First Foray into Wood-and-Stone Puppets

Over three months of cultivation, Lu Zhao had not only broken through in his cultivation; his Puppet Art had also improved considerably.

Inside the stone chamber in Green Vine Ravine, three Black Iron ingots and two lengths of ironwood lay side by side on the stone workbench, their faint sheen dark and muted. Lu Zhao brushed his fingertips over the ironwood's coarse grain, probing its innate spirituality with his divine sense.

The crafting diagrams for the Ironwood Guard in the Hundred Refinements Art flowed through his sea of consciousness-Black Iron for the bones, ironwood to shape the body, and spirit runes linking everything together to create a mighty warrior. Yet the ironwood on hand was only enough for two bodies, while he had Black Iron to spare.

The three-month deadline had arrived. He needed to return to the Market District to deliver the puppets and replenish his ironwood along the way.

Inside the Nine Abyss Pavilion, sandalwood mingled with the heavy scent of spiritual materials. Seeing Lu Zhao enter, the shopkeeper's wrinkled eyes creased into his customary smile. "Fellow Daoist Lu, right on time, as promised. Have you brought the eyes this time?"

Lu Zhao said nothing. With a light sweep of his sleeve, three Frost Rat Puppets and one Flowing Cloud Sparrow settled firmly on the counter. An aura of cold and nimble vitality spread outward.

"Excellent, even better quality than before!" The shopkeeper's withered fingers brushed over the wind patterns on the sparrow puppet's skeletal wings. A sharp gleam flashed in his eyes before he looked at Lu Zhao. "The Spirit Stones are the same as before: thirty-six for the Frost Rat Puppets, twenty-five for the Flowing Cloud Sparrow. Sixty-one in total." He briskly counted out the Spirit Stones and pushed them over.

Lu Zhao put away the Spirit Stones and said directly, "I also need a large quantity of ironwood, well-aged, preferably with dense wood marrow. If you have Black Iron to spare, I'll take that too."

At this, the shopkeeper turned and brought a thick ledger out from the inner room, then leafed through it. "Black Iron? We have plenty in stock. First-tier, low-grade. I'll charge you one Spirit Stone for ten jin."

"As for ironwood..." His finger paused at a spot on the page. "We do have a thousand jin in stock, but most of it is offcuts. There are only a little over five hundred jin of whole pieces suitable as the main material for puppets."

"It isn't particularly rare. It's just that the Zhou Household has been consuming a lot in artifact crafting in recent years, and the freshly felled timber is still on the road."

He raised his eyes and looked at Lu Zhao with a hint of teasing. "What, are you tinkering with something new, Fellow Daoist Lu? Ironwood paired with Black Iron... could it be Wood-and-Stone Puppets?

"If you really succeed, I'm afraid you'll gnaw away quite a chunk of this old man's coffin money!"

"You jest, shopkeeper. I'm only stocking up for now." Lu Zhao remained calm. "Five hundred jin of ironwood and a hundred jin of Black Iron."

"Done!"

The shopkeeper readily agreed, his abacus beads clacking. "Five hundred jin of ironwood comes to fifty Spirit Stones, and a hundred jin of Black Iron is ten Spirit Stones. Sixty in all, if you please." He paused. "The goods are in the warehouse. Will you collect them yourself, or shall we have them delivered later?"

"I'll collect them."

Lu Zhao paid the Spirit Stones in full. There was not enough ironwood; he still needed to look elsewhere.

Deep in a back alley in the northern section of the Market District, rank odors mingled with the smell of mold. With practiced familiarity, Lu Zhao lifted the ragged beast-hide curtain hanging across a doorway.

The lame Zhao Laoguai was grinding several bloodstained fangs. He looked up, saw who it was, and a sharp gleam flashed in his eyes. "Well, Fellow Daoist Lu, a rare visitor. Looking for goods this time?"

"Top-quality ironwood. At least a thousand jin." Lu Zhao kept his voice low.

Zhao Laoguai put down his file and rubbed his withered fingers together. "The Zhou Household keeps a tight grip on that stuff. Good material rarely makes its way out."

"But..." He grinned, revealing yellow teeth. "This old cripple has unconventional connections. I can scrape together eight hundred jin for you, all good, solid timber."

"As for the price, Black Market rules: ten percent higher than the Nine Abyss Pavilion. Eighty-eight Spirit Stones, no bargaining."

Lu Zhao nodded without haggling. This was never a place for bargaining.

