Dongfang Mao had the appearance of a young Three-Eyed Celestial Person, his entire body formed from condensed light crystal, as though carved from immortal jade.
Beside him stood an elegant middle-aged man with a halo floating behind his head like those of Immortals and Gods, as though a deity had descended into the mortal world.
Earlier, Li Chen had requested information about the chief examiners from the Mechanism Automaton attending him, so he knew this man was the current master of the Upper Yang Immortal Palace, True Lord Shangyang.
To his left stood a beautiful young woman in brocade robes. Six fluffy, snow-white fox tails grew from her back, spread like a peacock's fan.
Her name was Zhou Lang. Like Dongfang Mao, she was a Puppet Master Grandmaster who had possessed an innate spirit of the foreign races and acquired its Dao Body. However, Li Chen had heard that she had once been a male cultivator, and had not hesitated to change sex to obtain a Dao Body with better aptitude, thus assuming her present appearance.
For Puppet Master Grandmasters, this could be considered a routine procedure, since they had already delved into the mysteries of the divine soul and could control their own nascent souls, replacing the bodies they inhabited.
The aptitude and potential of their original bodies no longer mattered, since both could be replaced at will.
But replacement was not without a price. Following opportunities and turning circumstances to one's advantage was the surest course. Ordinary newly advanced Grandmaster Artisans had little right to pick and choose; after all, innate Dao Bodies were rare, and obtaining one was already a blessing.
Once they made a new body their true body, it meant investing substantial cultivation provisions and painstaking effort into it, turning it into a major asset.