Zhou Ming Came Looking

After seven consecutive failures, Lu Zhao felt mentally drained. A moment later, he picked up the spirit tea beside him and drained it in one gulp.

The tea leaves in the water were dark green, their blades like slender needles, giving off a faint chill.

As the spirit tea entered his mouth, a cool sensation flowed into his body. In an instant, Lu Zhao gave a start, as though he had swallowed ice in the dog days of summer. Even his divine sense felt considerably restored.

"Just what I'd expect from spirit tea that cost me five Spirit Stones a catty."

Lu Zhao sighed with feeling.

A first-tier low-grade spirit tea, Frostpine Mist was made from the needles of spirit pines and could calm the mind and slightly restore divine sense.

Lu Zhao would drink a cup whenever he overexerted his divine sense. During a supply run, he had asked Shopkeeper Zhou whether he had any spiritual items with such effects, and Shopkeeper Zhou had reluctantly sold it to him.

Even now, recalling Shopkeeper Zhou's pained expression still amused him. He had never expected someone so shrewd and seasoned to show such a look.

Still, this tea was indeed precious. In all his years at the Zhou Household Market, this was the first time Lu Zhao had seen it.

Perhaps this tea only circulates within the Zhou Household, Lu Zhao thought.

Once Lu Zhao had more or less recovered, another question lay before him: should he continue crafting Ironwood Guards, or first craft other puppets to improve his Puppet Art?

If he continued crafting Ironwood Guards, at this terrifying failure rate, his remaining materials would only last another seven or eight attempts.

But the first light of success was right before his eyes. He felt he was only a tiny step away.

As for buying more materials, Lu Zhao would not be doing so anytime soon. He had other uses for his remaining hundred-odd Spirit Stones.

Lu Zhao had already wasted nearly eighty Spirit Stones trying to craft an Ironwood Guard. These days, he only earned a little over three hundred Spirit Stones a year. It was not that he did not want to earn more; the materials simply limited him.

A moment later, however, he still decided to continue, even if crafting Ironwood Guards would not make him any money for now and might even incur losses.

This was an experience he had to go through to become a first-tier middle-grade Puppet Master. If he could not even craft a first-tier low-grade Ironwood Puppet, he could forget about first-tier middle-grade puppets.

Lu Zhao intended to take advantage of his current surplus of Spirit Stones and exchange them for progress in his Puppet Art.

The air in the stone chamber seemed to congeal. Only the deep blue flames of the earthfire stone silently licked the air, illuminating Lu Zhao's face, calm as a deep pool.

He drew a deep breath, filling his lungs with the ravine's air and suppressing his impatience and the sting of the expense.

The eighth was declared scrap. The ninth was scrapped as well.

Another pile of expensive waste appeared in the corner.

Lu Zhao's face looked somewhat pale in the deep blue firelight. The sustained, intense mental exertion had even dulled the cooling sensation brought by Frostpine Mist.

He silently sat cross-legged to regulate his breathing and circulated the Little Spirit Rain Art, letting cool spiritual power nourish his weary sea of consciousness. Spirit Stones could be earned again, but missing a chance to break through a bottleneck in his craft meant time squandered.

He picked up another section of superior-quality ironwood heartwood. It felt warm, smooth, and tough, its wood marrow brimming with spirituality.

This time, he did not rush to set his blade to it. Instead, he closed his eyes and focused, repeatedly working through the key points concerning wood-and-stone Puppet Cores in the Hundred Refinements Art. The lessons of his failures were branded into his mind.

The carving blade descended again, its movements slower and steadier than on any previous attempt.

The blade's tip was no longer merely a carving tool, but a feeler extending from his divine sense and spiritual power, reaching into every corner of the wood marrow's grain. Every turn of a spiritual line, every infusion of spiritual power, carried an almost reverent caution.

Time flowed slowly in the stone chamber. Sweat soaked his inner robe, only to be evaporated by spiritual power. In Lu Zhao's eyes, nothing remained but the tiny patch of heartwood and the blade's tip.

When the final "force gathering" formation pattern merged perfectly into the hub of the "spirit control" network, the entire Puppet Core suddenly lit up with a warm, restrained layer of earthen-yellow spiritual light, like a sleeping behemoth opening its eyes.

Spiritual power circulated within it, smooth and unobstructed, without the slightest sluggishness or conflict! Holding his breath, Lu Zhao carefully fitted the powering Spirit Stone into the prepared slot.

Hum!

A low hum rang out, as though rising from deep within the earth.

It was no longer the grating friction or dead silence of his earlier failures, but a resonance filled with power!

It slowly raised its thick, black iron-clad arm. As its five fingers opened and closed, they squeezed faint cracks from the air!

It worked!

Lu Zhao quietly regarded the Ironwood Guard before him, standing roughly seven feet tall and exuding a steady, weighty presence. His fingertips trembled slightly from exertion, yet a strange calm filled his heart.

There was no wild joy, only the relief and certainty of having endured a thousand hardships and finally chiseled through stubborn rock to find a clear spring.

On the panel, the words "Ironwood Guard (uninitiated)" quietly blurred, then became "Ironwood Guard (success rate: 10%)."

Nine scrapped puppets and nearly one hundred and ten Spirit Stones, all for this ten-percent success rate. Was it worth it?

Lu Zhao stroked the Ironwood Guard's cold, hard arm, feeling the tremendous power contained within, far surpassing that of a Frost Rat Puppet. The faintest curve lifted the corner of his mouth.

With Spirit Stones and perseverance, he had finally pried open a crack in the door to higher-tier Puppet Art. This was only the beginning.

Several months quietly slipped by amid Green Vine Ravine's cold mist and the rustling of the carving blade.

Lu Zhao's cultivation steadily advanced within the fifth layer of Qi Refining. He used up all his remaining Ironwood Guard materials, painstakingly raising his success rate to thirteen percent, while his crafting of Flowing Cloud Sparrows and Frost Rat Puppets grew ever more practiced.

One day, he made his routine return to the Zhou Household Market, heading to the Retainer Pavilion to report on his posting and collect his stipend.

He had just stepped out through the Retainer Pavilion's timeworn gates when a familiar voice came from the side. "Fellow Daoist Lu, have you been well?"

Lu Zhao looked toward the voice and saw Steward Zhou Ming standing beneath a gnarled old pine. His black steward's robes were spotless, and his face bore his customary smile with its touch of warmth.

He seemed steadier than when they had first met several years ago, and his aura had grown somewhat stronger.

"Steward Zhou."

Lu Zhao cupped his fists in greeting, his expression calm. "Thanks to your good graces, all has been well. Were you waiting here especially for me, Steward?"

"Haha, just a coincidence, a coincidence." Zhou Ming smiled and waved a hand, walking over to fall naturally into step beside Lu Zhao, as though they were old friends catching up.

"I heard your cultivation has advanced again, and you've even tinkered with some new things? To make such progress and still have the inclination to delve into your craft in a place like Green Vine Ravine is no easy feat."

"You flatter me, Steward. I'm merely trying to earn my keep. I wouldn't dare slack off." Lu Zhao's tone was modest, but something stirred in his mind.

Zhou Ming had deliberately arranged this "chance encounter." It was certainly not as simple as idle conversation.

The two walked slowly along a relatively quiet bluestone-paved road in the Market District.

Zhou Ming seemed in good spirits and asked with apparent casualness, "Fellow Daoist Lu, you've been with our Zhou Household for some years now. From a lowest-ranked Guest Elder to the middle-ranked Guest Elder you are today, you could say I've watched you make your way here step by step.

"How much do you know about the distinction between our Zhou Household's main lineage and collateral branches?"