The Puppet Alchemist
It had been a month since the agreement with my uncle was struck. I received a message to come to the study. 'Already?' I gathered up the Five Elements Banner and scattered the formation I had laid out. Even if I had mastered the character-patterns through the Formation Atlas, applying them to actual formations was a different beast, so I had been practicing. 'Faster than I thought.' I had estimated it would take at least two months. It was only natural, given that I was asking for a puppet for alchemy that had never existed before, but it was still ahead of schedule.
I immediately straightened my attire and headed to my uncle's study. "Uncle, did you call for me?"
"Yes. The alchemy puppets you wanted so much are complete."
"Already..." As I entered the study, I could see Yuk Muk sitting behind my uncle. But he looked completely different from the man I had seen a month ago. He had always been a quiet, unobtrusive person, but now he had gone beyond quiet—he looked as if his very life force had been drained away. His cheeks were sunken, dark shadows were deeply etched under his eyes, and he was slumped in his chair, nodding off, looking like a man who had one foot in the afterlife.
'He must have worked day and night to make these.' If the effort required to turn a Golden Core cultivator into such a wreck in just a month was any indication, this was by no means an easy task.
"Senior Yuk Muk." I bowed deeply and respectfully. Only after seeing the state of the man—who was practically a walking corpse—did the weight of his month-long labor truly hit my small chest.
"......"
It took a long time for Yuk Muk to lift his half-closed eyes. Then, he nodded slowly. Seeing him drop his head again without a single word pricked my conscience slightly, but it didn't last long. It was a task I had asked of my uncle, and my uncle was simply the one who had driven him to it.
"I won't tell you how much it cost," Baek Muyeong said, tapping the storage pouch on the table. "But it was a significant expense, so handle them with care. If you break them through carelessness, I won't have them made again."
I nodded obediently and took the storage pouch with both hands. The warning had already flown past my ears. Soon after, my uncle explained how to use them.
"There is a place near each puppet's heart to insert a spirit stone. Remember, they won't move unless you use at least a middle-grade spirit stone. You can control them by connecting your divine sense to the divine sense stone near their forehead, and the details are in the jade slip that Yuk Muk has included inside."
"Thank you, Uncle!"
"Don't thank me. Just make sure you keep the promise you made for the near future."
"I'll definitely keep it!"
Even though my uncle spoke of the promise, my mind was so occupied with the puppets that I answered out of habit. Seeing this, my uncle waved his hand as if to tell me to leave.
"I'll be going now!"
I left the study with a parting greeting. The sight of Yuk Muk slumped over in his chair in the back caught my eye for a moment, but my feet were already racing toward my own alchemy room.
. . .
As soon as I arrived at the alchemy room, I placed the storage pouch on the table. When I opened it, there were five puppets inside, and I took them out. Each puppet was about my size, and each had a different body color: blue, red, gold, white, and black. They were five puppets carved from elemental wood—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. 'Five Elements Puppets.' I was satisfied as I looked over the jade slip Yuk Muk had left behind. They were first-tier supreme-grade puppets, capable of handling even Qi Refining stage tasks for me. Each puppet had a space near its heart for a spirit stone, and a small, jewel-like divine sense stone embedded in its forehead.
'As expected, if you grind a craftsman down, you get good results.' I smiled brightly and immediately took out five middle-grade spirit stones. I pushed a middle-grade spirit stone into the space near the blue puppet's heart. Click. As the spirit stone settled, the puppet shone through its divine sense stone as if it were alive. I inserted spirit stones into the other four in turn. Then, I extended a strand of my divine sense to each of the divine sense stones on their foreheads. As the five strands of divine sense touched the different puppets, the Five Elements Puppets trembled slightly and stood up stiffly.
"Oh, they move."
However, since there were five of them, I had to use five strands of divine sense simultaneously, and it was insufficient to move each one as naturally and delicately as a person. If I focused on one, the other four became sluggish, and if I tried to handle all of them evenly, all five became clumsy. But I didn't need them to move like people. It was enough for them to pick up herbs, trim them, put them into the furnace, and take them out. 'What's needed for alchemy isn't hand dexterity, but energy control.' I grasped the puppets' capabilities through simple movements. I also made them operate their energy to gauge their output.
"Alright, from now on, you guys are Cheongroe, Jeokroe, Geumroe, Baekroe, and Heukroe."
I spread a pile of herbs in front of the Five Elements Puppets and started refining. I planned for Cheongroe to trim the herbs, Jeokroe to light the furnace, Heukroe to control the temperature, Geumroe to stabilize the medicine, and Baekroe to filter out impurities.
