Chapter 34 Auction

"Crafting a puppet out of thin air is extremely difficult; even an ordinary human-sized puppet is no easy feat."

"If only there was a puppet I could dismantle and study at will, it perhaps would offer significant help."

After the ninth failed attempt, Lu Qingfeng approached Mu Yuanyi, asking him to purchase two low-level puppets from the Spirit Mechanism Institute.

Mu Yuanyi agreed in one breath.

However, the Spirit Mechanism Institute was currently operating at full capacity, fighting to extinguish beast tides one after another under the command of the Hundred Skill Sect, and dealing with the hidden masters of the Ghost Spirit Sect. Every disciple was in danger, and puppets, being a part of their strengths, would certainly not be easily sold off.

Whether he could secure a purchase, Mu Yuanyi couldn't guarantee.

"This Ghost Spirit Sect!"

After hearing this, Lu Qingfeng couldn't help but feel more antipathy towards the Ghost Spirit Sect.

During peaceful times, it would've been a breeze to request two low-level puppets with Mu Yuanyi's connections.

But now, it had become difficult.

Furthermore, even if they could be purchased, the price would be several times higher than usual.

No wonder Lu Qingfeng was disgruntled with the Ghost Spirit Sect.

In desperation, with no puppet samples to be found for the time being, and surely not being allowed to dismantle the puppets within the Yuan Yi Guild for casual research, Lu Qingfeng had no choice but to continue trying to craft one himself.

Puppets were categorized in many ways.

To be specific, there were those that required a person to reside within to control, those that could be remotely controlled via a Thousand Machine Stone, and those that could act autonomously following given instructions.

Categorized by function, there were combat puppets, support puppets, and special-purpose puppets, etc.

Further differentiated by shape, they could be divided into human-shaped puppets, beast-shaped puppets, and more.

The first type Lu Qingfeng studied was the human-shaped puppet.

To craft a human-shaped puppet, one needed to construct a humanoid frame using metal or special materials or the skeleton of a demon beast. Depending on the design, puppets could range in size.

Like the giant puppet controlled by Mu Yuanyi, its large size allows for carving in various talisman arrays. With more arrays, naturally, the power is also greater.

Lu Qingfeng had learned of this.

That giant puppet belonged to Level 6 Puppets. With Mu Yuanyi housed within, it could exert the power of the Foundation Establishment Fourth Realm––the Body Refining Realm, which is an invincible presence among those in the Foundation Establishment Stage!

However, such a giant puppet, with a Mountain Pushing Beast's skeleton for its frame and Xuan Tie as its exoskeleton, with Cloud Essence Stone infused into its nodes, and with ligaments and thousand-year-old rubber derived from the thousand-year-old oak trees connecting the joints of Fifth Rank and Sixth Rank demon beasts.

Of these materials, Lu Qingfeng could barely procure the Xuan Tie.

As for the Mountain Pushing Beast skeleton, Cloud Essence Stone, as well as the tendons of Fifth and Sixth Rank demon beasts and the thousand-year-old rubber, collecting them was difficult within Miao Yin City.

Not even mentioning that apart from these materials, there's also the Mithril for drawing talisman arrays and the Spirit Water for tanning the tendons needed for the giant puppet!

Therefore, giant puppets were immediately skipped over.

For Lu Qingfeng, small-sized puppets were the most feasible to craft in reality.

Three days passed in a flash.

Lu Qingfeng gained some insights on the tanning of ordinary wild beast tendons and those of First Rank and Second Rank demon beasts. However, infusing talisman arrays within the tendons still required more practice.

At this time, a small-scale auction initiated by the major guilds in Sishui Town began.

Lu Qingfeng, along with Mu Yuanyi, Zhang Zong, Wang Tao, and other high-ranked members of the Yuan Yi Guild, went together.

...

Since embarking on his Cultivation journey, not to mention reality, this was Lu Qingfeng's first time attending an auction in the game!

The Immortal World!

Before he transmigrated, Lu Qingfeng learned about the Cultivation World from various online novels, where his deepest impression was of the marketplaces and the omnipresent large and small black and white markets for auctions.

