Gold-Nibbling Mouse

A normal person would quit after a couple minutes, but Minos had a special determination, continuing for hours without a break.

Occasionally he would apply the needed heat to the curling string, allowing him to manipulate it in the direction he needed it to go.

Every half hour or so, Minos would stop and spend a few minutes gently tapping the Puppet Husk, using his special vibration technique to feel out its insides.

With this ability, Minos could create a rough mental image of what the inside of the puppet looked like, allowing him to build the vessels in the correct locations.

This technique was still far from perfect however, so while Minos could barely make out the puppets' insides, it wasn't an exact copy, which again would affect the quality.

The hours quickly passed under this grueling process, the sun dropping below the horizon, before once again rising, all the time Minos was still busy working.

His eyes were bloodshot at this moment, but his work had finally paid off, the vessels being complete.

Of course whether the vessels were actually good enough to work or not was still a mystery, but the only way to know for sure was to complete the puppet with the Puppet Source.

Pulling out the Spirit Stone, Minos delicately cut off a small piece, just enough to create the Gold-Nibbling Mouse's heart.

Of course one couldn't just place the Spirit Stone in as is and call it a day, instead they first had to inscribe special runes on it, otherwise the Puppet Vessels wouldn't actually be able to use the energy within it.

With his experience with talismans, inscribing runes was a simple manner. After using a specially made scalpel, Minos began slowly carving the runes into the small piece of Spirit Stone.

After spending another half-hour to finish this up, Minos let out a long breath. Finally after hours of work and exhaustion, he finally had all the pieces he needed, now he just needed to put it all together.

Picking up the Gold-Nibbling Mouse puppet, Minos cut open a small hole in its head, before placing the Spirit Stone inside and resealing it.

The Puppet Source could be placed wherever one wanted, but naturally it had to be at the place where the vessels converged.

Minos converged all the vessels towards the mouse's head, hence he placed the Puppet Source there.

After doing that, Minos spent another half hour quickly resealing all the holes he had left behind on the Gold-Nibbling Mouse when he was drilling the vessels.

This process was a delicate one, but wasn't too hard, so he quickly finished up. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he placed the finished puppet down on the table, looking at it for a moment before activating it.

Biting into his thumb, Minos punctured his flesh, allowing a small drop of blood to fall onto the puppet, seeping into its head.

Once the blood sunk into the Gold-Nibbling Mouse's head, it was quickly absorbed by the Spirit Stone, finally activating it once and for all.

The Gold-Nibbling Mouse's lifeless eyes suddenly began shining with a dim glow, giving vitality to something that was once dead.

Sensing the 'vitality' escaping the puppet, Minos couldn't help but become ecstatic, but before he even had time to celebrate, the puppets eyes once again dimmed, 'dying.'

Seeing his failure, Minos was slightly frustrated, but he expected to fail the first time, so his mind wasn't too affected.

Picking up the Gold-Nibbling Mouse, he once again opened up its head, inspecting the Spirit Stone to see if it was the problem.

But the Spirit Stone was still glimmering, pulsing with energy, meaning it was fine. Knowing that, Minos pretty much knew the problem was with the vessels.

The Gold-Nibbling Mouse was pretty much hopeless at this point, so Minos decided to just break it open and use this as a learning chance.

Cutting the Gold-Nibbling Mouse into layers, Minos began inspecting it closely, quickly finding out the source of his problem.

Just as he expected, the flaw was in the vessels. Some vessels were too thin, which made it impossible for the energy to flow properly through them, whereas others were too thick, which caused the energy to disperse within them.

Some vessels criss-crossed with others, which caused their energy flows to intersect and collide, breaking the flow.

From the outside, the Gold-Nibbling Mouse looked fine, but once Minos inspected it properly, he realized how poor of a job he did.

Seeing how deep his problems were, Minos wasn't frustrated, instead he was in a good mood, knowing exactly where he needed to improve.

