magical power.
The use of restrictions and Spirit Essence Furnaces far surpassed internal combustion engines, while Spirit Essence power had completely replaced fuel.
The use of divine abilities and spells even gave a single mid-tier Puppet Master the capacity to produce and assemble every mechanical component and part, making it possible to truly build a car behind closed doors.
Industrial collaboration? Coordination between industries? The people of this age cared nothing for such things. A single Puppet Master was a factory, or even a nation unto himself. Secret Arts and ingenious craftsmanship were the true road to mastery.
High-tier Puppet Masters even ventured into the creation of life. The Tale of Yan Shi recorded that Yan Shi, the founding ancestor of the Puppet Dao, had made a puppet that truly possessed life, named Dancing Maiden!
Even Li Chen himself, once a microcontroller development engineer who had been forced to switch to game-engine work after his company went bankrupt, had managed to handcraft a drone by combining the techniques of his previous and current lives, producing a finished product through sheer effort. He even felt he had thoroughly grasped its principles and designed schematics so others could refine one. Naturally, this was thanks to the creation spells possessed by Puppet Masters.
Li Chen did not know whether this course of development was ultimately good or bad, but he had made comparisons. Methods derived from qi refinement gave every apprentice keen senses and an agile mind, while their practical skills started at the level of an eighth-grade fitter at the very least. Their magical sensing rivaled quantum entanglement, and their spiritual sense allowed human-machine interaction and control through thought.
Puppet Masters wielding magical power could directly manipulate changes at the molecular and atomic levels without tools, and even imbue machinery with the vitality of life. There was certainly something unique about that.
Even a Master Artisan can build a car behind closed doors. Wouldn't the Grand Artisans, masters, and grandmasters above them be like immortals? And what realm had Yan Shi, the ancestor of the hundred crafts, reached?
If I ever gain that ability, should I whip up a Transformer or a Star Destroyer to play with? But how could one machine or one ship compare to a sea of machines and a fleet of ships?
Li Chen's thoughts began to drift again. He had always been pondering how to combine the characteristics of different civilizations and forge a distinctive path of his own.
In his view, an onlooker saw the clearest. To develop the Puppeteer Dao Path, drawing closer to the technological route was the right way forward. Science should take the lead, with divine abilities and magical power supporting it, rather than the reverse as things stood now.
He aspired to change this cultivation-punk-like, upside-down state of affairs, but his current status and strength left him with no way to do so for the time being. He could only look after himself first.
Suddenly, several piercing whistles came from the distant sky. Immediately afterward, a thunderous blast erupted in the bamboo grove ahead. The shock of the sound made everyone's scalp prickle.
"Watch out! Enemy attack!"
The Controller hurriedly slammed on the brakes and brought the Chariot to a halt.
Zhao Bin, who had been resting in the front row with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them.
Click, click...
His clothes bulged behind his shoulder blades, and a mass of palm-sized, spider-like Mechanism Devices crawled out and shot off in all directions.
At the same time, spiritual light gathered in Zhao Bin's palm, and he flung out his hand.
After a wisp of smoke cleared, two combat puppets wearing black cloaks and standing upright like humans appeared beside the Chariot.