Lu Qingfeng was somewhat looking forward to it.

"At this auction, in addition to various demon beast materials, there are also many broken Puppets and Magic Artifacts. Lao Lu, you've recently been obsessed with Puppets; this will be a good opportunity for you to see more," Zhang Zong said as he walked shoulder to shoulder with Lu Qingfeng.

"Old Zhang is right."

"Although those Puppets have no value for repair, buying them to study or disassembling the parts to repair other Puppets would be making the best use of them."

Hearing Zhang Zong's words, Mu Yuanyi turned his head and smiled at Lu Qingfeng, "If Lao Lu you take action and get them, after you've done your research, you can consider selling the parts to the Guild at a low price."

The Spirit Mechanism Institute reigns over three hundred miles of mountains and nine great cities.

The major Guilds act as the vanguard in dealing with Beast Tides.

With the incessant waves of beasts, even Puppets with strong defensive power may accidentally be destroyed or suffer various irreparable damages, thus becoming scrap.

It would be wasteful to discard these scrapped Puppets.

If the Guild owns them, they will dismantle the useful parts and continue to use them. Some people even sell the broken Puppets through various channels.

The small auction in Sishui Town will surely have these broken Puppets.

After hearing this, Lu Qingfeng grew even more expectant.

Soon, they arrived in Sishui Town.

The auction site was located in the central square of Sishui Town, which was no longer the same as when Lu Qingfeng first arrived.

"High-rise buildings rise straight from the ground!"

"What great craftsmanship!"

Lu Qingfeng looked up at the building in front of him and couldn't help but admire it.

The originally vacant plaza had been built into a large pagoda-shaped structure in recent years. The first layer at the bottom maintained an open space with various Guilds stationed.

The second and third layers were filled with private seats.

When there was no auction, these seats would serve as small stalls, similar to the marketplace in Black Sand Town. Once the major Guilds hold an auction, these seats would be temporarily reappropriated as seats for VIPs.

Lu Qingfeng and the higher-ups of the Yuan Yi Guild entered the third layer.

On the same layer as them were the seven longstanding Guilds of Sishui Town, the top-ranking Guilds from Ping Mountain Town, and disciples from the Spirit Mechanism Institute.

The second layer housed emerging Guilds from the two towns over the past few years and nearby Loose Cultivators with some renown.

The first layer was for Loose Cultivators without any background.

Lu Qingfeng looked down at the first layer and saw that in a short time, hundreds of Loose Cultivators had already arrived, provoking his curiosity, "Are there so many Loose Cultivators around Sishui Town?"

He didn't travel often, and truly wasn't familiar with these circumstances.

"Of course there are."

"Ever since the Spirit Mechanism Institute occupied the three hundred miles of Cui Ping Mountain, and as Sishui and Ping Mountain Towns gradually took shape, the accumulation of nearby Loose Cultivators has shown an upward trend. After the establishment of the major Guilds, the proliferation of Cultivation Techniques due to the rise and fall of the Guilds has led to an explosion in the number of Loose Cultivators, resulting in the scale we see today," Mu Yuanyi explained on the side.

Among these Loose Cultivators, if one or two manage to succeed and establish a family clan. If they can fortuitously pass on their legacy, they become the embryonic form of a Cultivation Family.

Besides this origin, Cultivation Families may also stem from disciples of the Spirit Mechanism Institute who start families and support their descendants in entering the path of cultivation. Over time, they might also form a family lineage tied by blood.

The Spirit Mechanism Institute has been established for a short duration, and Cultivation Families have yet to emerge.

However, within the Hundred Skill Sect, there are many Cultivation Families that exist on the fringe of the sect's inner and outer circles.

Similar Cultivation Families are also located in cities like Mushan City. The strength of these Cultivation Families is often not formidable, and although they may have many descendants, the ones who can truly embark on the path of cultivation and achieve the status of a Foundation Establishment Practitioner are very few.

"So that's how it is."

Listening to the explanations and elaborations from Mu Yuanyi, Wang Tao, and others, Lu Qingfeng gained a deeper understanding of this world and integrated even more into it.