My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

In the courtyard of the side hall, the sun was still shining brightly, but Li Chengqian felt the temperature around him suddenly drop to freezing point.

He stared intently at the ironwood puppet that Li Chen had taken out.

This thing is about the height of a person, and it is made entirely of hard ironwood and refined steel. There are no facial features carved on its surface, only a round metal head, and the joints of its limbs are covered with dense, eerie runes that emit a faint glow.

The puppet was also holding a tin-covered wooden stick about the thickness of a duck egg.

"Sixteenth Brother, are you sure this thing is just a... toy?"

Li Chengqian swallowed hard and involuntarily took a half step back.

Having spent half a month chopping firewood in the cold palace, he now has an exceptionally keen intuition for danger.

The cold, oppressive aura emanating from this lifeless lump of iron was even more terrifying than that of the fully armed imperial guards of the Eastern Palace.

"Toys, of course."

Li Chen yawned and took out a palm-sized square jade pendant from his storage bag.

The surface of the jade plaque was polished to an exceptionally smooth finish, and several small array nodes of different colors were engraved on it with true essence, making it look like a remote control covered with buttons.

"I've been watching you practice on wooden dummy every day for the past two weeks, and I think your practical experience is really lacking."

Li Chen casually toyed with the jade tablet in his hand. "This is called the 'Combat Training Puppet.' As long as you control it through this jade tablet, it can perform various attack actions. Perfect, let's use it to test your current ability to withstand blows."

Upon hearing that he would be Li Chengqian's sparring partner, Li Chengqian breathed a sigh of relief, followed by an unprecedented surge of confidence.

Just a few days ago, I had thoroughly humiliated the arrogant Li Tai at the Prince of Wei's residence.

Over the past two weeks, his internal energy and blood have been abundant to the extreme, and his entire body is covered with muscles as hard as rock.

How could a mere inanimate wooden puppet possibly cause any trouble?

"Alright! Since Sixteenth Brother is in such a good mood, then I'll give it a try!"

Li Chengqian clashed his fists together, producing a muffled "bang".

He assumed a fighting stance, his legs slightly bent, like a tiger poised to pounce, staring intently at the ironwood puppet opposite him.

Just as Li Chen was about to press the button on the jade tablet.

"Sixteenth Brother!"

Suddenly, a pair of chubby little hands reached out from the side and hugged Li Chen's arm.

Little Sizi stared wide-eyed at the jade pendant in Li Chen's hand, his mouth practically watering.

"What's that glowing sign? It looks so fun! Sizi wants to play with it too! Sizi wants to play 'Statues'!"

The little girl launched her charm offensive, hugging Li Chen's arm and shaking it back and forth.

Li Chen felt dizzy from being shaken by her.

He looked at Xiao Sizi's eager expression, then glanced at Li Chengqian, who was standing in a fighting stance opposite him, and a particularly wicked smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Alright, since Sizi wants to play, then you can play."

Li Chen readily stuffed the jade pendant into Xiao Sizi's hand.

He squatted down and began to teach, pointing to the array nodes above.

"See these different colored dots? Press the red one to swing the bat, the blue one to kick, and the yellow one to turn. Press them however you like, just don't break them."

Little Sizi's eyes shone brightly, as if she had obtained the most precious treasure in the world. She held the jade pendant tightly in both hands and nodded heavily.

"You've got it, Sizi!"

Seeing this, Li Chengqian, who was on the other side, was not afraid at all; instead, he couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Sixteenth Brother, you're letting Si Zi control it? What martial arts moves would a little girl like her know?"

Li Chengqian patted his muscular chest, his face full of pride.

"You little brat! Bring it on! Let me show you the Crown Prince's indestructible body now!"

Upon hearing his elder brother, the Crown Prince, provoked him, and Xiao Sizi immediately became determined to fight.

"Brother Crown Prince, take this!"

The little girl didn't care about any moves or techniques at all. She simply pressed her two short, thick thumbs directly onto the jade tablet, adhering to the principle of doing whatever she wanted and just having fun.

"Buzz—"

The ironwood puppet, which had been motionless, suddenly had two red lights shining from its eyes.

Followed by.

"Whoosh!"

The puppet moved without any warning!

It didn't start with a martial arts master's stance, nor did it launch a probing attack.

With Xiao Sizi's frantic pressing of the buttons, the puppet's left leg suddenly swept out at an angle completely contrary to the structure of human joints!

Li Chengqian was shocked and quickly raised his arms to block.

"Bang!"

A tremendous force surged through his forearm. Li Chengqian felt a tingling numbness in both arms and was jolted back three or four steps.

Before he could even get his footing...

The little Sizi's two tiny hands had already turned into a blur on the jade pendant.

"Oh dear! Let's fight!"

The little girl's face flushed with excitement as she made sounds while frantically pressing the various array nodes on the jade tablet with her ten fingers.

Upon receiving the chaotic commands, the ironwood golem instantly transformed into a runaway meat grinder.

The tin can in its hand was swung like a windmill. One stroke to the left, one stroke to the right, one second it was poking your foot, the next second it was doing an incredible, sudden leap, smashing the can down on your skull!

There's absolutely no method to it!

There are absolutely no tricks involved!

This is exactly the ultimate level of street brawling—the "turtle fist"!

Li Chengqian originally wanted to use the reaction speed he had honed over the past two weeks to find the puppet's weaknesses and launch a counterattack.

But he discovered in despair that his martial arts knowledge was completely useless against a lump of iron that did not play by the rules and could twist into a pretzel in mid-air at any moment!

"Bang!"

The puppet delivered a backhand blow, slamming it hard into Li Chengqian's back.

"Ouch!"

Li Chengqian winced in pain and was about to turn around to retaliate when the puppet's groin kick grazed his thigh, scaring him so much that he broke out in a cold sweat and scrambled away.