"Ah! That's not it!!!"
But handling the Five Elements Puppets was not as easy as I had thought. Cheongroe had no problem trimming the herbs, but Jeokroe failed to light the furnace while Heukroe failed to assist in controlling the heat. 'This is trickier than multi-casting spells.' It felt like playing rock-paper-scissors with my left and right hands. The problem was that since there were five puppets, it was like playing rock-paper-scissors with five hands.
"I can't give up."
Although it was different from what I had imagined, I persistently put effort into handling the Five Elements Puppets. As a result, I crushed the herbs I was trimming, burned them black, or boiled the essence until it evaporated. Even worse, when I got distracted and couldn't watch the furnace—BOOM! The furnace exploded, and black smoke filled the alchemy room. Jeokroe, who had been standing in front of the furnace, was covered in ash.
"You can't break already!"
I was startled and pushed through the smoke to check Jeokroe's condition. Fortunately, Jeokroe was only covered in soot and stood in place as if nothing had happened. 'Truly Golden Core-level craftsmanship.' I thought that if I had the chance, I should ask for more puppets. Of course, not with my spirit stones, but with my uncle's.
. . .
As the number of alchemy attempts through the puppets accumulated, I became accustomed to handling them. I didn't have the energy to enjoy the forum because I was so busy, but the Five Elements Puppets gradually performed their assigned roles. "Did it work!" After dozens of attempts over several days, even burning through spirit stones, a soft light rose from within the furnace. The vitality of the herbs and the energy of heaven and earth intertwined on the surface of the pill without a single loss, and cloud-like patterns emerged. It was the first Pill-Script Spirit-Gathering Pill created by puppets.
"I did it...!"
My small chest swelled with pride as I examined the Pill-Script Spirit-Gathering Pill created by the puppets. At the same time, I felt an indescribable sense of accomplishment for having achieved what the users of Mumyungbang had deemed impossible. 'I can't let this slide.' Since I had succeeded, there was no need to hide it from the users of Mumyungbang and avoid their teasing. It was time to proudly show off the result and enjoy the users' reactions. 'At the very least, this is worth an image post.' I immediately popped one Pill-Script Spirit-Gathering Pill into my mouth. While the spirit energy filled my dantian, I logged into Mumyungbang. I lined up the Five Elements Puppets and the newly completed Pill-Script Spirit-Gathering Pill and wrote an image post.
[My puppets can even craft Pill-Script Spirit-Gathering Pills?]
As soon as the image post went up on Mumyungbang, the view count skyrocketed.
└Dou(88.4): Did you really do it?
In an instant, the users of Mumyungbang began posting replies. Most seemed not to believe it.
└Dou(88.4): Elements?
As the view count rose, users with a keen eye began to appear.
└Dou(99.102): Since there are five, that's fifty premium spirit stones.
└Dou(88.4): Fifty???
└Dou(11.23): A Qi Refining stage cultivator has puppets worth fifty premium spirit stones?
└Dou(201.9): The very fact that you're crafting pills with such precious puppets shows your way of thinking is different from ours.
└Dou(88.4): Is it normal to be crafting first-tier pills with puppets worth fifty premium spirit stones?
└Dou(553.24): Your wealth and your skills are both extraordinary.
My mouth curled up to my ears as I watched the users' reactions. The thrill of watching the users freak out and cause a commotion was exhilarating. "Hehehe." I couldn't hold back the laughter that leaked out. The moment of surfing the forum was sweeter than the fruits of my cultivation. 'By the way, fifty premium spirit stones.' The number estimated by Dou(99.102) lingered in my mind. I understood why my uncle hadn't mentioned the cost. 'His words to handle them with care weren't just empty talk.' Yuk Muk's haggard face flashed through my mind for a moment, but it was quickly forgotten as the replies on Mumyungbang poured in without rest. Since the time spent on alchemy was drastically reduced once puppet alchemy became possible, the time I spent on Mumyungbang increased by that much.
'I won't be able to make Five Elements Pills or moon-rank pills with these, though...' It was a problem that could be solved by asking Yuk Muk to make second-tier Five Elements Puppets later. Although it seemed I would only be able to handle second-tier Five Elements Puppets once I reached the tail end of the late Qi Refining stage. 'Future problems are for the future me.' For now, getting used to handling the Five Elements Puppets was the top priority. That way, I could relax and do some forum surfing in a comfortable position while the alchemy happened semi-automatically.