Family Cultivation: Rise of the Wilderness

Chapter 451 The Sinner's Puppet

Upon hearing that Li Xiangming had a large quantity of alchemy materials, Qingyang Daoist was immediately tempted.

Taking on this order would not only make money, but also allow me to train my own apprentices—a win-win situation, so why not?

Not only Qingyang Daoist, but Xie Daoist beside him also immediately stepped forward, shamelessly asking, "Hall Master Li, may I be included in this matter?"

Li Xiangming turned his head slightly and sized up Xie Daoren.

His mind was completely focused on the Green Sheep Taoist, and he completely forgot that this fellow was also an alchemist.

Noticing Li Xiangming's scrutinizing gaze, Xie Daoren hurriedly introduced himself: "Although my skills are not as refined as Brother Qingyang's, I have been immersed in alchemy for decades and have gained considerable experience. Common blood-clotting pills and heart-nourishing pills on the market are no problem for me."

Having lived half his life, Master Xie naturally knew that alchemists usually accepted orders in two ways.

One method involves providing the medicinal herbs oneself and then delivering the finished product to the customer.

The advantage of this method is that customers do not know the specific cost of making the pill, allowing the alchemist to earn higher profits.

However, the disadvantages are also obvious, such as the difficulty in collecting materials.

Alchemists don't just accept one order, but ten or even dozens.

Each order contains different pills, and the required materials vary greatly.

Although the pharmacies in the market can supply most of the materials, purchasing them means high costs.

The alchemists from powerful factions never worry about this because they have countless orders, and even if they only earn a meager living, they can still make a very considerable income.

But independent alchemists like him have to travel to remote mountains and forests to find materials, or spend a lot of time haggling with pharmacies.

However, orders often have time limits.

If a customer sees that you haven't been able to refine the elixir in a month or two, they might just disappear without a trace.

Ultimately, this resulted in the alchemist wasting his time.

Therefore, many alchemists prefer the second method, which is to require customers to bring their own alchemy materials when taking orders.

In this way, alchemists no longer need to travel for materials and can directly start refining. It only takes one or two days to ten days to complete the order, greatly reducing the loss of time and energy.

However, there is a custom in the cultivation world that if a customer brings their own materials, no payment is required.

Or, to put it another way, the reward is included in the pill-making process. That is, the alchemist receives the customer's materials, refines a certain number of pills, and then splits the profits according to the pre-arranged agreement, usually 50/50.

If the materials are particularly rare, this ratio may be reduced.

In short, alchemists work hard to refine pills, but what they get in return is not spirit stones.

Although the pills themselves hold their value well, most customers will offer to buy back the pills from the alchemist, so that the alchemist doesn't have to find other sales channels.

However, there is another situation: the alchemy fails, the materials are exhausted, and the elixir is nowhere to be found.

This phenomenon not only exists, but is also very common.

From the customer's perspective, if they provide too much material, and the alchemist uses it all up, making batch after batch, and then hides the truth by saying they only made one batch, wouldn't the customer be losing a fortune?
Therefore, the core issue boils down to two words: cost!

Customers will also try to control costs, giving alchemists only a limited amount of materials, such as two or three portions.

If an alchemist fails to succeed in the few opportunities he has, it will all be for nothing. He will not only gain no benefit, but also damage his reputation.

Reputation is the lifeblood of an alchemist.

Only with a good reputation can you get a steady stream of orders.

Some alchemists, unable to refuse, would even use their own money to purchase materials until they successfully refined the elixir.

Customers like Li Xiangming, who provide materials regardless of cost, are extremely rare, practically impossible to find even with a lantern.

He, Xie Daoren, naturally wanted to try his luck.

Of course, there is another very important reason.

The Five Scattered Sect has been summoned to Monkey Valley to fight the demons.

He's already so thin, why would he want to join in this fun?
Why not hide away at Qingyang Temple, refine elixirs, and make money?
Seeing that Daoist Xie had volunteered, Daoist Qingyang chimed in, "I have seen Daoist Xie's pills before, and they are indeed unique."

Upon hearing this, Li Xiangming gently rubbed the bone of his index finger.

Xie Daoren is a Qi Refining Level 9 cultivator who can play an important role on the front lines, but he does indeed need an experienced alchemist right now.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Xiangming nodded: "I have no doubt about Fellow Daoist Xie's abilities. If you are willing to take on this task, I will naturally not object. However, I must make it clear beforehand that this batch of pills is to support the front line of Monkey Valley and must be completed as quickly as possible."

At this point, Li Xiangming's gaze swept over Qingyang Daoist and Xie Daoist, and he said in a deep voice, "No matter how many people you have, or what methods you use, I only ask for 'speed'. Within a month, I need twenty bottles of Blood Coagulation Pills and twenty bottles of Heart Nourishing Pills. That's my bottom line."

Forty bottles in the first month?
Both Qingyang Daoist and Xie Daoist showed troubled expressions.

With forty bottles of pills and a 60% success rate, at least one hundred to one hundred and twenty batches would need to be prepared, requiring three to four batches almost every day.

