"We're from the Lei Family of the Commandery Seat. We're truly sorry for the trouble we've caused you."
"Our Lei Family will bear full responsibility for your losses. Master Artisan Zhao's Chariot and puppets will also be repaired personally by our family head..."
Before long, two pursuers in blue-gray robes finally arrived, riding a tiger and a leopard Mechanism Beast. Seeing Zhao Bin waiting beside the carriage with a grim expression, they immediately understood what had happened and hurried forward to apologize.
"So he was a runaway slave from the Lei Family."
"I heard Master Artisan Lei has been trying to probe the secrets of life. This Sword Slave must have been material selected from among the prisoners of war from the Other Continent."
"Well, that clever scheme certainly backfired. Letting a slave escape, injuring people, and damaging property are serious crimes."
"And Master Zhao already killed the Sword Slave. At best, they can salvage the waste and refine his corpse into a human puppet. Heh, that sort of thing is no use for probing the secrets of life..."
With their own safety assured, the apprentices regained their earlier liveliness and began chattering away.
The Puppet Dao's method of extending life involved meticulously studying all manner of living organisms, comprehending their mysteries, then transforming one's own body through the Creation Art. Those who grasped the secrets of the soul could even replace their own bodies or those of others outright.
But the dead Sword Cultivator's flesh had lost its vitality, making it impossible to corroborate the knowledge and experience passed down by accomplished predecessors. It had undoubtedly lost much of its research value. The Lei Family Puppet Master who had purchased this Outer Dao Sword Cultivator would probably fly into a towering rage.
The younger of the Lei Family's two pursuers looked angry when he heard the apprentices' discussion, but the older man hurriedly caught his sleeve, shot him several fierce glares, and transmitted his voice in secret.
"These are all students. Especially now, with the grand examination approaching and the whole continent watching, they have an even greater sway over public opinion."
"Think what would happen if the Sword Slave killed a few apprentices on their way to the examination."
The younger pursuer instantly calmed down. He quietly wiped away a cold sweat, and his gaze toward Zhao Bin gained a measure of gratitude.
"That's true... If that Sword Slave had killed or injured any apprentices, there's no telling how badly the Lei Family would have been hurt, but the two of us would certainly have taken the blame and been finished. He saved our necks."
The two pursuers took out a cloth sack, stuffed the young Sword Cultivator's corpse inside, and tied it onto a Mechanism Beast's back, but they refused to leave just yet.
Zhao Bin asked, "Is there something else?"
The older pursuer cupped his hands toward Zhao Bin and said, "Please allow us to escort you all to the Commandery Seat as a small token of our sincerity."
They were shrewd. Returning alone might leave their family head with the impression that they had bungled his orders, whereas escorting Zhao Bin and the others back might produce an entirely different result.
Zhao Bin glanced at them without exposing their intentions. He simply put away his puppets and returned to the carriage.
Only then did Li Chen notice that he had picked up several palm-sized mechanical spiders from where the young Sword Cultivator had first stepped onto the front of the carriage.
So that Sword Cultivator had been struck by a deadly poison.
They set off again and encountered no further trouble, finally reaching the Commandery Seat before nightfall.
The delay had cost them considerable time, and they feared it was already too late to find lodgings. Worse, with the carriage's front window shattered, wind had poured in the entire way, buffeting everyone until their heads spun. Even with bodies strengthened through qi refining and physical training, they still felt miserable, and a fair amount of resentment inevitably crept into their words.
The two pursuers led them toward the Lei Family's grounds. Before an immensely spacious, manor-like residence, the central gates stood wide open, and a middle-aged man with half-gray hair was already waiting there with members of the Lei Family.
"Fellow Daoist Zhao, I've long heard of your great name, Master Artisan Zhao. Your work educating Baiyan has resounded like thunder in my ears."
Once the Chariot stopped, the middle-aged man approached with a smile and a warm welcome. He was none other than Lei Jincheng, head of the Lei Family in the commandery city and a Master Artisan Puppet Master.