A quarter of an hour later, Zhao Laoguai hurried back from the warehouse and took seven or eight thick, solid lengths of timber from his Storage Bag. Their cut ends had tightly packed growth rings, and their dark-brown heartwood held a faint spiritual gleam.

Lu Zhao swept his divine sense over them, confirmed everything was in order, and waved them into his Storage Bag. The transaction passed in silence, with both sides paid in full.

After he left the Market District, the Flowing Cloud Sparrow flew high overhead to scout the way, while the Mystic Water Tortoise-Shell Shield's dim glow flickered in and out of sight. The journey back was uneventful, with only the mountain wind sweeping over the treetops.

As dusk closed in on all sides, a gap opened in Green Vine Ravine's mist, and Lu Zhao's figure vanished into it.

The heavy stone chamber door closed, shutting out the outside world. Three new Puppet Guards sprang out to stand watch, while the Sense-Evasion Formation shimmered with a dim light.

On the workbench, the Black Iron ingots gleamed coldly, the lengths of ironwood lay heavy and solid, and the newly acquired ironwood heartwood gave off a fresh woody fragrance. Everything was ready.

He fitted an Earthfire Stone into a specially made recess, and deep-blue flames rose. He had bought this stone specifically to melt and refine Black Iron.

His expression solemn, Lu Zhao picked up a Black Iron ingot and placed it in the flames.

Infused with water spiritual power, the Azure-Sink Iron carving knife shone with a pale-blue chill at its tip. It cut precisely into the softened ingot, removing impurities and shaping rough joint blanks. Sweat slid from his temples, only to be vaporized by his protective spiritual glow before it could drip.

Processing the ironwood heartwood required even greater care. The carving knife followed the wood marrow's natural grain, stripping away useless sapwood and leaving the toughest, densest core, which he carved into rough blanks for the chest cavity and head. Wood shavings fell in a soft shower, carrying a distinctive fresh fragrance.

The key lay in the Puppet Core. Unlike a beast puppet's, this could not be separated out. He had to guide the carving knife with his divine sense and carve the intricate dual formation patterns of Spirit Control and Power-Gathering directly into the center of the ironwood chest cavity.

Lu Zhao held his breath and focused, his fingertips steady as bedrock. The knife tip traced profound lines across the dark-brown heartwood as threads and wisps of spiritual power flowed in, awakening the wood marrow's spirituality and guiding it to merge with the formation patterns.

On the first, when the formation patterns were seventy percent complete, a hidden crack inside the ironwood heartwood was jolted by the spiritual power and suddenly split into a tiny fissure. The spiritual power circuit instantly fell into disarray, and the entire piece of core timber turned into charred powder with a "puff."

On the second, the Black Iron joints were heated unevenly during quenching, leaving their internal stresses unbalanced after cooling. Their connections with the wooden body produced a grating screech, and spiritual power could not flow through.

On the third, the dual formation patterns clashed at an intersecting node. Lu Zhao tried to force them into harmony, but the excessive drain on his divine sense caused his carving knife to slip, severing the spirit runes.

On the fourth, the wood marrow's spirituality rejected the formation patterns as they merged. Though the Puppet Core took shape, it remained lifeless and could not be activated...

Within half a month, six in succession.

Lu Zhao's face was slightly pale. The repeated failures placed a heavy burden on both his divine sense and his spiritual power.

He sat down to regulate his breathing. A short while later, he picked up a length of superior-quality ironwood.

The carving knife held steady as bedrock, his divine sense intensely concentrated. Deep within the heartwood, the dual formation patterns extended and merged perfectly. He embedded the Spirit Stone that would power it, and spiritual power poured in like a stream, flowing without obstruction! A steady, faint light shone from the Ironwood Guard's torso, and its joints gave a low hum, as though it were about to stand!

At that very moment, inside the ironwood heartwood bearing the core formation patterns, an exceedingly minute natural vortex node in the wood marrow, formed during the tree's growth, could no longer withstand the sustained pressure of the overlapping dual formation patterns under the continuous wash of spiritual power. It gave an almost inaudible "crack."

Lu Zhao's fingertips hung suspended in midair. A drop of dark-brown wood shavings mixed with spiritual power residue slowly fell from the tip of his carving knife.

The stone chamber was deathly silent. Only the Earthfire Stone's deep-blue flames danced soundlessly, illuminating his face, still and heavy as water.

The seventh set of remains lay scattered in the corner. The chief cause of failure was clear: minute flaws within the material had ultimately buckled under the sustained, intense pressure of the complex spirit runes. The Ironwood Guard was far more demanding than beast puppets.