You should know that they usually don't refine pills for ten days or half a month.

The most important reason, of course, is the shortage of materials.

However, even with abundant materials on hand, they would only start the furnace every four or five days.

This is because alchemy is physically demanding, and one is exhausted after each furnace operation.

If they accept this order, they will have to devote themselves entirely to the alchemy room, not only giving up all their cultivation time, but also frequently taking Qi-replenishing pills to restore their magical power.

This workload is absolutely terrifying.

After considering it for a long time, Xie Daoren was the first to be moved.

Unlike Qingyang Temple, which has the connections of Li Xiangming and the Li family, such a large order is a rare find.

So what if I'm a little tired?
It's not like we don't have money to pay!

Not to mention they could hide in the rear.

Seeing that Master Xie had agreed, Master Qingyang finally nodded as well.

If he were alone, he wouldn't want to take on this kind of order. Fortunately, there are people like Xiang Shu, Si Yan, and You Yan in the temple. Even though their success rate in achieving the pill is ridiculously low, they can still share the burden.

Seeing this, Li Xiangming breathed a sigh of relief.

Even with more than ten alchemists in the Li family, it's unlikely they could refine forty bottles of pills within a month.

He was quite pleased that Qingyang Temple was able to take on this order on its own.

When the pills from both places are gathered together, there will be enough for his demon-hunting cultivators.

After discussing the order for healing pills, Li Xiangming turned his attention to the corpse driver: "I haven't asked your name yet, fellow Daoist. May I ask how to address you?"

The corpse-driver, who had been quietly sitting in the corner, tilted his head when he heard the question and replied, "My surname is Yuan."

Li Xiangming said "Oh," and continued, "Fellow Daoist Yuan is proficient in both zombies and puppets. The wooden puppets you previously delivered to the Li family were quite unique. I wonder if Fellow Daoist Yuan could refine more and more convenient self-destructing puppets?"

"A self-destructing puppet?"

After a moment's thought, the corpse driver stretched out his palm, and a wooden puppet emerged from his sleeve. It looked like a rat, with its small, raised tail clearly segmented, and it looked very delicate.

Li Xiangming's eyes lit up, and he asked, "How powerful is this wooden rat?"

The corpse driver didn't say much, got up and walked out of the Taoist temple, putting the wooden rat down.

The wood mouse swayed left and right for a moment, then darted away into the distance with swift steps.

A moment later, a loud "boom" resounded, causing the ground to tremble slightly.

Li Xiangming frowned slightly.

Although this wooden rat is small and difficult to spot, and it is very fast, its power is much weaker than that of the Fiery Talisman.

He turned to look at the corpse driver, who explained in a low voice, "It's made of gunpowder. It can only travel automatically for a short distance, less than thirty zhang, before it self-destructs when it encounters an obstacle. It doesn't require much skill, but making a hundred a day is no problem."

"One hundred?"

Li Xiangming raised an eyebrow.

As the saying goes, quantitative change leads to qualitative change. The damage caused by the simultaneous explosion of these one hundred wooden rats should not be underestimated. It may be unrealistic to expect them to deal with tough monsters, but they are still very effective at disrupting the formation of monsters and creating chaos.

"Is there anything even more powerful?"

Li Xiangming became increasingly interested in the corpse-driving craftsman's methods and asked another question.

Upon hearing this, the corpse driver rummaged through his storage bag and pulled out a pile of broken pieces of wood, iron bars, and tangled thorns.

No one knows how he did it, but in no time he assembled a giant puppet that was about nine zhang tall.

Li Xiangming examined it closely and found that the puppet was kneeling on the ground, resembling a human but not quite, with a pair of curved horns on its head that looked as ferocious as withered branches.

Its face was indistinct, its body was covered with cracks, and thorns were deeply embedded in its trunk. There was a dark hole in its chest, which occasionally flashed with blue light.

"What is this?"

Li Xiangming was very curious.

Zhang Can, standing to the side, looked wary and replied in a low voice, "This is a contraption that the corpse-driving craftsman got from somewhere. It's very powerful, but not very convenient to use."

Before he finished speaking, the corpse driver was already fiddling with the "sinner" puppet.

Li Xiangming saw clearly that the corpse driver had stuffed a spirit stone into the puppet's back.

This puppet actually has a charging device?

Li Xiangming was greatly surprised.

The so-called puppet is essentially a kind of mechanical art.

Mechanical arts originated in ancient times and are widely practiced in the mortal world.

However, while mechanical arts may be effective against mortals, they are somewhat ineffective against cultivators.

Some mechanics changed their approach, using various magical materials from the cultivation world to create large puppets that could move autonomously.

These large puppets are often incredibly strong and as solid as a rock. They can even launch all sorts of insidious mechanisms, and even cultivators with magical powers have suffered a lot from them.

Thus, the art of puppetry was born.

However, for a long time, puppetry remained largely unknown.

Because the production cost of large puppets was too high, and their performance in actual combat was not ideal, the development of puppetry once hit a bottleneck.