Zhao Bin's expression shifted slightly. He stepped down and cupped his hands. "Fellow Daoist Lei, my respects."
Master Artisan Lei said warmly, "Come, come! I've prepared a grand feast to welcome you and your students to our Lei Family."
Everyone followed him out of the carriage and went inside.
The Lei residence was quite magnificent. But while the other apprentices marveled at the Lei Family's extravagance and wealth, awed by its pavilions and towers, Li Chen, a visitor from another world, fixed his attention on the Mechanism Automatons serving as guards.
Among the old-style buildings before them stood numerous puppets shaped like armored soldiers, all creations distinctive to the Puppeteer Dao Path.
Especially eye-catching was a thing in the very center of the front courtyard, with a human head and an elephant's body, resembling a gigantic statue.
It stood nearly ten zhang tall at the shoulder and measured more than seven zhang from front to back. Above its elephant body rose a human torso, half human and half divine, like the image of a deity worshiped by some benighted foreign tribe.
The enormous puppet was bronze-colored from head to toe, its thick hide like armor. Its humanlike arms held an immense battle halberd that rose toward the sky like a pillar, while a bloody killing intent, redolent of clashing weapons and armored steeds, surged toward them.
Li Chen praised it. "What an imposing sight."
Zhao Bin seemed to recognize it. He could not help raising his head and stopping to gaze up at it. "Is this the six-star puppet on which the Lei Family's ancestor spent his lifetime's savings, creating it for his descendants-the Thunder God Giant Elephant?"
Master Artisan Lei said delightedly, "So you've heard our ancestor's story too, Fellow Daoist Zhao? Indeed, this is our Lei Family's guardian deity, the Thunder God Giant Elephant. A masterpiece embodying the secret arts inherited by our family, the Thunder Gang Arts, it was crafted by our ancestor at the head of a whole team!"
"A six-star puppet?" Li Chen was deeply shaken by their conversation, and the other apprentices also exclaimed in wonder.
Mechanism Devices and puppets were graded by stars, classified primarily according to the difficulty of their crafting and secondarily according to their correspondence with the combat strength of cultivators from other continents.
Mechanism Puppets came in a bewildering variety, with specific types as vast as a sea of mist. Naturally, not all could be assigned a grade. Generally, they had to meet the criteria of being widely used or an exceptional masterpiece.
This principle was the result of many years of wartime practice. Li Chen did not know much about its origins, but he knew that the people of this world had long since grown accustomed to it. When in Rome, do as the Romans did, so he committed it to memory.
The Chariot, armored soldiers, and Keen Warriors I saw earlier were all Mechanism Puppets with a two-star design rating.
Their crafting difficulty and combat strength roughly corresponded to the one- and two-star Qi Refining Realm, but this puppet jumped straight to the Core Formation Realm, which corresponded to five and six stars. That was a field only grand artisans or above could enter!
To establish uniform standards, Puppet Masters had devised a classification in which one and two stars corresponded to the Outer Dao's Qi Refining Realm, and three and four stars to its Foundation Establishment Realm. By the same progression, five and six stars corresponded to the Core Formation Realm, seven and eight to the Nascent Soul Realm, and nine and ten to the Primordial Spirit Realm.
Odd-numbered ratings-one, three, five, seven, and nine stars-were mostly small, mass-produced creations, while even-numbered ratings-two, four, six, eight, and ten stars-were mostly large, finely crafted works.
Thus, even though the Lei Family's ancestor had reached the level of a grand artisan, crafting a six-star puppet would not have been easy. Such masterpieces often required a lifetime's savings and the wealth of an entire clan, even risking a failed investment, before they could be completed. Any mishap along the way could readily wound the clan to its very bones.
Yet successfully crafting such a six-star puppet also held extraordinary significance. Its strength rivaled the peak of the Outer Dao's Core Formation Realm, allowing it to serve as a foundational reserve of power and protect the Lei Family for thousands of years.