But for now he was completely exhausted, so after catching up on his sleep, he would continue with his experiments.

Just as Minos collapsed on his bed and was about to call it a night, a knock came at his door, causing his shut eyes to shoot back open.

Despite being annoyed, it was morning right now, so it wasn't the other person's fault. Rubbing his eyes a few times, he tossed on his robe and headed downstairs for the door.

Opening the door, a nervous looking girl stood there. Her eyes were staring straight at the floor, clearly afraid of looking directly at Minos.

"Who are you?" Minos asked succinctly, wanting to get back to sleep as soon as possible.

"Uhh, Master Merth, I'm Emilia, the maid you hired." Emilia said after stuttering a few times.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. The house is still in good condition right now, so there isn't much for you to do. Your room is that one over there. Just make yourself comfortable, I'll call you when I need you. " Minos explained before letting out another yawn and heading back to his room.

"Yes Master Merth!" Emilia said, before making her way to the room that Minos had pointed towards.

Originally she was quite worried after hearing that the one who hired her was Merth, after all she had heard quite a lot of bad things about him, but fortunately, he didn't seem bad at all, much to Emilia's joy.

Maids were after all just mortals, so if their masters ever got angry with them and hurt them, even killed them, no one would say anything.

While working for cultivators was seen as a step to heaven for most mortals, it was also akin to a step to hell for a lot as well.

If the cultivator who hired you was sadistic, then you may be tortured on the daily, even killed, and the worst part is no one would seek justice for you.

Hence it was seen as risky to work for cultivators since it could either be the most rewarding thing you've ever done, or it could directly lead to death.

Ultimately though, greed always won out, and the salary a mortal could earn working for a cultivator was dozens of times higher than normal, not to mention if they got lucky and worked for someone kind.

Emilia wasn't thinking that far, she was just a poor mortal who had been sold into slavery before being bought by the Thousand Split Sword Sect and trained as a maid.

Money or even cultivation itself didn't concern her, all she wanted to do was live to see tomorrow, and maybe start a family of her own.

While Emilia was unpacking, she didn't realize that Minos was inspecting her for a moment, watching her aura fluctuate.

Seeing her simple emotions, he was relieved. What he needed was someone with a straightforward nature, not a conniving snake.

Naturally Minos wasn't one to trust someone from a single interaction, but this was enough for now, so after this probe, he headed back to his room, finally heading off to dream-land.

…

As a cultivator, Minos didn't need to sleep as long as a mortal, so after only four hours, he woke up feeling refreshed.

After having Emilia prepare his lunch, he ate up quickly and went back to work on his puppets.

The days passed quickly, and soon Minos ran out of materials, still having nothing to show for it, other than his increase in skills.

This was all to be expected, so after spending another day thoroughly examining all his broken Gold-Nibbling Mouse puppets and learning his faults, he headed to the Mission Hall to earn contribution points for more attempts.

When people saw 'Merth' arrive, they couldn't help but whisper and converse among themselves. It had been a few days since he had last shown up, so people were interested to see what he would do.

Most people thought that Minos would take another Three-Moon Mission, and those people guessed right, because after arriving, 'Merth' quickly took down another mission, before leaving the hall in style.

With the mission in hand, Minos exited the Thousand Split Sword Sect, hoping on his horse and galloping towards his direction.

The next few months passed quickly as Minos took mission after mission. With his Heaven-Sundering Sword, he managed to succeed time and time again.

Not to mention after all these missions, his fighting skill had rapidly evolved, plus he had been using the Three-Moon grade Moon Tempest Sword as well, even pushing the skill to perfection, which made things even easier.

The Moon Tempest Sword at perfection level could chop out a crescent-moon shaped air blade, giving Minos a ranged means of attacking.

This air blade was further enhanced by the sharpness of the Heaven-Sundering Sword, which allowed Minos to 'cut' through the mission even easier.

With each successful mission, Minos's contribution points would get bigger and bigger, and so would his name, no longer being associated with luck, but instead, power.