It wasn't until the rise of talismans that puppeteers ushered in their own glorious era.

Many puppeteers have discovered that small, inexpensive puppets, when paired with an equally unassuming talisman, can inflict damage comparable to that of large puppets.

From then on, puppetry began to trend towards miniaturization.

The more intricate and compact the puppet, the more popular it is.

After all, who doesn't like a sneak attack?

However, small puppets have a fatal flaw: kinetic energy.

Due to their small size, small puppets use very few materials, so the amount of magic power and divine consciousness they can attach to them is naturally pitifully small.

Many small puppets become useless and immobile once they are separated from their owners by more than ten feet, greatly limiting their uses.

After years of refinement, puppeteers, combining techniques such as weapon crafting and formation, finally found a way out: creating puppets that could be charged with energy.

Puppeteers no longer rely solely on magic to control puppets, but instead use arrays and smelt spirit stones to control puppets with spiritual energy.

This method largely solved the problem that puppets could only move within a limited range, and even inspired weapon refiners, leading to the birth of flying boats, which replaced traditional flying swords in the art of weapon refining.

Even today, the flying boat is still hailed by many weapon refiners as the pinnacle of weapon refining, which is enough to show its influence.

The principle of the charged puppet is similar to that of the flying boat, involving mechanical puppetry, weapon crafting, and formations. The difficulty of its craftsmanship is self-evident.

There are countless puppeteers, but only one in ten thousand can forge an energy-charged puppet on their own.

Li Xiangming was deeply shocked as he looked at the "sinner" puppet before him.

The corpse-driving craftsman actually has such skill in puppetry?

"It was just some repair work."

The corpse-driver shook his head, seemingly unwilling to delve deeper into the topic.

He looked at Li Xiangming and said, "If you want to deal with the beast tide, this thing should be very useful."

As he spoke, he gently patted the "sinner" puppet, as if he had triggered some mechanism.

The thorns on the puppet's body instantly emitted a ghostly blue light, which was visibly swallowed by the black hole in its chest. Immediately afterward, a circular tube the size of a head emerged from the hole.

"Cannon barrel?"

The word came to Li Xiangming's mind immediately, and a hint of surprise flashed through his heart.

As expected, the corpse-driver explained, "This puppet can fire cannonballs. Normal cannonballs are made of gunpowder, but after being reinforced by the cannon barrel, their power is at least ten times stronger than the self-destructing wooden rat from before. If you're still not satisfied, I can help you load a special device into the cannonball to hold a fire talisman, or even a flame talisman."

Li Xiangming gasped.

Puppetry combined with talismans is a powerful weapon.

With the energy-charged puppet paired with the Flame Burst Talisman, even a demon cultivator at the Bone Fusion Realm would probably cry out in pain if hit by it.

"Can this thing be mass-produced?"

Li Xiangming asked instinctively.

"can."

The corpse-driver nodded and answered seriously, "Find a second-tier puppeteer, a second-tier weapon refiner, and a second-tier array master, and spend another three to five years, and perhaps we can replicate the same puppet."

Li Xiangming was speechless for a moment. After a brief silence, he asked, "Are you selling this puppet?"

"Not for sale."

The corpse-driver shook his head and said, "It has great research value, but you can borrow it for a while."

Li Xiangming hadn't held out much hope to begin with, so he wasn't disappointed when he heard this. Instead, he smiled and said, "Then thank you, Fellow Daoist Yuan. By the way, I also need the self-destructing wooden rats from earlier. I'd appreciate it if you could leave them at Qingyang Temple and make 3000 for me within a month. I'm willing to pay 300 spirit stones."

"For 600 spirit stones, I will make 6000 bodies for you."

"That's what the corpse-driver replied."

Li Xiangming was stunned; he hadn't expected this guy to be such a shrew.

But he naturally wouldn't refuse, and readily agreed, "No problem, it's settled then."

The two parties then signed a contract.

Witnessing all of this, Zhang Can was so anxious that he scratched his head and cheeks.

Three wandering cultivators from the Five Scattered Sect arrived, and seeing that the other two had stayed behind, how could he not be anxious?
"Master Li!"

Zhang Can grabbed Li Xiangming's left hand and said sincerely, "My craftsmanship is not bad either. I can make magical artifacts for the demon-hunting cultivators in Monkey Valley..."

"Forget about the magic artifacts."

Li Xiangming glanced at him, then withdrew his arm. "Fellow Daoist Zhang, you should come with me to the battlefield to earn merit. Don't worry, I'll take care of you out of consideration for our past relationship."

It's not that he looks down on Zhang Can!

Among the four traditional arts of cultivation, formations have the highest unit price.

If Ding Xia is invited to set up an array, he may earn several hundred spirit stones.

However, the formation also consumes the most time, often taking several months.

The price of magic artifacts is the second highest. A low-grade magic artifact costs at least several dozen spirit stones, which could buy many bottles of pills.

However, it takes a long time to forge a magic weapon. Even if Zhang Can worked like a slave for a month, he could only forge two or three low-grade magic weapons. What was he going to do with them?
(End of this chapter)